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Del Norte’s representative in the state assembly made a digital appearance in front of county supervisors Tuesday, discussing COVID-19, wildfire prevention, healthcare and broadband access in Northern California.

District 2 Assemblyman Jim Wood expressed his appreciation for Del Norte County Public Health Officer Dr. Warren Rehwaldt as well as Lori Cowan and Roger Gitlin who attended their final meeting as county supervisor on Tuesday.

Wood also spoke with county supervisors after introducing two bills: AB 9, which seeks to expand state wildfire prevention efforts; and AB 41, which modifies the state’s “Dig Once” policy and seeks to “expedite the deployment of broadband infrastructure.”
Wood said he was especially concerned about students who are unable to be in a classroom due to COVID-19.

“Certainly in the Crescent City area, you’ve got really good or better-than-most broadband access, a lot of areas outside of town don’t,” he said. “We’re working with the state superintendent of education, Tony Thurmond, to get more broadband coverage out there. We are as an assembly making broadband a huge priority moving forward.”

Just before Wood's presentation, Rehwaldt informed supervisors that three people in Del Norte County were hospitalized on Tuesday with COVID-19. There are four in the hospital as of Tuesday afternoon. Later that day, the Public Health Branch reported that 15 new cases were identified making for a total of 117 active cases in the county.

Calling 2020 one of the most horrible years for all Californians, Wood said his constituents in Sonoma County had to weather public safety power shut offs as well as revenue and budget setbacks due to the pandemic.

Wood urged Del Norters to continue to wear masks and socially distance, saying the impacts of COVID-19 could be minimized if everyone did that.

“We have serious concerns about this because of the size of some of our smaller counties,” he said, referring to the number of intensive care unit beds in his district. “Del Norte County does not have the ICU capacity Oakland or San Francisco or Los Angeles does. A few cases in the ICU will quickly overwhelm the healthcare system in Del Norte County.”

Wood also spoke of the COVID-19 vaccine, saying he was disappointed in the small number of doses available to his constituents — about 450 in Del Norte County. California is expected to get about 327,000 doses during the vaccine’s first rollout.

Wood spoke to a bill that was passed and signed by the Governor over the summer allowing nurse practitioners to practice independently following a defined supervision period by a physician. He said he also introduced a bill over the summer to allow pharmacists to give the COVID vaccine when it becomes available.

Wood also spoke to COVID-19 clusters in skilled nursing facilities, saying that needing to know what’s happening in those facilities is important.

“Right now they have to be reported by the governor’s executive order, so we get a handle on where the cases are in secured nursing facilities,” he said.

Following Wood’s presentation, District 5 Supervisor Bob Berkowitz asked the assemblyman what input he has in the health and safety mandates coming from Governor Gavin Newsom. Wood replied that he has zero input.

“We really have not been engaged on a lot of these decisions,” he told Berkowitz. “We often find out a few minutes before a proclamation is going to happen… I’m chair of the health committee and I have a healthcare background and five years experience as chair of the committee, but we have not been consulted on a lot of these and I consistently ask for information and the data to support the science and I’ve been very frustrated.”

Berkowitz’s colleague, District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard brought up the impact COVID-19 has had on students. He pointed out that students in Del Norte County already struggle due to the county’s remoteness and are now falling behind even further.

“In speaking with many educators in our system over the last several months, several comments were made to me that ‘We might as well not even started this school year,’” said Howard, whose wife, Lisa Howard, works for Del Norte Unified School District. “Our kids need to be back in class. Can we look for your help with getting vaccinations to our teachers as essential workers essentially on the frontlines of ensuring our children can have equal access to education. Up here, with our demographic, it’s quite essential these kids get back to school.”

Wood told Howard he would “push as hard as (he) can on that.”
According to the assemblyman, the governor’s office and the California Department of Public Health will use a tiered system to disseminate vaccinations. The emphasis will be on frontline healthcare workers and residents in skilled nursing facilities, which account for 40 percent of COVID-19 deaths in California.

Much of the limitations will be on vaccine availability and on which vaccine California receives, Wood said. He also noted that there are significant logistic challenges, including storing the vaccines at extremely cold temperatures.

“The goal is to get it out as quickly as we can to as many people,” he said.

The California Assembly has also been dealing with homelessness, housing and substance abuse issues, Wood told supervisors.

Legislators are also awaiting a U.S. Supreme Court decision involving the Affordable Care Act. Wood said if the Supreme Court invalidates the ACA it woudl be a $20 billion budget hit to the state.

Wood said he also worked with State Sen. Mike McGuire, who also represents Del Norte County, to get more federal stimulus dollars from COVID-19 to smaller counties. He noted that large jurisdictions got more than $500,000, while everyone else “had to fight tooth and nail” to get resources.

“Smaller counties like Del Norte struggled to get a proportional share of that,” he said. “that’s been a real sore spot for me and the senator as well.”

Wood was re-elected to the state assembly last month, beating Del Norte County special education teacher Charlotte Svolos.

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