In the most recent weekly press conference on the pandemic, Santa Cruz County Public Health Officer Doctor Gail Newel discusses our progress in moving up a tier within the state’s blueprint for a safer economy.
“The earliest we will be able to move into yellow tier is May 12. We have to demonstrate lower metrics for two consecutive weeks before moving. What held us back was a slight increase in the case rate… We just need to slow down our case rate a little bit more”, Newel stated.
During the conference, Newel encouraged the public by mentioning five reasons from Dr Thomas Frieden, former CDC Director, on why people should get vaccinated:
- If you get infected with the virus, it will go all over your body and stay there for a week and could cause problems more than the vaccine would.
- If you get the vaccine, it will prime the immune system, then leave your body. It will not be with you.
- Over 95% of doctors in America who were offered the vaccine have taken the vaccine and have taken it as soon as possible.
- The more we get vaccinated, the faster we can get back to growing the economy.
- If people get vaccinated, at least 100,000 lives could be saved from virus-related deaths.
Over 233,000 vaccines have been administered within Santa Cruz County, with 38-percent of those being fully vaccinated.
