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Supervisor Cindy Chavez | District 2
Supervisor Cindy Chavez | District 2

COVID-19

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Supplying personal protective equipment

Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)

As the President of the Board of Supervisors during the beginning of the pandemic, Supervisor Chavez recognized the immediate need for unprecedented amounts of personal protective equipment and medical supplies. She immediately engaged the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, the Valley Medical Center Foundation, and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation to help provide resources. The subsequent gathering, purchasing, and supplying of health workers and first responders throughout Santa Clara County with these life-saving supplies was historic. 

Testing and vaccination

  • The County rapidly scaled up COVID-19 testing, and later vaccination, and acted assertively to ensure other local healthcare organizations did the same. It opened mass vaccination sites at places such as Levi’s Stadium and multiple other stationary and mobile vaccine sites.
  • Supervisor Chavez ensured that those parts of the county that were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, particularly the Eastside of San Jose and South County, were allocated sufficient resources. 
    • These efforts included locating testing and vaccination sites at safe spaces like the Mexican Heritage Plaza, collaborating with community clinic organizations to ensure linguistic and cultural competency in all services, and the creation of the Community Health Business Engagement Teams (CBHET)
  • Supervisor Chavez created the Community Ambassador’s Program, which recruited over 500 community members who, after receiving training on COVID-19 and the County’s response, were empowered to share weekly communication messages through their own networks and social media communities.
  • The success of the County’s efforts are most evident through vaccination rates that are among the highest of any large county in the United States -87% have received at least one dose as of September 2021.

Support of businesses during COVID

In response to the devastating impacts of COVID-19 on businesses, Supervisor Chavez has taken multiple actions. They have included the convening of hundreds of businesses at a special public meeting at the outset of the pandemic so business leaders could voice their concerns and articulate how the County could be helpful, the creation of mini-grants for small businesses in the County to ensure fines collected related to COVID violations were returned to the business community, and the passage of hazard pay for grocery and other workers during the pandemic.