Shelter In Place Order Extended
Beginning at 12:01 a.m. on April 1, 2020, the Shelter in Place Order from the Contra Costa Health Officer will be extended to a new date of May 3, 2020. The order is being extended in order to increase the effort in Contra Costa County to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
The extension by the Health Officer features several refinements and clarifications covering a number of areas including essential/non-essential services, use of play areas, and non-essential travel.
The new order can be found on the county’s website www.coronavirus.cchealth.org. An executive summary of the new order can be found at https://cchealth.org/coronavirus/pdf/2020-0331-Summary-Superseding-Order- Changes.pdf
Brief summation of changes:
- Use of playgrounds, dog parks, public picnic areas, and similar recreational areas is prohibited. These areas must be closed to public use.
- Use of shared public recreational facilities such as golf courses, tennis and basketball courts, pools, and rock walls is prohibited. These facilities must be closed for recreational use.
- Sports requiring people to share a ball or other equipment must be limited to people in the same household
- Requires essential businesses to develop a social distancing protocol before April 3
- Most construction—residential and commercial—is prohibited
- Funerals limited to no more than 10 people attending
- Essential businesses expanded to include service providers that enable residential transactions (notaries, title companies, Realtors, etc.); funeral homes and cemeteries; moving companies, rental car companies and rideshare services that specifically enable essential activities
- Essential businesses that continue to operate facilities must scale down operations to their essential component only
We strongly encourage residents to read the executive summary as it gives a much more detailed look at the expansions of the shelter order.
As in the previous order, the community is asked to stay at home except for essential activities such as grocery shopping. Residents are asked to limit grocery trips to one per week and limit the number of people going to the grocery store.
The new order clarifies language in regard to landscapers and gardeners. Under the order these services should be suspended with the exception of necessary abatement or direct threat to public safety or the home itself. An example of this would be a hanging tree limb threatening to strike power lines or fall onto the home.
The order also reinforces the need for social distancing outside the home unit. Residents are asked to maintain a six-foot distance between themselves and anyone outside their family unit. This includes going out on area hiking trails for exercise. The community is asked to be mindful of that six-foot distance when out on the trail or in the park.