12.14.20 Press Event Quarantine & Vaccine Updates

The County of Santa Clara
December 14, 2020
Press Event: Quarantine and COVID-19 Vaccine Updates

Hello everyone and thanks for being here today. We have updates from the County Santa Clara Public Health Department with regards to the quarantine situation and also with also with regards to the vaccine. Without further ado, we'll introduce Dr. Sarah Rudman to provide updates on the quarantine situation.

Dr. Rudman: Thank you so much thank you everyone for being here today. I'm here to announce new COVID-19 quarantine guidance. This guidance takes effect immediately and is aligned with the California Department of Public Health guidance that is also being announced today. This new guidance shortens the length of quarantine from 14 days to 10 days from last exposure. For people who remain asymptomatic during their quarantined, people period and this is both for those who have traveled and quarantined after traveling, and for those who have come into close contact with somebody who has tested positive for COVID-19. However, because somebody can still get sick as far out as 14 days after their last exposure, we still recommend that everyone monitor themselves for symptoms through the full 14 days from the last time they were exposed or from when they returned from traveling. This new guidance also recommends that people who are close contacts to a case of COVID-19 get tested on day six or later after their last exposure. If testing is done earlier than day six we recommend that people be tested again towards the end of their quarantine those who have symptoms should however get tested right away at this time healthcare workers, and first responders are instructed to continue following existing guidance for early return to work considerations, and additional guidance for healthcare workers and first responders will be forthcoming. Right now, we're in a critical phase of our response to the pandemic, and especially as cases continue to increase rapidly across our region, we need everyone to closely follow these public health guidances in order to slow the spread of the virus. As we learn more about this virus, we will continue to update our recommendations in order to have the most effective and safe quarantine guidances in place. As always, we make these decisions in consultation with our public health partners, including the California Department of Public Health. and surrounding state and local health officers we encourage the public to continue staying up to date on the latest guidance and more Information can be found on home isolation and quarantine by going to the county's website at sccgov.org/coronavirus.

In addition folks can find information on testing who should be tested and where to get tested by going to sccfreetest.org. Thank you.

We'll now bring up Dr. Marty Fenstersheib to discuss the updates with the vaccine situation.

Dr. Marty Fenstersheib: Thank you. Well we are really thrilled today because we will be receiving our first 17,550 doses of Pfizer vaccine, and we expect arrival of the vaccine into our county this week. We are following the priorities that were determined by the CDC in the State, and we will be vaccinating health care workers, as well as, residents of skilled nursing facilities. Those are the two priorities that have been set by this by the CDC this is only the very first excuse me this is only the very first allocation and more vaccine will be coming over the next several weeks and months to eventually vaccinate everyone in our community we also expect to receive 39,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine next week and that will be pending the approval of the Moderna vaccine through the emergency youth youth authorization excuse me emergency use authorization process and that will be next week on the 17th with the fda we have been working closely through this process with the providers in our community as well as a community stakeholders group and that's to help ensure that information is shared back and forth, and we are getting information from the community. As far as issues that have come up around vaccination or vaccination hesitancy, we need to remember though that for the next several months, as the vaccines become more available, we all still need to wear our masks, stay socially distant from one another, and not to gather. We are hoping that these vaccines will eventually spell the end of this pandemic. Let's all stay safe, however, and be patient while we wait our turn to receive the vaccine. Thank you.

We'll now go to question and answer session. We will start over here, with ...

