Table of Content
Mayor Eric Garcetti says LA will become the first major city in the United States to offer free COVID-19 testing for all residents, regardless of whether they have symptoms. President Donald Trump declares a major disaster in California and approves federal funds for the state to fight the coronavirus. Schools close campuses and begin the process of setting up online learning. Nobody knew how long that would last, but here we are seeing another surge with booster shots being urged at the end of 2021, and no clarity on when the pandemic will end or how. It’s the latest in a string of enforcement efforts officials have lodged against Restauration and its owner in recent weeks.
Beaches, trails, and parks also will remain open, with safety requirements. The California Labor Commissioner's Office announces that it has cited a Southern California grocery chain for failing to pay or delaying supplemental paid sick leave to 240 workers affected by COVID-19 at 38 stores, including 21 stores in Los Angeles County and one in Anaheim. All eligible students ages 12 and over in the Los Angeles Unified School District will be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend in-person classes. People attending indoor mega events in California will be required to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test before entering. California drops the tier system and sheds most of its pandemic restrictions, in a return to near pre-pandemic levels of activity across the state. Questions about the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine are raised following reports that federal health agencies have recommended an immediate pause in use of the single-dose shot after six U.S. recipients developed serious blood clots.
Jobs and Careers
“People have lost their jobs, and if restaurants and bars continue to close, they will lose them permanently,” the Independent Hospitality Coalition said in a statement Monday. The action by state officials means restaurants and gyms could soon reopen outdoor services. In a Monday afternoon news conference, Gov. Gavin Newsom said all 11 counties in the Southern California region remain in the purple tier, which is the most restrictive. Ferrer's comments came as Los Angeles County continues to see a spike in COVID-19-related cases and deaths. According to a New York Times database, Tuesday saw another 566 infections and 39 deaths.
All they did was update the order from earlier this year to mirror the county’s order from days ago. Even just improving physical distancing by one-third of our current efforts will have a dramatic effect, officials said. Officials are not contemplating new broad-based mandates to close down even more sectors of our society — local authorities across California have already said they think they've largely done all they can without shutting down essential sectors.
Family Health
See a full list of those exempt from the latest restrictions in the mayor's order. Apart from those with exemptions, "all persons living within the City of Los Angeles are hereby ordered to remain in their homes. But increasing our efforts to stay apart from one another by one-third could reduce that to just 5.5% of Los Angeles County residents being infected by Aug. 1.
In the United States, there are more than 31,174 confirmed cases of the virus. Mayor Eric Garcetti issues a "safer at home" health order stopping non-essential activities outside of residences in response to COVID-19. As the pandemic continues, we've put together a timeline to make sense of the pivotal moments in the state and Southern California region. Hannah Fry is a Metro reporter covering Orange County for the Los Angeles Times. She joined the newspaper in 2013 as a reporter for the Daily Pilot, a Times Community News publication. Fry most recently covered breaking news for The Times and was part of the team that was a 2020 Pulitzer finalist for its coverage of a boat fire that killed 34 people off the coast of Santa Barbara.
Long COVID
LOS ANGELES — The nation’s largest county was on the brink of a stay-home order just days before Thanksgiving after a spike of coronavirus cases Monday surpassed a threshold set by Los Angeles public health officials to trigger one. “Our City is now close to a devastating tipping point, beyond which the number of hospitalized patients would start to overwhelm our hospital system, in turn risking needless suffering and death. These unfortunate facts about the spread of COVID-19 in our City mean that we must resume some of the more restrictive measures we instituted in the Spring,” the order, issued by the office of LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, says. Beach piers, as well as all outdoor and indoor pools catering to members from more than one household are closed. Gyms and personal care facilities, including hair salons and barbers, remain open with modifications. Officials said there are significant activities going on now to increase the total ICU bed capacity in the county, including opening a previously closed hospital and relying on the Navy hospital ship Mercy to take non-COVID-19 patients into its intensive care facilities.
L.A. County public health officials on Saturday announced they will issue an order suspending outdoor dining at restaurants amid a surge of new coronavirus cases. Personal care services, such as hair and nail salons, can open for indoor operations at 25% capacity; tourism and individual travel is permitted at hotels and motels; and outdoor private gatherings of up to three households and a total of 15 people are now allowed. Los Angeles County health officials warned Friday that the region needs to significantly increase social distancing to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus and that stay-at-home restrictions could remain into the summer. The predictive analysis which models the impending surge provides a depiction of the best- and worst-case scenarios for Los Angeles should physical distancing efforts continue and to what degree. The model projects that if we reverted to pre-order physical distancing behavior now, by August 1, 95.6% of Los Angeles County residents will likely have been infected over the course of the pandemic. Under this worst-case scenario, Los Angeles County would face an infection rate at such magnitude that the healthcare system would not be able to treat patients who need hospitalization, underscoring the need to continue to maintain current levels of physical distancing.
