Outdoor gatherings during which participants stay in their vehicles are now permitted in Contra Costa County.
The new order, which takes effect May 19, provides new options for religious organizations that have been unable to hold services since COVID-19 began spreading in the county, and for schools planning graduation ceremonies.
“The evidence suggests that the shelter-at-home order and other social distancing measures that we have undertaken as a community are helping to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our area,” Contra Costa Board of Supervisors Chair Candace Andersen said. “We must remain cautious, but the time has come for some controlled community gatherings.”
Gatherings permitted by the new order would take place in large, outdoor areas such as parking lots for three hours or less. Except for the host and staff running the gathering, participants would attend in enclosed vehicles – no motorcycles – with only members of the same household in each vehicle.
Each gathering must have a designated host, permission from the property owner and a written plan to ensure physical distancing and other safety requirements are followed. For gatherings larger than 10 vehicles, the host is required to provide security for traffic and safety purposes.
The order includes guidance for allowing participants to use on-site restrooms and transfer of items such as diplomas. Sale of food or concessions is not permitted, and attendees must wear face coverings if they roll down the windows.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha…
And we’ve reached a new low…
Oh how generous of them. Thank you so much! Wow. So stupid.
This is one of if not the craziest thing I have ever read. Do these people get paid to come up with this stuff?
@ bobfished yes, they do get paid …a lot and from our taxes! 🙂
What about if you don’t have a car ? It’s wrong that the some people can not participate. CCC needs to give everybody a car, like Oprah did.
And if you’re excited about this, there’s something seriously wrong with you.
Satire?
This is ridiculous!
Sounds like a perfect time to start up a IRL Rocket League
This is the most stupid thing I have ever heard. We are being held prisoners by the government. When will this nonsense end?
Ridiculous. Any given church gathering has more than 10 cars in the parking lot with no traffic direction. You people making this crap up are out of your freakin minds
I’ve already been doing vehicle based get togethers.
For church attendees is this going to be like a drive in movie experience?
Rediculous!!
The morons who came up with this should be ashamed!
Newsflash – there are already vehicle based gatherings everywhere. Just look at your local Home Depot, WalMart or Safeway parking lots. Crammed full of cars and people. It’s amazing the virus can’t infect people shopping for groceries or hardware but shopping for clothes or attending chuch is far too risky for such a smart virus.
How can this be better than just watching on line services?
This is so concerning and ridiculous at the same time. Umm, America anyone? Liberty? I’m great with speed limits, seatbelt laws, and wearing mask requirements. But when they can tell us which parking lots we can and can’t get out of our cars in? That is a scary amount of control we are just handing to them.
When Church/Religion (Ist Amendment) and gun stores (2nd Amendment) and not considered essential, and yet Marijuana stores and Abortion clinics (not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution) are considered ‘essential’, you just know that there are political motives and bias involved.
Our Church can legally seat 1,200 people in our Sanctuary and I bet we could easily seat 300-400 even with ‘social distancing’. If the same metric were used at Safeway or Home Depot there would be riots. Just saying.
@chuckie – They are using metrics for the retail stores. I believe it’s one person per thousand square feet of space. My local grocery store is 25,000 square feet including the non-public areas. I have not asked but assume they are allowing up to 25 customers to be in the store at the same time. People wait in line outside the store. When someone leaves the gatekeeper lets the next person into the store.
There are no riots about this. If your church will agree to the same model then go ahead and open. If anyone complains, the cops may come by and observe. Ideally, your church services are lived streamed so that those choosing to stay safe at home can participate.
@WC Resident, I’m not sure where you are getting the “one person per thousand square feet of space” info. We were in Concord Costco this morning and I can assure you no one was monitoring the door to limit the number of people inside. The parking lot was packed, the place was packed, and the lines were long. Impossible to “social distance” six feet in that environment.
WC Resident, you are making stuff up that is more reasonable than the actual SIP. There is no provision for churches to open with a low-density threshold. They are just told they can’t open, period.
Non-viral computer gremlins kicked me off line for a bit…
Google for “covid-19 California one person per thousand square feet” without the quote marks finds articles. Apparently many states are using that as the metric. While it seems like a good rule, I can’t find it being used by the state of California nor any counties/cities within California.
I know that at present church services other than drive-through are not allowed but also see that nobody is being arrested nor prosecuted for holding indoor services. That is why I suggested that churches can chose to hold service and suggested the one person per thousand square feet metric. Also, make it no-contact. You walk in and walk out without taking a seat and without touching anything other than the floor with the bottoms of your shoes. Ideally, conversations are held outdoors as the odds of getting infected drop dramatically.
I too have noticed that some stores have were not monitoring the doors at the times I was out and about and wondered if that was because they did not seem crowded enough at the time or if there were rule changes or attitude changes.
For the past few weeks the number of known active cases had held steady at roughly 125. Various studies have put the multiplier for known to unknown for COVID-19 at 50 to 84 or 87. Let’s use 100 and say there are an estimated 12,500 active cases in the county at the moment. The population is 1.1 million. 1.1 million divided by 12,500 is 88. Thus, I would expect one out every 88 people I meet to have an active case of COVID-19 and likely is contagious at that time. If two people chose break the social distance bubble the odds are 2 out of 88 or one in 44 that one of the two will be contagious at that time. If a group meets regularly please keep in mind that members will be getting infected at random. A group that’s safe today with no contagious members may not be safe tomorrow. Thus, you should plan for zero contact. Elbow bumps are not safe. Assume that handing out materials or supplies is not safe. No-contact means exactly that.
