Silicon Valley has no immediate plans to weaken coronavirus stay-at-home order, health officer says

A man glances into ZombieRunner coffee shop as he strides along a quiet sidewalk in downtown Palo Alto, amid the coronavirus crisis on March 12, 2020. (GLENN CHAPMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

by: Los Angeles Times

Posted: May 12, 2020 / 05:57 PM PDT

Updated: May 12, 2020 / 05:57 PM PDT

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Silicon Valley’s health officer has no immediate plans to weaken its strict stay-at-home order in accordance with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s relaxation of the statewide mandate, saying she couldn’t take that step without increasing the risk to public safety.

The San Francisco Bay Area’s most populous county, Santa Clara County, was California’s original epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. And while levels of disease haven’t surged to catastrophic levels, they’ve remained steady, and even a small increase in disease transmission would heighten the risk to vulnerable communities, said Dr. Sara Cody, a key architect of the nation’s first regional shelter-in-place order.

“We’re not there yet,” Cody told the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors Tuesday.

Cody said many people ask why Santa Clara County can’t start to weaken the stay-at-home order, taking actions Newsom has allowed, such as allow some retail businesses to open only for curbside pickup, which Los Angeles County implemented on Friday.

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