Fifth Coronavirus Death, Stay-At-Home Order Extended In Marin

MARIN COUNTY, CA — Another person has died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, bringing Marin County's death toll to five.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases also jumped Tuesday from 98 to 107, which is a 9.18% increase from Monday. Of the patients, 14 have been hospitalized due to the virus.

Marin has tested 755 people for COVID-19 at the county's drive-thru testing site. This number doesn't include tests conducted by hospitals and medical facilities.

"These increases are expected," said Dr. Lisa Santora, the county's deputy health officer. "The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases will double every six days until we fully optimize social distancing."

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With the number of confirmed cases steadily growing across Marin County and the Bay Area, Marin – along with Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, as well as the city of Berkeley – extended the stay-at-home order through May 3. The initial three-week order was set to expire on April 7.

Public health officials determined that more and stricter social distancing is needed to slow the spread of coronavirus, prevent deaths and stop the health care system from becoming overwhelmed, according to a unified statement.

"I know many were hoping for this to end sooner, but this is our best tool to protect ourselves and, more importantly, to save lives," Santora said.

Like the previous order, the new order requires people to stay at home except for doing essential activities such as grocery shopping. Non-essential businesses remain closed.

The new order added some clarifying language around essential business and activities, as well as some new directives, including:

• 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.

In addition to the updated shelter-in-place order, Marin issued an updated park closure order that provided clarity on park and open space access in the county.

According to the updated order, people can access parks and open space areas to exercise, but they must be local to their homes and easily accessible by foot, bicycle or other non-motorized means. Driving to visit parks or open space areas is prohibited, except for people with disabilities with vehicles possessing current and valid disabled person parking placards or license plates. People visiting any park must continue to comply with social distancing requirements and are expected to stay local to the greatest extent possible.

Related coverage:

• 3 More Die From Coronavirus In Marin County
• Confirmed Coronavirus Cases Up 25% In Marin County
• First Coronavirus Death Confirmed In Marin County
• Marin County School Closure Extended Through May 1: Coronavirus
• Marin County Puts Moratorium On Evictions
• Marin County Parks Closed To Slow Spread Of Coronavirus
• Coronavirus: Marin County Public Health Officer Tests Positive
• Coronavirus Stay-At-Home Order Extended In Bay Area: What To Know
• Coronavirus In California: What To Know Tuesday, March 31