 You are tuned into the COVID-19 community report here on KDRT 95.7 FM in Davis, California. I'm Audemars Abbey-Reno and today is Tuesday, June 16th. We're sharing local news and resources focusing on what's impacting Davis and nearby cities in Yolo County during the COVID-19 pandemic. The show airs live Tuesdays at noon and repeats at 5 p.m. and also on Sundays and you can listen online anytime at kdrt.org. My guests today are Dr. Mary Ann Limbos with Yolo County Public Health and Dr. Andy Jones of UC Davis and KTVS and PubQuiz fame. And we'll get to our first interview in just a few minutes. We'll be speaking with Dr. Limbos about what reopening looks like here in Yolo County and what risks it brings. And folks, just because something is permissible doesn't necessarily mean it's advisable. Business Insider recently published a list of the relative risk of different activities that are now opening up or available. The article was based on conversations with Dr. Susan Hassig, who is an epidemiologist at Tulane University. Things considered high risk, gathering of family and friends, bars, in-person religious services and movie theaters. These activities mix people from different paths and places, thus upping the risk of transmission, especially where people are not compliant with mask wearing and social distancing measures. So if you're trying to stay safe, these are really not recommended. On the medium to high risk list, gyms. Mask wearing and thorough cleaning of all equipment is necessary but must be constant and consistent. Medium risk, indoor seatings at restaurants, visiting hair and nail salons, one-to-one dates with people outside your daily circle. Low to medium risk, beaches and other outdoor pursuits and outdoor dining so long again as mask wearing and distancing is in effect. And on the low risk, shopping and touching mail or groceries, and Dr. Hassig said she does not wipe down her groceries or let her mail sit for days. She doesn't feel it's necessary. In local news, Courtyard Healthcare Center on East 8th Street in Davis has reported its first case of COVID-19. The Davis Enterprise reported yesterday that Courtyard, which provides skilled nursing and rehabilitation services, said this is the only confirmed case at the center since the beginning of the pandemic. It is one of five long-term senior care facilities in the county to have a resident or staff member test positive for COVID-19, though only the Stollwood convalescent hospital in Woodland experienced an outbreak, and that was one that ultimately took 17 lives. So all skilled nursing facilities in Yolo County are now required to implement and submit to health officials a mitigation plan that includes baseline testing of all staff and residents by June 30th, thereafter followed by monthly testing of all residents and staff. Let me just give a shout out to the Enterprise and especially reporters Ann Turnes, Bellamy and Caleb Hampton for their continued excellent reporting on the local impacts of COVID-19. All right, the fine folks who bring us free yoga in the park are offering free online yoga classes during this time of COVID, including yoga and espanol, yin yoga, myofascial release, and vinyasa flow. Times and offerings vary throughout the week, but the classes are free because the instructors and coordinators are volunteering their time. So if you need to take care of your body and your mind, you can learn more at yogamovesus.org. And finally, the Davis Downtown Business Association is sponsoring the Davis Downtown Communal Art Project, which calls for artists of all ages to participate in a community-wide art project focused on how we've all been coping with shelter in place and social distancing. The DDBA says that as we begin to emerge from this unparalleled time, our community's art will serve as a way to understand and memorialize our experience, and collectively this will be a testament to our resilience. And personally, as chair of the Arts Alliance Davis, I approve that message. Artists of all levels and ages are invited to participate, and the deadline for submissions has been extended to this Friday, June 19th. You can find all the details and guidelines at davisdowntown.com slash cap, C-A-P. We will take a moment for music and be back with our first interview shortly. All right. She is the deputy public health officer for Yolo County Health and Human Services, and she'll step into the role of interim public health officer at the end of this month. She's also been on staff as a pediatrician at Communicare Health Centers. My first guest today is Dr. Mary Ann Limbos. Dr. Limbos, thank you so much for joining us. I first really need to acknowledge something. Cal Matters published an article today about the unprecedented pushback county health officers are experiencing during this crisis. Everything from harassment and threats to essentially blaming you good folks for everything that displeases them. So I just want to say on behalf of everyone here, thank you for your service and really for stepping up and managing this transition at a time of crisis. Yeah, actually, I appreciate your words and support. So you and I spoke back in March, and I think we've all lived a couple of lifetimes since then. But I really wanted to bring you back today to talk about reopening and its attendant risks. Frankly, I'm really concerned about not only what I'm seeing behaviors I'm seeing around town here in Davis, but also about the numbers of new infections and hospitalization spiraling upwards in all the counties surrounding Yolo. Yesterday the state reported nearly 150,000 confirmed confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 5,000 deaths. Did you envision a time when we'd see those kind of numbers? We're closely following those numbers in our region and in our own county to make sure that we are proceeding at an appropriate pace, that we don't have to re-institute some of the restrictions that we've had, and that our hospitals can manage the new cases that we're seeing. Let's clarify where we are in terms of Yolo's public health order, because as you know better than anyone at this point, it's been just a moving target constantly changing. So what is now permissible? I guess the question is where are we in the stages in the road map to recovery? But what's permissible and what is not at this point in time? Exactly, with the state. We are one of what are known as the variance counties, meaning that we have attested to the fact that our cases are stable or decreasing and that our hospitals