07.08.20 COVID-19 Briefing Live Stream Transcript

The County of Santa Clara
July 8, 2020
Live Stream - Briefing Live stream
10:00am PT

David Campos: Good morning everyone. My name is David Campos, and I'm the Public Information Officer for the County of Santa Clara's
Emergency Operations Center. Welcome to Facebook Live with the County of Santa Clara.

Good morning. I am here today with James Williams, who is the County Counsel for the County of Santa Clara and also one of the directors of the Emergency Operations Center.

Just to note that we were actually wearing face coverings before this broadcast began, but we want to make sure that the American Sign
Language interpreter can read our lips so that folks can have access to the information. Before I begin our conversation with James Williams today, I do want to note the latest case count for us. As of today, as of yesterday at hundred seventy eight confirmed COVID-19 cases in the county, 80 new cases as well as, a hundred sixty-five deaths total, a new death that occurred, and again our thoughts and prayers go to the families and loved ones of those who passed, and we will continue to update the dashboards with the latest information.

But we wanted to take this opportunity to speak to James Williams, as as those of you who have been watching this over the last few
weeks know James's County Counsel, he and his team are the ones who worked with the Public Health Officer to put together the Health Orders that have been issued, and so we wanted to take this opportunity to speak to James about the latest Health Order that will go
into effect Monday.

So James, thank you for being here, and thank you to your team. And you know, maybe you can acknowledge some of the members of your team that I know that they don't get the credit they they deserve for all the work they do.

James Williams: Yeah absolutely. Thank you, David. It's a pleasure to be here and pleasure to talk about the kind of new health order that's going into effect on Monday.

David, you're right we've got a great team attorneys in my office who work directly with Dr. Cody in putting together the orders, and I want to specifically you know acknowledge those folks working directly with me, Chief Assistant County Counsel Greta Hansen, Assistant County Counsel Tony Lopresti, and the team of Deputy County Councels: we've got Kavita Narayan, Stephanie Safdi, and Grace Koba. Great, great team of folks who have been working with us. you know.

DC: You now, these folks work pretty late hours, and so I just wanted to make sure that we acknowledge them. So let's talk about this latest order that will go into effect on Monday the 13th, so maybe you can talk generally about what it is.

JW: Yeah so the the new order that's going to affect on Monday is a different framework than the one we've been in so far. It's no longer a shelter-in-place framework, it's a risk reduction framework. And as Dr. Cody discussed in the announcement leading up to the Order and then when the order, itself was discussed last week, the order is really based on a few core broad principles. Among those you know outdoors is safer than indoors, that limiting the number of contacts and the duration of those contacts is safer than having longer or more frequent contacts, and that it's important to wear face coverings, and that you know, other basic safety precautions should be applied across the board. And that's really embodied in an approach that no longer is as focused on definitions or lists of businesses that are open as essential or non-essential, or other categories of businesses that are open and closed, but instead an order that's really framed around some uniform and clear broader principles, and if operations at businesses and other facilities and other activities can be done, consistent with those broad principles, they can then occur. And so it's really based on that. Now that
doesn't mean that everything can can happen, right? These safety precautions, these core uniformed principles, you know, are significant, and they represent for the time being certainly a new normal, as Dr. Cody has talked about. We are in a situation where we're gonna be dealing with with the corona virus for quite some time to come, and so allowing as many things as possible, allowing people to be creative and entrepreneurial, and being able to modify and adapt things to these core principles, but trying to provide them, in a uniform manner, so that all of us know what to expect, when we go and visit any facility. And so all of us
can kind of have similar consistent set of expectations to help create that new norm, across the board. And so that's the real goal around this risk reduction framework.

DC: Now I'm not a health official, I'm an attorney like you, and so in trying to explain this process, you know, one way that I have seen it, or I see it, is that you know shelter-in-place had a very important role to play in containing the spread of this virus, right? But once you get to a point, where that has been contained, I mean you cannot shelter-in-place forever, right?

So this is the next step, which makes sense so that we can actually you know live with this for the next, whatever, however long it's going to take, a few months, right?

JW: I think that's exactly right. You know the Shelter-in-Place Order was very effective in our County. But we're seeing a huge increase in cases in Southern California, across the country, and yet there's also a need for us to be able to engage in as many activities as reasonable and safe, that we can. You know, I'm one of those folks who hasn't been able to get a haircut since March. DC: I think we have mined the progression over the last few weeks, James.

JW: And you know and I know that's true for for many people in many different settings, of course people who own businesses, work at businesses but also people are trying to access services. And so given that that we're gonna be dealing with COVID for some time to come, you know, how can we have some clear across-the-board safety precautions and parameters? You know overlaid with some industry-specific information.

