Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Tough to Tell COVID From Smoke Inhalation Symptoms — And Flu Season's Coming
Respiratory symptoms stemming from coronavirus infection and smoke inhalation are too similar to distinguish without a full workup. This is complicating the jobs of health care workers as wildfires rage up and down the West Coast. (Mark Kreidler, )
In Bakersfield, Surgeon General Urges Vigilance Against COVID: U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams visited Bakersfield on Monday, urging residents to keep hope alive during what he portrayed as the final stretches of the coronavirus pandemic. “We really need to get away from this idea of health versus the economy,” he said. “Several business owners brought up their concerns about their need to get businesses open. … The quickest way to get businesses open is to drive down community transmission rates.” Read more from the Bakersfield Californian.
Theme Parks Push To Reopen: A trade organization representing Disney, Universal, Six Flags, SeaWorld, Knott’s and Legoland has called on Gov. Gavin Newsom to reopen California theme parks on the six-month anniversary of the coronavirus closure of Disneyland. “As evidenced by the many open amusement parks in the United States and around the world, visiting an attraction will not look the same as before COVID, but California’s amusement parks are ready to responsibly reopen,” California Attractions and Parks Association executive director Erin Guerrero said in a statement. Read more from the LA Daily News.
Also: We want to hear about workplace COVID testing policies. Does your job require you to show up in person or is it transitioning away from remote work? Share your experiences here.
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
AP:
Choking Air From Western Fires Just Won't Ease Up
Relief from putrid, dangerous air spewing from massive wildfires across the West won’t come until later in the week or beyond, scientists and forecasters say, and the hazy and gunk-filled skies might stick around for even longer. People in Oregon, Washington and parts of California were struggling under acrid yellowish-green smog — the worst, most unhealthy air on the planet according to some measurements. It seeped into homes and businesses, sneaked into cars through air conditioning vents and caused the closure of iconic locations such as Powell’s Books and the Oregon Zoo in Portland, the state’s biggest city. (Cline and Flaccus, 9/15)
ABC News:
Twin Disasters: How The West Coast Fires Might Impact The COVID-19 Pandemic
As the California wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic rage on in tandem, they may pose a serious double threat. "Now we're battling two public health crises," Panagis Galiatsatos, M.D., M.H.S., a pulmonologist at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and volunteer medical spokesperson for the American Lung Association, told ABC News. (Croll, 9/15)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Bay Area Coronavirus Cases Drop Significantly From Peak Of Summer Surge
The spread of coronavirus has slowed significantly since the peak of the Bay Area’s summer surge, with new cases falling over 60% since the difficult days of mid-August. Specifically, the region’s nine Bay Area counties reported an average of 513 new cases per day in the week ending Sunday, down 35% from an average of 788 per day in the week ending the previous Sunday. The last time the Bay Area reported fewer than 500 cases a day, on average, was in June, around the time the summer surge began to accelerate. (Ho, 9/14)
Los Angeles Times:
California Has Record Low COVID-19 Positivity Rate
As the Golden State faces a triple threat of respiratory risks — destructive wildfires, toxic air quality and a deadly pandemic — there is a faint glimmer of hope. Over the last seven days, just 3.5% of COVID-19 tests in California came back positive, the lowest rate since the state began reporting the data in late March. A month ago, the positive test rate was nearly twice as high. (Nelson, 9/14)
Bay Area News Group:
California Shows Encouraging Progress With COVID Hospitalizations; Experts Say Caution Must Continue
In a strong sign coronavirus is receding in California, the number of patients hospitalized with the virus fell over the weekend to levels not seen since weeks after shelter-at-home orders were enacted in spring, according to the California Department of Public Health. A month of steady decline, following a long summer surge of cases, reached encouraging milestones this weekend: hospitalizations have been cut by more than half since a peak in late July. Perhaps more critical, the number of people battling the virus in intensive care units fell to the lowest it has been since April 2. (Debolt and Webeck, 9/14)
