Reopening: Napa Health Officials See Rise In New COVID-19 Cases After Easing Restrictions
NAPA (CBS SF) -- Napa County was one of the first to ease COVID-19 restrictions in the Bay Area, but now health officials are seeing a spike in new cases.
Some may assume that it's connected to dining indoors or open hair salons in Napa County, but County Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Relucio says that's not the case.
She is asking residents to change their ways before tougher restrictions have to be put into place again.
"This place has been a zoo with people coming in thinking Napa is open," said Napa resident Keith Borges. "So I'm just waiting for the spike."
Borges wasn't surprised to hear that Napa County is seeing a spike in COVID 19 cases but what may be surprising is how the virus is spreading.
Last week, health officials said there were 31 new cases and it's waiting on results from 51 additional tests.
Relucio believes many of the cases may stem from the Memorial Day weekend. She said one graduation party had roughly 40 people in attendance.
"COVID is still here to stay, we don't have a vaccine we don't have community immunity," Relucio said. "If you are going to go out, please stay with your household. I'm almost pleading at this point."
Napa County's numbers are still fairly low with only 161 cases overall, but if they continue to increase tougher restrictions may have to be put back into place.
"In the grand scheme of things, I would rather have to be out in a house for a year as opposed to this being prolonged and it being more difficult than it has to be in the first place," Napa resident Karen Sanchez told KPIX 5.
While some are willing to shelter in place to keep flattening the curve of the coronavirus, others are ready to get back to the new normal.
"You keep getting a lot of contradictory information and there's no way you keep the economy throttled this way because that's causing more trouble than the virus is," Borges said.
Napa County will start moving into portions of Phase 3 soon, but Relucio said only a few sectors will open at a time while health officials continue to monitor the cases.