The state recorded its highest day of positive test results Saturday with more than 15,000. An “impressive and alarming surge” of more than 6,000 new cases put the county over a five-day average of 4,500 cases per day, said Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer, though she declined to take action until county supervisors meet Tuesday. The novel coronavirus has infected more than 64.5 million people since it was first reported in Wuhan, China. Colleges and universities "may continue to offer in-person training and instruction for essential workforce for required activities that cannot be accomplished through virtual learning. Places of worship are allowed to remain open "provided that the gathering of congregants is held outdoors and after implementing the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Places of Worship Protocol," the order noted. "We’re not talking about some dramatic new set of measures and opportunities to even further close down wholesale parts of our lives," Ferrer added.
The Southern California region consists of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, Imperial, Inyo, Mono, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. The 11 counties in the Southern California region are Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Mono, Imperial and Inyo. The Board of Supervisors also issued their own statement in response to Ferrer's comments. "I do think recovery will be months long, based on the tools that we have at hand today," Ferrer said. Stay-at-home orders will likely remain in place for Los Angeles County residents for most of the summer. In addition to Dr. Lewis, the modeling team also included Juliana Tolles, MD, MHS (Emergency Physician, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center), M. Claire Jarashow, PhD, MPH , Fei Wu, PhD , and Frederic Schoenberg, PhD .
Restaurants have been restricted to takeout and delivery service only and hotels are allowed to open "for critical infrastructure support only." Most broadly, the order bars gatherings of people from different households. Los Angeles County's dramatic rise in COVID-19 infections continues, with more than 3,200 new cases reported, along with seven more deaths and 60 new instances of the rapidly spreading Omicron variant.
California is expected to be hitting the peak of the pandemic right now, well under the expected numbers. This is obviously good, for it means the measures in place were able to keep people at home and protected. It might be frustrating for the government to keep moving the finish line and pushing the end of this quarantine. However, we need to understand that these measures have been in place with our best interests in mind. Officials are concerned that hospitals could see a shortage of beds — especially in intensive care units — over the next two to four weeks if these trends continue.
"We see promising signs that California is slowly emerging from the most intense stage of this pandemic," said Brian Ferguson, deputy direct for crisis communication. "We continue to look at what that means for the regional stay-at-home order and anticipate that the state Department of Public Health will provide a formal update tomorrow morning." LOS ANGELES -- Gov. Gavin Newsom announced California's regional stay-at-home order has been lifted because of a marked improvement in the state's battle against the coronavirus. While Ferrer estimated August as a likely deadline, no official date has been set by county officials. Just on Monday, the county's Department of Beaches and Harbors tweeted that beaches would be reopening on Wednesday, though with major restrictions.
The announcement comes as the Trump administration makes reopening the U.S. economy a top priority while some regions -- like New York City -- are still battling with the pandemic. He said he will convene an "Opening our Country" task force April 14, which will be comprised of doctors and business leaders. In the past there have been some minor differences but currently they are the same,” said Alex Comisar, a spokesman for Mayor Eric Garcetti. Restaurants in LA have said there’s a lack of evidence that serving food outdoors is contributing to the spike.
"My message couldn't be simpler. It's time to hunker down. It's time to cancel everything. And if it's not essential, don't do it. Don't meet up with others outside your household. Don't host a gathering. Don't attend a gathering," the mayor said in a video message Wednesday. Citing the rising threat of “a devastating tipping point” in the spread of COVID-19, the city of Los Angeles on Wednesday announced a new stay-at-home order, effective immediately. However, the announcement caused considerable confusion when its tone didn’t quite match the sweeping number of exceptions, and within hours of announcing the order the city confirmed that nothing much had changed. "It is absolutely the single most important weapon that we have in our arsenal to fight the virus." Staying at the current levels of physical distancing would still result in 29.8% of residents being infected by Aug. 1.
Businesses are allowed to remain open but with limited capacity, and the same is true of nail salons and other personal care services. It featured eating at a restaurant for the first time since the pandemic began. The experience included physical barriers, which are being used to create new outdoor dining areas on city streets, sidewalks, and private parking lots. It’s all part of the Al Fresco Glendale program, designed to help struggling restaurants increase their seating capacity. "We are being guided by science and data that will safely move us forward along the road to recovery in a measured way — one that allows us to ensure that effective distancing and infection control measures are in place," she later said in a statement, The Signal reported.
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