Coronavirus updates: 5th death in California; Santa Clara sets strict event limit
As the coronavirus infection spreads through California, the global pandemic continues to severely disrupt daily life here.
From widespread work-at-home orders to unprecedented school closures and cancellations that now include nightclubs, Disneyland and essentially all major sports seasons, the outbreak has upended the state’s routine.
President Donald Trump on Friday declared a national emergency, giving authority to FEMA to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here are the latest updates on what’s happening in the Sacramento area and across California, two days after Gov. Gavin Newsom told the state that all gatherings of more than 250 people must be canceled to limit the spread of COVID-19.
All Sacramento public school districts to close
The Sacramento County Office of Education will announce Friday afternoon that all public districts will close for up to three weeks starting Monday, sources said.
San Juan Unified and Twin Rivers publicly announced Friday morning that they will close until mid-April.
There are more than 250,000 students in Sacramento County’s K-12 public school system.
Nearly 250 cases statewide, 5th death reported
The California Department of Public Health in an update on coronavirus numbers said there have been 247 confirmed cases and five deaths as of 8 a.m. Friday.
The most recent death was a non-California resident who died in California, according to public health officials, who have not disclosed where the patient resided or where in California they were treated.
More than 100 of the cases are not linked to travel or known contact with an existing infected patient: the state says there are 56 community-acquired cases and another 50 remain under investigation.
Santa Clara: 2nd death reported; Events above 100 people banned
Santa Clara County in the Bay Area announced Friday evening its second death from COVID-19.
The death was a woman in her 80s who was hospitalized March 9. She was among the COVID-19 cases reported March 13 by the Santa Clara County Public Health Department. It was unclear if her death was included in the five California deaths announced Friday morning.
The county, which leads the state with 79 confirmed coronavirus cases, has legally mandated a ban on gatherings with more than 100 people, and is putting a “conditional countywide moratorium” on events planned for between 35 and 100 people, officials announced during a midday press briefing.
“The Santa Clara County Public Health Department is making its strongest call to all county residents to immediately cancel or postpone all gatherings and community events with 35 to 100 people,” the county directive said, unless the gathering “is necessary for essential societal functions.”
The county urged residents to stop anyone sick with a fever or respiratory symptoms from attending any such event; provide enough physical space for people to stay more than arm’s length apart from each other; and to clean and disinfect surfaces before, during and after the event.
“We recognize these actions will have a significant impact on the lives of our citizens, but we believe they are necessary to protect the well-being of our community,” Dr. Sara Cody, Santa Clara County public health officer, said in a prepared statement.
Of the county’s 79 confirmed cases, 37 patients are hospitalized due to COVID-19, according to the county’s public health department.
UC Berkeley cancels in-person classes, goes remote
The university in a Friday announcement said all in-person classes are canceled for the remainder of the spring semester.
Instruction will continue remotely through the end of the semester, UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ said in a message to students.
“For the small number of courses that do not have a remote option,” which would include things like lab classes, “students will need to get guidance from their instructors on how they are adopting social distancing practices,” the statement said.
UC Berkeley said students will receive relief from campus housing and dining fees if they elect to move before the end of the academic year.
The university says it has no known positive cases of COVID-19 within the campus community as of Friday.
Yolo, Placer suspend jail visitations
The Yolo County Sheriff’s Office announced Friday in a press release that effective immediately, all jail visitations will be canceled, and all public “Live Scan” fingerprinting will be suspended, until further notice.
The Sheriff’s Office says that as of this time, there are no suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases at the jail, which is in Woodland.
Minutes later, Placer County suspended in-person visits at its Auburn and South Placer jails, noting in a tweet that video visitation is still permitted. The Sheriff’s Office also said that the Auburn Jail visiting center will remain open, since it has glass barriers.
Legal and professional visits will continue as planned at the Yolo jail, the Sheriff’s Office said.
The state prison halted visitations, except conjugal ones, earlier this week, and Merced County halted visitations in late February. Sacramento County had not announced plans to do so as of midday Friday.
PG&E and SMUD: No shutoffs for non-payment amid coronavirus crisis
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. “has voluntarily implemented a moratorium on service disconnections for non-payment” for both its residential and commercial customers, the utility announced in a news release late Thursday.
“To further support customers who may be impacted by the pandemic, PG&E will offer its most flexible pay plans to customers who indicate either an impact or hardship as a result of COVID-19,” the news release said.
