Santa Cruz County on Tuesday moved back to the more restrictive Red Tier of the state’s Covid-19 reopening plan, meaning many businesses must once again reduce their services and the number of customers they can allow in.
According to Santa Cruz County Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel, the county on Sunday reported 109 new cases after days of averaging only 20 new cases per day.
“That’s a huge increase for us,” she said. “It’s a true spike.”
Santa Cruz County is one of 11 counties statewide that moved to a more restrictive tier, Newel said.
The news came two weeks after the mask wearing and other safety practices for at least one year, she said.
“That vaccine is only one part of a community strategy to keep Covid under control,” Hall said.
Marm Kilpatrick, a UCSC epidemiology professor, said that the spike could have been the result of the recent relaxation of restrictions, which could have caused people to relax their safety practices and subsequently led to a spike.
The increased numbers could also have come from the businesses reopening, Kilpatrick added.
One of the biggest challenges, he said, is the social awkwardness that comes from asking friends and family to wear a mask or practice social distancing protocol.
“You don’t want to be giving them the stiff-arm or pushing them off when you’re really excited to see them,” he said. “So I feel like there is a really giant need for some way, in a non-rejecting kind of way, to ask for that space or a mask or both, or to move the interaction to a safe place.”
