We are moving back to in-person training. For more information on this and any ongoing COVID-19 requirements see this statement.

Date	Activity	Disposition
08/28/2021	Training Class: Event Planning Tabletop	Modified for social distancing
08/21/2021	Drill: Quarterly City/County Communications Drill	Modified for social distancing
08/14/2021	Mini Drill: RDF Exercise	Modified for social distancing
08/07/2021	Training Class: Packet Operations Type III A	Remote Teaching to accommodate number of attendees
07/24/2021	Training Class: Message Passing	Modified for social distancing
07/14/2021	Training Class: Fundamentals of Emergency Communications	Modified for social distancing
07/10/2021	Training Class: Shadowing	Modified for social distancing
06/26/2021	Training Class: Message Passing	Modified for social distancing
06/05/2021	Training Class: Field Operations Type III Part B & Type II	Modified for social distancing
05/15/2021	Drill: Quarterly City/County Communications Drill	Modified for social distancing
05/01/2021	Training Class: Field Operations Type III Part A	Modified for social distancing
04/17/2021	Drill: Credential Evaluation Mini-Drill	Added Credential Eval Opportunities
03/27/2021	Training Class: Fundamentals of Emergency Communications	Remote Teaching
03/06/2021	Training Class: Net Control II	Remote Teaching
02/27/2021	Training Class: Introduction to Emergency Communications	Remote Teaching
02/20/2020	Drill: Quarterly City/County Communications Drill	Modified for social distancing Added Credential Eval Opportunities
02/06/2021	Training Class: Net Control III B	Remote Teaching
01/30/2021	Training Class: Net Control III A	Remote Teaching
12/12/2020	Training Class: 2020 End of Year Summary	Remote Teaching
11/21/2020	Training Class: Message Passing	Postponed then later canceled
11/07/2020	Training Class: Packet Operations Type II	Remote Teaching
10/14/2020	Training Class: Introduction to Emergency Comms	Remote Teaching
10/10/2020	Event: Masked Pumpkin Festival Parade (simulated)	Added Simulated Public Service Event
10/03/2020	Training Class: Packet Operations Type III B	Remote Teaching
08/22/2020	Drill: Quarterly City/County Communications Drill	Modified for social distancing
08/08/2020	Drill: RDF Search and Locate Mini-drill	Canceled
08/01/2020	Training Class: Packet Operations Type III Part A	Remote Teaching
07/18/2020	Training Class: Field Operations Type III Part B & Type II	Modified and rescheduled for 8/29/2020
07/11/2020	Training Class: Field Operations Type III Part A	Modified and rescheduled for 8/15/2020
07/08/2020	Training Class: Fundamentals of Emergency Comms	Remote Teaching
06/24/2020	Training Class: Fundamentals of Emergency Comms	Added; Remote Teaching (Experimental)
06/13/2020	Practice: Pop-up Packet Practice	Modified to use social distancing
06/13/2020	Drill: Field Packet Mini-Drill	Modified to use social distancing
06/10/2020	Training Class: Intro to Emergency Comms	Remote Teaching (Experimental)
06/06/2020	Training Class: Event Planning Table Top	Postponed then later canceled
05/30/2020	Practice: Pop-up Message Passing Practice	Modified to use social distancing
05/16/2020	Drill: Quarterly City/County Communications Drill	Modified to use social distancing
05/14/2020	Meeting: EC/AEC Council	Web Meeting
05/02/2020	Training Class: Message Passing	Postponed then later canceled
04/04/2020	Repeater Sprint Contest and Practice	Added
04/04/2020	Training Net: Message Passing Practice	Added
04/04/2020	Training Class: Net Control Type II	Postponed then later canceled
03/25/2020	Functional Exercise: Statewide Medical Health Exercise	ARES/RACES participation canceled
03/21/2020	Practice Session: Pop-Up Net Control Practice	Postponed then later canceled
03/14/2020	Training Class: Fundamentals of Emergency Comms	Postponed
03/07/2020	Training Class: Net Control Type III Part B	Postponed then later canceled

All SCCo ARES/RACES personnel are reminded to follow the precautions recommended by SCCo Public Health, the CDC, Cal/OSHA and other official entities, including:

• https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prepare/prevention.html

Before attending any SCCo ARES/RACES event, please review these screening questions and, if you have any of the listed symptoms, remain at home.

