How Strongly Should San Bernardino County's Order to Wear Face Coverings Be Enforced?

https://www.fontanaheraldnews.com/news/how-strongly-should-san-bernardino-countys-order-to-wear- face-coverings-be-enforced/article_abde0196-7b6c-11ea-8c46-bbea299eecfc.html How strongly should San Bernardino County's order to wear face coverings be enforced?

By RUSSELL INGOLD Apr 10, 2020

Fontana Police Department ocers, wearing their face coverings, encourage residents to wear face coverings also. (Contributed photo by Fontana Police Department)

How strongly should San Bernardino County's order to wear face coverings in public be enforced?

It's a question that has caused much debate (and the spreading of rumors) ever since the order was announced on April 7. In a Facebook post on April 9, the Fontana Police Department said it is not issuing any citations for not wearing face coverings, contrary to rumors.

"However, we are encouraging the public to remain safe if you need to go to a public place," the P.D. said. "Please wear a mask or covering when out. We want to remain positive and stay ahead of this thing and keep our Fontana citizens out of harm's way."

In an eort to protect the public from the further spread of the coronavirus, the county formally ordered residents to wear a face covering when leaving home. The announcement was criticized by some residents who said it went too far in the name of public health.

The county has since announced some exceptions to the order. The county said on April 9:

• Children under 2 years old should not wear a face cover and the order will not be enforced on children;

• Children may wear a face cover as long as they can tolerate it;

• The order will not be enforced on people with disabilities or physical conditions that don't allow them to wear a face cover.

The county also claried that motorists will not need to wear the coverings while driving.

On the P.D.'s Facebook page, many commenters agreed that citations should not be issued, but others said police need to take a stronger stand.

"Thank you for being reasonable," Kachina Lopez said.

However, Richard Lugo said that people are not taking the county's order seriously. "Please do cite those not wearing a mask," he said.

Mimi Campos asked a question: "If we have a business that is still open (restaurant for take out), are we allowed to refuse service to people without masks?" Julionna Redondo replied, "I think all businesses should not let anyone in without a mask," and Jorge Madrid said: "You can at least put up a sign in front of your business warning customers for sure."

Campos responded by saying: "Yes, we plan to. It’s just so hard right now. We can’t aord to lose customers. But we can’t aord not to support what’s going on. I also don’t want to get sued later on down the road. I know a lot of people are on board with everything and I appreciate every single soul that’s supporting the human kind. It just takes one person to decide to sue a small business for violating their rights, and then who knows."

While violation of the county's order was said to be a crime punishable by up to a $1,000 ne or imprisonment up to 90 days, or both, the county said on April 8 that it does not expect law enforcement to broadly impose citations on violators.

"The expectation is that law enforcement will rely upon community members to use good judgment, common sense, and act in the best interests of their own health and the health of their loved ones and the community at large," the county said. "The imposition of penalties on members of the public who willfully and grossly disregard public health orders by putting others at risk of exposure to this infectious disease is meant as a tool for law enforcement to use as a deterrent."

Face coverings may include coverings that secure to the ears or back of the head and encompass the mouth and nose, the county said. Homemade cloth ear loop covers, bandannas and handkerchiefs, and neck gaiters may be used to reduce the spread of COVID-19, particularly among asymptomatic people. Surgical masks and N95 masks must be preserved for healthcare workers and emergency responders. Coronavirus layoffs: 49% of jobs in San Bernardino County industries at risk – San Bernardino Sun

BUSINESS Coronavirus layoffs: 49% of jobs in San Bernardino County industries at risk 74% of positions can't be done from home

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https://www.sbsun.com/...stries-at-risk/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_medium=social[4/13/2020 11:16:57 AM] Coronavirus layoffs: 49% of jobs in San Bernardino County industries at risk – San Bernardino Sun

Map shows job-loss risk, from highest (red) to lowest (green). (Source: Economic Roundtable)

By JONATHAN LANSNER | [email protected] | Orange County Register  PUBLISHED: April 13, 2020 at 8:54 a.m. | UPDATED: April 13, 2020 at 8:54 a.m.

A new study estimates almost half of San Bernardino County jobs are in industries at high-risk of layoffs due to the battle against coronavirus.

Researchers from the Economic Roundtable looked at statewide employment data and compared it with a job-loss risk list from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Fed economists looked at employment traits with the highest risk factors due to business limitations imposed by the battle against the pandemic. The Economic Roundtable then translated those job-loss risk trends to California’s 39 largest counties.

“California needs to take direct action to address the COVID-19 economic emergency that is causing widespread business closures and extremely high unemployment,”” the Roundtable’s report concluded. “The burden of unemployment is unequally distributed. It rests most heavily on young adults, Latinos, and workers in restaurant, hotel, personal care, and janitorial jobs. Young adults graduating from school and attempting to enter the job market face extremely difficult challenges.” https://www.sbsun.com/...stries-at-risk/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_medium=social[4/13/2020 11:16:57 AM] Coronavirus layoffs: 49% of jobs in San Bernardino County industries at risk – San Bernardino Sun

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Here what the Roundtable found for the 890,000 workers employed in San Bernardino County …

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READ MORE Navy reports first coronavirus death from Roosevelt Unemployment: 48% of positions are in industries with high job-loss risk, No. 5 highest among the 39 counties. Statewide, 43% at risk.

Non-essential workers: 81% of positions are in industries not deemed “essential” and may face operational limitations due to “stay at home” mandates.That’s No. 16 highest among the 39. Statewide, 72% at risk.

No-flexibility: 74% of positions can’t be done from home, raising risk of layoffs. That’s No. 9 highest among the 39. Statewide, 79% at risk.

No salary: 48% of all positions are not paid a set regular salary, workers seen at lower risk of layoffs. That’s No. 5 highest among the 39. Statewide, 44% at risk.

The economic impact of coronavirus business limitations is already being felt. In the three weeks ended April 4, federal job trackers say 2.2 million Californians applied for unemployment benefits vs. 2.1 million in the previous 52 weeks.

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Coronavirus biz news: TJ Maxx furloughing 286,000; security firm hiring Newsroom Guidelines 1,000 News Tips Contact Us Treasury seeks $200 billion more for Report an Error small business coronavirus aid

Tags: coronavirus economy, Jobs

https://www.sbsun.com/...stries-at-risk/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_medium=social[4/13/2020 11:16:57 AM] ADVERTISEMENT

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Pillowcase masks and trash-bag gowns. The bleak, deadly reality in California nursing homes Patients are removed from Magnolia Rehabilitation and Nursing Center after dozens tested positive for the coronavirus and staers, afraid for their safety, stopped showing up for shifts. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

By MATT HAMILTON, MARISA GERBER, ANITA CHABRIA

APRIL 12, 2020 | 5 AM UPDATED 7:28 AM

The masks are long gone, replaced by face covers fashioned from pillowcases. Cleaning supplies are dwindling. And when Maria Cecilia Lim, a licensed vocational nurse at an Orange County nursing home, needs a sterile gown, she reaches for a raincoat bought off the rack by desperate co-workers.

“This is just one raincoat that we have to keep reusing,” Lim said last week between shifts at the Healthcare Center of Orange County, a 100-bed nursing facility in Buena Park. “A lot of people are using it.” In thousands of facilities that house California’s elderly and infirm, this escalating scarcity driven by the spread of the coronavirus is forcing nurses and medical assistants on the front lines to employ creativity and pluck to combat a deadly pandemic.

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These striking photos reveal how California is changing during pandemic 2 hours ago

Nursing homes and assisted living centers are fast becoming a locus of outbreaks, driving up mortality rates and straining public health resources.

Yet institutions and public health officials said shortages abound: of protective gear, testing kits and, increasingly, of staff, who are sick or afraid to show up to work. With family visits halted, workers — many of whom shuttle between multiple facilities — are a potential source of infection in nursing homes but are essential to feeding, bathing and caring for the state’s vast aging population.

Last week, a surreal tableau played out in Riverside, where 83 patients were evacuated, many wheeled out on stretchers. Five employees and 34 patients at the Magnolia Rehabilitation and Nursing Center had tested positive for COVID-19, and when other scared workers stopped showing up for shifts, the crisis led to a swift removal of residents.

“That was not sustainable,” said Jose Arballo Jr., spokesman for the Riverside County Department of Public Health.

Though the spread of the novel coronavirus in California has been slower than hot spots in New York, Michigan and Italy, allowing hospitals here to prepare for the long-feared surge, there’s a different reality inside institutional care facilities, where elderly residents, many with underlying medical conditions, are exceptionally vulnerable.

