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Description
The County’s public health leaders discuss how the Public Health Department is taking steps to protect long-term care facilities, which include skilled nursing, independent living, assisted living, and board and care facilities.
Recorded April 24, 2020.
The City of Cupertino would like to express its thanks to the County of Santa Clara for the use of their video materials during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For more information regarding the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak in Cupertino, please visit https://www.cupertino.org/coronavirus
C
Good
morning,
I'm
Evelyn
Howe
lead
public
information
officer
for
the
county
of
Santa
Clara
Emergency,
Operations
Center
and
with
the
Office
of
the
Director
in
the
Public
Health
Department
here
in
the
county
I'm
joined
today
by
dr.
Elsa
via
Reno,
an
assistant
public
health
officer
with
Santa
Clara
County
as
well.
C
We
wanted
to
let
you
know
this
morning
that
we
were
wearing
our
face
coverings
and
have
removed
them
so
that
you
can
hear
us
better
and
to
also
support
our
ASL
interpreters
to
be
able
to
hear
us
better
as
well
so,
but
we
have
been
wearing
them
and
we
are
continuing
to
maintain
social
distance
in
all
the
work
that
we
do
in
the
Emergency
Operations
Center,
and
we
thank
you
for
your
support
and
continue.
Following
of
the
volunteer
ekam
end
strong
recommendations
to
wear
facial
coverings
when
conducting
any
essential
activity.
C
We
know
the
weather
out
today
is
beautiful
and
the
weekend
looks
like
it
will
be
really
nice
too,
and
we
recognize
that
we
have
all
been
sheltering
in
place
for
a
long
time.
We
want
to
remind
you
that
is
critically
important,
that
we
continue
to
stay
home
as
much
as
possible,
find
opportunities
to
enjoy
the
outdoors
on
walks
with
members
of
your
household.
Only
and
please
remember
that
they're
congregating
in
any
numbers
with
any
individuals
outside
your
household
continue
to
be
strictly
prohibited
under
the
Health
Officer
order
that
is
currently
in
place.
C
I
know
that
for
me
that
that
is
a
challenge.
I
have
young
kids.
We
have
neighbors
that
we
want
to
be
able
to
see,
but
we
will
continue
to
try
to
see
them
from
afar
from
windows
and
knowing
that
even
congregating
in
our
common
areas,
while
maintaining
social
distance,
is
still
not
allowed
under
the
orders.
C
But
we
will
try
our
best
and
we
will
continue
to
do
our
best
to
follow
with
all
parts
of
the
social
distancing
requirements
for
our
county,
as
you
may
have
seen
in
our
data
that
continues
to
be
refreshed
daily
on
our
dashboards
on
our
website.
Our
case
numbers
continue
to
grow,
but
at
a
slow
rate
and
that
slow
rate
that
slow
increase
is
thanks
to
everyone's
efforts
in
following
the
shelter
in
place.
Order
increasing
social
distance
and
reducing
contacts
all
that
reduction
of
context
helps
to
slow
the
transmission
of
the
virus
through
our
Kim.
C
So
thank
you
for
that.
Your
choices
are
making
a
difference
every
day
and
it
is
imperative
that
we
continue
on
so
join
me
this
weekend
and
ensuring
that
we
get
to
enjoy
some
of
the
beautiful
weather,
but
also
ensuring
that
we
are
not
having
additional
context
with
others
in
our
community
that
are
not
part
of
our
houses.
So
now
I'd
like
to
turn
it
over
to
our
discussion
with
dr.
via
Reno.
C
Today,
we
wanted
to
focus
our
discussion
today
on
what
the
county
is
doing
to
support
long-term
care
facilities,
so
long-term
care
facilities
include
skilled
nursing
facilities,
assisted
living,
independent
living
and
board
and
care
facilities
in
our
county.
This
work
is
a
particular
area
of
emphasis
for
the
Public
Health
Department,
because
we
recognize
the
specific
vulnerabilities
of
residents
of
these
types
of
facilities
in
its
particular
area
of
work,
so
I'm
happy
to
have
dr.
via
Reno
with
us
today
to
discuss
some
of
our
efforts
there.
D
Evelyn,
thank
you,
I.
We
are
doing
all
that
we
can
to
help
the
managers
and
directors
of
Nursing
of
the
long-term
care
facilities
and
other
types
of
congregate
living
facilities
care
for
their
residents.
We
want
to
diminish
the
number
of
new
infections
with
kovat
and
we
want
to
be
able
to
keep
the
ones
that
are
living
there,
safe
and
healthy.
D
We
are
doing
things
like
having
a
public
health
nurse
assigned
to
each
of
the
facilities
to
talk
to
them
on
a
daily
or
weekly
basis,
depending
on
what
is
the
situation
happening
at
their
facility,
they
share
with
them
infection
control
guidelines,
ways
to
control
the
dissemination
of
further
infection
if
it's
happening
in
the
facility,
but,
more
importantly,
to
prevent
infections
in
the
facility,
because
we
know
that
this
is
a
highly
vulnerable
population.
What
what
that
means
being
very
vulnerable.
D
It
means
that,
if
you
get
ill
with
this
disease,
you
have
a
higher
likelihood
of
getting
severe
disease
or
dying
from
it,
and
we
want
to
prevent.
We
want
to
keep
everybody
happy
healthy
and
and
have
all
the
tools
available
to
them
by
the
public
health
department.
In
the
infection
control
guidelines
that
the
CDC
puts
out
have
everything
be
in
place
so
that
the
prevention
of
kovat
can
be
achieved.
