SLO County lifts order restricting hotels to 50% occupancy — it ‘fell short of its intent’
San Luis Obispo County Public Health officials on Friday lifted two executive orders related to hotel lodging and hospital visits, but it issued another order restricting visitation to skilled nursing facilities.
At a news briefing Friday, Public Health Officer Dr. Penny Borenstein said that the county is lifting its executive order limiting lodging capacity, which went into effect May 17.
The order restricted hotel and short-term lodging occupancy rates to no more than 50% of their capacity, and was permitted only for essential travel.
Borenstein said the county’s order “fell short of its intent” to limit the number of non-county residents traveling to the area ahead of Memorial Day, when thousands flocked to the county’s coastal areas. The order was to be re-evaluated every 14 days.
Despite the heavy tourism, the county is not seeing a surge in positive coronavirus cases traceable to the holiday weekend, given the disease’s incubation period of 5-6 days, Borenstein said.
In addition, the state has updated its guidelines related to best practices for hotels, and therefore the county is lifting the order, effective Friday.
Another county executive order, put in place March 26, banned visits to area hospitals and certain licensed residential facilities. The county has lifted that order, but it won’t change much because Tenet and Dignity hospitals having already reduced visits to one person per patient per day and Compass Health nursing facilities are asking all family members to avoid visitations.
But county nursing facilities continue to be especially dangerous for patients across the state, Borenstein said, with high rates of serious illness and fatalities. On Friday, the county put in place a new order continuing visitation restrictions at those locations.
San Luis Obispo County has had one death due to COVID-19, but officials have not identified that person as a nursing facility patient.
“We continue to emphasize that now is not the time for leisure travel and to remind potential visitors that the statewide order restricting non-essential travel remains in effect,” Borenstein said in a news release Friday. “The greatest public health vulnerability in our county is the spread of COVID-19 from other areas experiencing high rates of infection.”
The North County continues to see the highest concentration of COVID-19 cases.
On Friday, the county added three new cases after adding nine cases on Thursday — bringing the total number of local residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 since March to 291, according to ReadySLO.org. Of those, five individuals remain hospitalized, with three in intensive care.
Ninety percent of all SLO County cases have recovered, Borenstein said.
In addition, given a week’s worth of local protests against the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and racial injustice — including a rally of more than 3,000 people in San Luis Obispo Thursday — Borenstein said protests could be breeding grounds for the illness.
She recommended that demonstrators take precautions, such as wearing face coverings and social distancing.
Given the coronavirus’ person-to-person spread, Borenstein said singing, chanting, and even talking can spread the disease. Face coverings can prevent an infected person from spreading the illness to others, she said, and could provide some protection from contracting it.
