Sonoma County supervisors to consider $16 million public health strategy to fight coronavirus
Sonoma County supervisors on Tuesday will consider a $16 million public health strategy to blunt the spread of the coronavirus by focusing on transmission in disadvantaged neighborhoods, particularly impoverished Latino communities that have been hit hardest by the virus.
The comprehensive new effort, which county public health officials expect to continue well into 2021 as the pandemic continues unabated, includes giving gift cards to induce people to get tested and granting $1,216 one-time stipends and hotel vouchers to residents who contract the virus but have difficulty isolating at home.
In addition, neighborhood COVID-19 testing is broadening, and county officials are planning to partner with businesses to increase workplace testing and to mobilize wider outreach and education in Latino neighborhoods. Throughout the pandemic that began in March, a greatly disproportionate number of area Latinos have been afflicted by the virus.
“This multipronged strategy addresses the inherent health disparities in our community and ensures that everybody's getting adequate access to the services,” Dr. Sundari Mase, the county’s health officer, said Monday.
As local public health officials present to the county Board of Supervisors the comprehensive retooled coronavirus pandemic response strategy for reducing spread of the virus, they continue to respond to fresh outbreaks of new infections.
On Monday, officials confirmed they are dealing with a major outbreak affecting residents and workers at St. Francis Assisted Living, a resident care home for the elderly on Burbank Avenue in the Roseland section of southwest Santa Rosa.
A St. Francis employee, who asked to remain anonymous, alerted The Press Democrat to the outbreak that includes all 20 of the care home’s residents and 8 staff members who have contracted COVID-19.
County public health officials are investigating with the help of state public health officials. George and Rosalinda Wilbor, who own the assisted living home, declined to comment Monday about the group of infections.
Crista Barnett Nelson, executive director of Senior Advocacy Services, a regional agency that runs the Sonoma County Long-term Care Ombudsman program, said the St. Francis facility has had difficulty finding staff to fill in for those who have contracted the contagion.
“We are gravely concerned about the health and safety of the residents and caregivers, all of whom are sick with active COVID,” Barnett Nelson said. “There are no community resources to assist them beyond testing. They need humans in there; they don’t need people telling them what to do; they need people in there helping them.”
Skilled nursing centers and residential care homes, which house some of the county’s most vulnerable residents, have continued to be hot spots for virus transmission.
The county’s costly new public health tactics were prompted by the continued struggle overall with widespread new coronavirus infections. That widespread transmission has kept Sonoma County as the only one of the Bay Area’s nine counties still mired since late August in the bottom tier of the state’s four-part business and public venue reopening plan.
Mase said the county’s current transmission rate of 10.6 new daily cases per 100,000 residents still is too high to advance under state guidelines. That means the county can’t ease certain restrictions, such as no indoor dining and drinking at restaurants, wineries or brewpubs, among other things.
The state reassesses the 58 counties performance on three key public health metrics every Tuesday: new cases per 100,000 people; the overall percentage of COVID-19 tests that detect the virus; and the percentage of positive tests in the county’s most disadvantaged communities.
The latter metric is known as the health equity measure, and it was added by the state two weeks ago as a baseline in order to make reopening progress.
Although county officials have been grappling for many months with the wide disparity of cases among Latinos, the enhanced strategy is the most comprehensive effort yet to address virus transmission disparities. Latinos now represent 54% of all COVID-19 cases countywide, when race or ethnicity have been determined, yet they are only comprise 26% of the nearly 500,000 county population. Over the summer, that demographic disparity peaked at about 80% of the cases.
While county supervisors get their first chance Tuesday to debate the particulars of the new pandemic response strategy, county public health officials will be launching the first round of expanded neighborhood testing at Andy’s Unity Park in southwest Santa Rosa.
The free testing will be available to residents regardless of whether they have symptoms or have been exposed to someone has COVID-19.
The first stage of broader testing is expected to quadruple the number of neighborhood-based tests conducted, from 200 to 800 weekly tests, according to a summary of the county’s new pandemic response plan.
The initial testing phase runs from Oct. 20 to Nov. 1. The second stage will be from Nov. 2 to Nov. 15, and increase to 1,000 tests a week. A third phase, from Nov. 16 to Nov. 30, has a goal of 1,200 weekly virus tests.
County officials expect to pay for the ambitious enhanced pandemic response through Dec. 31 by redirecting $4 million of federal coronavirus emergency aid. From January through June 2021, county officials hope to come up with $11.9 million more from the county’s budget to continue the targeted virus response.
You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.