What's New

Press Releases

Students with Pacific Collegiate School and the Friday Night Live (FNL) Youth Council participated in Roadwatch, an action research and data collection project administered by the California Friday Night Live Partnership (CFNLP) on Thursday, October 26th. Students took to the streets to monitor intersections near their schools observing more than 780 drivers. They found more than 140 incidents of distracted driving in the intersections of Western Drive and Mission Street, and Blackburn Street and Riverside Drive near Pacific Collegiate and Watsonville High schools.

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The updated Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines have been approved by the FDA and recommended by the CDC for everyone 6 months and older. Officially known as the 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccine, they are now available in Santa Cruz County.

In alignment with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), Santa Cruz County Public Health Officials urge everyone 6 months and older to stay up to date with the newest COVID-19 vaccine.

“Staying up to date on the COVID-19 vaccine will be an essential tool to help residents stay healthy,” said Santa Cruz County Health Officer Dr. Lisa Hernandez. “The updated vaccines provide the best available protection against severe illness caused by current variants.”

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Air quality in Santa Cruz County has been affected by wildfires in Northern California and Southern Oregon. Concentrations of smoke are considered unhealthy or unhealthy for sensitive groups depending upon location within the County. Smoke from the wildfires is expected to continue at least until Friday.

Smoke can cause eye and throat irritation, coughing, and difficulty breathing. People who are at greatest risk of experiencing symptoms (sensitive populations) are:

  • Young children
  • Older adults
  • Pregnant women
  • People with respiratory conditions (such as asthma or emphysema) or heart conditions.

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“It’s a beach, not an ashtray.” “Fish don’t smoke.” “Butts are gross.”  What might local wildlife say about the nasty cigarette butts littering Santa Cruz 
beaches? Speak up for them on Saturday, September 23rd during a unique beach cleanup with a focus on tobacco waste. 

As part of the annual Coastal Cleanup Day sponsored by Save Our Shores, the Santa Cruz County Tobacco Education Coalition (TEC) is partnering with the Santa Cruz County Office of Education’s Tobacco Use Prevention Education Program (TUPE) to raise awareness about toxic tobacco waste and possible solutions. Cleanup participants will replace each cigarette butt they collect with a personally designed, larger-than-life replica to show local policy makers and the public just how BIG a problem butts really are. 

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The Oral Health Access Steering Committee is excited to announce that the Local Progress Page is now live on DataShare Santa Cruz County. This platform provides a comprehensive database of Santa Cruz County residents' wellbeing, making it an invaluable resource for local collaborative programs, initiatives, agencies, and organizations that aim to increase equity and achieve specific  wellbeing goals in the area.

According to Monica Nicholas, Project Director of the Local Oral Health Program in the County of Santa Cruz Health Services Agency, sharing up-to-date data in a timely manner has been a challenge. To overcome this obstacle, the Data Share Progress Page was created to enhance transparency, data sharing, and progress tracking among multiple partners. The page focuses on a few chosen oral health population data trends, comparing them to local, state, and national data, to provide an overview analysis of residents' oral health outcomes by age, race and ethnicity, insurance type, 

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County Press Releases

Public Health Advisories & Orders

UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF CALIFORNIA HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE SECTION 120175, THE HEALTH OFFICER OF THE COUNTY OF SANTA CRUZ (“HEALTH OFFICER”) ORDERS:
This Order is made in light of recent increase in COVID-19 cases in Santa Cruz County (“County”) as well as historical data showing seasonally higher rates of influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and other respiratory viruses that can cause severe respiratory disease among people living in the County. Current COVID-19 metrics indicate that there is increased COVID-19 transmission in the County. The three COVID-19 metrics that support this determination consist of the County’s increase in hospitalizations, the County’s elevated viral level of COVID-19 in wastewater, and the County’s Effective Reproductive Number (Rt) rising above 1.00.

  1. This Order shall become effective at 12:00 am on November 1, 2023, and will continue to April 30, 2024, unless it is rescinded, superseded, or amended in writing by the Health Officer. The Health Officer intends to continually review the need for the Order by monitoring COVID-19 metrics including without limitation viral wastewater concentrations, hospitalizations, Effective Reproductive Number, variants of concern circulating in the County, and vaccination rates.
  2. All acute care facilities including the Psychiatric Health Facility and Crisis Stabilization Program, maternity and surgery centers, skilled nursing facilities, and health care facilities that provide infusion therapy such dialysis and chemotherapy in Santa Cruz County must require all healthcare workers to wear a well-fitting high-quality face mask during the direct provision of patient care or while working in patient care areas during the Respiratory Virus Season.
  3. Requirement to Wear Face Masks.
    1. Regardless of vaccination status, all personnel must wear face masks at all times during Respiratory Virus Season when indoors during the direct provision of patient care or while working in patient care areas except:

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UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF CALIFORNIA HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE SECTION 120175, THE HEALTH OFFICER OF THE COUNTY OF SANTA CRUZ (“HEALTH OFFICER”) ORDERS:
This Order is made in light of the 7 recent COVID-19 related deaths in Skilled Nursing Facilities as well as significant increase in COVID-19 in Santa Cruz County (“County”). Current COVID-19 metrics indicate that there is increased COVID-19 transmission in the County. 

View Public Health Order:  English | Spanish

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In late May, a patient presented to a local emergency department with signs and symptoms consistent with botulism poisoning. After the suspect case was reported, the patient did receive botulinum antitoxin (BAT). The presence of botulinum neurotoxin type A was subsequently confirmed from patient’s blood samples by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Microbial Diseases Laboratory. Food poisoning is not suspected in this case; rather, transmission likely occurred through a contaminated wound. The exact source of botulism in this case remains unknown and additional incidents may occur. The last confirmed case of wound botulism in our county was in March of 2021.

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Xylazine, a veterinary tranquilizer with no approved human use, is showing up in the nation’s street drug supply, where it is also known as “tranq” and “tranq dope.” Xylazine is typically combined with opioids like fentanyl and sometimes heroin and is increasingly present in overdose deaths compounding the overdose crisis. Philadelphia and other areas in the Northeast have been heavily impacted. There is no evidence to suggest that xylazine is currently prevalent in California’s drug supply, however experts note that xylazine may be mirroring the path of fentanyl in the illicit drug market with a westward expansion and is likely underreported.

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