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Santa Clara County tallied a record 512 COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour period the day before Thanksgiving, and wasted no time cracking down on businesses violating health orders.
As of Nov. 27, Santa Clara County had 32,985 COVID-19 cases and 476 deaths. In addition, 222 people were hospitalized with the virus. Of these, 68 were in intensive care units and 193 out of 624 ventilators were in use.
The soaring case rate raised alarm among health officials as hospitals braced to admit more patients.
“We are really, really concerned,” said COVID-19 Testing Officer Dr. Marty Fenstersheib. “All of the metrics that we have been following that have done well in previous months have gone up very steeply.”
In July, amid a previous surge, the highest case rate the county recorded was 385 cases in a single day.
“We do not want to be in a place where we see the kinds of challenges in our hospitals that unfortunately some communities elsewhere in the United States and around the world have had to deal with,” said County Counsel James Williams.
Officials imposed immediate fines to businesses over Thanksgiving weekend for violating the health order. The county stripped away its grace period for businesses to fix issues before being fined and promised to crack down. And it did.
As of noon Nov. 27, the county had issued 76 fines to local businesses. The primary violations were failing to submit and post revised rules about social distancing.
A county spokesperson said businesses will have 30 days to pay a fine and business compliance officers will never ask for money upfront. Officers will have on yellow vests and produce identification.
Meanwhile, the county plans to offer appointment-only COVID-19 testing next week in Los Gatos, Mountain View, Cupertino, Campbell and Palo Alto and will offer flu shots at the same time.
Walk-up testing is available in San Jose and Gilroy next week but flu shots will only be at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in San Jose.
The fairgrounds will also be the only testing site open on Nov. 29 during Thanksgiving weekend.
Fenstersheib emphasized that people who do not have symptoms of COVID-19 need to get tested, especially if they are in close contact with family members and co-workers.
“New studies have shown that a majority of transmissions are caused by people who are asymptomatic and likely don’t know that they are potentially spreading the disease to family, co-workers and anyone they come in contact with,” Fenstersheib said. “They need to know they have the virus so they can isolate and break the transmission chain, even if they don’t feel sick.”
This story was originally published by San Jose Spotlight. Find the original link with additional content and testing site details here.
About time.
The current waves of infection are most likely caused by non-compliance with the best practices of PREVENTION.
Time to hold businesses accountable for it.
I also want to know which ones, so I can be able to avoid unsafe businesses
Just read this:
The assumption is that if you traveled you ARE infected by Dr. Birx The story is titled “Birx urges Thanksgiving travelers to get tested: ‘You have to assume that you were exposed and you became infected’)
Here is the story (https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/30/health/us-coronavirus-monday/index.html).
Sorry maybe the practice of anyone arriving in an airport after flying more than 150 miles will be quarantined? At least at San Jose International?
This is NORMAL, unless you are proven safe, should you be allowed to enter the county
“The primary violations were failing to submit and post revised rules about social distancing.”
Ugh, so no we’re raising money off the backs of 76 (presumably struggling) local businesses not for any ACTUAL safety violations but mainly for “failing to submit and post revised rules?” That sounds like a form of bureaucratic extremism to me. Can the Voice clarify this sentence, or maybe ask the County to justify what sounds like extortion masquerading as public safety?
In response to PeaceLove you wrote:
“Ugh, so no we’re raising money off the backs of 76 (presumably struggling) local businesses not for any ACTUAL safety violations but mainly for “failing to submit and post revised rules?””
Actually, the rules really never changed, except that businesses knew these rules were subject to change given the state color tiers that have been around for months. In effect it was not a surprise to anyone if they were paying any attention, of in reality had a pulse. You wrote:
“That sounds like a form of bureaucratic extremism to me.”
These people KNEW what was going to happen if the situation went south, like it has. In fact we are getting closer to being returned to the same rules we had in M arch and April. WHY? Because COVID doesn’t care about businesses or politics, it just wants to thrive at if it gets the chance to, it will infect anyone it can. You wrote:
“Can the Voice clarify this sentence, or maybe ask the County to justify what sounds like extortion masquerading as public safety?”
Actually it was well defined for months, you are just TRYING to act like a soccer/football player that didn’t get touched but falls on the ground writhing in pain. Such a pity.
When will these businesses ever learn?
Over 200 violations of safety protocols reported here (https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/12/01/coronavirus-nearly-200-santa-clara-county-retailers-fined-for-social-distancing-fails/)
Simply put, you can’t trust anyone without enforcement of compliance.
Even with the virus out of control in the county
@SteveGoldstein: You ignored my point. The majority of the businesses (per the article) were not cited for anything that makes them unsafe. They were cited for bureaucratic technicalities: failing to post their protocols in an environment in which literally *everyone* now knows those protocols, and most in Santa Clara County follow them rigorously. So there’s no claim these businesses were operating an an unsafe manner that endangered anyone.
PeaceLove,
Just like the signage required for employment purposes regarding anti-discrimination of employees. The fact that the law is in place and that everyone “knows” the law is there DOES NOT amount to any defense if the signage of a workers rights is not posted.
The same goes here, “knowledge” is not a defense. Negligence is not a defense.
Compliance is only achieved with enforcement, unless you have people whose ethics are not based on consequentialist models and they comply without any need of it. But that is unrealistic in the business world.
Negligence or avoidance in all parts of prevention of infection will likely result in increased infections. WE are just days away of getting back to not allowing even outdoor dining because the spread of COVID is overwhelming our ICU resources Today we are at 17% and the threshold for the lockdown here is 15% as of now.
Do you really think given the current situation that we won’t surpass the 15% minimum?