Table of Content
- After five-week strike, UC and graduate student workers reach tentative agreement
- California just slashed rooftop solar incentives. What happens next?
- Newsom cancels California’s COVID-19 stay-at-home orders
- Capital One to pay $2M to 4 CA counties to settle debt collection suit
- OC enters COVID-19 'medium' transmission level as cases rise
- 'I am emotionally drained.' Some SoCal restaurants apprehensive about reopening following rescinded stay-at-home order
- Latest California
Despite positive developments, officials are expressing growing concerns about new and potentially more contagious variants of the coronavirus that have been detected in California and beyond. In just 24 days, 5,106 people have died in Los Angeles County from COVID-19, while about 10,000 died in the previous nine months. Newsom’s announcement marks another significant shift in the governor’s reopening plan, a constantly changing process that has sparked questions and few answers about the data and reasoning behind his decisions. The 11 counties in the Southern California region are Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Mono, Imperial and Inyo.
The stricter rules come after the five-day average for new cases surpassed 4,500, a threshold set by the county Nov. 17. Public health officials said then that if the county reached that threshold, new restrictions would be put in place. The new rules affecting the county's 10 million residents will limit essential retailers to 35 percent capacity and non-essential stores to 20 percent. Outdoor fitness centers and museums will be limited to 50 percent normal capacity, and gatherings at beaches are banned. Health officials in Los Angeles County, the nation's most populous, announced a new Covid-19 stay-at-home order Friday that will ban most public and private gatherings.
After five-week strike, UC and graduate student workers reach tentative agreement
The order did, however, allow for religious gatherings and protests. Los Angeles County has been allowing houses of worship to hold indoor services since last month. LOS ANGELES -- Gov. Gavin Newsom announced California's regional stay-at-home order has been lifted because of a marked improvement in the state's battle against the coronavirus. Currently, 54 counties in California are in the most restrictive purple tier. Humboldt County, in Northern California, was the one county that moved from the purple tier to the less-restrictive red tier.
ICU capacity in the Northern California region, which is not under the stay-at-home order, has continued to remain above the state’s shutdown benchmarks. California officials lifted regional coronavirus stay-at-home orders across the state on Monday, a change that could allow restaurants and businesses in many counties to reopen outdoor dining and other services. The governor announced the five regions of the stay-at-home order framework on Dec. 3 in an effort to reduce the strain on hospitals as case numbers surged. Although state data show hospital systems in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley remain strained, the Newsom administration said models project ICU capacity in those regions and the Bay Area will exceed 15% — a threshold for lifting the regional shutdowns — over the next four weeks. In Pasadena, which operates its own health department independent of the county agency, restaurants are being allowed to reopen with restrictions immediately, city officials said.
California just slashed rooftop solar incentives. What happens next?
In a Monday afternoon news conference, Gov. Gavin Newsom said all 11 counties in the Southern California region remain in the purple tier, which is the most restrictive. The health department said the case numbers "remain at alarming levels" while hospitalizations "continue to increase." On Friday, the health department reported a five-day average of 4,751 cases and 24 deaths in a 24-hour period.
After a winter surge, coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are beginning to decline across the state. "This action allows all counties statewide to return to the rules and framework of the Blueprint for a Safer Economy and color-coded tiers that indicate which activities and businesses are open based on local case rates and test positivity," CDPH said in a news release. "The majority of the counties are in the strictest, or purple tier." The outdoor dining ban had been highly controversial, with some elected officials and the restaurant industry fighting in and out of court to overturn it.
Newsom cancels California’s COVID-19 stay-at-home orders
"We see promising signs that California is slowly emerging from the most intense stage of this pandemic," said Brian Ferguson, deputy direct for crisis communication. "We continue to look at what that means for the regional stay-at-home order and anticipate that the state Department of Public Health will provide a formal update tomorrow morning." All counties will return to using the color-coded tier system, the California Department of Public Health said.
