By Mike Hazlip–
Supervisor Sue Frost, who represents Citrus Heights and neighboring areas on the county Board of Supervisors, announced her support this week for reopening areas of the state by zip code — rather than county-by-county.
In an open letter Wednesday to Gov. Gavin Newsom and Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly, Frost and other elected officials called for a more flexible approach to the reopening guidelines. Frost joined Folsom Mayor Sarah Aquino, Sen. Brian Dahle, and Assemblyman Kevin Kiley in asking state officials to consider the plan.
“We write to you today to urge you to adopt a more flexible and real world approach to reopening the State of California,” the letter reads. “Specifically, we request that you allow county health departments to authorize the reopening of communities by zip code in areas where COVID-19 metrics meet the state’s requirements for progressing to the next color-coded tier.”
The letter calls for a plan similar to New York state’s Cluster Action Initiative. The New York plan focuses on areas with higher positivity rates called “clusters” and uses a color coded system to show areas with higher COVID-19 rates.
Proponents say a reopening approach using zip code-level COVID-19 metrics will allow businesses to open in communities where positivity rates are lower than the rest of the county. They say businesses in the city of Folsom, in Sacramento County, are losing customers to near by El Dorado Hills, which is in El Dorado County.
Frost’s office said Thursday that a response from the governor to the letter had not been received by the supervisor. The letter was sent Tuesday, Oct. 6.
Fox 40 reported Wednesday that a response to the call for zip code-level reopenings had been received from the California Department of Public Health, which said the department is “taking a slow and stringent approach” with an eye on the start of another flu season.
Read the full letter online: click here
Supervisor Sue Frost, who represents Citrus Heights and neighboring areas on the county Board of Supervisors, announced her support this week for reopening areas of the state by zip code -- rather than county-by-county.
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