SLO County declares public health emergency as coronavirus outbreak spreads
San Luis Obispo County declared a public health emergency on Friday morning, as well as a local emergency, as the county braces for a potential coronavirus outbreak.
Then, later, in the day, local school districts began announcing closures of two to four weeks.
There are still no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in San Luis Obispo County, according to the Public Health Department.
The announcement means the county will be able to access emergency funds if needed, as well as expedite the procurement of goods and supplies, according to county Chief Administrative Officer Wade Horton.
“I want to assure you your health and safety is our No. 1 priority,” Horton said during a press conference from the county’s Joint Information Center in San Luis Obispo on Friday morning.
Though the county doesn’t have any confirmed cases, this declaration will help it “respond as quickly and as nimbly as we can to any situation that arises.”
”We anticipate that we will get cases,” Public Health Officer Penny Borenstein said during the conference. “That is an almost certainty.”
COVID-19 testing in San Luis Obispo County
Borenstein said San Luis Obispo County’s health department is one of 22 laboratories in California that is and has been testing for coronavirus among its residents.
She said the county has so far tested 37 patients for the COVID-19 virus since it started testing on March 6. The county’s daily capacity for testing is 50 tests per day, she said.
The county’s lab runs COVID-19 tests twice per day and can obtain results within three to four hours, Borenstein said.
There are several tests currently being conducted for potential patients, but Borenstein said she was not sure of the exact number at this time.
The county is currently awaiting a kit from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that would bring 300 additional tests to the area, Borenstein said.
Previously, officials were required to run tests on multiple specimens from patients, she said. Now, they need only one specimen per person, cutting down on the number of tests required per patient.
California is making COVID-19 tests free for everyone in need of one, Borenstein said.
The Public Health Department is also making tests available to outpatient health providers, rather than just hospitals, Borenstein added. This will allow those health providers to send patients to the Public Health Department for testing, instead of only focusing on the “sickest of the sick” in hospitals, she said.
“We’re very proud that in this little corner of the world that we have been able to provide a service that most Public Health have not yet been able to accommodate,” she said.
She cautioned that the department will only be able to do so until it reaches capacity, and that once an outbreak occurs, priority will go once again to the sickest of patients.
Local school, event closures
Borenstein also continued to advise people to adhere to “social distancing” protocols.
“Social distancing is most important and is most effective when you don’t have cases yet,” she said. “We are on the beginning edge of what will likely be an epidemic in our community, and thus we are taking these stringent precautions.”
On Friday morning, Borenstein said the department was not advising local school closures at this time, citing low numbers of children affected by COVID-19 and the societal impacts of shutting down educational facilities.
The Public Health Department, local school districts and county Office of Education were all working together to determine if and when they would potentially cancel classes, she said.
By Friday afternoon, those decisions were being made, starting with Atascadero Unified, which announced it was closing all of its campus through the end of the month.
Atascadero was followed by Paso Robles (through April 13), San Luis Coastal (through April 14) and Lucia Mar (through March 27).
Other local districts, like Templeton and Coast Union, were also considering closures.
A SLO County Public Health information line can be reached at 805-788-2903. Online Information and updates can be found at the county’s emergency information website, readyslo.org.
This story has been updated with information on SLO County school closures.
This story was originally published March 13, 2020 at 11:26 AM.
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