California weighed in with its single worst death toll Wednesday with 117 people dying from COVID-19. The overall state death total at the close of Wednesday was 1,433. Gov. Gavin Newsom in a news briefing said there are 37,679 state cases. There were 1,877 newly reported cases Wednesday. Newsom added that California has conducted 460,000 tests and now has the capacity to run 16,000 tests a day, a number still much lower than officials need.
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Santa Cruz County Health officials are imposing an indefinite mandatory face mask order at midnight. Starting Saturday the order requires customers and staff at essential businesses such as grocery stores, service stations, public transit, health care offices, to wear nose and mouth coverings to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. Commercial and governmental spaces where face-to-face interactions may pose a risk are also included.
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Health officials now say there are 2.7 million cases of COVID-19 in the world, with 192,000 deaths and 760,000 recoveries. The death toll is U.S. is now past 50,000.
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My friend, Kelly Pleskunas, who owns Kelly’s Books in Watsonville Square, posted a fantastic line from her husband recently—something like, “Who would have ever thought that the good old days would be three weeks ago?”
I keep telling myself that it is far too early to reminisce but, at the same time, I sure crave being able to get a few chili dogs at Taylor’s downtown, sit on a bench in the plaza and enjoy lunch. Or to head over to Freedom Meat Lockers for their wine and spice marinated chicken sandwich, a bag of chips and soda and sit out on their picnic benches under a sun umbrella. I’d love to be able to head into Coffeeville in East Lake Village and settle into a coffee on their outdoor patio and not have to give a darn about where people are sitting around me. I want to get back on my routine of taking the METRO 69A from Santa Cruz into Watsonville early workdays and read the New York Times as someone else does the driving. I’m hoping these simple things ease their way back into everyday life after we get through the orders set in place by our health officials.
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Quote of the day: “I just like being humble with my real people.” — from the Mexican movie, “Aqui y Allá” or “Here and There,” by Antonio Méndez Esparza.
