08.19.20 COVID-19 Briefing Live Stream Transcript

The County of Santa Clara
August 19, 2020
Live Stream - Briefing Live stream
10:00am PT

Larry Little: Hi everybody thank you for joining us i'm larry little i'm joined this morning by betty young and we are following several situations this morning and we'll be providing information on fires evacuations air quality also information on resources but we want to let you know prior to this broadcast that we did remove our face covering so everyone including the american sign language interpreters can clearly understand and properly communicate the information that we will be sharing this morning betty a lot going on last night power out in san jose i was without power for about five hours and this morning we are dealing with fires around the county and we have a map here actually of the location of some of those fires happening right now here in santa clara county can you just give us some information on what's happening

Betty Duong: Thank you larry for this opportunity and thank you for joining us this morning we do have a little bit some fire updates for everyone this morning um first off so you know the the the cal fire has has named this the santa clara unit lightning complex which is approximately 20 separate fires broken out into three zones the three zones you see on the map there the size of these fires combined is currently at 85 thousand acres with a containment rate of five percent um the you know the the evacuation orders are in place for multiple areas in alameda Stanislaus contra costa and santa clara county and we really encourage everyone for regular and immediate updates on evacuations please visit at cal underscore fire that's a resource at cal underscore fire that is their twitter account their twitter twitter handle um i suggest we recommend that everyone follow it throughout this event they will be providing cal fire providing the most up-to-date information through their twitter account

LL: So possible evacuations for people living in those areas and probably a good idea just to you know stay tuned be alert of what's happening around you and just go ahead and leave on your own

BD: yeah

LL: For your safety you know as well as we're going to be dealing with heat as well so we have cooling centers all around the county to help people avoid having heat related illnesses I know someone sent a question yesterday if as if you can take your asking if you could take your pet there and i don't believe that pets are being accepted at those locations at this time but you can check with the local animal shelters to get yourself out of the heat and of course get your pets out of the heat as well of course i stated we're dealing with those power outages as well some related to the fires that we are  having so let's talk about air quality because i know people the power went out yesterday and people wanted to exercise all of a sudden everybody was outside going for a walk and it's just not a good idea to be outside during this time.

BD: Right unfortunately at this time the air quality as of um right before the beginning of this broadcast this facebook live broadcast we received confirmation um from the bay area air quality management district that air quality levels are at 156 which is officially an unhealthy range so we are advising everyone to stay indoors set your air conditioner or car vents if you're in your car  car vents to to recirculate air to prevent um the the the entry of like air coming from the outside the air quality is not healthy right now for those who are particularly vulnerable so for example the elderly those with respiratory issues asthmatic issues children and pets should all should all remain indoors with the windows and doors closed and we recommend that for everybody so for folks who are working outside today I you know i know that a lot of our hair stylists and our nail technicians are doing outdoor services our restaurants are providing outdoor dining if at all possible to limit the amount of time you are outdoors today maybe today is a day to to you know shorten the hours of operation just because the air quality is is not at a healthy rate right now we want to put your health first i know this sounds like a lot of bad news i just want to say that you know in the last six months of being here at the emergency operations center um we're no stranger to challenges and bad news but what we're also no stranger to is the resilience of our county and the resilience of our community um and we're going to get through this we're going to take care of each other so check on your neighbors check on the elder your elderly neighbors in my neighborhood i have a lot of neighbors who have limited English proficiency so i check in on them too to make sure that they have you know i text them I call them to make sure that they have the information they need and i help find it however i can but just check on your neighbors and this is them this is the time to really take care of yourself and take care of one another.

LL: and a lot of people think that just because they're wearing a mask they can withstand the the smoke inhalation that they're going to experience and that's just not the case you should stay indoors today.

BD: Stay indoors today i mean the air quality does have a number there's a significant presence of part particulates in the air from ashes maybe you've noticed this morning the ashes you know a layer of ash on your car or in your front lawn i mean that's in the air right now we don't want anyone breathing that end and a face covering which has been typically advised to from for pro to prevent the spread of COVID is not going to be as helpful in preventing like the inhalation of particulates in the air yeah due to the fires.

LL: Yeah so a lot happening uh today so if possible at all possible uh stay inside even in the studio right I can smell smoke right now and it's just it's so annoying.

