Everyone in Berkeley should shelter in place except for activities permitted by a May 18 health order,, which allowed additional businesses such as curbside retail pickup, manufacturing, and logistics to resume.
Everyone in Berkeley should shelter in place except for activities permitted by a May 18 health order,, which allowed additional businesses such as curbside retail pickup, manufacturing, and logistics to resume. As soon as data indicates that it is safe to do so, Health Officer Dr. Lisa Hernandez will update the Order to further expand allowed activities as soon as data.
Dr. Hernandez continues to work closely with Alameda County Health Officer Dr. Erica Pan and other Bay Area Health Officers to track COVID-19 data across the region using a shared set of indicators. Jurisdictions will ease shelter-in-place restrictions at their own pace based on local data. In Alameda County, hospitalizations and confirmed cases have been climbing. This means we will need to move slower than surrounding counties.
These are among the most challenging times our community has ever experienced. We will continue to do all that we can to protect the most vulnerable and keep everyone safe. Thanks to the commitment of our communities to practice social distancing and follow public health guidance, we expect to move forward with additional openings starting this week.
As we proceed through the uncharted territory of reopening businesses and activity in the midst of a global pandemic, the Public Health Officers across the Bay Area continue to work in close collaboration on how to best protect the residents of our region. Each decision we make involves difficult trade-offs and affects the community's wellbeing in many different ways. As we open additional sectors, we are relying on businesses to consistently follow social distancing protocols and public health guidance to protect their employees and customers. Bay Area residents should still stay home as much as possible, wear face coverings, frequently wash hands, stay home when feeling ill, get tested if exposed, and follow the other precautions that have helped our region make such outstanding progress to slow the spread of COVID-19.
We are carefully tracking data related to the spread of COVID-19 in our region and in each of our own communities. We are encouraged by what we are seeing in some areas and concerned about what we are seeing in others. As we move forward together, we will each make choices about what to reopen and how quickly to do so. Those decisions will be based on the data related to the specific conditions in our communities, as well as our joint assessment of broader regional trends.
Although the specific path forward and timeline in each community may vary slightly, we are united in our commitment to work together as a region; to ensure our decisions are data-driven; to take steps that are measured, careful, and to allow sufficient time between significant changes to understand their effects.