In Pasadena, for example, all seven of those who have died of COVID-19 lived or worked in long-term care homes.

“This is an infectious disease that moves quickly,” said Matt Feaster, the epidemiologist for the Pasadena Public Health Department who is leading the city’s response to confirmed cases at nine residential care facilities. “A small problem can become a big problem.”

Dotting the state are nursing homes where the deadly contagion has taken hold. In San Bernardino County, at least 25 people have died, about half of them residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities. At least 94 confirmed cases came from a single facility in Yucaipa where 10 residents have died.

Four people have died and 38 others have tested positive for the virus at the Kensington assisted living facility in Redondo Beach.

More outbreaks have been reported in Orinda, San Jose, Burlingame and San Francisco. At a care center in Hayward, 49 staffers and residents tested positive, Alameda County officials said. At least 1,266 residents and staff members at the state’s more than 1,200 skilled nursing facilities have confirmed cases, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday. Nearly 400 in residential care facilities also have COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The actual number is probably higher.

Nationally, outbreaks in nursing homes and assisted living centers have propelled the crisis. Long-term care facilities have accounted for at least 221 deaths in Washington, or about half of the deaths in the state. In New York, more than half of nursing homes have positive cases, and more than 1,700 people in such facilities, about a third of nursing home residents with COVID-19, have died.

The situation has at times resulted in drastic measures. In New Jersey, where more than 3,300 people in institutional care have tested positive, 10 deaths in a veterans’ home prompted officials to send 40 National Guard medics to bolster staffing levels.

At hospitals and emergency rooms, proof of the coronavirus’ devastating effects in homes for the aging is apparent.

“The speed at which our elderly patients go into respiratory failure is staggering,” said Sydnie Boylan, a registered nurse at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center. “The patients go downhill so quickly, and once they go on a ventilator, most of them don’t come off.”

Dr. Nick Kwan, assistant medical director of the emergency room at Alhambra Hospital, agreed that among the sickest were those from nursing homes. He said it did not bode well.

“If there is a surge, you are talking about the 50- to 100-bed nursing homes,” Kwan said. “These patients are going to be very sick.” With most facilities essentially on lockdown — ending family visits and new admissions — focus has turned to the staff, the one group that circulates through a nursing home, sometimes several.

“Many are afraid,” said April Verrett, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 2015, which represents some 20,000 nursing home employees across the state. “But what I hear more than anything is that our folks are continuing to go to work.”

Before the pandemic, Verrett said, workers often used N95 masks once and then tossed them out. The advice now, she said, is, “Hold on to it for your dear life, clean it every day.”

With the usual supply chain upended, owners of nursing homes have made trips to Sally Beauty Supply and AutoZone, with mixed luck, Verrett said. One facility that ran out of plastic sleeves to cover the thermometer improvised by using sandwich bags.

“Everyone is anxious,” said a certified nursing assistant at a South Pasadena nursing home. Her concerns centered on colleagues who work at multiple facilities, scraping by at $14 or $15 an hour. Her boss has begun scrutinizing their employment lest they inadvertently bring the virus with them.

“We do not make enough with just one job,” she said. “You need a good two full-time jobs, working seven days a week.”

Dr. Ying-Ying Goh, Pasadena’s director of public health, said some facilities have had difficulty securing thermometers, which are used to screen employees before, during and after their shifts.

“There’s a backlog in thermometers,” Goh said. “That’s a problem.” Lim, who works at the nursing home in Orange County, said she was “lucky” because family members had sent her a few surgical masks. She wears one of those under her cloth mask, which is sewn from a cut-up pillowcase. Every night, she said, she washes both the surgical mask and the repurposed pillow case and “sterilizes both by ironing them.”

In lieu of sterile isolation gowns, staffers at the Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging are sewing sleeves onto the cloth garments typically used by patients. Underneath, workers don a trash bag for heightened protection.

“Can you imagine that clinicians have to wear trash bags in order to provide care to the greatest generation in the history of our time? It’s just unreasonable,” said Dr. Noah Marco, chief medical officer for the L.A. Jewish Home.

Part of the problem stems from cost: Before the pandemic, isolation gowns were about 65 cents each. Now, Marco said, they’re $17.

He has asked hospital chains in Southern California to provide elder care homes with more protective gear, citing their centrality in the numbers of infections and deaths.

“‘If you help us now, we’ll reduce your patients in two weeks,’” Marco told hospitals. “But they have not been able to help us.”

At the Jewish Home, a third resident tested positive Friday, the first new case in more than two weeks. Three staff members have also tested positive. Marco said higher staffing ratios than the law requires were put in place before the pandemic, helping his organization avoid some of the challenges other facilities faced.

Because of the explosive spread of the coronavirus, public health officials try to move quickly in responding to a confirmed case. A team from the Pasadena Public Health Department, for example, investigates those individuals and their contacts. “We look at their living situation, and they may work at multiple facilities and live with people working at other facilities, and we put them in isolation, too,” Goh said. “We are trying to break the chain of transmission.”

The difficulty of keeping a sufficient number of employees on duty around the clock prompted state leaders to relax minimum staffing requirements for care facilities.

Many employees are still calling in sick or going on leave. An employee at Rose Garden Convalescent Center in Pasadena said she stopped showing up for work after she became disillusioned and panicked by her company’s handling of the outbreak.

“First it’s one, and two, and three” cases, she said, “and then everyone has it.”

While she was still clocking in for her shifts, her bosses had not yet informed the employees of any positive test results. Then city health officials confirmed her fears, saying Rose Garden was the site of an outbreak. She was especially concerned when she learned that a certified nurse assistant who had worked closely with an infected patient didn’t go into quarantine and was still on the job.

“That’s why this thing has gotten so big,” she said, “because people aren’t taking proper precautions.”

But family members are still barred from visiting their loved ones.

That has been a challenge for Maria DiSarro, who had been seeing her 85-year-old mother daily at the Heights in Burbank, where no cases have been reported.

DiSarro said her mother, a former L.A. County social worker, is in the early stages of dementia. Phone calls can be a logistical ordeal. DiSarro asked the facility if she could have a camera installed in her mother’s room, but administrators balked. “For me to take my mom out of there and put her in my home would mean I’d have to not work anymore,” DiSarro said. “I can’t have her home alone unsupervised.”

There are some moments of solace for those now isolated. At the Kensington, staffers united last week for a birthday party enabled by a hydraulic lift. Friends and family gathered to celebrate the 91st birthday of Margaret Jones, a real estate investor who has dementia.

Lucy Cavazos, a close friend of 25 years who now manages Jones’ care, stepped onto the lift to be elevated outside Jones’ second-floor room. The two shared greetings through an open window.

“When we sang to her, she was saying thank you, and that she loved us,” Cavazos said. It was a bright spot in a grim month, but she takes it in with a measure of gratitude and a solemn nod to what sometimes feels inevitable.

“I don’t know if tomorrow she’ll know who I am,” Cavazos said.

Times staff writers Kailyn Brown and Rong-Gong Lin II contributed to this report.

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California moves to protect nursing home residents from the coronavirus

The Navy hospital ship Mercy will begin accepting healthy nursing home patients to ease stress on facilities hit by the coronavirus epidemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday. (Carolyn Cole/Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

By PHIL WILLON, JACK DOLAN

APRIL 10, 2020 | 4:47 PM SACRAMENTO — Responding to escalating concerns about COVID-19 outbreaks in nursing homes, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced that some healthy residents at afflicted facilities will be transferred to the Navy hospital ship Mercy in Los Angeles to avoid exposure to the coronavirus.

The state also is dispatching 600 nurses trained in infectious disease control to assist nursing homes and other adult care facilities to stem the spread of the virus and identify and quarantine residents who test positive as quickly as possible.

Newsom said protecting California’s seniors, considered to be most at risk to become seriously ill, remains the state’s top priority.

“I‘m just giving you an overall sense of the seriousness to which we place our efforts and focus on protecting our most vulnerable, our seniors in the state of California,” Newsom said Friday during his daily COVID-19 briefing in Sacramento.

Newsom said that 1,266 residents and staff members at California’s 1,224 skilled nursing facilities have tested positive for the coronavirus. An additional 370 residents and staff members at smaller residential care centers regulated by the state Department of Social Services also have tested positive. The new strategy expands the mission of the Mercy, a ship with 1,000 hospital beds staffed by military doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers that is docked at the Port of Los Angeles. The ship initially was only to accept patients who aren’t sick with COVID-19 from Southern California hospitals, freeing up beds at medical centers that expect to see a surge in those cases in coming weeks.

