Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
‘Terrible Role-Modeling’: California Lawmakers Flout Pandemic Etiquette
As California workers and schoolchildren struggled to work from home, state lawmakers met in person. And as their legislative session came to a close in late August, they broke COVID rules: They huddled, let their masks slip below their noses, removed their masks to drink coffee — and required a new mom to vote in person while toting her hungry newborn. (Samantha Young and Rachel Bluth, )
Residents Choking On ‘Unbreathable Air’: The unprecedented wreckage left by seemingly endless fires up and down the Golden State is creating horrific air quality, according to residents, forcing them to find options to release stress and exercise. Officials from the South Coast Air Quality Management District have warned that smoke and ash will continue to saturate large swaths of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
See more wildfire coverage below.
COVID May Have Been Spreading In LA In December: UCLA researchers and colleagues have found that there was a significant increase in patients with coughs and acute respiratory failure at UCLA Health hospitals and clinics beginning in late December, suggesting that COVID-19 may have been circulating in the area months before the first definitive cases in the US were identified, it was announced Thursday. Read more from the LA Daily News and The Washington Post.
Below, check out the roundup of California Healthline’s coverage and the best of the rest of the news.
More News From Across The State
CNN:
At Least 15 People Have Been Killed In California, Oregon And Washington Wildfires
Authorities found seven bodies in Northern California on Thursday as firefighters battled multiple ravaging wildfires, raising the total number of victims in the state to 10. At least five others have been killed in Washington state and Oregon this week amid a series of out of control wildfires. (Chavez, Maxouris and Andone, 9/11)
The New York Times:
10 Dead In California As Wildfires Spread On West Coast
As California continued to burn, with more than three million acres scorched, a record in modern history, fire crews were being rushed in from Utah, Colorado and Texas. The August Complex Fire, sparked by a storm of lightning strikes last month, on Thursday became the largest fire in California history, having burned nearly 740 square miles. (9/10)
Bay Area News Group:
3 Northern California Wildfires Merge; August Complex Now Largest In California History
The Elkhorn Fire merged Wednesday with the Hopkins and Willow Basin fires and stood at 255,309 acres and 27 percent containment as of late Wednesday night. The merged fire, now called Elkhorn, is burning on the Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers National Forests and western Tehama County, with containment on the eastern edge as of Thursday morning. (9/11)
Bay Area News Group:
Bay Area Smoke: To Breathe Safely, Stay Inside And Don’t Count On Masks
Smoke from wildfires burning throughout California and Oregon is expected to linger in the Bay Area through the end of the week, leading to unhealthy air in certain parts of the region that can be especially harmful to people with underlying health conditions. Unfortunately, Bay Area residents will probably have to cope with varying degrees of unhealthy air as the 2020 fire season continues through November. That means that residents should prepare to stay indoors as much as possible on smoky days, keep their windows closed, consider investing in ozone-free air purifiers and even arrange to leave the area until the bad air clears. (Ross, 9/10)
LA Daily News:
Some El Dorado Fire Evacuations Lifted, Allowing Some Residents To Return Home
The El Dorado fire burning through thousands of acres in the San Bernardino Mountains has destroyed four homes and damaged two others, officials said Thursday, Sept. 10. Among smaller outbuildings, like garages and sheds, another six were destroyed and four damaged, said Cathey Mattingly, a Cal Fire spokeswoman. By Thursday afternoon, some residents in Yucaipa and Oak Glen were allowed to return home after officials lifted evacuations. All Riverside County residents previously ordered to leave were also allowed to return. (Cain, 9/10)
LA Daily News:
Smoke Advisory Issued As Layers Of Ash Darken Skies Across Southern California
Air quality plummeted in communities surrounding two wildfires burning Thursday in Southern California as sunlight that filtered through layers of smoke and ash cast a sepia-toned haze and the smell of wood smoke lingered throughout the region. A smoke advisory went into effect at 11 a.m., and will remain active through Friday in areas near the Bobcat fire north of Azusa and the El Dorado fire burning in near Yucaipa, South Coast Air Quality Management District officials said in a bulletin. Readings taken in the San Gabriel Valley, the Santa Monica Mountains and the Inland Empire recorded “unhealthy” levels of fine particulate matter in the air. (Licas, 9/10)
LA Daily News:
L.A. County Closes 6 Coronavirus Test Sites Due To Unhealthy Air Quality
Due to safety concerns from the unhealthy air quality throughout the region, Los Angeles County is closing six of its COVID-19 testing sites Friday, Sept. 11. (9/10)
Los Angeles Times:
California Coronavirus Death Toll Tops 14,000, But Cases Fall
California officials on Thursday reported that more than 14,000 residents have died of COVID-19, but that new coronavirus cases continued to ebb statewide. The cumulative death toll rose to 14,021, up by 31 from Wednesday, but overall the state has seen deaths flatten out and new reported cases trend downward. The seven-day average of new cases on Wednesday stood at 3,742, according to data compiled by The Times — the first time new cases dropped below 4,000 since June 21. (Dolan, 9/10)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Kern Public Health Announces 10 New COVID-19 Deaths, 69 New Cases On Thursday