are well-equipped to manage any potential surge, and because of this the state has allowed these variance counties to proceed a little bit more quickly than the other counties in the state that don't have the variances. So the most recent, the activities and business sectors that we opened on last Friday the 12th, and there's really a whole host of them, to name a few, the family entertainment centers, gyms, bars and wineries, hotels for tourism, music, TV and music production, which isn't big in our county, public swimming pools, professional sports without audiences, so really the best way to keep up to date with all these new activities and businesses that are opening up is to keep checking our website, because our order has been amended so that every time the state is allowing a business or activity to be opened, we will let our county know when it's opened locally by posting the guidance on our website. Yeah, yeah, and that's yolocounty.org, just for everyone who could possibly not know that at this point in time, and right on the front page you'll see the links for all the COVID-19 related information, including the roadmap to recovery, the public health orders and everything. And, you know, Dr. Limbos, you just mentioned a lot of things reopening and I guess that's the crux of my concern, because just weeks after parts of the U.S. began reopening, we're seeing infections on the rise in several states, including, let's see, Arizona, Utah, Texas and Florida, and I know in Fort Lauderdale, one week after reopening bars and restaurants, they shut them down again. So are we, do you think we're at the start of a second wave, or is this still first wave of COVID infection? Still probably our first wave. Every state is different, and frankly every county is different. And we've been keeping a close watch on our cases, because we did see an increase in our cases last, toward the end of last week, those of you who follow our dashboard, we update the number of cases every day. And we saw, usually in, you know, we've had days when we've had zero to one cases. Usually we've been seeing about two to four. And at the end of last week, we saw about 20, 21 new cases over the span of a couple of days. So, in our investigation of who these cases are, and could they be perhaps linked to the reopening of the new businesses a couple of weeks prior, what we've seen is that the majority of those new cases were linked to gatherings. I mean, multi-generational family gatherings, and then gatherings from different households and even from different communities. And, you know, having contact. So, those were the majority of the new cases that we were seeing. And so, we continue to remind our residents that, you know, when multiple households gather, when people from different communities gather, that really increases the risk of transmission. Yeah, yeah. What kind, well, first question is, we also had Memorial Day when we know that everyone just seemed to think that was licensed to throw caution to the wind and gather in public places. And we also have the impact of people who are gathering for protests and marches. I will say I went to Sunday's protest and march in Davis here. And I would put the rate of mask wearers at about 95%. It was really good. And people were doing their best to observe distancing. But I can go into a store or walk downtown, and that's clearly not the case. And I'm really seeing it's clearly not the case among young people, college-age students in particular. Pretty good about following the masking order, or I should say the face covering orders and the social distancing. And I really have to hand it to our businesses and our community. Our businesses are really trying to enforce that. And I think we as a community have to be prepared to do the face coverings. If we do want to be able to have more of our businesses and these activities open. Yeah. So you talked a few minutes ago about the kinds of metrics that the county has to keep a close eye on. Numbers of new cases, numbers of hospitalizations. What would be the tipping point for having to close back down again as we're seeing in Florida, for example? Activity. Meaning we look at the number of positives divided by the total number of cases. Sorry, trust. That we've, that have been done in the county. And, you know, despite the fact that we do have a grade, that we have that spike of cases last week, we are also being able to test more. And I think what has been reassuring for us is the fact that despite all these new cases, our case positivity rate has been just a little bit over 3%. And in comparison to the state, the state is running at about 4% or 5%. And the, you know, for that particular metric, the tipping point is over 8%. Okay. We're well beyond, we're well below that. And in terms of our hospitalizations, you know, for weeks, we have seen the number of cases hospitalized in Yolo County at about one to two. So that is all very reassuring to us. That's good news. And I want to confirm, the county still has a testing site in West Sacramento. I think that ends on June 27th, is that correct? That's correct to reach our communities that have decreased access to testing, particularly our rural communities. So we also want to make sure that anybody in Yolo County who wants a test can get a test. So, you know, we are continuing to work on partnerships that will help us replace the OptumServe site. Perhaps a mobile option, which will, you know, give us a lot of flexibility in reaching different communities. Okay. We're almost out of time. I want to thank you. I know how incredibly busy you are right now. So thank you for making time to come and share your perspective with us. If you could share just one message or directive with the residents of Yolo County right now, what would that be? I would love to do that. And then a lot of our local businesses and activities, because we have been very good as a community about social distancing and using face coverings. And I really want to urge our communities not to undo the hard work and sacrifice that our residents have done so far and to be complacent. So please, please, please continue to stay home as much as possible. And when you do go out to support our local businesses to wear a face covering and to practice physical distancing to the greatest extent possible. You know, we've come this far together as a community. Let's continue to move forward. Great. Okay. Thank you again for your time and for calling in today. Thank you, Adam. All right. Take care. That