“I want to thank the president and his entire team for affording us the opportunity to utilize the USNS Mercy differently and specific to the challenges within our nursing facilities and nursing homes,” Newsom said. “They are affording us the opportunity to prioritize that population by using the incredible asset that the Mercy provides us. This will help decompress the system.”

Michael Connors, spokesman for California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, said the group was “very glad to see the Governor giving attention to the desperate plight of long-term care facility residents whose lives are in such jeopardy right now.”

“Yet California must take stronger actions than those he identified to keep residents safe from COVID-19 and the deteriorating conditions in so many long term care facilities,” he said.

CANHR and other advocates have been pushing Newsom to open dedicated facilities for nursing home residents who have tested postive for COVID-19 in an effort to separate the sick from those who are still healthy.

A list of recommendations that CANHR sent Newsom on Friday also proposes ordering nursing homes with no cases to refuse to take in any new residents, ensuring that all nursing home staff have appropriate protective equipment including masks and face shields, and directing the state and all local health departments to publicly identify homes with positive cases and update the list on a daily basis. The group also asked Newsom to help families who want to pull their loved ones out of facilities by assisting them in finding home healthcare providers and guaranteeing residents will have a place in the nursing home when the crisis is over.

Los Angeles County’s public health director on Tuesday told families it would be “perfectly appropriate” to pull loved ones out of long-term facilities for their safety, while acknowledging that many families would not be able to provide the necessary care at home.

More than 120 nursing facilities and other communal living institutions in Los Angeles County alone are suspected of having coronavirus infections, including a home in Redondo Beach where four people have died and 38 others have confirmed cases.

Earlier this week, nearly 100 residents were removed from a skilled nursing facility in Riverside after more than a dozen employees missed two consecutive days of work, expressing fear for their own safety, a county official said. Officials reported 34 positive cases of COVID-19 among patients and five among employees at the skilled nursing facility.

In Alameda County, six residents sickened by coronavirus died and another 35 tested positive at Gateway Care and Rehabilitation Center in Hayward, according to Neetu Balram, spokesperson for the Public Health Department.

To help elderly Californians who aren’t in elder care facilities, including those who tested positive for the virus or have difficulty leaving their home, Newsom announced a new program to deliver eligible residents three nutritious meals a day. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is funding the program and will enlist restaurants across the state to prepare the meals. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services agency, said on Friday said that because of efforts by Californians to stay at home and maintain distance from others, the spread of the coronavirus in the state has been lower than estimates predicted.

“This is a point of pride for Californians that we’ve done so well with what we’ve been doing,” Ghaly said.

But he warned that COVID-19 cases could rise dramatically if Californians “lose the focus on physical distancing and staying at home.”

Projections by state health officials predict the peak of coronavirus cases to hit sometime in May. Both Ghaly and the governor said the state’s hospital system should be able to accommodate that surge if residents continue to heed stay-at-home orders.

Times Staff Writers Antia Chabria and Matt Hamilton contributed to this report.

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Phil Willon CORONAVIRUS More than 2,200 coronavirus deaths in nursing homes, but federal government isn't tracking them The numbers are likely a signiﬁcant undercount, given the limited access to testing and other constraints, state oﬃcials and public health experts say.

Nursing home residents are among those most likely to die from the coronavirus. Chelsea Stahl / NBC News; Getty Images

April 10, 2020, 1:07 PM PDT / Updated April 10, 2020, 2:12 PM PDT By Suzy Khimm, Laura Strickler, Andrew Blankstein and Peter Georgiev

Nearly 2,500 long-term care facilities in 36 states are battling coronavirus cases, according to data gathered by NBC News from state agencies, an explosive increase of 522 percent compared to a federal tally just 10 days ago.

The total dwarfs the last federal estimate on March 30 — based on “informal outreach” to state health departments — that more than 400 nursing homes had at least one case of the virus.

The full scale of the virus’ impact is even greater than NBC News’ tally, as key states including Florida did not provide data, and nursing homes across the United States are still struggling for access to testing.

Privacy - Terms Nursing homes with coronavirus cases Thirty-six states reported a total 2,489 long-term care facilities with COVID-19 cases.

State did not release data 0 nursing homes 1-50 51-100 More than 100 nursing homes

Hover over or tap a state to see number of nursing homes in each state.

ME MT ND OR MN VT ID NH SD WI MI NY MA: 159 WY RI: 20 CT: 92 IA PA NJ: 188 NE NV OH MD UT IL IN DE: 5 CA CO WV KS MO VA KY NC TN AZ OK NM AR SC

GA MS AL TX LA

AK FL

HI: 0

Note: Data as of April 10, 4:30 p.m. EDT.

Source: State health departments Graphic: Jiachuan Wu and Robin Muccari / NBC News

The toll of these outbreaks is growing. NBC News tallied 2,246 deaths associated with long-term care facilities, based on responses from 24 states. This, too, is an undercount; about half of all states said they could not provide data on nursing home deaths, or declined to do so. Some states said they do not track these deaths at all.

Nursing home residents are among those most likely to die from the coronavirus, given their advanced age and the prevalence of other health conditions. But the federal government does not keep a formal tally of the number of coronavirus deaths in nursing homes or the number of facilities with infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

For more on this story, watch NBC's "Nightly News with Lester Holt" tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT.

Experts say more comprehensive data is critical to battling the virus and understanding why it is spreading faster in some nursing homes than others.

“It’s impossible to ﬁght and contain this virus if we don’t know where it’s located,” said David Grabowski, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, who added that more information-gathering and transparency could help protect against future outbreaks. “You could see where it could be headed next,” he said.

Privacy - Terms Coronavirus deaths in nursing homes Twenty-four states reported a total 2,246 COVID-19 deaths associated with long-term care facilities.

State did not release data 0 deaths 1-100 101-1,000 More than 1,000 deaths Hover over or tap a state to see number of deaths in each state.

ME MT ND OR MN VT ID NH SD WI MI NY MA WY RI: 19 CT: 116 IA PA NJ: 128 NE NV OH MD UT IL IN DE: 8 CA CO WV KS MO VA KY NC TN AZ OK NM AR SC

GA MS AL TX LA

AK FL

HI: 0

Note: Data as of April 10, 12:30 p.m. EDT.

Source: State health departments Graphic: Jiachuan Wu and Robin Muccari / NBC News

Toby Edelman, senior policy attorney at the Center for Medicare Advocacy, a nonpartisan legal advocacy organization, agreed.

“It’s critical to have accurate information about which nursing homes have residents with conﬁrmed cases of COVID- 19,” she said, referring to the disease caused by the coronavirus, “and which facilities need more staﬀ and personal protective equipment, so that states can target additional resources where the need is greatest.”

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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — the division of the federal government that oversees long-term care facilities — said states must comply with state and local reporting requirements for coronavirus cases. The agency referred questions to the CDC, which declined to comment.

Do you have a story to share about how the coronavirus is aﬀecting nursing homes? Contact us

Absent federal reporting requirements, there is large variation in state eﬀorts to gather information on coronavirus infections in nursing homes and their willingness to disclose it. Privacy - Terms Nearly 60 percent of the deaths tallied by NBC News occurred in New York, where more than 1,300 residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities have died, according to the state health department. In Washington state, which had the country’s ﬁrst nursing home outbreak, there are 221 deaths associated with long-term care facilities. Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey and Connecticut all reported more than 100 deaths.

Nursing homes hit hard by coronavirus as families worry for loved ones APRIL 9, 202002:00

Some states with the largest coronavirus outbreaks — including California, Michigan and Pennsylvania — did not provide the total number of deaths in long-term care facilities.

Sixteen states released the names of the nursing homes with infections. Some states have only published such details after public pressure for greater disclosure. Two Democratic senators sent a letter to federal health oﬃcials last week demanding a complete list of aﬀected U.S. facilities.

Maryland and Ohio declined to release the names of aﬀected facilities or the total number of nursing home deaths because of state privacy laws, state oﬃcials said, despite an outbreak that has killed 18 residents in a single Maryland nursing home and at least 40 nursing home deaths in Ohio.

Georgia provided a list naming the facilities with infections, but declined to specify the numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths in nursing homes because the ﬁgures were “too dynamic,” according to Nancy Nydam, a state health department spokeswoman.

Other states say they are actively working to bring such information to light: In Massachusetts, oﬃcials say they aim to include nursing home deaths as part of the state’s daily report on the virus, published online, as Connecticut already Privacy - Terms does. Colorado, South Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Viriginia also said they were working to provide more detailed information.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

Some states, however, said they lacked the technoloy and resources to gather basic information on nursing home infections and deaths.

