A Message from Mayor Ford Greene,
I am checking in again as San Anselmo’s mayor regarding our progress in beating back the bug. Marin municipalities are doing a good job preparing for the anticipated surge of infections. Currently, we have enough hospital beds to be able to handle the surge, if there is one. Additionally, Ed Leon and Brian Hood over at Chapel of the Hills, along with other Marin mortuaries, have been working closely with the Coroner’s Office in anticipation of handling an increase in COVID deaths. According to Mr. Hood, Deputy Chief Coroner Roger Fielding and local Marin mortuaries started planning how to handle the potential negative results of a surge early on.
It is clear that we must address the new paradigm that living with COVID-19 brings. Assuming we can continue to keep the curve of infection flattened, the Shelter in Place (SIP) Order will likely be relaxed to a certain degree, with close consideration being given to the risk of transmission associated with each type of activity. It is likely at such point there will not yet be any vaccine for the virus. Since the SIP Order is currently the most effective way to slow down the virus’ spread, when the Order is relaxed it will be important to rely more on other measures to control the rate of infection. Those measures are:
When out and about, maintaining the six-foot physical distance between oneself and others;
- When out and about wearing a mask to prevent the inadvertent spread of pathogens from one’s breath in the event one is infected but not yet showing symptoms;
- Consistently maintaining good hand hygiene which includes being aware of what we touch when we leave our homes, not to touch our faces until we have thoroughly washed our hands for 20 seconds with liquid soap and hot water including under our fingernails, or in the alternative with an 67% alcohol-based cleanser.
When the SIP Order restrictions begin to be relaxed, the most effective technique – Stay at Home - will provide less protection. At the same time, the virus will still be among us. The intelligent approach will be to maintain good enough discipline with respect to the remaining techniques so that we will take up the slack and keep the likelihood of a surge contained.
LOCAL PARKS AND TRAILS
As you know, being contained in our homes causes cabin fever. We are blessed in Marin by having a great deal of natural, and beautiful open space and parkland. Everywhere people have flocked to such open space to obtain relief from cabin fever. Driving to a park or open space violates the Shelter in Place order which requires us to walk or bike to a park or open space that is local to where we live. Notwithstanding the SIP prohibitions against driving to parks and trail heads, many persons are driving to local parks and open space trail heads. As result, San Anselmo has blocked off the parking lots at both Memorial and Sorich parks. Police Chief Norton said that this past weekend the Police Department continued to see adverse parking impacts in the residential streets near our parks and trail heads.
In consequence, at our meeting Tuesday night the Town Council enacted legislation limiting parking near parks and trail heads for residents only and authorized the use of signage that will be posted on A-Frames near parks and trail heads in order to provide notice to people what not to do. Beginning tomorrow, the police will start to cite parking violators. Additionally, the Town Council adopted legislation deputizing Town staff to provide warnings to SIP violators that will precede police-issued citations.
MASKS AND FACIAL COVERINGS
The SIP recommends that people use masks and facial coverings while in public. I have noticed that many people disregard this recommendation. Particularly, around our Town’s streets and at Natalie Coffin Greene Park in Ross many dozens of people are walking and bike riding without masks and also not adhering to the six-foot distance rule. My concern is that since we have been successful to date in keeping the infection curve relatively flat, we are mistakenly acting like the crisis is over and becoming complacent with respect to taking sufficiently consistent and effective action. If we become complacent and let our guard down, the result is likely to be a particularly difficult lesson in the forms of consequent surges of infections, hospitalizations and deaths. I hope we will not have to learn the hard way what will likely to be the price of a lack of vigilance and follow through.
A Video Message from the Mayors of Marin
Our reciprocal cooperation, care and conduct is essential for our collective well-being and is what intelligent, effective and responsible citizenship requires. Here is a link to a short video comprised of messages from mayors in Marin about working together to beat back the bug: https://youtu.be/Ut9wvbfv2cw
ACCESS TO THE DATA
As of yesterday, the statistics as to Marin were:
Marin Confirmed Cases: 184
Marin Deaths: 10
Marin Persons Tested: 2,343
Marin Cases Recovered: 121
Marin Hospitalizations: 32
For more detailed Marin information, including geographically-specific infection and death numbers, you can reference: https://coronavirus.marinhhs.org/surveillance If you scroll down to the geographic demographic section, you will see San Anselmo and Fairfax have a total number of 14 infections and no deaths.
A useful website for country-by-country global information that includes a state-by-state breakdown of the United States is: https://covid19stats.live/
LOCAL SUPPORT
Residents and business people are undertaking a number of efforts to support our infirm and elderly and support the financial viability of our local businesses. You can further explore them in the following website locations:
https://www.townofsananselmo.org/1386/COVID-19
https://www.townofsananselmo.org/1372/Age-Friendly-Emergency-Resources
https://sananselmoeats.com/
https://www.sananselmoshops.com/
https://sananselmostrong.org/
Again, we are very lucky to live in the Bay Area, Marin County and San Anselmo. We are fortunate as we have a high level of awareness and concomitant ability to respond effectively in an emergency. The Bay Area continues to lead the nation in taking effective, smart action to slow down the rate of infection.
Thank you again for your continued awareness and recognition of the problem’s seriousness and for your willingness to work together to confront our present and ongoing challenges.
Remember, the sanest thing you can do is to stay home which you have kept safe. Identify protocols to preserve the germ-free safety of your sanctuary. When you venture out in public, wear a mask and observe physical distancing. Our well-being depends on our capacity to continue to work together.
We have a great community and are doing a good job continuing to work together to face, manage and prevail in this very challenging time. New good habits are easy to start, but hard to follow through and maintain. Please work on following through so as to develop and maintain the good habits required to keep all of us safe.
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