Fueled by omicron, coronavirus surge upends Sonoma County, Petaluma

Sports and entertainment events have been canceled, hospital resources are strained and businesses are once again on the brink of collapse as another wave of COVID-19 washes over Sonoma County in the wake of another holiday season.

The latest surge, fueled by the highly infectious omicron variant of the coronavirus, has also shuttered Petaluma government offices and sent schools scrambling to keep in-person learning in place as districts grapple with decimated attendance lists for students and teachers alike.

Amid the backdrop of another dark winter surge in cases, albeit one in which the majority of residents are vaccinated and the latest variant proves slightly less deadly, Sonoma County Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase has once again asked residents to hunker down.

The 11th public order issued by Mase since the start of the coronavirus pandemic was both entirely expected and utterly disheartening.

Order C19-35, which prohibits large gatherings throughout the county and asks citizens to cancel or postpone even smaller get-togethers for the next month, was a reminder that we are nowhere close to emerging from the darkness of COVID-19.

In fact, despite the widespread availability in this country of vaccines that have proved to be highly effective in limiting the worst effects of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it sometimes feels like we’re as lost as ever.

“It’s strained resources,” said Gary Callahan, who is serving as interim Petaluma City Schools superintendent while Superintendent Matthew Harris is on paternity leave. “We’re at a point now where we’ve had some days where we’ve exhausted our sub pool.”

Throughout much of the pandemic, the county has typically issued such public health orders in concert with other Bay Area counties, but this time it acted unilaterally in the face of the alarming spike in cases.

The transmission rate in Sonoma County as of Tuesday was 153.6 new cases per 100,000 people, the highest recorded during a crisis that is now 22 months old. And the skyrocketing caseload has threatened to overwhelm local hospitals, officials say.

The new health order was revealed late Monday, along with a videotaped appeal on YouTube from Mase, the county’s health officer. Mase asked local pandemic-weary residents to stay the course.

“While we may be done with COVID, COVID is not done with us,” Mase said. “Due to the omicron variant, our case rate has never been higher and our hospitalizations are beginning to climb.”

Despite the grim numbers, the reaction to Mase’s newest order, as gauged by a handful of random interviews on the street, is mixed.

“People who are gonna listen to that have already been doing that,” Brad Barmore, co-owner of KINSmoke restaurant on the Healdsburg Plaza, said Tuesday. “Others are probably gonna have parties out of spite. I hate to say it like that. But that’s the way it has been weaponized.”

On Monday, the city of Petaluma closed a variety of government offices to the public, citing the rising caseload and a desire to keep staff and residents safe. The move by the county’s second-largest city, which pre-empted the public health order, was met with a similar mix of celebration and derision.

The county order, which took effect at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, prohibits large public gatherings indoors of more than 50 people, as well as outdoor gatherings of more than 100. County school officials said the order will limit spectator attendance to some school activities, such as athletic events and arts performances, but it does not apply to normal classroom or recess activities.

The Sonoma County ban on large gatherings means that rivalry basketball games between Casa Grande and Petaluma will be played in an almost empty Petaluma High School gymnasium.

The games, scheduled for this week, traditionally attract large and enthusiastic crowds, with the boys game often filling gyms to capacity.

Both boys and girls are scheduled to play again later in the season at Casa Grande, the boys on Feb. 1 and the girls on Feb. 2.

COVID-19 restrictions have already scrambled local sporting events, with every varsity team in every winter sport having at least one game or event postponed. Most teams have played one or more games with incomplete teams as players quarantined due to positive tests.

After the surging virus marred basketball teams’ season openers in the first week of January, Petaluma High School Athletic Director Ray McClintock warned things could get worse.

“I have a feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg of what we are going to see in the next couple of weeks,” McClintock said.

The virus is coursing through Sonoma County schools, pushing the average absence rate to more than 10%, county Superintendent Steve Herrington said in a Tuesday phone interview.

In Petaluma, the numbers are more striking.

During the district’s first two weeks back, more than 15% of students missed school, on average, a 300% increase for the county’s second largest district, according to data provided Tuesday night during the Petaluma City Schools Board of Education meeting.

Teacher absences, too, are climbing, rising by 64% in the first two weeks of the spring semester compared to the week before winter break, district officials said.

Within the 7,130-student district, some classrooms have become veritable ghost towns, parents and educators say.

“It’s not a curve, it’s a vertical line straight up,” said parent Mitch Haydon, describing the increasing cases during the Tuesday meeting.

