Indoor Service Ends at Salons, Barbers, Gyms, Churches
By Jondi Gumz
After months of flattening the curve of the contagious coronavirus COVID-19, Santa Cruz County cases have risen dramatically to 1,076, warranting state scrutiny, and forcing many businesses to halt indoor services.
Leslie Vasquez, owner of LV Hair on La Madrona Drive, shows off her outdoor set-up with Cynthia Borboa. Her salon specializes in Rene Furter Paris products. • Photo Credit: Jondi Gumz
Tests are hard to get now, but a UC Santa Cruz lab is expected to begin processing more tests in two weeks.
On Sunday, Santa Cruz County was placed on the state monitoring list because case rates topped 100 per 100,000 population for three consecutive days. It’s now 143 per 100,000 people, according to the state.
On Tuesday, Santa Cruz County became one of the 37 counties required by the state to close indoor services at hair salons, barbershops, gyms, places of worship, malls, nail salons, and massage and tattoo parlors. Only outdoor services will be allowed.
Also, offices for nonessential work will have to go virtual again.
The clampdown aims to keep people out of indoor spaces with insufficient ventilation where COVID-19 spreads easily compared to outdoors.
The caseload has ballooned in Santa Cruz County from 570 on July 12 and 750 on July 19. A remarkable 707 cases were reported in the past two weeks, including a record 78 on July 20.
“We were prepared for it,” said Penner, who bought the salon 15 years ago from founder Joe Perry, who is still around to cut hair.
Outdoor hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday with evening appointments available by phone. Curbside pickup is available for retail products.
Leslie Vasquez, owner of LV Hair on LaMadrona Drive, has an outdoor setup, too.
Locally owned Toadal Fitness on Mount Hermon Road has already started outdoor fitness classes — power core, bootcamp, and body pump — in its spacious parking lot, with yoga on the lawn. High intensity interval training will be offered at 6 a.m. starting Aug. 4.
Why Mask?
On July 22, Santa Cruz County Health Office Dr. Gail Newel warned the county might have to close services to slow the spread of the virus.
Locally owned Toadal Fitness on Mount Hermon Road is already offering workout classes outside in its parking lot. • Photo Credit: Rob Hyodo
On July 23, the Scotts Valley Chamber of Commerce and city officials hosted a virtual town hall to alert business owners to what coming.
“It caught up with us and it’s here now,” said City Manager Tina Friend, who called it “shocking” that two-thirds of cases are in the past two weeks. “If you’re an impacted business, you can start planning and adapt once again.”
Vice Mayor Derek Timm said a countywide revolving loan fund is being set up, and the city of Scotts Valley is participating. About $500,000 is expected to be available to business owners who apply on a first-come, first-served basis; it’s interest-free for the first year. To get information, email cityhall@scottsvalley.org to be notified.
Timm emphasized the importance of wearing masks to prevent the virus from spreading. He shared a story that appears on the Centers for Disease Control website about two hairdressers in Missouri who saw 139 clients before realizing they were infected; all of them wore masks and of the 67 clients who got tested, all tests were negative.
For March, April and May, during the shelter-in-place order, the case rate in Santa Cruz County was one of the lowest in the state.
In June, with the economy in tatters, governor opened up many more industries including tourism.
Party Time
People felt it was party time,” said Newel, speaking to constituents of Supervisor John Leopold via Zoom.
She contends the governor sent mixed messages by retaining a statewide shelter-in-place order but allowing tourism to reopen.
Lisa Klaric, manager of Great Clips Capitola, located in the Brown Ranch Shopping Center, is willing to set up outdoors to keep open if the state orders indoor services to close. • Photo Credit: Jondi Gumz
With Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Fourth of July, families started gathering again, as if things were back to normal. Some heeded the advice to wear a face covering to prevent the virus from spreading but many thought the danger was over.
Newel shared an example from interviews with people confirmed to have COVID-19: “oh, yes, I did go to a graduation party and now 14 of my family members are sick.”
Of the 1,076 cases posted at santacruzhealth.org, half are under investigation to determine the source of exposure; the most common is source is close contact with someone who is infected, usually friends and family.
