06.30.20 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

Britt Ehrhardt: My name is Britt Ehrhardt. I'm the Public Information Officer for the Department of Public Health for the County of Santa Clara. Pleased to welcome you here today for a joint announcement from the County Department of Public Health and the County Office of Education, we have three speakers today.

But before I introduce those speakers, I want to explain that as each speaker comes to the podium you'll see them remove their face covering and that's to ensure clear communication and disability accessibility.

We appreciate the journalists attending today, maintaining social distancing. And we also appreciate all of you watching on the livestream maintaining social distancing by watching from home. Thank you for that. So, as I mentioned, we have three speakers today.

First up will be Dr. Sarah Cody, Dr. Cody is health officer for the county of Santa Clara and director of the Public Health Department. Dr. Cody will be followed by Mr. Mary Ann Dewan. Dr. Dewan is the Santa Clara County Superintendent of Schools and in concluding will be president Cindy Chavez, president of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. So, with that, I'll turn it over to Dr. Cody.

Dr. Sara Cody: Good afternoon everyone, thank you so much for being here. As Britt Ehrhardt said, my name is Dr. Sara Cody, I'm the health officer for the County of Santa Clara and it's a pleasure to be back. It's nice actually to be in person, socially distance, but-but in person. So, today we are partnering with the County Office of Education to announce the release of local guidance for a K through 12 public and private schools, in order to facilitate for the safe reopening of schools for this upcoming students and teachers to return to school as soon as possible and under the safest possible conditions.

Today's guidelines include detailed directions for schools across the county on practices that can reduce the risk for both teachers and students during in-class instruction, during bus transportation, recess, and at all other times of the school day. Importantly, this guidance recognizes that the needs of elementary school children are different than the needs of teens in middle school and high school. And the guidance provides a framework than can be adapted to keep both educators and students of all ages as safe as possible.

The guidelines are intended to help school administrators and others put the necessary structures and procedures in place to be ready to re, to reopen. However, whether schools can move forward with reopening for in-person instruction will depend on the containment of COVID-19, in the weeks and months to come. As I've mentioned before we're monitoring a number of factors as we evaluate next steps in responding to this pandemic, including our latest number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. And we will continue to do so. We know that our community deeply values education by working together to suppress this virus to the lowest levels of possible. We can all contribute to our schools being able to reopen for in-person learning.

To this end, we want to strongly encourage everyone to strictly follow social distancing guidelines, wear face coverings, and do their part to protect our whole community now, throughout the summer, and beyond. So, children and teachers can safely return to school and stay there to the extent possible. Please know that the full guidance and additional information for schools is available on our website, I believe starting today.

So, I just like to close by acknowledging the hard work of parents, students, administrators, staff, and everyone else who partnered together to finish out this last school year virtually. Uh, we know that it's not uh-not been easy we really care about students and their education and we hope that the guidance that we're issuing today can help schools prepare to welcome their students back to campus, in an environment that is as safe as possible. Thank you again so much for being here.

Mary Ann Dewan: Thank you so much Dr. Cody, I highly value our partnership and your thoughtful leadership. I do want to let everyone know that we will make the guidance released today as accessible as possible, by including it on both the Santa Clara County Public Health Department web pages as well as the Santa Clara County Office of Education stronger together webpage.

As additionally providing templates and resources to make it easy for schools to adhere to the guidance. I'm extremely grateful for the leadership of our local school board members, our district superintendent, school leaders, and educators, parents, and others that supported our students throughout the closures and who will do so again as schools contemplate reopening this fall.

We are grateful for the deep partnership with the county of Santa Clara, all of the leadership and staff who partner with us so effectively. And with our supervisors who demonstrate their commitment to children and families regularly, especially president Cindy Chavez. Thank you so much for being with us today, Supervisor Cortese, Wasserman, Ellenberg, and Simitian.

From the first Shelter-in-Place order which resulted in school closures that lasted through the remainder of the 2019 2020 school year, the Santa Clara County Office of Education school district schools and staff worked earnestly together to support students and families through a very challenging time.

We continue to learn from distance learning as an educational practice and we can use that learning to provide meaningful education experiences outside the classroom. However, it also put a spotlight on the lack of digital access, equity, and inclusion. And we know that distance learning will be a component of our learning for the long term. We're grateful for the partnerships and the leadership from the Board of Supervisors, including a supervisor Cortese to help us address the digital divide. And we know that distance learning is not an equal substitute for in-person education.

We encourage the implementation of an education model that recognizes that in-person instruction is essential to supporting the academic and social development milestones that are crucial to academic progress.

