SAN DIEGO — On Friday, May 1, at 2:30 p.m., Dr. Wilma Wooten, Chairman Greg Cox, HHSA Director Nick Macchione, and Supervisor Nathan Fletcher gave a COVID-19 update in San Diego County. You can watch the full update here.
“This is not the end all. It’s really just the beginning,” said Cox.
Cox announced that 10,000 face coverings are going to law enforcement to give out to people for no cost. That’s the initial offering, but depending on public education needs, they may distribute more face coverings.
Golf courses and parks across San Diego County opened Friday in limited fashion, while county health authorities have now made face coverings mandatory in public settings.
The new guidelines offer both a loosening of some health orders and tightening of others, as stay-at-home orders will be extended indefinitely in accordance with the state's guidance.
Fletcher said the risk for contracting COVID-19 remains the same, but people are changing the ways they do certain things, such as wearing a mask for essential errands.
“If April was a month of action, then May is a month of adaptation,” said Fletcher.
The big goal for the county is testing. The goal? The county wants to test 5,200 people daily. Fletcher said the county will need 450 staff members to accomplish this goal. The county is currently testing 2,625 people per day as of April 30. HHSA Director Nick Macchione said Health and Human Services is hiring 200 nurses for its strike team to work in areas with the greatest needs, like memory care units, nursing homes, and businesses with a cluster of cases.
Wooten announced 147 new positives, meaning that 3,711 people have tested positive for COVID-19 countywide. 134 people have died of the virus in San Diego County. Wooten expressed her condolences for the family members of those who have died. The new patients that died recently ranged in age from people in their 50s to 90s.
Parks open Friday, Fletcher said Thursday, with individual cities making the decision on which to open and when. The county is allowing for parking lots to be opened at half capacity, and cities must post social-distancing protocols near the entrances to parks.
Additionally, members of the same household can now lawfully engage in team sports like baseball, soccer or frisbee, Fletcher said. However, cities that fail to enforce social-distancing and facial-covering protocols could see parks forcibly shuttered by the county again.
Golf courses open Friday with similar restrictions -- no personal golf instruction, no golf carts, no sit-down food and no congregating -- and the courses are required to take temperature checks of employees and customers.
On Thursday, San Diego County officials gave the green light for recreational boating as well on the county's lakes, bays and ocean, as long as members of a boating party were restricted to members of the same household.
"No party boats, no party barges," Fletcher said.
Cox said business safety framework will be discussed by the County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.