Calaveras County Issues Local ‘Stay at Home’ order

Disc Golf basket

Calaveras County, CA – Calaveras County residents are being ordered to stay at home by their local health officer after reports of recent large gatherings.

Dr. Dean Kelaita says his office has received reports of people congregating at local golf courses and other outdoor venues. Kelaita details, “Things like golf courses and frisbee golf and that kind of stuff. So, we’re trying to go after some of that now because the routine volunteer recommendations in some cases haven’t been being followed.”

Noting that the balance differs between wanting people to get exercise outdoors and doing it in a group setting, Kelaita counsels that solitary activities are good, but group activities are prohibited. The order states that “all individuals living in Calaveras stay home, except as needed to maintain essential business and governmental operations.” It goes into immediate effect and remains in place until further notice.

Basically, Kelaita says his order summarizes Governor Newsom’s executive “stay at home” order as he notes there have been some discussions regarding what is “essential” in terms of businesses and gatherings in the community. The order lists and specifies what is “essential” to clear up any confusion and can be viewed, here.

Acknowledging that some of those essential businesses like groceries, pharmacies and other stores have also been found to be packed with people, Kelaita forewarns, “We will have to see what the experience of that is in the community if those businesses are able to institute some policies that protect especially those most vulnerable among us, fine. If not, then we may have to take a look at issuing more specific orders that might encourage them or even mandate them to do so.” That could include only allowing so many people in a business at a time.

The point of this order, maintains Kelaita, is to remove those places of mass gathering in the community where people would congregate in order to provide social distancing and community mitigations efforts all-around stopping the spread of COVID-19. Due to the county’s three positive coronavirus cases, he stresses, “This is something that we are concerned may start to accelerate and put a strain on our local hospital and medical facilities.”