City Council COVID-19 Update – March 15, 2021

As of March 15, 2021:

• The United States is reporting nearly 29.7 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and 541,000 deaths.
• California is reporting approximately 7 million confirmed cases and 57,000 deaths.
• San Bernardino County is reporting 288,868 cases, and 3,512 deaths.
• Montclair is reporting 6,048 and 98 deaths.
• Evidence from an early Stanford University vaccination evaluation has produced evidence that COVID long haulers, those with serious coronavirus symptoms that persist, are finding relief from vaccinations.
  • Early concerns suggested that long haulers would face worsened symptoms after getting the shot. However, to date there have been no reported cases to suggest the vaccine is harmful to long haulers.
• Beginning Monday, millions of Californians with preexisting health conditions as well as disabilities will be eligible to sign up for a COVID-19 vaccine.
• People ages 16 to 64 are eligible if they are deemed to be at the very highest riskto get sick from COVID-19.  The state is also expanding eligibility to people who live or work in incarceration facilities or homeless shelters, as well as public transit workers, including airport workers for commercial airlines.
  • The high-risk group includes 10 categories:
    • People with cancer
    • Chronic kidney disease of Stage 4 or above;
    • chronic pulmonary disease;
    • Down syndrome;
    • Compromised immune system from solid organ transplant;
    • Pregnancy;
    • Sickle cell disease;
    • Heart conditions such as heart failure, coronary artery disease and cardiomyopathies (excluding hypertension);
    • Severe obesity; and
    • Type 2 diabetes mellitus.
• • Two additional categories include people where:
    • COVID-19 infection is likely to result in severe life-threatening illness or death; or
    • Acquiring COVID-19 will limit the individual’s ability to receive ongoing care or services vital to their well-being and survival.

• • With population estimates for the high risk group at 4.4. million and with other eligible groups totaling some 13 million, nearly half of all Californians are now eligible for a vaccine.
• In Los Angeles County, the entire homeless population will be eligible, regardless of shelter status.
• To get vaccinated, Californians should work with their healthcare providers to seek vaccinations as their first step.
  • Other options include local pharmacies, local health departments, community pop-up clinics or using the My Turn website at https://myturn.ca.gov/