LA Daily News:
LAUSD Rolls Out Coronavirus Testing, Contact Tracing Program
The Los Angeles Unified School District has launched its highly anticipated COVID-19 testing and contact tracing program, an initiative which officials say is the first of its kind in the nation and one which they believe will facilitate a safer return to campus. (Tat, 9/14)
LA Daily News:
LA County Wants To Secure Less Expensive, More Convenient Coronavirus Tests
Los Angeles County health officials are eagerly awaiting better tests that are less expensive and more convenient than the current way the county tests for the new coronavirus. “It’s not so much the accuracy of the test,” explained Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer during a Monday, Sept. 14, briefing. “Better testing for us means much less expensive, either a point-of-care test or one you can take in your home that you can take very frequently. Once we get those tests, it will be a game-changer in L.A. County.” (Rosenfeld, 9/14)
LA Daily News:
L.A. County Expected To Approve More Coronavirus Relief Spending
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote Tuesday, Sept. 15, on a plan allocating nearly $130 million in federal coronavirus relief funding. In July, the board approved a $1.22 billion spending program funded by federal relief dollars. This latest plan relates to monies set aside under that program for contingencies and includes federal funding from other sources. All coronavirus relief dollars provided under the original federal bill must be spent by Dec. 20. (Marcellino, 9/14)
KPBS:
Relief For Thousands Of San Diego Businesses Could Be Coming Soon
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors will vote Tuesday on how to allocate millions of dollars for businesses hit hard by the COVID-19 restrictions. The county has $20 million to give out in federal CARES act dollars as part of a small business stimulus grant program. More than 4,400 businesses and nonprofits requested more than $650,000,000 in aid, far beyond what the county could provide. (Hoffman, 9/14)
LA Daily News:
Amid Pandemic, Some Cities Have Opened Their City Council Meetings To The Public
When La Mirada protesters last Tuesday completed their vigil in memory of Dijon Kizzee, a Black man who was shot and killed by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies in unincorporated Westmont on Aug. 31, they got to do something you can’t do in most cities these days. They walked from La Mirada Regional Park to City Hall, entered the council chambers and watched the council meeting in person. And one of their group spoke during the public comment period. (Sprague, 9/14)
Bay Area News Group:
East Bay Sports Bar Operated Without License During COVID-19 Closure, Authorities Say
The owner of a sports bar was charged Monday with operating her bar without a liquor license, while the business was supposed to be shuttered under public-safety rules set for the COVID-19 pandemic, authorities said. (Hurd, 9/14)
Bay Area News Group:
California’s Ski Resorts Announce No Walk-Up Tickets Due To COVID-19
This winter’s mountain experience will be less crowded. But also less spontaneous. On Monday, California’s premier resorts — Squaw Valley-Alpine Meadows, Heavenly, Kirkwood, Northstar and Mammoth Mountain – announced that they are discontinuing all walk-up ticket sales and prioritizing season pass holders. (Krieger, 9/14)
LA Daily News:
Cities Losing Big From Closed Cardrooms; Mayors Ask County To Reopen Outdoors
Mayors of five Los Angeles-area cities with cardroom casinos all came together Monday, Sept. 14, to urge Los Angeles County officials to allow cardrooms to reopen outdoors. L.A. County still has not given the green light to reopen cardrooms outdoors even though they have been granted approval by the state, with certain restrictions, since Sept. 9. Cardrooms represent big revenue, sometimes more than half of the general fund for cities whose mayors spoke out on Monday. (Rosenfeld, 9/14)
Los Angeles Times:
Diesel And Other Bookstores Fundraise To Survive COVID-19
Next to a bottle of hand sanitizer, on a table at an entrance to Brentwood’s Diesel bookstore, is a message to customers describing an existential crisis induced by a pandemic. It says, in essence: We need your help. “We have tried to weather this storm, with creative reinvention, hard work, and perseverance, as we always have,” reads the note from Diesel owners Alison Reid and John Evans. “We’ve managed to keep our booksellers afloat financially and with the necessary health care. But at this point, our stores are foundering. (Pineda, 9/14)
