This Week on the Central Coast
COVID Updates and a Nonstop Flight to Seattle
California farmworkers found to be hit the hardest by COVID-19.
Due to low wages and other factors, many workers are fearful of missing work due to illness. According to the study conducted by UC Berkeley, 13% of Salinas Valley farmworkers tested positive for COVID. This is nearly three times as many as California as a whole! Further, about 20% of farmworkers tested positive for COVID antibodies, which indicates a prior infection. To further complicate the issue, many farmworkers are undocumented and may avoid going to see a doctor. The article goes into much more depth about the situation and the study that UC Berkeley conducted.
Governor Newson ordered a new shelter-in-place order to go into effect when a region’s ICU bed availability falls below 15%.
Most of the order is already being implemented in Monterey County. The major changes for our area are:
- restaurants would only be able to serve take-out and delivery
-retail can stay open, but only at 20% capacity. Additionally, I have heard that food and drink would not be allowed inside retail stores.
-”The state will order the closure of all hair salons and barbershops, bars, breweries and distilleries, casinos and indoor and outdoor playgrounds”
Alaska Airlines announced a new nonstop flight to Seattle from Monterey Regional Airport.
The new route was planned to start last summer. However, due to COVID concerns, the plans were delayed and instead will begin in February 2021. Monterey will join San Jose and San Diego in offering nonstop flights to the Pacific Northwest.
For more information on Monterey County’s COVID-19 numbers, check out this Reddit user’s graphs on Imgur. They update every week and cover a variety of statistics, including case counts by city. Here is the original Reddit post, which gives greater detail of their sources, including the state of California and CHOMP.