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This past week, Midpeninsula cities declared states of emergency, and county offices of education mandated closures of schools for several weeks.
Verily, a subsidiary of Alphabet, has launched an online tool to help screen patients for COVID-19 testing. The tool, called Project Baseline, triages people who are concerned about their COVID-19 risk and sends them to testing sites if they fit criteria based on their symptoms, according to an announcement by the company.
The pilot program is available to residents of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties who can take the screener survey starting Monday, March 16.
To use the screening tool, visit projectbaseline.com.
San Mateo County reported its first death due the coronavirus this weekend. The victim was an older adult with underlying medical conditions.
The county did not release further information. In San Mateo County, 31 people have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Sunday, March 15. The number of cases stood at 20 on Friday.
In Santa Clara County, which has the most cases of any county in California, the number of people confirmed to have COVID-19 jumped from 79 to 114 between Friday and Sunday. Of those, two people have died, 48 are hospitalized; 52 cases were a result of community transmission.
Safeway supermarkets in Palo Alto, Mountain View and Menlo Park have shortened their hours to enable staff to restock the shelves and clean the stores, according to signs posted on the doors and phone recordings. The Safeways are open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. with the following exceptions, which are open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.: Menlo Park at 525 El Camino Real; Mountain View at 645 San Antonio Road.
Caltrain is reducing its weekday service “in response to a significant decline in ridership stemming from efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus.” The changes are effective Tuesday, March 17.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced new state restrictions in a Sunday press conference, including home isolation of everyone in the state over age 65, closure of all bars, wineries and nightclubs and requiring restaurants to reduce their occupancy by half. Newsom also said that 51% of all California school districts have closed and that 80-85% of all students statewide will no longer be in class starting Monday, March 16.
“These are profoundly significant steps in real time and they’re significant steps up from two days ago,” Newsom said. “We’re guided deeply not by anxiety, not by fear but a very pragmatic response to meet this moment without creating other unintended consequences.”
Santa Clara County
Stanford Health Care announced on Sunday, March 15, that drive-through appointments for Stanford Medicine’s COVID-19 test are now available for patients who have been referred by their medical providers. Patients remain in their cars for the tests, which take a few minutes and are administered by a physician, advanced practice provider or nurse outfitted in protective clothing, including a gown, goggles, mask and gloves, Stanford Health Care said. Patients will be notified of their COVID-19 test results within 24 hours; if the result is positive, their doctors will make sure they get appropriate care, which can range from hospitalization for people showing severe symptoms to telemedicine visits and self-quarantine for those with mild cases. The drive-through tests are available from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week, at Express Care’s Hoover Pavilion location in Palo Alto. Patients can call 650-498-9000 to speak with a nurse who will assess the next step for their care.
Bishop Oscar Cantu asked all parishes, missions and chapels in the Diocese of San José to suspend public masses beginning today, March 14, until further notice. There are diocese churches in Palo Alto, Mountain View and Los Altos.
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), the multi-billion dollar agency that plans and operates the county’s road and transit network, announced today, March 14, that starting on Monday, March 16, it will reduce capacity on its light rail vehicles, running one-car trains instead of two- and three-car trains. It will also suspend its school-trip service for three weeks in light of school closures.
On Friday, Santa Clara County Public Health officials ordered all public schools to close for three weeks, starting Monday through April 3. Also on Friday, Santa Clara County Public Health officials banned all gatherings of 100 persons or more.
Palo Alto will keep all libraries and community centers closed starting Saturday in response to the coronavirus and recent guidance from Santa Clara County, the city announced Friday evening. As of Friday, all in-person library programs and services in Mountain View have been cancelled or postponed through April 6.
The city, which had already cancelled more than 30 events, is also instituting a hiring freeze, City Manager Ed Shikada announced Friday.
In addition to libraries, the city will keep the Palo Alto Art Center, the Mitchell Park Community Center, the Lucie Stern Community Center, the Junior Museum and Zoo, the Children’s Theatre and Rinconada Pool closed as of Saturday. The Palo Alto Animal Shelter will also be closed and all events at programs at Cubberley Community Center will be suspended.
Tenants at Cubberley may modify or suspend their activities in accordance with county guidance, the city announced, referring to the county’s Friday order banning all events with more than 100 people and requiring precautionary measures for all events with more than 35 people.
