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In today’s Update:
- How SB County gets off the state’s Monitoring List
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State issues guidance for small cohorts/groups of children and youth
- County firefighters in the heat of battle
- Free webinars offered for business owners
- County Sheriff update
What the County is Doing to Get Off the State’s Monitoring List
In partnership with our residents, cities, and businesses, San Bernardino County is taking positive steps toward meeting the metrics that will get the County off of the state monitoring list and allow our businesses and schools to reopen if they want to.
The list includes 35 of California’s 58 counties, including San Bernardino, Riverside, and Los Angeles counties.
San Bernardino County has activated programs that are showing consistent, positive results. Five counties in the state have recently demonstrated enough progress in their fight against COVID-19 to be removed from the list. We are confident that with continued commitment and patience from our residents and businesses, San Bernardino County can do the same.
Monitoring List Criteria
The state has listed six criteria that put a county on its Monitoring List:
- Experiencing an increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations of 10% or more over the previous three days. San Bernardino County is well within state standards.
- Having fewer than 20% of ICU beds in the County available at any given time. San Bernardino County is well within state standards.
- Having fewer than 25% of hospital ventilators available for use at any given time. San Bernardino County is well within state standards.
- Performing fewer than 150 tests per 100,000 residents per day (over a 7-day average). For San Bernardino County that means averaging approximately 3,000 tests per day – and we are very close to achieving this.
- Having more than 100 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past 14 days. The County’s current average is about 200, but improving.
- Having more than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents and an 8% test positivity rate.Our positivity rate currently stands at 10.6% and it is steadily declining.
San Bernardino County’s progress toward meeting the State’s metrics can be tracked by clicking the COVID-19 Surveillance Dashboard directly from our sbcovid19.com website and going to the CDPH Monitoring tab.
How we are making headway
In recent months, the County has launched several key initiatives that are showing results. Our COVID-Compliant Business Partnership is an overwhelming success, and thousands of businesses are practicing strict safety guidelines in their facilities. This initiative has been combined with the Education/Engagement/Enforcement (EEE) Plan that has seen us already visit 2,000 high risk businesses with education and resources.
We have also increased our testing capacity with a new, painless nasal testing system that can deliver results in under three days. And we have a robust contact tracing system that can identify and isolate infected individuals to quickly stop the spread of the virus.
The County Department of Public Health engages with the State Department of Public Health on a nearly daily basis to discuss key data points and the County’s strategies and progress. The County was recently successful in convincing the state to consider regional data within our vast region when considering school waivers rather than judging schools against countywide numbers.
Meeting the challenge of news cases and positivity rates
Corwin Porter, the County’s director of public health, said that although we have improved our performance in news cases and positivity rates, we still need to do a much better job if we’re to get off the Monitoring List.
“Our performance on these measures is improving,” Porter said. “We have done an excellent job preparing our hospitals for a potential surge in seriously ill patients. Now, residents need to not let their guard down and be cautious about gathering with family and friends.”
Another area where the County is dramatically improving its performance is testing, which is also lowering our positivity rate. The state requires an average (over seven days) of at least 150 tests per 100,000 residents per day, which in our case means an average of about 3,000 tests per day. Since Aug. 9, after investing heavily in better and quicker testing and promoting testing to the public, the County has averaged 4,679 tests per day.
Porter noted that getting more County residents (including those who show no signs of the disease) to take a test will improve our performance on this benchmark while reducing our positivity rate. Thankfully, the recent expansion in the County’s testing capacity is now enabling many more residents to get a test, which is free, painless, and can be scheduled without a doctor’s appointment.
The County has many appointments available each day, and the test literally takes only a few minutes to administer. Every resident should visit our Testing webpage to read up on the FAQs and make an appointment.
“Among other benefits, testing will identify asymptomatic carriers who could be unwittingly spreading the virus,” Porter said. “By identifying these individuals and those with whom they have been in close contact, we can enable them to quickly isolate themselves and thus reduce the spread of the virus.
”We can get off the monitoring list if everyone continues to follow the guidelines we’ve been emphasizing: maintain a safe distance from other people, wear a mask or face covering when such distancing is impractical, and please, please avoid gathering with people outside your immediate household,” added Porter. “The more consistently we follow these simple rules, the more quickly we can get off the state’s list and get back to business.”
