City of Cupertino, CA County of Santa Clara COVID-19 Videos, 21 Jun 2021

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From YouTube: County Public Health Dept. Press Conference (Health Order Rescinded) - June 21, 2021

Description

Under the new Cal/OSHA regulations, an employee is considered “fully vaccinated” if the employer has documentation reflecting that the employee completed their vaccination series at least 14 days ago (e.g., 14 days after the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine).

The May 18th Local Health Order requires all businesses and governmental entities in Santa Clara County to determine the vaccination status of their personnel, such as by way of a simple self-attestation. It does not require reporting of that information to the County, and it allows individuals the ability to “decline to state” their status, although they are then treated as unvaccinated. Cal/OSHA has explained in FAQs that a self-attestation like that permitted under the May 18th Local Health Order is sufficient documentation to implement its new regulations.

Under today’s order, the May 18, 2021 Local Health Order is rescinded, except for those businesses or governmental entities who have not yet completed two rounds of ascertainment of vaccination status of their personnel—a first round for all personnel and a second round for those who did not indicate they were fully vaccinated. For those entities, once the second round is complete, the May 18th Order does not apply to them either. All entities must maintain their records of compliance for the duration of the Cal/OSHA regulations. Today’s order also includes recommendations to continue to keep the community safe from COVID-19: (1) get vaccinated; (2) continue to emphasize outdoor activities; (3) avoid travel if you’re not fully vaccinated; and (4) continue to regularly test for COVID-19 if you’re not fully vaccinated and, regardless of vaccination status, get immediately tested if you have COVID-19 symptoms.

Under the State’s rules, face coverings are still required—regardless of vaccination status—in healthcare settings; at schools, childcare, and youth settings; on public transit; in jails and correctional facilities; and at homeless and emergency shelters.

Santa Clara County has the nation’s highest vaccination rate among large counties, and one of the highest vaccination rates among all counties, according to CDC data. As of June 20, 2021, 80% of residents aged 12 and older have received their first dose, and over 71% of residents aged 12 and older are fully vaccinated.

This press conference was recorded on June 21, 2021.

For more information regarding the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak in Cupertino, please visit https://www.cupertino.org/coronavirus

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For the latest information regarding the covid 19 pandemic in cupertino, please visit cupertino.org coronavirus.

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Good morning my name is james williams and I'm the county council for the county of santa clara, we're here this morning to share an important update regarding our local health orders and in a second I'm going to turn it over to dr sarah cody, our public health officer and director of the public health department here in santa clara county. But before I do that, I just want to remind folks. We have one broad, community-based health order.

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That's been in place since may 18th, it's related to the ascertainment of vaccination status for employees and today we're announcing an update and phasing out of that order. I'm going to first turn it over to dr cody and then I'll come back and go through a few of those details with all of you and then we'll be available to answer questions.

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Good morning everybody I'm dr sarah cody county health officer. It's wonderful to see you and to see your faces.

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I forgot what everybody looked like so today we're here with uh really great news, and that is that, in light of the very high vaccination rates in our county, the low and stable rates of covid, we are phasing out the last local health order that we've had here in santa clara county and james will talk a little bit about those details, but because the cal osha workplace regulations are now in place, our order doesn't need to stay in place.

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Right now. In santa clara county, 80 percent of people 12 and older eligible to be vaccinated are vaccinated, 80 percent have had at least one dose of the coven vaccine.

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Over 70 percent are fully vaccinated in our county, and that is tremendous. In fact, we have the highest vaccination rates of any large county in the united states. So it's a pretty safe place going forward. Our work will be to ensure that our vaccination rates continue to increase.

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We especially want to ensure that communities that have historically been hard hit by covid places where vaccination rates are not as high as they need to be. That is where we will be focusing our work.

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As always, we want no one to be left behind and we are doing everything that we can to reach those who've not yet been vaccinated are eligible and wish to be vaccinated thanks. So much and I'll turn it back over to.

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James, so I'll first give just a little background on how the local regulatory landscape has changed in the last few months and I'll talk about what today's order does and what it means.

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So back on march 3rd of this year, the county rescinded all of its activity and industry, specific regulations resting solely on the state's blueprint framework for things like capacity limits or specific rules and regulations related to certain activities to keep people safe.

