San Diego County plans to crack down on companies that will not follow the public health order as COVID-19 cases continue to escalate, fueled by outbreaks in community settings such as restaurants, churches, and gyms.
At a COVID-19 public health briefing Wednesday, San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said county leaders know that more must be done when it comes to enforcing local COVID-19 restrictions. .
Fletcher said the county plans to establish a health compliance hotline and email where people can report any violations of the San Diego County public health order. Such calls are currently being answered on county line 211, but this new hotline would allow reporting parties to speak to a county employee individually, in more detail.
Fletcher said the county is also looking to add additional staff to handle those “egregious cases” of noncompliance, 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 application.
Fletcher said additional steps to increase the application of COVID-19 will be discussed at the meeting of the County Board of Supervisors on August 4.
The San Diego County Public Health Order has been updated many times since the coronavirus pandemic hit the region in mid-March. The guidelines in the document are intended to curb the spread of COVID-19 in San Diego County.
At this time, the public health order still states that the interior dining rooms of restaurants must remain closed (food can be served in patios and outdoor dining rooms). Indoor operations in gyms, salons, and hair salons should also remain closed. Churches can carry out their services abroad, but the health order states that these meetings must be limited in size and that attendees must maintain a physical distance from each other.
But not all companies follow those guidelines.
The gym in Pacific Beach, for example, remained open despite the public health order, and was cited for doing so. On Wednesday, a county spokesman confirmed an outbreak of COVID-19 at The Gym, meaning that at least three people tested positive for the virus.
NBC 7’s Artie Ojeda lobbied county leaders for answers on tighter, final, and immediate enforcement at Wednesday’s non-compliant business briefing.
Dr. Wilma Wooten said the execution teams have been acting “as quickly as possible” once they receive the information on outbreaks at certain businesses, which is what she said happened at The Gym. Last week, when the county asked The Gym to close, they didn’t know there was an outbreak there.
“We worked with them to close, and they closed on Monday,” Wooten of The Gym said.
It was unclear if the infections occurred while the business was operating defiantly or before the public health order was amended on July 6, reports Artie Ojeda of NBC 7.
Meanwhile, the Awaken Church in Kearny Mesa has also been violating public health orders.
Two weeks ago, the church held an interior service and then another. The county sent the church the order to cease and desist. The church was told it could hold services abroad as long as attendees followed the county’s face mask and social distancing requirements.
On Wednesday night, the Awaken Church held an outside service, with little adherence to the face mask and distancing mandates. NBC 7 asked the county why that church continues to defy the order and what consequences, if any, exist for repeated violations like this.
It is the third nonconforming worship service performed at Awaken Church in three weeks.
“It is more than clear in our order that the church is responsible for achieving full compliance of its parishioners,” the county told NBC 7. “It is also clear that they have not been successful again this week.”
Earlier this month, the church told NBC 7 that it was choosing to remain focused on its members “and maintain 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 February 14, 2020, there have been 28,287 positive cases of COVID-19 in San Diego County and 552 related deaths. We will continue to monitor those daily numbers and provide you with that coverage here.
.
