As protests continue across the country, let’s not forget there’s still a pandemic in our midst. As of publication, 194 people across the San Joaquin Valley and foothills have died due to COVID-19 out of more than 8,000 known cases of the disease.
In this interview, FM89’s health reporter Kerry Klein speaks with Kern County lead epidemiologist Kim Hernandez about how reopening businesses and public gatherings are affecting the county's caseload. Hernandez continues to urge social distancing wherever possible, even as grieving members of the community come together for demonstrations against police violence. “Large gatherings in particular make it difficult for contact tracing, if you don’t know who you are around, for us to be able to reach out to those people to let them know they may have been exposed and that they should stay at home and monitor themselves for symptoms,” she says.
