07.02.20 COVID-19 Press Conference Live Stream Transcript

The County of Santa Clara
June 30, 2020
Live Stream - Live with the County of Santa Clara
3:30pm PT

James Williams: Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us. My name is James Williams and I'm the County Council for the County of Santa Clara.

Joining me this afternoon is Dr. Sara Cody the County Health Officer, president Cindy Chavez President of the Board of Supervisors, Supervisor Mike Wasserman, Vice President of the Board of Supervisors, and Supervisor Dave Cortese. I also want to acknowledge Supervisor Susan Ellenberg, and Supervisor Joe Simitian who are watching from distance.

This afternoon, Dr. Cody is announcing a new Health Order that when it goes into effect will focus on a risk reduction approach to continuing to tackle COVID-19.

After Dr. Cody speaks, I'll be discussing the details of the Order, including the timing for when it will go into effect. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Cody.

Dr. Sara Cody: Thank you everyone for being here. It's good to see you all in person, especially after so many Zoom meetings. Thank you again.

Today I want to talk to you about a few things first where we are with a COVID-19 pandemic here in Santa Clara County. What this means in terms of where we're headed and I also want to tell you a bit about the Order that I'm issuing today, which marks the beginning of a new phase in our local response to the virus. In recent weeks, we've seen a continued and now accelerating increase in COVID-19 cases in our county in surrounding communities and throughout the state.

Although we're testing much more than we have been before, these numbers reflect a true increase in the prevalence of COVID-19, and especially in Southern California, what we're seeing reflects an exponential growth in transmission that will be extremely difficult to control and bring back under control.

Here in our County, we've taken a careful measured approach to reopening and we will continue to be cautious. We will also stay focused on protecting our most vulnerable residents and communities. This virus has proven time and again in communities around the country and around the world that it will come back with a vengeance if you let your guard down. We will not let our guard down here in Santa Clara County.

Over the last two weeks we've had fewer cases of COVID-19 per hundred thousand residents than any other county in the Bay Area and fewer than any other urban region in the state, but even our rates are increasing and our daily case counts today are much higher than they were at any time in April when we all came together to flatten the curve. We must each take responsibility for protecting ourselves, for protecting our families, and for protecting our entire community.

Just yesterday, the Governor took action in communities throughout the state to close down activities that create great risk of COVID-19 transmission, and I am extremely grateful for his leadership in doing this. Those activities were never reopened here in our County, and unfortunately many are ones that cannot resume safely here or elsewhere anytime soon. We're all coming to recognize that certain activities just can't be done safely at this time. There are, however, other activities that we can resume, in limited ways, if we do them with appropriate and consistent social distancing.

So we're at, we're at we're at an inflection point we're at a point in this pandemic when it's crystal clear that COVID-19 will be with us for a long time, and so we need to adapt to a new way of being, a new way of living that keeps us all safe, and that allows us to do some of the things that we miss and that we cherish and that we find most meaningful. But we also need to take into account the realities of human behavior and the fact that some activities are open in communities around us. By allowing people to do certain activities with strong protocols in place, however, we can ensure that they do so safely.

So to further these goals, today I'm issuing a new Order and this Order is designed to guide how we approach activities in our County for the months ahead. This marks the end of a phased reopening and the beginning of a new stage that we anticipate will be stable for some time. It will allow many activities to occur if appropriate risk reduction measures are in place and that includes personal care services like haircuts and also smaller gatherings, but of course many high risk activities simply cannot safely go forward any time soon.

This Order will require us to obtain approval from the state before it can take effect, under the requirements of the state's COVID-19 roadmap. The Order will go into effect on July 13 or as soon as state approval is granted, whichever is later. This will give certain businesses that are not currently open, the time that they need to prepare to operate safely and to train employees to comply with a strict social distancing protocols they must have in place in order to open.

Our approach from the outset of this pandemic has leveraged tried-and-true public health strategies, has been careful, and has been based on the continual assessment of relevant data and our evolving scientific understanding of this virus. We've also carefully weighed the evolving circumstances in our county, in our broader region, and globally.

There's no doubt that this pandemic has created tremendous suffering and uncertainty for everyone and has laid bare the disparities in our society and has created devastating social and economic consequences for people locally and across the world. But the only way we can get out of this is to simply stay laser focused on containing COVID-19 and I believe we can do this if we stick together.

I'm very proud of our community and what we've been able to accomplish together over the last many months and I know that we will continue to pull together and support one another as we move forward in the weeks and months to come.

Thank you again for being here.

