Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/public-health/)
While there’s a statewide mandatory mask policy, Santa Ana became the latest Orange County city to adopt its own — all while strategies of enforcing such policies across the county and state remain in disarray.
The ever-growing number of people in the hospital comes just in time for a winter season where holiday traditions mean many indoor gatherings among families and family friends.
Huntington Beach residents’ defiance of health orders raises concern amongst the city’s Latinos, who more often work in industries with greater Coronavirus infection risk.
Medical workers at Kindred Hospital in Westminster protested hospital management’s handling of coronavirus patients, which they said led to an outbreak.
Restaurant owners who suffered from a lack of sit-down dining business during the more restrictive months of the pandemic had to shutter again amid Coronavirus outbreaks and case spikes.
The precedent – cited often in recent court decisions – goes back over a century, to a 1905 case where the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a state’s power to mandate vaccinations during an epidemic.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has forced fair officials to grapple with their uncertain future, under public health orders to limit public interactions and restrictions on mass gatherings, with no guaranteed timeline of when those restrictions will ease.
The possible cancellation falls in line with other fairs across the state wary of public health guidelines discouraging mass gatherings for months, at least, as people are already staying at home to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.
The OC Fair is getting travel trailers and is looking at three buildings on its 150-acre state property in Costa Mesa for potential emergency housing and medical services, as county officials try to find ways to stretch out hospital capacity for coronavirus response.
Other counties apparently have moved to make testing accessible in ways it currently is not in Orange County.