As of June 30, there have been 233 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in San Benito County. The local death count remains at two, according to county officials.
The data from San Benito County Public Health Services’ latest community newsletter shows that 5,210 patients have been tested for the novel coronavirus locally. Of these, 4,950 have tested negative.
Of the 233 positive cases of Covid-19, 22 patients are in the 0-17 age group; 132 are in the 18-49 age group; 60 are in the 50-64; and 19 are age 65 or older.
In California, there have been 222,917 total cases reported, and 5,980 deaths from Covid-19.
The San Benito County Board of Supervisors held a special meeting on June 29 to discuss updates related to Covid-19.
County Interim Health Officer Dr. David Ghilarducci said that he’s seeing more evidence of uncontrolled diabetes being a big risk factor for having a serious illness related to Covid-19. He said that health officials provide public education campaigns related to diabetes and this might be a motivation tool for people who have been meaning to get their condition under control.
“That’s not something you can fix overnight, but a lot of the lifestyle factors that we continue to speak about: healthy living, regular exercise and making changes in your diet and so forth can help control, especially Type 2 diabetes, is super important.”
Supervisor Peter Hernandez said during the meeting that he’s concerned about the division of people wearing a mask.
“It’s really alarming for me to see the amount of negative discourse all because of someone assuming that someone should be wearing a mask and they’re not,” he said.
Hernandez said people should be wearing a mask unless they have a valid medical reason not to. However, he mentioned that he’s heard of cases of people being attacked and businesses getting bad comments left on their Facebook accounts.
“I feel like it’s only dividing our community,” he said.
Hernandez reached out to Ghilarducci to help support the message that people who can’t wear a mask due to personal health issues shouldn’t be getting attacked. He mentioned someone who shared her story of being attacked for not wearing a mask.
“She feels like her privacy is becoming less and less valuable over the need for enforcement from the public,” he said.