Again, it's a pleasure to see all of you in person thank you and I'm gonna turn it back over to James Williams our County Council.

JW: The new Order that Dr. Cody is issuing today is organized around several core essential principles. These principles are not new, but this Order makes them more uniform and consistent and applicable across the board. The goal is to try to set a new normal for what we can expect when we enter any business facility or engage in any kind of activity.

These principles are that outdoors is safer than indoors, more physical distance is safer than less distance, fewer and briefer contacts with others safer than more or longer contacts, face coverings should be worn consistently and become the new normal, and some higher risk settings just cannot safely open at this time.

Foremost, the order acknowledges that the safest thing to combat COVID-19 is still to stay home. And for older adults and those with underlying medical conditions, the order urges them to continue to stay home except for essential needs. Also, all activities that cannot be done with social distancing are generally prohibited.

For businesses, the order places nearly universal requirements. Again, the goal is to have consistency so that all of us, whenever we enter a facility, can have the same set of expectations as workers, as customers.

One, we have newly updated the social distancing protocols these protocols are now a little more comprehensive and detailed. They must be submitted under penalty of perjury and we've created an online web portal for their submission so that they can be accessible to the public and reviewed and so that we can also keep track.

Second, across the board capacity limits of one worker per 250 gross square feet of a facility and one customer per 150 square feet of space open to the public.

Third, a requirement to report positive cases at work sites to the Public Health Department. This will allow the Public Health Department to more quickly do case investigation, contact tracing, to deal with any outbreaks that might occur in a workplace.

Fourth, to follow industry- specific directives, and there will be some for certain categories of businesses or activities that will be issued next week.

And finally, to continue to maximize telework.

These five key items are again applicable universally across businesses and not different for different kinds of sectors or different industries. Some high-risk businesses, however, will remain closed. In particular, because individuals must strictly mask indoors, indoor dining, indoor swimming, and other activities that would inherently require removing a face covering remain prohibited. Also, places with⁠—that would promote close or large gatherings, such as nightclubs, theaters, stadiums, arenas will remain closed. I want to note a couple other important things.

Folks probably heard the Governor's announcement yesterday and we're⁠—we're in an increasingly complex state regulatory framework as the state also continues to focus its energy on tackling COVID effectively.

This order makes very clear as all our orders have, but again, emphasizes that everyone in the County must follow the state orders and state guidance whenever it may be stricter than the local county order. And that is also true of any specific industry directives from the state as well.

Finally, because of that state regulatory environment and framework, this order will go into effect in the later of either July 13th or when the County obtains state approval which is being requested today. That means that businesses will have time to put these measures in place, and fill out the new social distancing protocols, and ensure that they can actually modify operation to be consistent with these universal requirements. But it also means that we don't quite yet know exactly what that effective date might be, and we will of course keep people updated on that.

The guidance, the additional industry directive so forth will all be available on the Public Health Department's website. We will be completely overhauling the Frequently Asked Questions as this new Order comes into effect because it is a different framework.

That all being said, until this Order does go into effect, we also want people to know and that applies throughout, for example this Fourth of July weekend, that the current order the current Shelter-in-Place Order remains in effect and unchanged at this time.

With that, I'm going to turn it over to Supervisor Cindy Chavez, President of the Board of Supervisors.

Cindy Chavez: Well good afternoon everyone and it gives me a great pleasure to be here with two of my colleagues.

I'm gonna be asking Vice President of the Board Supervisor Wasserman to speak and then Supervisor Dave Cortese and then I'll be cleanup batter. I think that's a thing. All right, so Mike, I was trying to do this

Mike Wasserman: Good afternoon everybody.

Getting people back to work and reopening businesses safely is paramount. I want to express my strong support for the steps our Public Health Officer is taking today.

This new Order allows additional businesses and activities to resume while setting standards to keep our community safe. Our success in fighting COVID-19 has always been about us as a community. Our businesses, our workers, our residents. We all need to do our part to follow these guidelines and keep each other safe while we continue to reopen.

Our businesses will need to be adaptable and flexible to comply with these important new safety measures. I'm confident they will be. The health of⁠—the health of our community and economy depend on it. In closing, let me say I'm hopeful that the Governor and his team will recognize all the work that the people and businesses of Santa Clara County have done to reopen remaining businesses safely and approve our request. Thank you very much. And with that, I'll turn it over to Supervisor Cortese.

Dave Coretese: Oh good afternoon. Thank you.

