3 local schools get go ahead to return
SALINAS >> A trio of local private schools have the go-ahead to return to in-person learning during the COVID-19 pandemic despite Monterey County remaining in the most restrictive tier in the state’s monitoring system.
At the same time, Monterey County is grappling with a new state “equity metric” that could make it more difficult for the county to qualify for fewer restrictions.
All Saints Day School in Carmel Valley, Chartwell School in Seaside and Anthem Christian School in Salinas have all received state approval of elementary school waiver applications allowing them to conduct in- class instruction while the county lingers in the “widespread” or purple tier under the state’s COVID-19 Blueprint for a Safer Economy monitoring system.
The three schools were among a dozen local schools to apply to the County Health Department for the waivers, including eight public schools, one charter school and the three private schools.
County Health Officer Dr. Edward Moreno declined to identify the other nine schools that applied for the waiver during a county briefing Wednesday, explaining he had not yet secured permission to do so. Moreno told the Board of Supervisors Tuesday that county health had reviewed five of the waiver applications and sent four of them to the state.
Approved by the California Department of Public Health, the waivers allow schools to provide in-person instruction for grades K- 6 under specific conditions.
Meanwhile, county officials are considering the ramifications of the new state equity metric, which evaluates separately areas of a county considered more susceptible to COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths due to less healthy living conditions based on a “healthy places index.”
To move into a less restrictive tier, a county must drop below state positivity rate limits for at least two weeks for both the entire population and specific census tracts, which are generally considered to be in “disadvantaged” areas and “communities of color” that have been “disproportionately” impacted by the virus.
According to Moreno, while the entire county is now seeing a 5.4% positivity rate based on a sevenday average, several census tracts identified under the healthy places index have recorded a higher 7.3% positivity rate. Both are currently below the state limit of 8% to qualify for moving into a less restrictive tier, which would allow more businesses and activities to resume. But Moreno noted the county remains well above the state limit on its seven-day average daily case rate at 10 per 100,000 population. The state limit is seven.
The state has offered assistance in dealing with the higher rates of COVID-19 in the most impacted areas of the county, according to Moreno.
According to a county health report, as of Wednesday morning there have been 10,475 coronavirus cases, 623 hospitalizations and 78 deaths with the virus since the pandemic began locally in March.
More than 78% or 8,186 of all local cases involved Latinos and nearly 53% of all cases were from Salinas while another 30% were from the south Salinas Valley.
Starting Thursday, the county Health Department is offering a series of free pop-up drive-through COVID-19 testing sites in partnership with the California National Guard and the California Testing Task Force.
Test sites will be open at the Castroville Library, 11160 Speegle St., and at the Toots Vosti Memorial Center, 107 Memorial Dr. in Gonzales, from 1-7 p.m. on Thursday, and at the Gonzales location and at Soledad High School, 455 Gabilan Dr. in Soledad, from 1-7 p.m. on Friday.
Testing is open to all county residents at least 18 years old, with or without COVID-19 symptoms, and will be first- come, firstserved with no appointment needed. They will continue through Oct. 16 at various sites throughout the county including King City High School, Sherwood Hall in Salinas, Hartnell College’s Alisal campus in Salinas, the Marina Library and Seaside High School.
Visit the county Health Department website at www.co.monterey.ca.us for more information.