Sonoma County’s move to not join six Bay Area jurisdictions in voluntarily implementing the state’s strict stay-at-home order has the backing of the county’s Board of Supervisors.
Instead, the county is opting for a "wait and see" approach.
In an unexpected silver lining, Sonoma County never advanced out of the state’s purple tier, leading to no dramatic rise and fall of cases as seen in other parts of California. Supervisor David Rabbitt told KCBS Radio it’s something that makes Sonoma County unique.
"With what we know and where we think the spread is occurring, we think what we’re doing today is safe, as safe as it can be within the pandemic," he said.
Rabbitt said that the county will continue to monitor its ICU capacity and community spread, making decisions on a day-by-day basis. State data initially showed Sonoma County having just a handful of beds left, however, Rabbitt faulted a communication breakdown between the state and local hospitals for the calculation.
"Quite frankly, I lay that one right at the state’s doorstep," Rabbitt explained. "If you’re setting the rules, and if you’re saying that the only metric that is important is the ICU bed metric that is going to put you into a shutdown, you better well have the definition of what ICU bed availability is."
Initial data showed just 3% of beds left.
Local hospitals had only reported beds that were staffed and didn’t see a practical need in staffing empty ICU beds that would have accounted for the extra capacity.
Rabbitt added that the county will pull the trigger on joining the health order if the numbers trend toward local hospitals reaching capacity.
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