Newsom Won’t Set Date To Re-Open Amid Growing Calls To Ease Restrictions: California reported more than 100 new deaths linked to COVID-19 on Wednesday, including 66 in Los Angeles County, which has seen a surge in fatalities in recent weeks. Though hospitals are not being overwhelmed, they continue to see a steady flow of patients. “I wish I could prescribe a specific date to say, well, we can turn up the light switch and go back to normalcy,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday. “We have tried to make it crystal clear that there is no light switch. And there is no date in terms of our capacity to provide the kind of clarity that I know so many of you demand and deserve.” Despite the rising death toll, Los Angeles County health officials offered slightly rosier projections Wednesday about the trajectory of the virus while cautioning that the improved outlook was dependent on residents continuing to practice physical distancing. Read more from Phil Willon, Melanie Mason, Marisa Gerber and Luke Money of the Los Angeles Times.
Shortages Of Nasal Swabs Hampering California’s Desire To Ramp Up Testing: Fresh off a phone call with President Donald Trump, Gov. Gavin Newsom said that the Trump administration would be sending hundreds of thousands of nasopharyngeal swabs to California in the coming weeks — providing enough to alleviate a statewide shortage of a primitive but essential coronavirus testing tool. “We will receive just this week a minimum of 100,000 swabs. That’s the ability to collect 100,000 specimen samples,” Newsom said, adding that the feds have promised to ship a quarter-million next week and more than that in the weeks to come. “That will go a long way to give us all more confidence that we can meet some of these testing goals.” The governor and public health experts have identified a lack of testing as one of the chief impediments to relaxing society-wide shelter-in-place orders and “reopening” the economy. Read more from Ben Christopher of CalMatters.
Newsom Orders Autopsies For Deaths All The Way Back To December: California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) ordered medical examiners and coroners across the state to review autopsies dating back to December to “help guide a deeper understanding of when this pandemic really started to impact Californians.” Newsom's announcement came after officials in Santa Clara County said late Tuesday that first American deaths from coronavirus occurred weeks earlier than initially thought. Read more from J. Edward Moreno of The Hill.
In related news from the Los Angeles Times: The Silent, Deadly Spread Of Coronavirus In California Began Far Earlier Than First Reported
Below, check out the full round-up of California Healthline original stories, state coverage and the best of the rest of the national news for the day.
More News From Across The State
Sacramento Bee:
Here’s Where California Stands On When It Can Reopen
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has laid out six criteria for what the state will consider when it comes to reopening from the coronavirus emergency. On Wednesday, he went into greater detail on one of those: the ability to test, track and trace, isolate and quarantine as necessary during the COVID 19 emergency. (Sheeler, 4/22)
San Francisco Chronicle:
To Reopen, California Must Test At Least 60,000 People Daily For Coronavirus — Up From 16,000
California will have to test 60,000 to 80,000 people for the coronavirus each day to reopen the state, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday as he outlined new testing goals that are triple the number he had previously talked about, and far more than those currently performed. As recently as last week, Newsom said 25,000 daily tests would have to be conducted across the state by this week. Currently, just about 16,000 tests are done each day. (Ho, 4/22)
Fresno Bee:
Fresno To Get Calilfornia’s Help To Increase COVID-19 Testing
Fresno has been selected as one of the locations for new state COVID-19 test sites. California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday new contracts with companies Verily and OptumServe to open 86 new testing sites in “testing deserts” in rural, African American and Latino communities. (Calix, 4/22)
Sacramento Bee:
CA State Workers Could Be Recruited For Coronavirus Tracking
California state workers could get trained for an emerging workforce of 10,000 coronavirus trackers that Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday will be needed as the state reopens its economy and lifts the stay-at-home order. Newsom last week outlined a six-point framework his administration will use to determine when California can begin easing restrictions implemented to slow the spread of COVID-19, which has infected more than 33,000 in the Golden State. A key part of that plan is building a workforce that can “test and trace” coronavirus cases, isolate these individuals and contact anyone they may have potentially infected. (Wiley, 4/22)
Sacramento Bee:
Surgeries Can Resume In CA Despite Coronavirus, Newsom Says
