June 5 County Health Order Loosens Shelter in Place Restrictions
Published on June 05, 2020
Alameda County Health Officer Orders Allow for “Social Bubbles,” Childcare and Extracurricular Activities for All Children, and other Businesses to Resume including Pet Grooming; Face Coverings Must Be Worn at All Times, including When Active Outdoors; Accompanying Reopening Plan Outlines Next Phases of Relaxations
Further relaxing of Shelter-in-Place restrictions allows a group of at most 12 individuals from different households to combine outdoors
ALAMEDA COUNTY –The Alameda County Health Officer Dr. Erica Pan issued a Health Officer Order today, June 5, 2020, that loosens Shelter-in-Place restrictions.
Effective June 8, 2020, the Health Officer Order to Update the Shelter in Place allows:
1. Small gatherings of individuals from different households to take place in outdoor settings, subject to certain conditions;
2. Childcare providers to provide care to all children, not just children of essential workers, and establishes conditions under which youth extracurricular activities may resume;
3. Educational institutions to resume career internship and pathways programs;
4. Libraries to open for curbside pickup of books and other media;
5. Certain businesses providing services with limited person-to-person contact, including appliance repair, and pet grooming services, to resume operations.
The small outdoor gatherings are permitted for people belonging to the same Social Bubble.
• A Social Bubble is defined as a group of 12 or fewer people from different households
• A Social Bubble should be maintained for a minimum of 3 weeks
• Participation is restricted to only one Social Bubble at a time
• Members of a Social Bubble are strongly encouraged to comply with Social Distancing Requirements and wear face covering to the extent feasible.
These Orders align with those being released by the City of Berkeley and are a reflection of the two local health jurisdictions’ close partnership as we navigate this unprecedented pandemic together.
Residents can expect that outdoor museums, outdoor restaurant dining, religious services, and additional outdoor activities (like outdoor fitness classes) will resume in phases in upcoming relaxations to the Shelter-in-Place restrictions.
Since the local Order was modified nearly three weeks ago to allow curbside retail, manufacturing and warehousing businesses to reopen and a highly regulated vehicle-based gatherings to occur, the COVID-19 indicators we continuously monitor to help us determine when it’s safe to lift more restrictions tell us that we are moving in the right direction, and we need to keep moving at the speed of safety. The Reopening Plan lays out what will be included in future updates to Shelter-in-Place, as well as an outline of the impact of increased social activity on the risk of exposure to infection.
“As we move forward in Stage 2 of the reopening plan, we increase the level of exposure to infection among Alameda County residents,” said Dr. Erica Pan, Health Officer for Alameda County. “This is still a highly contagious virus and medically fragile residents and our disproportionally impacted communities are still at high risk for this disease.” Every effort to reduce physical contact by maintaining 6 feet of distance from individuals outside of your household, wearing face coverings, practicing good hand hygiene and staying home when you can helps reduce risk. The Order also adopts a revised social distancing protocol for businesses allowed to operate under the Order.
The Site-Specific Protection Plan is a template plan that provides clear guidance for reopening businesses in a manner that provides a safe, clean environment for employees and customers. All businesses allowed to reopen under the Alameda County SIP Order must complete the Site-Specific Protocol Plan and implement the applicable measures. The Site-Specific Protocol Plan combines state-level and Alameda County Public Health Department guidance around risk assessment, individual control measures and screening, physical distancing, disinfecting and cleaning protocols, and employee training.
Face Coverings Must Be Worn at All Times, including When Active Outdoors
To further control the spread of COVID-19, the Alameda County Health Officer Dr. Erica Pan issued a Health Officer Order today, June 5, 2020, broadening when a face covering must be worn. The face covering order goes into effect on June 8, 2020 and supersedes the prior face covering Order. Now face coverings must be worn at all times by all members of the public, including outdoors while engaged in physical activities (walking, running, biking, etc.) and within 30 feet of people outside of their household.
“A face covering helps prevent transmitting the virus that causes COVID-19.” said Dr. Pan. “Everyone should wear a face covering anytime they are outside the home and around other people. This helps decrease the exposure for all of us and is one of the few tools we have that will allow us to decrease risk as we gradually allow for more activities outside the home.”
Face coverings can be simple and homemade, made of cloth, fabric, or other soft or permeable material without holes, that covers the nose and mouth.
Everyone in all settings must wear a face covering where the public is present or likely to be, and at any time when others are nearby. More guidance for employers is available in the Site-Specific Protocol Plan. Those people with a written exemption from a medical professional due to a medical condition, health concern or disability, or anyone who has trouble breathing are not required to wear a face covering.
Children aged 12 and younger are not required to wear a face covering, and any child two years old or younger should not wear a face covering. The Order does not apply if a person is only with members of their own household and does not expect to come into contact with a member of the public. A person engaged in walking, hiking, bicycling, running, and other physical activities is not required to wear a face covering during the entire duration of their activity, but that person must carry a face covering that is easy to access so they can wear it once they are within 30 feet of other people.
“Face coverings protect everyone because people may have COVID-19 and not realize it,” said Dr. Pan. “My face covering protects you and your face covering protects me.”
For more information on both Health Officer Orders and accompanying documents, visit:
• http://acphd.org/2019-ncov/shelter-in-place.aspx
• http://acphd.org/2019-ncov/health-officer-orders.aspx
• http://acphd.org/2019-ncov.aspx
CONTACT: Neetu Balram, Public Information Manager, Alameda County Public Health Department
Read more: http://www.acphd.org/media/584409/press-release-2020.06.05.pdf
Media: EOC-PIO@acgov.org, Public: Covidcompliance@acgov.org, Phone: 925-803-7890