Health officials in Contra Costa County and six other Bay Area communities have officially extended the current stay-at-home order through May 3, 2020 in an effort to preserve critical hospital capacity across the region.
The previous order was set to expire on April 7. While the prior order has been effective in reducing the rate of transmission of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), it is not enough, according to health officials. The Bay Area-wide increase in the number of positive cases, hospitalization and deaths from COVID-19, is beginning to strain healthcare resources.
More and stricter social distancing is needed to slow the rate of spread, prevent deaths, and stop the health care system from becoming overwhelmed, health officials said.
The new stay-at-home order will go into effect at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, March 31. It is a complement to the indefinite statewide stay-at-home order issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this month.
Like the previous local order, the new order requires people to stay at home except for doing essential activities, such as grocery shopping. The new order adds some clarifying language around essential business and activities, as well as some new directives, including:
- Use of playgrounds, dog parks, public picnic areas, and similar recreational areas is prohibited. These areas must be closed to public use.
- Use of shared public recreational facilities such as golf courses, tennis and basketball courts, pools, and rock walls is prohibited. These facilities must be closed for recreational use.
- Sports requiring people to share a ball or other equipment must be limited to people in the same household
- Requires essential businesses to develop a social distancing protocol before April 3
- Most construction—residential and commercial—is prohibited
- Funerals limited to no more than 10 people attending
- Essential businesses expanded to include service providers that enable residential transactions (notaries, title companies, Realtors, etc.); funeral homes and cemeteries; moving companies, rental car companies and rideshare services that specifically enable essential activities
- Essential businesses that continue to operate facilities must scale down operations to their essential component only
The City of Concord continues to update its COVID-19 web pages to provide the most up-to-date information for residents regarding:
In addition, Concord Mayor Tim McGallian is hosting weekly virtual town hall meetings to help keep our community informed. All are welcome to participate, every Saturday at 10 a.m.
To participate, log in with the Zoom app using: Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/5848824839