Sacramento County extends stay-at-home order to May. Travel, recreation restrictions added

Tony Bizjak, Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks
·5 min read

Sacramento County health officials on Tuesday extended their order for residents to stay at home for another three weeks during the coronavirus crisis — at the same time loosening some restrictions and tightening others, including a new mandate that all non-essential gatherings in peoples’ homes stop.

The previous version of the ordinance allowed up to six non-relatives to gather in a residence. The new order prohibits “all non-essential gatherings of any number of individuals.”

The revised and extended order, which is set to expire May 1, now clarifies that real estate agents can show houses for sale, if done safely, and funerals can take place, if limited to 10 attendees.

While making it clear people can and should exercise outside their home, the order also places tighter restrictions on the type of acceptable exercise, saying that playgrounds, picnic areas, barbecue areas, tennis courts, pools and basketball courts “must be closed to public access.”

The initial order, issued March 19, forced closures of most businesses and sent hundreds of thousands of workers home. It was set to expire just before midnight tonight.

Sacramento’s order mirrors Gov. Gavin Newsom’s statewide “shelter in place” order, which mandated closure of restaurants for inside dining, as well as closure of bars, wineries, and occupations and businesses deemed “non-essential” to continuation of the civic life.

Among the entities and businesses deemed essential are grocery stores.

The revised county order includes limitations that did not exist in the initial order to reduce “person-to-person contact to further slow transmission of COVID-19.”

“The main point remains clear,” county health official Dr. Roger Beilenson said in a statement Tuesday. “People in Sacramento County must keep social distancing to the max. The single most important thing everyone can do to beat this is to stay home.”

Among the changes:

Essential businesses must implement social distancing protocols

All essential businesses must create a “social distancing protocol” for their facilities. They can review a county Social Distancing Protocol form, as Appendix A to the Public Health Order. A copy of the protocol must be provided to employees working at the facility, and companies “must provide evidence of its implementation to any authority enforcing the order.”

Restricting access to recreation facilities

Residents can engage in outdoor recreation activity including, walking, hiking, biking, running and other activities. But the new order “restricts outdoor recreation activity at facilities that encourage gathering and are outside of residences, such as playgrounds, outdoor gym equipment, picnic areas, barbecue areas, tennis and pickle ball courts, rock parks, climbing walls, pools, spas, shooting and archery ranges, gyms, disc golf and basketball courts and must be closed to public access.”

Funerals, residence moves limited

The order clarifies that people can hold funeral services in which there are no more than 10 attendees. The county also clarified that moving residences is an essential activity, so long as “it is not possible to defer an already planned move, if the move is necessitated by safety, sanitation or habitability reason, or if the move is necessary to preserve access to shelter.”

The new order added these activities to what is considered essential travel:

  • Travel to manage after-death arrangements and burial

  • Travel to arrange for shelter or avoid homelessness

  • Travel to avoid domestic violence or child abuse

  • Travel for parental custody arrangements

Clarifying and limiting essential business activities

The new order adds to the list of essential business activities:

  • Establishments that sell multiple categories of products provided that they sell essential products identified in section 12. G. ii. of the Order, such as liquor stores that also sell food

  • Service providers that enable residential transactions (including rentals, leases and home sales) including but not limited to real estate agents, escrow agents, notaries and title companies, provided that the services carried out comply with Social Distancing Requirements to the extent possible

  • Funeral home providers, mortuaries, cemeteries and crematoriums

  • Children of owners, employees, volunteers and contractors who do not own, work or volunteer for or contract with essential businesses or essential government functions may not attend childcare facilities.

Businesses and government to cease non-essential operations at physical locations in the County

“All businesses with a facility in the county, except essential businesses, are required to cease all activities at facilities located within the county except Minimum Basic Operations,” the new order reads. “All businesses may continue operations consisting exclusively of owners, employees, volunteers, or contractors performing activities at their own residences (i.e., working from home).”

Notably, the new order “strongly” encourages essential businesses to remain open, “but those businesses must maximize the number of employees who work from home. “

Only employees who jobs must be done outside the home should do so. “Essential businesses that include non-essential components at their facilities must, to the extent feasible, scale down their operations to the essential business components only.”

Prohibiting all non-essential gatherings of any number of individuals

The previous order allowed for private gatherings of not more than six non-relatives in a home or place of residence, provided participants practice Social Distancing requirements. The new order prohibits all non-essential gatherings of any number of individuals.

Homeless are exempt, but urged to find shelter

“Government agencies and other entities operating shelters and other facilities that house, provide meals or other necessities of life for people experiencing homelessness must take appropriate steps to comply with social distancing requirements.”

Individuals experiencing homelessness and living in encampments “should abide by 12 foot by 12 foot distancing for the placement of tents.” Government agencies should provide restroom and hand-washing facilities for individuals in such encampments based on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Interim Guidance Responding to COVID-19 Among People Experiencing Unsheltered Homelessness.

Sacramento County will soon see nearly 1,000 new isolation beds come online in the coming days to house homeless individuals.

For more information, the public can call the county Public Health Department at (916) 875-4756 and press 4.