Bay Area, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Keeping Watch on Earth News, San Francisco Bay Area, Solano County CA, Stay-at-home

Benicia residents get phone alerts: 6-county shelter in place extended to May 3

Order does not include Solano County

By Roger Straw, March 31, 2020

My cell phone went off twice around 1:40 pm today with an emergency notice that our coronavirus shelter-in-place was being extended to May 3.

This was a little confusing, given that Solano County issued a statement just yesterday (on March 30) extending our Shelter at Home Order through April 30th.  ?Why would the County extend for just 3 days??

A little googling reveals that once again, a group of Bay Area counties acted jointly, exclusive of Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.

According to ABC News Bay Area, “The new restrictions applied to six Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Santa Clara, San Francisco and San Mateo. Those six counties, plus the City of Berkeley (which operates its own public health department) announced the shelter-in-place orders would be extended to May 3 in their jurisdictions.  Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties had not announced such extensions, as of Tuesday afternoon.”

The new 6-county order adds new restrictions to what residents are allowed to do as they shelter in place.  Again according to ABC News Bay Area: “In addition to the restrictions put in place for the original three-week shelter-in-place order, officials are now requiring:

    • Funerals are limited to 10 people in attendance
    • Playgrounds, dog parks and picnic areas have to close to the public
    • Don’t use golf courses, or public tennis and basketball courts
    • When it comes to sports that require you to share a ball, only play them with members of your household
    • Most construction is banned
    • All essential businesses that are still open must develop “social distancing protocol” before April 3

What is considered an “essential business” has been expanded to include:

    • “Providers that enable residential transactions” (like notaries, title companies, and real estate agencies)
    • Funeral homes and cemeteries
    • Moving companies
    • Rental car companies
    • Rideshare services

Someone should compare these new 6-county restrictions to the restrictions covered in our Solano County Shelter at Home Order.  Please send your comparison to the editor, rogrmail at gmail dot com.