Napa County Forms COVID-19 Compliance Task Force Coalition

NAPA COUNTY, CA — Faced with an increasing number of coronavirus cases in Napa County, a COVID-19 Compliance Task Force Coalition has been established to ensure the public health and safety of the county's residents, employees and visitors.

The coalition is made up of Napa County, the cities of Napa, American Canyon, Calistoga and St. Helena, and the Town of Yountville.

"This is necessary to keep Napa County in good standing with the State of California and prevent the potential closure of our critical businesses, restaurants, tasting rooms and hospitality industries," Napa County Spokeswoman Elizabeth Scott said in a news release.

"The increase of COVID-19 cases statewide, and more importantly locally, require Napa County jurisdictions to undertake more aggressive actions to minimize the spread of COVID-19 via the Napa County COVID-19 Compliance Task Force Coalition, Scott said.

The total number of coronavirus cases confirmed since March in Napa County was 344 as of Thursday afternoon. The number of active cases was 199, with seven residents currently hospitalized for the virus and 29 who've required hospitalization since March. Four people have died from the virus in Napa County.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Department of Public Health announced Wednesday that 18 counties, including Solano County, were ordered to shut down bars and indoor operations at dine-in restaurants, wineries and tasting rooms, family entertainment centers, indoor movie theatres, indoor zoos and museums and cardrooms effective immediately, because the counties had an increase of hospitalizations for three or more consecutive days.

According to the state's County Monitoring List, one of the drivers of the increase in Solano County cases included a large outbreak among farmworkers in the vineyards in Sonoma and Napa who are residing in Solano.

The farmworker cases total many dozens over the past one to two weeks, California Department of Public Health officials said.

The total number of coronavirus cases in Solano County increased from 1,402 Wednesday to 1,476 on Thursday, with 40 people currently hospitalized.

Key action steps for Solano County, according to the state, include working with the neighboring counties and with vineyard management companies to implement social distancing measures; and educating the workers themselves (using Spanish interpreters) on social distancing measures.

In Napa County, the first mission of the COVID-19 Compliance Task Force Coalition is to achieve compliance through education, however, steps will be taken to ensure the public health and economic vitality of the respective communities.

Each Napa County jurisdiction has assigned staff to work with the county and monitor COVID-
19 complaints as they are received. Complaints are to be reviewed and addressed based on risk including but not limited to:

• Failure to maintain physical separation;
• Failure to wear face coverings; or
• Failure to comply with Jurisdictional Compliance Orders.

If a business fails to comply with a county or local jurisdiction directive, they are subject to civil and administrative penalties, up to and including fines, temporary restraining orders and revocation of use permits.

Compliance issues can be reported by sending an email to covid19compliance@countyofnapa.org.