All eyes will be on the state health director Tuesday afternoon when he announces which counties could be returning to more restrictive conditions due to rising virus cases.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that several counties would be moving backwards as cases and hospitalizations have increased across the state.
This comes as Sonoma County, the only Bay Area county remaining in the most restrictive tier, is hoping to improve its numbers enough to reopen its economy further. Restaurants in the county are still not allowed to serve guests indoors, which could prompt another hit to business as temperatures dip below freezing this week.
Chef Crista Luedtke of Guerneville said it is not as easy as adding patio heaters and telling guests to layer up.
"Everybody’s trying to get creative. 'Oh, can’t you put a tent, can’t you do this, can’t you do that?' Well you can put a tent, but then it’s really difficult to have a heater under a tent and you still have to have three sides open, per what their requirements are," she explained. "So it seems like just a moot point to me. I feel like I’m not gonna continue to spend more money and throw good money after bad, I’m gonna try to hold out for indoor dining."
The guests are cold, the food gets colder faster and it now gets dark before 6 p.m. All of that adds up to fewer guests wanting to sit outside.
Sonoma County will need to drop its daily case rate to seven new cases a day for every 100,000 people. Right now, it is just over 11.
The county's health director Dr. Sundari Mase planned to ask the state to include in its count all of the tests being conducted by private labs that do not electronically report results to the state’s database. That could add another 3,500 tests a month to the county’s total, which could help bring down the positivity rate and boost chances of changing tiers.
"Maybe the push on testing right now will be what we need to just nudge us over the goal line," Luedtke said.
Because even having indoor dining at 25% capacity coupled with takeout could be enough to get her through the winter.