• • • The MyTurn website is accessible to people with disabilities and in eight languages: English, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and Japanese.
  • Calling the COVID-19 hotline at (833) 422-4255 from 8 a.m.- 8 p.m. Monday-Friday or 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday is another available option.
  • People scheduled for vaccination will not be required to prove they have disabilities or health conditions when they go in for vaccinations. Those eligible will, however, be expected to sign a self-attestation confirming they meet the criteria.
• All vaccination sites are accessible for those with disabilities.
  • For transportation help, state officials suggest calling a local healthcare provider, health department or pharmacy.
  • If a person receives Medi-Cal through a managed care plan, contact the plan’s member service department to request assistance for transportation.
  • If a person receives Medi-Cal through Fee-for-Service (FFS), they can access a list of Non-Medical Transportation (NMT) providers in the county where they live to arrange transportation.
  • If there is not an available, local provider, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) can assist by emailing to DHCSNMT@dhcs.ca.gov.
• Last week, the Biden-Harris Administration announced that restrictionson who can make a COVID-19 vaccine appointment will be lifted nationwide by May 1.
• California has met its initial target for administering more than 2 million COVID-19 vaccines in the hardest-hit and most disadvantaged areas, signifying the state’s effort to more equitably distributethe doses and clearing the way for significant economic re-openings.
  • In a bid to address inequities in its vaccine rollout, the state earmarked 40% of available suppliesfor residents in the most disadvantaged areas, as identified by a socioeconomic measurement tool called the California Healthy Places Index.
  • The earmarked doses went to communities in the lowest quartile of the index — which includes roughly 400 ZIP Codes throughout the state. Montclair received a portion of the earmarked vaccinations.
• Administration of the vaccines has allowed the state to loosen the criteria for counties to exit the strictest of California’s four-tier reopening plan.
  • The state system categorizes counties into one of four color-coded tiers based on a few factors: testing positivity rates; a health equity metric intended to ensure that the positivity rate in poorer communities is not significantly worse than the county’s overall figure; and, in terms of wider re-openings, adjusted case rates.
  • Originally, counties had to record a case rate — adjusted based on the number of tests performed — at or below 7.0 new cases per day per 100,000 people to move from the purple to the red tier.
  • By meeting last Friday’s 2-million-dose goal, counties with a case rate of up to 10.0 new cases per day per 100,000 people are now eligible to advance to the Red Tier, provided they have been at the lower case rate for two consecutive weeks.
  • The states change to the formula for advancing will also give additional room to prevent a potential regression back into the purple tier.
  • Thirteen counties — Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Amador, Colusa, Contra Costa, Mendocino, Mono, Placer, San Benito, Siskiyou, Sonoma and Tuolumne — exited the purple tier Sunday, according to the California Department of Public Health.
  • Another 13 counties — Sacramento, San Diego, Riverside, Ventura, Kings, Lake, Monterey, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara, Sutter, Tehama, Tulare and Yuba — are poised to enter the red tier as soon as Wednesday, provided their coronavirus metrics stay steady.
  • Counties progressing to the red tier are permitted to:
    • Resume indoor dining at restaurants and movie theater showings at 25% capacity
    • Welcome back students in person in grades 7 through 12
    • Reopen indoor gyms and dance and yoga studios at 10% capacity, and
    • Expand capacity restrictions at nonessential stores and libraries.
    • Museums, zoos and aquariums also can reopen indoor operations, at 25% capacity.
    • Amusement parkscan reopen at 15% capacity, with other modifications, starting April 1.  This means that long-closed attractions such as Disneyland, Universal Studios, Knott’s Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain are less than 3 weeks away from again welcoming visitors after being closed for a year.  Attendees must be California residents.
  • How to widely to reopen ultimately is up to local health officials, who can adopt rules that are stricter than the state.
• Based on San Bernardino County entering the Red Tier, Montclair facilities are scheduled to reopen in two weeks, starting Monday, March 29, with restrictions, including facemasks and social distancing.
  • City Council meetings will resume in the Council Chambers effective Monday, April 19 or Monday May 3 based on the completion of testing of technology upgrades.
  • City Parks are tentatively scheduled to reopen, with restrictions, including facemasks, social distancing, and gathering limits on Monday, April 19.
    • However, this date is fluid based on an assessment of park conditions by City Yard personnel.
    • Not every feature of every park will be available. For example, the Alma Hoffman Splash Pad is not presently scheduled to reopen until the summer of 2022.
  • The Youth Center is not scheduled to reopen until San Bernardino County enters the Orange Tier.
  • The Senior Center is not scheduled to reopen until San Bernardino County enters the Yellow Tier, or a proposed new Green Tier.
  • Separate agreements are in place with sports leagues for the use of City sports fields.
• When the state reaches its next goal of administering 4 million doses in the hardest-hit areas, the threshold to move into the orange tier would be relaxed from a requirement of under 4.0 new cases per day per 100,0000 residents to under 6.0.
  • Entering the least restrictive tier, yellow, would necessitate an adjusted daily new case rate below 2.0 per 100,000 people, compared with the current requirement of less than 1.0.
• The California Department of Public Health is working on a new green tier in anticipation of a bright light at the end of the pandemic’s tunnel. The presumption is that the green light will be an all clear with no restrictions.
  • It is likely that the green tier will only come when the state reaches a minimum of 20 million people fully vaccinated, putting California closer to herd immunity.
• Over the last week, providers throughout California administered an average of almost 188,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses per day. More than 11.1 million doses have been doled out statewide.
• One year ago Saturday, Governor Newsom ordered California schools to close. As of this week, 9,000 of the state’s 11,000 schools have either reopened or set firm dates to bring kids back to campus.
• Deals struck between districts and teacher unions call for a mix of in-person and online learning, and wouldn’t bring middle and high school students back on campus until later in the school year. However, many parents want to see five full days of in-person instruction for all students, even as others expressed concerns about safety and sanitation.