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Four new COVID-19 cases were reported to Public Health on Tuesday, bringing Del Norte County’s total number of confirmed cases to 104.

Coupled with a cluster of positive cases associated with staff at Pelican Bay State Prison reported last month, Del Norte County Public Health Officer Dr. Warren Rehwaldt said the community will likely see more disease activity as the summer wears on.

However, Rehwaldt and other Northern California public health officers sent a letter to state health officials asking for a more regional approach to instituting safety measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’ve always had the power to make things more strict than the state and we might have to do that depending on disease activity,” Rehwaldt told the Wild Rivers Outpost on Wednesday. “A lot of it has to do with the impact on the hospital.”

Rehwaldt said the letter included signatures from Humboldt County Public Health Officer Dr. Teresa Frankovich and their colleagues from Shasta, Lake, Mendocino and Modoc counties. He said he expects the state to respond to their letter, though that hasn’t happened yet.

Del Norte’s four new cases reported Tuesday brings the total number of active novel coronavirus cases to 13.

One person is in the hospital with COVID-19 symptoms. Another who is positive for the novel coronavirus has been hospitalized for reasons unrelated to the disease, according to the Public Health Branch.

There have been a total of 104 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Del Norte County since April.

According to Rehwaldt, the primary metric he uses to decide whether to slacken or tighten safety measures in response to COVID-19 is how it impacts Sutter Coast Hospital. He said he used this metric when he submitted a request to the California Department of Public Health in May to allow Del Norte to move through its reopening process faster.

“It’s a very clear day-to-day reflection of the impact on the community,” Rehwaldt said of hospitalizations. “How many cases do you have in the hospital? Are more people showing up needing hospital care? Those are things we decided we would watch for more than anything else.”

After positive cases surged statewide, California Governor Gavin Newsom on July 14 ordered restaurants to close their indoor dining rooms. Movie theaters, family entertainment venues, zoos, museums and card rooms statewide were also forced to close their doors again, according to the state's COVID-19 webpage.

In Del Norte County, Crescent City Cinemas closed their doors again. Restaurants went back to outdoor seating. And bars, which had been scheduled to open July 24, were required to stay shuttered.

Rehwaldt, who as a local public health officer can impose orders that are more restrictive than the state’s, said a case-by-case approach may be a better method for strengthening and relaxing safety measures in Del Norte County.

“If case investigation showed that a restaurant had some outbreaks — employees weren’t wearing masks — we would target the guilty party, so-to-speak,” he said, adding that he may ask the restaurant to close temporarily and train their staff. “If we’re seeing multiple cases from multiple restaurants, we need to back off on indoor dining. Rather than take the kind of across-the-board approach of shutting everything down, (it could be) a little more focused (or) strategic.”

Rehwaldt noted that one-size-fits-all hasn’t worked for everyone, particularly Northern California.

Meanwhile, the Public Health Branch is asking the community to minimize gatherings, re-think travel plans outside the area, continue to social distance and wear face coverings.

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