“This is not information consistently entered into the Michigan Disease Surveillance System reporting system by local health departments, and we don’t currently have the infrastructure within that system to collect the information and report it out,” said Lynn Sutﬁn, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Kansas, South Dakota, Alaska and Washington, D.C., did not respond to requests for data.

Even numbers provided by state health departments are likely to signiﬁcantly undercount the total, given the limited access to testing and other constraints, state oﬃcials and public health experts say.

Nevada, for example, reported 20 long-term care facilities with COVID19 infections, but said the data only reflected facilities “that proactively reported symptomatic staff and residents and have had laboratory-confirmed cases or suspect cases with laboratory testing in process,” according to a document provided by the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health.

“Universal testing for COVID19 is not available for all staﬀ and residents,” the Nevada document added.

The same obstacles also mean that many coronavirus deaths are not being counted nationwide.

Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

Meanwhile, the virus has continued to rage through nursing homes across the country, many of which lack adequate equipment to protect their residents and staﬀ.

A leading industry group said that more data would not aﬀect nursing homes’ response to the crisis.

“We are suggesting that providers act as if COVID is already in their building, even if there are not conﬁrmed cases,” the American Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes, said in a statement. “While more data is helpful, knowing the number of infections will not change the way our providers are reacting to prevent and contain the spread of the virus.”

In the Atlanta area, coronavirus cases are quickly rising, and eight nursing home residents have died as of Friday, according to the Fulton County Board of Health.

“At ﬁrst, it was just a trickle, and it seems like it just multiplied dramatically over the last week or so,” Dr. S. Elizabeth Ford, the county’s interim district health director, said. “We need to know where the clusters are so we can direct those resources.”

Suzy Khimm

Suzy Khimm is a national reporter for NBC News, focused on investigating federal agencies.

Laura Strickler Privacy - Terms Tough choices for employees at Yucaipa nursing facility with coronavirus outbreak – San Bernardino Sun

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NEWS • News Tough choices for employees at Yucaipa nursing facility with coronavirus outbreak Some employees choose quarantine, but patients still need care

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Cedar Mountain Post Acute Rehabilitation, a Yucaipa nursing facility, is seen Sunday, March 29, 2020. Twelve people at a Yucaipa nursing facility tested positive for the coronavirus, said San Bernardino County health officials, who would not name the center. Television news footage showed workers in protective gear removing items from Cedar Mountain. It is nestled within a residential area. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) M By JENNIFER IYER | [email protected] | Redlands Daily Facts  PUBLISHED: April 10, 2020 at 12:58 p.m. | UPDATED: April 10, 2020 at 1:00 p.m.

Tatianna Dancy loved helping patients at a nursing facility in Yucaipa where so far five people have died in a novel coronavirus outbreak. After she found out she was one of 75 residents and employees so far to test positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, she got what she assumes is her final paycheck in the mail.

“As soon as I told them I needed to self-quarantine they sent me a check in the mail, basically firing me,” said the mother of six, who now must isolate herself in a room away from her family.

Family members of at least three other workers have similar stories.

Elizabeth Tyler, the spokeswoman for Cedar Mountain Post-Acute Rehabilitation, acknowledged “these are hard times for everyone.” But, she said, there are still about 60 patients at the facility who need care. https://www.sbsun.com/...irus-outbreak/?utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[4/10/2020 1:06:10 PM] Tough choices for employees at Yucaipa nursing facility with coronavirus outbreak – San Bernardino Sun

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READ MORE Reach Out focuses on improving health in the Inland “You cannot simply close one of these facilities as you would another type of business,” said San Bernardino County spokesman David Wert. “The residents have nowhere else to go, especially if they are infected.”

Tyler said she couldn’t go into specifics about any individual employee’s status with the company due to confidentiality concerns, but she said no employees have been terminated for being sick, and those who have tested positive and have symptoms are referred to workers’ compensation. Employees can be terminated, she said, if they don’t call and don’t show up for work.

“If every health care worker who was exposed stayed home, or every health care worker who was positive and asymptomatic stayed home, we’d have that collapse of the system that everyone is terrified is going to happen,” Tyler said.

https://www.sbsun.com/...irus-outbreak/?utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[4/10/2020 1:06:10 PM] Tough choices for employees at Yucaipa nursing facility with coronavirus outbreak – San Bernardino Sun That’s what unfolded Wednesday at a Riverside nursing facility with confirmed COVID-19 cases. Employees did not show up two days in a row and the 83 patients at Magnolia Rehabilitation and Nursing Center were evacuated to other locations across Riverside County.

Sixteen of the Riverside center’s staff members had tested positive at that point, six were negative and 130 employee tests were pending. Thirty-four patients tested positive and 47 had tested negative.

Following CDC guidelines RELATED LINKS

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines do After coronavirus outbreak at Colton allow exposed, but asymptomatic, healthcare professionals nursing home, San Bernardino County to work “after options to improve staffing have been issues new orders exhausted.” 83 patients evacuated from Riverside Tyler said this is the strategy being used at Cedar skilled nursing home after coronavirus outbreak Mountain.

51 residents, 6 staff at Yucaipa nursing “If you’re positive and asymptomatic, you can work with home test positive for coronavirus positive patients,” she said. Coronavirus: Federal stocks of protective Administrators have brought in trailers for staff to use if they equipment nearly depleted are concerned about going home to their families because they’re positive, not symptomatic, and still working. Several Fast food workers to stage walkout Thursday over coronavirus employees, Tyler said, are availing themselves of that option.

Despite the outbreak, the facility has been fortunate, she said.

“There has been tremendous support from the community,” she said. “People coming, knocking on

the door saying ‘Can I apply for a job, or help?’”

Some have placed balloons and flowers in front of the facility.

Workers’ claims

Family members of three other workers said their loved ones were not tested at the facility, causing them to worry about their health and the status of their jobs and paychecks.

“Not all employees were tested,” confirmed Wert, the county spokesman. “Once the results began coming in and it was clear there were more than 50 cases it was assumed that everyone who lives and works there was exposed and testing more would have been pointless and a waste of scarce testing resources. All employees, tested or not, were instructed to self-isolate.”

Dancy, who was feeling “under the weather” Monday, April 6, said she has received no termination papers, and no one had called her since she was told she had to come to work. She was told she could answer the phone, she said.

“For me, that’s not essential,” Dancy added. “At that point, I needed to quarantine myself because I have six children at home.”

It’s unclear what will happen if she files for unemployment, though she said her employer told her it would push back against such a claim.

“They just threw me out like a piece of trash, and I have six kids at home that are exposed now,” Dancy said. “I have no form of income.”

Help from outside

San Bernardino County has established a Nursing Facilities Task Force to monitor the 171 state- licensed facilities caring for more than 6,600 of the county’s most at-risk residents. The county also issued an order mandating patient safety measures.

Meanwhile, Gov. Gavin Newsom has sent teams to support RELATED ARTICLES the more than 8,832 skilled nursing facilities in the state.

Coronavirus workers: Stater Bros. A top priority, Newsom said in a news briefing Wednesday, extends $2 hourly raises through May 3 April 8, is to find “alternative facilities so that we can isolate California will peak soon with 66 and quarantine individuals and help support the staffing coronavirus deaths in one day, one anxiety and staffing needs as staff become infected and https://www.sbsun.com/...irus-outbreak/?utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[4/10/2020 1:06:10 PM] Tough choices for employees at Yucaipa nursing facility with coronavirus outbreak – San Bernardino Sun

research center says staff obviously extend real anxiety about their lack of

Food, bag shortages complicate schools’ personal protective gear and their capacity to continue to student meals mission during coronavirus do their jobs safely.” crisis Tyler said the CDC had also visited the Yucaipa facility and Worldwide deaths from the coronavirus hit offered help. 100,000 As of Thursday, April 9, San Bernardino County has 641 Should we delay smog checks because of confirmed cases of COVID-19 and the deaths of 20 county coronavirus? residents have been associated with the disease.

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Jennifer Iyer | Staff writer A lifelong Inland resident, Jennifer Iyer started working in journalism at The Press-Enterprise in 2000. She has written (and shot photos for) stories on wildflowers, camping with a dog, and many community events, and as a videographer covered wildfires and war games to blimp rides and camel racing from Temecula to Big Bear Lake, Twentynine Palms to Jurupa Valley.

