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Santa Clara County saw its total of coronavirus cases and deaths rise to 1,621 as of Sunday with 55 new cases and three new deaths. The total number of deaths now stands at 54.
The county now has recorded 194 people hospitalized with the coronavirus as of Sunday, nine more than on Friday, with 72 of those patients in intensive care. On Friday, the county recorded 185 people hospitalized with the coronavirus, 100 fewer patients from the day before.
The county Public Health Department has also broken out cases by city. Palo Alto has 61 cases and Mountain view has 34 as of Sunday, April 12.
San Mateo County watched its total of cases increase by 73 since Monday. As of Friday, the county reported 652 cases and the death toll has stayed at 21 since Monday. It had not posted Sunday totals as of 6 p.m.
A total of 72 patients have been hospitalized with the virus as of Friday, 20 of whom are in intensive care. Another 32 ICU beds are occupied by people without the virus, leaving another 39 beds available as needed.
The county provided totals for how many surge beds and ventilators are in use, 103 and 55, respectively, though the numbers don’t differentiate which ones are for COVID-19 patients and which ones are for other hospital patients.
The total number of COVID-19 coronavirus cases in the state, meanwhile, has reached 20,615, with 609 deaths as of Friday, the California Department of Public Health announced Saturday.
County and state officials put out public service announcements this weekend asking people to maintain their shelter in place over the Easter weekend and to refrain from holding public Easter egg hunts in parks.
$100 million to support child care
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the release of a $100 million child-care package on Friday to support child care services, and child care providers who are serving essential infrastructure workers and vulnerable populations and their children during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Of the funding, $50 million will go to the California Department of Education to pay for up to 20,000 limited-term, additional state-subsidized slots for child care. The other $50 million will go to the department to ensure child care centers, facilities and family-provider homes are safe and clean for the children and families they are serving. The funding reimburses the providers for the purchase of gloves, face coverings, cleaning supplies and other labor related to cleaning in accordance with federal and state public health and safety guidelines.
Sheriff announces positive cases
The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday announced that two of its professional staff members have tested positive for COVID-19. They have been quarantined at home and are under a physician’s care.
The agency did not elaborate on the staff members but said they haven’t been to work since late March. The two cases appear unrelated. The areas where they work have been professionally cleaned.
No inmates, correctional officers nor deputies have tested positive in the county correctional facilities. The correctional department is screening anyone who enters the facilities and with decreased inmates populations therein ample space to quarantine inmates if needed. The facilities are being deep sanitized regularly and inmates and staff practice social distancing, the department said.
Open spaces
Visiting San Mateo County open spaces will no longer be an option on the weekends for the time being. The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District has closed all of its open spaces in the county on Saturdays and Sundays effective April 11.
The shutdowns were requested by San Mateo County Health Officer Dr. Scott Morrow and apply to the following areas:
● Coal Creek.
● El Corte de Madera Creek.
● La Honda Creek.
● Los Trancos.
● Pulgas Ridge.
● Purisima Creek Redwoods.
● Ravenswood.
● Russian Ridge.
● Skyline Ridge.
● Teague Hill.
● Thornewood.
Long Ridge and Windy Hill open space preserves are already fully closed until further notice, including on weekdays.
Read more about the closures here.
Many Santa Clara County parks and trails are open, including restroom facilities, during Easter weekend, but county officials reiterated at a press conference Friday to maintain social distance and, if possible, avoid heavily populated trails.
“Cut your trips short and plan ahead,” county Supervisor Dave Cortese said. “Choose trails that are less frequented.”
Residents should also only gather with family members they have sheltered in place with or friends that have closely followed the social distancing rules.
For more information on which trails and parks may be opened, visit sccgov.org.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Find comprehensive coverage on the Midpeninsula’s response to the new coronavirus by Palo Alto Online, the Mountain View Voice and the Almanac here.
I read in another newspaper today (Saturday) that if and when the virus (response) reaches the lungs, the patient is nearly doomed and in for a horrible death. Ventilators may do more harm than good. A new treatment must be devised. Your best bet is to not contract the virus. And we still need testing to know when to isolate from others completely. For his part, President Trump said Friday that he had just realized the day before that he faced a “big decision” on when to “re-open the economy.” Voters in swing states will also face a big decision before and on November 3, 2020: whether to keep or replace Trump as President (and Michael Pence as Vice-President). A “yes” or “no” would likely oust them. But that will not be the question on the ballot. The question will be whether the Democratic ticket is preferable to the Republican ticket. What we here in uncontested California must do is find ways to register, turnout and sway voters in a dozen swing states across America – mostly without going there. Give it some thought.
> And we still need testing to know when to isolate from others completely.
No. We MUST isolate until we have testing for the virus, as well as antibodies, and research that determines if antibodies 100% keep the virus from reinfecting…
Other than that…
Testing to know when to isolate even away from family members. But good point about whether people who get and seem to beat the virus can still transmit it and whether they might again get sick.
My MAJOR complaints going on here:
WE have no SITUATIONAL AWARENES yet. The number of tests and how it is done is not designed to get any current infection rates regarding the states or the nation at this time. The facts are what we are hearing from these people are nothing but “models”. This leads me to the next MAJOR complaint.
WE have NO TRANSPARENCY regarding the sources of current testing data. The government is in fact withholding the sources of which the testing data is being accumulated. WHAT proof do we have to establish that these numbers are accurate at all? Which leads me to my next MAJOR complaint.
To what extent can we establish that the data being reported is NOT being undercounted because of the lack of testing resources? At least when it came to the Polio outbreak, the process was well documented and the testing resources were sufficient. The simple reality is that even Drs. Fauci and Brix have on many occasions simply said they still don’t know the extent of this crisis.
Many hospitals and mortuaries and coroners do not have the tests supplies to test all possible deaths that can be associated with COVID 19. So we really do not have a truly accurate tracking process. I don’t fault the Drs. In this case at all. This is a VERY SERIOUS CRISIS which we appeared to be simply not yet up to speed regarding it.
Please understand, I am not trying to put undue complaints on the medical system, but it simply has not yet even achieved situational awareness, which is the required FIRST step to addressing this situation. The process goes like this:
Step 1: Situational Awareness
Step 2: Getting enough samples of the virus to be able to learn how to address it in medical treatment.
Step 3: Getting enough samples of the virus to be able to learn how to address it as a vaccine treatment.
Step 4: Identifying in a Laboratory what medical treatments are SCIENTIFICALLY effective against the virus for treatment. But since this is new VIRUS, a NEW drug is likely to be needed because it is BIOLOGICALLY UNIQUE regarding its molecular stereochemistry, thus prior drugs are likely not going to be useful unless they treated the same FAMILY of VIRUSES. For example Malaria IS NOT IN THE FAMILY of a Coronavirus, thus SCIENTIFICALLY it is highly unlikely to have any real effect on COVID 19. One option is to use those that are infected already and overcome the VIRUS thus are now carriers of the COVID 19 ANTIBODIES. This can be used to treat, but it does not create immunity. Thus this treatment will need to be injected into an infected ill person multiple times until there is no traceable ANTIGEN of COVID 19.
Step 5: The SYNTHESIS of a VACCINE that will e4ach the body how to build effective ANTIBODIES against COVID 19. THIS STEP IS THE HARDEST TO ACHIEVE.
Step 6: The use of treatments are used to rehabilitate those that are infected.
Step 7: The use of the Vaccine will be able to be traced to determine the reduction of disease regarding those treated.
I think we need to see the health system to provide transparency with ALL of these steps. Do you think my ideas are unreasonable?