March 31, 2020
  • Redwood City, Calif. – 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:

    Bay Area Health Officers Extend Shelter-in-Place Order to May 3

    Health officers in seven Bay Area jurisdictions including San Mateo County Health Officer Dr. Scott Morrow are extending a previous shelter-in-place order through May 3, 2020, in order to preserve critical hospital capacity across the region and reduce the rate of transmission of COVID-19.

    The health officers have determined that more and stricter social distancing is needed to slow the rate of spread, prevent deaths, and stop the health care system from becoming overwhelmed.

    The new shelter-in-place order will supersede the previous order and go into effect at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, March 31. It is a complement to the indefinite statewide stay-at-home order issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this month.

    The previous three-week order was set to expire on April 7.

    The Health Order and news release can be found at www.smcgov.org.

    Board of Supervisors Approve Measure K Contribution to SMC Strong Fund

    The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors at its March 31, 2020, Special Meeting voted 5- 0 to approve a partial distribution plan for the Measure K contribution to the San Mateo County Strong Fund.

    Seeded with $3 million from the Measure K half-cent local sales tax by the Board of Supervisors, the San Mateo County Strong Fund will provide emergency relief to local individuals, families, nonprofit organizations and small businesses in San Mateo County in partnership with the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and SAMCEDA.

    The Board approved today a total of $2 million to be distributed to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation with $1 https://www.smcstrong.org/million allocated to non-profit organizations and $1 million to a small business relief fund administered by the San Mateo County Economic Development Association (SAMCEDA).

    The distribution plan for the small business program will be presented to the Board at its April 7, 2020, meeting.

    More on the agenda item can be found here https://bit.ly/2WXGadT. Information on SMC Strong can be found at https://www.smcstrong.org/.

    San Mateo County COVID-19 Cases

    San Mateo County Health has updated the number of positive cases to 309 as of today. Updates can be found at https://www.smchealth.org/coronavirus

    211 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.