While we can and must continue to monitor conditions of COVID-19 we cannot know yet how those changing conditions will affect the offerings of instruction this fall. We know that there are academic and social benefits of in-person instruction.

Further, the new Education Code prompted by assembly bill in-person offerings and the important balance of health and safety of students staff and community. These include, in person instruction offers teachers opportunities to engage with students in real-time to provide feedback. In person instruction offers students the ability to interact with peers and learn from each other. And in-person instruction allows students who do not have access to digital devices, internet connectivity to engage and access the curriculum and address potential learning losses that may have occurred during shelter-in-place.

We will continue to provide students with meaningful educational experiences and essential services that are informed by the safety guidance from the Department of Public Health. This includes ensuring the safety and well-being of all students by adhering strictly to the guidance, including enforcement of face coverings protocols for larger attended classes. And providing access to distance learning options for students for whom that option is best.

The guidance provided by the Public Health Department will allow all of our schools to plan effectively for the possibility of school campuses offering in-person instruction in the 2020-2021 school year to the greatest extent practicable. While also offering remote instruction as necessary. The health and safety of students, staff, and community remain top of mind. Schools will need to adhere to the requirements and study the guidance provided by the Department of Public Health and apply them to their local conditions. I urge all of our community members to help protect the health and wellness of our community by adhering to physical distancing, wearing a face covering in public spaces, and engaging in frequent handwashing.

Cindy Chavez: Well good afternoon everyone, and I am really honored to be here today. And I want to just tell you a little bit about why. When COVID-19 hit our community there were many many organizations and institutions that stepped up right away to figure out what they could do to help. But I can't think of a single organization besides the Santa Clara County Office of Education that was not only stepping up right away to look at how they could help their students, but the families of their students.

Under Dr. Dewan's leadership, the 31 school districts in our County fed and continued to feed many many families. And and not just the children, but their families as well. In addition to that, they played a leadership role in drawing attention to something that we already knew but really is a crisis. And that is a crisis of the digital divide.

The County of Santa Clara last week took an action to provide 11,000 Chromebooks and hotspots to children throughout Santa Clara County that do not have access to the Internet. So, when children were not allowed any longer to go to school we needed a tool to make sure children could keep up. And as a community, as Dr. Cody said, we deeply care about education. And closing the schools I think was a probably one of the hardest decisions.

I, although Dr. Cody has had many that she had to consider as she made the community safe. Here is my message to you all. And it's really in two parts. Part one, we want more than anything else to open back up and get our children back to school. But what that requires of us as a community, is even with restrictions easing in some ways, social distancing, washing your hands, and not touching your face, and really sheltering as often as possible and having as little contact with others is the only way we will continue to fight the virus.

Dr. Cody has made it clear to me and to many others in our community, that the better we are in our numbers the less people that we have that are COVID positive, the less people we have in our hospital, the more PPE that we have available in case of an emergency, the more likely it is that every one of our children will get back to school in the fall. This requires a great deal of responsibility from each of us. From each of our businesses to make that happen. I just want to this, is my second message. My second message is, it really has been always up to us.

We were able to, again under the leadership of Dr. Cody and Dr. Dewan and many, many others to really flatten the curve in this part of the country, while others were unable to do that. And we saved thousands of lives, I believe that. But we still have more work to do. And I know people are tired and I know they miss their families and I know parents want their children to be back at school. We're trying to create as many safe options as we can. But we, it, the control of what happens to our fate can't be up to the virus. It has to be up to each one of us and our individual behavior, our businesses behavior, and how we really reemerge in a world that is going to be with COVID-19 for some time to come.

So, with that I'm happy to stand here with the County Office of Education. I am confident in the protocols that they are putting out with our County health department. Because I have a lot of confidence in these strong, smart women. But also, I know that they've really put pen to paper and thought. And gotten feedback from many, many in the community to put the best protocols forward, the safest protocols forward we can. Thank you for letting me join you.

BE: Thank you for those inspiring comments president Chavez. At this time we'll have the opportunity for questions for Dr. Cody, Dr. Dewan, and president Chavez. Following that question-and-answer session we have available spokespeople in Spanish, Vietnamese, and Chinese. And we'll welcome them up to the podium after the Q&A session.

I did want to mention for those watching on the live stream, the guidance document that's being discussed today is now live on the Public Health Department website that address is, sccgov.org/cv19schools. Again, sccgov.org/cv19schools.

And as each question is asked, I'll repeat it back so those on the live stream can hear the question as well. Is there a question?

 The question was, whether students will need to have their temperature taken when they arrive at school.

Dr. SC: Thank you, a hallmark of these guidelines is flexibility. So, if the school wishes to implement temperature screening they can. We actually are not requiring it, it's a consideration. What's most important is that students are screened for symptoms. That's much more likely to identify a student or staff member who may be ill.

