COVID-19 Reopening Roundup: School Year Starting Remotely; San Francisco Reopening Rollback; Maskless Deaf Woman Confronted At Stores
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- The tsunami of news about the current coronavirus outbreak and now the reopenings can be overwhelming. To help you navigate through what you need to know here's a news roundup of the top coronavirus and reopening-related stories from the last 24 hours.
Pandemic Plan: UCSF Task Force Researches Safe Back-to-School Strategy
SAN FRANCISCO -- Gov. Newsom laid out new rules Friday that likely ensure most Bay Area schools will start with at-home, online instruction come fall. To plan a safe return to classroom education, a UCSF task force has been gathering data from other countries that have successfully figured out what works and what doesn't. With solid science, doctors say classrooms are not petri dishes and kids won't be used as guinea pigs as schools try to find a way back to in-person learning. "It's hard, we're in a hard position. The only way forward is for all of us to work together," said Dr. Naomi Bardach who is on the UCSF task force for a safe return to school. Read More
Deaf San Jose Woman, Exempt From Mask Rules, Faces Humiliation From Zealous Strangers
SAN JOSE -- Erin Young is deaf and therefore, exempt from California's face-covering order. But, she said, she has been repeatedly kicked out of businesses by employees and publicly persecuted by other customers at grocery stores, gas stations and pharmacies. The San Jose resident said the harassment is so bad she now rarely leaves her home to do errands despite the fact that she shows people her hearing aids and carries the exemption order on her phone."Horrible, horrible, I'm trying not to cry now," Young said. "It's very disheartening, it makes you feel inadequate as a human." Read More
Gov. Newsom: Counties On State COVID-19 Monitoring List Must Begin School Year With Distance Learning
SAN FRANCISCO -- Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday that counties currently on the state's COVID-19 monitoring watchlist -- including Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma counties -- will not be allowed to open the school year with in-class instructions unless the counties remain off the list for 14 days. Newsom said it was a difficult decision, but the recent surge in new COVID-19 cases in the state forced his hand. "Schools can physically open for in-person instruction when the county they are operating in has been off our monitoring list for 14 consecutive days," he said. "If you've tuned into these daily briefing, you are very familiar with our monitoring list...We are putting
forth guidelines that say based on the data, based upon the background spread, the community spread of the virus." Read More
SF Mayor Rolls Back Reopening as Coronavirus Cases Spike
SAN FRANCISCO -- Come Monday, the Sakura Sakura boutique inside the Japan Center in Japantown will be closed yet again. Under the city's new measures, indoor malls and nonessential offices must shut down. "We're a store, our income is from a store, we don't have other things going on and that's our lifeblood, so when that's not happening, it has a heavy domino effect," said Stephen Jordan of Sakura Sakura. News of the closure did not surprise Jordan, considering the public's too-lax approach to face covering. "There are still those walking around that just feel like they don't need it and I think it's a basic understanding that you're protecting people from yourself," he said. Read More
Salon Owners Seek Permission To Operate Outdoors To Salvage Struggling Businesses
SAN JOSE -- Hair salons and barbershops are asking Governor Gavin Newsom to ease state restrictions that would allow them to style and cut people's hair outside. It's one of several ideas the hair industry is pushing to keep salons in business. "I'm barely surviving," said JoAnna Brignolo, a hairstylist in Fremont. "I have days when I'm happy that we're not working because I enjoy the time off, but other days when I'm anxiety-ridden because I'm not making any money." That's pretty much industry standard right now says Atelier Studio and Salon owner Karie Bennett."I think it's the ultimate shakeup," Bennett said. Read More
SF Business Owners Awaiting Clarification On What Is 'Non-Essential' In Latest COVID-19 Shutdown
SAN FRANCISCO -- Most Bay Area counties have landed on California's COVID-19 watch list because of a spike in infections and hospitalizations. The only exceptions, so far, are Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties. Friday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed became the latest Bay Area mayor to announce a slowdown in reopening but some business owners are unsure if they should open Monday, or close. It has been 122 days since San Francisco first launched its shelter-in-place order. Some businesses were beginning to reopen but now the city is falling backwards. "The news of this last phase of shutting things down," says Sarah Larson, owner of Often Wander in the Mission. "I kind of figured that retail might be next." Larson is not surprised that San Francisco is tightening policies to slow the spread of coronavirus but she doesn't quite know what the city means by closing "non-essential offices," and what it means for her gift shop. Read More
'Voices of San Quentin'; Instagram Page Portrays Prisoners, Families Cut Off By COVID
