Despite a San Joaquin County health order limiting gatherings to outdoors only and a maximum of three households, the City of Manteca has devised a way of staging a multiple household “Date Night” for parents and their children on Saturday, Feb. 27.
The city event has been crafted in a manner to work with COVID-19 restrictions. For $20 per parent-child couple with each additional child costing $5 those attending will receive a professional photograph from Reflections Photography, a dance together, and a date night box of activities to take home.
Arrival times are staggered which means people will be ushered out after what is being called their “special dance opportunity” and handed their activity box.
The posting Monday on the city’s website for the Recreation & Community Services event dubbed “Daddy and Me & Mommy & Me Date Night” inside the Manteca Senior Center comes while Great Wolf Lodge indoor water park is prohibited from opening, places of worship can only gather outdoors, and restaurants as well as gyms are prohibited from allowing customers inside.
The flyer for the event indicates masks will be required and that COVID-19 guidelines will be followed.
The SJ County Health Department on Monday referenced the purple tier orders issued by California Department of Public Health as part of the Blueprint for a Safer Economy that are now in effect for all of the county. The first item listed under sectors are gatherings, given those have been the source of documented super spreader events. The status for gatherings that includes dance parties is for outside only with no more than three households involved.
Manteca Unified officials confirmed school dances aren’t likely in the cards for the rest of the school year due to their classification as a high risk event for the spread of COVID-19.
Municipal leadership made the decision to keep city hall closed to the public through at least mid-February based on an average of one COVID positive test on average being reported by municipal workers who have for the most part been working from home.
Registration starts Wednesday, Feb. 3, online at https://webtrac2.ci.manteca.ca.us/wbwsc/WEBTRAC.wsc/ or by calling the Recreation & Community Services Department at (209) 456-8650.
The time for participants to appear will be done upon enrollment.
The city’s Facebook posting notes the Father-Daughter Dance, the Mother-Son Dance and the Family Glow Dance Party were not offered in 2020 due to the pandemic. The staggered dance party is designed as “a fun opportunity to help your family carry on these annual traditions . . . if you still want to get dressed up for your own parent-child date night or family fun night.”
870 COVID-19 deaths
in San Joaquin County
Twenty more people have died in the past four days to bring the San Joaquin County death count from COVID-19 to 870 as of Monday.
There were 2,628 active cases on Monday out of 767,000 county residents. Not everyone who tests positive becomes ill. There were 3,755 active cases last Thursday.
There have been 62,146 cases since mid-March 2020. Of those, 58,648 have recovered.
Countywide, ICU capacity is at 144 percent. COVID patients are in 56 percent of 80 of the ICU beds at the seven hospitals within the county.
Seventh-eight percent of all available hospital beds are being used. Of those 766 beds in use, there are 229 COVID patients reflecting 30 percent of all hospital capacity.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