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On may 18th, dr cody issued a new order that eliminated all of the remaining local requirements, such as maximization of telework. The requirement to have a social distancing protocol again resting solely on the state rules related to those kinds of issues.

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The one piece that was continued in place with the may 18th order was a requirement to determine the vaccination status of staff by employers and businesses and governmental entities, and that was done so that people would have the information needed in order to be able to actually operationalize and put in place the important safety rules that apply to those who are fully vaccinated versus those who are not yet fully vaccinated.

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In light of the new calosha regulations that took effect on friday, these rules provide that people who are fully vaccinated generally do not need to wear face coverings indoors, except in certain settings again. Those are the states rules related to face coverings.

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These new callosa regulations eliminated the requirement for physical, distancing and relaxed a number of other standards as well, but the key under these calosha regulations is that to be considered fully vaccinated, the employer must have documentation of your vaccination status.

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Calosh has explained in faqs on its website that you can obtain that documentation through means such as a self-attestation just like was provided under the county's may 18th order.

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We're very pleased that the may 18th order now enables businesses and entities here in santa clara county to immediately and legally implement the cal osha rules safely, because they will have that documentation of vaccination status and, as a result, every entity that has completed two rounds of ascertainment, the one initial round for all of its staff and one subsequent round for those staff who were not fully vaccinated once a business or entity has completed those two rounds. The may 18th order has no further effect if businesses or entities were doing so on time.

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They should have already completed both of those rounds by june, 14th and so effective. Today, there's no local regulation at all for those businesses that maybe are a little delayed in completing those two rounds of ascertainment as soon as they do complete those rounds again, the may 18th order will have no further effect with respect to that entity in santa clara county.

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Again, this the the 18th order allows people to actually legally and uh and operationally effectuate the cal osha safety rules. It is still important for folks who are not fully vaccinated to continue to use face coverings to continue to follow the recommendations and safety precautions that are in place. Vaccination is highly effective.

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You heard dr cody talk about the outstanding rate of community vaccination here in santa clara county, but there is still about 30 percent of eligible people who are not yet fully vaccinated and we urge them number one to get vaccinated and you can go to scc freevax.org to find out how or until they're, fully vaccinated to continue to wear, face coverings and exercise appropriate safety precautions.

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With that, I think we're happy to answer.

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The podium, I have a question for you: there was a incredibly significant pushback in the.

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If they haven't done it already,.

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So the question is there: was there was some pushback from some related to the uh the vaccine, ascertainment requirement and what's the incentive for people to continue to complete the process in light of today's announcement?

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That's exactly why, where today's orders are phasing out, it does require entities to have completed those two rounds, so the first initial ascertainment of all staff and then a second round, which is one follow-up just with those who are not fully vaccinated, which again should only be for most folks a small percentage of their staff, but once you've completed those two rounds, you need to do nothing further if you've timely already done that, you need to do nothing further, but this is essential information to be able to implement those callosha rules and again the calosha regulations require that the employer have affirmative documentation of vaccination status in order for you, for example, to be unmasked at.

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So the question was: there was no reporting requirement to the county. How will we figure out if people have been in compliance so first, that's absolutely correct. The may 18th order does not require any uh reporting to the county.

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uh We do have a complaint based uh compliance system where we will follow up with entities if we receive complaints. In addition, cal osha will be doing enforcement and will follow up with entities to ensure that there's documentation and we are requiring folks to maintain their documentation for the duration of the cal osha emergency.

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March now that the county is essentially going in line with the state with the feeling at this moment that the county's leading role that the endemic is.

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So I I feel very grateful today and I feel very hopeful today and that's because in santa clara county and in the bay area region, our communities took kovitt very seriously. We did and our communities did, people really stepped up and when we asked them to shelter in their homes at socially distance, most people did.

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We also have had amazing uptake of vaccination, so those two, those two things put us in in really quite good shape here in santa clara county. um I think our whole region is one of the safest places in the u.s at this point. uh So that's very good news.

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At the same time, we are still in the middle of a global pandemic. We still have variants that are emerging and not everywhere is as safe as we are, and there's a lot of communities that still don't have the access that we have to vaccine.

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So I feel very grateful and very hopeful for our region and at the same time we will continue to do everything that we can to ensure that every last person that uh should be vaccinated is able to be vaccinated and wants to be vaccinated. Gets vaccinated um because that protects our community as well as the individual, um and we will also uh you know, do what we can to to support others.

