COVID-19

WATSONVILLE—Days after the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees voted to close all district schools for two weeks, allowing most employees and students to work from home, Gov. Gavin Newsom had a troubling message for educators, parents and students: expect more. “I would...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Santa Cruz County health officials on Monday announced that a person who traveled to Seattle – and returned on a commercial flight in late February –  became the second confirmed case of coronavirus after a test on Sunday. The person, about whom health...

Editor's note: This story has been updated from an previous version. WATSONVILLE—A total of 43 residents and 12 staff members of Watsonville Nursing Center and Post Acute Care have tested positive for Covid-19, Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency spokeswoman Corinne Hyland confirmed Thursday. “We’re working...

WATSONVILLE—At their core, Veterans of Foreign Wars halls and American Legion centers are places where former military members can gather to find camaraderie and a shared bond unique to their life experiences. “It’s a big part of what they consider their mental health treatment,” said...

Fox Factory, Inc. has temporarily laid off 85 employees from its Watsonville facility on Hangar Way and another 159 employees from its headquarters in Scotts Valley, state filings show. The reductions came weeks before its parent company Fox Factory Holding Corp, which designs and manufactures...

WATSONVILLE—Several local supermarkets are offering senior-only shopping hours in light of COVID-19, which poses a particular risk to seniors and the medically vulnerable. In Watsonville, Safeway is open to seniors and at-risk shoppers every Tuesday and Thursday from 7-9 a.m.; Target dedicates its first hour...

WATSONVILLE—For 40 years, Watsonville’s Smith & Vandiver (S&V) has been manufacturing natural bath, body and skincare products at its FDA-certified facility on Airport Boulevard. But since the outbreak of COVID-19 last month, the company has switched gears—focusing on the production of alcohol-based hand cleansers. “We don’t...

Growing strain on the health care system has triggered a stricter stay-at-home order for Santa Cruz County and the rest of the Bay Area region identified in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recently issued regional order. Intensive care unit (ICU) capacity in the Bay Area region, which...

SANTA CRUZ—Santa Cruz County on Tuesday moved back to the more restrictive red tier of the state's Covid-19 reopening plan, meaning that many businesses and services must once again take a step back in their services, and in the customers they can allow in. According...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville renters that have been under increased financial pressure during the COVID-19 outbreak received some good news Monday. The City Council by a 5-2 vote approved a temporary moratorium on evictions for tenants—both residential and commercial—affected by the fallout of the global coronavirus pandemic. The emergency...