Latest California Healthline Stories
Daily Edition for Monday, May 11, 2020
Newsom Administration Threatens To Block Aid For Rural Counties Disobeying Stay-At-Home Orders: Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, sent nearly identical letters dated May 7 to Yuba, Sutter and Modoc counties, where local officials lifted restrictions and allowed gyms, restaurants, shopping malls, hair salons and other businesses to open their doors again, ahead of the state’s plans. Ghilarducci said disaster funding is predicated on jurisdictions needing help in extraordinary circumstances, and if the counties believe there’s no emergency and choose to defy the governor’s order, then they won’t be able to prove they need such funds. In a joint statement, the counties said they are “working to do what is best for the overall health of our communities and coordinating with governor’s representatives on achieving balance with his order,” and look forward to discussing their Stage 2 application. Read more from Taryn Luna of the Los Angeles Times.
Daily Edition for Friday, May 8, 2020
California Projected A $6 Billion Budget Surplus In January. Now, Its Deficit Forecast Tops A Daunting $54 Billion: The updated projection, released Thursday by the state Department of Finance, is the latest sign of how badly California’s economy has been battered since the pandemic took hold less than three months ago. Gov. Gavin Newsom said a multibillion-dollar budget reserve would be of some help, but he also pleaded for Washington to come to the state’s rescue with bailout money. “This is not a cry by any stretch. We are proud of this state and our capacity to meet the moment and to be resilient,” Newsom said at a news conference. “But this is bigger than all of us, and we really need the federal government to do more and to help us through this moment.”
Daily Edition for Thursday, May 7, 2020
California Is Spending Billions In Mask Contracts, Some With Untested Firms: In a frantic effort to secure face masks and respond to the coronavirus crisis, California has committed to spend more than $3.7 billion on no-bid contracts, scores of them with businesses that have no track record with the state. A Los Angeles Times data analysis found that nearly a third of those funds — about $1.2 billion — has been earmarked for suppliers of goods and services that do not appear in the state’s database of contracts prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. There have already been examples of questionable deals and alleged fraud across the country. The Times reported last month that California officials are paying more than 300% above list prices for masks. And a powerful California union that claimed to have discovered 39 million masks for healthcare workers fighting the novel coronavirus was duped in an elaborate scam uncovered by FBI investigators, authorities alleged. Read more from Gutierrez, Elmahrek, Poston and Christensen of the Los Angeles Times.
Daily Edition for Wednesday, May 6, 2020
California Records First Week-Over-Week Decline In Deaths, But What Will Happen If State Reopens?: California is seeing signs that the increase in coronavirus deaths and hospitalizations is slowing, but there remains wide debate about whether the progress is enough to dramatically ease Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home order. The state has recorded its first week-over-week decline in reported COVID-19 deaths, according to a Los Angeles Times data analysis. Even hard-hit parts of the state have seen some relief. Los Angeles County, home to 55% of California’s COVID-19 deaths despite having only one-quarter of the state’s population, saw its reported weekly death toll flatten for the first time: 315 deaths in each of the past two weeks. Read more from Rong-Gong Lin II, Taryn Luna and Hannah Fry of the Los Angeles Times.
Daily Edition for Tuesday, May 5, 2020
California To Take Tentative Steps Toward Reopening By End Of The Week: Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that some retail stores across the state can reopen with modifications as early as Friday amid growing pressure to ease the stay-at-home order that has cratered the California economy. The new changes are part of a four-stage plan the governor laid out last week to gradually transition back to normal in a state of nearly 40 million people whose lives have been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are entering into the next phase this week,” Newsom said at his Monday news conference to provide an update on the state’s response. “This is a very positive sign and it’s happened only for one reason: The data says it can happen.” Read more from Taryn Luna and Phil Willon of the Los Angeles Times and Michelle Wiley of KQED.