Well thank you all of you in the media. And I want to reiterate something I've said earlier in this process over the last three and a half months. Those of you who are here from the media have done a terrific job of essentially creating a massive public service announcement for those of us in government, and for those in the public health departments particularly to get the word out to people. There is no way to get two million people in a county like the County of Santa Clara or a place as big as the Bay Area to do the right thing, to do the same thing consistently without your help.

And really, that's my only message today in addition to⁠—to thanking Dr. Sara Cody, the terrific team of legal counsel that's been surrounding her this entire time, the rest of the folks in our emergency occup⁠—Emergency Services Office. But to⁠—to thank everybody for getting this far at this stage with the kind of safe environment that's been created relative to just about anywhere else in California and just about anywhere else in the country, let alone in the world.

That said, I think if I was any of you listening to this I would say, are we going to an honor system at this point? Is that what this is really about? And I don't think it's an honor system. I think it's something a little bit similar to that, but certainly not an honor system and certainly, as we just heard from Legal Counsel, there are still strict legal requirements for compliance in a number of ways, including Shelter-in-Place.

But I think we are going to a peer pressure system in a good way and oftentimes growing up or talking to our own children, we talk about the pitfalls of peer pressure, but this is an area where peer pressure has to be the one thing that holds this all together.

And we hear over and over again from people, questions like, I don't know if I need a test, or should get a test, or who should get a test, and what peer pressure should tell them is getting a test is always best. Just keep it simple. Just keep it simple.

And we hear people saying, should I wear a mask or not wear a mask? I'm not sure what the rules are. And peer pressure should say, if you want to meet without a mask, don't ask. That's the kind of peer pressure we need now and that's the way we need to operate, I think, in terms of beginning to keep this new normal as simple and clean and clear-cut as possible.

And we just heard that distancing is going to be critical to this next phase that we're about to embark on in terms of trying to keep everything as safe as it's been over the last few weeks going forward.

Distancing is critical and I think the kind of peer pressure we need around that is, if you're not willing to be at six feet, then we don't meet. It's⁠—it's really up to the community, and I think we know that, and I think I've said that to many of you and my my own discussions and interviews with some of you who are here from the media, none of this would be working at all without the cooperation⁠—the voluntary cooperation of the two million people in this county. And the simpler we can keep this I think the more likely it is that we're gonna have success.

So I really again commend everyone in the Emergency Operations Center. That's what I was trying to say earlier. And particularly Dr. Cody and the folks that are surrounding her for moving to a system that is simpler but still effective. Thank you.

CC: So just to wrap up, I think that the way I've been thinking about this is that this is the next phase of our battle against COVID-19. And here are the really simple things we have to think about. We know that cases are on the rise, even in this county.

So we're making changes that are about risk reduction, and what that means is that, as a community, we need to hunker down and we've got to lower these numbers, even while we're opening things up. Why is that so important? For every parent at home that wants to see schools open, and every baseball fan that wants to go to a game, and every Warriors fan that wants to get into a court, these are only gonna happen if, as a community, we start to push these numbers down.

So, I'm gonna give you an opportunity for everyone to start to stand up and figure out how to do this as a community in this new environment. We know that we've had more people in our community testing positive for COVID-19 since we've been opening up. And there are two things that we've seen.

We've seen clusters in workplaces, which means that we're gonna rely on our businesses to be ruthlessly disciplined about following the rules that you said you're gonna follow, in order to be open. So that's bucket one.

Bucket two has been: people meeting with their families and friends. And this weekend is Fourth of July. And if we're not careful, 14 days from now, we're gonna start to see people in our hospitals.

But all of us, all of you can do something about that. And what that means is following the rules that Dr. Cody has laid out for us.

I want to say just one big thank you to all of you who've been sheltering in place, all of you who've been wearing your masks, and to say to everybody else, join us, because this is the only way we're gonna fight this, if we do it together. We want kids back in school, we want our lives back, we're gonna have to work together to make that happen.

The last thing I wanted to say is that, really for all of the volunteers out there who've been making food available and delivering and volunteering, for our contact tracers who are volunteers, a very special thank you.

To the people have been working in emergency operations across this County, thank you. And I feel bad saying this but, thank you to everyone and now we need you to all do more. And that includes everybody in this room.

So with that, I'm going to turn it over to David Campos, our County Executive who's gonna handle questions and answers.

David Campos: Thank you President Chavez.

Good afternoon. My name is David Campos, I'm a Deputy County Executive that serve as Public Information Officer for the Emergency Operations Center for the County.