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https://www.sbsun.com/...irus-outbreak/?utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[4/10/2020 1:06:10 PM] Trailers for homeless with coronavirus symptoms set up at Glen Helen Regional Park – San Bernardino Sun

LOCAL NEWS • News Trailers for homeless with coronavirus symptoms set up at Glen Helen Regional Park

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https://www.sbsun.com/2020/04/11/trailers-for-homeless-with-coronavirus-symptoms-set-up-at-glen-helen-regional-park/[4/13/2020 11:24:13 AM] Trailers for homeless with coronavirus symptoms set up at Glen Helen Regional Park – San Bernardino Sun

A Caltrans worker unhitches a trailer on Thursday, April 9, 2020, as crews deliver about 20 to the campground at Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino County. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

By SANDRA EMERSON | [email protected] and BRIAN WHITEHEAD | [email protected] |  PUBLISHED: April 11, 2020 at 8:00 a.m. | UPDATED: April 11, 2020 at 8:01 a.m.

About 20 trailers set up at Glen Helen Regional Park will play a key role in slowing the novel coronavirus spread among the local homeless population and community.

The trailers, purchased by the state, arrived Thursday, April 9, at the park near the Cajon Pass in San Bernardino County. They will house homeless individuals and families who have tested positive for COVID-19 or are suspected to have the illness.

“When our medical experts give us their very best educated medical advice, that advice applies to everyone equally,” Supervisor Josie Gonzales said referring to the guidance from public health. “We M must not discriminate because the virus does not discriminate.”

The trailers are part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $150 million emergency funding package to shelter homeless people during the coronavirus pandemic. Fifteen trailers were set up this week at Riverside Municipal Airport for the same purpose.

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READ MORE These chain restaurants are selling cost effective Following Newsom’s “Project Roomkey” effort, the county is also working to secure hotel and motel rooms to temporarily house at-risk homeless who are unable to “stay at home.”

Money through the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be available to reimburse local governments for much of the costs of providing rooms, meals, security and custodial services. Behavioral health and health care services will also be available, according to the Governor’s office.

The county is working with hotels and motels that have RELATED LINKS volunteered otherwise empty rooms to house 300 to 350 homeless individuals most at risk of getting a severe or https://www.sbsun.com/2020/04/11/trailers-for-homeless-with-coronavirus-symptoms-set-up-at-glen-helen-regional-park/[4/13/2020 11:24:13 AM] Trailers for homeless with coronavirus symptoms set up at Glen Helen Regional Park – San Bernardino Sun

San Bernardino County reports 4 more fatal case of COVID-19, Gonzales said. That includes those coronavirus deaths, 88 more cases who are older than 65 and with underlying health San Bernardino County clarifies its conditions. coronavirus mask order won’t be enforced No one who has tested positive will be placed in the hotels After coronavirus outbreak at Colton or motels, she said. nursing home, San Bernardino County issues new orders The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s Homeless Outreach and Proactive Enforcement, or Trailers for homeless with coronavirus H.O.P.E. team, has placed 26 people — some with families symptoms set up at Riverside airport — in a hotel on Hospitality Lane in San Bernardino, county Inland Empire officials move homeless spokesman David Wert said. into motels amid coronavirus threat

None of them have tested positive for COVID-19, he said.

The move has drawn the ire of San Bernardino city officials who say they were not consulted during the planning process.

Councilman Henry Nickel called the relocation of out-of-town homeless people to a city already overburdened by the population “negligent” and “irresponsible.” Even before the coronavirus pandemic swept the region, San Bernardino was stretched thin on resources for the city’s most vulnerable, he said.

In a phone interview, Nickel said city leaders still are unclear how the county plans to transition the homeless individuals out of the hotels; provide security at the facility; ensure the population doesn’t “migrate into our community”; and what impact the temporary move will have on residents’ long-term health and safety.

“It’s unacceptable,” Nickel said. “What the county has done is just unconscionable. The fact they never notified the city before engaging in this decision, to me, shows bad faith.

“We cannot trust the county in terms of their homeless operations if this is the behavior they’re going to engage in.”

County officials say they are looking at locations in other cities as well. However, it would not be practical to have hotel and motel leases in each of the county’s 24 cities, county Chief Executive Office Gary McBride said in an April 7 letter to San Bernardino City Manager Teri Ledoux, who wrote the county April 3 with the city’s concerns.

“Given the limited resources available to stand up services around each location,” McBride said, “the county must concentrate its efforts on larger facilities in fewer locations.”

This is also not a permanent solution to addressing homelessness in the county, officials say.

“Once this crisis is over,” Wert said, “those hotels will not be in use for this purpose, which should go without saying.”

While temporary, the county needs to take advantage of this opportunity to find homeless people permanent housing, employment and education once the crisis is over, Gonzales said.

“If we aren’t smart enough to reduce the homeless RELATED ARTICLES population numbers on the other end of this crisis, then we

What you need to know about legal truly have failed to see the silver lining that can be had from documents amid coronavirus pandemic Project Roomkey,” Gonzales said.

Trump says he’ll decide on easing Gonzales said she understands San Bernardino’s guidelines, not governors apprehension, but housing the homeless prevents them from unintentionally spreading the disease. Coronavirus patient’s recovery after 20 days on ventilator is a miracle for family, a “We’ve been given a challenge,” Gonzales said. “This welcome boost for doctors challenge is upon all of us, all the 24 cities and the county Navy reports first coronavirus death from of San Bernardino and we need to step up to that Roosevelt crew challenge.”

Inland high school athletes get creative as they keep up with training during Newsroom Guidelines coronavirus shutdown News Tips Contact Us Report an Error https://www.sbsun.com/2020/04/11/trailers-for-homeless-with-coronavirus-symptoms-set-up-at-glen-helen-regional-park/[4/13/2020 11:24:13 AM] DW

CALIFORNIA FORUM Stay-at-home orders to fight coronavirus are protected by the U.S. Constitution

BY ERWIN CHEMERINSKY SPECIAL TO THE SACRAMENTO BEE

MARCH 31, 2020 05:00 AM, UPDATED MARCH 31, 2020 05:00 AM    

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The law is clear: the government has broad power in a public health emergency to take the steps needed to stop the spread of a communicable disease. In 1905, the Supreme Court declared: “Upon the principle of self-defense, of paramount necessity, a community has the right to protect itself against an epidemic of disease which threatens the safety of its members.”

Some conservative voices are now questioning the legality of stay-at-home orders. One conservative commentator called stay-at-home orders “totalitarian” and cast doubt on their constitutionality. These claims have no basis in law.

There is no right to put the health of others in danger and to act in a way that risks the collapse of our health care system. The government can, if it chooses, impose criminal penalties on those who willfully disobey orders designed to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

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This is not a new principle. A few years after the end of the Revolutionary War, Philadelphia was isolated to control the spread of yellow fever. By the time the Constitution was drafted and approved, quarantine was already a well-established form of public health regulation. States, as part of their police power, were deemed to have the authority to order quarantines to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. In 1926, the Supreme Court wrote: “it is well settled that a state, in the exercise of its police power, may establish quarantines against human beings, or animals, or plants.”

In Jacobson v. Massachusetts, in 1905, the court upheld laws requiring compulsory vaccination against smallpox. A challenge was brought to this law on the ground that it interfered with the liberty of people to choose to not be vaccinated and to decide how to protect their own health. The court emphatically rejected this argument and stated: “But the liberty secured by the Constitution of the United States to every person within its jurisdiction does not import an absolute right in each person to be, at all times and in all circumstances, wholly freed from restraint. There are manifold restraints to which every person is necessarily subject for the common good.”

Every challenge to a compulsory vaccination law, even without exceptions for OPINION religious beliefs, has been rejected with courts always upholding the government’s power to protect public health. A person’s liberty does not include the right to injure or endanger others. It long has been recognized that my ability to swing my ﬁst stops at another person’s nose. Thus, there is no doubt that a state has the authority to impose the restrictions necessary to limit the spread of a communicable disease. State laws give governors and city oﬃcials broad authority to deal with public health emergencies.

If the government can quarantine individuals and prevent them from leaving their homes, then it also has the power to do something less restrictive, such as shelter in place requirements. Likewise, the law is clear that the government can close businesses when necessary for the sake of public health. The orders for restaurants, bars and non-essential businesses are thus unquestionably constitutional. I hope that arrests and criminal prosecutions are not needed to enforce these restrictions, but the government has that power if needed. These enormous powers do restrict freedoms and therefore are not to be lightly undertaken. Courts would step in if the government used this authority when it was not needed or in an unreasonable manner. But under the current circumstances with the spread of coronavirus COVID-19, courts certainly would back up the government’s authority to protect society from “an epidemic of disease which threatens the safety of its members.”

