Redwood City, Calif. – The County of San Mateo continues to work to protect public health and safety in response to the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19.
The County of San Mateo’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) remains open to coordinate countywide response and communications in response to the situation. The EOC’s Joint Information Center will provide daily status reports Monday through Friday until further notice. Today’s report:
County Prepares for Possible Patient Surge with Critical Supplies
To prepare for a possible projected surge in COVID-19 positive patients at area hospitals, the County of San Mateo received a delivery of critical supplies and equipment from state and federal partners at the San Mateo Event Center.
Through Tuesday, March 31, the National Guard is setting up the federal cache, which includes cots and personal protective equipment needed to establish a field hospital with capacity up to 250 beds.
No patients will be immediately housed in the space but proactively standing it up now allows the County to be ready if and when hospitals need more medical space.
The National Guard will depart after delivering and staging the equipment and supplies. The site will be jointly operated by the County, which owns the Event Center land, and the state.
Read the full news release here: https://cmo.smcgov.org/eoc.
Seven Bay Area Jurisdictions to Update Shelter-in-Place Order
Bay Area health officers from seven counties, including San Mateo County Health Officer Dr. Scott Morrow, are working together to update the shelter-in-place health order, which will be extended until at least May 1.
Because public health leaders are addressing the interconnectedness of the region with a unified health order, an extension is necessary Bay Area-wide to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Additional details about the updated order will be available when it is finalized in the next day or two: https://cmo.smcgov.org/eoc.
San Mateo County Parks Closes All Parks to Slow Spread of COVID-19
San Mateo County Parks closed all parks Friday, March 27, at 6 p.m. to slow the spread of COVID-19. The decision comes following an influx of visitors and a disregard for the shelter-in-place and social distancing orders issued by the San Mateo County Health Officer.
“The decision to close parks is not easy, especially now when people are looking for outdoor experiences, but the safety of San Mateo County residents must always be a priority. In that spirit we had to take this action,” said San Mateo County Parks Director Nicholas Calderon.
Anyone observed in parks by staff will be asked to leave. County parks will remain closed until further notice.
For park closures, information and updates, go to https://parks.smcgov.org/.
San Mateo County COVID-19 Cases
San Mateo County Health has updated the number of positive cases to 309 as of today. Updates can be found at https://www.smchealth.org/coronavirus
211 Call Center
Residents with non-medical, non-emergency questions about the coronavirus can call 211 at any time, day or night.
Callers from landlines and cellular telephones located within San Mateo County are connected with a trained service professional from 211, a confidential service available in 180 languages.