Lake County faces potential for more state restrictions due to COVID-19 case increase
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – With Lake County seeing a rise in cases in recent weeks, the Public Health officer said Tuesday that the community could face increased restrictions due to moving into a higher tier on the state’s COVID-19 blueprint.
“Recently we have been seeing an upsurge in cases,” Dr. Gary Pace said in a Tuesday video, which can be seen above.
On Tuesday, Lake County’s case total had risen to 516, an increase of 98 – or 23 percent – over the previous Tuesday.
Of those total cases, 97 are active, one is hospitalized and 408 are recovered.
To date, there have been 11 deaths, four in the last week alone and three of those from an outbreak at the Lakeport Post Acute skilled nursing facility.
Pace said Lake County’s case rate as of Tuesday was 8.8 percent, which puts it in the purple tier – the most restrictive – on the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, while the county’s 5.7-percent positivity rate puts in the red tier, the second most restrictive.
While case numbers around the region and state have been improving in recent weeks, Pace said Lake County’s cases have been rising. Those cases include the outbreak at Lakeport Post Acute.
While that outbreak now appears to be slowing down, it has led to a total of seven deaths, Pace said. The facility has a COVID-19 ward and is “following all of the protocols recommended,” he said.
Pace said Public Health currently is analyzing the data to see how much of Lake County’s rate increase is due to the skilled nursing facility outbreak and how much is due to community spread.
He said the outbreak appears to have started with community spread with a worker contracting it outside of the facility and then bringing it to work.
Pace said another facility also has an outbreak. The state identified that second facility – which has both patients and staff with the virus – as Rocky Point Care Center in Lakeport.
For many weeks, Lake County has been in the red tier, the second-most restrictive tier in the Blueprint for a Safer Economy, Pace said.
However, on Tuesday, Pace said the state notified Lake County that its case data has landed it for the first time in the purple tier, the most restrictive.
If Lake County’s case outlook doesn’t improve in two weeks, it will be forced entirely into the purple tier, Pace said.
If that happens, Pace said indoor dining at restaurants and indoor movie theaters must stop, places of worship will have to go to outdoor-only services, with gyms and fitness centers also required to move activities outdoors. Museums also would be closed and retail would only be open at 25-percent capacity, with the exception of essential businesses.
“This could happen as early as next week,” Pace said.
He said the county is talking to the state to see if there might be an exception in its tier ranking due to the skilled nursing facility outbreak. As part of those discussions, the county is seeking another week to prepare in order to bring case numbers down.
“Once we would get on the purple tier, we would have to stay on it for a minimum of three weeks,” he said.
All of Lake County’s six school districts are now open for school, with two districts – Lucerne Elementary and Upper Lake Unified – having in-person classes while the rest are conducting classes online, as Lake County News has reported.
If the state moves Lake County into the purple tier, the schools that are open could remain so, but any other districts would have to wait to open their doors until the county moves back into the red tier, Pace said.
He said the majority of Lake County’s cases continue to happen in households or in social gatherings where people don’t use the proper precautions.
The pandemic and the lockdown have been impacting Lake County for six months and Pace said it’s understandable that people are getting tired of it.
However, he said more is now known about controlling the virus.
Pace said the best way to prevent contracting the virus is to increase precautions, including masking, social distancing and staying away from group settings, including indoor ones.
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.