I am discouraged to hear conservatives questioning the government’s authority to take the measures necessary to protect public health. They are not only wrong as a matter of law, but those who advocate disobeying restrictions may be contributing to the spread of disease, deaths and the overburdening of the health care system. I would hope in our deeply politically polarized times that all of us, regardless of ideology, can come together to protect the health of all of us and deal with a pandemic.

Erwin Chemerinsky is dean and professor of law at the UC Berkeley School of Law. He can be contacted at [email protected].

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FEATURED Car churches are back on for Easter services

By Leslie Shaw Hi-Desert Star Apr 10, 2020

Joshua Springs Calvary Chapel Pastor Jerel Hagerman conducts a drive-in "car church" in the chapel's parking lot recently. "It's fun. I have some jokes. I'm so grateful that the county is allowing us to hold our drive-in Easter Sunday services." The church will be holding Easter services at 6:30, 8 and 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. courtesy photo

MORONGO BASIN — After banning car church services this week, the county’s health ocer backed off a bit, saying churches may still hold the drive-in Easter services they had already planned.

“Supervisor Dawn Rowe appealed to the board on our behalf to allow the Easter drive-in Sunday services,” said Jerel Hagerman, pastor of Joshua Springs Calvary Chapel in Yucca Valley. San Bernardino County Acting Health Ocer Dr. Erin Gustafson rst ordered an end to all drive-in services on Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday morning, she amended the order to allow drive-in Easter services.

Rowe’s oce conrmed via email Wednesday that drive-in church services are allowed under the current stay-at-home order.

Several churches contacted Rowe and expressed their displeasure with the order issued Tuesday because they had Easter drive-in services planned. Rowe worked with her colleagues on the board of supervisors and public health ocials to ensure that Easter drive-in services could continue.

“I take very seriously our religious freedoms and liberties in this country. Churches in our county have been very creative in offering alternative methods of worship to their congregants in an attempt to comply with the current health orders,” Rowe said.

“However, demanding that churches cancel these alternative worship services during one of the holiest weeks was something that troubled me deeply. I’m appreciative that our county’s health ocer took my concerns into consideration and issued new guidance allowing our citizens the ability to observe the Easter holiday in a safe manner.”

“We are so grateful to the county to let us have it. It really just didn’t make sense. Nobody is allowed to get out of their cars. If they need to exit the vehicle for any reason, then they have to leave,” Hagerman said.

“It’s an opportunity for people to nd some joy and hope in a very safe environment. Also, it’s fun, I have some jokes. People get to wave out the windows at each other.”

Joshua Springs will hold drive-in service at 6:30 a.m. for the sunrise service and then at 8 and 10 a.m. Sunday at the church parking lot at 57373 Joshua Lane in Yucca Valley.

Hagerman said visitors will stay in their cars and nothing will be passed between anyone. So there will be no collections taken, no communion given and no literature passed out.

There will also be an evening service, “The Hope Drive-in Crusade,” at 7 p.m. Sunday.

“We will even have people put on their ashers during part of the service,” said Hagerman. When asked about the previously-planned “Live at 5 Parade of Cars” event set for Thursday evening, he said, “I’m pretty sure we won’t be having it; we don’t want to push it with the county. We are grateful to have the Easter events.”

Joshua Springs is alerting its ock to the good news online via Facebook. “Good news travels fast,” said Hagerman.

Godwin Christian Fellowship is also ocially back on for drive-in Easter service at 10:30 a.m. at the church at 6389 Godwin Road in Twentynine Palms.

When reached for comment, Pastor Max Rossi hadn’t yet heard about the amended order, but said, “That would make me so happy if we could still do it.”

After conrmation from the supervisor’s oce, Rossi said, “Thank you for the wonderful news. I am composing a message to our congregants right now.”

Godwin Fellowship plans to follow county’s recommendations, “They amended their decision to allow drive-in religious services with the appropriate safety measures: face coverings, gloves and six feet distancing between individuals,” wrote Rossi.

There will be no communion, any donations can be taken by people with masks and gloves.

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church is also going ahead with its service.

“We are going to have our Easter sunrise service ‘drive-in’ style at 6:30 a.m. Sunday morning. It will also be on Facebook Live as well,” Pastor Matt Jennings wrote in an email Thursday.

Good Shepherd is located at 59077 Yucca Trail in Yucca Valley.

Jennings explained what kind of Communion services are available, “We aren’t offering Communion in a public way, meaning by appointment only, not opening the church sanctuary an anyone-come-in kind of way. We decided against it when the new News Release came out on Tuesday.”

The church will not be distributing paper bulletins, but will instead have them uploaded to the church’s FB page as a PDF. The church asks that any collection donations would most preferably be mailed in, use online banking or “drop it by if I’m here. If anyone brings a donation on Sunday, we’ll take it with gloves and a mask on,” wrote Jennings. DONATE

These SoCal Churches Are Holding Drive-In Easter Sunday Services by Josie Huang in News on April 11, 2020 4:18 PM

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Special Report: Deceit, Disrepair Jerel Hagerman, a pastor at Joshua Springs Calvary Church in Yucca Valley, has been leading drive-in services in recent weeks. and Death Inside a (Anthony Burns) Southern California Our news is free on LAist. To make sure you get our coverage: Sign up for our daily Rental Empire coronavirus newsletter. To support our non-profit public service journalism: Donate Now.

Though many public health officials warn against drive-in church gatherings, Easter Sunday Oops, They Did It: A services are still scheduled at a smattering of congregations around Southern California. Pop-Up Recreating Britney Spears' In Santa Ana, parishioners plan to meet in the parking lot of an office complex for a service led by Rev. Robert A. Schuller, and listen to him — with windows closed — through an FM radio Music Videos In stream. LA's Fairfax District

"They can wave to each other, feel connected and not like they're all alone by themselves in their house," Schuller said. The Best Café De Olla In Los Angeles In San Bernardino County, Pastor Jerel Hagerman's church will hold drive-in services on Easter -- And Why You Sunday, as it has for the past several weeks. It's a loud affair at Joshua Springs Calvary Chapel Need To Drink It in Yucca Valley, with Hagerman's sermon blasted through loudspeakers.

"When I say 'amen' everybody's honking their horns," Hagerman said. "I have a joke for that: We call it a blast." 'Car Accident' Or 'Traffic Violence'? The Way We Talk DON'T MISS ANY L.A. CORONAVIRUS NEWS About Crashes Is Evolving Get our daily newsletters for the latest on COVID-19 and other top local headlines.

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Hagerman said he knows that at least two other churches in San Bernardino County are also holding drive-in Easter services. But they are in the clear minority.

In recent weeks, many temples, mosques and churches have pivoted to virtual services, following orders that banned non-household gatherings and allowed outings only for the essentials such as groceries.

The communal set-up in houses of worship made social distancing six feet apart almost impossible. But a few church leaders, even as they've relented on holding in-person events, insist in-car services fill an essential need for the faithful and are safe because people remain in their vehicles.

"You go to Home Depot, Costco, Walmart," Hagerman said. "How many cars are in the parking lot parked right next to each other and people are getting out?"

A drone shot of a drive-in service at Joshua Springs Calvary Church in Yucca Valley. (Anthony Burns)

The debate played out in San Bernardino County this week, starting Tuesday when the public health officer there issued an order prohibiting drive-in church services.

Religious leaders such as Hagerman complained to the county, and by Wednesday afternoon, the board of supervisors had overruled the health officer, saying that churches could hold in-car services for Easter, said county spokesman David Wert.

Wert said officials concluded that they had not given churches enough notice to cancel drive-in services. They were also impressed, Wert said, to hear about the social distancing precautions some churches have taken, and may actually ease their restriction on in-car events as early as this week. But officials will have to balance that with their nervousness over large gatherings.

"We really have cautioned the churches to try to make sure that people stay in their cars and don't pass candy or other gifts from car-to-car because they could spread the illness," Wert said.

The Center for American Liberty, a religious rights advocacy group, sent a letter to San Bernardino County officials Wednesday evening threatening legal action, but Wert said that county supervisors had already removed the drive-in restriction hours earlier.

Here is what other counties say about drive-in services:

Los Angeles County: A county spokesman shared a statement from Health Officer Dr. Muntu Davis, shared via e-mail: "We had heard that some faith-based groups were planning gatherings of people in their cars. We know that this is in an effort to safely be together, but we also asked that, for now, they please cancel any such gatherings — whether in person or with everyone in their car. Right now, it is not safe to do so and this activity is prohibited in the Safer at Home Order."

Jerel Hagerman, senior pastor at Joshua Springs Calvary Church in Yucca Valley, greets parishioners parked in cars. (Anthony

Burns)

Orange County: Spokeswoman Carrie Braun said in an e-mail: "We haven't put out any guidance specific to churches. At this time, Orange County is following guidance from the Governor regarding essential businesses and social distancing. If churches can comply with social distancing requirements, they can hold services. Our understanding is most have chosen to hold virtual services at this time."

Ventura County: Spokeswoman Ashley Bautista told LAist: "If people are coming together and the windows are closed, and they're just listening to the [church service on the] radio, and it's a comfort to see the person in the car next to you, that's not banned. But the recommendation here is to stay home as much as possible. Or if you do go out to get fresh air, that you are just with members of your household."

Riverside County: Spokesman John Welsh told LAist: "We know that some churches have been participating or holding these 'drive-through' services. Riverside County will permit drive up services for this weekend only. Having said that, though, the public health order does still remain, and we are prohibiting these activities for the remainder of the month."

Julia Paskin contributed to this report.

What questions do you have about coronavirus? https://www.highlandnews.net/news/cypress-elementary-holds-parade/article_bb761fa4-7a76-11ea-ba56-57ccbc60e43a.html Cypress Elementary holds parade

Hector Hernandez Jr. Apr 9, 2020

Cypress Elementary teacher Jennifer McDuee cruises through her students’ neighborhood to wave “Hello” and let them know she misses them. hector hernandez jr.

On Friday, April 3, educators and teachers of Cypress Elementary organized a drive-thru parade to pass by the home of their students to wave ‘Hello’ and oer encouragement while students are ate home during the coronavirus school closure.

According to Principal Ryan Rubio, the parade sprang from the hearts of the school’s sta for their students.

Teachers maintained social distancing guidelines in the school parking lot as they decorated their cars with messages of encouragement for their students. In the meantime, students were at home creating greeting posters for their teachers.

The eort was led by Jennifer Barber who saw other schools holding similar events.

“Everybody’s just missing their babies,” Barber said of the teachers’ motivations. “We want to see the kids and let them know we love and miss them.”

Barder said the abrupt separation was especially hard as it came with little warning.

San Bernardino City Unied School District Board of Education voted to close the district’s schools during an emergency meeting on Friday evening, March 13.

“We didn’t get to say, ‘Goodbye,’ that last Friday, and that hurts everybody,” Barber said.

Special education day care teacher Alisa Howe said the closure and disruption of the daily routine has been especially dicult for the special education students.

“Its going to be very challenging. With these kids, everything we teach is hands-on. It’s, ‘See me do it, you do it.’ We want the kids to be able to see us.” Monday, April 6, would have been the students’ rst day back to school after spring break but the coronavirus closure has been extended to the end of the school year.

To provide distance learning, the school mailed two-week lesson packets to each student to work through at home as teachers prepare and train to transition to online teaching methods for the remainder of the school year.

Hector Hernandez Jr. http://www.hidesertstar.com/covid-19/article_70b992e4-7b79-11ea-ae28-bf3a152ac09b.html

TOP STORY Copper Mountain College to host COVID-19 testing on April 22

Apr 10, 2020

Public health workers bag up swabs to be tested at San Bernardino County's rst drive-through testing for the new coronavirus Friday, March 27. County photo

JOSHUA TREE — Testing for the new coronavirus will be offered from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, at Copper Mountain College, 6162 Rotary Way.

San Bernardino County Public Health workers will take samples from Morongo Basin residents to be tested for the virus.

Residents must display symptoms of COVID-19 including fever, cough and shortness of breath. The county has been allowing testing only of people who have all three symptoms.

San Bernardino County residents who have had COVID-19 symptoms over the last two weeks can make an appointment at sbcovid19.com when the appointment window for each event opens.

Details specic to each event and information on how to make an appointment will be publicized in advance on CountyWire at http://wp.sbcounty.gov/cao/countywire.

Testing is free and does not require health insurance.

Future testing events are being planned in Twentynine Palms, San Bernardino and Victorville. Details will be announced soon.

“We understand the high demand for COVID-19 testing in our county and we are making every effort to organize drive-through events throughout the county,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman Curt Hagman. “We are working closely with state and federal partners and exploring all avenues to increase testing capacity, despite a nationwide challenge with shortage of supplies.”

Copper Mountain College trustees approved an agreement allowing the county to use the college Thursday morning.

The memorandum of understanding with the San Bernardino County health department did not specically mention testing, but allows the county to use college facilities to provide medical care in response to a pandemic.

Other drive-through testing events are scheduled throughout the county, weather permitting:

• April 11 at Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa. This event was organized by the city of Yucaipa with support from the county.

• April 14 at Montclair Place in Montclair.

• April 17 at Fox Farm Lot in Big Bear Lake. Because of hazardous conditions, it is strongly recommended that only mountain residents attend the Big Bear Lake event.

• April 27 at the LoanMart Field (Quakes Stadium) in Rancho Cucamonga. More than 6,000 people have been tested for COVID-19 in San Bernardino County

The county is actively pursuing supplies for COVID-19 testing both domestically and internationally so it can offer testing in more communities.

“The process has required research and evaluation that has resulted in several pending orders for thousands of serology (antibody) and extraction test kits for use throughout the county,” a news release from county spokeswoman Felisa Cardona said.

“Meanwhile the County continues to receive testing supplies from commercial laboratories to support drive-through test sites. New test kit products are evaluated on a daily basis and the county is condent that even more testing solutions will be available in the near future.” 64°

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LOCAL NEWS Where to get tested for coronavirus in San Bernardino County

COVID-19 testing site opens in Yucaipa

by: Kristina Bravo, Megan Telles Posted: Apr 11, 2020 / 12:35 PM PDT / Updated: Apr 11, 2020 / 02:03 PM PDT

San Bernardino County ofcials have announced ve drive-thru testings sites available in April for residents who have experienced symptoms of COVID-19 over the last two weeks.

Signs of the contagious disease include fever, cough and shortness of breath. As of April 11, more than 7,800 patients have been tested in the county — 810 of them found positive 64°for COVID-19. The county has reported 25 deaths related to the coronavirus.

San Bernardino County announced new testing sites after a Yucaipa nursing facility reported multiple cases of COVID-19 among its residents, including at least two who have died.

The following locations are scheduled to make testing available for free in April. Health insurance isn’t required, and residents can make an appointment online through the county’s COVID-19 webpage ahead of testing dates or by calling the COVID-19 hotline at 909-387-3911.

Ofcials said they plan to open more testing locations at Twentynine Palms, San Bernardino and Victorville.

When Where What you need to know April 11, Crafton Hills College Testing is available for Saturday 11711 Sand Canyon Road Yucaipa residents until supplies 10 a.m.- Yucaipa, CA 92399 last. Appointments are not required. 1 p.m. Click here for more information. April 14, Montclair Place Testing is available for San Tuesday 5060 E. Montclair Plaza Lane Bernardino County residents who 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Montclair, CA 91763 make an appointment online at 2 p.m. on April 13 or call the county’s COVID-19 hotline at 909-387-3911. Those who request an appointment will be prescreened to ensure that they meet the testing criteria. April 17, Fox Farm Lot County ofcials advise that only Friday 41850 Garstin Drive, Big Bear Lake residents attend this event 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Big Bear Lake, CA 92315 due to hazardous conditions. Testing is by appointment only. April 22, Copper Mountain College Testing is by appointment only. Wednesday 6162 Rotary Way Watch this page on the county website 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Joshua Tree, CA 92252 for further information. April 27, LoanMart Field (Quakes stadium) Testing is by appointment only. Monday 8408 Rochester Ave. Watch this page on the county website 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730 for further information. 64° San Bernardino County COVID-19 Dashboard

Overall Positive Cases

Positive Cases

This dashboard 887 provides a visual of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) surveillance in San Bernardino County. Data Patients Tested reported here is considered 7,954 preliminary and subject to change based on further investigation.

The legend items Percent Positive for both graphs (i.e., Positives, Total) can 11.2% Positive Cases by Deaths 31

Gender Overall Positives Location Overall Tests Daily Details Mea…

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Here’s a map of COVID-19 testing sites in L.A. County

Here’s how many cases of coronavirus have been conrmed in San Bernardino County cities

8 residents hospitalized from Yucaipa nursing home, the site of county’s biggest virus outbreak

2nd resident dies of COVID-19 at Yucaipa nursing home; all residents assumed infected

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SHARE THIS STORY Inmate, another San Bernardino County deputy test positive for coronavirus – San Bernardino Sun

NEWS • News Inmate, another San Bernardino County deputy test positive for coronavirus

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West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga. West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.

