San Diego News Fix

Before San Diego County could allow some restaurants and shops to welcome customers again, it first had to show state officials in myriad ways that it was prepared to handle a broader reopening of society amid the coronavirus pandemic.That proof is contained in a 188-page application filed with the state, full of details on health care system capacity and the steps the county has taken to both combat the outbreak, and get prepared if infections surge again.While county officials have kept up a steady stream of information on the pandemic, primarily through news conferences held daily for more than a month up to this week, the report provides a new level of detail — including specific metrics surrounding case totals and hospital capacity that, if triggered, could prompt authorities to scale back the reopening, or even plunge the county back into lockdown.Read the story here: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/health/story/2020-05-21/county-stage-2-plan-detailed-readiness-to-reopen-triggers-that-could-le

A brigade of ambulances, in the air and on the ground, worked through the day Wednesday to take the pressure off of El Centro Regional Medical Center, which has found itself at ground zero in a cross-border surge of COVID-19 patients that threatened to overwhelm the inland region’s two main hospitals.Officials announced Tuesday morning that they were diverting all ambulance deliveries of additional COVID-19 patients to facilities in San Diego and Riverside counties, but those measures had been removed early Wednesday at El Centro Regional and neighboring Pioneers Memorial Hospital in nearby Brawley.Hospitals all along California’s southern border have seen increasing emergency traffic and hospital admissions in recent weeks, and many have linked the slow surge to significant and deadly outbreaks underway in Mexico.While COVID-19 patient counts have been up and down at hospitals in Chula Vista, a clear and fierce surge arrived in Imperial County over the weekend, flooding emergency rooms for days.Read more: ht

What is happening in the luxury market does not reflect housing as a whole in San Diego County. While the median home price has hardly moved since the crisis began, around $590,000, housing insecurity has only increased in recent months as thousands of San Diegans have lost jobs and reported trouble paying rent.Read about an estate for sale in Alpine: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/story/2020-05-18/looking-to-escape-covid-check-out-this-8-9m-ranch-in-alpineWatch the video here: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/1fenmrn9kom-123

San Diego County supervisors gave the go-ahead Tuesday for the county to accelerate its entrance into Stage 2 of reopening, which will allow retail shopping and restaurants to cater to in-person patrons while abiding by social-distancing guidelines to stem the spread of the coronavirus.Additionally, the board voted 4-1 to make a request to the governor to launch a pilot program for reopening some Stage 3 activities in the county as well including some youth sports and clubs, outdoor religious services, research labs, and therapeutic and peer support groups of less than 10 individuals.The pilot, if approved by Gov. Gavin Newsom, would also allow salons and fitness facilities in San Diego County to operate at 25 percent capacity by appointment only, as well as open up pools at HOA/Condominium/Apartment complexes at 25 percent capacity.Supervisor Nathan Fletcher was the lone supervisor to vote against pursuing the pilot program, saying that since the county hadn’t yet fully implemented Stage 2, it wasn’t time to

Faced with a new threat in the line of duty, police officers and sheriff’s deputies have had to adjust to unprecedented work conditions. Tasked with responding to constant violations of ever-changing county orders — like unpermitted activity at beaches and parks, even sizable protests against the orders — in addition to the usual crimes, they gear up in masks and gloves, among other precautions, to subdue the unseen culprit behind the pandemic.

Ellen Ochoa is a local and graduate of San Diego State University who became an astronaut and director of the Johnson Space Center. On this episode, she talks about her early days with NASA, how she lived and worked in space, where NASA is headed next and more.Subscribe to Name Drop here: https://link.chtbl.com/follow

UC San Diego says it got off to a solid start during its first week of mass testing students for the novel coronavirus, with more than 300 undergraduates volunteering for the program by late Thursday. The figure could rise to around 500 — the goal for the week — when Friday’s figures are calculated.The university hopes to test up to 5,000 of its residential students during a three-week period. The so-called “Return to Learn” project is part of an effort to largely open the campus to in-person classes during the fall quarter, which begins in September.UCSD is the first major research university in the U.S. to begin mass testing students for a virus that has killed nearly 90,000 people nationwide. Students must volunteer for the self-administered tests, which generally take less than 10 minutes to complete. Results are typically available with 24 hours.Campus officials are using social media and word-of-mouth campaigns to recruit students for the program, which might be offered to all of UCSD’s 65,000 students,