All of us should add to this list of guidelines to get tested now. And if you work with the public, or found yourself in an unsafe gathering, you should get tested again.
State Issues Guidance for Small Cohorts and Groups of Youth
Groups of children and youth in controlled, supervised and indoor environments operated by local educational agencies, nonprofits, some private and public schools, day care settings and “distance learning hubs” were given health guidance by the state on Tuesday.
A cohort is described as a stable group of no more than 14 children or youth and no more than two supervising adults in a supervised environment in which supervising adults and children stay together for all activities such as meals and recreation, and avoid contact with people outside of their group in the setting.
Guidance and directives related to schools, child care, day camps, youth sports, and institutions of higher education are not superseded by this guidance and still apply to those specified settings.
Considerations for cohorts
Utilizing cohorts minimizes the number of people exposed if a COVID-19 case is identified in a child or youth attendee, provider, other instructional support provider, or staff member of a particular cohort.
Children or youth, attendees and adults in supervised care environments during the COVID-19 pandemic must be in groups as small as possible. This practice decreases opportunities for exposure to or transmission of the virus; facilitates more efficient contact tracing in the event of a positive case; and allows for targeted testing, quarantine, and isolation of a single cohort instead of an entire population of children or youth and supervising adults in the event of a positive case or cluster of cases.
While present at the supervised care environment, children or youth and supervising adults in one cohort must not physically interact with children or youth and supervising adults in other cohorts, other child facility staff, or parents of children or youth in other cohorts.
Cohort size
- Cohorts must be limited to no more than 14 children and youth.
- Cohorts must be limited to no more than two supervising adults.
- Requirements for adult to child ratios continue to apply for licensed child care programs.
- Cohorts can be divided, as needed, into subgroups of children and youth from the same cohort, as long as the 14-to-2 ratio is not exceeded.
- The maximum cohort size applies to all children and youth in the cohort, even when all children are not participating at the same time. For example:
- A cohort may not include 6 children or youth who attend full‐time, 6 children on Mon/Wed/Fri, and 6 children on Tue/Thu (total of 18).
- A cohort may not include 8 children or youth who attend for the entire day, 4 who attend mornings only, and 4 who attend afternoons only (total of 16).
Cohort mixing
- Prevent interactions between cohorts, including interactions between staff assigned to different cohorts.
- Assign children and youth who live together or carpool together to the same cohort, if possible.
- Avoid moving children and youth from one cohort to another, unless needed for a child's overall safety and wellness.
- Cohorts must be kept separate from one another for special activities such as art, music, and exercise. Stagger playground time and other activities so that no two cohorts are in the same place at the same time.
- One-to-one specialized services can be provided to a child or youth by a support service provider that is not part of the child or youth's cohort.
- Specialized service includes but not limited to occupational therapy services, speech and language services, and other medical, behavioral services, or educational support services as part of a targeted intervention strategy.
- Services must be provided consistent with the industry guidance for Limited Services (PDF).
Considerations for staff
Supervising adults should be assigned to one cohort and must work solely with that cohort. Avoid changing staff assignments to the extent practicable. Substitute providers who are covering for short‐term staff absences are allowed but must only work with one cohort of children per day.
Meetings among the staff from different cohorts must be conducted remotely, outdoors, or in a large room in which all providers wear cloth face coverings and maintain at least 6 feet distance from other providers. Outdoor meetings and meetings in large rooms with the windows open are preferred over meetings in small rooms with windows closed.
Precautions and Considerations
Physical distancing, in combination with the use of face coverings, decreases the risk of COVID‐19 from respiratory droplets. Physical distancing between adults must be maintained as much as possible, and adults and students must use face coverings at all times, pursuant to the CDPH Schools Guidance regarding face coverings. Physical distancing between young children in the same cohort should be balanced with developmental and socio‐emotional needs of this age group. Supervised care settings should follow applicable industry guidance on appropriate use of face coverings by children and youth.
