by Mona Miyasato, County CEO
The past five
months have been anything but business as usual. It’s been a time of uncertainty
and anxiety, and I’m not alone in being grateful for the work you are doing
through it all. Public health employees have been working around the clock on
the pandemic, but at their side are employees from almost every County
department serving in various capacities to protect residents’ health and
safety while continuing to provide ongoing programs and services.
Read on for the latest updates.
We are
encouraged that over the past few weeks COVID-19 transmission rates in Santa
Barbara County are going down, in large part due to the community’s response to
social distancing, wearing face coverings and moving life outdoors. We urge
everyone to keep the momentum going to stop the spread of the virus.
In other
efforts, this week the Board of Supervisors is considering adopting an urgency
ordinance to create additional administrative tools to enforce public health
orders, and this week we will announce that local beaches will be closed to
stationary activity and gatherings for the Labor Day weekend, similar to the
July 4th holiday.
While we
remain on the state monitoring list, our transmission rates have improved
enough for Public Health to allow K-6 schools to submit waivers to reopen for
in-person learning. Local and state health officials will review each
submission as schools will have to meet several measures to ensure the health
and safety of students, teachers and administrators. Other grades are still not
allowed to open at this time, and there still may be many K-6 schools that
cannot reopen now.
We have
asked all departments to remain flexible and continue to allow alternative work
schedules to the degree possible, especially as not all children will be back
at school. While many
of our facilities remain closed to the public, our services are being provided
in other ways. The current plan is not to fully reopen all our facilities until
after end of calendar year, but we are evaluating the situation on a monthly
basis while considering the county’s case rates and school situation.
As a
reminder, all employee resources related to COVID-19 can be found on County
Connect on the Human
Resources Department intranet page. Also, we collected our Department Directors’ reflections
on managing and leading through this crisis. Watch this short video
for a few moments of inspiration and advice. And remember, for current information about COVID-19, including guidance, statistics, and restrictions, visit PublicHealthSBC.org.
Thank you for
your endurance as we navigate the “next normal” together. Stay strong and healthy, for yourself and others.