Even before students returned to school, Petaluma City Schools had doled out thousands of rapid tests, keeping at least 250 coronavirus-positive students from attending classes and potentially infecting others, said Callahan, the interim superintendent, in a phone interview Tuesday.

The California Department of Public Health sent the tests to districts in all 58 counties after securing the supplies from the federal government. Herrington said he also expected the state to quickly issue a 10-day supply of so-called PK-95 masks during the “high incubation period from winter break,” to help better prevent in-school transmission.

Local health officials have also urged residents to sign up for vaccinations, including booster shots. To date, just 43.8% of children ages 5-17 have been fully vaccinated, including 22.3% in the 5-11 age group, according to the Sonoma County Office of Education.

Countywide, about 73% of residents have been fully vaccinated, and nearly 180,000 of the county’s 500,000 residents have received booster shots.

Aside from limiting large gatherings in general, the order also specifies that gatherings of individuals who are at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19 must be limited to no more than 12 people, except for family gatherings.

Under the new order, a gathering is defined as any public or private event that brings people together in a single room or single space at the same time. This includes in an auditorium, gymnasium, stadium, arena, large conference room, wedding venue, meeting hall, or any other indoor or outdoor space.

Such gatherings may have either assigned or unassigned seating, and may be either general admission or gated, ticketed and permitted events, officials said.

Although the order doesn’t apply to indoor dining at many businesses, including restaurants, those companies aren’t immune from the impacts of the rising COVID-19 caseload. A host of local restaurants, already strained with low staffing levels, have been forced to close for days or weeks as sick staff members quarantine.

“Everyone is hearing the same thing. One of the hardest things for businesses right now is finding enough help to be open,” said Onita Pellegrini, Petaluma Area Chamber of Commerce CEO. “People are out with it, or exposed to it. It’s hard to know how much food to order. You have no idea, day-to-day, what’s going to happen. We’re all getting extremely exhausted from fighting this battle.”

Mase and others in public health have frequently talked of “COVID fatigue.” Social distancing and masking once seemed new and disorienting. Now they’re second nature, but more despised than ever as SARS-CoV-2 approaches its second birthday.

Even those who fully appreciate the county health mandates admit to a certain weariness as the nation plunges into another surge, this one driven by the uber-transmissible omicron variant.

“I kind of feel like we’ll all come down with it,” Carol Fuller told The Press Democrat as she loaded her car with Costco groceries in Santa Rosa. “It’s so widespread.”

The order exempts workplace settings, courthouse activities, places of worship, cafeterias, or any venue that is open to the public as part of regular operations, including shopping malls, stores, restaurants and museums.

The order does apply, however, to performing arts venues.

A sold-out performance by Cedric the Entertainer scheduled this weekend at Graton Casino and Resort has been rescheduled for March, and at the 1,600 seat Luther Burbank Center, officials were working to notify patrons and cancel or reschedule 10 large-scale events that had been scheduled for the coming month.

In Petaluma, the health order has prompted a fresh flurry of emergency actions by theaters, music promoters and events planners, including outright cancellations, postponements and, in a few cases, downsizing planned performances.

“This is our last weekend of ‘Cyrano,’” said Diane Dragone, Executive Director of Cinnabar Theater, who plans to cut audience numbers off at 40 for the weekend’s three remaining shows, in addition to requiring masks and proof of vaccination.

Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park has canceled its youth production of “The Little Mermaid” that was set to open on Jan. 21, and has postponed its revival of “The Music Man,” originally expected to open on Feb. 11, until next October. In Santa Rosa, 6th Street Playhouse’s “The Legend of Georgia McBride,” directed by Petaluma’s Carl Jordan and already postponed one weekend, has been moved to a Feb. 17 start, after the 30-day window has lapsed.

The Petaluma Arts Center canceled this weekend’s artist reception for its new exhibition, though will allow small groups of up to 10 vaccinated visitors to view the show on weekends. Its popular Idea Lounge conversation series, which was to have returned on Jan. 26 at Barber Lee Spirits, has been canceled along with planned drawing classes and painting workshops.

“This is all so hard on little arts organizations, like ours” said Dragone. “But at least we’ve had some practice now, so it’s not as much of panic as it was in 2020. We’ve been through this once, right? And now we’re better prepared, though how long we can keep doing this, who knows?”

Argus-Courier staff writer Amelia Parreira, as well as Press Democrat staff writers Phil Barber, Martin Espinoza, Kaylee Tornay, Mya Constantino and Dan Taylor contributed to this report.