Santa Clara County Reports 95 New Coronavirus Cases, No Deaths

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA — The Santa Clara County Public Health Department reported 95 additional coronavirus cases Thursday.

The latest report brings the countywide case count to 23,679.

The county reported no additional coronavirus-related fatalities Thursday, leaving its COVID-19 death toll at 385.

There were 92 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Santa Clara County as of Thursday, of which 23 were being treated in intensive care units.

Elsewhere around the Bay Area and beyond, many San Jose playgrounds and other park amenities will begin reopening on Friday after a nearly seven-month hiatus.

San Jose, under state guidelines, is taking a phased approach to reopening 290 playgrounds and over 1,000 amenities.

Those amenities include basketball and volleyball courts, park benches, barbeque pits and picnic areas.

Basketball and volleyball court reopenings will happen over several weeks because park staff need to reinstall hoops and nets.

Barbeque and picnic areas will also open over the course of several weeks and will have stricter protocols in place.

City guidelines require one household per picnic table, the use of table covers or sanitizing before and after with disinfectants, cleaning up of all trash, wearing face coverings except when eating and maintaining 6 feet from people outside of one's household.

The Communications Hill staircase has also reopened as well as most of San Jose's 65 sports fields, with the exception of Ramac and Watson parks.

Playgrounds and equipment at county parks and county-managed special districts are set to open on Saturday after a nearly seven-month hiatus because of COVID-19.

Parks are now allowed to open their play structures because of revised state guidelines that allow for safe reopenings of playgrounds. However, attending a park will look much different than the pre-COVID era.

All children above 2 years old are required to wear a mask and must be accompanied by a caregiver to ensure proper mask wearing. Children from different households must remain 6 feet apart from each other, and if they cannot, playground use is not permitted.

Eating and drinking is also prohibited under state guidelines to ensure that face coverings are not removed.

All Monterey County parks will be open except Toro Park, because of fire damage at Toro and San Lorenzo Park, which is located near a COVID-19 positive housing site.

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There have been 889,064 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 17,217 coronavirus-related deaths in California as of Thursday afternoon according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The United States had 8,393,406 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 222,896 coronavirus-related fatalities as of Thursday afternoon.

There have been 41,536,126 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1,134,981 deaths reported globally as of Thursday afternoon.

— Bay City News contributed to this report