See the other reference information below for more comprehensive guidance.

03-Aug-2021

• In light of the recent significant increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Santa Clara County (“County”), due primarily to the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, masks are now required for everyone, regardless of vaccination status when indoors. Health Order-August 02, 2021

16-Jul-2021

• With cases of COVID-19 rising locally and increased circulation of the highly transmissible Delta variant, the Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Sonoma, and the City of Berkeley recommend that everyone, wear a mask indoors. Press Release-July 16, 2021

21-Jun-2021

• In light of declining cases and widespread community vaccination against COVID-19, The county Health Order of May 18 is phasing out. The newly adopted workplace regulations issued by the California Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Occupational Safety and Health (commonly known as Cal/OSHA) are in effect.

15-Jun-2021

• California is preparing to get back to normal. On June 15, capacity and distancing restrictions will be lifted for most businesses and activities. As California fully reopens the economy, the state will move beyond the Blueprint for a Safer Economy.

  The current CDPH Guidance for Face Coverings will apply until October 1, 2021.

19-May-2021

• On May 18, 2021, the California Department of Public Health issued a new order establishing focused safety measures designed to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and announced that Santa Clara County will be entering the Yellow Tier of the State’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy. The new health order and the move to the Yellow Tier will both be effective May 19, 2021. Many of the previous restrictions are no longer necessary because there is increasing and widespread vaccination and fewer cases of COVID-19 in the community. (HTML)

24-Mar-2021

• On March 23, 2021, the California Department of Public Health announced that Santa Clara County will be entering the Orange Tier of the State’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy effective March 24, 2021. The County Health Officer urges businesses, entities, and residents to continue exercising caution even as certain restrictions are lifted by the State. (HTML)

03-Mar-2021

• On March 2, 2021, the California Department of Public Health announced that Santa Clara County will be entering the Red Tier of the State’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy effective March 3, 2021. The County is also lifting local activity-specific health directives, effective Wednesday, March 3, 2021. As certain activities are allowed to resume, the County Health Officer urges residents to proceed with caution. COVID-19 case rates, hospitalizations, and deaths are falling, but still remain very high. Vaccinations are occurring as quickly as supplies allow, but most people in our community are still not vaccinated. (HTML)

25-Jan-2021

• On January 25, 2021, the California Department of Public Health announced that the Bay Area Region is no longer subject to the State’s Regional Stay At Home Order. However, Santa Clara County continues to experience an alarming rate of COVID-19 transmission, and hospital and ICU capacities remain extremely limited in the county and region. As always, businesses, entities, and individuals must follow both the State and County Health Officer Orders, and where there is a conflict between the two, the stricter rules must be followed. (HTML)

30-Nov-2020

• To reduce the likelihood of a surge in hospitalizations that would exceed the capacity of hospitals in the county, several modifications to the current Mandatory Directives take effect on November 30th. (HTML)

16-Nov-2020

• On November 16, 2020, the State moved the County of Santa Clara into the Purple Tier (Tier One), the most restrictive tier in the State’s “Blueprint for a Safer Economy.” (HTML)

05-Oct-2020

• The Health Officer of Santa Clara County issued an order establishing revised mandatory risk reduction measures applicable to all activities and sectors to address the COVID-19 Pandemic. (HTML)

02-Jul-2020

• The health officer of Santa Clara County issued a revised order to shelter in place. It's effective date depends on whether the State approves the County's application for a variance. This order supercedes previous orders. (HTML)

01-Jun-2020

• The health officer of Santa Clara County issued a revised order to shelter in place. It goes into effect on June 5. This order supercedes previous orders. (Preview).
  • Executive Summary (PDF)

18-May-2020

• The health officer of Santa Clara County issued a revised order to shelter in place. This order supercedes the April 29th order and modifies the conditions of the prior order. (HTML, PDF).