BD: Yeah you know we were originally going to talk about i mean today's original program was about the community health and business engagement team was which is a team of county canvassers who are being deployed into communities to you know while practicing proper social distancing um they're going to be passing they were they're going to be passing out face coverings resource cards information they're going to be equipped with ipads to help locate resources or pull up information for those they interact with they went out yesterday it was a good I mean it was really hot and the air quality was already challenging but they went out yesterday they're amazing people and we had to stop them they wanted to go out today again just because yesterday was so fruitful a lot of people were really lacking information and resources and they wanted to go out today again we had to like give them a hard no that you cannot go out um because today's air quality is so is so is so low the quality is is not it's very it's very low quality right now it's unhealthy but our county family and county team is at the santa clara county fairgrounds testing site today outdoors readily available providing COVID-19 testing for anyone who has an appointment or is going to be biking or walking in so i want to give a shout out to those folks that um that despite the air quality they're still out there still running the the fairgrounds testing site.

LL: And betty we're going to come back we're going to bring you back on friday to talk about that outreach program that's happening to lower the spread of COVID-19 in east san jose as well as the south county area mainly gilroy speaking of COVID-19 let's go ahead and take a look at our data dashboard numbers right now we have a total number of cumulative cases of 14 872 unfortunately we do have four new deaths bringing that total to who have lost loved ones due to COVID-19 and our hospital numbers are going up too so we want to remind people to follow the guidelines and protocols for COVID as well i know we can get distracted by uh everything that's happening around us the fires the air quality the heat but COVID is still here

BD: COVID is still here and it does it does make things a little more challenging i mean i think last time we had a situation where there were fires and air quality was was just at an unhealthy level you know i my family and i would go to the mall and take advantage of the free air conditioning or sit in the movie theaters i know that's not an option now um so to the we still yes that we to the best of your ability please continue to um maintain social distancing physical distancing from other folks other people who are not part of your household but stay indoors as much as you can if you have an air conditioning unit have that thing cranked up and on a recirculation mode so that there's not outside air coming in i don't have air conditioning so i don't know what mode those look like but all my windows are closed with my air filters running at my house right now. And if you haven't done so already please also register for alert scc dot of the alerts sec system so if you go to alertscc.com you can register your phone number and your email and what that will do is that our accounting system will be able to provide you immediate up-to-date um information relating to the fires relating to covid relating to any type of emergency event happening in the county

LL: And we are going to be updating the information as well on our social media pages here at public health to keep people in the know of what's happening with everything that we are currently monitoring and you said one thing that's particularly very important please check on our elderly uh community members here in the county yeah so any any more information you need to share regarding our emergency.

BD: Everything well i mean I can't stress the importance of signing up for alertscc.com especially if we pull back to the map of fires if you're in any anywhere near these hot zones um i'm looking at you know the the the families and communities along so make sure that you sign up for alert scc.com you register there if there's any evacuation notices for your area it will come through alert scc it'll come through multiple channels but alert cc will be part of the first messenger um the first delivery of information that you'll get if you are in an area that requires evacuation and on that related note um we do recommend those who are around and are near the hot zones to have a go bag ready i never expected to be on on any type of platform talking about a go bag but you know we want to be prepared so you know a standard go bag should include battery powered radio a battery powered radio and extra batteries a flashlight with extra batteries lightweight blankets emergency information for your family inc for yourself and your family including insurance policies a list of medications and correct dosage and doctor's names and personal care items such as toothbrushes soap extra glasses etc a first aid kit a whistle a change of clothing and non-perishable snacks and um you know our office of emergency management here at the county is you know in place to respond to these events and they're providing information um um on you know they're providing information to us throughout the day to share with you all so we'll be certainly doing our best here to make sure that um timely and up-to-date information is readily available as soon as it is available to us so please stay tuned stay stay aware have a go bag ready um and you know if you're in or near the hot zone sign up for alert scc you'll get the most up-to-date information immediately and to learn more about wildlife preparedness wildfire i'm sorry wildlife and wildfire to learn more about wildfire preparedness you can go to www.ready4wildfire.org. And just a reminder again to stay indoors as much as possible if you have an outdoor business maybe consider rolling back the hours scaling down operations today i know that's i mean i know it's a tough time for all of our businesses to be functioning during this time but your health does come first and the air is just not healthy today um so please take care of yourself please stay cool check on your neighbors check on your elderly friends family members and neighbor i'll be checking on my you know my neighbors who have limited English proficiency and make sure that they have the information they need um and um i wish you all i just hope every I wish you all good health um but i know that we are a resilient county we will get through this and we will do it taking care of ourselves and taking care of each other i believe that.

LL: All right thanks so much betty and thanks everyone for watching today be careful take care of yourself we're still in a COVID-19 period and the last thing we want to do is uh have you ill and or and overwhelm our health care systems here because they are dealing with a lot right now thanks for watching facebook live in spanish is coming up at 11 and facebook live in vietnamese is on Thursdays at 10 o'clock thanks for watching have a good day bye.