San Mateo County
The San Mateo County health department announced Saturday evening that it is banning gatherings of more than 50 people for three weeks starting on Sunday. The order also advises against get togethers of more than 10 people. This amends its Thursday order, which barred all gatherings larger than 250 people starting on Friday.
The health department issued an order on Friday to close all schools in the county for three weeks starting Monday.
San Mateo County Libraries announced on Friday that all of its library branches would close starting Monday until March 31.
On Friday, the San Mateo County Probation Department suspended visitation at the Youth Services Center – Juvenile Hall and the Margaret J. Kemp Camp (Camp Kemp) facilities until further notice to curb the spread of the virus.
San Mateo County and Parks will stay open, but the county is taking immediate protective actions, county officials said Friday. Visitors will pay at designated pay stations rather than at gate house; all staff and docent-led events, including hikes and tours, are canceled through March; the Bicycle Sunday event is canceled through March and the Parks department’s main office in Redwood City and Coyote Point Marina office will be closed to the public indefinitely.
Menlo Park declared a local state of emergency on Thursday, closing City Hall and other facilities. Atherton followed suit on Friday, canceling events and scaling back public meetings.
Other closures
Organizations are also announcing temporary closures. In Palo Alto, the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center will close for at least two weeks starting Sunday night, March 15, according to a March 13 email from CEO Zack Bodner.
Preschool and Club J will be closed as well. However, he wrote, “In the coming days, we will be working to find creative ways to keep connecting people with each other, whether that is through distance learning or exercise broadcasts or check-ins with isolated people in our community.”
There has not been any confirmed case of COVID-19 at the JCC, the email stated.
“At this time, we will not be able to issue refunds for March membership or tuition,” Bodner wrote.
The annual Stanford Powwow, which takes place on Mother’s Day weekend, has also been canceled, organizers said on their website.
On Thursday, Little House Activity Center and the Rosener House Adult Care center, two Menlo Park programs that cater to seniors, will be closed as of the end of the day Friday for two weeks.
Find comprehensive coverage on the Midpeninsula’s response to the new coronavirus by Palo Alto Online, the Mountain View Voice and Almanac here.
This is all fine and good. The Menlo Park PD has taken a non effective approach to dealing with this emergency and are not adequately protecting their officers. Nor are they canceling training that can be continued to a later date. Do you want to roll around with other people in defensive tactics. I would think not. Nor would I want to go to a facility like a gym to do it. You police command staff is deaf and affects your safety
nonsense:
You think they will be any more exposed than what they are working day to day on the streets? They are constantly in contact with people. They have much higher risk of exposure simply by working. Duh.
> March 14, the number of cases in Santa Clara County was 91, while in San Mateo, officials reported 32 cases
Let’s chart these numbers and look at the Italian Curve, which the US seems to be following closely. For weeks, little ol’ South Korea has been testing tens of thousands per week and is now up to 10,000 tests a day.
That’s the first step in containment.
Here? Despite promises of millions of tests, what is our current count? Have we even had a WEEK where we hit 10,000? Answer: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/testing-in-us.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Ftesting-in-us.html
But it’s not Trump’s fault, he says it YOU that is at fault, YOU should have been able to find a test, somehow – Trump, speaking of airports: “If you go to the right agents, if you go to the right area, you get the test.”
So there you are: it’s your fault you couldn’t find a test,. After all Trump was able to get a test.
Duh.? Of course that is taken into account. Unnecessary close contact is the issue especially considering how it’s transmitted. Seems to be at odds with county protocol. Try not being so dismissive. Or have you turned into a shill now that your glory days are over. Assuming you were ever a real police officer that did anything of importance
> Assuming you were ever a real police officer that did anything of importance
Okay, she went there, didn’t she? MV, I’ll defer to you….
nonsense:
Sigh. Yes, I was a police officer. For a very large municipal department. I left with 20 letters of commendation in my jacket. So, I guess I did something of significance while I was there.
Shill? For Captain Heal Spur? You’ve got to be kidding.
Officers on the street are at far higher risk of exposure than in any training scenario you can imagine. In fact, I would be shocked if every single one of MP’s officers haven’t been exposed to Covid-19 at some point in the last two weeks. MPPD should be testing their personnel.
Stopping training is stupid. Rather than keeping officers safe it has the opposite effect. Continuing and on-going training, especially in defensive tactics, is extremely important in maintaining “muscle memory”. Muscle memory in a life threatening fight is important as it makes responses automatic. Hesitation in those situations is often deadly.
