COMMUNITY NEWS
Post-Covid Summer: Camps, Outdoor Events, Swim Lessons By Jondi Gumz
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ith 15,483 recovered COVID-19 cases and 229,000 vaccinations, the pandemic outlook in Santa Cruz County keeps improving. The county, one of 38 in the Orange Tier, reports 204 deaths, only 144 active cases, and 130,000 negative test results. The adjusted case rate is 1.4 per day per 100,000 people and test positivity dropped to .6 percent. Sam Rolens, spokesman for Santa Cruz City Schools (which includes Soquel High) and a Gault parent, reported in his first weekly video news update on Facebook “the steadily improving picture of the pandemic locally,” with a positive test rate below 1 percent. Half of the county’s eligible population has received one shot, and more than a third are fully vaccinated, he said. Even with elementary students back on campus five days a week, there have been zero cases of on-campus spread in Santa Cruz City Schools, he said, noting exposures and cases are tracked on the district website. New air filtration systems have been installed at schools in preparation for the fall semester, he added. “We haven’t all had the same year,” he said, noting some are carrying heavier loads of trauma and offering his willingness to serve as a resource via email. Dignity Health and the Santa Cruz County Office of Education helped set up mass clinics for high school students at three locations after everyone 16 and up became eligible on April 15, aiming to provide Pfizer vaccine to 1,800 teens. The sites were at Soquel High, Scotts Valley High and in Pajaro Valley Unified. The Soquel High Knights finished their shortened spring football season. Track and field is under way, so are basketball, soccer and golf. The Soquel High girls edged Aptos 3-2 in their first game against Aptos. Cabrillo College will have a virtual graduation ceremony at 4 p.m. May 21. Although COVID cases are down, the local economy hasn’t recovered due to regulatory restrictions — unemployment in March was 8.1 percent and more than 5,000 jobs in the hospitality sector had yet to return. To help restaurants, hard hit by the
rules, the Capitola City Council agreed to extend permission for temporary outdoor dining through Sept. 7. Most restaurants in Capitola Village had invested in outdoor dining as a survival tactic when indoor seating was prohibited. Warning n April 23, federal regulators ended the 10-day pause on the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, begun after 6.8 million doses to investigate after six women under age 50 had blood clots in the brain and one died. A warning is to be added to the label to warn about this uncommon, but potentially deadly, effect. Vaccinations could resume Saturday, the Food and Drug Administration said. Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine has two advantages over the others – one shot is needed instead of two and it can be refrigerated, not requiring extremely cold storage. Johnson & Johnson supplied only 4 percent of the California’s vaccines, and Santa Cruz County responded to the pause by substituting the two-shot vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. On April 27, when new COVID-19 data are posted, Santa Cruz County may qualify to move into the least restrictive Yellow Tier, which allows gyms, saunas, dance and yoga studios, wineries, breweries and bowling alleys to operate at 50 percent capacity. Current capacity for those businesses is capped at 25 percent; liveaudience events can be staged outdoors at 33 percent capacity. On April 6, Gov. Newsom said the state has administered 4 million of doses of vaccine, a key milestone, and that if current trends continue, the state will fully reopen June 15, allowing conventions to resume, with maximum attendance of 5,000. Events to Return abrillo Stage in Aptos plans to stage five musical productions outdoors in June and July, including “Circus: Knives, Blood & Water,” new show created by Capitola playwright Joe Ortiz. The Scotts Valley Chamber of Commerce plans to restart the Art & Wine Festival Aug. 21-22 with Cops ‘N Rodders Saturday and Bring Your Dog Day Sunday, and Watsonville Municipal Airport plans to host “Fire in the Sky,” an open house
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with remote control aircraft demos and fireworks on Sept. 4. Jim Booth’s Swim School is opening first in Watsonville, then at Harvey West Park in Santa Cruz. Summer camps are restarting, and the state will allow overnight camps starting June 1. CineLux Capitola has been open for five weeks and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk opened rides on April 1. How to Sign Up For those looking to get their shot, the place to look is the state system at www. MyTurn.ca.gov. Most health providers are on this platform, making it easier to track California’s vaccination progress. But federally qualified health care centers such as Salud Para La Gente and Santa Cruz Community Health are not using MyTurn, so to get an appointment there, go to santacruzhealth.org, click on vaccines and follow the directions. Another source, supported by the federal Centers for Disease Control, is www.vaccinefinder.org. Santa Cruz County health officials have prioritized equity, allocating 60 percent of its doses for the greater Watsonville area and its Latinx community, which has seen the most cases. The Santa Cruz County Office of Education has created a campaign in Spanish to encourage educators, childcare workers and farmworkers get the vaccine. The information phone line is 831-466-5906.
Economic Aid anta Cruz County government expects to receive $53 million in federal COVID relief, which will end furloughs for county employees enacted to close the budget gap. Cabrillo College in Aptos is getting $16 million in federal COVID relief, part of the $1.9 trillion package signed by President Biden. U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo (D- Palo Alto) who represents parts of Santa Cruz County, hosted a webinar April 15 to explain how restaurants, food trucks, food carts, caterers, tasting rooms, brewpubs and bars can get federal aid. Julie Clowes, director of the Small Business Administration for Northern California, joined her to answer questions. The aid package includes $25 billion for restaurants with grants to be awarded by the federal Small Business Administration, $7.25 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program forgivable loans for small business and nonprofits applying through a bank, $15 billion in targeted Economic Injury Disaster Loan advance grants through the SBA, and $16 billion in grants to shuttered entertainment venues, also through SBA. From mid-November to mid-March, the pandemic kept restaurants, gyms and movie theaters from opening indoors, eliminating thousands of jobs.
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