YOLO COUNTY, Calif. — After seeing more than a 200% spike of confirmed coronavirus cases in the last month, Yolo County officials announced Tuesday businesses and organizations would be fined for not following health orders.
County officials said initially most of the new coronavirus cases were due to family gatherings; however, they are starting to see cases come from workplaces, education, social gatherings and religious services. Officials blamed the spike on not enforcing face masks and social distancing.
Prior to Tuesday's announcement, county officials said they were focusing on educating companies on how they could follow the health orders. As of Tuesday, there are 723 confirmed cases in Yolo County.
"The recent rapid spike in numbers of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 necessitates an increase in enforcement," said Chair of the Yolo County Board of Supervisors Gary Sandy in a press release. "These efforts will primarily focus on those that fail to take appropriate measures to protect the public.
County officials said companies that are not complying with health orders might face the following consequences:
- Be on a list of organization or business that is not following the health order.
- Non-commercial violators might face a fine between $25 to $500, while commercial violators could face a fine between $250 to $10,000.
- Receive a misdemeanor by a law enforcement officer.
- County Counsel or the local health officer might order the business to shut down.
- Face a court order to shut down until the business follows health orders.
Yolo County is working with the cities to come up with a strategy to make sure companies are following the health orders.
Leading up to the July 4 weekend, Yolo County voluntarily placed more restrictions on restaurants, bars, wineries and theaters.
"Yolo County is likely to exceed the elevated disease transmission criteria on the State of California's County Data Monitoring," Tan said in a press release. "To help slow the spread of COVID-19 and align with surrounding counties, Yolo County will pre-emptively close [businesses]... effective July 3, 2020 at 12:01 a.m. for a minimum of three weeks."
Yolo County was one of several California counties to require a face covering in public before Gov. Gavin Newsom's statewide executive order.
"We are not citing the individual person who is walking down the street or going into a store that isn't wearing a face covering," Yolo County Public Information Officer Jenny Tan told ABC10 in June. Tan told ABC10 county officials are expecting businesses to follow the health order.
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