“We also want to provide some relief from the stress and financial challenges many are facing during this worldwide, public health crisis,” Laurie Giammona, a PG&E senior vice president, said in a prepared statement. “We understand that many of our customers may experience a personal financial strain due to the slowdown in the economy related to the pandemic.”
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District announced it will also suspend power shutoffs due to non-payment. The policy starts Friday and will last through March 31, SMUD said in a news release.
PG&E asked any customers who normally pay their bills in person but are experiencing symptoms to do so online or by phone, at 1-877-704-8470.
PG&E serves about 16 million people across Northern and Central California.
How many test kits in California? CDC, Newsom give different numbers
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday said it had sent 69 COVID-19 test kits to California and that that is enough to test tens of thousands of people. But Newsom earlier Thursday said the CDC had only provided enough kits to test 8,227 residents.
A CDC official told McClatchy News that each kit contains 500 to 1,000 tests, so the number of residents that can be tested should be much higher than what Newsom said — at a minimum, more than quadruple.
“I am surprised this is not more of the national conversation,” Newsom said of CDC kit insufficiency. “We need to focus in on these tests.”
California public health officials could not account for the discrepancy, but it could possibly be caused by the number of tests being used to take samples from each individual patient. CDC guidelines had previously called for two samples per patient, but on Monday were revised to tell doctors that a single sample was sufficient.
However, Newsom also said that many of the test kits lacked some of the necessary components to run the tests.
“It is a failing. Let’s admit it,” Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, told lawmakers of the pace of national testing.
Disneyland closing, at least through March
Disney Parks announced Thursday that Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure in Anaheim will be closed starting Saturday morning and lasting through at least the end of the month due to coronavirus concerns.
Hotels of Disneyland Resort will stay open until Monday to give guests time to arrange for travel, and Downtown Disney will remain open during that time.
Newsom during a press conference earlier Thursday had said that Disneyland, as well as casinos throughout the state, were not included in his order regarding large event gatherings due to what he said were complex circumstances. Disney nonetheless announced the closure within a few hours of the governor’s remarks.
State can seize hotels for quarantine purposes, Newsom says
Newsom on Thursday signed an executive order that expands the state’s power to seize property in a public health emergency and waives some civil service hiring restrictions in the interest of keeping services running as the new coronavirus spreads in the state.
The new order asks the Office of Emergency Services to identify hotels and other properties that could be commandeered by the state for use as quarantine sites. It also includes provisions for those who may lose income due to the coronavirus, and gives residents up to 60 days to file their state taxes.
Newsom’s new order follows an emergency declaration he signed on March 4 that waived some government contracting regulations to speed purchasing.
Sacramento City Council to vote on emergency plan
City officials on Thursday unveiled a plan to limit spread of the novel coronavirus in Sacramento, and to help businesses withstand some of the economic impacts of the crisis and aid parents affected by school closures. City Council will vote on the measures during a special meeting at 1 p.m. today.
Items in the plan include, but are not limited to:
▪ a $1 million economic relief package for small local businesses, which could include some zero-interest loans;
▪ a ban on evictions for residents and business tenants unable to pay rent for coronavirus-related reasons;
▪ free metered parking after 4:30 p.m. for up to 30 days, to encourage people to visit restaurants and other businesses;
▪ cancellation of special events permits for events with more than 250 people; and
▪ up to $250,000 in emergency sanitation and cleaning supplies for the homeless.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg during a Thursday press conference urged locals to continue to “go to restaurants if you can” or order food delivery.
Also on Thursday, Sacramento County announced six new cases of the coronavirus since Monday, bringing the county total up to 17 infections.
Neighboring El Dorado County on Thursday declared a state of emergency, joining Sacramento, Placer and dozens of other California counties in doing so. According to a news release, El Dorado County has not yet reported any confirmed COVID-19 cases, and all tests there so far have come back negative.
The county’s declaration ensures resources and funding are available, and officials said Thursday that there was a high likelihood given the overall rate of spread of the coronavirus that it would a confirmed case in the near future.
Sacramento City Unified latest district to close
The Sacramento City Unified School District will temporarily close all of its schools starting Monday through Wednesday, and attendance is voluntary this Friday, district officials announced Thursday night. The district’s will be deep cleaned and disinfected during the three-day closure.
