LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County’s Public Health officer told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that he believes additional actions that go beyond a countywide shelter in place order are necessary if the county wants to continue to stay ahead of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last week Pace issued a countywide shelter in place order that went into effect on Thursday, hours ahead of a statewide stay at home order issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom. On Sunday, Pace updated his order to add to it the closure of Clear Lake and local waterways, as well as lodging facilities for anyone outside of a list of essential workers
“We’re in a pretty unprecedented space right now,” Dr. Gary Pace told the board at the start of a lengthy discussion during the board’s Tuesday meeting.
“I think the local response is incredibly important right now,” said Pace.
While COVID-19 cases continue to be confirmed around the region, as of Tuesday Pace said there were no confirmed cases in Lake County. However, he added that the virus is likely in Lake County due to travel and at a low level that hasn’t been picked up yet in testing.
During the meeting, Pace said between 35 and 40 tests have been conducted locally, and those have all tested negative.
Those testing numbers have remained the same since last week, which has caused concern among community members, many of them commenting on Public Health’s Facebook page in the days since.
“We need better testing,” Pace told the board. “This is a national crisis and a national embarrassment, I think.”
He urged people not to get too focused on the testing, explaining that even if hundreds of tests were conducted and positive cases were confirmed, it wouldn’t change what the county needs to do. “I just hope it doesn’t distract us from some of the other discussions.”
The Sonoma County Public Health Lab and private companies are doing testing, and a new test that’s expected to be out by the end of March could yield results within 45 minutes, Pace said. Currently, testing turnaround can take up to a week, if a lab is even available.
He expected testing capabilities to change over the next two weeks. “It’s frustratingly slow.”
Pace said he has acquired 20 sampling kits for a surveillance strategy that includes sampling people who are mildly ill but don’t meet the more stringent criteria issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to which hospitals in Lake County are continuing to adhere.
Pace suggests taking more actions to protect the community
Pace asked the board to consider taking additional measures.
“If we really want to get in front of this, we probably need to do more,” which the county can decide to do before “the wave crashes here,” Pace said.
However, he said that will require a mobilization, and he estimated so far the county only has a “halfway buy-in” from the community. That’s why he said he wanted to discuss more actions with the board.
“In two weeks, it’ll be a different discussion,” he said.
Pace suggested the board consider taking additional steps, including controlling social movement as much as possible for a month through increased enforcement and compliance with the shelter in place order; determining which workers and services are truly essential; mobilizing additional staff to help Public Health; quarantining people who are sick in separate facilities that are yet to be identified; and surge planning with the county’s health care facilities.
He said that Lake County’s two hospitals, Sutter Lakeside and Adventist Health Clear Lake, are doing their own surge planning. Both are “critical access” hospitals that have a maximum of 25 beds each. However, with a state waiver, Sutter Lakeside can increase to 50 beds and Adventist to 40 beds. Pace said intensive care unit beds also can increase if necessary.
The two hospitals together now have a total of 11 ventilators, with access to five more, said Pace. He said ventilators – which need staffing and support – can’t be stockpiled beforehand but have to go to areas where they are most needed.
He said Social Services is working to get a location for homeless individuals who need a place to shelter.
Pace said the information he’s receiving about the situation supports keeping schools closed, and he said that, based on how other areas are handling the virus, if aggressive action is taken it still could take two to three months to bring things under control.
Pace’s suggestions were considered but they were not agendized for action on Tuesday.
County Counsel Anita Grant noted during the meeting that the Public Health officer may take any measure deemed necessary to protect public health during situations including war and states of emergency.
“Dr. Pace has considerable power in this circumstance to make those decisions himself,” she said.
Board members on Tuesday related their own concerns about the situation.
“We’re all getting calls. This is affecting everybody’s daily life, each and every one of us,” said Board Chair Moke Simon.
Simon said he felt the board needed to lock the county down for the next two to three weeks to try to stop the virus’ spread, adding he didn’t want to look back and wonder what would have happened if they had just listened.
He said he also got yelled at as he left his house to go to the meeting that morning, explaining that his elderly father has health conditions that make him vulnerable.
“I hope we are overreacting,” said Simon.
Supervisor Rob Brown said he’s concerned about local businesses, and warned of the shelter in place and resulting shutdowns, “It’s going to get old really quick,” and some businesses may reopen in spite of the order.
Brown also reported that he’s meeting on Thursday with members of the business community in order to come back to the board with recommendations about how to help that group.
Supervisor Bruno Sabatier told Pace he’s available to help him.
Sabatier said his family members who live in rural France have reported activity similar to that seen in Lake County in recent days – people migrating from the city.
More cases reported around the region
As Pace was giving his report to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday morning, the Napa County Public Health Department confirmed its third local case of COVID-19. It had reported its first two cases on Sunday.
Then came an announcement from Humboldt County Health Officer Dr. Teresa Frankovich that a third resident of Humboldt County had tested positive for COVID-19.
Frankovich said the individual had recently traveled internationally but not to a country that had been flagged as high risk.
“Really, there is no international travel that can be considered safe right now,” Frankovich said, adding that the individual was traveling with a group. Health officials are reaching out to all members of the group and conducting a comprehensive investigation of possible contacts.
Later on Tuesday, the county of Lake shuttered all county-owned parks as part of Pace’s shelter in place order. The cities of Clearlake and Lakeport have similarly closed their parks.
Then, on Tuesday night, Mendocino County Health Officer Dr. Noemi Doohan issued a revised shelter in place order which included a stricter list of essential businesses to align with the state stay at home order and closure of all parks within Mendocino County.
The revision came as Doohan confirmed the second case of COVID-19 in Mendocino County on Tuesday.
“This case is related to high-risk travel and it does not appear to indicate community spread,” said Doohan. “This person is on home isolation and does not pose a risk to the public and will be actively monitored by public health officials along with their primary healthcare provider.”
As for other counties surrounding Lake, as of Tuesday night Colusa and Glenn County reported that they have no confirmed cases, Yolo County had 10 confirmed cases and one death, and Sonoma County had 34 cases and one death.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.