Health officer attests SLO County meets state criteria to reopen restaurants, stores
San Luis Obispo County’s Public Health officer may be the first in California to formally attest to the state that the county is ready to jump ahead to the next phase of reopening.
If approved, restaurant dining rooms could open and retail shops could allow in-store shopping.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday issued criteria and procedures for counties to meet in order to move more quickly than other parts of the state through State 2 of modifying the stay-at-home order.
That led county leaders to shelve their week-old roadmap for reopening in favor of aligning with the state’s guidelines.
As a result, the county on Friday formally submitted a Variance Attestation Form, along with a Containment Plan, to request it be allowed to move forward to Stage 2 in California’s reopening process.
The documents serve as evidence of the county’s “preparedness and ability to increase our pace,” says a draft cover letter.
There is no clear timeline for when state public health officials will complete their review to determine whether the county meets state criteria.
The county has to prove it is prepared to mitigate the increased public safety risk of the spread of COVID-19, based on metrics released Thursday.
Public Health Officer Penny Borenstein said Friday that the attestation is “part of our county’s attempt to continuously be out in front, both with respect to how we have protected the community and now we are leaning forward again: As far as we can, and as fast as we can, with respect with how we begin this phased reopening.“
The county Board of Supervisors unanimously voted in support of the attestation, and it was endorsed by both hospital networks in the county, Tenet and Dignity Health.
The county can point to several accomplishments to make its case. But, Borenstein also justifies why she believes the county meets state criteria to open, despite missing a key metric.
Read the document here: https://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/IIP/sanluisobispo/file/getfile/122259
SLO County’s state of readiness
The county erected a $4 million alternate care site at Cal Poly that’s prepared to take in more than 900 patients within a few days, if needed. Hospitals are currently far from capacity and all have, at least, a 30-day supply of personal protective equipment, according to the attestation.
The county implemented robust recruitment and training for medical volunteers that includes 169 nurses. So far, 221 people have been trained and oriented, the document says.
The county attests to its plans for protecting vulnerable populations, supporting essential workers, and performing community surveillance to trace and contain any spread of the coronavirus, including regional risk.
SLO County tends to be a bit of an island, the document says, with little connectivity to surrounding areas except for tourism. Much of that visitation is often to the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreational Area, which remains closed.
Further, it says, the county has plans to better disseminate the message that while “we usually (sic) love to see our visitors, they are not welcome at the present time.”
“We are confident that we have the resources to continue widespread testing and complete isolation of cases and contact tracing even if our number of cases were in increase,” Borenstein says in the document.
The document also addresses two areas of county shortfalls that fail to meet specific state criteria: Low case numbers for the last two weeks and sufficient testing capacity.
Daily COVID-19 cases and testing in SLO County
The local number of confirmed daily cases fails to meet state criteria that requires a county not have more than one new case of coronavirus per 10,000 people in the last two weeks to move to the next phase.
In SLO County that would be 28 since April 24. There have been 62 confirmed cases in the last two weeks as of May 8, according to county data.
Borenstein argues that since April 24, 2020, there have been 19 cases of community or travel-related transmission, which “we believe meets the intent of affirming epidemiological stability.”
The remaining 41 positive test results were for people with a known source or household contact, including 11 cases at the California Men’s Colony.
The county also currently falls short in both the number of contact tracers currently employed and the daily capacity to test people who may have the virus. Borenstein says the county will meet both criteria within weeks.
The state calls for daily testing capacity of 1.5 per 1,000 residents. In San Luis Obispo County, capacity currently sits at around 1.1 per 1,000 residents.
In the attestation, the county says testing will increase to about 1.6 per 1,000 residents by the week of May 18, in part due to a surveillance study planned to be conducted with the state Department of Public Health. That estimation is significantly higher than the county said it would be in a document released last week.
This story was originally published May 9, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