abc7 for the initial 17 550 uh kaiser dose allocation that's coming this week is the recommendation to vaccinate uh 17 550 people or is it to do half of that amount and save the other half for the weeks to come to that second dose can you just kind of get some clarification on the expectation for that sure the issues over around the clarification of whether the vaccine that we're getting is going to be used for first dose and second dose the answer is no this is going to be used just for the first dose we have been directed that all of our allocations initially are to be used as a first dose for everyone receiving it and then we will then receive the second dose of vaccine so we will not be holding back half of the vaccine for those that have received the first dose those vaccines should be coming and that just reminds me that all of the these two pfizer vaccine and moderna vaccines require a two dose regimen separated by three to four weeks depending on the vaccine doctor uh who comes next after healthcare workers in skilled nursing facilities and how do you make that determination the prioritization is done by the federal government the cdc and its committee called acip the immunization practices committee committee and that will also be confirmed by the state uh so we haven't heard what the next um priority groups will be but we assume that if after all healthcare workers and the people in skilled nursing and long-term care that we will see a priority coming eventually for the frontline workers and eventually for the people over 65 and those with other types of illnesses comorbid conditions thank you so with more than 2 000 daily cases over the weekend piranha county some may be wondering why you're reducing the days for quarantine from 14 to 10 and does this also apply to people who have traveled more than 150 miles to get to the county like people coming off the plane will they also be required to only do 10 days now i'll answer your second question first yes this new change in quarantine guidance applies to both people who are quarantining because they traveled and to people who are quarantining because they were a close contact to a case of coven the reason for this change especially now amidst this surge we're seeing the largest serve we've ever had here in santa clara county is that we constantly want to take into account all of the best science we have and find the balance between the benefit to safety of quarantine and keeping people from getting sick and the benefit of getting people back to work when it's safe to do so or back to school when it's safe to do so and we feel the science that the cdc shared with us over the last several weeks confirmed by the california department of public health review tells us that there's a minimal loss to safety by making the change from 14 to 10 days while there may be a benefit to getting folks back out into the workforce but during that time we do still ask people to monitor for symptoms because there is some risk of very late infection in that 11 we're to 14 day yeah yeah so what is the specific recommendation it is 10 days now and then a negative test taken on day 6 or afterwards that's my first one and then for some people quarantine is a luxury that they just don't have can talk about the quarantined shelters that are set up for people that either live with too many people in a household or maybe are homeless sure to your first question the exact new recommendation is that anyone who has either traveled outside the county or who has been exposed to somebody who tested positive for covin should quarantine for at least 10 days after their last exposure and that is regardless of whether they have no test or a negative test during that period as long as they don't have symptoms if somebody does have symptoms we ask that they both get tested right away and that they also test negative and be 24 hours symptom free in addition to that 10-day period so um we also finally recommend that that test ideally should fall during the last four days of quarantine day six or later to your second question you make a really good point that quarantine is difficult it is not easy to stay home when people have jobs to go to school to go to loved ones to care for and that's why the county has set up very extensive resources to try our best to support people during that time these are both financial resources for folks who may be at risk of losing pay while they quarantine regulatory resources and enforcement in order to make sure that employers are providing employees with all of the supports that they're entitled to and individual supports things like food being delivered to the houses of people who can't leave or assisting wherever we can with things like elder care or other supports that said we ask people to do the best they can to quarantine and stay safe during this period even though we understand that that is a lot to ask of people one of the things you didn't mention specifically was from television

sure so the county has developed many hotels that we're able to use both for people who have tested positive people who may be about to become ill because they've either developed symptoms or been exposed or people who are otherwise unhoused and at risk of becoming exposed or being part of an outbreak if they're in a more confined setting and so the county is proud to be able to offer this to anyone who has uh currently no place to stay or is at risk of losing their place to stay in addition to many people who have already tested positive or who have been exposed further details of exactly that program is something roger can help support you with later nbc

first next week you're anticipating the 39

yes so the question was 39 000 doses from modernity coming next week will they be used for first jobs and the answer is yes so we're gonna wait for the second shot which will be three to four weeks later then we will get the vaccine for everyone who received the first dose will get their vaccine later on when it's time for their second

very interested in dose process can you describe i mean it doesn't [ __ ] you know this morning something like that can you go through the walk us through the process of getting it out of which hospitals yeah so the vaccine is shipped directly from the manufacturer and we've seen news reports all day today seeing the vaccine arriving at various places it will arrive by a fedex and we will get the vaccine at the in the public health department and also it will be shipped directly to the various hospitals once the hospitals get their vaccine then they have their uh their process that they go through in order to provide vaccine to the hospital workers