DC: So a couple of things to our viewers: first of all there is a Facebook Live in Spanish, En Vivo con el Condado, that will follow this Facebook Live, and we are committed to answering questions, so we're gonna have a question and answer period, next week. What we're gonna talk about more specifics, but we want to talk about general principles here. So let's talk about the businesses, right? So one of the things that you have said, is that we will be issuing industry-specific guidances, so can you talk about that?

JW: Sure, so we have a few set of broad principles, and I want to talk about those in a moment, but overlaid with those, for certain types of industries, there are some specific directives that impart incorporate the relevant state guidance, and it's important to remember that we're also subject to the state order which is still in effect, and that incorporate some implementation and best practices and other requirements ... mandatory requirements for certain specific industries. Some of those are already up on the website at the public health department's website, and many others will be coming out today and tomorrow, and the whole team is working very hard to get those finalized. I know that people are eager for those. The personal care one, for example, did come out last
night along with outdoor dining and food facilities and construction.

DC: So for personal care that means that hair salons, nail salons, those establishments, provided that they follow those protocols, will be allowed to resume operations?

JW: That's exactly right, and actually under the framework of the new order, you know, again, other than a small subset of of categories, if you can abide by the broader requirements, yes, operations can resume or continue, and be open. But I do want to talk about those.

DC: Let's talk about ...

JW: Yeah

DC: So there's this document that talks about the general principles, or requirements that businesses have to follow, so if you're
watching your business in Santa Clara County what should you know?

JW: So there are a few core principles, things that we should all see, as customers, patrons but also workers, and business owners, pretty much across the board, uniformly, with very few exceptions. One of those, and very, very important one, is the social
distancing protocols have been updated.

So people by now hopefully are familiar with our COVID-19 Prepared check mark, our social distancing protocol visitor information sheet that are supposed to be posted at every single open facility. We have the summary sheet that's also needs to be posted, as well.

Well the protocols themselves have been updated. They have to be submitted under penalty of perjury. There's an online form, and businesses need to do so by Monday. You can do so now, at the our website which is COVID19Prepared.org. That's COVID19Prepared.org. You can fill it out electronically, be able to then download the relevant stuff to post at your facility, to hand out to workers, and to put that together. It's very, very critical. It's one of the most important things that we're doing to try to ensure that businesses are able to be open safely. So again that's COVID19Prepared.org and every business needs to fill out these updated protocols by Monday, even those that have already been open, even those that have been considered essential businesses.

DC: can we talk about that? So if you're a business that has been operating under the rules that you have laid out already, you still
have to file this?

JW: Absolutely, and it's important for several reasons: one is we're making these protocols, now accessible, so they'll be able to be
viewed by members of the public online, you know, they're not being approved by the county, but they need to be submitted so that they're accessible and available; second, it has important information on how to help keep workers and customers safe, and including the specific requirements that are imposed under the order, that includes some of the other broad principles, like the fact that
there needs to be universal, consistent, strict face covering indoors ... period; for workers, for customers, across the board, and activities that would require removing your face covering indoors are not allowed; the second, is of course are the social distancing practices maintaining at least six feet, and hygiene, and sanitation; those by now should be familiar to most folks; the third, is a capacity or density limitation, of one worker per 250 gross square feet of a facility, and one customer per 150 square feet of space
open to the public. Again that's to insure that there actually is the ability to have adequate social distancing, adequate space, and that places are not getting crowded or too many having too many people and confined locations. So those general principles are incorporated into that protocol, they apply again uniformly, and so you know it's very important that people take a look at, that that people are adhering to that. Our collective ability to be consistent and to have this as kind of the new norm across the board, is going to be absolutely vital to our ability to control cases and prevent severe illness and death in our community. And we're
hoping that by having these, as more uniform and clear expectations, that's something that workers and customers, that all of us together as residents in this community, can ensure is the new expectation, wherever we go.

DC: So Can a business operate on Monday, if they haven't done this?

JW: No. So this is a requirement, you need to have this very simple to fill out. Again COVID19Prepared.org but it does need to be in
place in order to operate, and it is an absolutely essential safety tool. A couple other things that I wanted to note here also, across the board, an important one, is a reporting requirement to Public Health Department, if there is a positive case of someone who's been at the worksite from a worker.

We have seen some workplace outbreaks, and we want to make sure that we can move quickly to help workplaces contain any such outbreaks, and so that's an important new mandatory expectation on businesses for that reporting, for a worker who has been at the workplace
just prior to onset of symptoms or a positive tests. DC: Now, James, that makes a lot of sense, because I know we have a very robust contact tracing case investigation team.

JW: Yes.

DC: That is ready to follow and trace the contacts of people that are infected, but unless we are notified of that we're not going to know.