We are going to take questions, and just to note, that we have reporters here we also have reporters on the line. So we'll begin with the folks that are in the room and then follow with folks on the line. We also want to note that following the press conference, we will have speakers available in different languages, including Spanish, Vietnamese, and Chinese so that the diverse residents of our County can have information in their language. So please let us know if you'd like to interview anyone in those languages.

So with that, let me begin by taking questions. Yes.

Reporter: Dr. Cody, last week you cited hospitalizations, you know as a barrier for regional variance, you know that landed the County on the state's watch list. I'm just wondering what changed?

DC: So this is a question for Dr. Cody, and I'm going to repeat the question so that folks that are watching as we're live-streaming this on Facebook can actually hear the question.

The question is, last week Dr. Cody, you cited hospitalizations as a possible impediment to the state approving a variance. What has changed?

Dr. SC: Thank you for the question regarding hospitalizations. We are on the state's monitoring list because of the change in our hospitalizations and and so we we do⁠—that puts us on the list. But what I want to provide is some context, and that it's about the change in hospitalizations, and in our County, we still have relatively few people with COVID in the hospital and so we⁠—you can think of it as going from very low to low. But the change was enough to land us on the list. Thank you.

DC: Next question, yes.

Reporter: Dr. Cody, can you elaborate a little bit on when you talk about factoring in human behavior? And is this somewhat of a test for the public to see if they can actually handle a reopening?

DC: So the question for Dr. Cody, can you speak to the issue of human behavior and is this a test for the public in terms of their ability to handle this test?

Dr. SC: What this new Order does is acknowledge that we have all been sheltering in place for a very long time. Longer than we hoped or expected to do and so we are acknowledging that there are parts of our lives that nourish us, that are important to us, that we need to⁠—that we need to do and that we want to do.

What the Order does is set very specific guidelines and protocols for how to do so safely. So essentially, it acknowledges that we are human. We do need to get out of our home sometimes, and so this is⁠—the Order makes it very clear how to do so safely, both how businesses can engage safely with customers, and how all of us can engage safely in activities that we want or need to do.

DC: Any other questions, folks in the audience? Yes.

Reporter: Dr. Cody, very quickly please. Not to change the subject, but recently, there was a meeting of some administrators with the Santa Clara Unified School District where attendees may have been exposed. Are you aware of that situation? And if so, what are your plans for it?

DC: So this is a question that has been asked of the County and specifically here of Dr. Cody, about a meeting of administrators that took place. Are you aware of this situation and what are you going to do about it?

Dr. SC: Thank you for the question. I'm somewhat aware of the situation and I think that what we would do is what we do in any case where we think there might have been an exposure and there might be people at risk, is that we assist and consult and ensure that anyone who has exposed gets proper follow-up, which includes testing and safely quarantining at home.

DC: Yes.

Reporter: Dr. Cody, generally speaking, watching the public response to your other reopening phase, are you doing this because you're encouraged by what you see? Or are you doing this despite what you see?

DC: So the question to Dr. Cody, generally speaking, are you doing this generally because you're encouraged by what you see? Or despite what you see?

Dr. SC: Thank you for the question. We're moving into this new phase for a few reasons. One is acknowledging that, as I've mentioned, we've all been sheltering in place for a very long time, and acknowledging that the COVID pandemic is not going to end any time soon. And so we need to we need to adapt. This virus has adapted to us and we need to adapt to the virus. So we need to conduct our lives a bit differently, because we're in it for the long haul. That is the primary driving force behind behind the change.

Reporter: Have you been seeing the public react positively to the reopening before, in terms of following protocol?

Dr. SC: Yes and no. I I think that our businesses are, you know, I think it's very helpful to have very clear directions and very clear protocols. The new Order, the frame is around risk reduction. I think it's easier to understand because what we want what⁠—what underpins this Order is a few key principles that we all know but they are worth repeating. And that is that you're safer outdoors than indoors, you're safer if you're farther apart then closer together, smaller groups are safer than larger groups, limited contact of brief duration is safer than longer prolonged contact. So all of those principles have informed this order and then on top of that, we have specifics for how to implement protocols, to⁠—to make those concepts real. And I think that that's going to help the public understand what they need to do to be safe and to keep their families and communities safe. And I also think that it's going to be sustainable. We need something sustainable, because we're going to be at this for a while.

DC: We are going to take questions from folks that are on the line, and I know that folks that are watching Facebook live can actually hear the questions, so we will turn it to our facilitator and allow one of those reporters to ask a question.

Facilitator: And yes, we'll take a phone question from Thomas Fuller with the New York Times. Please go ahead, your line is open.

