Bars, Restaurants Pay Price For California Virus Surge

Speaker 1: 00:00 Governor Gavin Newsome today rolled out a public service announcement campaign to strongly urge Californians to wear their masks and keep their distance. During a spike. In coronavirus cases, statewide some $37 million has been received. Newsome said to fund the series of TV and radio spots, plus billboards and social media messages, all to underscore the importance of wearing masks, washing hands, keeping proper distances, Speaker 2: 00:27 Trying to make this as simplistic as we can, but as pointed as we can, as a reminder of the significance we place on what we referred to as a non pharmaceutical intervention, that is the most impactful outside of staying at home. Outside of practicing the physical distancing, wearing a mask is foundational. And again, it's mandatory here in the state of California. Speaker 1: 00:52 Newsome emphasize it's a moment it's not permanent, but we must get through it together. New. Some also said if education and encouragement don't work, there's always the use of citations and fines for businesses and individuals violating state mandates. It's up to local officials. The governor emphasized to follow through as we head into the 4th of July holiday weekend, Newsome has ordered 19 counties to close certain businesses, including indoor restaurants, movie theaters, and museums. San Diego County is not one of them, but local public health officials issued their own restrictions. Joining me now to discuss what enforcement will look like is San Diego County undersheriff Michael Barnett. Welcome to the program. Thank you, Mark. It's a pleasure to be with you this morning. We'll start with these renewed restrictions. What are the latest rules put back in place by San Diego County public health officials? Basically they apply to restaurants, bars, wineries, distilleries, and breweries. Speaker 1: 01:52 Essentially those places have to be closed between 10:00 PM and 5:00 AM every day, and there will no longer be bar service. Um, so if people are gonna drink alcoholic beverages in any of those places, they have to be seated at a table and order the beverages with their meal and consume them, uh, with their meal. And, and then all the other limitations still apply about people from the same household and social distancing and all the stuff that we've been living with now for quite a while. So the idea of hanging around at a bar and walking around with a drink and talking to people that isn't going to happen, not for the, not for a while. I'm afraid that's right now. What's the response that your department's getting to the reinstatement of these restrictions? Well, I think people in San Diego, uh, they understand the urgency of the situation. Speaker 1: 02:39 The numbers tell the story, pretty compellingly. The numbers are high and they're going in the wrong direction. And I think San Diego kids want to stay safe and get through this crisis together. Um, as far as the Sheriff's department and other local law enforcement agencies, uh, we're taking the educate first, educate both about what the say that they have to do and what they cannot do, and also why they say that what the importance of them is. Second is trying to get voluntary compliance, including, uh, from time to time. We actually hand out, uh, face coverings to people in the community that we've been able to procure from a number of different sources. And finally, deputies certainly do have the discretion to enforce the law either by issuing a citation or referring it to the district attorney's office for prosecution down the road. Speaker 3: 03:26 Your department issued a statement last night intended to alert the public of your ongoing education campaign. And that began when the pandemic was declared around the beginning of March, give us an overview of what the educational campaign entails Speaker 1: 03:39 Yesterday. For example, we received 44 calls for service throughout the County related to the public health order or the governor's executive order. And we went out and on 27 of those calls, we simply imparted information. We said, this is what you have to do. Uh, please do it. And we got voluntary compliance. Um, we're understanding that the public it's hard to keep up sometimes cause these orders do change frequently. But the important thing is it's not, we don't care about how much enforcement we do. We care about how much compliance there is because that's the goal is to keep us all healthy. Speaker 3: 04:11 And as of this taping, local beaches and parks remain open with the exception of beach parking lots in Oceanside and state beaches. How concerned are you heading into the July? Fourth weekend? Speaker 1: 04:24 Know the 4th of July is typically among the busiest, if not the busiest day at any beach in Southern California. Uh, and for understandable reasons, uh, when we're looking at the fact that beaches are closed and surrounding counties and the counties that surround us have even more of a severe problem than we do at the present time with this, uh, coronavirus pandemic, uh, we are concerned, but we expect people. If they're going to go to the beach and enjoy the day to do so safely keeping their distance from each other, practicing good hygiene and sanitation and having a safe holiday within the confines of the public health orders that are out there. Speaker 3: 05:03 And of course the forecasters are saying we've got a beautiful summer weekend coming. So we really can all expect a lot of people at the beaches. So what sort of enforcement is planned to make sure people are distancing and wearing masks when that's appropriate outside? I mean, enforcement, it's very difficult, especially when you've got a lot of people as we're we're talking about. Okay, Speaker 1: 05:23 Well, we are looking forward to seeing what the state level, a task force that the governor spoke of a couple of days ago, what that's going to look like in San Diego County, but essentially when violations of the public health order, uh, come to deputy's attention either through their own observation or in responding to a call for service, uh, they will deal with that situation. And the way that I've described, they will educate, gain voluntary compliance. And if, if there's a need to the deputy, certainly do have the discretion to issue a citation and or refer for prosecution. Speaker 3: 05:54 You have a sense of the number of citations issued violations of Speaker 1: 05:58 The public health orders. Uh, what they've been like the numbers since the start of the pandemic, uh, the Sheriff's department has issued 139 of those citations. And that does not include the number of cases that we've simply referred for prosecution. Um, we didn't issue a citation that day, but we requested prosecution down the road. Um, and those have been North, South, East and West and every corner of this County. And for all kinds of different activities, we're any restaurants or bars ordered to close back up for rule violations. I'm aware of two, uh, one in the city of San Diego and one in, uh, unincorporated Escondido in the Del Dios area that were both closed. Um, I think at least one of those has since been reopened after coming into compliance. Maybe both of them have, but at least one of them has. And how, in your estimation, if citizens have been responding to these public health orders after all, we've really got to rely on all of us as individuals to comply and the business owners to comply. Speaker 1: 06:54 I think by and large, uh, San Diego and understand the importance of these orders and they are doing their best to comply with them. I understand it could be a challenge. Nobody likes to wear a facial covering for example, when they're out jogging. Um, but the fact of the matter is that might be necessary if they're not able to maintain the social distance from others. And it's just, I think a matter of common courtesy and, uh, being good neighbors so that you, you know, keep your breath to yourself and don't spread any possible infection to other people in the community. And yet, of course, we've seen a spike in coronavirus cases in the County. Uh, you see a point at which the department may have to move from educational to more stricter enforcement of public health orders. Yeah. Won't cross that bridge when we get to it. Speaker 1: 07:38 Uh, certainly the deputies have that discretion. Now if they see the need, um, if we see if we see an acute need in a particular community, for example, because either it's a tourist attraction or there's businesses that are attracting a lot of clients and they're not practicing good social distancing and other measures, we may very well, uh, go in and do some enforcement. It's our sincere desire though, that San Diego is understand the importance of these orders and follow them to keep us all safe. And with this a holiday weekend coming up and we mentioned the nice weather and we expect people to be out on beaches and parks. And all, I imagine you're going to monitor things this weekend, especially, and perhaps report next week on how everybody did really well. I hope not. I hope that those things aren't necessary, but if they are, then they will occur. Certainly. Um, and also we are referring any observed violations of the public health order, particularly in businesses, uh, back to the public health officer for their administrative action. They, they may want to take against that business, including closing it down. I've been speaking with San Diego County undersheriff Michael Barnett. Thanks very much. Thank you, Mark. It's been a pleasure.