Santa Clara County isn’t ready to seek state approval to open more businesses due to an uptick in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations that has attracted the state’s attention, Dr. Sara Cody, the county’s top health official, said Tuesday. “At the moment, we don’t meet all the criteria on the variance application,” Cody told the Santa Clara...
UPDATE: Santa Clara County declares racism as a public health crisis
Amid a national reckoning over racism and civil unrest that’s swept the country, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously adopted resolutions to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement and declare racism a public health crisis. “A resolution is only as good as the actions that follow it,” said Supervisor...
Despite outbreaks, officials say Silicon Valley construction sites are safe
Across Santa Clara County, restrictions on a wide-reaching shelter-in-place order are loosening, employees are getting back to work, residents are dining out again and new buildings are rising. But the slow reopening of the region — a constant balancing act between mitigating the damage of keeping the economy shuttered versus reducing the spread of the...
Habitat for Humanity to build 308 new shelter beds in San Jose
San Jose is about to get more than 300 new interim shelter beds in modular housing units, built by Habitat for Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley, officials announced Thursday. The new modular homes will serve as emergency housing for homeless residents and allow those who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus to isolate during the...
Coronavirus LIVE BLOG: June 4 to June 17
Catch up on our current Coronavirus LIVE BLOG here. 5:35 p.m. June 17: Most San Jose park restrooms open, Communications Hill staircase still closed Most San Jose park restrooms reopened Monday, according to a city news release. While the news release said park restrooms will be cleaned according to their use, the most frequented restrooms will...
‘It feels like Christmas’: Santa Clara County malls finally reopen
After three months of closure during the coronavirus pandemic, Westfield shopping centers in Santa Clara County, including Oakridge and Valley Fair, reopened for business Monday. “Westfield is excited to open our doors again … as we begin our initial recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Leah Heil, vice president of shopping center management. Anticipation ran...
South Bay nail salons struggle amid shutdown, despite new state order
When Tina Le first arrived in America in 2003, she took up doing nails as a part-time job. Two years later, she opened a shop in San Jose that she adoringly calls her “second child.” “I love my job, and I’m very proud of my work,” Le said in an interview. “We are here to take...
Liccardo focuses on police, inequality in San Jose’s $4.1B budget
San Jose’s $4.1 billion budget will be finalized this week, a major annual decision that comes this year in the midst of a pandemic that’s caused enormous projected deficits. But Mayor Sam Liccardo’s focus in a recently-released proposed budget was first on police reforms and inequality. Liccardo’s annual June budget proposal addresses head-on community calls...
San Jose police should wear face masks in public, officials say
As the coronavirus pandemic spread across the nation this spring, police departments in major cities began requiring officers to wear masks and gloves when interacting with the public. The San Jose Police Department added a mask requirement to its COVID-19 response plan March 30. The policy reads: “Effective immediately all personnel will wear all PPEs...
San Jose got more than $200M in coronavirus aid. Now it’ll have to up its expense tracking
San Jose has led on many of the region’s coronavirus response efforts, but officials are still figuring out how to track the related costs so the city doesn’t foot the entire bill while facing a major budget shortfall. Now San Jose officials are about to hire an outside consultant to monitor and help guide how...