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SANTA CRUZ COUNTY
4:20 p.m.
Second Harvest Food Bank is continuing to host drive-through community food distributions in the county, alternating between the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. This Friday, July 17, the drive through distribution will be at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the long parking lot parallel to the San Lorenzo River. ID is required.
Upcoming food distributions:
July 24: WATSONVILLE: Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds
July 31: SANTA CRUZ: Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
August 7: WATSONVILLE: Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds
August 14: SANTA CRUZ: Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
August 21: WATSONVILLE; Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds
August 28: SANTA CRUZ: Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
10:55 a.m.
Santa Cruz County is currently reporting a total of 602 known cases of COVID-19. Fatalities remain at three. There are currently 286 known active cases in the county and 53 people have required hospitalization. 22,443 negative lab tests have been recorded. The county’s overall positivity rate is 2.61%.
CALIFORNIA
Over 11,000 new COVID-19 cases were reported in California on July 14. This brings the total number of cases in the state to 347,634. On July 14, 140 new deaths from the coronavirus were recorded. A total of 7,227 people have died from the virus. 5.7 million tests have been conducted.
10:30 a.m.
California Health and Human Services Agency have announced new plans to improve COVID-19 testing across the state. The agency has updated its testing guidance to prioritize testing hospitalized individuals, people identified through contact tracing and those in high risk categories. A testing task force will also expand both the collection and processing of COVID-19 specimens. And to expand testing further the state is working with health providers to provide doctor’s office testing rather than referring patients to testing sites.
MONTEREY COUNTY
2:40 p.m.
Natividad is inviting residents to a drive-thru testing site on Thursday, July 16 from 10 a.m. at Lower Presidio Historic Park in Monterey. The pop-up site is accessible from Corporal Ewing Rd. Testing is free and limited to the first 100 participants. You do not need to have symptoms to be tested. No identification or insurance card is required.
10:50 a.m.
Monterey County is currently reporting 2,835 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Fatalities remain at 18. A total of 185 people have required hospitalization. 34,722 tests have been conducted. The county’s overall positivity rate is at 8.16%.
10:30 a.m.
Monterey County says a state strike team will be visiting the county to educate and improve health order compliance locally. It’s unknown exactly when this team will arrive. According to the county, these strike teams, formed by the Governor’s Officer, include inspectors from state agencies including Alcohol Beverage Control, Barbering and Cosmetology, Business Oversight and Food and Agriculture. The Monterey County Health Department will be working with these strike teams while they are here to identify areas of concern. The goal of this effort is to improve health practices in the community for everyone’s safety and help reopen and keep open our local businesses.