was the Dr. Marianne Limbos of Yolo County Health. Very quickly, before we get our next call, I really need to say that KDRT and Davis Media Access are doing our spring fundraising right now. And folks, local media is in local voices and what you just heard from Dr. Limbos, for example. It's really important that we have access to that info, and yet we are not getting the level of community support we usually do. It's frustrating times, it's hard times, but you can go to kdrt.org and donate because we still need your help to be on the air. And we're going to take our next call. Okay, my next guest is Dr. Andy Jones, who has taught writing classes at UC Davis since 1990 and committed to outreach and encouraging cross-disciplinary thinking. Andy has hosted Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology Hour on Campus Radio Station, KDVS, since 2000. He's also the past chair of the Cultural Arts and Entertainment Committee of the City of Davis and the poet laureate Emeritus of Davis. And prior to COVID-19, he also hosted the perennially popular pub quiz, say that three times fast, at DeVears in downtown Davis. Welcome, Dr. Andy. Thank you, Autumn. Thank you for having me on the radio show. You bet. It's nice to hear your voice back on the air. So you've been incredibly active in the cultural life of our community and many of the things you're active in just ground to a halt. So talk to us a bit about what you've been up to during these past couple of months. That's true. You mentioned the pub quiz. Yeah. And I think that the pub quiz, if it were happening today, it would be a super spreader of COVID-19 because it involves a bunch of people packed in close to one another in an indoor restaurant. And with me, I'm shouting trivia questions at them. So it's probably best that we're not gathering in that way. Another event that I've run for about 15 years now, and the last dozen or so at the John and Zulus Gallery, is the Poetry Night Reading Series. And this has been, when I was poet laureate, an important part of my outreach to the community. But it's also something that I did before and after. We're very lucky that John and Zulus has such a commitment to the arts that he's opened up and staffed his big gallery at the corner of First and East Street for us twice a month on First and Third Thursdays of the month. And that would be another place where anywhere from 25 or 30, all the way up to 100 or 150 if we have Gary Snyder visiting, of people who would get together to enjoy poems read by featured poets and then also by people participating in an open mic. And so to answer your question, we've pivoted over to Zoom Poetry Reading. Nice. And as people can find out if they wanted to visit poetryanddavis.com, we're still holding them on First and Third Thursdays. But we get to involve poets from a great number of communities, including outside of the Sacramento Valley. So this Thursday, for instance, we have a poet who will be visiting us from Massachusetts. And we'll have another poet coming up from New York. And so we get to reach out to different poetry communities outside of the area. So that's been a lot of fun, even if we do miss hugging and high-fiving each other and also the in-person after-party. But we try to approximate some of these cultural events the best that we can. Yeah, there are a few silver linings to the virtual life, so to speak. And you just mentioned one of them being able to involve a wider circle of poets. I want to talk about KDVS for just a moment. It was, you know, we were kind of shocked and saddened to learn that KDVS had at least temporarily gone off the air in March. And it was a factor of not having automation and the students not being able to access KDVS. But as such a long-running college station, and my goodness, your show has run for the last 20 years on KDVS. What's the status these days? I hear some evergreen programming when I tune in, but I'm not sure what the status moving forward is. That's right. They have a skeleton crew working sometimes in the station but often remotely to present best of programming, evergreen programming, including my radio show on Wednesdays at five. We have an archive that continually records whatever we broadcast at KDVS. And that lasts for the 12 months preceding any particular date. And as a result, there's lots of content that our programming staff has been able to grab to keep those people who are fans of KDVS with plenty to listen to. But it is a different experience when you don't have the regular stream of DJs and public affairs hosts and news broadcasters heading down there, a real mix of community and students to head into Studio B and to broadcast regularly, as I've been doing for a couple of decades. That's very relatable here for us too. We have just a few minutes left, so I'm hoping you brought a poem for us today. I sure did. One thing that I've discovered in this last week and a half is genealogy of all topics. We choose all sorts of ways to procrastinate when we are stuck at home perpetually. And I've been in conversations with my mom and cousins and others about people from previous generations of the family. So I thought I would share just a quick poem that touches on that. It's called Shalely. One can almost call it munificence, the great grandmother's abundant propitiousness. Stories remain of the oversized hands fingers on a shoulder or taking a pulse or mixing merengue. She was a force. Nothing and no one were ever stolen from her household. The mutilations were only mental the many children thought to themselves as they grew older, daring not to escape. No one else in the village had had so many children. Two generations later, the grandchildren had trouble not falling in love with one another. All of them with plump fingers, powerful hands that gripped and struck with the weight of a thousand pies, a thousand shalely. Nice, thank you. And you got to love a poet who rhymes munificence with propitiousness. That's not one that comes up every day. Alright, thank you so much for making a few minutes to call in. We are out of time. Thank you, Dr. Andy Jones. Absolutely, it's my pleasure. Best to you and your family. Thank you, bye-bye. From one doctor to another and a lot of terrain in between. Thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you, I had to cut my message a little short earlier, but thank you if you can for stepping up to support this community station during this time. Again, you can donate at KDRT.org. This has been the COVID-19 community report.