05.25.20 COVID-19 Briefing Live Stream Transcript

The County of Santa Clara
May 25, 2020
Live Stream - Daily Briefing
10pm PT
COVID-19: Q&A About the New Health Order

David Campos: Good morning my name is David Campos I'm a deputy county executive for the County of Santa Clara and I have the honor of serving as the public information officer for the county's Emergency Operations Center.

DC: I'm here with James R Williams who serves as the County Council for the County of Santa Clara and also is serving as a director of the Emergency Operations Center. A couple of notes first of all, we were wearing face coverings before we Started this Facebook live. But we wanted to make sure that our ASL interpreter could actually interpret for American Sign Language. And that's why we're not covering our faces right now. But we will be doing that once this segment is over. The second thing that I note is that today is Memorial Day and so we want to wish everyone a happy Memorial Day and we especially want to acknowledge the sacrifices of the men and women who have you know made the biggest sacrifice. And who have given their lives to this country so in memory of those individuals I'm just going to ask for a brief moment of silence so that we take an opportunity to remember them and their sacrifice. Thank you very much.

DC: Let me begin by reporting the number of cases that we had as of yesterday afternoon May 24th. We had two thousand six hundred and seventeen cases reported in the county, prayers go out to the families of those who died because of this pandemic. And happy to report that there were zero deaths reported as of yesterday afternoon in new deaths. So I'm here with James Williams who as County Council works closely with the public health officer for the county of Santa Clara Dr. Cody, and actually other public health officers where you've had seven public health officers in the Bay Area that have stuck together by and large to issue a single or uniform health order that governs what happens in the Bay Area.

DC: So, James there was a new health order or a revised health order that was issued on Friday of last week. Actually was issued earlier last week. But it took effect, I think 12:01 a.m. on Friday.

James R. Williams: Yes

DC: the 22nd. Can you tell us more about what that revised order does for viewers who may be asking what's different about what happened on Friday?

JRW: Absolutely, and I know there's a lot of changes going on at the state level and elsewhere.

And you know we did have a change in the county order that took effect on Friday. That order did open up some new categories of activities. But I wanted to just start by kind of outlining a bit of the framework under which we're operating because I think that'll help clear up some of the confusion that maybe has been out there. And that first kind of critical piece is that you know we do have to operate within the framework of the state order. So we have a local county order and whichever is stricter is the order that controls. But we can't be looser than the state order because of that. And so as the state has allowed certain categories of things. Those are the categories that local health officers can kind of look at. And allow opening based on local conditions and based on the exercise of their judgment. And so on Friday we did have curbside retail and manufacturing and logistics open up along with some other activities. And that's good news we're making some positive progress. The adherence to the shelter in place in this county and community has been just phenomenal. And we've really been a leader but it's still a framework of shelter in place and so I think it's important for people not to forget that. It's still the same overall basic framework even as we are now in a phase where we're gradually carefully and thoughtfully opening different categories of activities.

DC: so let's talk a little bit about some of those changes. So curbside retail. What does that mean? I know that some folks may be confused about you know whether or not the rules would allow someone to actually go inside a store. How does that work?

JRW: Yes, a curbside retail means that the entire transactions occurring outdoors. So storefront or curbside doesn't literally have to be you know sidewalk adjacent to a street. It could be a pedestrian walkway or an alley or something like that. But the entire transaction needs to be outdoors and in fact folks are strongly encouraged where possible to you know to have placed the order made the payment in advance and come just for the pickup. But it is not for customers to enter inside the store. That being said, there you know it does open up pretty much all categories of retail and also associated manufacturing and logistics and we also have rules to help employees stay safe in those working environments. Including making sure that they're able to maintain effective social distancing.

DC: So let's talk a little bit more about those specifics. So if you are a customer who wants to take advantage of the loosening up of curbside retail. Are there things that you have to do if you're picking up an item if you're if you
order an item online or on the phone?

JRW: Yeah, there are a couple of really important things. So actually with the order before this most recent iteration, Face masking in any business facility whether you're an employee or a customer or visitor is mandatory in Santa Clara County And that's something that's really important for people to practice adhere to. It needs to become our new social norm quite frankly. That we are all wearing face masks face coverings when we are in a business even if it's an outdoor business. So that's one really critical piece, The other is that you know we have updated our social distancing protocols. And in fact have made them kind of colorful and clearer to understand we've got a new COVID-19 prepared sign. This should be in the window of every single business that is open Along with a visitor information summary that should also be adjacent to that sign in every, every single facility that is open in the county. That, that applies not just to these new curbside businesses that have opened up but all the essential businesses, all the other facilities that have been open. And the details of the protocol itself also have been updated to reflect the latest guidance and best practices from the state. Which has issued sector specific guidance on helping to keep employees and customers safe but also the best and latest thinking from our public health officials on how we can safely open up activities, open up the economy, open up things that we all care about very much and very deeply. And do so in as safe a manner as possible. And our collective ability to be rigorous about these protocols be rigorous about maintaining a lower, number of people in a facility maintaining social distancing, maintaining good hygiene, maintaining face coverings, and other such considerations. How we do in those areas will really be the key to how we can actually be able to open even more things up and be able to move forward as a community.

DC: So does that mean that if you're visiting a business that is engaging in curbside retail that every business you visit has to have that sign?

JRW: yes

DC: And and what happens if they don't?

