Protesters hit the streets as mask regulations take effect

Some protesters quickly defied new mask regulations Friday as public health officials announced plans to hire hundreds of nurses and contact tracers whose work will be vital to reopening the local economy.

The action came as the county announced 10 additional COVID-related deaths, pushing the region’s total to 134. The total number of confirmed cases reached 3,711, an increase of 147 over Thursday’s total.

As all eyes turn to local beaches this weekend, the first time since March that the region’s 3.3 million residents can head to the coast for exercise, Friday was about raising voices over everything from reopening businesses to paying rent, with a little jiu-jitsu thrown in for good measure.

Hundreds turned up at the Hall of Justice in downtown San Diego Friday carrying American flags and signs that bore a range of slogans from “Science is fake news,” and “Resist Newsom” to “Reopen California churches” and “Trump 2020.”

They were part of a statewide day of action. As has been the case with recent demonstrations, San Diego protesters circled the block in cars and trucks, honking horns and cheering. Parents brought children and few appeared to be keeping at least 6 feet of distance from one another.

Aaron Bidas, 32, of Vista, attended with his wife and two small children, ages 6 months and two years. It was his fourth such rally. He said he owns a marketing business and has had to furlough seven of his 10 employees.

“I’m doing it for my employees. I’m doing it for my clients. And I’m doing it for myself,” Bidas said. “These kids have futures. My two-year-old hasn’t been to the playground in months or playing with any friends. This is when my kids learn social skills and stuff like that.”

He said he’s not worried about his family getting sick at the rally.

“I don’t know anybody who’s sick. I don’t know anybody’s who’s died,” Bidas said. “I think I had one employee who said her 93-year-old grandfather died of the COVID. I don’t have any elderly people living with me. My kid playing on the playground won’t get anybody sick.”

While the event in San Diego was boisterous, recent polling suggests the crowd represented a minority of Californians. About 90 percent of voters say the pandemic is a threat to their personal or family’s health, according to a recent survey from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies. The survey also found widespread support for California Gov. Gavin Newsom, with 70 percent of those surveyed saying they were worried that the state’s social-distancing orders could end too soon, rather than go on too long.

Many protesters downtown Friday were not wearing face masks, despite a countywide requiremthat went into effect Friday mandating they be worn when in public places. Dozens of police officers were on the scene, but did not issue any citations, according to San Diego Lt. Shawn Takeuchi

He said the department will consider forwarding misdemeanor cases against organizers to the city attorney, as they have for two previous protests in recent weeks, but otherwise “understand people are very upset and angry.”

The police presence, he said, was designed to keep additional crimes from being committed, not to enforce public health orders.

“We are constantly balancing First Amendment rights with the law; it’s a very tricky balance … They’re expressing their First Amendment right to protest,” Takeuchi said. “The minute you have law enforcement ending protests, it can be viewed as authoritarian rule. It would go against the foundation of our country.”

Nurses and renters

Violation of public health orders was less of an issue for two other protests Friday.

Eleven nurses wearing red shirts and face coverings stood 6 feet apart in two rows on the sidewalk outside the VA Medical Center in La Jolla on Friday afternoon, holding signs and taking turns calling for more personal protective equipment to do their jobs safely and for immediate notification, and 14 days of paid home quarantine, if they are exposed on the job by a patient with COVID-19.

Holding signs that said, “Protect Nurses Patients Public Health,” the nurses with the National Nurses United union decried policies they said required them to reuse the same N95 respirators for weeks, to wear protective hoods that have been used to treat COVID-19 and protective gowns with open backs.

“If we are not safe, our patients are not safe,” said Donna L. Cook, who holds a doctorate in nursing.

Robert M. Smith, director of the VA in San Diego, said after the protest that the hospital system had to carefully control use of its personal protective equipment (PPE) inventory because of problems with theft and concerns that it stay robust enough to meet future needs, but it now has enough to give PPE to nurses who ask for it.

Joining similar efforts around the state, San Diego activists organized a rent strike Friday, honking horns and cheering as part of a caravan of roughly 50 cars that passed through several San Diego communities.

The protesters, who included a few renters, said they wanted to bring attention to the plight of unemployed tenants and call on the state government to step in and cancel rent. Groups involved in the organizing efforts include the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, or ACCE, Party for Socialism and Liberation, and others. Many of the protesters had signs affixed to their cars that said, “Cancel Rent,” “Housing is a Human Right” and “No work No rent.”

Landlord groups, such as the San Diego-based Southern California Rental Housing Association, have said a rent strike is illegal and would hurt property owners that also have bills to pay.

Martial arts

Eight students and three teachers arrived at a jiu-jitsu gym in Normal Heights Friday, practicing a side control grappling technique that had the barefoot participants trying to pin each other on a blue mat that covered most of the floor.

Given that gyms of all types are considered “non-essential” by the governor’s stay-at-home order, all 11 were violating rules designed to prevent the spread of the disease and could technically be charged with misdemeanors, fines of up to $1,000 each and/or six months in jail.

That had not happened as of Friday afternoon, according to Branden Guptill, one of the gym’s owners.

But come what may, he said, it was time to stand up for the American Dream and push back against what he described as tyranny in the name of public health.

“We sat down when this all happened,” Guptill told his assembled students after the class. “We were one of the last gyms to close, I didn’t want to close. I was scared of the health department, we were going to get fined $1,000 and we couldn’t afford it.”

They still can’t afford it, Guptill said, but his students need him, he needs them, and with a public health intervention he says looks increasingly like overkill and abuse of power, enough is enough.

Instructor and U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran Shane Kruchten, 32, said he had PTSD from his tour in Iraq in 2003, and practicing jiu-jitsu is what enables him to cope without having to take medication.

“Jiu-jitsu is mental health care and jiu-jitsu is a medical service, so we are essential in 100 percent of the ways if you think about it,” Kruchten said. “Whether it be PTSD, depression, suicidal thoughts, anything, every one of these people have their own story.”

Hiring hundreds

Public health officials announced Friday that they intend to ramp up local testing efforts to 5,200 per day, a significant increase over the 2,625 test results that the county received Thursday.

Nick Macchione, director of the county health department and leader of a regional testing task force, said his department is hiring an additional 200 public health nurses to form “nurse strike teams” that will be sent to test everyone at targeted locations such as drug-treatment centers, skilled nursing facilities “and, frankly, anywhere else” where groups of at-risk residents congregate.

Once testing reaches the 5,000-per-day mark, the county expects to learn of about 400 new coronavirus cases each day. Assuming that each of those has, on average, three other people they’re in close contact with, said county supervisor Nathan Fletcher, the public health department can expect to have to contact and interview up to 1,200 people per day.

It’s a far greater amount of work than the county’s 128 contact tracers could handle, and the plan is, officials said Friday, to increase that number to 450.

Meanwhile, Carlsbad, Del Mar and Solana Beach will reopen their beaches Monday with the same restrictions as most other coastal cities.

“The rest of our neighbors are opening on Monday, and I fully support being a part of that,” said Del Mar Mayor Ellie Haviland.

Carlsbad conditioned its opening on the widespread expectation that state beaches also will open on Monday, otherwise Carlsbad will wait to open with the state.

With the openings expected Monday, the entire San Diego County coast will allow surfing, swimming and limited other activities as long as people follow guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Phil Diehl, Phillip Molnar, Alex Riggins and Lori Weisberg contributed to this report.