Pinole, Hercules COVID-19 Cases Below County Rate

PINOLE-HERCULES, CA — Though Contra Costa County health officials have sounded the alarm about an uptick in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, the number of recently diagnosed cases in the cities of Pinole and Hercules were below the countywide rate.

Hercules has seen 18 new cases of the coronavirus in the past two weeks, while Pinole has had 16 new cases, county data show. That translates to 70.5 cases per 100,000 residents for Hercules in the last 14 days, and 82 cases per 100,000 residents for Pinole.

Countywide, there were 87.8 cases per 100,000 residents over the last 14 days.

Last Tuesday, Contra Costa entered the orange tier — the second-lowest tier of the state's color-coded, four-tiered reopening plan. But the average number of daily cases grew and 40 people were hospitalized due to COVID-19 on Monday. By Wednesday of this week, county officials had already enacted new restrictions and warned that Contra Costa could move back into the more-restrictive red tier next week.

Those restrictions go into effect Friday and include the prohibition of outdoor bars, and decreased indoor capacity at restaurants, religious services, movie theaters and more.

On Thursday, county health officials reported a daily case rate of 5.8 per 100,000, which is above the orange-tier benchmark of fewer than 4 per 100,000 people. As recently as Wednesday, the county reported a daily case rate of 4.9 per 100,000 people.

Health officials continue to stress that people wear masks, wash their hands and maintain six feet of distance from people who are not part of their household.

Patch editor Courtney Teague contributed to this report.