Merced-area businesses face more COVID-19 restrictions, as county reverts to purple tier

Businesses across Merced County on Tuesday felt the impacts of the latest novel coronavirus surge, as the strictest set of state-mandated closures went into effect locally and across most of the state.

Merced and 40 other counties backslid on Monday into the most restrictive of the four reopening tiers, labeled “purple” and defined as having widespread risk of virus transmission, due to rocketing COVID-19 cases statewide.

Restaurants, churches, gyms and other businesses that had been allowed to open their doors with limited capacity were given 24 hours to revert to outdoor-only and modified operations, like take-out orders.

While the stringent mandates are now familiar to business owners, the latest wave of limitations were met with a renewed sense of concern leading into the colder months ahead.

“We’ve already kind of been in this spot before, but we’re facing a new challenge now being the weather,” said Drew Williams, owner of Destino’s in downtown Merced. “It was easier to sit outside when it was warmer. Unfortunately that’s going to change things quite a bit, people aren’t going to want to sit outside to dine.”

While tents and outdoor heaters could help promote outdoor business, Williams said the extra cost of purchasing such amenities when times are already financially difficult is a tough call to make. The business is still working out how to operate moving forward in terms of balancing takeout and outdoor dining, Williams said.

Restaurants aren’t the only businesses feeling pressure. “Its gotten a little scary,” said Tawni Vargas, manager of downtown Merced’s A Blooming Affair Floral and Gifts. “People are afraid to come out.”

At A Blooming Affair, employees have begun offering virtual video shopping for customers with concerns about coming to the brick and mortar business.

“We’re having to adapt, and its been quite a challenge but something we’re all figuring out how to do,” Vargas said.

Under the purple tier restrictions, schools that already resumed in-person instruction may continue, but districts that have not reopened must obtain a waiver approved by the Merced County Public Health. Only grades K-6 are eligible to reopen via an approved waiver.

Latest COVID-19 data reflects increased spread

Two more Merced County residents have died due to COVID-19, the Merced County Department of Public Health reported Tuesday.

The new deaths brought the total number of Merced County deaths reported this week to five. Since the pandemic’s beginning, 174 known resident fatalities have been traced to COVID-19.

One of the most recently deceased residents was female and one was male, according to County Public Health. Both were age 65 or older. One of the deceased had underlying health conditions prior to death. The health status of the other is unknown.

Three more locations were also added to the list of active coronavirus outbreaks on Tuesday, raising it to 19. Buhach Colony High School in Atwater, California Psychiatric Transitions in Delhi and Merced Nursing and Rehab in Merced are now considered to have active outbreaks.

Outbreaks are defined as at least three laboratory confirmed cases linked to a workplace facility within a two weeks. The exception is skilled nursing facilities, where just one positive case constitutes an outbreak on account of the high risk environment.

Outbreaks are closed and removed from the list when no further cases are confirmed at the facility for two weeks. No locations were removed from the list on Tuesday.

With 110 new COVID-19 cases reported Tuesday, the daily count reached its highest point since Aug. 18. The additional positive test results increased the total number of known infections to 10,662.

Of those total cases, infections presumed to be active leaped significantly to 843 from 773 on Monday. Active cases have not tallied so high since Sept. 4.

Active cases are estimated based off the number of laboratory confirmed tests over the past two weeks.

The rising number of positive tests is also noted by the county’s increasing testing positivity, which indicates the percentage of residents screened for the virus within the last week whose results return positive.

As of Tuesday, testing positivity was 6.1% in Merced County. One week ago, it was 4.8%.

Testing positivity is one of several metrics used by the state to categorize counties into reopening tiers. Generally, lower testing positivity indicates that more sectors of a county’s local economy may open.

Statewide testing positivity was 5.2% as of Monday.

While active hospitalizations of county residents remained stable at 39 on Tuesday, the number of residents having ever been hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased by two patients to 742.

What businesses and activities are open under the purple tier?

Here is a list of businesses and activities still permitted in purple tier counties. The state’s face-covering mandate applies for all of them, with very limited exceptions.

• Nail salons, tattoo parlors, piercing shops, estheticians and other similar businesses can remain open with modifications that include vigorous sanitation standards.
• Hair salons and barbershops can continue to cut, style and color hair.
• Outdoor-based entertainment venues, such as mini golf or go-karts, can remain open.
• Professional sports may continue to play with no fans in the stands.
• Restaurants’ outdoor dining areas may remain open, and fast food establishments can keep drive-thrus open. Bars, breweries and distilleries that do not serve meals must remain closed.
• Outdoor museums and zoos may remain open.
• Critical infrastructure, like grocery stores, gas stations and banks, remain open as they have throughout California’s stay-at-home order.

This story was originally published November 17, 2020 at 5:55 PM.