San Diego Sees 8 Coronavirus Outbreaks In 7 Days, Triggering County Action

Speaker 1: 00:00 As we end another week of life with COVID-19 San Diego County is keeping a close eye on how reopening businesses is affecting the spread of the virus. Some of the warning indicators already call for a slowdown of plans to reopen here were the latest on what we know so far is KPBS reporter, Matt Hoffman. Thanks for joining us, Matt Alison. So the number of community outbreaks, it was one of the 13 things that the County is monitoring and it's reached a trigger point that is going to pause reopening, tell us what is a community outbreak and how does it act as a trigger? Speaker 2: 00:33 Yeah. So when we're talking about community outbreaks, Alison we're talking about, you know, outbreaks that things like restaurants or things like businesses. This could be workplaces from, you know, the auto shop to, you know, even a business like KPBS. Um, and basically a community outbreak is at least three cases. Now we've heard from health officials in terms of things like restaurants that it's not outbreaks happening with people who are eating at the restaurants it's with the back end sort of kitchen staff. So we haven't seen any large outbreaks and they say majority of these community outbreaks are, you know, four to five people, although they have seen some larger ones, but these ones we're talking about here, four to five cases, we're sitting in these outbreaks. Speaker 1: 01:06 And how could it pause the reopening process at this point? Speaker 2: 01:09 Well, yeah, so basically how it acts as a trigger is that they're, you know, when the, when they look at community outbreaks, it could be an indicator of what's to come in terms of like, we had these community outbreaks. Now we're seeing some cases, but this could lead to a spike in hospitalizations. And that's why health officials say this is serious. Cause things like hospitalizations, things like ICU capacity, those are also triggers too. And I mean, our ICU capacity right now is at 32% of scale up. Now, when we originally entered this whole, um, attestation plan to move forward with reopening, um, you know, the trigger was that that ICU capacity was not able to scale up to 30% that we would have to, that that would be a trigger we would roll backwards. Now that's been changed to 20%. So as of right now, we're in the clear for ICU capacity, but health officials sort of have, um, the freedom to retool these triggers and change them as we move forward to the reopening, they can make the thresholds larger in terms of community outbreaks in terms of ICU capacity in terms of hospital capacity. Speaker 2: 02:03 And dr. Ruins says, while she's comfortable with these triggers now that, uh, they are subject to change, Speaker 1: 02:08 Yes, County supervisor, Nathan Fletcher said he was concerned that the outbreaks could lead to an increase in hospitalizations. Here's what he said. We take this with an understanding that it could be an indication that we could be heading in a direction that is not positive. So what are some of the slowdowns, what are some of the businesses that may not be reopening as a result of this? Speaker 2: 02:32 Right. So, you know, today, Friday, you know, we were scheduled to continue with our reopening and we are continuing with these scheduled reopening. So that today that's like things like tattoo shops, nail salons, massage therapy, businesses, but in terms of some of the businesses that are going to be on hold, at least for now, and I'll keep in mind, health officials said that some of these outbreaks would drop off their seven day map. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that they're not still active, but it drops off their seven day map for like concern. You know, they're, they're not just looking at a day snapshot, they're looking at a week snapshot. Um, but some of these businesses, at least as of right now that are on hold. So like if today the state said, you know, nightclubs and concert venues can reopen on Monday, the County would not adopt that. So things that are waiting, things like nightclubs, concert venues, you know, live audience sports. So here in San Diego, you know, Petco park, we have the Padres up North in Del Mar you know, horse racing season is just around the corner. You know, there's not going to be any fans in there. It sounds like. So those are some of the things that we're waiting in terms of reopening. Speaker 1: 03:25 So things could change over the weekend. Speaker 2: 03:28 Oh, things can definitely change over the weekend. I mean, things could change as, as of today. I mean, we could have no outbreaks today. And then we fall back into that safe zone in terms of community outbreaks, or we, you know, as of yesterday we could have more community outbreaks today and we're still stuck in this stage two. And, and, you know, keep in mind, the doctor will move in the County public health officer. She kind of, um, can decide where, where she wants to go. Well, you know what pauses she wants to put on? You know, you know, we could have walked even more backwards in terms of restrictions, but as of right now, um, you know, sort of just putting a pause on things, reminding people, you know, when you're going out there, wash your hands, you know, face coverings are so, so important. Speaker 2: 04:02 They say, you know, look, a lot of these outbreaks are happening because people they're not wearing face coverings. And you know, they're out at things like social clubs and they're there, they're interacting with people within six feet and they're not wearing face coverings. And they're saying, look, you have to wear face coverings. The more face coverings you wear, the more freedom we have, the more people's social distance, the more we can just get through this thing. So they're really asking for people's help. And they want to remind people that the restrictions are in place so that people can go out there and, and re enjoy the activities that they do. Speaker 1: 04:27 The County has suggested that it might step up enforcements of the public health orders. Do we know exactly what they mean by that? Speaker 2: 04:35 No, we don't. Um, super resonates and Fletcher mentioned that yesterday. And so basically my question was, what trends are you seeing with businesses if you're going to be stepping up targeted enforcement and sort of what they were saying in terms of targeted enforcement, they were talking about going after bad actors. Like they say, they're in terms of like trends, they're seeing, you know, they're not, you know, you know, X business, you know, this business isn't social distancing or this business isn't following the mass mandate. Um, and it's worth noting too, that all the outbreaks they're saying they're not connected and they're all geographically spread out. So we're not seeing any connections with the outbreaks here. Speaker 1: 05:04 So, so Matt reminders, uh, there are a number of statistics that are being watched here. Where are we at right now in terms of confirmed cases and deaths in the County? Speaker 2: 05:16 Well, you know, we, we just reached the 10,000 milestone with cases and we had a new daily high with 238 new cases of COVID-19 reported yesterday. Now, keep in mind, testing is going up. And we're really looking at those percentage of positive cases. That's one of the indicators that the County is looking at, you know, statewide about four and a half percent here in our County. It goes anywhere from three and a half to 4%, um, also in a digital, additional desk reporter yesterday. So right now we're at 331 deaths countywide due to COVID-19. Speaker 1: 05:42 And another significant milestone was that the governor yesterday made face coverings mandatory in the state of California, although that doesn't change things much in San Diego County, right? Speaker 2: 05:52 Yeah. Since may one, we've had a mandate to wear face coverings, basically when, when you can't keep distance from somebody. So, you know, when you're out exercising, you don't have to wear it. Um, as long as you're not around people, but yeah, the state order, you know, basically, you know, caudifying more of this and putting more restrictions, uh, for inside, you know, basically saying, look, whenever you're inside, whenever you're waiting in line to go into business, you must wear that face covering, especially if you're within six feet of somebody, you must wear that face covering. So just new language updating that. Now it's a statewide order. We've been speaking with Matt Hoffman, KPBS news reporter. Thanks Matt. Thanks, Alison.