Health Officer Issues Blanket Orders for COVID-19 Positive Individuals to Isolate and Quarantine

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The Health Officer has issued Blanket Health Orders today for residents who have been diagnosed or suspected by their health care provider to have coronavirus (COVID-19), including those who are awaiting test results, to isolate at home or another residence at the direction of their healthcare provider.  The Order also states that these individuals must also tell their close contacts to quarantine themselves.

Individualized legal orders to isolate and quarantine due to COVID-19 were previously issued from the under the Health Officer’s authority to limit the spread of communicable disease.

“To get the full benefit of the shelter-in-place order and truly flatten the curve, it is critical for all residents to fully comply with these Orders and protect public health,” said Board of Supervisors Chair Susan Gorin. “Thank you to so many of our community members who are doing their part to stop the spread by staying home.”

The new Blanket Orders replace these individual orders and apply to all persons with COVID-19 or suspected COVID-19 in Sonoma County and their close contacts. With the Blanket Orders in place, healthcare providers and testifying facilities are requested to issue Blanket Isolation Orders to anyone diagnosed with COVID-19 or suspected to have COVID-19. Individuals who become subject to an isolation order are required to tell their close contacts that they need to quarantine themselves, subject to the Blanket Quarantine Order.

Isolation is a critical component of reducing the spread of COVID-19 by separating sick people with a contagious disease from people who are not sick. Quarantine separates and restricts the movement of people who were exposed to a contagious disease to see if they become sick.

Close contacts to persons with COVID-19 are defined as individuals who:

• Live in or have stayed at the case’s residence or
• Are intimate sexual partner(s) of the case
• Provide or provided care to the case without wearing a mask, gown, and gloves.
• Are determined, by the County disease control program through contact tracing as requiring quarantine.
• And, this contact occurred while the case was determined to be infectious. A case is infectious from 48 hours before their symptoms began and until they are released from isolation.

As the number of positive cases grows in Sonoma County, having these Blanket Orders in place will support Sonoma County Public Health Disease Control’s containment work and reinforce the critical importance of isolation and quarantine of potentially infectious individuals.

Health care providers and commercial labs that conduct COVID-19 testing are still required to report positive results to the Sonoma County Department of Health Services (DHS), which will continue to monitor these individuals and their close contacts for symptoms and compliance with the orders.

If someone tests positive, their health care provider will instruct them on isolation and provide guidance to share with close contacts who must quarantine. 

“If a person is found to have COVID-19 their health care provider will tell them to isolate and provide guidance to share with anyone who has been in close contact with that person” said Dr. Sundari Mase, Sonoma County Health Officer. “Both categories of individuals should follow these Orders. Those with COVID-19 are to isolate, and those who have had contact with a COVID-19 case to quarantine.”

Public Health Disease Control will follow up with individual to ensure they are following the Orders.

To review the Health Officer’s Blanket Quarantine Order in full, detailed instructions about isolation and quarantine that individuals will receive and updated COVID-19 information and resources, visit SoCoEmergency.org