JRW: Well it is mandatory under the order. You know we will be encouraging businesses to you know many of them have the older protocol which has been updated and those are already you know they're we're encouraging them to make this update. They need to do it. But we want to see that because there are some new best practices incorporated here. And you know we will be continuing to push on outreach as well as work with our partners if necessary on enforcement. But you know this community has been phenomenal and you know we're confident that people will take this with the seriousness that it deserves.

DC: And I know that we're working closely with the business community to make sure this information is provided.

JRW: Yes

DC: All the businesses including the small businesses in the county. So you mentioned earlier that there were some new allowances for outdoor activity. So can you talk a little little bit about what those you know new allowances would be what else is allowed under the revised order?

JRW: Sure, so earlier we in Santa Clara County had already opened up outdoor businesses and many outdoor activities and some new ones were added on Friday as well. Outdoor museums, historical sites, and publicly accessible Gardens for example. So there are some facilities that you know they have an indoor and outdoor component where there is you know outdoor garden or something like that and the outdoor part of that facility is now able to reopen. So that is broader than some of the outdoor activities that were allowed before the weather is gorgeous we know it's gonna be very hot this week people should stay safe and stay cool. But you know we do want to make sure that people can do as many things as we can safely do at this time.

DC: Now I know that we have gotten questions about the issue of car parades can you say you know what is the rule now with respect to car parades?

JRW: Yeah, so we did get a lot of inquiries on this and car parades were expressly added as an allowable activity under the order. You know there can't be gatherings and there can't be places where people are then getting out of vehicles and mixing because you know a mass gathering is something of considerable concern as we're seeing from other examples elsewhere in the country. But, but car parades are now allowable and it really had to do with you know the framework under the old order around what kind of travel was allowed. What kind of travel was essential so that's been updated and we definitely heard folks who wanted to have the opportunity to do that activity. And you know staying in your vehicle while doing so does allow it to occur in a safe manner.

DC: I mean we know that we got a lot of inquiries about that. So I'm sure that a lot of people are happy to hear that. Now one of the challenges that we have is that you have seven jurisdictions you have a health order in each one of them even though they're
they're more or less the same. You also have the state order.

JRW: Yes

DC: And so I know that there has been an effort to align orders you know between the local order and the state order. Can you talk a little bit more about that and any big change that you want to identify for folks?

JRW: Yeah so the state order sets kind of the baseline. It sets a floor for us to operate from. And local health officers can make modifications from that floor. In the Bay Area we've worked really hard to try to move as collectively as we can. But you know but
there are local differences in each County does is a little bit different in what things look like regarding the spread of the disease. And things are a little different in you know, in terms of you know what the environment is like. And so we have, there
are certain things that are tailored but one piece that did come into alignment you know the state order has no end date. It never has and so one of the changes that all the Bay Area health officers did make last week was to remove the end date in order to align with that state order which is continuing in effect. We're closely monitoring what's happening there and what's happening elsewhere. Work very closely looking at the data. I know our health officer looks at that information. She looks at it every day and we'll continue to follow that. And I'm confident that she'll continue to be making you know data-driven decisions based on conditions here in Santa Clara County.

DC: And sort of one last question in terms of how these decisions are made we have spoken in the past about the indicators right so what role do the indicators have in all of this?

JRW: Yeah, so that you know we have that information on the website about the indicators that the Bay Area health officers collectively developed. But they're not, they're not triggers and what I can. Let me Explain that for a moment. These are a
set of things that the health officers are looking at to really gauge. Okay where are we in the trajectory of this disease and how are we doing and what are some of the tools and systems and things that we need to have in place. But it's not like a light switch that goes on and off and one day we're you know boom the switch goes on and everything's back to how it was before COVID showed up. And that's why things like these social distancing protocols are gonna remain so critical. Because there are many aspects to how we do business facilities that we visit and interact with each other that are going to need to look a little different for a while because of the continued spread of COVID. Generally in the continued risk that exists.

DC: Well I think that that explanation is very useful. We wanted to take this opportunity to let people know more about what happened on Friday and the existing order that has been revised that it's now in place. One of the things that for our viewer viewers
that we are doing is of course we are expanding our testing capacity. And folks who know that we're making the county's testing officer Dr. Marty Fenstersheib. I've available to the media at 10:30 in just a few minutes to talk more about our testing. We know that there is a great effort on the part of the county to not only increase the number of tests but also make sure that testing happens in the areas that have been the hardest hit by COVID-19 including a San Jose South County. We're also going to be in Mountain View. We are right now actually in Mountain View as we speak, so stay tuned for all of the efforts to increase testing. And on the issue of testing, you can go to SCCfreetest.org to find out more information. James anything else that you want to add to our viewers?

JRW: Yeah I would say you know that testing piece is absolutely important and critical. you know there's a lot of folks working really hard collectively to keep our community safe. I want to thank all of them. But I also want to thank our residents. You know if
you look at what we have been able to do together as a community in Santa Clara County. It's really been phenomenal and that credit goes to all of us together. All of our families together. Really listening to the best advice from our health officer and doing what we need to. And so I would just strongly urge folks you know we want our businesses to make sure that we're implementing these Social distancing protocols. We want to open things up but we want to do so safely. So people have confidence that when we are able to be out and about and Able to do more things together as a community that we're able to do so with the confidence and comfort that it is safe. And that's going to be important for our families, and for our economy, and for all of us together.

DC: Thank you James for those words. We want to thank our viewers and our residents. Again today is Memorial Day. We wish everyone in Santa Clara County a happy and safe Memorial Day and again thank you to all the men and women who have sacrificed
for our country. We're thinking of all of you today, be safe out there.