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.
In related news from the Los Angeles Times: What A Reopened California Will Look Like — And Businesses’ Odds Of Survival
Why California Wired Nearly A Half-Billion Dollars To A Mask Company That Had Been In Business For Three Days: On March 26, as the coronavirus pandemic was mounting and governors across America scrambled to secure medical supplies, the state of California wired almost a half-billion dollars to a company that had been in business for just three days. The recipient: Blue Flame Medical LLC, a Delaware-based company headed by two Republican operatives who jumped into the medical supply business on March 23. The pair — Mike Gula from Washington, D.C., and John Thomas of Southern California — had vowed, in their words, to help “fight Covid-19 with the industry’s broadest product selection from hundreds of suppliers.” Within hours of the enormous wire transfer, the deal was dead and California was clawing its money back — $456.9 million, nearly half of what the Legislature had allocated for the state’s pandemic response. Read more from Laurel Rosenhall of CalMatters.
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
The Bakersfield Californian:
Local Hospitals Resume Nonurgent Medical Care
Hospitals around Kern County reopened this week for certain nonurgent elective procedures, loosening restrictions imposed in mid-March as part of California's stay-home order. On Monday, Bakersfield Memorial and Mercy Downtown, as well as Adventist hospitals in Bakersfield and Tehachapi, began performing nonemergency procedures such as cardiac catheterization and gallbladder surgery. Mercy Southwest is scheduled to resume most elective procedures next week. (Cox, 5/5)
Sacramento Bee:
Testing Improves But CA Doctors’ Stress Still High, Poll Shows
Critical care doctors expressed significantly greater confidence in the availability of testing and personal protective equipment in a recent poll about the challenges of treating patients with COVID-19, yet their personal stress levels remain elevated. The California Health Care Foundation has been working since mid-March with the physician market-research firm Truth on Call to survey 150 front-line physicians every two weeks to assess the demands on the state’s health care system, said Kristof Stremikis, director of market analysis and insight at the California Health Care Foundation. (Anderson, 5/5)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Meet The Bay Area Nurses Battling The Coronavirus Crisis
On National Nurses Day, The Chronicle is spotlighting a handful of the thousands of Bay Area health care workers who heroically battle the crisis every day, often at great personal peril. Our region’s nurses provide comfort and treatment to COVID-19 patients in the ICU, swab anxious people for the virus, hold the phone for the elderly quarantined in nursing homes so they can speak to their loved ones outside. (Thadani, 5/6)
Los Angeles Times:
Coronavirus: Stress Disorders Among Hospital Workers Likely
Nurse Camille Davis has watched more than 30 patients die from coronavirus infection, and has sobbed while holding her phone close to them so loved ones could say their goodbyes. Her long drives home are filled with worry about transmitting the disease to her 8-year-old son. “I had a colleague who wanted to quit, it was too much for her, and I told her, ‘We can’t quit. We have to keep working until we get sick,’” said Davis, a nurse at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. “That is how we are getting through this. But I wonder what we will be left to deal with when it’s all over. I’m worried I will develop PTSD.” (Wilber, 5/6)
Sacramento Bee:
Why CA Native Tribes Cautious About Ending Economic Shutdown
Sherry Scott joined the rebellion in some parts of the state against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home order at a protest with dozens of others in Crescent City on Friday. The next day, buoyed by the experience, Scott and her business partner invited customers to eat at her Log Cabin Diner in Klamath, an outpost along Highway 101 at the mouth of the river that gives the town its name... Then the tribal police stepped in and told them to stop feeding customers inside. (Sabalow and Kasler, 5/6)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Bill Providing Protections For Pregnant Correction Officers Passes Committee
A bill authored by Assemblyman Rudy Salas that will provide reasonable working accommodations for all pregnant correctional officers passed the Assembly Committee on Public Employment and Retirement Tuesday. Assembly Bill 1906 will require the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to provide light-duty accommodations to all pregnant correctional officers, removing the possibility that correctional officers will face the decision in the future to continue working in a job that could risk their babies’ health, take a demotion or take a leave absence — further providing protections to end gender discrimination against pregnant correctional officers in the workplace. (5/5)
