County COVID update to begin at board meeting. Sup. Cox starts off expressing support for Public Health Officer Dr. Wilma Wooten, saying past meetings included public speakers making negative comments against her and reading her home address. https://twitter.com/TBMento/status/1280530878792232961

The @SDCMS has also backed Wooten on social media using the hashtag #ISupportMyPHO

County presentation begins with COVID-19 impact on behavioral health, noting higher levels of stress on Hispanic community and those in lower income brackets.

Dr. Wooten now providing an update on COVID numbers.

Those aged 20-29 years old make up the largest chunk of the county's 17,000 total cases at 24%.

The next largest is about 18% among those 30-39 years old.

Wooten: "Since June 21, we have seen a dramatic increase in hospitalizations."

She also notes an upward trend in both ICU admissions and deaths over last two weeks.

Wooten says she expects more cases in the future and expects it to grow larger than our current peak that was on 6/21.

County is currently hitting 3 triggers: case rate, community outbreaks and case investigation.

Our case rate is 136 per 100,000, which is above the state's metric of 100 per 100,000 and that's why the state restrictions were implemented today.

The next is community outbreaks. 21 have been reported in last 7 days, which is above the goal of no more than 7. 67% were tied to restaurants/bars.

The third is related to case investigations initiated within 24 hours of notification over a 7-day period. The goal is more than 70%. We're currently at 57%, which Wooten attributes to the surge in new cases.

Wooten hopes to mitigate this in part by adding more investigators "already in the pipeline" and "tapping previous investigators through county surge staff"

More details on the increase in our case rate:
6/30: 103.8 per 100K
7/1: 105 per 100K
7/2: 112.5 per 100K
7/3: 120.2 per 100K
7/4: 121.6 per 100K
7/5: 129.3
7/6: 136.1

County is now speaking about CARES Act funds, especially newly available from the state, that have not been allocated to cities in the region.

County currently has $48.4M in unallocated CARES Act funds that can be used for COVID-19-related expenses, which may include:
- Testing
- Investigation
- Sanitation
- Child care (as a public health measure)
- Telework capacity

Moving on to comments from supervisors. Sup. Jim Desmond asks to revisit chart Wooten said showed increase in deaths.

Wooten says deaths and hospitalizations are decreasing overall, but in past 2 weeks, deaths are trending back upward.

Desmond also asking why if there is clarity on why the state-ordered restrictions are set to last 3 weeks.

Wooten says incubation period is 2 weeks so the additional week was "added to try to capture all individuals who may have been exposed and so that people could recover."

Edit due to typo: "Desmond also asking if there is clarity on why the state-ordered restrictions are set to last 3 weeks. "

(Removed the first "why.")

Sup. Gaspar asking Wooten how many people or individual cases resulted from the county's community outbreaks.

Wooten says for period through 7/5, 74 community outbreaks accounted for 660 cases and 6 deaths.

Gaspar also asked about outbreaks in congregate care settings, but honestly I missed the details, sorry about that. Sounds like outbreaks in skilled nursing and congregate care settings accounted for about 2,200 cases and 180 deaths, but will have to review later + update.

Gaspar wants to know if contact tracers are asking people who test positive about their masking habits.

Wooten says yes and that they also added questions about participation in demonstrations. She says they've added questions to reflect whats happening in community.

@RyanPayne32 Yes, 3 or more cases among people of different households.