Redwood City – The County of San Mateo continues to work to protect public health and safety in response to the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19.
The County of San Mateo’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) remains open to coordinate countywide response and communications in response to the situation. The EOC’s Joint Information Center will provide daily status reports Monday through Friday until further notice. Today’s report:
County Takes Step Towards Easing Shelter-In-Place Restrictions
The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors today voted to ask the state for permission to re-open large sectors of the local economy, including dine-in restaurants, hair salons and gyms.
In the 5-0 vote, the Board directed President Warren Slocum to send a letter to the state supporting an attestation of County Health Officer Dr. Scott Morrow that the County can satisfy the readiness criteria outlined by the state’s Resilience Roadmap.
Today’s vote is a step toward having San Mateo County “fully align” with California’s Resilience Roadmap, said Louise Rogers, chief of San Mateo County Health. If the state approves the request, the County’s health orders are expected to be amended to permit a long list of additional activities currently prohibited. The timeline for the state to announce whether it has approved the variance request is open ended. Until a variance is granted, the county cannot open the additional businesses the state has allowed to open today. Read the full press release at https://bit.ly/2MRDyrL
San Mateo Superior Court to Resume Jury Trials as Court Slowly Reopens
The San Mateo Superior Court will resume hearing jury trials beginning Monday, June 15, 2020, court officials announced today. Jurors have been summoned and selection will begin for a criminal jury trial, slated to begin on Monday. One other suspended jury trial is scheduled to re-start later in June, with another suspended jury trial sometime in July.
Jury trials were suspended three months ago, as courts, statewide, were forced to severely curtail operations to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
To safeguard the health and safety of jurors, court staff have implemented new policies and procedures to maintain social distancing and reduce the likelihood of virus transmission. Jurors and the public reporting to the Redwood City courthouse will be required to wear face coverings and expected to respect personal space and social distancing with other members of the public. Jurors can expect to first check in at an outdoor tent where they will register their attendance and complete a simple on-site health screening consisting of a self-reporting of their health status. Read the full news release at: http://www.sanmateocourt.org
San Mateo County COVID-19 Cases
San Mateo County Health has updated the number of positive cases to 2,533 as of June 12, 2020.
County Health provides detailed information on cases by age group and date and deaths by age group. Learn more at https://www.smchealth.org/coronavirus
Call Center
Residents with non-medical, non-emergency questions about the coronavirus can call 211 at any time, day or night. Callers from landlines and cellular telephones located within San Mateo County are connected with a trained service professional from 211, a confidential service available in 180 languages.