As cases grow, Stanislaus County health official says ‘It’s going to be worse.’
A rapidly spreading pandemic that began only 2 1/2 months ago in China has not quite crashed into Stanislaus County.
But the third confirmed case of COVID-19 this week, pushing the total to five, shows the situation is changing rapidly in this county. San Joaquin County on Wednesday reported two deaths. That county has 14 confirmed cases.
“I can’t imagine anything will be better in two weeks,” Dr. Julie Vaishampayan said in an update to county supervisors Tuesday evening. “It’s going to be worse. I hope in a month we can say we are better.”
Vaishampayan, the county’s health officer, said it isn’t time to add “shelter in place” restrictions to the event cancellations, school closures, social distancing and other control measures that have disrupted the county.
She told supervisors there were not many signs of community transmission when compared with Bay Area counties that have told people to stay home from work and not leave except for essential activities. About 70 of the 155 coronavirus cases in Santa Clara County were attributed to the virus spreading in communities.
“We aren’t there yet. It’s not time to take that action,” Vaishampayan said. She later added, “I think it will come.”
Wednesday’s press release from county public health promised that “guidance for increasing mitigation measures will be issued” if new cases continue at this rate.
Vaishampayan and other health experts also discussed problems and issues in a teleconference Tuesday with Rep. Josh Harder, D-Turlock. Public health and healthcare administrators talked about testing, supplies, the debate over school closures and child care for hospital workers and public safety employees.
Test turnaround times five to seven days
Warren Kirk, chief executive officer of Doctors Medical Center, said he wished the turnaround time for COVID-19 tests for patients was faster than the current five to seven days. Officials are hoping a new lab capability in San Joaquin County, which tests specimens for Stanislaus, will cut the wait time to 48 hours.
Vaishampayan said people who have mild illness and are not at risk for major illness, don’t need to be tested. They should stay home and take care of themselves.
Kirk said people with no symptoms and no travel history are coming to the hospital to demand testing. He was hoping to get authority to refer them to public health.
Kirk was concerned about an unintended consequence of closing schools — that police, fire and healthcare workers may not have access to child care and will have to stay home from work.
“We don’t have a plethora of nurses looking for jobs,” Kirk said. “It could just make the shortage worse.”
An announcement Friday that public schools would stay open was met with a wave of emotion from parents, teachers and school employees, who believed the virus would easily spread through schools. School district superintendents over the weekend decided to temporarily close schools effective Thursday, which is two days before spring break for many districts.
SCOE offers childcare services
Scott Kuykendall, county superintendent of schools, proposed using the childcare services of the county Office of Education for children of health care and public safety workers. No one on the teleconference took him up on the offer.
Another speaker suggested that workers use high school and college students who want to earn money from babysitting.
Kuykendall said Wednesday he is still offering SCOE’s services. “I have also extended the offer to first responders and the Sheriff’s Department is getting back to me,” he said. “The offer isn’t time-bound and we can put this into place at anytime.”
Vaishampayan said she hopes young people, when they’re not in school, will stay within their social groups. Mixing with people they don’t know could expose them to the infectious virus.
The health officer told county supervisors that public health control measures are intended to flatten the curve of community transmission of the disease.
In other comments on Tuesday:
— Kirk said a patient with coronavirus, who’s been treated at Doctors, was not seriously ill and is almost ready to leave for quarantine or some other arrangement.
— Andrew Mendoza of Kaiser Permanente suggested more discussion of providing for the mental health needs of seniors in voluntary isolation.
— Congressman Harder authored the Paid Sick Leave Credit Act that was approved with other legislation in the House of Representatives. It provides tax credits for businesses paying sick leave for employees because of the coronavirus.
— County Supervisor Vito Chiesa said he expects the pandemic, with its impact on the economy, will significantly affect the county budget for the next fiscal year that begins July 1.
This story was originally published March 18, 2020 at 1:10 PM.
