CDC warns of national rise in cases, but Bay Area is still dropping and counties are reopening - San Francisco Chronicle

The CDC warns of national rise in virus cases, but Bay Area is still dropping and counties are reopening.

The CDC warns of national rise in virus cases, but Bay Area is still dropping and counties are reopening.

The CDC warns of national rise in virus cases, but Bay Area is still dropping and counties are reopening.

The CDC warns of national rise in virus cases, but Bay Area is still dropping and counties are reopening.(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images).

The situation was brighter in California and the Bay Area, where cases and hospitalizations continue to fall and counties have begun easing public health restrictions.

Indoor dining has resumed in San Mateo and Marin counties in the Bay Area, and San Francisco and Santa Clara County officials have said they expect to enter the less restrictive red tier next week and plan to reopen indoor restaurants then.

Gavin Newsom said during a briefing Friday that eight more counties likely would move to the less restrictive red tier next week.

San Francisco public health officials said in a statement Friday that they would continue to closely monitor cases as they reopen parts of the economy, and that they expected some increases in numbers as more activities resume.

Santa Clara County officials said the benefits of partially reopening outweigh the risks at this point, with cases continuing to decrease.

George Rutherford, an infectious disease expert at UCSF, said that with case counts and other metrics still improving after the long winter surge, some reopening in the Bay Area is acceptable.

“What the state is proposing seems to be prudent and the Bay Area public health departments are going with it,” he said, noting three main factors are making people comfortable with the slow reopening: the vaccine, continued social distancing and mask-wearing, and naturally acquired immunity in hard-hit communities.

Counties base their plans to reopen on two weeks of data, which is part of the state’s strategy to ensure that cases are trending in the right direction, “so if this (leveling off) continues it’s going to make them pause and it should make them pause,” Swartzberg said.

More than half of cases in most California counties are now caused by a new homegrown variant, according to recent studies.

On Friday, state officials said they are working to consolidate vaccinations under a single state system.

Also starting Monday, California will offer counties a three-week preview of the number of vaccine doses they can expect, Newsom said