SAN DIEGANS URGED TO COVER MOUTH AND NOSE IN PUBLIC; ESSENTIAL WORKERS REQUIRED TO WEAR MASKS

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By Jose A. Alvarez, County of San Diego Communications Office

Photo: San Diegans are strongly encouraged to wear a facial covering while in public.

April 2, 2020 (San Diego) - A woman in her late 90s is the 16th COVID-19 death reported in the region, the County Health and Human Services Agency announced today.

To prevent the spread of the virus and potential future deaths, San Diegans who are out in public are strongly encouraged to cover their nose and mouth to flatten the curve, County health officials recommended. Businesses, including grocery stores, convenience stores and restaurants, are required to have employees wear face coverings.

The new order and guidance will go into effect at midnight, Friday, April 3.

The County is implementing these new guidelines to keep COVID-19 from making more people sick. They include:

  • Residents are strongly encouraged to cover their nose and mouth when leaving home for essential activities, such as grocery shopping, getting gas, visiting convenience stores or pharmacies.
  • The cloth facial coverings don’t have to be hospital grade but should cover the nose and mouth. Homemade masks, bandanas, scarves and neck gaiters are acceptable since these items can be washed and reused. Facial coverings don’t need to be used when people are at home.
  • Effective, Saturday, April 4, all employees of essential businesses must wear a facial covering at supermarkets, grocery stores, gas stations, convenience stores, restaurants and pharmacies.
  • All public parks and beaches shall close their parking lots.
  • Law enforcement agencies throughout the region will be out making sure that people who are in public are conducting essential activities and to keep people from being out in groups, especially if they are not members of the same family or household.
  • People who disobey the essential business guideline or who are in groups in public are subject to a misdemeanor ticket. Penalties can be up to a $1,000 fine or 6 months in jail.

COVID-19 Cases Jump to 966

Through April 2, a total of 966 COVID-19 cases have been reported in San Diego County, including 117 new cases in the last day.

The County is reporting case updates during the daily media briefing and then publishing them on the County’s COVID-19 website later in the afternoon.

Of San Diego County’s cases, 53.2% (514) were men and 45.4% (439) were women. The gender of 1.3% (13) is unknown. Of the known cases, 181 (18.7%) have required hospitalization, 70 (7.2%) had to be placed in intensive care and 16 (1.7%) have died.

County officials also talked about other measures and resources to deal with COVID-19. To date:

  • More than 13,900 San Diegans have been tested.
  • The County has distributed nearly 1.4 million personal protective equipment items to local healthcare providers, including over 581,000 N-95 respirators, more than 213,000 masks and about 550,000 gloves.
  • A total of 2,026 hotel rooms have been secured to isolate people who have potential COVID-19 symptoms and people who have health vulnerabilities and have no place to live.
  • Of the 1,585 rooms for County Public Health Services use, 116 are occupied by 120 guests.
  • Of the 441 rooms assigned to the Regional Task Force on the Homeless, 170 are being occupied by 302 people who are at higher risk of developing complications from COVID-19.

Photo, right:  San Diego County COVID-19 daily case count

The County’s COVID-19 webpage now contains a graph showing new positive cases and total cases reported by date.  For more information, visit www.coronavirus-sd.com.

 

 


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Comments

Wear a mask because......

from the web quoting Science Magazine, four ways to get infected, and for each the percentage of total infections.. . .46% -- pre-symptomatic - new infections come from an infected person who has not yet developed symptoms but will do so later . . .40% -- symptomatic - new infections come from an infected person who has already developed symptoms. . .10% -- environmental - new infections comes from some environmental contact with the virus . . .4% -- asymptomatic - new infections come from a person that will never develop any symptoms. . . .So everyone is a potential infector and should wear a mask, sewn or otherwise. (Ten percent from infected surfaces, so wash hands.) Someone recommended using fabric from a HEPA filter (see wiki) inside the mask, along with some wire for a nose-clip. I don't have HEPA so I'm experimenting with medical wrap cloth. Anything that limits the direct projection and reception of infected aerosols is better than nothing.

Ugh

So make masks even more sparse to find and drive the black market and price of them even more. How are all these grocery stores, gas stations, convenience stores, restaurants and pharmacies supposed to get and provide masks to their employees? How is the general public supposed to get their hands on masks. They do realize a HUGE majority of people have NO idea how to handle masks or even put them on or take them off correctly.... I've watched people in Sams wearing gloves doing their shopping, walking up to the register and pulling down their mask to talk to the cashier. Then they load up all the stuff in their cars and get in with the same gloves on... There is a video of a person on a subway eating McDonalds while wearing the gloves she's been touching everything with. Wearing masks and handling them incorrectly is way worse than just walking with nothing on your face or hands. The public needs WAY more education for this to be successful.