Board of Supervisors and Public Health Officer update COVID-19 policies

On September 14, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors updated the “test-or-vax policy” that was approved on August 3. The date has been pushed back due to the nationwide shortage of tests, the high costs of testing, and possible changes at the federal level with President Biden’s recent directive with OSHA.

Dr. Andy Coren, public health officer for Mendocino County, also updated his previous plans for a health order requiring restaurants and bars to develop a vax-or-test policy after discussing the impacts with local business owners. Instead of an order requiring a vax-or-test policy, the order will strongly recommend a vax-or-test policy, with the requirement that restaurants and bars post signs describing the precautions taken by the staff.

This way, customers can make an informed decision before entering a restaurant.

According to Coren, due to recently opened schools nationwide needing frequent testing, there has been a widespread shortage of COVID-19 tests.

According to William

Schurtz, the human resources director of Mendocino County, the test shortage has been a major obstacle to Mendocino County’s planned test-orvax policy.

The county has already been testing certain employees, such as those in the sheriff’s office, due to the state-mandated vax-ortest order from July. This means about 40 staff employees are already getting tested weekly.

However, the county staff will be running out of their current supply of antigen COVID-19 tests during the week of September 27, and the replacement supply isn’t due to be delivered until October 15. Between shipments, the staff will need to be tested via PCR tests, which are slower to receive results from and much more expensive. The PCR tests will also require staff to go to a designated testing site, as opposed to the antigen tests.

According to Schurtz, there are roughly 275-300 unvaccinated Mendocino County employees. Some departments have a higher percentage of unvaccinated employees: social services, general services, probation department, and the sheriff’s office.

According to Darcie Antle, assistant chief executive officer, the county will need about 10,000 tests for a six-month supply. Each antigen test is $8, so it will be $80,000 for a six-month supply. However, the PCR tests are $100 each, so if the county had to use exclusively PCR tests it would cost $1 million in tests.

There are more costs involved with testing employees. Antle estimates that the employee cost to administer and track the tests would be $375,000 over the same sixmonth period.

According to Schurtz, the average cost per week per unvaccinated employee will be $45.

Fifth District Supervisor Ted Williams brought up the idea that unvaccinated employees should have to pay $200 a month to cover their own testing fees, though no action on this will be taken yet.

Until the test, supply has caught up to demand, and until OSHA has concrete guidelines, the BOS decided to push back the deadline for the vax-or-test policy. The state employees will continue to test weekly.

According to Coren, the COVID-19 case numbers have gone down in Mendocino County over the past two weeks. However, hospitalizations are still up, with no ICU beds available as of Monday. If this doesn’t change quickly, emergency services can transport patients to hospitals with open beds, though this might be several counties away.

The hospital requested respiratory therapists to assist with the COVID-19 surge, but the state was only able to send one.

There are several COVID-19 outbreaks in the community: the Mendocino County Jail, Sherwood Oaks skilled nursing facility, Redwood Cove skilled nursing facility, Hospitality House homeless shelter, and Round Valley Indian Health Center. All of these outbreaks are being contained and Coren expects them to continue that trajectory.

There have been no COVID-19 outbreaks at the schools; 31 students have tested positive in the 16 schools in Mendocino County, but these have all been isolated incidents. Coren credits the mask mandate and frequent testing policy for this.