[ad_1]
Through 
Spencer Custodio and Hosam Elattar |
With coronavirus-related hospitalizations skyrocketing, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday announced a new stay-at-home order that is expected to shut down Southern California, but the new mandate has caused confusion over school closures .
Editor’s Note: As the only non-profit, non-partisan newsroom in Orange County, Voice of OC brings you the best and most comprehensive local coronavirus news absolutely free. No advertising, no paywalls. We need your help. Please make a tax deductible donation today to support your local news.
Although Newsom announced a new regional stay at the house afternoon Thursday, the order was not released until the evening about six hours later.
The order is coming if the capacity of the Southern California intensive care unit drops below 15% – which public health officials believe will happen in a few days. On Thursday, the available beds fluctuated at just over 20%.
Schools that are already open can remain open and elementary schools can still request the waiver process if the regional closure order arises.
“Therefore, when this ordinance comes into effect in a region, schools that have previously reopened for in-person instruction may remain open, and schools may continue to bring back students for in-person instruction under the Elementary school waiver process or cohort orientation, ”we read in order.
If the ICU drops below the 15% threshold, the order will shut down non-essential businesses such as nail salons, barber shops and outdoor restaurants within 24 hours. Although restaurants are allowed to do take out and deliveries, as with the previous home order in March.
Retailers like department stores and shopping malls will not be closed, but will have to keep the number of people inside stores at 20% of the building occupancy limits.
“We want to tone down the mix. Period. Complete shutdown, ”Newsom said at a press conference Thursday.
Outdoor play areas will also be closed when ordered.
But public health experts are concerned about malls and other places where people congregate indoors as the virus spreads at an unprecedented rate in California.
“Even this little trip inside, with big groups of people, it’s just plain bad. At the same time, the same goes for being indoors with people you’re not in a relationship with, ”said Bernadette Boden-Albala, dean of UC Irvine’s school of public health.
“I am very suspicious of indoor shopping center settings,” Boden-Albala said in an interview on Tuesday. “Try to find places where you know they are limiting the number of people coming in, try to find a time when other people are not there.”
Hospitalizations due to the Orange County virus are at the highest levels ever seen.
On Friday, 746 people were hospitalized, including 196 in intensive care units.
That’s more than the July peak, when 722 people were hospitalized.
“We are in a second wave and the second wave is going to be worse than the first,” Boden-Albala said.
Several school districts like the Irvine Unified School District and Saddleback Valley Unified School District issued press releases following the governor’s conference yesterday, clarifying the new orders after confirming them with public health officials of Orange State and County.
Schools that have already opened classes can keep classrooms open.
“The stay-at-home order does not include schools currently open for in-person instruction, as confirmed by Governor Newsom and Dr Chau, director of the Orange County Health Care Agency (OCHCA) and , therefore, all SVUSD schools will continue to exploit hybrid and distance education models, ”the Saddleback Valley release said.
Mari Barke, who sits on the Orange County Board of Education, said Newsom and public health officials have taken the right approach to schools.
“I think the kids are at such a low risk,” Barke said. “The Orange County Board of Education realized a long time ago that children have little exposure, and I think now others are coming along, so I think it’s absolutely appropriate that schools are not affected. ”
Part of the confusion over whether schools could resume opening was due to Newsom saying at his conference that schools with an exemption can continue, but did not say whether districts already open without the waiver could do so too.
This means that it will be up to the districts to decide whether they want to return to full distance education – a choice that remains. Orange County divided most of this year.
With the increase in positivity rates in La Habra, the La Habra City School District has returned to online education.
“Although our schools have safety protocols in place, the upward trend in the positivity rate due to the spread of the community is a concern,” District Superintendent Joanne Culverhouse said in a message to parents earlier. this week. “Students will return to distance education starting Thursday.”
Since the pandemic began in March, the virus has killed 1,603 CO residents out of 82,887 confirmed cases, including 17 new deaths reported on Friday, according to the county. Health care agency.
Orange County recorded 1,234 more cases today, an average of 1,100 new cases every day over the past week.
“The numbers are getting so out of hand right now and it doesn’t look like we’ve been able to tone down as individuals – that’s problematic,” Boden-Albala said.
The virus has already killed nearly three times as many people in Orange County as the flu on average each year.
For the background, Orange County has recorded an average of around 20,000 deaths per year since 2016, including 543 annual flu deaths, according to health data status.
According to these death statistics, cancer kills more than 4,600 people, heart disease kills more than 2,800, more than 1,400 die of Alzheimer’s disease, and strokes kill more than 1,300 people.
Meanwhile, the Anaheim Union School District, which has yet to reopen its classrooms, delayed returning to campus until March of this week before the order was announced due to the hike. the rate of cases in the community.
Anaheim and Santa Ana were the hardest hit in the first wave.
Now, positivity rates are increasing all over the county.
“Even in July, in Orange County, there were hot spots and then there were places that weren’t as badly affected. This is no longer the case, it is everywhere now, ”said Boden-Albala.
Many neighborhoods that will remain open have highlighted The secretary of the National Agency for Health and Human Services, Dr Mark Ghaly, said schools were not the cause of the recent surges due to security measures in place on campuses.
Many – if not all school districts with reopened classrooms – use online dashboards to report to the community where and how many cases have been reported on district campuses.
Recently, the Orange County Health Care Agency launched its own dashboard showing the cumulative number of cases in schools from mid-August to mid-November. It’s a change of the agency’s initial position not reporting cases to schools.
According to the agency, there was 390 cases in schools within that time frame.
There have been a few parents who have expressed concern to Voice of OC about “bogus formalities” taking place in the Los Alamitos School District, hosted by parents and not sponsored by the district. The “formal mockery” would take place at a hotel in Huntington Beach on Saturday, according to flyers sent to Voice of OC.
The Newport-Mesa Teachers’ Federation recently expressed concerns with their neighborhood dashboards fail to paint a full picture of the spread of the virus in schools. Union leaders wrote a letter to the district trying to get them to refer older students to distance education.
These concerns are circulating in other districts as well, and some teachers in the county feel these district scorecards are not accurate.
“Over the past two weeks I have had a lot of children – some of my colleagues have had more – who say at home, which means they have symptoms of COVID,” said a teacher from the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District who wished to remain anonymous.
“The district really only reported three cases in total, I think. But there were many more students showing symptoms, ”added the teacher, referring to the number of cases in her school.
As of today, there are currently 48 cases in the district, 9 of them from El Dorado High School and eight from Esperanza High School, according to the dashboard.
The teacher also said he was not sure whether to continue in person and that many students chose to return to distance education on their own.
Barke said she helps parents decide the best way to learn for their children.
“Just because schools are open doesn’t mean parents have to send their kids or kids have to leave. I like the choice of being there for families who are comfortable with it and families who are really suffering from not being in school.
Here are the latest figures on viruses in Orange County from county data:
Infections | Hospitalizations and Deaths | City by city data | Demography
Spencer Custodio is a Voice of OC reporter. You can reach him at [email protected]. Follow him on twitter @SpencerCustodio
Hosam Elattar is a member of Voice of OC Reporting. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
[ad_2]
Source link