About 36 percent are millennials age 18 to 34, which concerned the Santa Cruz County Business Council enough to host a Wednesday night webinar, “Don’t Kill Grandma, ” which was attended by 150 people.
A replay is available at https://tinyurl.com/dont-kill-grandma
Newel and UC Santa Cruz researcher Marm Kilpatrick provided facts and tips on how to avoid infecting grandma and grandpa, who are at greater risk of hospitalization and death.
As of Thursday, 22 people were hospitalized in the county with COVID-19, which is another jump, and six of them are in intensive care.
Kilpatrick advised younger people meeting friends to get together outdoors, wear a mask and give a six-foot space to lower the risk of catching or spreading the virus.
Samantha Gray, owner of CrossFit Aptos, will move fitness classes outdoors to comply with new Covid-19 restrictions. • Photo Credit: Jondi Gumz
Get takeout and meet in a backyard with lawn chairs six feet apart, he said. When riding with a friend to the beach, he suggested sitting in the back seat, rolling the windows down and wearing a hoodie if it’s cool. Playing basketball, he advised picking one person to guard to limit your exposure. For a family birthday, do BBQ and cake outdoors.
Those simple steps could reduce the spread of COVID-19 and make it possible for businesses to reopen, which would mean getting jobs back.
“Your job, or your friend’s job, may have just been cut,” Kilpatrick said. “Your favorite bar or business may go under.”
Already downtown Santa Cruz has lost the Poet & Patriot Pub, 99 Bottles, Pono Grill and the Salvation Army retail shop. None plan to reopen.
Case counts for each city were not available Thursday but South County has been hard hit with 609 cases.
Last week, Latinos, who comprise 33 percent of the population, had 49.5 percent of the confirmed cases. This week, it was 52.5 percent.
Jacob Martinez, Digital Nest founder, said Salud Para La Gente is sending out caravans in Watsonville to reach out to people in their native languages, Spanish and Mixteco, to explain how families can gather safely.
Employers Can Help
Newel is asking employers to help.
Once a workplace has three or more cases, she said the employer will be asked to prepare a list of personal contacts to give the county’s “contact tracing” workers a jumpstart to alert community members to their exposure to the virus so they can be tested.
Lori Penner, owner of Ideal Hair in the Kings Village shopping center, demonstrates her outdoor set-up with Erin Talty. The salon has been in Scotts Valley for more than 50 years. • Photo Credit: Jondi Gumz
Newel said in most cases, it’s not the workplace where the virus is spread, but people living together, socializing together or hanging out in the break room without a mask.
If people would wear a mask, keep six feet apart, stay home when sick, and not share food, Newel predicted the pandemic would be over in four to six weeks.
For those concerned about contracting the virus from packages or from a retail store, she said, “It’s pretty hard to get COVID-19 from inanimate objects or outdoors.”
The virus is “tricky,” she said, infecting people before they realize it.
“At least 40 percent are asymptomatic (no symptoms). They never get ill and they unknowingly spread the disease to friends and family,” she said.
Kilpatrick said this is especially true for young people age 18-34.
Santa Cruz County has 21 experienced investigators to do contact tracing and 29 new hires from the state, all working at home.
It’s taken time to get the new hires their laptops and cellphones needed to perform their job.
“But we are adequately staffed,” Newel said.
Testing
The county peaked at 10 percent positive on tests on July 22 but that has fallen to 5 percent as of July 29.
The county reports 27,336 negative test results but getting a test is a challenge because of a global shortage of chemicals critical to run the COVID-19 lab test.
As a result, the number of tests done in Santa Cruz County has shrunk from a peak of 431 on July 11 to 92 on July 30.
Newel said it takes three weeks to get an appointment at the OptumServe site at Ramsay Park in Watsonville and the test results come back in 10 days, which “is no value to us.” By that time, people with a positive test have already exposed many others to the virus.
The Ramsay Park facility will stay open until the end of August.
To replace it, the county has allocated nearly $1 million in CARES ACT money to buy equipment for a UC Santa Cruz lab, where researchers have developed an alternative testing process.
The UCSC lab is expected to ramp up from 150 tests a day to 900 or more tests a day with the new equipment.