Latest Governor’s COVID-19 Actions

Today, Sunday, March 15, Governor Newsom held a press conference to provide updates regarding COVID-19 cases throughout the state and additional actions he is pursuing. In his update, he indicated a total of 335 positive cases and 6 deaths in California and just over 8,000 tests conducted to date. He announced plans to expand testing through a partnership with Verily, which would be launched in Santa Clara and San Mateo as early as tomorrow. The platform would allow individuals to triage their need for testing and identify locations for mobile testing. The Governor indicated that Quest would be the laboratory to diagnostics with a two- to three-day turnaround.

The Governor announced additional actions to address the spread of COVID-19, including:

• Home isolation of all seniors in the state of California ages 65 years and older and those with chronic conditions. He indicated he has 13 taskforces working on logistics, food, water, fuel and basic supplies.
• Closing bars, nightclubs and wineries. He indicated restaurants could remain open, but would need to reduce occupancy and increase social distancing.
• Sheltering homeless individuals. The Governor indicated trailers would be disbursed to critical points and other strategies, such as the use of shelters and hotels could also be utilized, with social distancing implemented.
• Limiting visits to skilled nursing facilities, congregate care facilities and hospital visits to end of life visits only.

Latest case numbers from CDPH are included in their recent press release. No text related to the Governor’s announcement has been made available; however, this article will be updated as more detail is released.