San Diego County Leaders Aim to Crack Down on COVID-19 Compliance – NBC 7 San Diego
San
Diego County plans to crack down on businesses that won’t follow the public
health order as COVID-19 cases continue to increase, propelled by outbreaks in community
settings like restaurants, churches, and gyms.
At a
COVID-19 public health briefing Wednesday, San Diego County Supervisor Nathan
Fletcher said county leaders know that more needs to be done when it comes to the
enforcement of local COVID-19 restrictions.
Fletcher
said the county plans to set up a health compliance hotline and email where
people can report any violations of San
Diego County’s public health order. Right now, those types of calls are
being taken at the county’s 211 line, but this new hotline would allow
reporting parties to speak to a county employee one-on-one, in more detail.
Fletcher said the county is also looking at bringing in
additional staff to handle those “egregious cases” of non-compliance, as well
as teams to assess outbreaks and pre-outbreaks. Fletcher said the county hopes
to coordinate with individual cities in San Diego to handle the enforcement.
Fletcher said the additional steps to ramp up COVID-19
enforcement will be discussed at the County Board of Supervisors meeting on
Aug. 4.
San
Diego County’s Public Health Order has been updated many times since the
coronavirus pandemic reached the region in mid-March. The guidelines in the
document are meant to curb the spread of COVID-19 in San Diego County.
Right
now, the public health order still states that indoor dining rooms at
restaurants must remain closed (food can be served on patios and outdoor dining
areas). Indoor operations at gyms, salons, and barbershops must also remain
closed. Churches can conduct their services outside, but the health order
states that those gatherings should be limited in size and attendees should keep
physical distance from one another.
But
not every business is following those guidelines.
The
Gym in Pacific Beach, for instance, remained open despite the public health
order, and was cited for doing so. On Wednesday, a county spokesperson
confirmed a COVID-19
outbreak at The Gym, meaning at least three people there had tested positive
for the virus.
NBC 7’s Artie Ojeda pressed county leaders for answers about stricter, definitive and immediate enforcement at Wednesday’s media briefing in regard to non-compliant businesses.
Dr.
Wilma Wooten said enforcement teams have been acting “as quickly as possible,”
once they are given the information about outbreaks at certain businesses,
which is what she said happened at The Gym. Last week, when the county asked The
Gym to shut down, they did not know there was an outbreak there.
“We worked with them to close, and they closed on Monday,” Wooten said, of The Gym.
It was not clear if the infections occurred while the business was operating defiantly or before the public health order was modified on July 6, reports NBC 7’s Artie Ojeda.
Meanwhile,
Awaken Church in Kearny Mesa has also been violating public health orders.
Two weeks ago, the church held an indoor service, and then, another one. The county sent the church cease and desist order. The church was told it could hold services outside, so long as attendees followed the county’s face mask and social distancing requirements.
On Wednesday night, Awaken Church held a service outside, with little adherence to face mask and distancing mandates. NBC 7 asked the county why that church continues to defy the order, and what, if any, consequences exist for repeat violations like this.
It’s the third non-compliant worship service held at Awaken Church in three weeks.
“It is more than clear in our order that the church is
responsible for gaining total compliance from their parishioners,” the county
told NBC 7. “It is also clear they have not succeeded again this week.”
Earlier this month, the church told NBC 7 it was choosing to
remain focused on its members “and maintaining partnerships within the
community.”
On Wednesday, San Diego County public health officials reported
282 more cases of COVID-19 locally, and five new deaths. There were six new
community outbreaks, making 24 outbreaks in the past seven days.
Since Feb. 14, 2020, there have been 28,287 positive COVID-19 cases in San Diego County and 552 related deaths. We will continue to monitor those daily numbers and bring you that coverage here.