SAN QUENTIN -- The worsening coronavirus outbreak at San Quentin State Prison has led to suspensions of inmate privileges such as telephone access, leaving inmates and their families cut-off from each other, an issue one group is calling attention to on social media. Marion Wickerd's husband, Tommy, is serving time in San Quentin for voluntary manslaughter. He tested positive for COVID-19, and doesn't show symptoms, but she's worried. Twelve inmates have died among the 2,000-plus confirmed cases of coronavirus at the prison. "We don't know what's going on," said Wickerd. "We don't know if they're dead or alive." Read More
San Francisco On Watch List, Halts Reopening; Breed Warns Of 'Living In COVID' For 12-18 Months
SAN FRANCISCO -- Mayor London Breed said Friday she has tested negative for COVID-19 for a second time after being exposed to the virus, her remarks coming as she announced the city would continue to pause its reopening process indefinitely because of a surge in coronavirus cases. The decision by the San Francisco Department of Public Health to pause reopening comes as San Francisco has been placed on the State of California's county monitoring list, or "watch list" due to rising hospitalizations. "On April 11th, we had 94 people hospitalized. By mid-June we were down to as low as 26 people. We're now back up to 80 people in the hospital," Breed said at a news conference on Friday. The change means indoor malls and non-essential offices must now close, except for minimum basic operations, effective Monday, July 20. Read More
Napa County Adds Stiff Citations To Mask Mandate
NAPA -- The Napa County Board of Supervisors has put some teeth into a mask mandate, with a new ordinance this week authorizing fines from $25 to $500 for individuals and $200 to $5,000 for businesses that receive repeated complaints for not wearing your mask. "We need compliance and if we can't get compliance voluntarily, if we can't get compliance through education, Then we'll get it through a citation process, said Board of Supervisors chair Diane Dillon. The citations are a last resort only for repeat offenders and will be issued by code enforcement employees, not law enforcement officers. The Napa County Under Sheriff Jon Crawford said the agency's role will be one of support, and if needed deputies are close by. Read More
California Job Growth Teetering On COVID-19 Numbers, Federal Stimulus
SAN FRANCISCO -- With the clock ticking down on the last stimulus package from Congress and the Trump administration, Democrats and Republicans will have to come up with a fourth bailout package to help shore up the U.S. economy during the pandemic. California experienced strong job growth in June, adding more than a half million jobs to the state's economy as the state began to reopen businesses shut down to stem the spread of COVID-19. Still, business leaders worry the gains could be jeopardized by rising numbers of coronavirus cases. "The economy is in turmoil. That's the best way to characterize it," says Russell Hancock, CEO of Joint Venture Silicon Valley. "And that's because of the virus of course, but specifically because we're seeing new spikes." Read More
California Added Record 558,000 Jobs Before Latest COVID-19 Closures
SACRAMENTO -- California added a record 558,000 jobs in June as many more businesses reopened but the gains announced Friday by the state are expected to be short-lived because of new closures put into effect in July as the coronavirus surged. The unemployment rate fell to 14.9%, a staggeringly high figure that remains above the level reached at the height of the Great Recession a decade ago. But It's a marked improvement from the record 16.4% in April and May. Michael Bernick, an employment attorney at Duane Morris and former director of the state's Employment Development Department, said California adds 20,000 to 30,000 jobs in a typically strong month so June's performance was incredibly robust. Read More
Coronavirus Task Force: California Among 18 States In 'Red Zone,' Should Roll Back Reopening
SAN FRANCISCO -- An unpublished document prepared for the White House coronavirus task force and obtained by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit newsroom, recommends that California and 17 other states in the coronavirus "red zone" for cases should roll back reopening measures amid surging cases. The "red zone" is defined in the 359-page report as "those core-based statistical areas (CBSAs) and counties that during the last week reported both new cases above 100 per 100,000 population, and a diagnostic test positivity result above 10%." The report outlines measures counties in the red zone should take. It encourages residents to "wear a mask at all times outside the home and maintain physical distance." Read More
Los Altos Launches Open Streets Closings To Boost Weekend Downtown Dining
LOS ALTOS -- City officials will be partially closing downtown Los Altos streets every Thursday through Monday to accommodate outdoor dining and retailer merchandise amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The open streets program, similar to those already in place in Alameda, Oakland and San Francisco, allows for pedestrian access only on closed streets and will last through Sept. 28. Closed roads will reopen around 6 a.m. on Mondays. The streets affected include Main Street from First to Second streets, Main Street from Second to Third streets, and State Street from Second to Third streets. From Friday through Sunday, a portion of Fourth Street between Pompeii Ristorante and Wells Fargo Bank across the street will also be closed. Read More
