As you may have heard, at the end of Tuesday’s City Council meeting City Manager Scott Chadwick announced he would take a couple of days off to recover from COVID-19. So, the team here at the City Manager’s Office is taking over today’s edition. We have passed along all of your well wishes, which have buoyed Scott’s spirits as he rests at home.
Now, for today’s updates …
Vaccine news
At yesterday’s county news conference officials acknowledged the frustration over the slower than anticipated vaccine distribution process, but made this point: at least we are the stage of the pandemic when we’re debating details of administering the vaccine, not waiting for a vaccine to be approved.
Progress is, in fact, being made on vaccine distribution. To date, about 51,000 San Diegans have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The total only includes vaccines that have been recorded in the San Diego Immunization Registry, which typically lags several days behind. Also, some health care providers, including Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense, some tribal entities and prisons do not report to the immunization registry.
Currently in San Diego County, everyone in what is called Tier 1A (see image below) is now eligible to get vaccinated. There are not enough doses to cover everyone in their tier yet, but there will be. If you are in any of these categories and have not yet made arrangements to be vaccinated, contact your health care provider right away.
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Dosing schedule
You might have read that the U.K. said it would use its limited vaccine doses to give more people the first dose of the vaccine rather than giving a smaller group two doses over the recommended three-to-four-week interval. Germany has indicated it might take a similar approach. The idea behind this move is that if one dose could provide some immunity, it might be better to have more people protected a little rather than half that number protected a lot.
The problem is that the vaccine approvals were based on a very specific dosing schedule and anything other than that has not been fully vetted. The FDA put out a statement Monday warning that these changes are "premature and not rooted solidly in the available evidence."
New variant
As expected, the new so called U.K. variant of the novel coronavirus is spreading, including here in San Diego. The county has identified 28 cases confirmed through genetic testing and another 12 cases of people who were in close contact with the 28. Testing for the new variant, called whole genome testing, is time and resource intensive. Right now, less than 1% of cases are able to be tested this way.
What’s important is that we know the new variant is here, and data show it spreads more easily. The same precautions that prevent the original version of the virus work on the new variant: social distance, face coverings, hand washing, etc. Now more than ever before, we all need to follow these precautions.
Holiday transmissions
It’s been two weeks since Christmas Eve and one week since New Year’s Eve. Studies show that symptoms appear between two to 14 days after exposure. Hospitalizations occur two to three weeks later. This means the bulk of new cases and hospitalizations resulting from the holidays are still ahead of us.
If you think you could have been exposed, have symptoms or participated in gatherings over the holiday, the county urges you to get tested.
Case numbers
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Hospital capacity
Southern California ICU capacity continues to be 0%. The county yesterday announced that local hospitals will be submitting their “crisis care” plans by the end of the day today, and the county will post them on its website. These plans detail how care may be adjusted to ensure the most critical needs are met if resources aren’t available to meet all needs. In addition to posting the plans for the public to review, the county said hospitals are required to notify the public if they activate their plans. To date, no San Diego County hospitals have switched to a crisis care mode.
The state Office of Emergency Services announced yesterday that California’s Fire and Rescue Mutual Aid System has sent additional firefighter paramedics and emergency medical technicians on 14-day deployments to assist emergency rooms and other vital medical areas in some of California’s most impacted hospitals. The mutual aid system, which is most often used in response to wildfires, floods and other natural emergencies, is now assisting in the state’s response to COVID-19.
Enforcement
On Tuesday a special City Council meeting was held to discuss enforcement of the county public health order. The City Council voted to consider at a future meeting a comprehensive approach to compliance with the health order, including incentives, excluding businesses that don’t comply with the health order from city COVID-19 assistance programs, and collaboration with other cities and the county. A date has not yet been set for this meeting.
Next Tuesday, staff will provide our regular COVID-19 update to the City Council.
New CarlsbadConnects app available tomorrow
City staff continue to look for new and better ways to provide service to the community. Late last year we made a presentation to the City Council about a new app called CarlsbadConnects. We’ve been slowly releasing it to a limited number of people to make sure it was ready for prime time. Now we’re moving forward with the full launch, starting tomorrow. This app replaces a first generation app we launched a few years ago called Carlsbad @Your Service.
In addition to Public Works requests for things like street repair and street light replacements, the new app will let you report code violations, sign up for classes, pay utility bills and more.
For those who prefer to report problems by phone, we will continue to have staff available to process these requests.
To get the app, starting tomorrow, search for “CarlsbadConnects” in the iTunes or Google Play app stores or access the app on the city website at www.carlsbadca.gov/fixit.
Solid waste survey
The city contracts out its “solid waste” services, which include trash, recycling, e-waste and other similar services. As part of the contracting process, we are conducting a random survey of residents to get input on these services. You may get a text, call or email about this. If you ever have a concern about someone contacting you saying it’s on behalf of the city, feel free to call us at City Hall, 760-434-2820, to verify it’s legitimate. Do not ever provide financial information, your social security number or other sensitive data to someone you do not know. The city will never ask you for these things in a survey.
That’s it for today. We wish everyone a safe weekend. Please continue to follow the public health order, leave home only for essentials, use face coverings, maintain at least 6 feet of distance from others, avoid all gatherings with people outside your household and, as always, continue to #Care4Carlsbad.
Scott Chadwick
City Manager
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