LA Daily News:
Judge Blocks Culver City Gymnastics School’s Indoor Sessions
A judge has issued a temporary restraining order against a Culver City gymnastics school and its owner, who have been accused of holding indoor classes and activities in violation of a local order aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus. (9/14)
Sacramento Bee:
Some Sacramento County Schools Reopen With COVID-19 Rules
There were temperature checks for students and desks spread out. Hallways marked so students would only walk in one direction, cutting down on congestion. Everyone was in masks. This was the school experience on Monday at St. John Vianney in Rancho Cordova, one of 19 campuses in Sacramento County that received a waiver last week to reopen classroom instruction with coronavirus safeguards in place. Of those campuses, 16 were part of the Sacramento Diocese, whose officials worked closely with county health officials to reopen campuses.(Morrar, 9/14)
Los Angeles Times:
Schools In Affluent Areas Plan To Open Quicker Than In Poor Latino Ones
The Capistrano Unified School District is ready to go, preparing to start welcoming students back to class on Sept. 28, soon after Orange County is expected to meet the state’s COVID-19 requirements for reopening schools. But 25 miles northwest, Santa Ana Unified School District officials have laid out a more sobering timetable. Elementary schoolchildren probably won’t be back to class until at least November. High school students? Possibly not until early 2021. (Esquivel, Blume and Campa, 9/14)
Fresno Bee:
What’s It Like To Teach Students During Distance Learning? Fresno Teachers Share stories
Being an educator during the coronavirus pandemic has drastically changed the day-to-day work, flexibility, and the required skills for teachers. For Jauregui, working from home has forced her work and personal life to merge into one. She wakes up at 6 a.m. to get herself and her three children — a preschooler, a second grader, and a seventh-grader — ready and fed before their own distance learning from home. By 9 a.m., Jauregui and her children are all logged into their individual classes from their laptops and tablets. (Jiselle, 9/15)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Maker Of Mercedes-Benz Vehicles To Pay $1.5 Billion In Emissions Cheating Settlement
Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle government accusations that it equipped 250,000 diesel cars and vans sold in the United States with devices that cheated emissions tests and spewed pollutants into the air, California and U.S. Justice Department officials announced Monday. (Egelko, 9/14)
AP:
Officers Possibly Exposed To Fentanyl Released From Hospital
Five law enforcement and a tow truck driver hospitalized after possible fentanyl exposure on the Golden Gate Bridge have been released from the hospital, an official said Monday. Four California Highway Patrol officers, a Golden Gate Bridge patrol officer and a bridge tow truck driver were exposed to a chemical substance believed to be fentanyl while attempting to aid the driver of a car who stopped Sunday on the San Francisco bridge, said CHP Officer Andrew Barclay. (9/15)
LA Daily News:
La Crescenta Man Sentenced To 3 1/2 Years In Prison For Trying To Obtain Deadly Biological Toxins
A La Crescenta man was sentenced Monday to 3 1/2 years behind bars for attempting to obtain deadly biological toxins via the dark web and ship the poisons through the mail to a commercial building in downtown Los Angeles.Steve S. Kim, 42, now claims he intended to use ricin to commit suicide, but there are indications he may have planned to murder his wife or another person with the undetectable toxin, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. (9/15)
LA Daily News:
L.A. County Launches Legal Aid Program For Tenants At Risk Of Eviction
Los Angeles County launched a program on Monday, Sept. 14, to provide free legal services to tenants facing eviction during the COVID-19 pandemic. “As many residents face immeasurable uncertainty and grapple with health, mental health and economic hurdles, we want to provide working families with as much stability and peace of mind as possible,” Supervisor Kathryn Barger said. “By equipping at-risk tenants with the resources they need, Los Angeles County can ensure they stay safe, stay strong, and stay housed.” (9/14)