29-Apr-2020

• The health officer of Santa Clara County issued a revised order to shelter in place. This order supercedes the March 31st order, extends the duration of the order, and modifies the conditions of the prior order. (HTML, PDF).

31-Mar-2020

• The health officer of Santa Clara County issued a revised order to shelter in place. This order supercedes the March 16th order, extends the duration of the order, and adds additional social distancing requirements. (HTML, PDF).
• A new Coronavirus (COVID-19) Data Dashboard is available from the Santa Clara County Office of Public Health.

19-Mar-2020

• The Governer issued a stay at home order, effective immediately (PDF)

16-Mar-2020

• The health officer of County of Santa Clara issued an order to shelter in place, effective 12:01 a.m. on March 17, 2020. (HTML, PDF)

11-Mar-2020

After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to postpone or cancel the following training and exercise activities:

• Saturday, March 14: Fundamentals of Emergency Communications training class (postponed)
• Saturday, March 21: Pop-Up Net Control Practice session (postponed)
• Wednesday, March 25: Statewide Medical Health Exercise (ARES/RACES participation canceled)
• Saturday, April 4: Net Control Type II training class (postponed)

Future activities are under review. We should know more in a few weeks.

Nothing is more important than the health of our people (and their families and others with whom they will come into contact). And our plans for conducting these activities with appropriate “social distancing” met the current public health guidelines. But with federal, state, and local health agencies all continuing to tightening restrictions on gatherings, we think it’s best to err on the side of caution and restrict even this type of activity.

We understand how important these training opportunities are for many of you. So, we will be working on rescheduling the postponed activities sometime in the future. We hope that after a few weeks or so, we will have more information about how this situation is playing out. This will also give us time to conduct some surveys regarding when it might be best to reschedule.

Stay safe and be sure to follow public health guidelines.  For continued updates about our response to COVID-19 and for links to the various health agencies, keep an eye on this page.

09-Mar-2020

The Health Officer of the County of Santa Clara issued an order imposing a countywide moratorium on mass gatherings of 1,000 or more persons. (HTML, PDF)

07-Mar-2020

Weather permitting, we will conduct the 3/21 Pop-Up Net Control Practice session outdoors. See the updated information on the sign-up page.

06-Mar-2020

Weather permitting, we will conduct the 3/14 Fundamentals of Emergency Communications training class outdoors. See the updated information on the sign-up page.

05-Mar-2020

New Guidance from the Santa Clara County Department of Public Health
The Santa Clara County Department of Public Health has issued updated guidance to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19).

See: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/phd/news/Pages/new-guidance-new-covid-19-3-5-2020.aspx

TL;DR.  What does it say?

If you scroll down to about the middle of the page, in "New Guidance for workplaces and businesses" and in "New Guidance for Persons Hosting Mass Gatherings and Large Community Events", you'll see the general recommendation of canceling "large" meetings and avoiding events where people are within arm's length of one another. 

How does that apply to Santa Clara County ARES/RACES?

While the above guidance is in effect, it is prudent for us to either postpone or cancel activities that are contrary to that guidance.  For example, our training classes place 40-50 people, most of which are in the higher-risk age category of 50 years or older, in a room where they are closer than arm's length to each other for three hours.  That's clearly against the above guidance.

We'll decide the status of future events on a case-by-case basis as we get closer to each event. So, if you've signed up for future events, watch for notifications.

• Santa Clara County Public Health: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/phd/DiseaseInformation/novel-coronavirus/Pages/home.aspx
• SCCo Coronavirus (COVID-19) Data Dashboard: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/covid19/Pages/home.aspx
  • Data Dashboard
• State of California Public Health: https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/Immunization/nCOV2019.aspx
• U.S. CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/
• World Health Organization: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
• John Hopkins University Coronavirus COVID-19 Dashboard: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu