SAN FRANCISCO – Humboldt County on California’s North Coast was among the first in the state to get the governor's green light to open up restaurants and stores after a two-month statewide coronavirus lockdown.
With only about 50 cases confirmed in the whole month of April in the county of 130,000, many breathed a sigh of relief that they'd survived the worst of it.
Soon, though, county officials saw a worrisome trend: nearly 30 new cases in a two-week period and the first two deaths. That has prompted Humboldt County officials to take a more cautious approach to reopening, in what may be a harbinger of the “toggle switch" local officials are likely to negotiate as they emerge from the lockdown. “We have to recognize that due to some