JW: Right. And you know, it, while we can eventually identify a workplace outbreak by connecting the dots between different cases, the way the case reports come in, through the state system, you know, that's not readily apparent. But having employers provide this proactive notification will allow us to much more quickly identify if there's a workplace outbreak, and speed is important here, because being able to ensure that appropriate isolation quarantine is in place and quickly, is essential to breaking chains of transmission.

DC: Now James, you noted that you have issued some guidance as already, so personal care services, food facilities, outdoor dining. That's been an ongoing question ...

JW: Yes.

DC: ... with the state,so that's allowed, and you have guidances that are actually out there already.

JW: Yes. We do, and we were and we're pleased that the outdoor dining situation has been resolved, and you know that guidance like I said is out, and then many others that will be coming today and tomorrow.

DC: So a couple more questions about that. One question that we keep getting asked is gyms. Are you issuing guidances on gyms, so that they can open on Monday?

JW: Yes, we will be, yes.

DC: Okay, so that that that is coming. And I know that we are you know we have many minority-owned businesses folks that are you know monolingual speakers, and I know that our team our language access team will be providing this information in different languages to make sure that everyone has access to it, so. Now let's talk about the the consumer. What are the kinds of things, so we talked about businesses, that if you're a resident of the county that you should know, going forward, starting Monday.

JW: Yeah, you know again, it's actually the same basic principles; one is, you know, outdoors is safer than indoors, and second, that the face covering requirements and social distancing requirements are critical, and that's going to apply to any business you visit,
but also activities that you do outside. So for example, contact sports with members outside your household are prohibited, because you can't maintain six-foot social distancing, so these same basic principles are what are being carried forward through the Order and
through the Guidance that's being issued related to the order. But really, if you focus on those key principles, I think the rest of it
follows, then again, those key principles are that it's better if you can move activities or business activity or anything else outdoors. It's better, it's in critical to have face coverings when in place, whether outdoors or indoors, where you're interacting with anyone outside your household, and it's vital to be able to maintain at least six-foot social distancing, and this. And six foot is really a minimum. You know, the more the distancing, and dedensification, the better. So those are kind of the core essential principles, and folks will see those embodied in the directives and guidance that is issued for specific sectors, as well.

DC: So a couple more points before we conclude, James. There are some businesses and activities that are not being allowed to to resume operations. Can you talk a little bit about those and why you weren't able to do that?

JW: Sure, you know there are some things that can't be done consistent with those core principles, or that otherwise pose a much higher safety risk, and probably won't be able to occur for some time. You know, activities where you'd have to remove your face covering,
for instance, including indoor dining, but a lot several other kind of indoor activities that would necessarily require moving the face covering to engage in the service or the activity. You know, activities that would inherently require you to come within six feet of another person, you know, those are riskier. And places where there are large gatherings, so you know, stadiums, arenas, you know, concert halls, theaters, things like that where there are large numbers of people who would be in us in a shared space for an extended period of time. You know, gatherings are particularly risky and there's a lot of concern actually that some significant spread is
actually occurring at gatherings including private gatherings. You know, we're all very eager to interact with others, that's how we
are as people, right? But there's significant risk associated with gatherings.

DC: One last point that I wanted to ask you about is, we have seen cases rise in the county, but certainly around the state, and around the country, and so what what do you have to say to people who feel that maybe because we're taking this next step, it means that things are fine, that we're doing okay? It seems like you know, we're doing this, but the reality is that the challenge is still very great, and in fact, the the virus is still very present.

JW: You know you're absolutely right about that. You know, I think Dr. Cody has been quite clear about her concern at the rising case
count. We've had our highest reported cases in Santa Clara County this week, and what we're seeing in Southern California, elsewhere across the country is extremely concerning, and so you know something we obviously closely monitor at the County and the Emergency
Operations Center, you know something that Dr. Cody is tracking every day. We're looking at that and hospitalizations and the other
indicators.

But you know, what what we're trying to do here, with this risk reduction order, is have very strict very significant, safety protocols in place that, if we can collectively implement in a uniform consistent rigorous manner, we hope will allow us to continue to keep the virus as contained as possible, here in Santa Clara County. That means that not everything can be done, right? But the the hope is to have rules that are simpler, clearer, and as consistent as possible, so that we can actually be putting them into practice every single day, in every single interaction, because it's that rigorous adherence that is essential to being able to keep
things contained.

DC: James, thank you very much for the explanation.

I hope that folks found this very helpful and again there's a Spanish-language Facebook Live that is coming up right after this.

We also will have another Facebook Live on Friday will we'll be talking more about some of the elements of this New Order and, of course, the directives are being posted you know today later today and tomorrow, and so hopefully people will keep an eye on that. And let me just repeat those websites: COVID19Prepared.org, SCCGov.org/CV19, SCCGov.org/coronavirus. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching this.

Stay tuned. Stay safe out there.

Thank you very much, Santa Clara. Thank you!