Santa Clara County bans gatherings, closes all public schools

Kathleen Quinn

All public schools in Santa Clara County are closed for three weeks starting Monday, March 16, based off of a mandate from the Santa Clara County Health Department.

Gatherings of 100 or more both public and private are banned. 

Gatherings of 35 or more are banned unless specific criteria are met, including:

  •  preventing anyone who has a fever or respiratory symptoms from attending 
  • preventing those at higher risk from attending, including the elderly and immuno-compromised
  •  provide spacing of an arm’s length in between attendees,
  •  provide adequate supplies of soap, paper towels and trash cans
  • Urge attendees to wash their hands for 20 seconds or without materials to wash hands, provide an alcohol-based hand sanitizer
  • Direct attendees to an stay arm’s length from each other, avoid contact with their eyes, cover their cough or sneeze into a tissue or their elbow
  • Clean surfaces with disinfectant before, during and after the event.

As of today, there are 79 cases, 43 of which are presumed to be community-spread.

De Anza has moved face-to-face classes online, but the campus will remain open. Lab classes and classes that require equipment that students may not have access to at home can remain open based on the professor’s discretion.

Potential minor delays to the beginning of next quarter have been discussed by administration, but not confirmed as of this posting.