Daily Edition for Monday, May 4, 2020
Lawmakers Return To Sacramento To Face Daunting Budget Deficit, Deal With Coronavirus Legislation: Lawmakers must handle bills ranging from compensation for sick essential workers to planning for a November election that’s likely to be done mostly by mail. They also must work with Gov. Gavin Newsom to address a shortfall that could total $35 billion. And they don’t have much time to get it all done. They must pass a balanced budget by June 15 or go without pay, and will have only a couple of months after that to consider other bills before the legislative session is scheduled to end. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said he is resisting calls to focus only on coronavirus response. The Assembly returns Monday, while the Senate has extended its recess one more week. Read more from Dustin Gardiner and Alexei Koseff of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Daily Edition for Friday, May 1, 2020
Beaches Too Much Of A Temptation, Newsom Decides With Closures In Orange County Areas: State officials pushed to close all beaches and state parks in California to try to prevent overcrowding they feared could spread the coronavirus, but Gov. Gavin Newsom decided Thursday only to temporarily close beaches in Orange County, an administration official said. Newsom said at a news conference he was ordering a “hard close” in Orange County after beaches in Newport Beach and Huntington Beach drew tens of thousands of visitors during a heat wave last weekend. He said he was particularly concerned about the beach activity because Orange County has more coronavirus cases and hospitalizations than many other areas. “People that are congregating there that weren’t practicing physical distancing… may go back to their community outside of Orange County, and may not even know that they’ve contracted the disease,” Newsom said. “Now they put other people at risk, put our hospital system at risk.” Read more from Alexei Koseff and Megan Cassidy of the San Francisco Chronicle; Laurel Rosenhall of CalMatters; and Sophia Bollag of the Sacramento Bee.
Daily Edition for Thursday, April 30, 2020
Newsom Hints At Beach Closures For The Upcoming Weekend: Gov. Gavin Newsom was poised to order beaches to close in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, a source said Wednesday. A memo sent to California police chiefs said the governor intends to make the announcement Thursday. A law enforcement source confirmed that authorities were briefed on the plans and that might also include closure of some parks. Until now, cities and counties up and down the state have been left to make the tricky decision of balancing public health risks while also providing equitable access to the outdoors. Many counties, such as Santa Cruz and Monterey have been doing partial closures but have struggled with overcrowding. Read more from Richard Winton, Rosanna Xia and John Myers of the Los Angeles Times, and Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Daily Edition for Wednesday, April 29, 2020
California ‘Weeks Not Months’ Away From Making Meaningful Strides Toward Reopening: California businesses seen as presenting less risk of spreading the coronavirus could open in the near future under a plan Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled Tuesday, the first of what he suggested were several slow steps toward easing the statewide shutdown order. “We believe we are weeks, not months, away from making meaningful modifications” in the current restrictions, Newsom said. But Newsom’s announcement of a four-phase plan did not come with a guaranteed timetable. He said while current public health indicators such as hospitalizations and testing capacity look promising, additional progress needs to be made toward slowing the spread of the virus. Read more from John Myers, Taryn Luna and Phil Willon of the Los Angeles Times.
Daily Edition for Tuesday, April 28, 2020
LA’s Death Count 58% Higher Than The Next Hardest Hit Urban County: Los Angeles County has had 944 people die from COVID-19, with 315 passing away last week alone. Though a peak in deaths will usually lag behind the peak in infections by one to three weeks, it’s hard to tell whether Los Angeles County has bent the curve on the virus’ spread. There were 7,218 confirmed new cases for the seven-day period that ended Sunday, compared with 3,152 the previous week. But inconsistent testing and backlogs at laboratories often make those numbers unreliable. Another key measure of infection, the number of hospitalizations, remained relatively stable last week, neither rising nor falling. The differing situations across the state are causing some local officials to chafe under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s blanket stay-at-home order, while others are pushing to prolong it. Read more from Rong-Gong Lin II, Joe Mozingo and Melanie Mason of the Los Angeles Times.