It was another Wednesday in California’s long lockdown spring, and late in the day Gov. Gavin Newsom signed off on Executive Order N-54-20.The four pages of text began with seven “whereas” clauses laying out the reasons and purpose for what followed: a dozen densely worded paragraphs, suspending timelines and waiving requirements embedded in obscure corners of state regulations, from the Vehicle Code to the Public Resources Code.The April 22 order was one of more than three dozen such orders Newsom has churned out since March 3, when he declared a state of emergency because of the coronavirus pandemic that has since killed 2,546 residents and sickened tens of thousands more.With the Legislature not in Sacramento since mid-March, Newsom has effectively been a one-man government, and the executive orders have largely been the vehicle he has used. The Assembly returned on May 4 and the Senate is due back Monday which will likely bring governance back to something resembling what it was before the pandemic with m

For years the East County city of Santee has tried to fix its image.Racial incidents have occurred in the community, earning it the nickname “Klantee” Local leaders have been trying to prove that these monikers aren’t representative of the community, but two recent incidents have made that more difficult. A man went shopping in a Santee Vons wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood, and another person wore a mask adorned with a swastika.During this pandemic, racial and anti-Semitic actions are particularly troubling because economic downturns and other disasters have preceded systematic targeting of minorities in the past.

A group calling itself We Have Rights has recently started organizing large back-to-work protests throughout California, calling on state and local leaders to end social-distancing orders aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.The group, which popped up in just the last two weeks, has a professional-looking website and growing social media presence, which provide details for upcoming events, instructions for dealing with the media, highly produced Instagram videos, as well as T-shirts and other branded merchandise for sale.The campaign — which turned out hundreds of anti-lockdown protesters from San Diego to Sacramento starting May 1 and continuing through this weekend — also has had a charismatic front woman with something of a controversial past: 38-year-old Vivienne Nicole Reign.Reign, who has been living with her husband in a $3 million home in Newport Beach, according to legal documents, is currently embroiled in legal challenges concerning several neuropathy treatment clinics she owns and operat

Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the past week has released 65 more detainees from Otay Mesa Detention Center who are medically vulnerable to COVID-19, a government attorney said during a court hearing Friday.There are still more inside. Under court order in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, ICE identified a list of 131 people total in its custody at the facility who are medically vulnerable.The agency had released two detainees by its first check-in with U.S. District Court Judge Dana Sabraw on Monday. Sabraw had ordered ICE to review cases at the facility — which has the biggest outbreak in San Diego County as well as in immigration detention nationwide — and release as many of the medical vulnerable as possible.Some of those who haven’t yet been released are waiting for medical clearance because they either have already tested positive for the novel coronavirus or they are waiting for results. Two still need sponsors to live with in order to be released.Read more:

Jon Foreman is a musician, writer, surfer, philanthropist and San Diego local. In this episode, he talks about the early days of Switchfoot, how he stays creative, his favorite surf spots and more.Subscribe here: https://link.chtbl.com/follow

Publicly funded testing for COVID-19 in San Diego County had been reserved for people who had been referred to a testing site by a medical provider. That changed Tuesday when new state-fund testing sites opened in Escondido, Grossmont College in El Cajon and at a closed Sears in Chula Vista.Expanding tests to people without symptoms will be a way for the county to better track the spread of the virus, and the new sites together have a capacity of performing almost 800 tests daily.The state contracted with Optum, which is part of UnitedHealth Group, to find 80 locations in California for the sites, and Optum has contracted with labs to get results from samples collected. The wait for results usually is 48 to 72 hours.

In recent weeks, mammoth ocean liners have been moving in and out of San Diego’s downtown harbor, a welcome sign, in normal times, of a thriving cruise industry pumping tens of millions of dollars into the local economy.But these are not ordinary times.Far from signaling prosperity, the three Celebrity and Disney ships that are intermittently parked alongside San Diego’s waterfront are grim reminders of a global industry abruptly idled by the coronavirus, sickening people on land — and at sea. Instead of readying the ships docked here for future voyages to the Mexican Riviera and Panama Canal, the cruise lines are grappling with how to return hundreds of crew members still on board to their home countries in the Philippines and India. A few of the crew remain infected with the COVID-19 illness.Where the Port of San Diego had forecast about 104 cruise calls accounting for 338,000 passengers through the end of its current cruise season this month, those numbers have now plunged by 30 percent since cruising was