California isn’t ready to reopen its economy, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday, but hospitals can take the first step in loosening coronavirus restrictions and begin scheduling surgeries. Purely cosmetic surgeries are still prohibited, Newsom said, but essential non-emergency surgeries like heart valve operations and pre-cancerous tumor removals can resume. (Bollag, 4/22)
San Francisco Chronicle:
California Records Its Deadliest Day So Far With 118 Deaths From Coronavirus
California recorded its highest number of deaths in a day since the coronavirus pandemic began, according to data collected by The Chronicle. A record 118 people were reported to have died from the virus in California on Wednesday, according to data from each of the state’s 58 counties. (Hernandez, 4/22)
Los Angeles Times:
Coronavirus Deaths Push Nursing Homes To Ask Newsom For Help
For weeks, nursing homes have been the epicenter of coronavirus outbreaks and deaths in California, making them prime targets for civil lawsuits and even criminal prosecutions. But the nursing home industry has some leverage to fend off legal action: California needs these nursing homes to relieve pressure on hospitals statewide. (Dolan, Ryan and Chabria, 4/23)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Four Die At San Francisco Nursing Home Battling A Large Outbreak
Four people have died at Central Gardens Convalescent Hospital, a Western Addition senior nursing facility hit with one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in San Francisco. All four were over the age of 80, said Supervisor Dean Preston, who represents the district with Central Gardens. Preston said the city’s health department confirmed the news to his office. (Ravani, 4/22)
CalMatters:
‘What Is The State Hiding?’ ACLU Pushes For More Details On Coronavirus Cases, Testing
Traditionally marginalized groups have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Advocates want more demographic data to see who has been tested and who has died. (Tobias, 4/22)
San Francisco Chronicle:
New Use For Moscone Center — Behind The Scenes At SF’s Coronavirus Emergency Operations Center
If the coronavirus hadn’t turned life upside down, Moscone Center would have been bustling last weekend with the American Educational Research Association’s annual meeting. There would have been 15,000 people trading handshakes, huddling in alcoves, mingling with old friends. Instead, a broad hallway looking out toward downtown San Francisco is empty except for two people, both wearing masks. As a man approaches the other person, he calls out “Excuse me” — from well over 6 feet away. (King and Thadani, 4/23)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Early Santa Clara County Coronavirus Cases Likely Connected To China, Microbiologist Says
A top Bay Area microbiologist said Wednesday that the discovery of COVID-19 in a Santa Clara County woman who died three weeks before the nation’s first recorded fatality appears to be part of a cluster imported from China that he has been tracking. The infection, found in an autopsy of the 57-year-old woman who died at home on Feb. 6, prompted state officials to direct medical examiners and coroners across California to review autopsies dating back to December, amid speculation that the disease might have been spreading months before anybody knew. (Frimrite and Allday, 4/22)
San Francisco Chronicle:
New Guidelines For Hospitals To Make Agonizing Choices In Coronavirus Surge
In a worst-case scenario where California COVID-19 cases surge, hospitals will judge who gets a ventilator depending on a patient’s chances of survival, life expectancy and age, according to new state guidelines. The California Department of Public Health released 38 pages of guidance earlier this month to help doctors make agonizing ethical decisions if the coronavirus overwhelms the state’s health care system. In New York City, where more than 500 people have died of the disease in a single day, a shortage of ventilators forced doctors to choose which patients to place on the breathing machines. (Moench, 4/22)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Latest Weapon In Tracing And Tracking Coronavirus Infections: Your Smartphone
Your phone soon might know if you have spent time near someone with the COVID-19 virus. That’s the premise behind new apps that developers worldwide are racing to write to aid in contact tracing — finding and alerting people who’ve been exposed to the coronavirus so they can break the chain of transmission, such as by getting tested and quarantining themselves. (Said, 4/23)
CalMatters:
How Coronavirus Could Test California’s Commitment To Privacy
You’re racking your brain. It’s a few months from now and though the state has eased up on its shelter-in-place order, social distancing is still the norm. And you’ve been so careful. No parties, no travel, constant hand-washing. And yet, your phone pings with the following notification: “You have been possibly exposed to someone who you have recently been in contact with, and who has subsequently self-reported as having the virus.” (Christoper, 4/22)
Los Angeles Times:
Homeless People Fleeing Coronavirus Meet A NIMBY Resistance
When officials in the South Bay city of Lawndale learned that a hotel on its main drag had been leased to Los Angeles County to house homeless people at high risk for the coronavirus, their reaction wasn’t to put out a welcome mat. Rather, in an April 14 letter to the hotel’s owner, the city attorney said that if he did not break the lease by the next day, a hearing would be called to consider revoking the hotel’s operating permit. (Smith, Dillon and Oreskes, 4/23)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Alameda County Moves Hundreds Of Homeless To Hotels Amid Fear Of Coronavirus Outbreak
After 96 people tested positive for the coronavirus at San Francisco’s largest shelter this month, alarmed Alameda County officials hurried to empty out shelters and move people into hotel rooms to prevent a similar outbreak. Since the San Francisco outbreak on April 10, Alameda County transferred at least 346 homeless people from shelters into two Oakland hotels. (Ravani, 4/22)
San Francisco Chronicle:
UCSF Sends Doctor And Nurses To Largest Native American Reservation, Hard-Hit By Coronavirus
UCSF sent 21 health care workers - seven doctors and 14 nurses - Wednesday to treat patients in the Navajo Nation hard-hit by the coronavirus. UCSF-trained doctors working on the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. asked San Francisco colleagues for help as the outbreak strains the health care system. (Moench, 4/22)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Napa County Relaxes Some Coronavirus Social Distancing Restrictions, Recommends Masks
Napa County officials issued an updated shelter-at-home order Wednesday that recommends facial coverings in public while also loosening some restrictions on what activities are allowed. The updated order permits construction work, drive-in religious services and in-person residential real-estate viewings if physical distancing protocols are followed. It also permits landscaping and gardening for non-cosmetic purposes and use of golf courses under a series of guidelines. (Kawahara, 4/22)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Unemployment Claims Continue To Surge, But Job Losses May Have Peaked
Another 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment last week, continuing a spike in joblessness coinciding with what some economists are calling the worst global recession since the Great Depression. “It’s really mind-boggling for economists to see numbers of this magnitude,” said Scott Anderson, Bank of the West’s chief economist. (DiFeliciantonio, 4/23)
CalMatters:
Private Colleges Brace For Downturn Amid Pandemic Fallout
It costs a lot to keep a university running, and students aren’t sure if they want to pay full tuition for classes taught remotely. That combination could prove the undoing of some private colleges. (Mello, 4/22)
The Associated Press:
Harvard Rejects Federal Coronavirus Relief But USC Accepts
Harvard University said Wednesday that it will turn down $8.7 million in federal coronavirus relief, a day after President Trump excoriated the wealthy Ivy League school over the taxpayer money it stood to receive. ... USC said that its $5.7-billion endowment is “substantially smaller than that of our peers” and noted that 1 in 5 of its undergraduates receive federal Pell grants for low-income students. (4/23)
Fresno Bee:
Language Access Could Prevent COVID-19 Spread, Advocates Say
Government agencies and interpreters have rushed to make sure information about COVID-19 is available in various languages — but some hospital patients are falling through the cracks, according to at least one Fresno-area advocacy group. Naindeep Singh, the executive director of the Jakara Movement, says he’s heard several accounts in which medical providers rely too heavily on bilingual staff rather than provide interpretation and translation services. Just like with other health issues, language access and literacy could affect health outcomes related to COVID-19, research shows. (Calix, 4/22)
Fresno Bee:
Coronavirus Update: Clovis CA Schools May Reopen In Mid-May
Clovis Unified’s 43,000 students may return to campus in May, the school board voted late Wednesday. Board President Chris Casado said trustees were not ready “to throw in the towel” or “write off the whole school year as some districts have done.” (Dieppa, 4/22)
Sacramento Bee:
CA Tourist Areas Anxious For Shutdown To End As Summer Nears
Adrian Ballinger has this vision of how Tahoe Via Ferrata, a rock-climbing venue he operates at Squaw Valley ski resort, will open for summer: Customers will have their temperatures taken, to check for COVID-19, when they arrive. They’ll have to sit six feet apart in the open-air monster truck that transports them to the base of the mountain. They’ll be given masks and disposable gloves, and will scale the rock face in carefully controlled small groups. (Kasler, Sabalow and Stanton, 4/23)
Sacramento Bee:
California Building COVID-19 Hospitals In Gyms, High Schools
Gov. Gavin Newsom and local governments around California are turning to some unlikely places to build more hospital beds just in case a new wave of coronavirus patients overwhelms the state’s medical capacity. On the Central Coast, San Luis Obispo County spent over $3.5 million refashioning a gymnasium at Cal Poly so it can accommodate more than 900 patients. It used emergency powers to speed the project with no-bid contracts, according to records obtained by McClatchy. (Vaughan, Pohl and Ashton, 4/23)