Theme Parks Want To Reopen In July

Believe it or not, theme parks across the state might begin to reopen soon. Yesterday, representatives of three major tourist attractions in San Diego County - SeaWorld, the USS Midway Museum and Legoland California, presented their reopening plans to the county. They did it under their umbrella organization, the San Diego Attraction Coalition. The San Diego Zoo is not part of the group. In a statement, the coalition said the theme parks would be ready to reopen on July 1st if authorized by the Governor. The coalition declined to make anyone available for an interview to discuss the specifics of their plans. *** A new report says there's been a rise in racism and harassment against Asians and Pacific Islanders in San Diego county. There were 27 cases reported between March 19 and April 29 of this year. One of those was against a Filipinx (Filipine-Ex) cultural group at San Diego State University, which had a virtual meeting interrupted by a "zoom bombing" where random people hurled racial epithets at them. Junior Cristal Ami (Ah-Me) is the group's chairperson. And it didn't really hit us until later -- There was just so much hate being thrown at us, it was really an unbelievable experience. Yesterday, City Councilmembers Georgette Gomez and Monica Montgomery proposed a resolution aimed at reducing anti-Asian/Pacitic Islander discrimnation in the county. The resolution, which comes to a vote next week, would better track racist incidents and commit the city to an education campaign to push back against intolerance. *** San Diego county officials announced today that they have partnered with Rady Children's Hospital to expand COVID-19 testing to the region's children and their parents. Public Health Officer Dr. Wilma Wooten says around 6 percent of county positive cases are below the age of 19. But often a lot of cases are asymptomatic and not recorded. There have been multiple reports of children with asymptomatic SARS-COV-2 infection, the virus responsible for COVID-19. In one study up to 13% of pediatric cases with the illness were asymptomatic. Wooten says expanding testing to children and their parents will help the county collect more data and quarantine individuals who are infected but showing no symptoms. *** San Diego State University's School of Public Health announced yesterday that it will partner with county public health officials to train and recruit community health workers and students to bolster contact tracing efforts in the region's underserved communities. SDSU faculty will train and recruit about 110 people to identify and connect with individuals who may have come in contact with those who have tested positive for COVID-19. *** And for the latest local COVID count: the county reported 101 new positive cases and a half-dozen more deaths. Wednesday's numbers raise the totals to 6,983 cases and 255 deaths. *** From KPBS, I’m Kinsee Morlan, and you’re listening to San Diego News Matters. It’s Thursday, May 28. Stay with me for more of the local news you need. Since the beginning of the month, San Diego County has required everyone to wear facial coverings when they leave their home. The rule is meant to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. But KPBS reporter Claire Trageser says law enforcement agencies across the county are not citing people for being out in public without a face covering. Starting May 1, a new public health order set up the rule: "if you leave your place, cover your face." That means a cloth face covering is required in public if you’re within 6 feet of another person. Law enforcement agencies countywide are tasked with enforcing the rule, but so far, only the San Diego Sheriff's Department has written a citation for violating the rule. And they’ve written a grand total of one. Voice of Ricardo Lopez San Diego Sheriff's Spokesman "For the most part, we get compliance by education. A lot of people just don't know, not everyone watches the news, and the rules have changed so many times over the last nine weeks. We've gone as far as carrying a copy of the public health order and handing them out." Studies have shown that face coverings can be a highly effective tool in preventing the spread of contagious diseases like COVID-19. But Eyal Oren, an epidemiologist at San Diego State, says 80% of the population needs to comply. Eyal Oren San Diego State Epidemiologist SOT "When we look at how many droplets of saliva are flung into the air by somebody talking with and without a face mask, we see that when someone even uses a simple cloth face mask nearly all droplets are blocked." Lopez says in the future, the Sheriff's Department could move into a phase beyond education where deputies begin writing citations for violating the facial covering rule. Since the beginning of April, police agencies countywide have issued a total of 450 citations. Most were given to people illegally congregating in closed public spaces like parks and beaches. Spokespeople for the departments said people are no longer being cited because those places are opening up. Over the holiday weekend, none of the departments issued citations. MTS, by the way, has given two citations to riders who weren't wearing facial coverings on buses or trolleys. *** If you're one of the millions in California out of a work due to the pandemic and want a job, helping others like you, here's your chance. THE state Employment Development Department is the arm of the government that provides a variety of services to businesses, workers and job seekers. And the pandemic has made those services more critical than ever. A huge backlog of claims has led to sharp criticism of the department in recent weeks. So now, The EDD is conducting a mass hiring to bring in reinforcements. More from CapRadio's Drew Sandsor. EDD says it's looking to hire 18-hundred temporary workers over the next several weeks to speed up the delivery of benefits. [Notes:EDD says to help catch up some 700 staff volunteered to work this past holiday weekend.] EDD says the new hires will be trained in call center operations, processing claims, and analyzing documents from filers and employers to help determine wage benefits. EDD has received increased federal funding to support the staffing increase it says is necessary to deal with historic demand. As of the middle of the month, EDD had processed over five-million claims for unemployment and paid more than $16 billion in benefits to workers who've filed since the pandemic began. *** Last week, San Diego County leaders gave restaurants and retail stores the official go-ahead to reopen, which means more people are going back to work. But what happens to those who, now that they can go back to work -- need to put their kids in daycare? KPBS reporter Claire Trageser says many daycares are trying to reopen, but they continue to struggle with a maze of confusing and sometimes conflicting regulations. NAT POP "There are times like I'm sorry, mute the call, mommy's on a call, here, have a snack." Brandee Levitt is a single mom who works for a chain of local restaurants including Raglan Public House in Ocean Beach. While the restaurants were closed to dine-in customers, she was home with her two daughters. But now that they've opened up, she needs to be back at work. Brandee Levitt New Zealand Eats Employee SOT "People are going to have to...I don't know, have families helping, grandparents, these are crazy times." Luckily, her daughters' preschool just reopened...with restrictions--classes are limited to six kids. It's one of many new regulations daycares are trying to get a handle on. KPBS asked several daycare providers--if they fully understand the reopening rules? SOT "No." Denise Vick runs the Children's Growing Center in Mission Valley. Denise Vick Children's Growing Center Director SOT "I think I'm clear, but things are changing week to week. It's really hard to navigate through all the information. I watch the county briefings, check the licensing website, state website, county website, I'm just trying to follow all the rules." But sometimes the rules change within days. For example, at first, the county said daycare providers could expand classes from 10 kids to 12. Then the message changed--most classes had to stay at 10. Vick found out about that from a KPBS story. SOT "It shouldn't have taken that story for me to find that out." Then there are other rules Vick says she needs to make up on her own. SOT "Our sick policy, I just decided how long going to keep kids out of school if they're sick. It's vague, it's up to us, they say if you have a 100 fever or respiratory problems you have to stay home, but they don't say how you can come back." Vick says every week there's a conference call with more than 200 daycare providers and the state childcare licensing board and it's clear there is a lot of confusion. She feels like daycare is not a priority for elected officials. SOT "Every day I'm reading stories that say we need childcare to reopen economy, but there seems to be some sort of breakdown in making that happen… Of course, it's complicated. Health officials want to put strict limitations on daycares because small kids don't do a good job controlling disease--washing hands, following social distancing rules. The worry is that kids could pass the disease between each other and then carry it back home with them. But daycares also can't have so many rules that it makes it too difficult for them to reopen. SOT "People are dining in restaurants now." Holly Weber owns Magic Hours Preschool in Mira Mesa. She says if government officials are allowing restaurants to open, they should let daycares to expand to slightly bigger classes of 12 kids. SOT "I want them to trust us. I don't think they have been confident to allow us to expand to the level we know we can remain at to open safely." A county spokeswoman did confirm--that there’ve been no COVID-19 outbreaks at the daycares that have stayed open for the children of essential workers throughout the pandemic. SOT "As more businesses start to open up, we should be expanding facilities too." San Diego City Councilman Chris Cate is one government official who has a vested interest in daycares reopening -- --he has two young kids, including a daughter who's in a home daycare. Before the pandemic, there were potentially twice as many children who needed daycare as available daycare spots in the county, according to a survey from the YMCA. The shortage is now far worse and threatens the overall opening of the local economy. SOT "Now wait staff, servers, they are going to need daycare, are they going to be able to go now to their childcare facility, or do they have to wait, that means passing on to shifts next person, and there's a domino effect." He says county and state officials need a clearer message, and quickly. SOT "Above anything else it's going to be needed really rather quickly in coming days and weeks as we start acting on these things sooner rather than later." And that was KPBS investigative reporter Claire Trageser again. *** Have you been missing hugs? I have. Touch is such a basic function that most of us don't wonder, "Where does this sensory experience come from?" From the feeling of a hug to the sting of a bee, we take touch for granted. Understanding what causes us to have a sense of touch, however, could lead to better treatment of pain. On Wednesday, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters honored Scripps Research scientist, Ardem Patapoutian ((pata-POO-tee-an), with its 2020 Kavli Prize in neuroscience for his work, identifying proteins in the body that are key to our sense of touch. He told KPBS Midday Edition a possible clinical use of the science could help people suffering from neuropathic pain. "The work from our lab and others have shown that these ion channels, these proteins that we're talking about, in addition to being responsible for touch, are actually responsible for this touch-induced pain that occurs in people that suffer from neuropathic pain," Patapoutian said. "We know that if you suppress this ion channel in these patients, you would actually get some relief." He said this kind of therapy could reduce dependence on opiates, which, of course, can lead to addiction. The Kavli prize comes with a $1 million award and a gold medal that ((pata-POO-tee-an) will share with a neuroscientist with the University of California, San Francisco. *** I’ll admit it...I secretly love shows like American Idol, The Voice and America’s Got Talent. The little packages they put together that tell the personal stories of the people competing get me everytime..there’s some real tear-jerking stuff in there! So on Tuesday night, I was stoked to see San Diego’s own Voices of Our City choir take to the great AGT stage. That voice you heard introducing the Choir is local jazz musician Steph Johnson, who founded the choir a few years back. You’re gonna hear her voice again as she sings with the choir, which, by the way, earned itself the golden buzzer, which means they get to move on to the next round. So that’s it for today’s show. Enjoy some of this AGT performance by Voices of Our City.