Californians were evidently feeling a bit of cabin fever this weekend when many rushed to local beaches and parks to stretch their legs days after California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new “stay at home” order. The order aims to get residents to stay inside except for specific, essential tasks and exercise. When outside, state...
Coronavirus: Fears, misinformation spreads in San Jose over police enforcement of orders
In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, rumors and misinformation can spread just as quickly as the disease. In San Jose, social media posts proliferated alleging police officers were stopping people in low-income neighborhoods for violating the state’s “shelter-in-place” order, which asks residents to stay inside unless they need to do essential tasks. The claims alarmed police...
Coronavirus: Q&A with Santa Clara County’s top health official
As the top health official in Santa Clara County, Dr. Sara Cody never imagined she’d be tasked with addressing a major pandemic that has taken root in the South Bay, killing 16 so far and infecting at least 375 as of Tuesday. “This is absolutely unprecedented,” she said Tuesday during a virtual “town hall” call...
Coronavirus testing numbers to become clearer in Silicon Valley, statewide
Santa Clara County residents — and Californians across the state — are set to get more information about coronavirus testing, a key piece of information needed to understand the contagious disease’s spread. Seven Bay Area jurisdictions, including Santa Clara County, announced a new order Tuesday that will increase reporting requirements for private labs doing patient...
Amid criticism, San Jose eases some ‘sunshine’ rules in the wake of coronavirus
Among the emergency laws signed in the wake of the coronavirus, Gov. Gavin Newsom expanded health care for California residents, eased restrictions to qualify for unemployment and issued a statewide stay-at-home order. But tucked inside the slew of measures was an order to loosen the state’s sunshine laws, including the Brown Act, which ensures greater...
Santa Clara council OKs renter protections, small business relief program
The Santa Clara City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved an urgency ordinance that immediately halts evictions through May 8 as the financial fallout from the coronavirus continues to wallop the nation. City lawmakers, who ratified a local emergency last week, also approved a 90-day ordinance that will kick in 45 days from now and provide...
Santa Clara County releases coronavirus testing numbers, more first responders fall ill
Following three new reported deaths and a jump in coronavirus infections, Santa Clara County officials on Monday released long-awaited information about how many people have been tested for the virus so far, but they still don’t know how many tests have been given outside the county’s facility. The county’s Public Health laboratory has tested 1,044...
Santa Clara Convention Center transitioning into temporary federal hospital
As the number of COVID-19 cases in Santa Clara County continues to rise – up to 302 as of Sunday, with 10 deaths – so does the strain on area hospital staff and resources. In an effort to ease that demand, the Santa Clara Convention Center started the process of transitioning its facilities Monday morning...
Coronavirus: South Bay day laborers struggle for work, resources
Next to a sketch of a waterfall on a whiteboard at the Day Worker Center of Mountain View, Harlan Iverson, a former Silicon Valley software engineer, wrote an equation and graph showing exponential growth of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Iverson, 35, has been next in line for the center’s laborer list, waiting for a job since...
Santa Clara County makes plan for more hospital beds as COVID-19 spreads
Santa Clara County officials say they’re making plans for a projected surge in hospitalizations due to coronavirus just as deaths across the county reached double digits and infections rose by 106 cases in the last two days. As of Sunday night, 10 people had died from the virus, up from eight on Friday, and the...