See the CDPH Guidance on Schools and School Based Programs (PDF) and on Child Care (PDF) for additional considerations regarding, face masks, meals, cleaning, drop off and pick up and health screening.
County Firefighters are in the Heat of the Battle Against Wildfires
Fires are continuing to range throughout California, with well over one million acres having burned since August 15. Combating these blazes are more than 14,000 brave men and women — including many from the San Bernardino County Fire Department.
“Our people are battling multiple fires throughout the state, assisting in wildfire suppression and lending both equipment and expertise to the effort,” said Fire Chief Dan Munsey. “They are working with fire personnel from federal, state and local agencies on a collaborative effort to protect property and save lives.”
Many of the fires ravaging the state have been triggered by lightning, with an estimated 11,000 lightning strikes responsible for some 367 fires, which are then exacerbated by dry conditions and searing temperatures. The most devastating fires are largely concentrated in the northern part of the state.
The County Fire Department is part of the state’s Master Mutual Aid system, a cooperative emergency-response program established to fight major forest and brush wildfires. County firefighters, management and equipment are dispatched to areas of the state facing the greatest threats. For example, County firefighters previously battling the Lake Fire in north Los Angeles County were recently redeployed to the Carmel Fire near Salinas. County crews are also contributing to the fight against the LNU Lightning Complex, primarily focusing on preventing the destruction of structures.
Chief Munsey stressed, however, that while County firefighters have traveled north to fight some of the state's worst fires, the department has not neglected local blazes.
“We have fought the Ranch 2 Fire in the Angeles National Forest, the Dome Fire in the desert between the I-15 and I-40 highways, and a vegetative fire in Joshua Tree, among others,” Chief Munsey said. “At the same time, we’re careful to ensure that our own stations are covered, and regularly respond to small fires in the County before they become more dangerous conflagrations.”
San Bernardino County Fire resources deployed to other counties are fully reimbursed for all costs through the Master Mutual Aid agreement.
Munsey also noted that peak fire season — which is typically occurs between late September and the end of October — is still more than a month away. He emphasized the steps local residents can take to reduce the threat and help protect their own homes and businesses.
“We have created a series of tools and materials to help County residents prepare for potential fires, all of which can be found on the San Bernardino County Fire website. Our “Ready! Set! Go! - Fire” program provides a wealth of information that can make the difference between inconvenience and disaster.”
He urged residents to download the San Bernardino Community Preparedness App, which features a five-step family emergency plan creation wizard, relevant news and timely alerts from the County, live information on evacuation routes and shelters, one-button status sharing, and a library of emergency preparedness eGuides.
Chief Munsey also suggested following the department’s Twitter and Facebook feeds to access updated information on an almost real-time basis.
Free Webinars Hosted by the Workforce Development Board
San Bernardino County’s Workforce Development Board has partnered with regional business experts to provide employers in San Bernardino County access to free and informative business webinars. To see what is coming up and to register, go to https://wp.sbcounty.gov/workforce/events/
Register now for these upcoming webinars:
In addition, the County is still offering COVID-Compliant Business Partnership informational webinars for anyone interested in joining. Learn more and get your questions answered at either of these two upcoming events.
More Inmates Test Positive for COVID-19; Three Additional Sheriff’s Employees
As of today, a total of 316 County jail inmates have tested positive for COVID-19. Many of the inmates are only experiencing minor symptoms of the virus. The infected inmates are in isolation, being monitored around the clock, and are being provided with medical treatment. A total of 287 inmates have recovered from the illness.
All inmates continue to be provided with face coverings, cleaning supplies, soap, and are urged to wash their hands repeatedly throughout the day. They are routinely reminded of the need to practice social distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Three additional department employees tested positive for COVID-19 and are self-isolating at home. A total of 173 department employees have tested positive for COVID-19. One hundred and fifty-nine employees have recovered from the virus; other employees are expected to return to work in the next few weeks.
Latest Stats
45,666 Confirmed Cases (up 0.9% from the previous day)
695 Deaths (up 0.4% from the previous day)
344,536 Tested (up 0.8% from the previous day)
For more statistics from the COVID-19 Surveillance Dashboard, click the desktop or mobile tab on the County’s sbcovid19.com website.
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