Monterey Recreation has dubbed this week Deck the Halls Week. To coincide with the theme, staff "decked" the train at Dennis the Menace Playground with holiday ornaments and lights - another way to celebrate with family this holiday season. The playground is temporarily closed but you can still take a family photo with the train outside the fence. Stay safe and in your household unit so we can stop the surge. Find more unique holiday photo opportunities and ideas at monterey.org/holidayevents

After a challenging year, vaccines to protect against COVID-19 are on their way, providing a critical tool to end the pandemic. CHOMP just introduced a new vaccine page at chomp.org/vaccine (as part of their overall COVID-19 informational page) to answer questions about the timing of the vaccine, state/federal phased vaccination plan groups, helpful links, and a question and answer document created by CHOMP's infectious disease medical director, Dr. Martha Blum. They will continue to update the page (and the main COVID-19 site) regularly so that this remains a helpful resource for our community.

Now that there is an authorized and recommended vaccine to prevent COVID-19 in the United States, here are eight things you need to know about the new COVID-19 Vaccination Program and COVID-19 vaccines:

When to quarantine versus when to isolate? Here's an explanation by the CDC about the difference: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/quarantine.html

The latest order from the Monterey County Health Department went into effect and with it comes new restrictions on hotels, restaurants and hospitality businesses throughout the County. Sadly, with these new restrictions comes destination-wide layoffs. In order to help those affected, the Monterey County Hospitality Association has partnered with ALL-IN Monterey and Kindness Monterey to assist in their "All In Holiday Cheer 2020" program for over 200 families to ensure:

ALL-IN is completely supported by donors and volunteers. You can help keep this wonderful program going strong by making a donation today. If you or someone you know can use a little relief and cheer, please visit one of the weekly distributions at Seaside High School. See the flyer for details. All in Monterey: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1335989723407209/

It's Small Business Season! Let's help our local businesses as much as we can. The Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce put together this latest listing of restaurants with to-go and curbside pickup - https://montereyrestaurants.marketingspringboard.com/

Another alert for tomorrow, from PG&E - they have a planned momentary power outage for portions of Monterey County on Wednesday, 12/16/20 that will occur between 5:30am-6:30am to safely perform maintenance work at our Monterey substation. The work will require a momentary outage that is expected to last for 5 minutes or less in portions of Carmel Valley, Monterey, Salinas, Seaside, Sand City, Marina, Del Rey Oaks and Pacific Grove.

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