Monterey County to issue order shutting down business sectors
MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION) UPDATE 7/7/20: After days of being on the state's watch list, the Monterey County Health Officer has announced an order shutting down indoor operations at certain businesses will be issued today and in effect Wednesday.
Dr. Edward Moreno with Monterey County health says indoor operations at restaurants, movie theaters, wineries, tasting rooms, family entertainment centers, zoos/museums and card rooms can continue today but will have to shut down tomorrow.
Outdoor operations at these facilities can continue so long as state health guidelines are followed.
Bars, meanwhile, will be required to shut down ALL operations.
Dr. Moreno expressed his interesting in gaining more knowledge from the state on how the county can reopen those indoor operations. For now these type of operations at these facilities will have to stay closed for three weeks.
He is advising restaurants to continue allowing for takeout operations at this time.
KION's Elisha Machado will have a report on KION News at 6:00 p.m. with how this will impact local businesses.
ORIGINAL STORY:
The California Department of Public Health announced that Monterey County has been added to the State's COVID-19 watch list.
The CDPH said the county is experiencing an increase in disease transmission, and it says more people leaving their homes as well as workplace and household transmission may have contributed.
To slow the spread of COVID-19, the CDPH recommends promoting additional testing capacity, continuing case and contact investigations, ensuring facility response readiness and focusing on outreach and education, especially among those disproportionately affected by the disease.
Monterey County currently has 1,748 confirmed cases, up 57 cases from Wednesday. The county surpassed the state's 14-day threshold of 100 cases per 100,000 residents and the percent change in 3-day average COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to the health department. The 14 day case rate is at 107.4, and the change in 3-day average is at 79.2%, according to state data.
On Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he was rolling back openings in the 19 counties that were on the State's watch list. The counties will have to close indoor operations of restaurants, movie theaters, wineries, tasting rooms, family entertainment centers, zoos, museums and cardrooms.
The closures do not currently affect Monterey County, but if the county remains on the watch list for three or more consecutive days, it will face closures
San Benito and Santa Cruz Counties are not on the watch list.
