Press Release from County of Imperial 
Today, the Imperial County Board of Supervisors sent a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom requesting that consideration be made to advance the entire state to the Expanded Stage 2 (also referred to as Stage 2B).  This approval would allow counties the ability to decide if they can reopen businesses, closed due to COVID-19, in a safe manner that fits with the circumstances of their county. 
 
The request was made in consultation with the Imperial County Public Health Department, and considering special circumstances experienced in Imperial County.  Since March, Imperial County has followed all recommendations and best practice guidelines to stop the spread of COVID-19; however, due to factors outside of the County’s control, all benchmarks, with the exception of one, in the Governor’s metrics guide to reopening have been met.  Currently, the test positivity rate remains above the required 8% as set by the Governor.
 
In the letter addressed to Governor Newsom, the Board explains, “Ours is unique in this state, as we are adjacent to two other counties within California that are following the state’s guidelines, and also bordered by another state and another country, with two different sets of guidelines and metrics, and that are in different stages of reopening.”  The counties of Riverside and San Diego have both successfully transitioned into Stage 2B; neighboring Yuma, Arizona and Mexicali, Mexico operate under different guidelines with fewer restrictions than Imperial County. 
 
If consideration is granted, all measures to ensure guidance on how to reopen safely will be followed to reduce the chance of any detrimental effects to the health and safety of the residents and visitors of Imperial County. 
 
Currently, Imperial County is operating in Stage 2A–Lower Risk.  For additional information regarding the Imperial County Roadmap to Recovery or COVID-19, please visit the Imperial County Public Health Department website at www.icphd.org. ​

An Imperial County Executive Office Release
April 28, 2020

El Centro, CA – Today, the Imperial County Board of Supervisors announced an effort is underway to develop a roadmap to recovery, citing a need to restart the economy by opening shuttered businesses when possible but to do so in a safe manner that meets state and federal guidelines.
 
County Executive Officer Tony Rouhotas during the board’s public meeting reported he’d met with city managers from throughout the Valley on Monday to discuss the recovery plan and sought a board directive to expand the coordinated effort to law enforcement, medical authorities, chambers of commerce, non-profits and schools.  The board directed Mr. Rouhotas and county staff to continue their efforts and to include agencies that will be critical to the recovery of the Valley’s economy.  “We will be unveiling this, as we can, on how to open businesses,” Mr. Rouhotas said, adding safety of all Imperial Valley residents remains the highest priority. “We will still maintain our ability to maintain the safety of our communities.”
 
The discussion of a roadmap to recovery comes as many businesses have remained closed since March due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The closures have extended to Imperial Valley schools as well as Imperial Valley College and San Diego State University, Imperial Valley Campus, all of which are providing on-line education, also known as distance learning.  For the most part, only essential businesses, like grocery stores and banks, have remained open.  Most restaurants are open only for takeout services.  Others chose to close all together.
 
While the health and safety of all Imperial County communities remains the highest priority, county officials said efforts have to move forward to determine how and when recovery will begin, and that dialogue must include those in healthcare to ensure the reopening of businesses takes place in a way that still protects human health and not cause new undue strain to medical facilities.  As a first step toward returning to more normal activities in the Valley, the county reopened county parks and recreational facilities on Saturday, but in a measured way to ensure social distancing and other safety precautions remain in effect. 
 
The efforts toward developing a recovery plan also come as Governor Gavin Newsom earlier this month outlined plans for statewide recovery that he said would be based on science and data. The governor has also formed the Business Jobs and Recovery Task Force to develop a statewide recovery plan. He also announced this month a regional task force with Oregon and Washington to coordinate recovery efforts for the region.
 
The public is encouraged to visit the Imperial County Public Health Department website at  www.icphd.org for the latest information about COVID-19 in Imperial County.  Updates may also be found on the County of Imperial Facebook page and Twitter pages - @ImperialCntyCA.

El Centro, CA – In an effort to provide opportunities for the residents and visitors of Imperial County to stay active and healthy during this stressful and challenging time, the County of Imperial plans to reopen County Regional Parks, private and public golf courses, and other outdoor recreational areas, with limited access, throughout Imperial County.  Beginning Saturday, April 25, 2020, many outdoor recreational areas that can be used for jogging, walking, biking and other non-contact outdoor sports will be permitted to reopen, with some restrictions and guidelines still in place in order to reduce the risk of spread of COVID-19. 
 
