Category Archives: Covid 19

Benicia City Council, Coronavirus, Covid 19

Benicia City Council adds “virtual meeting” Thurs 3/19, public can watch but cannot attend

UPDATE: An emergency “virtual” Benicia City Council meeting was held on March 19.  The procedings are available in audio only on the City’s website.

See below for how you can participate

The City of Benicia cancelled its regular meeting on Tuesday, March 17, and then called a special meeting for Thursday evening, March 19.  When the agenda was first made available to the public, it seemed that “virtual” attendance was optional, and that the Council chambers would be open for Council members and the public.  But a revised agenda makes clear that the meeting will not take place in any physical space:

BENICIA CITY COUNCIL
CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA
REVISED AGENDA
Benicia City Hall, 250 East L Street
March 19, 2020 6:00 PM
Coronavirus (Covid-19) Advisory Notice

The Solano County Public Health Department has advised that non-essential gatherings should be canceled, postponed, or done remotely. Additional information is available at solanocounty.com/depts/ph/ncov.asp.

This meeting is necessary so that the City can continue to conduct its business and is considered an essential gathering. Consistent with Executive Orders No. 25-20 and No. 29-20 from the Executive
Department of the State of California, the meeting will not be physically open to the public. Members of the City Council and staff will participate in this meeting via teleconferencing as permitted under Executive Orders No. 25-20 and No. 29-20.

As always, the public may submit public comments in advance and may view the meeting from home.

Below is information on how to watch the meeting via cable and/or live stream and how to send in public comments that will be part of the public record.

How to Watch the Meeting:
1) Cable T.V. Broadcast on Channel 27
2) Livestream online at www.ci.benicia.ca.us/agendas.

How to Submit Public Comments:
Comments submitted by 3:00 p.m. prior to the commencement of the meeting will be presented to the City Council and included in the public record for the meeting. Comments can be submitted by email to lwolfe@ci.benicia.ca.us.

…THE ITEMIZED AGENDA FOLLOWS, HERE…

Coronavirus, Covid 19, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department

‘Stay at Home’ declaration coming for Solano County

UPDATE: Just before 5:30pm on Wednesday, March 18, Solano County issued a formal “Stay at home” order. See

Fairfield Daily Republic, March 18, 2020 at 3:24 pm

FAIRFIELD — Solano County is expected to release “stay at home” guidelines today.

Mayor Harry Price confirmed he had been informed by a county official about the upcoming announcement, and Suisun City Mayor Lori Wilson, on a conference call with local ministers and nonprofits, said it will essentially follow the same kind of guidelines that are found in the “shelter in place” health orders issued previously by seven Bay Area counties.

Solano and Napa counties were not part of that coordinated effort, a point of frustration for Supervisor Erin Hannigan.

Napa County on Wednesday afternoon announced its “stay at home” order to begin at noon on Friday and continue through April 7. The release came minutes after the conclusion of a 3:15 press conference on the matter.

It was not immediately clear when Solano’s order was going to be released. Details were not available.

Hannigan said having Solano and Napa left out of the action taken by the other counties left the impression that Solano County was not addressing the Covid-19 concerns as thoroughly as the other counties.

“And that is not the case,” Hannigan said.

Essentially what the Solano County guideline will mean, Hannigan said, is that anyone who does not have “an essential” reason for leaving their homes – including work, grocery shopping, picking up food from a restaurant, health appointments and the like – should instead stay at home.

That is particularly true for those segments of the population that are at a higher risk from the novel coronavirus, such as those 65 or older and those with underlying health issues.

“People have to hear there is a deep concern and there is a deep concern,” Hannigan said.

If residents do have to leave their homes, officials said they should practice the 6-foot social distance practices.

