County officials extend shelter-in-place order to May 3

Sonoma County health officials on Tuesday announced the extension of the county-wide shelter in place order through May 3.

The order, first issued by the county’s health officer, Dr. Sundari Mase, on March 17, was originally planned to last through April 7, but the continued spread of the coronavirus through California and the rest of the United States brought little surprise that Bay Area communities would continue their strict social-distancing policies deeper into spring. Earlier on Tuesday, state officials announced that schools were unlikely to reopen onsite classroom instruction for the remainder of the school year.

As with the original decree, county residents are ordered to shelter at their place of residence -- and allowed to leave only for essential activities, essential government functions or essential businesses. For a list of essential activities and essential business functions, and to view the order in its entirety, visit socoemergency.org.

The extension also tightens the reigns on several activities that had been allowed under the original order. Now prohibited are real-estate home showings, the use of hotels or vacation rentals (save for providing shelter to homeless), funeral gatherings of more than 10 people, and non-essential construction projects (allowed are affordable housing projects, public works projects and construction for healthcare or other critical projects).

Grocery stores are now required to adopt strict social distancing, hygiene and sanitation protocols.

Additionally, all public and private gatherings of any number of people occurring outside a household or living unit are prohibited, according to the order.

Last week, the county ordered the closure of all city, regional and state parks within the county.

As of March 31, there have been 85 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county, two of those have been children. So far, the county has reported one fatality due to coronavirus; on Tuesday, county officials announced that American Canyon resident Marylou Armer, a 43-year-old member of the Santa Rosa Police Department, had also died of complications from COVID-19.