The Kern County Public Health Services Department reported 10 new deaths and 69 new cases of coronavirus Thursday. Total confirmed cases in Kern now stands at 30,450. There have been 307 confirmed coronavirus-related deaths since the first COVID-19 case was announced in Kern on March 13. The state reports that 94 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 in Kern, 25 of which are in intensive care units. (9/10)
Bay Area News Group:
Coronavirus: S.F. Outlines New Reopening Plans To Begin Next Week
City officials have announced a new round of business and educational reopening set to begin next week and continue through the fall, according to an announcement Thursday. This latest round, due to begin Monday, allows gyms and fitness centers, massage services, hair and nail salons and barber shops to serve a limited number of customers indoors, so long as all involved wear face coverings. The closures were ordered as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year. (Kelly, 9/10)
LA Daily News:
Contact Tracing Still Sluggish In Los Angeles County Coronavirus Battle, Officials Say
Contact tracers hired by the county of Los Angeles to interview people who tested positive for the new coronavirus and any others who might have been exposed continue to face challenges, according to the latest data presented by Health Officer Dr. Muntu Davis on Thursday, Sept. 10. In the last two weeks of August, roughly 60% of the 17,379 people who reported testing positive responded to interviews. Out of the 10,429 who were interviewed, roughly 56% reported having contact with at least one other person within the period they were infectious. (Rosenfeld, 9/10)
LA Daily News:
Strange Odor In Long Beach And Orange County From Chemical Spill In LA
Residents from Long Beach to Orange County noticed a strange odor in the air on Thursday, Sept. 10 – the result of a chemical spill near Compton, officials said. Workers cleaning by an oil well in the 200 block of Alsina Street in Los Angeles knocked over a tank of liquid mercaptan, a non-toxic chemical used to add a detectable smell to natural gas and other hazardous materials, at about 11:15 a.m., Los Angles County Fire Department officials said. (Licas and Rasmussen, 9/10)
Los Angeles Times:
Low-Income Seniors Lose Food Deliveries As Coronavirus Peaks
Tens of thousands of low-income California seniors stopped receiving home deliveries of free food just as COVID-19 cases and deaths in the state were peaking, thanks to a century-old federal policy to include surplus cheese in government aid packages. As the coronavirus began to spread in March and Gov. Gavin Newsom called on millions of seniors to self-isolate, these needy Californians initially were able to have a box of dried food delivered to their homes each month at no cost because federal regulators granted a state request to temporarily waive certain rules governing the Commodity Supplemental Food Program. (Wire, 9/10)
LA Daily News:
Judge Grants Injunction Prohibiting Sun Valley Church From Holding Indoor Services
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Thursday, Sept. 10, granted the county’s request for an injunction prohibiting Grace Community Church in Sun Valley from holding indoor services in a ruling that emphasized the importance of following health orders to prevent the community spread of the coronavirus. (Bharath 9/10)
Los Angeles Times:
State Issues Largest COVID-19 Safety Fine To Vernon Company
California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health has issued its largest fine for coronavirus health violations to a frozen food manufacturer in Vernon, as well as the company’s temporary employment agency for failing to take adequate steps to protect hundreds of workers from the virus. Cal/OSHA announced proposed penalties of $222,075 for Overhill Farms and $214,080 for Jobsource North America, which the companies can appeal. In a statement Wednesday, the agency said that both companies had failed to install barriers, ensure that workers practiced physical distancing and train employees on the dangers of the virus. (Miller, 9/10)
Fresno Bee:
Why California Caregivers Finally Could Get Unemployment After Deaths Of Children, Spouses
Some 120,000 California caregivers tending for their spouse or children could be eligible to receive the state’s unemployment insurance when their dependents die, under a bill on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. Assembly Bill 1993, which got a near-unanimous approval from both chambers of the Legislature in the last week of August, would accomplish an expansion of the safety net that unions representing home care workers have pushed for years. (Park, 9/11)
LA Daily News:
Disneyland Cancels Candlelight Ceremony As Coronavirus Threatens Christmas Events
Disneyland has been forced to cancel the annual Candlelight Ceremony that fills the Anaheim theme park each December with seasonal songs as the coronavirus pandemic that has already spoiled summer and wrecked Halloween is now taking aim at Christmas. The Candlelight Ceremony and Processional will not take place this year at Disneyland, according to Disney officials. (Macdonald, 9/10)
Fresno Bee:
Fresno State, CSU Online For Spring 2021 Due To COVID-19
Fresno State students will get at least one more semester of working primarily online after California State University Chancellor Tim White announced Thursday that the 23-campus system would not go back to in-person classes in spring 2021. (Panoo, 9/10)
