While California relaxed its stay-at-home order effective May 8, six Bay Area counties have lagged behind in reopening due to their adoption of targets related to a different set of metrics than the state is following. The criteria, which the counties call indicators, are:
- A decrease or flattening of newly identified cases
- A decrease or flattening of hospitalized patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, for 14 consecutive days
- Ability to test 200 people per day, per 100,000 residents
- A 30-day supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) at principal health care outlets
- No more than half of hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients
- Ability to identify 90% of coronavirus cases and people who have come into contact with them, and the capacity to isolate 90% of cases and their contacts
San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties plan to loosen their restrictions starting Monday, May 18. The new rules will allow some retail stores to reopen with curbside pickup and delivery options only, and manufacturing, logistics and warehouse operations to resume. Alameda and Contra Costa counties say they are considering taking the same step as early as next week. Santa Clara County says it's not yet ready to amend its order.
See each of the counties' current stage of reopening and their progress in meeting the individual indicators in this story from KQED Science.
