Face Coverings, Distancing Orders Rescinded In Riverside County

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — After nearly seven hours of public comments and discussion Friday, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to rescind county public health orders imposed amid coronavirus.

The rescinded orders previously executed by Riverside County Public Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser include: social distancing, face coverings, restrictions on golfers, and barring short-term rentals except as emergency shelter for vulnerable people.

The supervisors decided against rescinding an order mandating all schools stay closed through June 19. Instead, they amended it to include only K-12 schools. Vocational schools and higher education systems are no longer ordered closed by the county.

No other county health orders are in place.

The supervisors also agreed the county will "strongly recommend" residents and businesses follow a yet-to-be released "Principles For a Safe and Accelerated Reopening of Riverside County" outlined by Supervisor Kevin Jeffries that offers health guidelines and best practices amid COVID-19. The principles will not be mandated by the county.

With Friday's vote, the county no longer has orders more restrictive than those imposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The marathon board meeting was a continuation from Tuesday. Over the course of both days, more than 200 people turned out to publicly comment on the issue. Supervisor Jeffries said he received more than 600 emails.

Most of the public commenters were in favor of dropping the local health orders and many pushed to fully reopen the county, despite the governor's stay-home order.

Banning Mayor Daniela Andrade and Banning City Council Member Art Welch told the board their constituents are struggling.

"People are slipping close to collapse," Andrade said. "The city of Banning is seriously hurting."

Ninety percent of Banning's businesses are family owned, according to Welch. Ten have already "collapsed" during the shutdown, he said.

Kim Stellrecht, owner of Locals Public House eatery in Riverside, pleaded with supervisors to reopen the economy. Drive-up service for customers is not bringing nearly the income needed to make ends meet, she said. Stellrecht closed in-dining on March 17 and told the supervisors she is not getting a rent break.

"I'm watching my dreams flushed down the toilet," she said tearfully. "How do I survive?"

Many speakers asked the board to defy Gov. Gavin Newsom's stay-home order. Several unmasked commenters who were sporting patriotic T-shirts, caps and scarves, invoked religion, calling the governor's order an unconstitutional "lockdown."

Some speakers discounted modeling and data provided by Riverside University Health System-Public Health officials and said immunocompromised and elderly people should quarantine while "healthy" people return to "normal life."

Carlos Adame, of Murrieta's Adame Landscaping, pleaded that face masks are causing a health hardship for his 200-plus employees who are struggling to get oxygen while working in temperatures now approaching triple digits.

"It's very hard for them," he said.

At least one man who identified as a doctor and three people who said they were nurses expressed concern about the public face mask order, saying the practice is unhealthy and offers little to no protection against virus spread, especially by people who aren't trained on proper face mask use.

Kristie Sepulveda-Burchit, executive director of Educate Advocate, also pushed to lift the local health orders arguing masks cause more health harm than good.

Not everyone agreed. A 28-year-old caller said she was a COVID-19 survivor and is still ailing with respiratory problems. Tearful-sounding, the caller asked, "What is economic value without the value of human life?" Another caller said he attended a Zoom funeral Thursday for a COVID-19 patient. "It can change your universe," he said.

On the issue of school closures, Board Chairman V. Manuel Perez said he received a letter signed by all county school district superintendents and the Riverside County Office of Education urging the supervisors keep school closures in place "to buy time" so a countywide reopening plan can be implemented. The move suggests Kaiser will have flexibility to extend the order if needed.

Darrell Peeden, vice president of the Moreno Valley Unified School District board, was against rescinding the orders. He advocated for deferring to health experts, and called for the formation of a county education task force to ensure reopening of schools is done safely and in concert with health experts.

All the supervisors sympathized with the public speakers and said they are eager to reopen but are bound by state orders. They expressed disappointment at Newsom's phase 2 regional variance program that could allow counties to further expand reopening beyond what he allowed this week.

Although the regional variance criteria won't be fully detailed until Tuesday, the governor highlighted some of the key benchmarks the county would need to first achieve before an expanded reopening could take place: hospital capacity that can accommodate at least a 35% surge in COVID-19 cases; proper PPE and protections for hospital workers; no more than 1 COVID-19 case per 10,000 residents in the last 14 days; no COVID-19 deaths in the last 14 days; minimum daily testing of 1.5 people per 1,000 residents; at least 15 contact tracers per 100,000 residents; ability to temporarily house at least 15% of the county's homeless; proper protection for employees returning to work (protective gear, sick time); at least a 14-day supply of PPE at skilled nursing facilities; and the ability to tighten county restrictions if needed.

Perez called the governor's benchmarks unattainable.

"There is no way we can meet the threshold," he said.

The supervisors also signaled they may partner with neighboring counties to work toward a regional "phase 2.5" reopening that the governor might be more inclined to sign off on.