Santa Cruz County COVID-19 Digest

Santa Cruz County has a new indoor mask order scheduled to take effect on Monday. It is an attempt by local government to prevent a winter case surge.

Several inmates at Santa Cruz County Main Jail tested positive for COVID-19 in what jail officials describe as the most significant outbreak since the start of the pandemic.

Over a year has passed since local businesses first went into lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. UCSC’s student newspaper interviews some locals about how the economy recovery is going.

The unanimous vote by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices solidified Santa Cruz County’s plans to vaccinate nearly 20,000 elementary-age children. Beginning next week, every school site will offer the inoculation. Local vaccination efforts will also include drive-thru clinics.

Mimi Hall, the county’s health services director for the past four years, is leaving the position to work for a nonprofit health exchange. She talks with Lookout Local about her time in Santa Cruz as well as her two decades of public service.

Santa Cruz County reported two more deaths related to COVID-19 on Oct. 4—the first breakout cases in the county in which a COVID-19 infection caused the death of a vaccinated person.

The Santa Cruz County Office of Education has launched a dashboard that summarizes COVID-19 testing results. It includes data collected from all conventional public schools in the county, as well as many charter and private schools.

On Sept. 29, the Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency stated that because the county had moved from substantial transmission to moderate transmission on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 data tracker. the Aug. 19 mask mandate is now ineffective.

According to Santa Cruz County health officials, rates for COVID-19 vaccinations at skilled nursing and senior residential care facilities have risen to 9 in 10 for health care workers.

Trustees of the San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District got both positive and negative news at their Sept. 14 board meeting. Though the district is improving its physical structures, it’s also facing a steep drop in student academic achievement.

The Central Coast YMCA is offering free membership for 12- to 18-year-olds who can show proof of vaccination. The offer runs through Oct. 31 at YMCA locations in Salinas, San Benito County and Watsonville.

The city of Watsonville plans to pump $22 million in local, state and federal funding into its largest park to fund the construction of facilities for multiple uses and a rebuild of the Watsonville Nature Center.

Santa Cruz County Supervisor Bruce McPherson reports that there will now be a mobile testing site based in Felton through a partnership with Mountain Community Resources. This news comes on the heels of several successful vaccination clinics, called Vax the Valley.

Santa Cruz County health officials say that current data shows the most recent surge of COVID-19 infections fueled by the delta variant of the virus is starting to wane. There has been, however, an increase in the number of young people between the ages of 5-17 that have contracted the virus.

California has some of the most extensive workplace vaccine requirements in the nation, but they don’t cover every industry. Some advocates say the state should expand its vaccine mandates to certain industries.

A Harvard University study found evidence linking smoke from wildfires in California, Oregon and Washington in 2020 to rising COVID cases and deaths. They said that fine particulate matter acts as a vehicle for spreading infection and makes existing cases worse.

Rules will be refined for an outdoor dining program that helped save several local restaurants during the pandemic, the Santa Cruz City Council decided on Aug. 24.

Outdoor World Sporting Goods, which has sold camping supplies locally for more than a half-century, will soon close its last location in the Capitola Mall. Company president Chris Thomas says COVID-19 restrictions and supply chain problems hit the business hard.

In Santa Cruz County, as in many other counties, 18- to 29-year-olds have received fewer coronavirus vaccinations than other age groups. Yet in Santa Clara County, more than 8 in 10 residents in that age group have been vaccinated.

During the pandemic, food and drink establishments have faced challenges from changing COVID-19 protocols. But finding employees is also hard. “We used to get applications all the time, but that changed,” said Freedom Meat Lockers manager Will Panis.

With the increase in cases and hospitalizations due to the highly contagious Delta variant, the Santa Cruz County Health Officer has issued an order requiring all individuals to wear a face covering when in indoor settings, regardless of vaccination status.

There are many different ways to cope with the challenges COVID-19 brings. Trevor Allshouse decided to plunge himself into the ocean every day for a year. This month, the Aptos teen met that 365-day goal.

Low-income Californians enrolled in Medi-Cal have been vaccinated at far lower rates than the overall population. About 45 percent of eligible Medi-Cal enrollees had received at least one dose as of July 18, compared to about 70 percent of all eligible Californians, state officials said.

Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties have all issued a mask recommendation as the state and country see growing COVID-19 cases.

Another sign of normal times: Staff of Life natural food pioneer has reopened its self-serve hot foods and salad bars at its Santa Cruz store and opened them for the first time at its new Watsonville market.

After a year and a half, music will once again be heard at Kuumbwa Jazz Center when it reopens on Sept. 13. The club will operate at two-thirds capacity until Oct. 26, just in time for a visit from Branford Marsalis.

During the pandemic, the world got so much quieter that scientists were able to measure the change. Animals across the globe also took note. Locally, researchers saw shifts in everything from mountain lions to songbirds to whales.

The Santa Cruz County Public Health Department announced that a resident has tested positive for the Delta variant of COVID-19. The patient—a man in his 50s—experienced mild symptoms and the sample was taken on June 10.

UCSC researchers who have tracked mountain lions in the Santa Cruz Mountains over time saw the big cats move closer to, or even into, more densely populated areas within days of shelter-in-place orders last year.

Cabrillo College students will return to the classroom in the fall term, which begins Aug. 16. The college will continue to offer online classes, with more than half of the offerings featuring face-to-face or hybrid instruction.

The federal government’s Payroll Protection Program has been a lifeline for small businesses hit by the pandemic. But as the program’s May 31 expiration date draws near, the agency responsible for it has been overwhelmed.

After many businesses had to close their doors and lay off workers, those same employers are now struggling to bring employees back and hire new ones. Santa Cruz County is not immune to the problem.