I.
D
There
are
cases
in
long-term
care
facilities.
We
are
in
constant
communication
with
the
staff
that
works
at
those
facilities
we
create
listings
of
the
residents
and
where
they're
located
within
the
facility
we
provide
support
for
in
the
case,
there
is
not
sufficient
personal
protective
equipment
for
the
staff.
D
We
can
supplement
personal
protective
equipment
to
the
staff.
We,
even
in
many
instances
where
there
has
been
difficulties
because
of
staff
shortages.
That
is
when
the
number
of
staff
available
to
take
care
of
patients
gets
too
low
to
be
a
safe
ratio
of
how
many
persons
you
need
to
have
caring
for
the
residents.
We
have
been
able
to
provide
employees,
nurses
and
others
that
can
support
that.
This
is
because,
as
County
employees
were
all
disaster
service
employees
and
therefore
weekend
we
can
mobilize
persons
where
they're
needed
great.
C
To
hear
I
wanted
to
let
everybody
know
that
on
our
data
dashboard
site,
we
do
have
a
specific
dashboard
focused
on
cases
within
long-term
care
facilities.
There
you
can
find
the
total
number
of
cases,
that
of
staff
and
residents
that
have
been
associated
with
a
long-term
care
facility
over
time.
You
can
also
find
the
number
of
facilities
that
have
had
one
or
more
cases
within
that
facility
and
associated
with
that
facility.
C
One
thing
to
note,
though,
is
that,
because
of
widespread
community
transmission,
it
is
not
unexpected
to
have
cases
within
along
associated
with
a
long-term
care
facility.
However,
the
public
health
department
actively
works,
then,
as
those
cases
are
quickly
detected
to
to
support
the
facilities
to
control
the
spread
of
that
infection
within
a
facility,
but
because
we
have
contextual,
widespread
transmission
with
the
community
that
those
cases
within
long-term
care
facilities
are
not
unexpected,
but
our
goal
is
to
actually
minimize
as
much
transmission
within
those
facilities
and
to
do
that,
I
know
that
we've
provided
guidance.
C
D
The
guidance
is
infection,
control
and
infection
prevention
guidance.
You
mentioned
how
we're
working
directly
with
the
staff
of
the
of
the
long-term
care
facilities,
but
also
with
hospitals,
because
people
when
they're
ill,
they
sometimes
have
to
go
from
the
facility
to
a
hospital
and
then
get
discharged
back
to
the
facility.
So
infection
prevention
and
infection
control
guidelines
are
important
because
we
know
that
that
patients
have
to
be
sometimes
mobilised
between
two
places
and
we
want
to
minimize
the
risk
for
transmission
during
those
during
those
exchanges.
D
If
somebody
goes
to
the
hospital
or
comes
back,
we
also
want
to
minimize
any
risk
to
staff
taking
care
of
infected
patients,
so
we
introduced
something
called
contact
tracing.
This
is
we,
whenever
a
new
case
gets
discovered,
a
detailed
investigation
of
who
has
been
in
contact
with
that
person
and
could
have
potentially
become
infected,
needs
to
be
assessed
for
sentence
symptoms
and
also
tested
with
a
laboratory
test
to
detect
whether
they
have
acquired
they've
infection
themselves.
D
We
provide
back
to
work
recommendations
for
the
cases
of
staff
members
that
have
been
out
ill
and
when
there's
it's
safe
for
them
to
come
back
and
take
care
of
the
of
the
residents.
We
provide,
like
I,
said
in
occasions,
staffing
to
supplement
any
shortages,
and
we
in
in
general
need
to
support
the
good
work
that
the
long-term
care
facilities
try
to
do
every
day
in
taking
care
of
their
residents.
D
C
You
and
we
are
really
appreciative
of
our
long-term
care
facility
partners
who
are
operate
independently
and
are
licensed
by
the
state
of
California,
but
that
their
participation
in
cooperation
with
the
County
Public
Health
Department
has
been
critical
to
our
ability
to
ensure
the
health
and
safety
of
the
residents
of
these
facilities,
so
we're
very
grateful
for
their
cooperation
with
us
in
this
effort.
We
did
want
to
let
you
know
that
the
information
about
the
guidance
that
dr.
V
arena
shared
is
available
on
our
website,
if
you're
interested
in
knowing
more
about
what
is
included
there.
C
We
want
you
to
know
that
the
populations
and
the
residents
of
long-term
care
facilities,
who
are
often
our
family
members,
our
neighbors,
are
of
particular
importance
to
the
Public
Health
Department,
while
lab
testing
is
still
limited
throughout
the
community.
On
lab
testing
is
prioritized
for
residents
within
long-term
care
facilities.
Should
the
need
arise
for
testing
within
those
facilities,
so
that
testing
is
available
and
is
prioritized
for
this
group
among
some
other
groups.
So
thank
you
for
joining
us
today.
Please
do
enjoy
this
beautiful
weekend,
remembering
to
wear
your
face.
C
Coverings
went
out
doing
essential
activities
remain
within
your
household
groups
and
reduce
all
contacts
with
anybody.
That's
not
in
your
household
groups
also
try
to
reduce,
even
though
that
your
essential
activities
to
reduce
context
where
possible.
We
know
that
this
is
a
difficult
difficult
time
and
we
appreciate
everyone's
best.
Efforts
to
comply
is
to
the
with
the
order
every,
and
we
know
that
these
are
choices
that
we
make
daily
they're
difficult
for
all
of
us,
and
we
thank
you
for
your
continued
partnership
with
us.
Thanks.