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Supervisor Candace Andersen, Chair
Supervisor Karen Mitchoff, Vice Chair |
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1. | Introductions | ||||||||||
Chair Andersen called the meeting to order at 1:30 p.m., welcomed the attendees, and introduced the Committee and Dr. Warne. She announced that this may be the last meeting of the ad hoc Committee needed but she will reevaluate after the Governor releases new guidelines on June 15. |
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2. | Public comment on any item under the jurisdiction of the Committee and not on this agenda (speakers may be limited to two minutes). | ||||||||||
All public comment was taken under Item #3. | |||||||||||
3. | RECEIVE status report on the County's COVID-19 status and vaccination framework and DISCUSS prospects for holding public and private events in the County in 2021. | ||||||||||
Dr. Warne reviewed the data dashboard showing current county data. Contra Costa County remains in the Orange Tier. Our case rate is 4.5/100,000, testing positivity rate is 1.8% and equity metric is 2.5%. We’ve continued to improve since April. Not expecting to move to the Yellow Tier due to current case rate. We are in the 4-5 range and would need to be less than 2 to be promoted to Yellow. The County has 69,197 coronavirus cases to date. New cases per day are stable. The 7-day average has improved. Current hot spots are Discovery Bay and Rodeo, with several other cities still above 100 cases. Testing remains strong. The County has sustained total deaths of 796. There are currently 29 people in Contra Costa hospitals with coronavirus. The 7-day average hospitalization rate is 31. There is 40% bed availability in the ICUs; only 5% of ICU cases are COVID. There are only three active cases within Long Term Care facilities, which is significantly less than the peak. The County’s vaccine numbers are very good. 1.3M doses of vaccine have been administered. More than 600,000 people have been fully vaccinated and 710 partially vaccinated. Daily vaccinations have decreased from the high saturation point last month. The daily average doses per day is 8,800. Vaccines are now available to children aged 12-15; there are 65,000 kids in that age group eligible in our county. Parental consent will be required. The FDA now says it is safe to receive other vaccines along with COVID-19 vaccine. School-based community vaccine clinics are now open at selected schools. No cost/no appointment necessary. The CDC issued new mask guidelines for vaccinated persons to be implemented in in California after June 15. CalOSHA will consider revising workplace requirements for vaccinated workers. The following is being deliberated but is all preliminary: dropping requirements for masks when everyone in a room is fully vaccinated and has no symptoms. If not everyone is vaccinated, then all will need to mask. To implement this, employers would likely have to obtain a worker’s vaccination records. The law allows employers to require/request this information. Chair Andersen mentioned that, yesterday, Santa Clara County decided to implement separate guidelines from the State. She asked Dr. Warne if Contra Costa will do likewise. Dr. Warne said the County will decide on revised guidelines once new State and Cal OSHA guidelines have been promulgated. He noted that the County hasn’t placed stricter limits than the State and will likely not do so going forward. Dr. Warne discussed “breakthrough” cases, where COVID was contracted by a fully vaccinated person. He reported 212 breakthrough cases in our county over 4 months. These cases were a mix of 2/3 symptomatic and 1/3 asymptomatic persons. Out of more than 500,000 fully vaccinated people, the incidence of breakthrough cases has been very low. In contrast, there were 25,000 breakthrough cases among partially vaccinated people. He estimated that the vaccine provides a 99% reduction in infections. Among the fully vaccinated breakthrough cases, six people were hospitalized, and 1 person died. The person who died was elderly and already in hospice for other reasons. The County’s data team continues to refine data for public. Dr. Warne discussed what role CCHS will have beginning June 16 and beyond. CCHS will continue to be a resource going forward to provide guidance/interpretation, and will continue to coordinate testing and vaccination, contact tracing, and other aspects of the County response. Regarding singing and chanting at religious/cultural services, he said that music performance is allowed and is not dependent on vaccination status. Performers can perform without masks but he strongly recommends even greater social distancing in that circumstance. He cannot predict with certainty what the State’s post-June 15 guidance will be regarding parades/festivals but “mega events” do pose greater risk. The State Blueprint restrictions will be lifted after June 15, returning to business as usual for most sectors. He expects that limitations on capacity, types of activities, social distancing and extra masking requirements will mostly go away. Overarching guidelines such as for masking will be roughly consistent with CDC guidance. Domestic/international travel will be in accordance with CDC guidance. He expects separate guidance will be promulgated for schools, facilitative of reopening in the fall. The exception to business as usual will be mega-events, which are defined as those having a daily attendance of more than 5, 000 indoors and 10,000 outdoors. Such events may include conventions, concerts, sporting events, music/food festivals, fairs, and parades. It is contemplated that admission to such events will be conditioned upon proof of full vaccination or a recent negative test result, plus no virus symptoms. Dr. Warne has no further details currently but noted that local public health officials and business leaders have input into the decision-making. Chair Andersen invited public comment/questions:
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4. | RECEIVE and APPROVE the Record of Action for the April 15, 2021 meeting. | ||||||||||
The Committee approved the record of action for the April 15, 2021 meeting as presented. | |||||||||||
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5. | The next meeting is currently scheduled for June 17, 2021. | ||||||||||
Chair Andersen announced that the Committee would publish an agenda for a June 17, 2021 meeting but may cancel depending on the Governor's actions expected in mid-June. Staff will send notifications if the meeting gets canceled. | |||||||||||
6. | Adjourn | ||||||||||
Chair Andersen adjourned the meeting at 2:54 p.m. | |||||||||||
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