Bay Area News Group:
Santa Clara County Jail: 3rd Inmate Positive For COVID-19
A Santa Clara County jail inmate showing no symptoms has become the third person in county custody to test positive for COVID-19, officials announced Tuesday. The inmate was booked April 19 on suspicion of “several felonies” after being arrested in San Jose, Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Michael Low said. (Salonga, 5/5)
Palm Springs Desert Sun:
Riverside County Reports 100 New COVID-19 Cases, 3 New Deaths
Riverside County health officials Tuesday reported 100 new COVID-19 cases and 3 new virus-related deaths. A total of 184 people have died in the county since the pandemic began. The county's total number of cases is now 4,454. That number has more than doubled in the past 18 days, with 2,264 cases reported as of April 16. (Olalde, 5/5)
Bay Area News Group:
Coronavirus: Inside The World Of Disease Detectives
Wanted: People with a talent for telling terrible news to total strangers. As the economy re-opens and people start venturing back out into the world, California’s counties are building an army of 20,000 “contact tracers” to find everyone who is unknowingly infected by the COVID-19 virus, preventing the ignition of deadly new clusters of disease. (Krieger and Lee, 5/6)
CalMatters:
Are California Businesses Getting A Fair Share Of Coronavirus Loans?
California businesses have received $66.6 billion in federal Paycheck Protection Program loans so far, about 13% of the nation’s total, according to federal loan data. Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state’s businesses didn’t receive a proportional share of the federal money in the first round, but that it is now “punching above its weight” in the second round, so it’s starting to balance out. (Duara, 5/5)
Fresno Bee:
Almost 170 New Coronavirus Cases Tuesday In The Valley
Health officials in Fresno, Tulare and Kings counties combined reported almost 170 new confirmed cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, marking the largest number of new cases in any single day since the COVID-19 pandemic reached the central San Joaquin Valley about two months ago. The first two cases of coronavirus disease were confirmed on March 6. Since that time, the number of cases in the region has ballooned to 2,007, including 55 people who died from the respiratory disease caused by the virus. (Sheehan, 5/5)
Los Angeles Times:
Under Siege, Long Beach Fire Department Fought Coronavirus
On a cold Sunday night in March, Long Beach firefighter and paramedic James Dolas began to feel the first tingle of illness. The next day, as the 34-year-old came down with a fever, sore throat and muscle pain, his supervisor delivered the bad news: He feared that Dolas and other firefighters at Station 11 had been exposed to the novel coronavirus. (Vives, 5/6)
Sacramento Bee:
California Distribution, Grocery Workers Fear COVID-19
The Modesto Bee spoke with people who staff the region’s large distributions centers and major retailers like grocery and discount stores. The workers requested anonymity for fear of retribution by their employer. Some have grave concerns about how their companies have handled their health and safety amid the global pandemic. Others want customers to simply follow the rules. (Rowland and Lam, 5/6)
Sacramento Bee:
Can Schools In California Open In July 2020 Amid Coronavirus?
After weeks of having kids isolated at home, many parents may be counting the days until California schools reopen. But Gov. Gavin Newsom’s statement last week that schools could be back in session as early as July is worrying some parents. That early start would deprive young students of much-needed summer vacations. And what if, as expected, there is no vaccine by July to defend students and teachers from the coronavirus? (Morrar, 5/6)
San Francisco Chronicle:
New Strain Of Coronavirus Reported To Spread More Quickly, But Some Scientists Cast Doubt
Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory claim they have discovered a new, dominant strain of coronavirus that spreads faster than previous strains, but several prominent virologists are skeptical about the study and its conclusions. The new strain was first detected in Europe in February and then spread to the East Coast of the United States, where it has become the dominant strain of coronavirus, said the Los Alamos researchers, who worked with scientists from Duke University and the University of Sheffield in England. (Fimrite, 5/5)