Napa Added To State's Coronavirus Watch List, Sonoma Kept On Notice

California's daily tally of coronavirus cases has hit a record high, and three more counties - including Napa - have been added to the state's watch list.

Close to 12,000 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the 24 hours before Gov. Gavin Newsom's media briefing Wednesday afternoon, shattering the previous one-day record. The governor suspects close to 2,000 of those were from a backlog of cases in Los Angeles.

Positivity, hospitalization and ICU rates continue to climb statewide.

Napa, Yolo & San Benito counties added to CA's #COVID19 watchlist, bringing total to 26 counties being monitored & assisted by the state. Contrary to earlier reports, Sonoma has *not* been added to the list, at least not according to state officials & the governor #coronavirus

Sonoma County may be be forced to roll back some of its reopening as cases and deaths have risen in recent weeks, though it has not been added to the state's watch list for now. An earlier version of this story reported Sonoma was being added to the state's watch list, though it has not yet officially materializied.

Seems to be some level of disagreement over the 'watchlist' designation. Sonoma is not listed on the Governor's website and the Health Officer says monitoring is preliminary...but result after 3 days is effectively the same. Unclear where the disconnect is.

The county joins about two dozen others across the state managing a rise in cases.

A particular area of concern in Sonoma is skilled nursing and residential care facilities, where two more people died from the coronavirus on Tuesday. Both were residents at skilled nursing facilities and were over 65 years old. 

The county now has nearly 1,500 cases after 200 new cases emerged over the holiday weekend. The Latinx community has been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, accounting for three out of every four cases.

Health officials are leaning on testing and contact tracing as key tools in fighting the virus, a strategy that Dr. George Rutherford, epidemiologist and UCSF professor said is critical and has been overlooked by some.

"I think that people who view this as a rate limiting step are missing the fact that this is a totally scalable kind of intervention," Dr. Rutherford said. "You have enough people, you can keep continue to interview new cases and find their contacts. There's not a saturation point."

If Sonoma County stays on the state's radar for a specific amount of time, it is likely the county will then be added to the monitoring list, meaning businesses would likely have to roll back indoor operations such as dining, tasting rooms and breweries heading into the weekend.