07.10.20 COVID-19 Briefing Live Stream Transcript

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

Todd Naffziger: Good morning everyone my name is Todd Naffziger I'm a public information officer for the emergency operations center here at the county. Uh, today we're going to discuss some of the guidelines and protocols for the personal care services and facilities that will be opening up here come Monday. But prior to that we have removed our face covering so our ASL translators will be able to understand us as well as everyone else here in the county. but please we are strongly encouraging everyone to follow the guidelines when leaving their homes to conduct essential activities and wear their face coverings as well. We want to also take a moment to provide an update from our data dashboard. As of yesterday, our cumulative cases were 5,678 with one new death. Our thoughts are with the families who have lost loved ones due to coronavirus. So, a lot is opening up on Monday July 13th. This is something everybody's been waiting for. Uh Betty you were here last time you delivered a tough message. This time around you are here to actually deliver something people have been waiting for. But prior to that, I think we all want to know is what team are you using for your hair and makeup.

Betty Duong: I-I realized there were some a number of comments about my hair and um being in the styling last time so very very flattered. Um I-I grew up in the industry. I worked in hair and makeup for six years prior to going um to college. So, it was a it's a good to know i still have some of my skills, thank you.

TN: I do not have any of those Skills as i have not cut my hair in a very long time. So, but as you said you've been in the industry for a long time but you've also been working very closely with this industry to help get them prepared. Can you kind of elaborate on that process and information you had to provide those facilities?

BD: Absolutely and i just want to take this time to give a shout out to a number of salons and um that have really been helpful. So, we're really proud of our guidelines and our directives that we are issuing to um for the personal care industry. it was really developed with the feedback that we were receiving from those in the the industry. So, I want to give a just a quick shout out to some of them some folks who really spent a lot of time in amount of time when they explained to me in every single detail what would work and what wouldn't work.  Um so special FX salon our friend Denise out there in south county Foxtrot salon ever rose salon in japan Town we also want to give a shout out to nirvana salon and also to blossom nail spa and the national nail association of America and the California healthy nail salon collaborative and the Santa Clara county nail salon owners group. We you know i think we spent a lot of evenings a lot of afternoons doing forums phone calls, you've all emailed me I’ve responded to every single email that I know of. So, if there are any emails I may have missed just ping me again, I’ll get back to you we have a whole team working with you. And I really hope that we get to continue these conversations because this is an ever-evolving process.

I just want to also acknowledge the hardships. you know a lot of our time spent on the phone was also talking about how hard the the shelter in place order has hit our economy has hit our business. how it has affected our own individual livelihoods and also, the customers. and you're in you know I think every single nail salon and every single hair salon and stylist I’ve spoken to the first thing they told me was we miss our customers we miss our customers we miss interacting with them. This is not just hair service or or or nail care it's really a relationship and it's part of kind of daily life for a lot of people. Um, so I wanted to say that is something that I share often with our management our leadership with Dr. Cody she incredibly empathizes with this industry an industry that is heavily dominated by women, women business owners. I don't think any other industry has the same level of women business ownership. Not to say i'm disparaging like on the guys either okay. But this is a very special industry that has treated me very well and taken care of me and my family. um and i have family who are in the business they have their salons and they did not want to be mentioned but they um we are certainly feeling the impact I just want to thank everybody for your patience and for just your very very thoughtful feedback and your kindness to me. Um i i know people thought i was taking some hits but there was a lot was much more kindness than there were negativity.

TN: Absolutely And you know customers as well miss those industries it's not just them. I’m just my pedicures. So, a lot has changed since March. Uh, what should we expect going into these salons now what kind of changes should we be seeing.