Los Angeles Times:
L.A. County Schools Won't Fully Reopen Until November
No campus in Los Angeles County will be allowed to reopen to all K-12 students until at least November, although schools can begin to offer small in-person classes for children with special needs at no more than 10% of capacity at one time, county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Thursday. The news will be a blow to students, parents and educators who have been hoping that progress against the coronavirus might allow for campuses to reopen on a faster tract. However, the small in-person classes for children who need special services, announced last week, could allow at least 200,000 students back to campus across the county. (Blume, 9/10)
San Francisco Chronicle:
How Bay Area Schools Plan To Conduct Coronavirus Testing For Students And Staff
Starting Thursday, about 300 students and staff at Synapse School, a private elementary and middle school in Menlo Park, will start the new school year with a new routine. Everyone will get tested once a week for the coronavirus. In a tent in the school parking lot, each student and staff member will get their nostrils swabbed. They will get results back by the weekend, and they must test negative to come to school the following Monday for in-person instruction, slated to begin Sept 14. (Ho, 9/10)
The New York Times:
A Climate Reckoning In Wildfire-Stricken California
Multiple mega fires burning more than three million acres. Millions of residents smothered in toxic air. Rolling blackouts and triple-digit heat waves. Climate change, in the words of one scientist, is smacking California in the face. The crisis in the nation’s most populous state is more than just an accumulation of individual catastrophes. It is also an example of something climate experts have long worried about, but which few expected to see so soon: a cascade effect, in which a series of disasters overlap, triggering or amplifying each other. (Thomas Fuller and Christopher Flavelle, 9/10)
Los Angeles Times:
Stop Setting California On Fire To Announce Your Kid’s Genitals
Gender reveal parties, the pointless trend in which expectant parents think up increasingly bizarre ways to communicate to their friends and family whether their baby will have a penis or a vagina, would be harmful even if one wasn’t responsible for the 10,000-acre El Dorado fire currently burning in San Bernardino. For one thing, they conflate biological sex with gender identity. A fuzzy ultrasound image of a penis doesn’t necessarily mean your kid will identify as a boy — much less one who likes blue more than pink and trucks more than tiaras. About 1.4 million adults in America are transgender. That’s small as a percentage, but it’s more people than the population of 10 U.S. states. (When was the last time you heard someone argue that citizens of Rhode Island don’t actually exist?) (Mariah Kreutter, 9/8)
Los Angeles Times:
Don't Be Fooled By McConnell's Farcical Coronavirus Maneuver
After doing virtually nothing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic for more than four months, Senate Republicans finally came up with a proposal this week that more than 50 of them could agree on: a “skinny” plan to provide $300 billion in new federal dollars, plus $350 billion left over from a previous bill, to boost unemployment benefits, aid small businesses and support schools, among other things. Then a Democratic filibuster prevented the bill from coming up for a vote, prompting Republicans to complain that Democrats don’t care about people who are suffering. “Every Senate Democrat just voted against hundreds of billions of dollars of COVID-19 relief,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) tweeted. “Their goal is clear: No help for American families before the election.” (9/10)
Los Angeles Times:
Trump Lied And Americans Died
So now we have irrefutable proof that President Trump lied to the American people virtually from the start about the threat of the coronavirus. Sadly, this is no great surprise. Trump lies so much, and with such astonishing abandon, that it’s safe to doubt the veracity of anything that comes out of his mouth. (9/10)
Los Angeles Times:
Forget Shooting Someone On Fifth Avenue. 190,000 Americans Are Dead Because Trump Wanted To ‘Play Down’ Coronavirus
Trump knew. He knew, and he lied. New audio reveals that Trump knew back in March that the new coronavirus was airborne, contagious and significantly “more deadly” than the flu. But he publicly told Americans that the virus was no big deal and “going to disappear.” He wasn’t just unprepared to deal with a crisis. He wasn’t just incompetent. He wasn’t even ill-informed. He knew how bad it was, and he did everything he could to downplay the situation. (Mariah Kreutter, 9/9)
Fresno Bee:
Flying Into Raging Creek Fire To Save Others? These Brave Teams Deserve Our Gratitude
The devastation wrought by the Creek Fire will become fully known in coming days and weeks, but already there is loss of homes in the community of Big Creek and the obliteration of a beloved Sierra icon, Cressman’s General Store below Shaver Lake. Yet there have been incredible moments of bravery for which we can all be thankful. Among them are the rescue flights by military helicopters. (9/8)
Fresno Bee:
Fresno DA Was Right Not To Charge Restaurants Over COVID-19
When Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp decided not to bring criminal charges against four local restaurants for violating state COVID-19 rules, it was not necessarily an applause-worthy decision, but an understandable and right one. Meaning this: Smittcamp could not, under the requirements of criminal law, prove that the restaurants were criminally liable. (9/11)