This petition requests immediate action from our state government to help relieve the tremendous stress on the health and education system. The request below can also help improve the mental and physical well-being of our citizens, including children, parents, teachers, frontline workers, and seniors.

Background:

The past week has seen a tremendous surge in the number of COVID cases around the country including in our State of California. The CDC attributes the surge in cases due to the Omicron variant and its potential to be easily transmitted than previous variants of the COVID virus. Further, the resources available for testing are seriously lacking nationwide and more acutely in our state which happens to be one of the most populous states in the country. Before going into further details on the petition we would like to offer our sincere thanks and appreciation to everyone in the frontline including the health care workers, personnel including staff and teachers at our school districts and local county and elected officials for the tremendous work in working through a tough couple of years due to COVID.

Our Request:

We request our elected representatives and our Governor to look at this issue of the Omicron COVID-19 surge from the lens of citizens and parents who are running pillar to post. We are strained for capacity and stressed out while trying to get our kids tested every time we get a notification from school about a close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID. Even if we get access to a test site, it takes hours to get tested. Meanwhile, for those of us who are working parents, our quality of work suffers as well as our productivity which further impacts our employers and in some cases the economy. The situation is no different (for lack of easy access to testing) for any of our citizens who may be young, middle aged or senior citizens with limited mobility. Further, this is a very stressful time for our school staff and teachers  due to the increase in work and possible exposure while at school.

This petition on behalf of all citizens including seniors, individuals, parents and students is a request to the elected representatives of our government including leaders such as our governor, secretary of education, secretary of health, state senators and elected officials at County and City levels to consider the following:

1.  Open more testing sites so that it is easier to get tested for COVID 19 and reduce the burden on testing sites which are operating at more than full capacity and unable to offer test availability within 24 hours

2. Allow our public school districts and private schools, the ability to offer classes online so as to reduce in-person contact to the extent possible at least on a temporary basis until the current surge in cases subside.

3.  Provide for additional funding to school districts from existing budget surplus so that school districts can afford to buy more testing supplies and accommodate for additional staffing required to take care of online classes and requirements related to temporary staffing.  Provide adequate resources to help schools take care of and support mental well-being of our students, teachers and staff.

4.  Set up mobile test sites which can go from neighborhood to neighborhood, allowing for people with limited mobility to get easy access to testing resources

As citizens, we believe that the above steps, if taken immediately, can help alleviate the stress that we are under.  We appreciate your immediate review of our petition and action in this regard.

God Bless our wonderful nation and our wonderful state. Thank you everyone for your support.