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I think it's just important to remember that, while we're safe here the pandemic isn't over, um and so we still need to to stay on top of it and as we have since the beginning, it's been a whole of government whole of community everyone working together and and it's kept us safe, and I hope that we stay safe. Thank you.

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So if business county has fulfilled the requirements under the may county order, are they also, therefore, in compliance with the state or.

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The question is: what's the interaction between the may 18th order, the ascertainment and the state regulations?

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The the great news for our businesses and entities here in santa clara county is that if you're in compliance with the may 18th order the ascertainment order, that means you already have documentation right now on the vaccination status of your employees. That puts you in compliance with the kalosha regulation. That's now, in effect, to have documentation for those who are fully vaccinated.

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So you can allow those individuals who are fully vaccinated to then work under those rules, meaning they don't have to wear face coverings, except in certain settings and other requirements like the quarantine requirements and other things also are relaxed if you're fully vaccinated.

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It's worth noting the state does have a few categories of exceptions where everyone does still need to wear face coverings, such as on public transit, health care facilities, jails and correctional institutions, schools, child care and youth settings, and I think I'm missing almost shelters and emergency shelters. So those are under the state's rules, regardless of vaccination status, but everywhere else.

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If you're fully vaccinated your employer has that documentation, then you don't need to wear a face covering because of the vaccination and the definition of fully vaccinated under that kalosha rag specifically uses the word the employer has documented, and so it's not just a matter of you verbally saying it. There has to be that documentation and self-attestation works uh and and they've put up faqs to that effect on their.

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It was important for us to get to 75-85 population, but that kind of confers protection because of the people that don't get vaccinated.

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So if we've got if we are either reach that or you're near it in terms of people getting their second child, why you spend any more energy kind of trying to protect people that have elected not to get taxed.

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So the question is around herd immunity and, given that we have relatively high levels of vaccination, uh why keep persisting uh and and trying to get more vaccinated?

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And the answer is because herd immunity in some ways is very localized, so there may be one community or neighborhood in our county where people are quite protected, because even if you are unable to be vaccinated, most people you come into contact with, will be vaccinated and there are other communities in our county where that's not the case, and so people who are not vaccinated are not well protected because many of the people they will be in contact with are also not vaccinated.

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We know that there still are barriers to vaccination.

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Some people have difficulty getting off getting off of work or making time or you know, competing priorities with family etc. We will continue to do everything that we can to help people overcome those barriers by offering vaccination in communities as accessibly as possible.

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Another issue is there's quite a bit of misinformation about the vaccine and we want to partner with whomever we can to ensure that the information that people have is accurate and correct so that they can make good decisions.

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From my perspective and from the perspective of many many many people, these are extraordinary vaccines, extraordinarily effective, extraordinarily safe and the benefits of getting vaccinated vastly outweigh any risk. Think about this. We take risks every day when we get in our cars, we take risks every day when we cross the street. Everything has a risk.

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These vaccines have a risk, but it is tiny and the benefit is tremendous. The benefit of the vaccines have gotten us to where we are today. We are all standing here, seeing each other's faces for the first time and you know getting back to our lives. Thank you, but I guess my question.

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So the question is: why work hard to protect people who have not elected to protect themselves and the reason? Why uh is because there are many people who still cannot be vaccinated because they're under 12.? We need to protect them too. There are people who are whose immune systems don't work well because of illness or medications. Or what have you who? Even if they're vaccinated, aren't going to be protected, but we can protect them if we get vaccinated.

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So not everyone who is still susceptible is susceptible by choice and that's why we need very high rates of community vaccination and we need them in every.

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We will now go ahead and move into the vietnamese portion of this press conference. Thank you.

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A chinese statement.

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Now we're moving into the tagalog statement. Thank you.

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Public information officer and accounting, santa clara.

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California, department of industrial relations, division of occupational safety and health kilalab bilangkal, osha, dr sarah cody health officer and director of public health, paris, accounting in santa clara may 18 2021.

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Garna kabataan samana public transit, correctional facility, assam and homeless, at emergency, shelter, parasite information.

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County said www.secgov.org coronovarus mirami.

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For the latest information regarding the covid 19 pandemic in cupertino, please visit cupertino.org.

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