The last thing to keep in mind is that the chances for serious illness and death from COVID-19 are minimal for people under age 50. It’s okay for children to play together because the risk of serious illness or death are very low both for the children and their parents. However, for age 50 and above the numbers get increasingly worse with age. See this where I did the math.
Churches are a very important part of society. That’s why I encourage church related activity but also to structure them to be as safe as possible.
One last item is that the incubation time is 2 to 14 days and you are contagious for up to 10 days. The worst case is 24 days where the virus incubates for 14 days and you are then contagious for the full 10 days. If you do something that’s not safe but then restrict yourself to safe distancing/isolation for four weeks then it should be safe for you to have social contact with a person that’s also following the COVID-19 safety rules.
Correction on one set of numbers. I checked and the number of active cases is 169, not 125. Estimated active is 16,900 and we should presume that one in 65 people is contagious. If two people meet in a non-socially distanced way then the odds are 1 in 33 that one of them will be contagious.
What the heck are our county morons smoking? We could open curbside and start bringing sales tax revenue into local coffers, save a few more families from destitution… or we could do *this.*
Brilliant. Bravo.
Whatever they’re smoking I hope they got it at curbside or it was a “contact free” delivery.
Not that it would be necessary, but why does it need to end after three hours what happens after three hours? Does the virus start to seep out of our cars and threaten to infect others?
And the already cash strapped churches have to pay for security if it’s more than 10 cars… Does Home Depot have to do that too? I would hope it is acceptable to the powers that be for churches to have volunteers taking care of that?
And like most people I’m wondering the obvious… Why do we need permission for this? Scary. And I hate that they referred to it as “the new order”. Sends shivers down my spine.
right on
Anyone who attends church knows the church parking lot isn’t the safest place to maneuver a 2 ton vehicle. As Pop’s loved to say…”Christianity begins in the parking lot”. We’ve finally come full circle.
Maybe we will finally put more consideration into who we vote for for local office. For me, the problem has always been getting information. I end up voting for people I know nothing about.
One thing’s for sure: No more Karens. When it comes to weighing risk, there are distinct differences between men and women and as we’ve seen across the nation, the women prefer “safety” over freedom.
Most female mammals have a mothering instinct in their genes, this includes homo sapiens. Is this why they are more careful in life?
Is it why women are more emotional? Why do women scream?
I screamed when they extended the lockdown this last time. I think the why is pretty obvious lol
That’s why they don’t belong in politics and other positions of power. Way to emotional (confused, tired, grumpy, careless) to be making decisions half of the time..and they know it. It’s actually pretty selfish for them to want power knowing they don’t think well 2 out of 4 weeks every month. Always relying on men to help them to make good choices…and every one of them knows it, if they’re honest
Men need women more than women need men. And most men are willing to admit it.
@sam You forgot to add, they’re Republican women. Lolol
I’m talking all women. Thank god for republican women. No time for those blue hairs. Yes men need women that does not make them good at making important decisions and critical thinking. Some are but most are proving to be tyrants. We should probably consider cutting them of from voting again and never let them be judges, mayors, or governors. Yes that includes gavin newsom and eric garcetti
Is this how the owner of the gas station in the movie felt when Robocop thwarted the robbery but blew the place up?
Honk if you think CCC is stupid lol
I was on the CCC Covid Committee call yesterday. It was disturbing. Immediately after, Karen Mitchoff ratted out a local health club that was doing a great job of managing lap swim via reservation. They were taking great measures to distance and disinfect. Shut down their pool. What a tyrant. Dr. Farnitano ok’d the church gathering because he’s a religious man. He talked about how he was missing his congregation and services on the call. By the way, he was wearing a mask on the zoom call.. But he won’t allow any recreational activities with excellent distancing and disinfecting protocols. I hear the County Supervisors don’t even wear masks while practicing their goose stepping every morning. Time for a complete house cleaning of our elected officials and their duly appointed Field Marshals.
I would like to know which ones voted for this and which ones wanted more and fewer limits, respectively.
I said this in a previous post, but I’ll say it again. Contact these people and give then an earful. Again, you will most likely get a voice mail, but let them have it. I’ve certainly done my part.
https://www.contracosta.ca.gov/Directory.aspx?DID=238
My neighbor just had 4 cleaning ladies arrive at her house
Are they hot?
You really are quite emotional. Relax, it will all be over soon.
Let’s hope the county stops dragging their feet. Too many people are getting hurt. And they are starting to fight back.
Fox News interviewed Harmeet Dhillon last night. She is the founder of the Center for American Liberty (check out their web site) and she is currently suing Gavin Newsom for relief from oppressive restrictions, on behalf of hair salons (which are opening in other states), delayed surgeries, and other clueless acts of tyranny.
Contra Costa County and Santa Clara County are the most oppressive counties in California. And California is one of the most oppressive States in the nation.
My personal grudge? These clowns are killing more seniors they are saving. How? They are preventing most ill people (not just seniors) from seeing their doctors. FaceTime and Skype do nothing more than provide the illusion of health care. The illusion is wrong. And dangerous. Not only will more seniors die, but more doctors will simply have to close permanently, because they can’t pay their bills. And many hospitals may have to shut down as well.
These fools actually believe they are helping people?
Thank you for dumbing down your overstepping order!
I love how it is only now, with graduation season upon us, that they throw a bone (a very small, ridiculous one) to churches. Priorities!