City of Santa Clara Chief Emergency Services Officer Lisa Schoenthal provides the latest updates on COVID-19 Update for the week of Feb. 15, 2021.
Video transcript:
Hi, I’m Lisa Schoenthal, in the City of Santa Clara’s Emergency Operations Center. Here’s the COVID-19 update for the week of February 15. We are seeing favorable trends with COVID cases and hospitalizations, but Santa Clara County continues to be in the most restrictive Purple Tier of the State’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy indicating we still have widespread transmission of COVID-19 in our community. COVID test positivity rates, case rates and hospitalizations are declining with a test positivity rate of 3.2% this week. Along with this good news, we are cautioned by public health experts to not let up with our public health measures as the publicized UK and South African variants have been identified in California. The first two cases of the South African variant were identified last week in Santa Clara and Alameda Counties. The more infectious UK variant is expected to become the more dominant variant in the country by the end of March according to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. This past weekend, British scientists indicated the UK variant is “likely” linked to more deaths and hospitalizations but the reasons for this are not clear. More research is needed, but for now, this reinforces the need to continue with safety measures. The currently approved vaccines are effective against this variant. To stay up to date on vaccines, visit sccfreevax.org COVID testing returns to the Central Park Library on February 24. Appointments may be made up to seven days in advance on sccfreetest.org That’s it for this week. Be well. And stay covered Santa Clara.
Visit SantaClaraCA.gov/Coronavirus for the latest updates. Click here for more information
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