Horse racing

horses housed there.

According to a statement issued Friday night by city and track officials, anyone in close contact with a person who has tested negative would be under quarantine for 14 days.

“The track is providing daily food delivery and access to medical support as well as the means to safely quarantine, including additional bathrooms and handwashing stations,” the statement said.

Officials said every person living or working at the track has been tested and additional testing is planned.

According to the statement issued Friday night, track officials are helping employees who tested positive find off-site housing. The statement also said track officials have arranged for twice- daily food delivery “to ensure that those individuals do not have to leave isolation and have the essential items they require.”

Butler told the racing board that most of the track employees have been moved into hotels.

So far, everything seems to be going according to plan. We’re monitoring it 24/7.

Officials said if they uncover more COVID-19 cases public health officers will employ contract tracing to require more people to quarantine.

The statement said all those who tested positive are being isolated off-track.

“So far, everything seems to be going according to plan,” Butler told the commissioners. “We’re monitoring it 24/7.”

Trainer Jeff Bonde, who grew up in the East Bay, said Saturday that two of his Golden Gate Fields workers tested positive but were asymptomatic. Bonde said he has five horses at the Berkeley track this season and another 35 at Santa Anita Park where he focuses his training.

Bonde, who has been a horseman for four decades, said the California tracks are “trying to make the best of a bad situation. Everyone is wearing masks and they take your temperature every day.”

Albany city councilwoman Rochelle Nason said Saturday she is worried because of the lack of local government oversight at the track.

“It is a shocking case rate,” Nason said. “We have so little information about people’s lives there. It is a gated facility. You can’t just go in there.”

Nason said she is worried about infected employees spreading the deadly virus in Albany and Berkeley.

“They are not imprisoned there,” Nason said. “They are members of our community who are out and about. It is a very serious concern.”

She added that the outbreak underscores the need for more local control of the track that is regulated through a state board whose mission, in part, is to promote the sport. Nason said she wants local officials to have a voice in long-term issues at Golden Gate Fields involving public health, social justice, land use and animal cruelty.

News of the outbreak came a day after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a limited curfew starting Saturday night designed to slow a rapid surge of COVID-19 cases.

Newsom’s decree came on the heels of California public health officials placing 41 of the state’s 58 counties in the purple category — or most severe risk — in the state’s reopening system.

“The virus is spreading at a pace we haven’t seen since the start of this pandemic and the next several days and weeks will be critical to stop the surge,” Newsom said in a statement. “We are sounding the alarm.”

In April, Alameda County health officials forced Golden Gate Fields to shut down just hours before a scheduled first post.

“We’re disappointed,” assistant general manager William Rizzuto said then. “We felt like we were pretty safe. But we have to abide by what the county wants.”