So the question is, how soon will parents know about the first day of school. And I want to amplify some of President Chavez comments. Who-who you articulate things so beautifully. I would say that that is really up to us.

The virus has done a great job adapting to us and moving in stealth fashion through our community. It is up to us to adapt to this virus and to do everything possible to suppress the levels. The better that we do that, the more sure we can be that schools can safely open for in-person learning. And so again, we need to limit the amount of interaction we have from people, from outside our household. Always wear a face covering, always be at least at least six feet apart, and wash our hands frequently. If we all do that I believe we can suppress the virus back to the levels where we had it and students can safely return for in classroom learning, which we all value very much.

Dr. MD: Additionally, we would add that now that this guidance is available to schools, especially the sections around their requirements for how in person will look. Schools will be able to finalize their plans and will be able to in the very near term share with parents what schedules and opportunities for in person instruction will be available. That information will be shared within those local school communities in the coming weeks.

Uh, it, we have asked all schools to use that information including all k12 public charter and private schools to develop their plans and to share those plans with parents as soon as possible. That is not a guarantee that the conditions will allow us to reopen in person, but we do expect schools to have plans for in-person to the maximum extent practicable. And to communicate to parents what those plans are, what those schedules will be in the event that we can reopen.

Thank you. The question was, have schools been asked to prepare for multiple possibilities including the possibility of full distance learning or full remote learning. And yes, indeed. We have asked all schools to plan for the possibilities of in-person as the guidance and requirements allow. That could include a hybrid. Additionally, we have asked schools to be prepared for the possibility that they may need to do full distance or remote learning, um either at the start of the school year or temporarily due to temporary school closures or long-term should our conditions worsen in Santa Clara County.

Thank you.

BE: Thank you for the question. The question was about a typical school day and how it might look different from what we saw previously.

Dr. MD: I love that question. It's a, it's a great way to help people visualize. So, a couple of things that will, parents should be expecting and that students might find different. The first thing is that there will be more social distancing and physical distancing. As children enter schools at the elementary level there will be an expectation for staple core cohorts, which might mean that some classrooms will need to remove furniture, desk will be in rows facing the front so that they're not facing each other, children and staff will be wearing face coverings, some of the schedules will be different, and there will be some limitations on some of the activities that schools may have been able to do pre-COVID that now may not be allowed or may need to be done only virtually.

Um when, and the question was, are there examples of some of those activities? So, one example might be choir for example, because we know that choir does pose some particular risk higher risk and the transmission of particles and things in the air. And so that is an activity that would not be permitted and if it is happening would be done virtually or individually. That information is in the document as a requirement.

We have a next question please? The question was about athletics and high school sports. And as mentioned in the document there'll be forthcoming guidance for athletics and sports. Could we have the next question? And the question was for Dr. Cody about the role of children and young people in transmitting the disease.

Dr. SC: Thank you, we have learned quite a bit about COVID since the beginning of the pandemic when we closed schools. The-the working hypothesis was that this virus was a lot like flu. And we know that when kids get the flu in school, that it spreads. and more of us in the community get it. As well, what we're learning so far with COVID, is that young children aren't sort of the engines of transmission as they are with flu. In fact, it's probably more likely that an adult would spread to a child than that a child would spread to an adult or that a child would spread to a child.

And so, this understanding of the way the virus is-is behaving really informed how we wrote our guidance. So, there's a few principles that we lay out in the guidance and I'll just go over them briefly. For younger children in elementary school the framework is really around what we call, stable cohorts. So you really want to keep those kids together with their teacher.

We also strongly recommend that they wear a face mask and stay apart as much as possible, but we know that young children are young children and that might not be as possible. So, they're in stable cohorts we're also given what we're learning about COVID, know that they're probably less likely to spread it among themselves and to their teacher. Not to say that they can't, but less likely in contrast like a high schooler, probably more like an adult in and being able to spread the virus.

And so, they're the principal that's most important is that high schoolers wear face coverings all the time, that's a requirement, and maintain that social distance from each other all the time, also a requirement. And so, those classrooms will need to be set up a bit differently than an elementary school classroom.

The question is about, how much children are contributing to the pandemic and how much will reopening of schools have an impact on the pandemic. And the answer is, in this country we don't know yet. We have however developed guidelines with the best science that we have to make schools as safe as they can be.

And we've also committed ourselves to continual learning and changing the guidelines as we need to, to ensure that everyone is as safe as possible, mm-hmm.

BE: Can we have the next question? Okay, I think we've gotten through all the questions. So, at this point we'll move to the content in Spanish, Vietnamese, and Chinese.