‘It’s just payback.’ Merced County leaders, residents react to being last purple tier county
Despite many Merced County restaurants opening to indoor dining in recent weeks or longer, Josie’s Mexican American Grill in Atwater has continued to only offer outside dining and takeout while the county has been in purple tier.
While manager Hugo Sanchez would love to be fully open, he and some businesses have decided to abide by the state’s COVID rules for reopening businesses — even though purple tier is the strictest.
“We want to follow the rules,” said manager Hugo Sanchez. “Really nobody on our street (Commerce Ave.) has opened their doors. (Pizza Factory), Applebees and the fast food places all aren’t allowing indoor dining. We don’t want to be the first ones.”
Sanchez and his family, which own Josie’s, learned Tuesday they’ll have to wait long to open their doors for indoor dining. That’s because Merced County on Tuesday was again relegated to the purple tier, denoting “widespread” transmission of COVID-19 in the community.
Under purple Tier 1, restaurants are limited to offering only outdoor dining or take-out/delivery service. Plus, businesses like gyms, movie theaters, museums and zoos are not allowed to operate indoors, among other restrictions.
With Inyo County promoted by the state to the red tier on Tuesday, Merced County remained the only county in the state still in the purple tier.
Still, Sanchez says he doesn’t blame other restaurants that are offering indoor dining. He says not everybody has a patio to use like they do.
Sanchez says the restaurant has cut back to five days a week and shortened their hours during the pandemic to help out.
“I know we won’t open to 100% but 25% will still help a lot,” Sanchez said. “When we were at 25% with our patio open we were back close to what we used to be. But when it’s windy or rainy, just doing carry out wasn’t sufficient.”
Unfair treatment by the state?
Earlier this month, Rebecca Nanyonjo-Kemp, director of Merced County public health, said a backlog on tests caused an inaccurate swelling of the COVID numbers, causing Merced County to remain in purple tier.
On April 5, Merced County reported 219 new COVID-19 cases from over that weekend. A week later on April 12, the county reported only 61 cases from over this past weekend. Nanyonjo-Kemp and county leaders say the data dump was the reason for the inflated number of cases reported on April 5.
“That we’re still in the purple tier is a little misleading,” said Merced Mayor Matt Serratto. “We had 61 new cases over the weekend compared to 219 last week. Eighty percent of those were from weeks before then. I feel we’re getting unfair treatment from the state.”
Nanyonjo-Kemp said the county submitted a letter to state health officials to make a correction.
County leaders claim Merced County should be placed in the red tier due to the clerical error.
“(Gov. Gavin Newsom) has proved he’s not here to help,” said Atwater Mayor Paul Creighton. “He just comes in here to discipline that’s why because of a numerical error we’re still in the purple tier. That should take two phone calls to clear that up.”
Atwater made news last year, after the City Council declared they were a “sanctuary city” for businesses to remain open — which was in conflict with the governor’s closure orders. That resulted in the state then sending a letter to Atwater leaders, saying COVID relief dollars would be withheld.
“It’s just payback for Atwater taking the position it did,” Creighton added. “We’re going to take care of our citizens. The state has been out of touch and not up to speed to the reality of the pandemic. Instead of focusing on us they are trying to get one last jab in on us.”
Merced County Supervisor Daron McDaniel says county officials have had a hard time making their argument to the right person on the state level.
“If you extrapolate the numbers over the period of time then we are in the red,” McDaniel said. “Merced County’s problem has been being able to talk to somebody who can make that decision. The state is just reporting the numbers and moving on. I feel like there is a disconnect between the (Merced County) Department of Public Health and the Governor’s Office. Either that or there is some animosity with the state toward Merced County.”
What do we do now?
Creighton says Atwater has been open since May and that isn’t going to change.
“Restaurants are going to do what they have to do to survive,” he said. “We here in Atwater — our businesses and restaurants — are going to go about our business. We know how to stay healthy. All these colored tiers should have gone away a long time ago.”
It’s not hard to find restaurants in Merced that are allowing dine-in options either.
“I think we need to follow the rules in general,” Serratto said. “I support following the law, even if you disagree with it.”
Still, Serratto says he understands business owners and residents are frustrated.
“People feel like their livelihoods and businesses are at stake,” Serratto said. “These are what they dreamed of and worked for and now it’s at stake. Secondly, I think people are frustrated because California has some of the strictest measures in the country and they feel some of these measures are unnecessary. They feel we can be safe with our choices, we can be safe in restaurants.”
“They’re beyond fed up,” Creighton added. “You can go anywhere in the United States, and 80% of them are wide open. It’s normal everywhere except in California. People are smart. They can take care of themselves. That’s why (Gov. Newsom) is going to get recalled.”
Serratto says the best way for Merced to continue moving forward is following the safety guidelines and continue vaccination efforts.
“We have to continue do our best to follow the social distancing guidelines and protocols,” Serratto said. “We need to continue are vaccination efforts. That’s the No. 1 thing that is going to stop this. The City of Merced has been aggressive in our vaccination efforts, hosting clinics, handing out close to 2,500 shots per week.”
McDaniel says Merced County is allowing people to make their own choices.
“We’ve moved to a place where people can make a choice for themselves and judge what is safe for them instead of the government doing it for them anymore,” he said.
Merced reports one death
The Merced County Department of Public Health reported one new COVID-19 related death on Wednesday afternoon, raising the total of fatalities to 449 since the start of the pandemic.
Merced County also reported 35 new COVID-19 confirmed cases on Wednesday, bringing the total of residents infected with the virus to 31,105 since the start of the pandemic.
There are 547 residents who are estimated to be currently infected by the virus.
The number of residents hospitalized in Merced County due to the coronavirus is seven — with two people in the ICU.
According to the state, Merced County hospitals had 12 ICU beds remaining as of Wednesday.
Merced County has a positivity rate of 4.2%, indicating the level of people among those tested who had a positive result.
This story was originally published April 13, 2021 at 5:44 PM.