sorry so all hospitals all hospitals in santa clara county will be receiving vaccine they have all registered with the state of california and have given their priority needs and the numbers that they will need the first doses will not fulfill all of the needs of all of the hospitals on this first round and that will happen over subsequent weeks dr marti of the 17 550 doses of how many are going to the dmc system and is it safe to assume that the bmc system is going to receive the most number of doses of the initial allotment from pfizer and secondly how many healthcare workers are there in santa clara county okay so all of the hospitals as i was saying submitted their needs for um the numbers that they need basically to vaccinate all of their healthcare workers and so valley medical center along with stanford kaiser and all of the other hospitals did in the first round we proportioned the vaccine according to the need and what we were given and so that will occur subsequently with all of the additional recommendations we that we are getting we are also eliciting information and support from the community eventually so that we can be equitable in our vaccine and way have some weight to the vaccine allocations according to the needs and those most affected in the community as far as the number of healthcare workers we have estimated there are approximately 130 000 healthcare workers in the community and but all of those are not in the hospitals about 70 about 70 000 are in hospitals and the others are in other clinics and other facilities such as dentists and other health care personnel so they will eventually get their vaccine as we get more and allocate it accordingly abc

can you i mean last week we were down to this 31 icu beds can you give us a sense of the picture now and uh do you fear it's going to get worse as more families get together in christmas and is there a contingency plan there was talk of moving some patients out of the county or opening a regional center what are some of the contingency plans to deal with capacity so i'll defer to our information team to get you exact up-to-date numbers today on bed availability as well as explicit contingency plans around providing patient care although right now i think it's important for patients to understand that anyone who is ill is still able to get the care they need they should still go to the hospital they should still call for emergency response if they need it to your second question i do still fear things are going to get worse before they get better and that's part of why we're in the midst of a stay-at-home order that is urging everyone to really minimize the types of activity they have outside their home and the types of interactions they have with as much as possible in order to be able to respond to that yes the county has multiple layers of contingency plan everything from supporting people during isolation and quarantine to supporting our hospitals and other clinical care settings in order to be able to make sure we can both reduce transmission as much as possible and meet the clinical need that we're seeing for our county residents

so we've heard about outbreaks of group settings in care facilities homeless shelters and homeless camps there was a gentleman and i don't expect you to know the specifics of this case homeless positive tests sick enough to be hospitalized as a friday and then discharge from that hospital back into a camp subsequently the county did connect him to the hotel room but i'm just wondering is that an example of the system failing initially and then recovering or how do you see that kind of scenario where someone who you know just is homeless and he's a known case and is discharged back into a setting where it could be spread without it so while i can't speak to any specific case um i could say the county has multiple layers of protections in place to prevent outbreaks of our most vulnerable populations whether that be folks in homeless shelters or skilled nursing facilities or homeless encampments as you described one of those is before someone gets sick helping to try to house folks who are unstably housed right now the next is trying to spread people out who are in our shelters both by using those hotel spaces and by creating social distancing within the shelters as much as possible and then as you described we also have systems in place to identify people when they're sick and don't have a place to go if they are leaving the hospital get them to one of those hotel rooms as seamlessly as possible or if we recognize somebody at home trying to find them and link them into a hotel room as quickly as possible while this system is working overtime to meet that need for everyone we would encourage that anyone who needs that leave a message because we have been able to get back to people very quickly if they leave voicemails for us but it does happen sometimes that the line is busy when folks call so if they're able to leave a message for us yes we're able to get back in touch with folks and get them into that supportive system that they need we have

but time and time again even last sunday calgary chapel is having a bunch of hundreds of people there many without masks you guys have the authority to stop it what's going on that could be a secret of that um i will defer to our legal experts and dr cody to talk about any enforcement or regulatory activity i can say that the public health department's response and contact tracing to be able to ensure everyone understands the instructions of the stay-at-home order and why they're so important to protect their health and has the resources they need to be able to follow those guidance those are things that we continue to improve every day and to work to provide for everyone

thank you to our doctors for their time thank you for the media for being here and have a good rest of the day and we'll provide more updates as we have them for you thank you