Coronavirus, Covid 19, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department

Solano County issues guidelines for childcare workers

COVID-19 Guidance for Childcare Providers

SOLANO PUBLIC HEALTH | MARCH 18, 2020

To limit the spread of COVID-19 disease, contact with infected or exposed individuals must be reduced as much as possible. Conventional school classes have been dismissed, but the Solano Public Health recognizes the need for continuity of childcare to ensure that essential services and wage-earning activities can continue.

Solano Public Health recommends the following guidance for childcare providers, effective immediately:

1. Childcare ideally should be provided in the child’s home, by non-elderly household members not living in the household or ill individuals.

2. Group childcare may be used for children for whom in-home care by household members is not available. It should be prioritized for use by essential service employees and those who would otherwise not be able to work.

3. Group childcare should:
a. Be in stable groups of 10 or fewer children (“stable” means that the same 10 or fewer children are in the same group each day). Children should not change from one group to another.
b. If more than 1 group of children is cared for at one facility, each group should be in a separate room. Groups should not mix with each other. For example: meals, playground time, and toileting activities should be separate for each group.
c. Childcare provider(s) should also remain solely with one group of children (providers should not move from group to group or room to room).

4. Infection control measures:
a. Screen children and staff for cold or flu-like symptoms or signs of a respiratory illness (i.e., fever, cough, shortness of breath) daily, before entering childcare.
b. Exclude ill children and employees (those with symptoms specified above) from the facility.
c. Children or staff who develop symptoms at childcare should be sent home immediately.
d. Ill children or staff should not return to work or childcare until they are well.
e. Children and staff should wash hands with soap and water for minimum of 20 seconds or use alcoholbased hand sanitizer (if hands are not visibly dirty) before and after eating, drinking, touching eyes/nose/mouth, toileting or diapering, and physical contact with each other.
f. Clean high-contact areas and surfaces frequently, using 10% bleach solution or EPA-approved disinfectant against novel human Coronaviruses: counters, toys, telephones, doorknobs, etc.
g. Staff and children should practice good respiratory hygiene including coughing/sneezing into the sleeve and covering coughs.

Coronavirus, Covid 19, San Francisco Bay Area

Coronavirus CA: Bay Area hospitals to delay elective surgeries, limit visitors ahead of COVID-19 crisis

ABC7 News, by Laura Anthony, March 16, 2020


WALNUT CREEK, Calif. (KGO) — Bay Area hospitals have been on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis from the early stages and are still holding on, at least for now.

While it’s not business as usual at any Bay Area Hospital, the head of emergency services at Walnut Creek’s John Muir Medical Center says his team is keeping up with it’s patient load, coronavirus related or otherwise.

“We’re actually doing well,” said Dr. Russell Rodriguez M.D. “We have everything we need in terms of equipment for our staff and we have enough beds for the patients coming in, so we’re actually in a pretty good spot.”

Like most hospitals in the area though, John Muir is cancelling most elective surgeries. So are Sutter Hospitals and Kaiser Permanente facilities in Northern California.

RELATED: Coronavirus: Everything you need to know about the San Francisco Bay Area’s shelter-in-place order

“We’ve been monitoring the situation since January,” explained Michelle Gaskill-Hames, Kaiser Permanente’s Senior Vice-President for Hospital and Health Plan Operations, Northern California.

Kaiser has 21 medical centers in the Bay Area, each with it’s own command center.

The group’s big objective is to keep patients who don’t need emergency or hospital care away from the medical centers.
“Our message to our members is to ensure that they call before they come in,” said Gaskill-Hames, “and we really want to leverage tele-visits and video visits if we don’t really need to have a physical appointment.”

RELATED: Coronavirus Outbreak: Nurses, healthcare workers concerned about their safety as COVID-19 cases rise

Some nurses in the the Bay Area have told ABC7News they don’t have enough masks, a vital part of the personal protection equipment. But most hospital officials we talked with told us they’re well-supplied, at least for now.

“We have been careful in our use,” said John Muir’s Rodriguez, “But we are providing our staff with all the equipment that they need and we have enough to maintain the current functioning of the system without a problem.”