So, yes, duh.
I can’t help but feeling that the police officer commenting as “Menlo Park pd nonsense” exhibits the worst Menlo Park police has to offer.
Part of a union that routinely wants top pay for hazard, but now is complaining about that hazard.
Besmirching the record of a fellow cop who served honorably, just because he disagrees with him.
Grow up.
And I shouldn’t really say the worst MPPD has to offer. Close. The worst was when the officer who was busted for visiting a prostitute while ON DUTY got his job reinstated by the same union.
Thanks Almanac got current local information. Well done. Please keep us posted.
Hmmmm please there is no hazard pay. Nor should people take foolish actions to in direct contradiction to county health protocol if one does not have too. Waiting a month affects nothing. I’ve grown up along time ago. You and your buddy are smug aren’t you. But I’ve learned through years of posts by the two of you that you know it all. Experts in everything.
They closed BelMateo bowl, so I thought I would go play golf. I checked on Crystal Springs and they have been shut down til April 7th. No word on EH Golf Course website. I’ll give that a try.
Jack: just stay home like the rest of us and support our community and first-responders by not spreading the virus.
Your libertarian shtick sounds even more absurd in times of crisis.
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Folks: Note that Trump is CURRENTLY in court with a case to throw out ObamaCare. How’s that for timing?
– Trump fired the National Pandemic Team in 2018.
– Trump/Pence both turned down millions of tests offered by the WHO in January.
– 30 members of the Trump admin were part of the hand-over exercise from the Obama team, who did several simulations to train for a pandemic and other disasters, in January 2017. 20 of those 30 Trumpettes are now out of government.
Trump’s Executive Malfeasance is all over this pandemic.
@trump fired the….
Check this article out, which shows that your very name is, indeed, fake news. Never happened. Trump did no such thing. This article is from the Washington Post, certainly not a bastion of pro-Trump opinion, and it describes who ran the “pandemic office” under Trump.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/16/no-white-house-didnt-dissolve-its-pandemic-response-office/
A simple apology for your proliferation of fake news will be acceptable.
> This article is from the Washington Post, certainly not a bastion of pro-Trump opinion,
Beautiful. Assigning an op-ed from a trumper as an article from WaPo.
It wasn’t an “article”, it was an OP-ED by a former Trumper. It was PLACED in WaPO, not “from” WaPo. Therefore, just adjust your sentence to fact, not your OPINION:
>>> This TRUMP OPINION PIECE (not ‘article’) is IN (not ‘from’) the Washington Post, certainly not a bastion of pro-Trump ARTICLES (see the difference accuracy makes?)
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Now the facts that your op-ed hides/lies about: (here’s an article from WaPo since you now believe them https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/05/10/top-white-house-official-in-charge-of-pandemic-response-exits-abruptly/ )
Other sources: Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer abruptly departed from his post leading the global health security team on the National Security Council in May 2018 amid a reorganization of the council by then-National Security Advisor John Bolton, and Ziemer’s team was disbanded. Tom Bossert, whom the Washington Post reported “had called for a comprehensive biodefense strategy against pandemics and biological attacks,” had been fired one month prior.
It’s thus true that the Trump administration axed the executive branch team responsible for coordinating a response to a pandemic and did not replace it, eliminating Ziemer’s position and reassigning others, although Bolton was the executive at the top of the National Security Council chain of command at the time.
———–
So: are you drinking Koolaid and unable to see truth? Or are you unable to read through trumpian propaganda, and use other sources to seek truth?
In your own words, let’s close:
“A simple apology for your proliferation of fake news (ie. Trumpian smoke and mirrors in an op-ed) will be acceptable.”
We can then move on to discussions of Trump failures despite multiple exercises to address pandemics in 2017 (with the Obama team with 30 Trump staff, 20 of whom left the administration,) 2018 and 2019.
Also: the disastrous Trump mistakes about test kits in January, or the lies Trump has told in the last couple months (the ‘simple flu’ comments, the “it’ll go away” comments, etc..)
Did you listen to him bloviate and obfuscate his way through today’s presser? We’re in big trouble. He has made it worse.
Executive Malfeasance.
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Like many of us, you value local journalism. Now: your penance – say three prayers to the God of your choice and donate/subscribe to Embarcadero Media in order to support one of the few local outlets we have left. Go in peace, brother.