SACRAMENTO, Calif — Staying at home and social distancing is working in Sacramento, leading public health officials to rethink strict closures that have had businesses shut down and people stuck inside for weeks.
This comes as an analysis from The Sacramento Bee revealed that Sacramento area — which includes Sacramento, Placer, Yolo and El Dorado counties — has a COVID-19 infection rate lower than the "50 largest metropolitan areas in the country."
Sacramento County Public Health Officer Dr. Peter Beilenson said that's partially because the area was among the first in the country to enforce stay-at-home orders to mitigate spread of the virus.
Plus, there's the size of the of the Sacramento metropolitan area — more than 2 million residents — that helps, Dr. Beilenson said.
"Unlike LA or New York, which have large gathering places like Disney Land or Universal Studios or Chelsea Pier in New York, Sacramento doesn't have those large gatherings where we could have had a spread of the disease," Beilenson said.
Because of the relatively low infection rate, Dr. Beilenson said it's time the Sacramento area begins to investigate further reopening the economy.
"You have to balance public heath with economic health of the community, and I think it's time that we move a little bit more to economic health," Dr. Beilenson said.
It's a similar idea that nearby Yuba and Sutter counties thought when they began to reopen their economy. The two counties of less than 180,000 residents began allowing restaurants, hair salons and many other businesses to open back up this week if they enforced social distancing and maintained other precautions.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said the counties are making "a big mistake. They're putting their public at risk. They're putting our progress at risk."
Ready or not, Dr. Beilenson said that Sacramento won't completely reopen overnight.
He echoed Newsom's statements on Monday about reopening in phases, which the governor said he plans to release this week.
"I think we will have phase in of certain businesses like restaurants, some opening up of more outdoor activities, potentially pools and things like that," Dr. Beilenson said. "Then the next phase will be gatherings greater than ten or so people, probably. And the last phase to go back to normalcy will be larger gatherings, places like football games and baseball games."
Mayor Darrell Steinberg agrees that Sacramento is prepared to reopen, but fears there may be a back track of progress if the city is not careful.
"I'm concerned that as we go back, that if we don't do something that is going to then take us even further back, that is going to lead in a spike in the virus," Steinberg said.
It's one of the reasons why he went to Facebook on Monday throwing around the idea that it may be time to order everyone in Sacramento to wear a mask to protect themselves and others when the economy opens back up.
"I think one of the additional protections that would help ensure that as we go back that we do not have that spike is to make the mask requirement mandatory," Steinberg said.
Dr. Beilenson agreed on the stipulation that masks and face coverings be widely available for the public.
"I think that will probably be part of our new health order depending on what kind of activities we allow to happen," Dr. Beilenson said.
Follow the conversation on Facebook with Monica Coleman.
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