BD: Before I start with that i just want to say the actual words salons and personal care services hair and nail services are allowed to resume starting July 13th Monday morning. Whenever you want to start you're ready to start as long as you've submitted your social distancing protocol at covid19prepared.org and that you've read the industry directives that we have on the website right now www.sccgov.org/coronavirus implement the requirements of the directives and you are good to go so for the customers out there because I know i've had a lot of conversation with salons they know exactly what they're doing and they know exactly what they need to do it is an industry that's highly controlled as an industry that's highly regulated and an industry that puts health safety and cleanliness first. So, for the customers i really want to let the public know that when you visit your favorite nail salon is going to look a little different or your favorite hair salon. There will no longer be a reception area. If there is a reception area it could only have one person one customer at a time. So, you're going to have to do you're going to have to wait in your car until it's your time for your appointment. You're going to have to make your appointment in advance, salons are not accepting walk-ins. It'll be by appointment only. So, give them a call go on to their website and make those appointments. And when you get there you have to have your face covering, make sure you have your face covering. And salon workers will also be wearing their face coverings goggles glasses or face shields they have to have that nose and mouth covering and eye protection. So, you'll see your favorite stylist but you kind of see them differently this time. They'll have to wear smocks either disposable or reusable. so, they'll be covered up and gloved up during the whole process of of of your service. um a couple other things is that you're going to see a lot less people in the salon. we do have density limitations that's down to the square footage, in a nutshell it's one worker for every and one customer for every 150 square feet of the salon. So, those are some of the things that you'll be seeing um you'll be seeing you know you won't see any of the pillows or stuffed animals you know my my favorite nail salon has these hello kitty stuffed animals that my daughter would just run towards into her little butterfly chair for her pedicure. but those are being removed now and there won't be any more like water stations or refreshment beverage stations. But yes, you can have your cell phone customers you can't have your cell phone during the pedicure during the service or during your hair service that's okay. um but we do ask that customers bring minimal items with them. um it's a guideline it's the less you bring the the safer it'll be because there's just less items that will possibly carry transmission. So, carry minimal items we do recommend that salons provide plastic bags. um if you have to carry some stuff with you I totally get it like if it's the winter time you're to have your coat you're going to have maybe you're coming off of work for your appointment you're going to have your personal like work belongings that may not be safe to leave in the car. try to limit it as much as possible but we've also asked salons to provide plastic bags just bag your stuff up and leave it there and in a safe space to um to protect the health of the workers and the salon owners and then just take it with you when you leave. so those are just coming some of the overviews um and we know that we know because of our numbers and because of where we are compared to other county jurisdictions we know that our residents do the right thing, they care for one another they care for their health and also the well-being of the county and the community. So, we know that customers are eager to get back to their salons and we trust that they will follow all the guidelines expected of customers.

TN: Absolutely and uh that's a great thing we answered my next question because we really want facilities to operate in accordance with the requirements. But how will the county kind of enforce those requirements are they going to how are they going to monitor these facilities and are they going to continue to provide guidelines for these facilities that operate as things change?

BD: Yeah um really great question. I'll start first with the monitoring. It all starts with your social distancing protocol. So, every single business operating whether they were allowed to operate prior to the July 13th or July 2nd order that goes into effects to effect July resuming operations this Monday. Everyone must submit their social distancing protocol at covid19prepared.org. So i repeat even if you've already filled out a previous social discipline protocol there's a new process now that requires you to submit at covid19prepare.org. And what's going to happen is that when you're when you're filling out your covenant your your social decision protocol it's going to ask you specifically for the square footage of your business the square footage of the public space of your business and they'll and they'll calculate the number of people the number of occupants that can be there so that's going to be auto populated onto a document that's then emailed to you. After you submit your social discipline protocol you've completed it um an email will be sent to you that gives you your placard your placard with your business name on it and then your visitor information with all the information you've already entered. So, that's the first place so every customer going to a business starting Monday should see these two signs in the window with the specifics of how many people could be in the business and what you what you're expected to do, wear a face covering not touch things depending on the the type of business. Um that's the first step the second step is that as a customer or as a worker if you see that these signs are missing or that the information is incorrect or that the practice does not reflect what has been listed in the social distancing protocol, you can call the county. And our approach is not to punish businesses our our mission right now is a safe resumption of economic activity so that we don't have to backslide and close things down again. it is happening in other places we are on a course where that cannot happen here and we do and that's on that's only possible through a group effort, through a collective effort. So, you see someone that doesn't have the protocol is not abiding by the protocol you can call to 1-866-870-7725 that is the OLSE advice line you can report any businesses or situations there. The first thing we'll do is engage with the business and really take on their approach of education awareness, is there something we can do to support you or help you and then also expectations of compliance so that business may resume. Um, if the if the situation escalates where there's not lack of compliance we do have an enforcement body comprised of the office of the county council the district attorney's office and the office of labor standards enforcement who will use their collective enforcement authority to make sure that our protocols are being abided by.

TN: Awesome, I think you make a great message there we've made great strides to get to where we are and no one in this county wants to back pedal by any means. Do you have any additional messages you can provide to those facilities that may start off great, like following the rules, but may start getting a little bit complacent and getting very lackadaisical on their operations?

BD: Um you know I think uh the my my first reaction to that question Todd is that I feel that our our community members because I see the comments we read all your comments don't think we don't yes we do we print them out we pass them around and we use them to inform our future messaging and plan. So, you I mean if you look back to how we were in the beginning of this um you know it's uh we've really incorporated your your your feedback. So, I feel like our our facebook followers have done a really good job of also checking one another you know like letting each other know hey this is the way we need to do it man. And I really we want to really appreciate that and that really is the key to this when it becomes a universal community-wide mission a shared mission amongst all of us, that's when we've got it right. And what we've got to do is we need to accept that life with covid is is going to be the new normal. It's not life after covid we don't see when that will happen but now it's life with covid.  we need to learn how to coexist with this insidious virus in a way that will allow us to protect our health and safeguard that of the community. So, make sure you you know your own individual actions are promoting that community-wide protection that that safety and also make sure that your loved ones too you're you're the trusted messenger and your family you're this trusted messenger amongst your peers please be an ambassador of this message because you're being an ambassador of of the collective um um the collective good.

