“I feel like I’m the right person in the right place at the right time to do this job,” she said, standing near the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in late July. Santa Cruz County recently recorded more cases in one week than in all of April and May combined. The county expanded the number of agencies empowered to enforce local and state health orders — but not in time to keep Santa Cruz off the governor’s watch list. This time, though, Dr. Newel didn’t announce the closures with a local health order. She defaulted to the state health department.

Source: New York Times August 10, 2020 12:28 UTC