ICU capacity at hospitals is currently at zero percent for the Southern California region. "I think we can go ahead with this if we're all doing it together and if we're all playing by the rules," said L.A. "I think it's really hard if people don't help and if people don't take some responsibility, and if businesses don't make sure they're protecting their workers." "I am spent. I am emotionally drained." The lifting of the statewide stay-at-home order may be cause for celebration for many, but some local restaurants are nervous to move forward after all they've been through. Just two weeks ago, officials talked about expanding the stay-at-home order by closing malls and outdoor gyms. Meanwhile, officials in some other Southern California counties have been even more critical of the state-imposed rules, and had urged Newsom to give them more local control.
Capital One to pay $2M to 4 CA counties to settle debt collection suit
San Francisco Mayor London Breed tweeted Monday that San Francisco would resume outdoor dining at restaurants and allow personal services to reopen now that Newsom has lifted regional stay-at-home orders. The mayor and Public Health director Dr. Grant Colfax were scheduled to address the changes at an early afternoon news conference. Los Angeles County, which has become a national hotbed of the coronavirus with hospitals overwhelmed by patients, “will essentially align with the state, by the end of the week, to allow for the reopening of permitted activities under the Purple Tier,” said County Supervisor Hilda Solis. The move — which comes after more than 5,000 people have died of COVID-19 in L.A. County in less than a month and as Southern California continues to report zero hospital capacity — will allow for the reopening of personal care services and outdoor dining at restaurants.
Under the stay-at-home order, indoor and outdoor dining at restaurants is shut down, with takeout and delivery options still available. The restrictions follow a new ban Wednesday on outdoor dining , leaving restaurants to offer takeout and delivery only. The restrictions set to take effect Monday will ban most public and private gatherings. All counties will return to the colored tier system that assigns local risk levels based on case numbers and rates of positive test results for coronavirus infections.
California is continuing to see a record-breaking number of deaths from COVID-19. The order was lifted for the regions of Southern California, the San Joaquin Valley and the Bay Area. "It is also about transmission rate, how fast is the virus spreading in your region," said Ghaly. "There are still regions in Southern California that have very high transmission rates." Southern California will be able to be released from the order when ICU capacity is at or above 15 percent. The lifted order should be cause for celebration, but at Vitello's Restaurant in Studio City, workers are nervous to move forward after all they've been through.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis said the county will come into alignment with state restrictions now that the COVID-19 stay-at-home order has been lifted, including a resumption of outdoor dining by the end of the week. Patrons sits outdoors for dinner separated by plastic dividers with national flags at Mel's drive-in restaurant on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, Calif., on Tuesday. In Los Angeles County, restaurants and bars are prohibited from providing outdoor dining. While deaths, hospitalizations and case numbers are trending downward in L.A. With the state stay-at-home order lifted, Los Angeles County restaurants are getting ready to put employees back to work. But some are apprehensive, saying they fear things can change again.
Last week, a group of more than 50 wineries and restaurants across Napa and Sonoma counties sued to overturn a state ban on in-person dining, with owners saying their constitutional rights were being trampled as they slipped into financial ruin. A previous version of this article reported that services in the Sacramento region were allowed to reopen on Dec. 13. Gov. Gavin Newsom said four-week projections by the state show a significant rise in ICU capacity. In one month, Southern California is projected to have 33.3% capacity. One of the new variants is believed to be 50% more transmissible than the conventional variety of the coronavirus. If that variant became widespread, it would likely lead to more infections, hospitalizations and deaths.
Ghaly encouraged people to continue to stay home whenever possible, avoid New Year's Eve gatherings, and social distance. Health officials are asking the film and television industry in Hollywood to voluntarily pause production because of the surge of coronavirus cases as well. The order was originally supposed to be three weeks but has since been extended.
'I am emotionally drained.' Some SoCal restaurants apprehensive about reopening following rescinded stay-at-home order
Those affected said the restrictions had devastated restaurant owners and their employees, who were already struggling amid the pandemic. Outdoor dining offered a lifeline for some, and restaurants invested thousands of dollars to be able to offer it. The new restrictions, to take effect Monday and to stay in place at least until Dec. 20, will prohibit public and private gatherings except for those people already living together. L.A. County health leaders announced that the region will align with the state's decision to relax restrictions. But not everyone is ready to get back to work after eight weeks of being shut down. The regional stay-at-home order, which took effect Dec. 7, banned nearly all private and public gatherings.
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