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Monday announcement about the reopening of some retail businesses by Friday had both shoppers and shop owners anticipating a swift change in San Diego County.But concerns are rising as to whether any changes will come to fruition.Newsom announced yesterday that low-risk retail companies such as bookstores, music stores, toy shops, florists, sporting goods retailers and others can reopen for curbside service Friday under guidelines to be announced Thursday.This has led to some confusion, though, as many aren’t clear which stores are considered low-risk and which aren’t — and no clarifications will be made until the day before shops are allowed to reopen, government officials said.Read more: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/retail/story/2020-05-05/are-san-diegos-retail-stores-actually-reopening-friday-countys-new-guidelines-may-not-change-much

County data show that the total number of daily emergency visits for all local hospitals since mid-March, when stay-at-home orders took effect, has dropped 40 percent on average when compared to rates for the same time frame last year.Though it is unclear exactly how many are paying the price, a recent spike in death-related emergency calls in San Diego County, despite the overall death rate appearing to hold steady, suggests that the individual reports emerging from the front lines, not just in San Diego but nationwide, are important warning signs that people are delaying needed medical care during the pandemic.No one in public health seems to disagree. Just last week, Dr. Eric McDonald, the county’s epidemiology director, made a heartfelt plea during a daily COVID-19 briefing for patients not to ignore worrying symptoms. Similar pleas have been made by other public health officials, including Dr. Nick Yphantides, the county’s chief medical officer, and by individual hospitals and health care systems.County

While county residents are told to stay inside during the COVID-19 outbreak, thousands of people still have no home in which to shelter. Instead, they are sleeping in doorways, in canyons and sometimes crowding together on sidewalks.While San Diego County’s homeless population has not been hit hard by the virus, with no deaths from COVID-19 and a small percentage testing positive for the coronavirus, the population is considered especially vulnerable because many are older and in poor health.On the streets of downtown San Diego or in riverbed encampments, many are very aware of the health risk and are wearing facial coverings and washing their hands whenever possible. Others shrug when asked if they are concerned, with some saying they feel safer outdoors and others dismissing the outbreak as unreal.Read more here: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/homelessness/story/2020-05-04/county-works-to-protect-unsheltered-homeless-from-spread-of-coronavirus

“Name Drop San Diego” is a new, weekly podcast from The San Diego Union-Tribune that celebrates the people who have shaped San Diego and been shaped by it. Each episode, you’ll get an up close and personal look at a San Diegan you should know, or meet a fascinating new personality to name drop to your friends. In Season 1, just to name drop a little, you’ll hear from Jon Foreman, the lead singer of Switchfoot; Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman in space; and Ralph Rubio, founder of the SoCal staple, Rubio’s Coastal Grill. You’ll learn a lot. You’ll learn where Foreman’s favorite surf spots are and what Ochoa took with her into space. Our guests will also name drop other San Diegans they think you should know. “We’d play shows all over San Diego and all the other bands would be cheering each other on,” Foreman said in an upcoming episode about how San Diego made an impact on Switchfoot’s early success. “San Diego always felt like a comradery and that is a huge part of why we are who we are, that we felt t

In San Diego County there's a racial disparity in who is testing positive for COVID-19. As of Thursday afternoon, 52 percent of all cases were among Hispanic and Latino people, despite being only 35 percent of the population. See more detailed case data here: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/tracking-coronavirus-cases-san-diego-county

Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to start next school year earlier, as soon as late July, but San Diego school leaders emphasize that’s not going to happen unless a lot of other things happen first — including ramped up coronavirus testing, plans for physical distancing and even blended learning in schools.“Just putting out there a specific starting time is probably not helpful,” said San Diego Unified School Board Vice President Richard Barrera. “What’s more helpful is to keep emphasizing these are the conditions that need to be in place before we can start to reopen.”Some school leaders voiced skepticism of the idea. Poway Unified Superintendent Marian Phelps told families in a message Wednesday that an earlier school year is not likely.“We have some major questions that need to be answered before we consider physically re-opening schools, such as maintaining the health and safety of our students and staff,” Phelps said. “Additionally, school calendars take a great deal of planning and coordination; any changes also