On March 10, 2020, the Santa Cruz City Council voted unanimously to declare a local health emergency regarding a novel coronavirus (COVID-19). This declaration empowers the City to respond effectively to COVID-19, seek and utilize mutual aid, potentially obtain City-related emergency cost reimbursements, and ensure that the City of Santa Cruz Staff have all the necessary tools and powers at their disposal to slow the spread of the Coronavirus Outbreak.

The City is coordinating closely with public health officials at the Santa Cruz County Health Department, local and regional agencies and community-based organizations. Changes and measures have been adopted in daily operations and activities consistent with the County’s Interim Guidance for Social Distancing and Interim Workplace Guidance.

For general information on COVID-19 please call 211, or text coronavirus to 211211, or visit santacruzhealth.org/coronavirus for updates and links to state and federal guidance.

To start, a couple of simple, yet important, best practices to keep in mind:

• Stay home if you are sick, wash your hands and clean surfaces frequently, and if you absolutely have to go out in public be sure to give each other space.
• Take steps to prepare, but keep in mind that panic buying begets panic buying. Keep your pantry stocked with a two week supply of essentials, but don't hoard massive amounts of goods because you may prevent others from accessing the essentials they need.
• Always look for information from reliable sources and think twice before you share something on social media that you are not sure is factual.
• Keep your spending local! Our local businesses are often the most impacted by events like this and we can all do our part to continue to support business owners and employees. While you are practicing social distancing you can still support the local economy by ordering goods online (many businesses are providing free or low cost local delivery), purchasing gift cards for future use, and donating to local nonprofits.

Remember that our community has faced major challenges and impacts before. It is important to stay calm, but take the necessary steps to prepare and protect yourself and our community.

We have pulled together a number of business-specific resources regarding how to prevent workplace exposure, strategies to support your employees and customers, and financial programs available from State and Federal agencies for businesses and workers who become financially impacted from the COVID-19 outbreak and response.

We encourage all businesses to closely document your short and long term financial impacts related to COVID-19 as this could be the basis for future allocations if funding is identified or awarded to our community from the state or federal level.

We will continue to update the landing page as new information becomes available.