SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY, Calif. — Hopes were dashed twice in San Joaquin County after it failed to meet the red tier metrics two weeks in a row, despite earlier projections.
The county is idling in the most-restrictive purple tier of California’s reopening plan while other counties make their way out. For the county's business owners, it's a source of growing frustration.
"We’re still shut down. I don’t think people realize... everybody’s starting to go to Disney World, people I know going to Hawaii, going on spring break. We’re still waiting for our business to be allowed to be serving indoors which is ridiculous," said Jennifer Pappas, co-owner of Papapavlos restaurant in Lodi and Stockton.
The source of that purple tier frustration is tied to new coronavirus cases, lower testing numbers, and gatherings, according to San Joaquin County Public Health spokesperson Daniel Kim.
“Gatherings tend to be what we’re seeing because people are feeling more relaxed,” Kim said. “The weather’s getting better. They may be doing more gatherings privately.”
He said these aren’t super-spreader events. Instead, they could be more akin to nonvaccinated people meeting with other family members, meeting with people from outside their household or traveling.
COVID-19 variants could also be a factor. Kim said the county has detected at least one case of the UK variant, which is known to be more infectious. Others include one from Brazil and a California variant.
Even though the county saw a decline from their peak cases, Kim believes they're leveling off with case rates as new cases stop the decline. He said the county saw a bump in cases this week and continues to look into where the infections are happening.
“Until we get a significant number of the population vaccinated, we still expect to see more cases,” Kim said. “We’d like to see the number of cases go down, but we’re still trying figure out where people are getting infected. We are still seeing it pretty much wide in the community.”
If San Joaquin County wants to keep cases down and reopen, Kim says people will have to stick to following health guidelines, social distancing, masking, and getting vaccinated when eligible.
If missing the red tier on the week of March 15 and March 22 serves any purpose, it could be that peoples’ actions determine what happens in the county climb through the reopening tiers.
“The actions that we do are what’s being reflected in the numbers,” he said. “Again, if we’re continuing to meet with others who are not vaccinated or continue to do risky behaviors at this stage. We’ll continue to see numbers stay up high....”
Kim said it will "probably be another two weeks before we (San Joaquin County) have the opportunity to be in the red tier.”
For more information on where to get vaccinated or get tested in San Joaquin County, click HERE.
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