TN: Absolutely and like you said i mean we've made great strides it's their efforts here to help out we all know these businesses have been closed since beginning of the year you know they may need resources. Like where can they go to kind of seek out these resources? What do we have available? And what may be available about them for them right now?

BD: Yeah so you know we do have a new business landing page at the county website so it's it launched about a week and a half ago it is a page that is it's a living document we're constantly scanning we're constantly conferring with our local state federal partners to identify resources, additional resources to support businesses. And also we have a business call center. I'm sure you have the number for that

TN: oh, I absolutely do,

BD: And that call center will be available working through the weekend. I know contrary to what some people believe maybe the EOC and the PIO office is a seven day a week operation, our call center our business resource line is available through the weekend ready and waiting for your calls to help you um get to preparation, to get to get to covid prepared.

TN: Awesome and like we said before customers are very excited to to get back to these type of services like what can they do to support these personal care services, salons, barbers, stylists in this reopening phase?

BD: Okay, well you know customers, it's time to tip big. Um make your appointments, i mean in all seriousness you know what these are all the little things that we can do make your appointments go see your stylists follow the rules when you get to the premises and make sure that they're protected and to make sure that the industry is protective. That we don't have to backslide and reclose. Um, so so do that and come back regularly right maintenance right i'm not going to let my roots grow out too long i'll make sure that i see my my my stylist regularly and and tip well and and whatever we can do to just to support these businesses. Don't go out of county. I know people are going to hate me for that but the thing is that like it's really time for us to pull together and really support our local businesses and get there and we're going to do our part to make sure that we continue sharing information and hopefully we could be continue to be the guideposts to let people know that we're heading in the wrong direction or heading in the right direction please heed our call. We wouldn't say that we wouldn't sound our alarm unless it really was a problem and we have to continue to follow the rules follow the guidelines. I know they're really strict right now we've heard from you but we're hoping that it doesn't have to be that way forever. But the only way to get there is to do the absolute best we can at the moment.

TN: Absolutely, we have a lot opening up on Monday, a lot. Is there any type of personal care service that may not be opening up on Monday?

BD: Yes, um at this time services that's directly to the face is not allowed yet. So, eyebrow waxing, beard trimming, um esthetician services, facials, eyelashes, eyelash extensions, those are not allowed at the moment. but you know services hair services nail services um are allowed tattoos are allowed um piercings are allowed so a lot the majority of personal care services are allowed it's it is but the services to the face are not allowed at this time.

TN: Okay, and that makes sense because my understanding too is that you're just getting very close to the individual your eyes are receptacle for this disease and then that the propensity for getting that aerosolized disease is it's still very high. And I know Dr. Cody does not want to take that risk with uh.

BD: Yeah, we're you know we're this is a this is a pandemic that we have never experienced before um of you know here in the county in this way we have never experienced covid-19 before so we're still learning new things about this virus every single day. And so I-I hope that you know we collectively do whatever we can even if it seems really you know even it seems really strict. let's do the right thing you know as we learn more about this virus and learn more about what's happening um and how we can mitigate the risk.

TN: Absolutely, and Betty me and the community can't thank you enough.

BD: Oh, my goodness.

TN: For coming back and delivering this message I think you've you're the new face of the personal care service.

BD: Oh no thank you I I you know I I've been it's a going back to the appreciation i've been very grateful and I’ve had it's been a huge privilege and honor. You know this is my my first career was in the personal care industry and here in hair and makeup. And you know to be able to come full circle now after like multiple iterations of just everything to work with the salons i grew up but to work with individuals I've known my whole life and to meet so many new salons giving such thoughtful thoughtful feedback on how we need to approach this. Just thank you so much to all the salons out there, thank you.

TN: Great message and again Betty, thank you very much.

BD: You're welcome

TN: Uh again this kind of concludes our wonderful time with Betty thank you everyone please continue to visit our website at sccgov.org backlash cv19 for any information or questions you may have for us you can always go to the side link and submit a question specifically and it will be answered by one of our teammates here. Additionally, for those businesses who are getting ready to open up on Monday you can visit our website at covet19prepared.org and you can also contact the business call center at 408-961-5500 for any questions that you may have and please submit your social DIsticing protocols before monday that's very critical for businesses to have in place before opening up. So thank you again and please um please tune in next time

BD: Oh, and customers customers don't forget make your appointments it might be a bit of a wait because everyone made their appointments I know my hairstylist is booked out until October. I will wait for her. So, customers I’m talking about the customers wait for your favorite salon to have a slot for you make your appointments tip them well shower them with lots of love because they take such good care of us. Okay and then stay six feet apart mask Up and minimize your outings as much as possible take care be safe wash your hands.