---

---

A surge in COVID-19 cases that has public health nurses so busy with contact tracing no one has had time to update the county’s web page, has Dr. Warren Rehwaldt imploring residents to be careful this Thanksgiving.

“Forego the gatherings,” Del Norte County’s public health officer said. “Forego the night out with friends or the parties. Those are probably very dangerous. We’ve had a couple parties where four or five people get infected from one event.”

Rehwaldt gave an update to the Crescent City Council on Tuesday, the day Del Norte County transitioned from the red to the most restrictive purple tier on California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy. This tier indicates widespread risk of viral transmission, and though Del Norte’s current status didn’t come as a surprise to local health officials, Rehwaldt said he’s concerned about the upcoming holidays.

Rehwaldt noted that people may have already made their Thanksgiving plans, but said changing them in light of the recent increase in viral activity locally may be the best thing they can do. People should refrain from gathering in large groups, wear a mask, even around family, and spread out when they sit down to their holiday meal, he said.

“Treat each other like you could be the one carrying the infection into the house,” he said. “Because that’s exactly the situation we’re seeing over and over again.”

In a letter to the community Tuesday morning, Rehwaldt said Del Norte County saw over 50 new cases last week and about 20 more over the weekend.

On Wednesday, Del Norte Health and Human Services Director Heather Snow said she's hoping the county's COVID-19 Information Hub will be updated soon.

"The cases are coming in so fast that the numbers are a moving target," she told the Wild Rivers Outpost.

The county’s position in the most restrictive of the four tiers on California’s Blueprint means most businesses have to move operations outdoors, an impractical concept for late November, Rehwaldt noted. But the designation “carries the force of law from the State of California,” he said.

In addition to most businesses, including restaurants having to serve patrons outdoors, retailers and shopping centers are only allowed to be open at 25 percent capacity while Del Norte County is in the purple tier.

After hearing from Rehwaldt, the City Council on Tuesday extended a resolution approved in March declaring a local state of emergency. Councilors also approved a city plan to shutter offices to walk-ins, urging the public to conduct business online, by phone or, if necessary, by appointment.

City Manager Eric Wier also told Councilors that in light of new requirements from CalOSHA, city staff will be required to sign-in at the start of their shift ensuring they are COVID-19 symptom free.

Crescent City Recreation Director, Holly Wendt, who spearheaded the Del Norte Emergency Operations Center’s Economic Resiliency Branch, noted that many business owners may feel caught in the middle. CalOSHA requirements regarding employee safety and masks may make things more challenging for businesses. But the Economic Resiliency Branch is able to help, Wendt told the Wild Rivers Outpost.

“We want to do a webinar for businesses so they know what CalOSHA is expecting of them,” she said. “We also were able to receive more funding for our business consultant who helps us facilitate small business stabilization loans. That’s $5,000 zero (percent) interest loans for small businesses. We’ll offer those through the next couple months.”

Rather than bombarding business owners with surveys, Wendt said a new Economic Resiliency Branch staff member, Amber Lopez, is reaching out by phone to find out what their needs are. This includes directing them to the small business stabilization loan program or the North Coast Small Business Development Center or putting their name down for other opportunities that will be rolling out with the new year.

There is also more personal protective equipment — face masks and hand sanitizer, specifically — if businesses need them, Wendt said.

“We can get those out in the next couple weeks,” she said. “Even if people applied for them before, they can go online, on our Facebook page, and the economic resiliency page on the county’s COVID response website and apply for free PPE for businesses.”

As for Del Norte Unified School District, the county’s current position in the purple tier doesn’t offer dramatic changes for local students, Superintendent Jeff Harris told the Outpost. State guidelines allow schools who have been offering in-person learning to continue despite a county’s position on the Blueprint for a Safer Economy, he said.

Del Norte Unified’s elementary and middle schools have offered in-person learning at 50 percent capacity since Oct. 5, Harris said. About 2,200 to 2,300 students are back in the classroom with roughly 420 or 430 continuing full distance learning, he said.

Del Norte High School, which has an enrollment of about 1,000, conducts in-person classes for small groups of students, but not at the 50-percent capacity of the district’s other schools, Harris said.

“We are going to continue to have mask requirements, physical distancing to the fullest extent possible and then of course all the other safety mitigation — the hand washing, hand sanitizer and disinfecting of classrooms at night,” he told the Outpost.

Though he expects it’ll happen at some point, Harris said there hasn’t yet been a case of a student contracting COVID-19 at school. Del Norte County’s cases have been travel-based or contracted through community transmission.

“We’ve not had one confirmed case that I’ve been made aware of where it has been a student-to-student or student-to-teacher or teacher-to-student or teacher-to-teacher transfer,” Harris said, though there has been an instance of a group of students having to stay home because of a positive case. “We haven’t had to discuss school or district closure. That could become a possibility, especially if we had students from a few families who brought it back into schools after break.”

When students come back to class on Monday, everyone, including transitional kindergartners through second-grade students will have to wear a mask. Prior to now, face coverings were recommended for DNUSD’s youngest students, Harris said.

The district also asks families who travel over the holidays, Thanksgiving or Christmas, to consider self isolating for two weeks after, taking advantage of the district’s independent study program, Harris said.

“We want to remind people, if their kids are experiencing any symptoms on our daily screener, to keep them at home until they have either had a negative COVID test or until symptoms resolves and they’ve gone at least 24 hours symptom free without medication,” Harris said.

During his presentation, Rehwaldt told Councilors that the Verily testing site, now offered at teh Crescent City Cultural Center and in Klamath accepts children ages 13-17 who are accompanied by a parent.

---

SHARE →