The announcement came following the disclosure that a substitute teacher working in the district tested positive for COVID-19 less than two weeks after teaching at Sutterville Elementary School.
The closures affect more than 40,000 students across 80 schools. The district will assess the situation next week and inform the community on Tuesday whether the campuses can reopen next Thursday.
How are other campuses in Northern California handling coronavirus?
Also amid Thursday’s whirlwind of announcements and adjustments in response to Newsom’s decision, Sacramento State and the Los Rios Community College District said all face-to-face classes are canceled and must transition to online instruction.
For Sac State, the change extends through the rest of the spring semester, which ends May 20. For the four-campus Los Rios district, the transition to “100% remote operations” is until further notice.
Days earlier, UC Davis announced all in-person final exams for the winter quarter, which had been scheduled for next week, have been canceled and must be replaced by alternatives include take-home or online finals. Instructors could also dro the final exam altogether, the university said in a statement.
Elk Grove Unified School District, the fifth largest K-12 school district in the state according to its website, was the first in the Sacramento region to close, canceling all classes and campus events this week. On Monday, the district learned that an elementary student had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Natomas Unified School district announced Thursday that all schools will be closed Friday and next Monday. The district said no one at Natomas Unified has been diagnosed with the virus, but that at least one and possibly two Natomas High School students described as medically fragile had exhibited potential coroanvirus symptoms.
Folsom Cordova Unified School District, as of a Thursday announcement, is not canceling classes but has canceled or postponed numerous events and activities, including athletics and all field trips.
Golden 1 Center concerts postponed
Sacramento’s largest venue by far with 17,608 seats, Golden 1 Center over the course of Thursday announced the postponement of four concerts:
▪ A Sacramento stop on JoJo Siwa’s “D.R.E.A.M.” tour, planned for March 25, was moved to June 14.
▪ The V101 “Heart of Hip-Hop” concert, which had a lineup that included E40 and Baby Bash, was moved from March 28 to Aug. 8. There is no word yet whether the lineup will remain the same.
▪ A Celine Dion concert planned for April 7 has been postponed, with a new date yet to be determined.
▪ Cher’s “Here We Go Again” tour has been postponed. A May 6 date in Sacramento has been moved to Oct. 14.
Golden 1 Center took a major blow on Wednesday when the NBA season was suspended, postponing all upcoming Kings homes games indefinitely, and a double whammy Thursday with the cancellation of the California Interscholastic Federation state high school basketball title games, which had been set for today and Saturday, and of March Madness, which had games planned at Golden 1 Center on March 20 and March 22.
The venue has not yet issued a decision on two major events in early April. Michelle Obama is supposed to come to town for a pair of moderated talks at Golden 1 Center on April 1, and Grammy Award-winning singer Billie Eilish has a planned tour date in Sacramento on April 8.
Eilish on Thursday tweeted that all of her tour dates through March 28 had been postponed until further notice.
Where do coronavirus numbers stand?
Newsom during a Thursday press conference said that California has confirmed 198 positive cases of the coronavirus. That total jumped to 247 as of 8 a.m. Friday, state health officials said.
Of 223 cases not linked to repatriation flights, 65 cases are travel-related, 52 are due to person-to-person transmission with a known carrier of the virus, 56 are “community acquired” and 50 are from unknown sources and being investigated, according to the state Department of Public Health.
The state says another approximately 11,400 people are self monitoring across 49 local health jurisdictions following international travel.
According to a map and data tracked by Johns Hopkins University, the United States had surpassed 1,700 total infections as of Friday morning, with the worldwide total surpassing 125,000 a day earlier.
More than 4,000 people have died of the coronavirus worldwide. Four deaths have been reported in California, and more than 30 in Washington state, according to health officials in each state.
What is the coronavirus? What are the symptoms?
Coronavirus is spread through contact between people within six feet of each other, especially through coughing and sneezing that expels respiratory droplets that land in the mouths or noses of people nearby. The CDC says it’s possible to catch the disease COVID-19 by touching something that has the virus on it, and then touching your own face, “but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”
Symptoms of the virus that causes COVID-19 include fever, cough and shortness of breath, which may occur two days to two weeks after exposure. Most develop only mild symptoms, but some people develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia, which can be fatal. The disease is especially dangerous to the elderly and others with weaker immune systems.
This story was originally published March 13, 2020 at 7:43 AM.
