COVID-19

SANTA CRUZ—The Wharf to Wharf race winds six miles from the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk to Capitola Village, and since its inception in 1973 has drawn thousands of participants and spectators from around the world.  This year’s event on July 26 would have featured 16,000...

WATSONVILLE—The City of Watsonville will use a little more than half a million dollars of federal funding to bolster the community’s response to the COVID-19 crisis. The City will dish $200,000 to Second Harvest Food Bank Santa Cruz County to support its county-wide efforts during...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—State officials have sponsored a community testing site for COVID-19 cases in the Watsonville area, Santa Cruz County Department of Public Health Director Mimi Hall said at Tuesday morning’s Santa Cruz County Supervisors meeting. The hope, Hall said, is it will be operational...

APTOS—New Leaf Community Market in Aptos reopened Tuesday morning after a store-wide deep cleaning, spokeswoman Lindsay Gizdich said. The store closed on April 21 after seven employees tested positive for COVID-19. All employees currently working have been tested for the virus, and are cleared to work,...

Additional reporting by Todd Guild SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—With the onset of warmer, sunny days, droves of people have been showing up at area beaches and parks, especially on weekends, even as the shelter-in-place order has hit day 41.  And beginning April 25, Santa Cruz County also...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville city officials on Friday closed the City Hall building for a deep cleaning after an employee tested positive for COVID-19, City Manager Matt Huffaker confirmed. The employee is now self-isolating and under medical care, Huffaker said.  All employees that were in direct contact with the...

SACRAMENTO—Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced a plan to get meals to isolated older adults by paying the restaurant industry to prepare and deliver breakfast, lunch and dinner for them. The governor said the program was created to give a lifeline to seniors at home,...

By Jazmin Juarez, Special to the Pajaronian SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The coronavirus has brought many changes to people’s everyday lifestyle. Among them, the transition from in-person to online classes for students. In Santa Cruz County, Cabrillo College switched to online courses on March 16. The school has...

WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville area has the lowest number of COVID-19 cases in Santa Cruz County, according to data from the county health department. There were 29 known COVID-19 cases in South County as of Wednesday, compared to 33 in North County and 45 in Mid-County. North...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville Mayor Rebecca Garcia had a request during a conference call with Santa Cruz County leaders: don’t forget our Spanish speaking population. The longtime outspoken community activist now in charge of the county’s most densely populated city and largest Latino community pushed leaders to add...