The decision to reopen these outdoor recreational areas was done so with the County’s health and safety in mind.  Due to the COVID-19 crisis, County parks and/or other outdoor recreational areas located throughout Imperial Valley were closed.  However, we understand that staying physically active is one of the best ways to keep your mind and body healthy.  Mental and physical health are very closely connected.  Having an open area where you can get some fresh air, relieve stress, and stay active is important for everyone at this time.  While these facilities and spaces can offer health benefits, it is important that you follow certain steps to continue to protect yourself and others from COVID-19.
 
Follow these actions when visiting a park, trail, golf course and/or an outdoor area:

• Do not visit parks, trails, golf courses and/or outside areas if you are sick or if you were recently exposed to COVID-19.
• Stay at least six feet from others at all times. This might make some open areas, trails, and paths better to use. Do not go into a crowded area or visit crowded parks.
• Use a face covering when around others that are not within your household and a distance of 6 feet cannot be maintained. 
• Avoid gathering with others outside of your household.  Do not participate in organized activities, such as parties, or sports.
• Avoid traveling with others that are outside of your household. 
• Tennis courts are allowed, if the guidelines above can be applied. 
• Fishing is allowed, if applicable. 
• Do not use basketball courts.
• Do not use public or communal pools, hot tubs, spas, water playgrounds/splash pads, or water parks.
• Wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom, before eating, and after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing. 
• Bring hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol to use if soap and water are not available.
  
• Park restrooms, playgrounds and/or playground equipment will remain closed.

Following is a list of County Regional Parks that will reopen:

• Sunbeam Lake Park, 1750 Drew Road, Seeley, CA 92273
• Wiest Lake Park, 5351 Dietrich Road, Brawley, CA 92227
• Red Hill Park, 7581 Garst Road, Calipatria, CA 92233
• Palo Verde Park, 520 B. Ben Hulse Hwy, Palo Verde, CA 92266 

For information on open golf courses or other local parks or outdoor recreational areas, please contact the owner/operator directly.  Please review the attached document, for additional guidelines and restrictions related to golf courses, state and national parks and more.
​ 
The public is encouraged to visit the Imperial County Public Health Department website at  www.icphd.org for the latest information about COVID-19 in Imperial County.  Updates may also be found on the County of Imperial Facebook page and Twitter pages - @ImperialCntyCA.
 
For media inquiries, please contact Guillermo Fernandez at   guillermofernandez@co.imperial.ca.us or (760) 604-6551.
 

By Darren Simon
Special Contributor for the Joint Information Center 
 
At the Betty Jo McNeece Receiving Home for children, the effort of staff to care for children in the program has continued unphased by the coronavirus lockdowns as workers report each day to the facility even with shelter-in-place directives resulting from the COVID-19 challenge.
 
The ongoing need to provide care recently took on an even greater importance when a 3-year-old girl who reportedly had been exposed to the virus was brought to the facility and quarantined in a room away from the other children.
 
It was then that two social service assistants at Betty Jo McNeece made the decision to solely take care of the child during her quarantine.  Each staff member choosing to divide their work into 12-hour shifts, a decision meant to prevent any additional staff from facing exposure and to bring the little girl some sense of comfort in a confusing moment in her life.
 
Today, the child, whose identity is not being released, is virus free having never been infected and is in foster care, but for three days in early April staff members Diana Barrera, 26, and Daisy Benavides, 23, voluntarily chose to shoulder the responsibility for her care.
 
Normally at the center, staff work eight hour shifts to cover a full day, but Barrera and Benavides discussed it and reached the conclusion to care for the child in what became 12-hour shift over three days.
 
“I realized that by having different people cover all three shifts, we’d be exposing a new person every time a new shift started,” Barrera said. “It then occurred to me that if we worked 12 hours, we could have the full day covered and have enough time to rest at home before coming back to work.”
 
Their decision didn’t come without fear—not for themselves but for their families.
 
“I was terrified,” Benavides said. “My parents are older and have pre-existing conditions that could make them extremely vulnerable to the virus. I made sure to take the proper steps when getting back home.”
 
Pablo Cerda, who heads the Betty Jo McNeece facility as program manager, said the young girl’s situation was the first of its kind at the facility as no other child housed there during the pandemic has been considered at risk.
 
In the case of the girl, he said, when she was removed from her home, authorities received information she may have been exposed to the virus. However, she showed no symptoms. Still, she was immediately taken to Pioneers Memorial Hospital where a COVID-19 test was done. It would take days to get the results, so, despite showing no signs of the virus, the child had to be quarantined. According to the hospital, the quarantine would have to last 72 hours unless the test results came back early. After the 72 hours, if she showed no symptoms, she could join the rest of the children.
 
Quarantine meant the little girl would have her own specialized room complete with bathroom, sink, refrigerator and separate access door to the outside from the rest of the children. Cerda said to care for the girl, he first reached out to Barrera and then Benavides and both said they would be willing to be with her.
 
However, then two women came to him with the plan to care for her on their own.
 
“Between themselves, they proposed this plan to me at the early stages of the assignment and said they would do this until the 72 hours were up or the tests results came back,” Cerda said, adding he agreed with them that it would prevent exposures and be best for the child.
 
“She was very shy and a very scared little girl,” he said.
 
Benavides and Barrera both said it meant a great deal to them to be there for the child.
 
“To me, all the kids that come into Betty Jo McNeece are in need of special care and attention, but she needed extra care because of her health,” Barrera said. “A child that young cannot understand what is going on. It makes me happy to have been able to care for her, play with her, and distract her from everything she was going through at the time.”
 
Benavides added, “Being there for this minor was essential. She was already scared of being in a new environment and having her isolated in a small room with random people in masks must have been a very traumatizing experience or her. I had to try to comfort her as much as I could.”
 
Eventually, the 72 hours passed, and the little girl continued to show no symptoms. Her quarantine ended and she was then able to mix with the other children.
 
“She was becoming so frustrated staying in a small room for most of the day, so seeing her roaming around freely with the other children made me happy for her,” Benavides said.
 
Two days after her quarantine ended, the child went to a foster home, which was one more sense of satisfaction for her two care givers—to know she would continue to be safe and cared for during this transitional period in her life.
 
Both women said they view their efforts over those three days in April as just an extension of their duties at Betty Jo McNeece.
 
Cerda said he is proud of them both and equally proud of all the work his staff as done to continue care for all the children during this challenging time.
 
The coronavirus has not kept staff away, but it has changed the way the facility operates from taking extra safety measures to eliminating in-person visits from family members of the children. But the facility remains a twenty-four hour a day, seven days a week operation and must abide by staff to children ratios.
 
“It’s taken a very drastic toll on staff,” Cerda said. “We’ve had to change the way we do business, but we continue to be there for the children while ensuring their safety and the safety of staff.”

​The Imperial County Local Health Authority Commission (LHA) will give COVID-19 Emergency Response Grants totaling more than $1.3 million to help the local hospitals, clinics, non-profit organizations and the County Public Health Department provide essential services to those desperate for assistance because of the pandemic.  

“It really took a lot of work to pull this whole funding package together in a very short period of time. A lot of thought went into figuring this out,” Lee Hindman, chairman of the LHA, said following an emergency meeting of the Authority’s Commission. The funding package was passed without opposition.
Grants could go out to eligible agencies by the end of the month.

The LHA was created by county ordinance in 2014 and is funded by Medi-Cal managed care health plan California Health & Wellness (CH&W).  The LHA’s mission is to advance opportunities for improved health and access to comprehensive health care services; promote long-term viability of safety net providers; increase prevention, education, and early intervention services; and partner with Medi-Cal managed care plans to monitor and improve the local health care system.

“Our goal with the Emergency Response grants was to both assist with unanticipated immediate needs as well as to continue the LHA’s long-term goal of improving the local healthcare system and access to care for Medi-Cal recipients,” stated Hindman.

The largest share of the grant funding will go to El Centro Regional Medical Center (ECRMC) and Pioneers Memorial Healthcare District (PMHD) and their outpatient centers. ECRMC and PMHD will each receive $300,000. The Clinicas de Salud del Pueblo will receive $150,000 and the MD Community Care Center will receive $75,000. The County Public Health Department will get a grant of $150,000.

A total of $363,613 of the LHA grant funding is for non-profit organizations. Some of the money is to pay for a consultant to provide additional webinars and virtual support to help non-profit organizations apply for federal Coronavirus aid including the Payroll Protection Program and economic stimulus funds.
​
The significant share of funding for non-profit organizations is targeted specifically for those agencies that provide food for low-income residents and those addressing domestic violence and homelessness.
Details about the LHA Emergency Response Grant program are available on line at www.localhealthauthority.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=2563
 
“I want to commend the LHA  for the impressive and critically needed  Emergency Response Program developed in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure  that vital services are available for  those most in need,” said  Brian Ternan, president and CEO of California Health & Wellness,  which provides coverage to more than 61,000 Medi-Cal recipients in Imperial County.

“It really was a team effort pulling all of this together,” said Hindman. He credited Robin Hodgkin, who is the consultant to the LHA, and Dr. Kathleen Lang, who manages CH&W’s operation in Imperial County for the work that went into the program.

Imperial County Obtains Key Grants  
By Darren Simon
Special Contributor for the Joint Information Center
​
The Imperial County Area Agency on Aging has been working to obtain critical grant funding to help serve the needs of the Valley’s senior population, including older adults who are homeless, through this period of challenges brought on by the Coronavirus pandemic. That funding is helping provide additional meals daily for seniors and funding for shelter.

“We were granted permission to immediately address the meals needed for older adults,” said Rosie Blankenship, county public administrator and director for the Area Agency on Aging.

That permission came from the California Department of Aging, and to provide the additional meals, the county obtained an $89,000 state grant under the COVID-19 Senior Nutrition Funding program.

With that funding in place, the county has contracted with two local restaurants, Brownie’s Diner in Brawley and Rosa’s Plane Food in Calexico. These restaurants will be providing meals daily to bolster the existing nutrition program contracted through Catholic Charities.

Under the program, Brownie’s will supply more than 80 hot meals in the North County to seniors seven days a week, and Rosa’s will provide more than 60 meals in the Calexico area Monday through Friday and frozen meals for the weekends. Each of the restaurants is handling the delivery of the meals under their contract with the county.

“We’ll be doing this until the pandemic has passed,” Blankenship said, adding: “We had to do this to meet the influx of calls we were getting into our program.”

Additionally, the county has obtained state funding through the Homeless Emergency Assistance Program in the amount of $44,850 and another $33,803 through the Imperial Valley Continuum of Care Executive Board, which oversees efforts to support the local homeless population.

This funding has provided the Public Administrator/Area Agency on Aging the ability to work with local hotels to shelter homeless residents 55 and older who meet certain conditions established under guidelines related to the Coronavirus. Those guidelines include whether they’ve been infected with COVID-19, whether they are 65 and older and have underlying health issues that put them at risk, whether they’ve been exposed (but not infected) to the virus, or face living conditions that put them at risk.

 When calls are fielded by the Department of Social Services regarding the homeless—whether such calls for help come from individuals or agencies—if the seniors meet the criteria for help, Blankenship’s department will work with local hotels to provide shelter. Separate funding to the county’s Workforce Development Board is helping to provide housing for younger homeless individuals.
 
To date, Blankenship said, (as of Friday, April 17) her department has placed 26 seniors at area hotels, she added that two individuals have tested positive for the Coronavirus and are in quarantine. They have all been placed because of underlying health issues.

 Along with funding for additional meals and housing, Blankenship said her department is seeking grant funding that would assist the elderly with grocery shopping and pharmaceutical needs. Should the grants be awarded, she said, the county will work with grocery stores and pharmacies to provide deliveries to those who cannot venture from their homes and provide funding support to help seniors with purchasing groceries.

 Blankenship said it is important to continue the efforts to seek grant funds as a way to expand service. 
“If we want to help specific target populations, we have to look for new grants,” she said.