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The San Mateo County Public Health Department has issued updated recommendations for how to navigate the current surge in COVID-19 cases.
San Mateo County has not opted in to the new “Regional Stay at Home Order” that five other Bay Area counties, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, and Santa Clara, as well as the City of Berkeley, have joined, which shut down outdoor dining and limited travel and retail access in advance of the state’s threshold for enacting those restrictions: when hospitals within the region reach less than 15% of bed capacity remaining in their Intensive Care Units.
Instead, county health leaders issued an advisory Dec. 8, which doubles down on existing recommendations and lays out clearer steps for how households should mitigate risk if interaction with one other household is needed for physical, emotional or social support. It also addresses how to reduce the virus’s spread if it is already in a household, and encourages people to wear masks at all times in public.
The guidelines are in response to evidence that transmission is happening because of social gatherings and within households, especially from people who do not have, or have not yet, developed symptoms, county health leaders say.
More than 50% of transmission comes from people who don’t have or haven’t yet developed symptoms, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The surge of cases has been alarming, and we need to increase our response immediately,” said Dr. Curtis Chan, deputy health officer for the county. “The majority of transmissions occurs from people with no symptoms of COVID-19…and airborne droplets are the primary way the disease spreads. This is why we’re emphasizing always wear face coverings even if you have no symptoms and particularly when you’re talking.”
At the same time, health leaders say, they’re seeing that pandemic fatigue – and the mental and psychosocial impacts of extended isolation from family and friends – are real, and so are focusing on science-based “harm reduction” techniques over restrictive mandates.
Households are still permitted to create a “social support bubble” of one to two households that are stable and keep the same members across a number of weeks. People in these bubbles are intended to help each other to take care of physical, emotional and social needs.
However, over the next few weeks, county health leaders advise people to not gather with different households, especially indoors.
The recommendations
The county’s updated three recommendations are to:
1. Always wear a mask in public, especially when talking. Masks should be required at schools and preschools for children older than 2. Out in workplaces and the public, people should have conversations in quiet places so they don’t have to shout and can maintain physical distance. People should also only eat with members of their own household.
2. Insulate your household and any small, stable social support “bubble” you might have from the virus. County residents, if needed, may form a small, stable social cohort or bubble of one to two households. They are encouraged to provide support for each other over the next few difficult weeks, and urged to not socialize with multiple households. Health leaders advise local governments to keep parks and outdoor recreation areas open for mental health reasons.
3. Immediately after being exposed, or when any symptoms appear, wear a mask inside your household, isolate from other household members, quarantine from other people and seek testing as soon as possible. COVID-19 is most infectious two days before and five days after symptoms first appear, so it’s important for everyone in the household to mask as soon as symptoms develop. The symptomatic person should be tested immediately and should stay in a separate room and avoid common areas. Windows should be opened to increase ventilation. Anyone who has been in close contact with a known or suspected COVID-19 case should quarantine.
Read the full advisory here.
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