Ventura, CA – Ventura County Public Health Officer Doctor Robert Levin has enhanced the Stay Well At Home Order to save lives and stop the spread of COVID-19 in the County of Ventura. The Order supplements the Health Officer’s Orders dated March 17, 20 and 31, 2020. All prior Orders issued by the Health Officer remain in effect except where modified by the provisions of the latest Order.
“We are saddened to note that the virus continues to devastate families across the County of Ventura, and we extend our deepest condolences to all who are mourning the loss of a loved one,” said Doctor Robert Levin, Public Health Officer. “We must protect the most vulnerable, especially seniors confined together in Long-Term Care Facilities. We cannot underestimate COVID-19, a virus that knows no boundaries, infects people of all ages, and can cause significant illness and death, particularly among people who are elderly or who have underlying serious health conditions. The Stay Well At Home Order has been updated to further help save lives and protect our community.”
The intent of the Order is to ensure that the maximum number of people stay in their place of residence to the maximum extent feasible to slow the spread of COVID-19 and mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the delivery of critical healthcare services to those in need.
The Order supplements and amends existing orders by, among other things: prohibiting all gatherings, no matter the size, outside of places of residences with limited exceptions, adding certain businesses to the list of essential businesses, requiring essential businesses to adopt and implement social distancing protocols, providing guidance for hospital holding units and long-term care facilities and declaring that violations of Health Officer Orders constitute a threat to public health.
Hospitals and Long-Term Care Facilities
- Ventura County Public Health Department seeks to protect vulnerable populations from COVID-19. The most vulnerable population is the elderly. Seniors confined together in a Long-Term Care Facility are at particular risk. An outbreak there might result in numerous deaths. The Order advises Long-Term Care Facilities to relocate COVID-19 positive patients to COVID-19 Holding Units within hospitals.
All Gatherings Prohibited:
- All public and private gatherings of two or more persons occurring outside a single household or living unit are prohibited, except for the limited purposes of operating an essential business or to perform essential governmental functions or services.
- Members of single household or living unit are permitted to engage in essential travel or essential activities together.
- Gatherings of 10 or fewer persons are permitted at graveside funeral services.
- Staff of organizations or associations may gather for the sole purpose of preparing and facilitating live-stream or other virtual communications with their members and are limited to as few as possible and no more than 7 people.
Additions to the List of Essential Businesses:
- Bicycle repair and supply shops may engage in the sale of bicycles on-line only and provided that all bicycles are delivered to a place of residence or Essential Business.
- Service providers that enable residential real estate transactions (including rentals, leases and home sales), including, but not limited to, real estate agents, escrow agents, notaries, and title companies, provided that appointments and other residential viewings must only occur virtually or, if virtual viewing is not feasible, by appointment with no more than two visitors at a time, both whom must reside within the same household or living unit, and one individual showing the unit (except in-person visits are not allowed when the occupant is present in the residence).
- Automotive dealerships may engage in the purchase or sale of automobiles (including cars, trucks, motorcycles and motorized scooters) on-line only and provided that all vehicles are delivered to a place of residence or Essential Business.
All Essential Businesses must have Social Distancing Protocol
- All essential businesses must prepare and post by no later than April 12, 2020, a “Social Distancing Protocol” for each of their facilities in the County frequented by the public or employees.
- The Social Distancing Protocol must be posted at or near the entrance of the relevant facility and shall be easily viewable by the public and employees.
- A copy of the Social Distancing Protocol must also be provided to each employee performing work at the facility. All essential businesses shall implement the Social Distancing Protocol and provide evidence of its implementation to any authority enforcing the Order upon demand.
“I am asking that everyone avoid leaving their homes for anything except the most urgent matters. And when you do leave, please make sure to cover your mouth and nose with a cloth face covering if you will be around others, maintain a distance of at least 6 feet from everyone else, and frequently wash your hands,” said Doctor Levin. “If you are ill, please self-isolate and if you are a close contact of someone who is positive for COVID-19, please self-quarantine for 14 days. These are our most powerful tools to slow the spread and reduce the likelihood of overwhelming our health care system. We must work together to save lives during this critical time.”
