Coronavirus: What You Need to Know - April 28th 2020
On the April 28 edition of Coronavirus Virtual Town Hall, What You Need to Know, we heard good news from Susan Gorin about a "soft opening" of county parks. While residents still can't drive to our parks, they'll be able to enjoy walking, biking and other activities while maintaining social distancing. Sonoma County Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase brought lots of news about ramped up testing and the beginning of a timeline for reopening some aspects of county life. We listened to a panel of health care executives from Kaiser, Sutter, and the Santa Rosa Community Health Centers talk about health capacity in the county. Dr. Joshua Weil, Lead Physician, Emergency Preparedness, Kaiser, Santa Rosa; Tarek Salaway, Sr. Vice President, Kaiser Permanente, Marin and Sonoma; Dan Peterson, CEO, Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital; and Naomi Fuchs, CEO, Santa Rosa Community Health Centers all were optimistic that our hospital, ICU and ventilator capacity were ample to respond to conditions as they appear today. Assemblymember Jim Wood and Representative Mike Thompson talked about their efforts to increase testing capacity statewide. They also talked about the State's financial capacity to address the pandemic and expressed disappointment about a lack of support from the Federal Government. Finally, our South Bay correspondent Pamela Lorence brought disturbing news of possible hate crimes against Asian businesses in San José connected to bad information about the virus. She also talked about new information from Dr. Sara Cody, the Santa Clara County Health Officer in an appearance sponsored by our partners at San José Spotlight.