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Curbside retail starts May 8 in county, State Resiliency Roadmap determines pace of opening 

COVID-19 Paso Robles Daily News

–Starting  May 8, retail businesses can begin curbside service and delivery, and “related logistics and manufacturing and essential businesses can open.”

In Friday’s briefing, San Luis Obispo County Executive Officer, Wade Horton, expressed disappointment that the “governor has not given us the ability to move forward with our own plan, but has since outlined his own road map for reopening.”

“We had great hope alongside of you that we would be moving forward toward opening workspaces and community spaces,” said Horton. The county START plan included opening churches, personal care businesses such as nail salons, wineries, and other businesses during this opening stage.

Businesses that are licensed and regulated by the state, such as nail salons, massage therapists, and barbers will be held to the standard of the state road map.

Horton said, “The governor’s road map also will allow certain jurisdictions who meet specified criteria to open in-store retail and in-restaurant dining as early as next week.” Meeting that criteria involves the county public health officer attesting to the state that certain public health metrics have been achieved.

The County Board of Supervisors held an emergency meeting Friday morning to approve the attestation prepared by Dr. Bornestein. Borenstein reported in Friday’s briefing that the attestation has been completed and submitted to the State Public Health Department, including a letter of support from the county hospital systems.

Resiliency Roadmap recap

The state’s Resiliency Roadmap, specifies “California will move into Stage 2 of modifying the state’s Stay-at-Home order on May 8. Our progress in achieving key public health metrics will allow a gradual re-opening of California’s economy.” The roadmap defines four stages:

  • Stage 1 Safety and Preparedness.
  • Stage 2 Lower risk workplaces: Gradually opening retail starting with curbside and delivery and moving towards in-store shopping, in restaurant dining, and opening schools, child care, personal services and offices.
  • Stage 3 Higher risk workplaces such as places of worship, theaters, and more personal and hospitality services.
  • Stage 4 End of stay home order and opening of highest risk businesses and venues such as concerts, sporting arenas and conventions.

 

The key public health metrics include measurements that demonstrate success for critical indicators such as the ability to test, trace contacts, isolate and support those who are positive, the ability to prevent infection, how hospitals and health systems can handle surges and the ability of business, schools and child care facilities to support physical distancing.

SLO county readiness

COVID-19 Paso Robles Dr. BorensteinBorenstein said there “are a number of areas we can attest to full readiness. As health officer, I have already attested to our state of readiness.”

“One metric is still under discussion with the state because we don’t meet the purest form, and that is the number of cases we have seen in a 14-day period. Borenstein said she chose to address this metric in the “spirit of the metric” rather than actual wording.

“We take a great deal of pride in all of the testing and how aggressively we have gotten on high-risk institutions like the California Men’s Colony, skilled nursing facilities,” and due to the additional testing, the county has found additional cases in controlled settings. Borenstein said, “We also test in households where a household member is infected and we have found some other cases that way.”

“If you look only at our cases that are community transmitted, new sources of infection or travel associated and exclude congregate settings and household transmission where we already have the household under quarantine, then we meet the criteria,” said Borenstein.

“We are leaning forward as hard as we can and as fast as we can with respect to how we begin this phased re-opening.”

Borenstein said that there is some confusion about testing metrics. One recommendation from Harvard Global Institute indicates the county should be testing 1.5 persons per 1000 of population. Borenstein said there was an allowance on the attestation to the state for justifying why the county is not at that level. Borenstein said that number is a recommendation. Over the past few weeks the state has “talked about” testing 1 per 1000, 1.5 per 1000 and 2 per 1000. “There’s a lot of numbers out there related to how much testing we should do.”

The county is currently testing at 1.1 per thousand. The two new testing clinics in Paso Robles and Grover Beach have the capacity to test 250 each per day, but are currently testing approximately 132 each. Borenstein expects testing to increase when new locations are added in the coming weeks. In addition, private and community health clinics are performing testing.

Horton also said that the county shelter at home order is no longer needed since the state’s Resiliency Roadmap is in force. There are “no plans to renew county order on May 16 when it’s set to expire. The county will then fall exclusively under the state’s order and under the governor’s direction.“

COVID-19 statewide

Earlier on Friday, Governor Newsom announced the start of Stage 2 and the opening of retail curbside service from a flower shop in Sacramento saying that 70-percent of California businesses are going to be able to open during Stage 2. Newsom also announced that 875,000 tests have been performed statewide, with 32,000 just in the “last 24 hours.”

“This is not behind us,” said Newsom. In the past 24 hours there were 1898 new cases reported in California and 81 deaths. Newsom addressed the state budget, explaining there is currently a $54 billion deficit. Funds will be pulled from the reserves, but the reserve fund is only $6 billion. The state is going to depend heavily on federal assistance.

Newsom also announced that millions of masks are being distributed to health care workers and other workers. The state added another 31.7 million masks to inventory on Friday.

 

Related: 

‘SLO County is ready to move forward with reopening safely, responsibly’ county tells state

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About the author: Reporter Jackie Iddings

Jackie Iddings is a contributing reporter and photographer for the Paso Robles Daily News.