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Just how do the pooh-bahs intend to enforce these edicts? Fine? Jail? State Prison? With the state courts closed, the deadline time limits for prosecuting felonies is still running. There is nothing in the codes that I am aware of that allows the chief justice to rescind state law and there is nothing in state law that says that the time for arraignment, preliminary hearing, appearance in superior court, entry of plea, trial date etc are waived upon decree from the chief justice. There is no allowance that I am aware of that says holidays or court closure dates stay the time deadlines you know, the right to a speedy trial and all that stuff that’s in the Bill of Rights.
After the courts start doing the people’s business again they are going to be pushed to handle felonies. Where are they going to find time to handle the really serious crime of getting together with more friends than the gubernator thinks you should?
Holding church services with live people present also verboten.
Whoa! First Amendment was repealed? When did that happen? Am I like Rip Van Winkle, I’ve been asleep for twenty years and while I was asleep the Bill of Rights was abrogated?
While I think all of those measure and more are a good idea, making pronouncements as if they were enforceable by law with meaningful punishment for violation is either dangerous or ridiculous depending on how you view the whole scenario.
Restaurants are open for take out but not for dining in. So are the workers in the take-out restaurants required to wear face masks and gloves while preparing the food Why not? Does anyone think that the lady at the drive up window who is handing you your change —which you take in your bare hand and stick in your pocket or purse— and food is somehow immune or has McDonald’s put up plexiglass on all those service windows to protect their workers? Is Mickey D’s sterilizing the change they hand back before their workers handle it and your food? I don’t think so. They cared so little for their employees that they spent large money to alter their logo to show “solidarity” with the 6 foot edict but they didn’t spend a dime on masks or gloves to protect their employees whom “they care so much about.” Or, for that matter their customers.
The state prison system told its guards they could wear masks while around the prisoners but they didn’t provide them. The guards had to obtain the unobtanium, N-95 masks themselves. I wonder how that decision is going to go down when prison guards start filing workers comp claims for contracting the virus or death claims under workers comp by their families when a guard dies from the virus? Did that occur to anybody in management? I doubt it.
This whole circus is so poorly thought out with so many ridiculous edicts that do nothing and where steps should be taken, they are ignored that it makes every elected official and bureaucrat look like an incompetent fool.
We have the USNS HOPE sitting off LA. The rigamarole that must be gone through to get a patient on board and under care is so tedious it is no wonder there are only a very few people from LA on board. We got the ship. Did anyone coordinate with the Navy people to find out how its services were going to be implemented? From here, it looks like it didn’t even cross anyone’s mind. Maybe if Garcetti spent more time thinking about problems and solutions and less time expounding on TV there wouldn’t be a 1,000 bed hospital sitting offshore with a dozen patients on it.
It’s not like it showed up and nobody knew it was coming. At 13 knots flat out, it certainly didn’t zoom up here in an hour and catch everybody by surprise.
Then there are the predictions. Ahh, what clairvoyant are we consulting to arrive at the horrendous death tolls? Is it Nancy Reagan’s astrologer? Look at Italy you might exclaim. Look at Sweden I reply. Nobody seems to mention an item that impressed me. Italy has signed an agreement with China to implement some capital improvements which the Chinese will pay for as part of the Chinese New Silk Road plan which is intended to tie the EU and Africa to China through trade and cultural exchange.
Reportedly there were thousands of Chinese workers in Milan from — think a moment — Wuhan! Whodda guessed? Apparently there are several direct flights a day from Milan to Wuhan with Italians and Chinese shuttling back and forth. Hmm, I wonder why Italy had such a hard time with the virus?
There are so many questions that have no answers about this whole ludicrous episode that I wonder if I am really paranoid and should seek medical attention or is there much more to this goat rope than meets the eye?
I haven’t touched upon the 7 trillion with a capital T financial boondoggle with a long list of pork items and the effect it will have on our economy. Will we be another Weimar Republic? Argentina? Venezuela? Will inflation run rampant with diluted dollars buying less and less? Will the oil exporting countries finally go off the dollar standard and adopt some other currency? Stay tuned. More verbiage, blathering and demagoguery are sure to follow.
There needs to be warning/ rules in Spanish also. Haven’t seen any.