Latest California Healthline Stories
Daily Edition for Friday, April 17, 2020
Trump Releases 3-Phase Plan To Reopen Country, But Admits Governors Are At The Wheel: California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who laid out a reopening framework this week but has been markedly more aggressive than the federal government in curtailing social activity, said President Donald Trump offered an “encouraging” message of allowing states to manage their own changes when he presented his own plan to re-open the economy. The president “recognizes the differentiation that exists and persists in counties, and not just states,” Newsom said, and offered to preserve “the kind of specificity at a state-to-state level” that can be tailored to the varying scope of outbreaks.
Daily Edition for Thursday, April 16, 2020
California To Give Aid To Immigrants Living In Country Illegally Who Have Been Hurt By Coronavirus: Gov. Gavin Newsom said today the state is partnering with philanthropic groups to provide disaster relief to undocumented immigrants affected by the coronavirus who have been left out of other pandemic assistance programs. Ten percent of California’s workforce is undocumented, Newsom said, and they are not eligible for unemployment insurance or aid through the federal stimulus package. The new $125 million Disaster Relief Fund will include $75 million in taxpayer funds and $50 million in philanthropic contributions to help undocumented workers affected by coronavirus secure a one-time payment of up to $500 per person or $1,000 per household. “We feel a deep sense of gratitude for people who are in fear of deportation but are still addressing the essential needs of tens of millions of Californians,” Newsom said, pointing out that many work in essential sectors like health care, agriculture, food, manufacturing and construction. Read more from Ana B. Ibarra of CalMatters and Taryn Luna, Patrick McGreevy and John Myers of the Los Angeles Times.
Daily Edition for Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Newsom Lays Out Plan To Re-Open California That Relies Heavily On Widespread Testing, Increasing Surge Capacity: Gov. Gavin Newsom said he will not lift his shelter-in-place order until adequate suppression and mitigation measures are in place to prevent future flare-ups. That means tracking down the sick and isolating clusters of new infections, arming hospitals with adequate equipment and setting new guidelines for schools and businesses to reopen.
Daily Edition for Tuesday, April 14, 2020
California Will Partner Up With Oregon And Washington State To Create Framework To Lift Lockdowns: California will put forward a strategy Tuesday for gradually releasing residents from stay-at-home orders and allowing public life to resume amid the coronavirus pandemic. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that he has been developing a framework for the past week with the governors of Oregon and Washington that will allow the three states to incrementally reopen their economies as the spread of the virus appears to slow. “COVID-19 doesn’t follow state or national boundaries,” Newsom, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said in a statement. “It will take every level of government, working together, and a full picture of what’s happening on the ground.”
Daily Edition for Monday, April 13, 2020
California’s Peak Could Come As Earlier As Wednesday, But Other Models Project It Won’t Happen Until May: If the country’s most popular coronavirus model proves accurate, on Wednesday California’s death count will hit 66 and then decline from there going forward. But that’s just one projection, and it differs substantially from the forecast developed by California’s disease modeling team, which predicts a peak in mid- or late May, and a slow falling off through June. The disparate predictions can breed confusion and frustration among the tens of millions of Californians who are eager to put the outbreak behind them and emerge from their weeks of isolation. But disease models, for all that they’re useful in making policy decisions and preparing for disaster, are not meant to predict the future, public health and infectious disease experts say. Read more from Erin Allday of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Daily Edition for Friday, April 10, 2020
Newsom Says First Daily Decrease In ICU Hospitalizations Is Encouraging, But Warns Not To Read Too Much Into One Data Point: The rate of all virus hospitalizations has slowed this week. Those in the ICU need the highest level of care, and so it was particularly encouraging that the number of patients in those rooms actually dropped 1.9% on Wednesday to 1,132. “One data point is not a trend. … I caution anybody to read too much into that,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said. “But nonetheless, it is encouraging. It reinforces the incredible work all of you are doing.” After weeks of social distancing, the virus has been spreading at a slower pace than anticipated, though state officials are sticking with their forecast that the peak of the disease in the state will occur in mid-May. California has more than 19,100 confirmed COVID-19 cases and has recorded at least 507 deaths, according to statistics compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Read more from Adam Beam of The Associated Press and Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group.
Daily Edition for Thursday, April 9, 2020
Local California Officials Caught Off Guard By Newsom’s Decision To Send Ventilators To Other States: Riverside County officials said the state recently denied their request for an additional 500 ventilators, even though the county expects demand for the breathing machines at county hospitals and medical centers to exceed the supply in less than three weeks. Santa Clara County, another area hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, is offering a $1,000 bounty for each device it receives and has ordered companies with the devices to report their inventory to the county. “I understand and respect what the governor is doing. But are we going to be able to get the assistance that we’re going to need in a week or two weeks out?” Riverside County Supervisor Kevin Jeffries said Wednesday. “I think we were all a little surprised. We’re all trying to prepare so we’re not like New York.”
Daily Edition for Wednesday, April 8, 2020
'We Decided Enough’s Enough': California Secures 200M Masks A Month At Cost Of $1B: Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that California has secured a monthly supply of 200 million N95 respiratory and surgical masks to help protect healthcare workers and other essential personnel at the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state. “We decided enough’s enough. Let’s use the power, the purchasing power of the state of California, as a nation-state,” Newsom said. “We did just that. And in the next few weeks, we’re going to see supplies, at that level, into the state of California and potentially the opportunity to export some of those supplies to states in need.” The masks are among the most coveted supplies needed in hospitals and medical facilities that are treating people infected with the coronavirus amid a nationwide shortage of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers. They will come from a consortium of suppliers, including a California nonprofit, a California manufacturer with suppliers in Asia and from a company sterilizing used masks, according to Nathan Click, the governor’s spokesman. Read more from Phil Willon of the Los Angeles Times and Carla Marinucci of Politico.
Daily Edition for Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Newsom Confident State Has Enough Ventilators, ICU Beds And Health Workers To Meet Expected Surge: Gov. Gavin Newsom is so confident in the state’s preparedness that he announced California was donating 500 ventilators to the Strategic National Stockpile to deploy in states that need them more, like New York, which has already received ventilators from Oregon, Washington and from China. “We feel confident in our capacity to meet our needs as we support the needs of others,” Newsom said, adding that the ventilators are being “lent” and could be recalled if necessary down the road. The generosity comes in the weeks after California — and other states — launched massive efforts to stockpile medical supplies and personal protective equipment to prepare before a surge of coronavirus patients overwhelmed the Golden State’s hospitals. Read more from Maggie Angst and Emily DeRuy of the Bay Area News Group.
Daily Edition for Monday, April 6, 2020
A Tale Of Two Cities: While San Francisco Took Swift, Aggressive Action, Los Angeles Hesitated: A look at the coronavirus outbreak in San Francisco and Los Angeles counties, offers additional evidence that early intervention played a key role in slowing the rate of infection in the Bay Area. The rate of infection in both counties started slowly. At one point, Los Angeles County and much smaller San Francisco, which is a contiguous city and county, were neck and neck. Los Angeles reported its first case of COVID-19 on Jan. 26. San Francisco reported its first two cases on March 5. And on March 10, the counties had the same number of cases: 17. But since announcing its shelter-in-place rules on March 16, San Francisco has seen a slower rate of increase than has Los Angeles. Los Angeles’ cases have risen more than 48 times as high, while San Francisco’s have gone up about 10 times higher. Read more from Sarah Ravani of the San Francisco Chronicle.