Thomas Fuller: Hi Dr. Cody. Question for you, this was a little abstract for me, this Order. I was wondering if you could give maybe, you know, five examples of things that are not allowed today that would be allowed under this new Order.

Dr. SC: I like to talk about the positive. So I'm gonna turn it over to our County Council, James Williams, to tell you about what you can't do. Standby.

JW: So under the new Order, basically, the⁠—the principles are that if you cannot comply with these core requirements for businesses, then that activity or that facility will not be able to open. So again, those kind of key items are: The capacity limits one worker per 250 square feet of gross square footage of the facility, one customer per public, the masking requirement, including strict masking indoors. So that means that for example, indoor dining indoor swimming, you know, saunas, certain other indoor facilities where you'd necessarily have to take off your mask to engage in the activity, those will not be able to move forward because of that strict indoor masking requirement. And then places or large gatherings will not be required. So hopefully that gives you some specific examples.

But really it has to do with the organizing principles, and if you can modify your operation to accommodate social distancing and masking, for example, and the capacity limits. Then, you will be able to open. So it's not a list of lots of businesses that are open. It's not a list of lots and lots of different kinds of businesses that are closed. It's instead uniform, clear criteria. And we are asking businesses to, you know, be entrepreneurial and be creative in meeting those criteria to ensure that the activities are being conducted in a manner that is safe, because it has that social distancing, has that masking, and is following the social distancing protocols.

DC: We will take a couple more questions. Yes one more. Yes.

Reporter: Yeah the Latino community has been greatly impacted here in Santa Clara County. And I want to ask, what is the County actually doing, not to just inform, but to actually convince the community that this is a real [unintelligible].

DC: So the question is about the Latino community and the impact that COVID-19 has had on⁠—on that community in the County. And the question is what are we doing not only to inform the Latino community of the importance of getting tested and other things, but to actually convince them that this is something very serious. Dr. Cody.

Dr. SC: Thank you I think this is a really important question and the Latino community in our County has been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 as is the case in many, many other communities. We in Public Health have a practice of community engagement where we work with community to understand where the community is at and to understand the barriers⁠—barriers to accepting testing, or barriers to social distancing, or what have you.

And so, we are working in community and with community leaders to better reach people and to better ensure that they're safe. It's a long imperfect process, but we are going to stay at it. I think it's one of our highest priorities. Thanks.

DC: And our President of the Board is going to add to that.

CC: Thank you. So one thing, and this is not just for the Latino community, but I would say this community-wide, if we want everybody to get a test. So if you want a free test you can go to SCCfreetest.org and it'll tell you all the places in the County that you can get a test.

So first of all, it means you don't need an appointment. You can show up and it's free, it's easy, and you just get in line you can get a test at any of these sites and you'll see them on that website.

Second, the County's investing money and and people power through organizations that the community recognizes to go out and have conversations with people from a six feet distance, wearing our masks and⁠—and all the rest. But the reason is, that we know that some people, you need to do some things in language, you need to do them in culture, and you need to do them in community.

So essentially, we're taking our nonprofit partners and asking them to go to small businesses, to neighborhood parks, and communities. And we're asking also our partner agencies like other⁠—other public entities to make sure we're having conversations with people so they understand how serious the need is.

The last thing I'll say is, actually, under Supervisor Cortese's leadership, we also added a fund that's going to allow us to work with lots of organizations to get their⁠—to get them to communicate the very effective, like we have some great short videos, we have lots of stuff in print, but we're gonna get into the community and get them spread out through a lot of different networks. That's how we're approaching it.

DC: Thank you President Chavez. And I will simply note in terms of the outreach that we have done to the multilingual communities in the county, we are actually running five separate websites that have information besides English, in Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Tagalog. We also have purchased advertisements to provide education on COVID-19 in multiple languages, including Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, not only in radio, but also in television.

We actually have a text⁠— texting campaign where we're targeting over a hundred thousand cellphones that are targeted in the Latinx community. We're expecting over a million imprints with information about testing and other information to that community regarding COVID-19. And as the President noted, the Board of Supervisors has allocated more than a million dollars to work with community-based organizations to do outreach in that community.

Any other questions?

Thank you very much.

As noted, the Order will go into effect the later of either the 13th of July, or once the state approves the order, or at least the variance application. We will be working between now and then to make sure that every resident of this county has information in different languages about the requirements of the order and to also make sure that we provide the businesses of the County all the support they need to understand the protocols and follow them.

So thank you very much for your time and we will be in touch. That concludes the press conference.