Health Officers Sketch Life After Coronavirus

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Across Sonoma County, the state of California and the world, epidemiologists and public health officers are busily engaged in work aimed at re-imaging how society will work, and what it will look like, once coronavirus restrictions are lifted.

One thing everyone can agree on is that the world we knew before the arrival of coronavirus will be changed in fundamental, and very likely, enduring ways.

This week, Governor Gavin Newsom laid out a six point framework for reopening the state to business, and to life after coronavirus. The world he sketched included more intense testing, the protection of vunerable populations, the re-engineering of workplaces and schools to accommodate social distancing, and the very real possibility of a return to more restrictions, when and if the coronavirus once again surges.

In Sonoma County, Public Health Officer Sundari Mase echoed the governor’s words this week, telling county residents at now familiar daily briefings that the North Bay will follow its own path, guided by local virus trends and testing, but that restrictions may in fact be with us for some time to come. She said restaurants would likely have fewer tables, facial coverings would become the norm in public settings, and public health guidance would insure that schools, businesses and public places be set-up to insure social distancing.

Even as other states, and even some California counties have begun to relax strict stay-at-home orders, Mase said Sonoma County would take a measured approach, with the goal of maintaining virus suppression, while ramping up contact tracing and testing, even as restrictions are eased.

Mase says that so far, hospitals have not reported a significant surge in patients, and efforts to bend the curve are working. However, modeling done for Sonoma County by the Imperial College of London still indicates that a surge may take place in late May.

Whether that happens or not, Sonoma County’s preparations of an Alternate Care Site for mild coronavirus patients and vunerable populations at Sonoma State University, underway this week, are seen as an insurance plan should modeling predictions come true.

As of Thursday April 16th, Sonoma County had discovered 163 total coronavirus cases through testing of just over 4 thousand individuals. 82 patients were considered to have active cases of the virus, and 79 county residents had recovered. Total reported deaths remained at 2.

And, public health experts worldwide agree that some aspects of the world before coronavirus, things like filled sports stadiums, packed bars, and large public gatherings and festivals, may have to await the worldwide roll out of an effective coronavirus vaccine.

That, they say, could still be a year or more away.