By STAFF REPORT | |  PUBLISHED: April 11, 2020 at 10:26 p.m. | UPDATED: April 12, 2020 at 6:52 p.m.

A jail inmate and another San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department deputy have tested positive for https://www.sbsun.com/2020/04/11/inmate-another-san-bernardino-county-deputy-test-positive-for-coronavirus/[4/13/2020 11:22:38 AM] Inmate, another San Bernardino County deputy test positive for coronavirus – San Bernardino Sun

the coronavirus, the agency said Saturday night.

In a statement, the Sheriff’s Department said the positive test of an inmate at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga was the department’s first inmate to test positive for COVID- 19.

“The inmate was symptomatic and transported to a hospital for treatment. He was returned to the jail, placed in isolation, and tested for COVID-19. The jail was notified today the inmate was positive for the virus. He is being provided with medical treatment around the clock,” the statement said.

The department also said its seventh deputy to test positive for coronavirus “is assigned to the corrections bureau and was off work with flu-like symptoms before getting tested. The deputy remained off work while awaiting test results. Today the deputy’s results were positive for COVID-19.”

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Angelenos Overwhelmingly Support Strict Stay Home Orders, Even As 58% Report Losing Income by Brian Frank in News on April 11, 2020 12:50 PM

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Special Report: Deceit, Disrepair and Death Inside a Southern California Rental Empire One result of physical distancing and stay home orders: Empty rush hour roads. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

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New research from Loyola Marymount University's Center for the Study of Los Angeles finds Britney Spears' widespread economic hardship — with immigrants appearing to suffer more than other groups Music Videos In — even as the vast majority of L.A. County residents believe strong measures are needed to LA's Fairfax District deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

So far Angelenos have been told to stay home, to stop going to work or school, to wear masks The Best Café De in public, and to keep their distance even from the people they love. But many seem ready and Olla In Los Angeles willing to endure even more restrictions if it means stopping the spread of the coronavirus. -- And Why You

The current stay-at-home order has almost universal support (95%) among L.A. County Need To Drink It residents. Nearly a third actually say the local government has not done enough. Views on government response so far (p. 4) 'Car Accident' Or 'Traffic Violence'? The Way We Talk About Crashes Is Evolving

View the entire document with DocumentCloud

When you look at individual measures such as shutting public transit or closing all airports, support for new restrictions looks even more robust.

Yes, this is the same study L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti referenced several times in his nightly updates earlier this week. The full study was made public this morning.

Researchers polled 2,000 Angelenos in English and Spanish both online and by phone between March 23 and April 8. The survey included 30 broad-ranging questions to get a sense of the public's awareness of and concerns about the coronavirus, and of the economic impact of the measures taken so far.

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Here's a breakdown of the public's support for major actions that could be taken to limit the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus:

69% support closing public transit 86% support closing schools the rest of the year 79% support restricting travel within California 78% support closing all airports 86% support the government takeover of hotels and motels to quarantine people who might get sick and isolate patients who are

At the same time, these restrictions have a very real impact on the economy. Here's a look — from the same study — at the economic picture so far during the pandemic:

48% of L.A. County residents say they've been let go or had their hours reduced 61% say they're able to work from home 58% say their income has been somewhat or significantly reduced 59% say they're worried about being able to buy food

Lost income (p. 17) View the entire document with DocumentCloud

The impact is not shared evenly across the economy, though. Immigrants, along with younger or lower-income workers, appear to be getting hit harder. Look at who said their income has been reduced, for instance, and a clearer picture emerges:

Responded in English: 56.5%

Responded in Spanish: 75.4% Full-time workers: 56.4% Part-time workers: 78.5%

Can work from home: 55.9% Can't work from home: 71.1%

Aged 45-64: 55.3% Aged 30-44: 68.3% Aged 18-29: 64.8%

Income is $100K-$150K: 52.7%

Income is under $40K: 65%

Another interesting finding: Angelenos have more faith in local officials than in the president when it comes to handling the pandemic. Here are some approval ratings (meaning the public has a fair amount to a great deal of confidence in the person or agency):

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti: 85% Gov. Gavin Newsom: 84%

Local health department: 86% President Donald Trump: 38%

You can read a full summary of the findings below:

To print the document, click the "Original Document" link to open the original PDF. At this time it is not possible to print the document with annotations. Democracy Dies in Darkness Coronavirus Live updates U.S. map World map FAQs How to help Flattening

‘It feels like a war zone’: As more of them die, grocery workers increasingly fear showing up at work At least 41 grocery workers have died of the coronavirus and thousands more have tested positive in recent weeks

By Abha Bhattarai

April 12, 2020 at 3:32 p.m. PDT

Doug Preszler wasn’t thinking about risk when he took a cashier job at a regional supermarket in eastern Iowa. But five months in, he has found himself at the forefront of a global crisis with little training or protection — save for the pocket- size bottle of hand sanitizer and Ziploc full of disposable gloves he brings from home each day.

The 51-year-old has told himself not to live in fear yet concedes he increasingly is. Even the most routine tasks are fraught: Accepting bills and giving change scare him the most, Preszler says. And he has run through so much hand sanitizer that his skin is cracking.

“I’ve been way more anxious this week,” he said. “They’ve started telling people, ‘Go to the grocery store as little as possible.’ And yet I’m going there every day.” AD

Next to health-care providers, no workforce has proved more essential during the novel coronavirus pandemic than the 3 million U.S. grocery store employees who restock shelves and freezers, fill online orders and keep checkout lines moving. Although the public health guidelines are clear — steer clear of others — these workers are putting in longer shifts and taking on bigger workloads. Many report being stressed and scared, especially as their colleagues fall ill to the highly contagious coronavirus that is responsible for more than 21,000 deaths in the United States alone.

Some liken their job to working in a war zone, knowing that the simple act of showing up to work could ultimately kill them. At least 41 grocery workers have died so far. They include a Trader Joe’s employee in New York, a Safeway worker in Seattle, a pair of Walmart associates near Chicago and four Kroger employees in Michigan, as well as employees at meatpacking plants and food processing facilities around the country. Thousands more have tested positive for the virus.

Now workers across the country are staying home or quitting altogether, according to interviews with more than a dozen employees, leaving many markets short- staffed and ill-prepared to deal with demand. That’s complicated the scramble led by Walmart, Kroger and Safeway to fill hundreds of thousands of new jobs. Demand for groceries has doubled in recent weeks, employees say, as Americans avoid restaurants and prepare most of their meals at home. AD

Job postings for grocery clerks have jumped 60 percent in the past four weeks, according to Julia Pollak, a labor economist for the site ZipRecruiter. Supermarkets are increasingly hard-pressed to find and keep staff. Workers are walking out, going on strike and circulating petitions aimed at getting companies such as Amazon, Trader Joe’s and delivery service Instacart to take additional measures to protect their health.

“The language in job postings has become more desperate,” Pollak said. “Grocery companies are saying there’s an ‘urgent need’ or that they need workers to ‘start immediately.’ It’s becoming more difficult to convince workers to put themselves at risk.”

Chains such as Kroger and Safeway have begun providing masks and gloves. Walmart is checking employees’ temperatures before each shift. And countless large and regional chains have installed plexiglass shields at cash registers and signs encouraging social distancing — the best defense against spreading the coronavirus. But employees say more needs to be done. AD

“Grocery workers are risking their safety, often for poverty-level wages, so the rest of us can shelter in place,” said John Logan, director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University. “The only way the rest of us are able to stay home is because they’re willing to go to work.”

Public health experts generally say nurses, doctors, paramedics and other medical workers have the highest risk of exposure to the coronavirus. But grocery workers also come in close contact with large groups of people, often without meaningful protective gear. They are less likely to have paid sick leave or the financial means to take time off if they feel ill.

The sector’s relatively low pay — grocery cashiers averaged $11.43 an hour in 2018, Labor Department data show — has also become a bigger part of calculus.

AD More than 1,500 supermarket workers throughout the country have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents 900,000 grocery employees at chains such as Kroger, Safeway and Giant. Nearly 3,000 members are not working because they are quarantined, hospitalized or awaiting test results, the union said.

“The big picture is workers are frightened,” said Marc Perrone, the union’s president. The labor group, he said, is urging states to categorize grocery workers as first responders to give them higher priority for testing and protective equipment such as masks.

“We believe in our health-care professionals being first, but we also believe that if we’re going to slow the transmission, that we need to start flattening the curve in those areas where grocery employees are literally coming face-to-face with thousands of people,” Perrone said.

Although more than 40 states and the District of Columbia have ordered nonessential businesses to shut their doors in recent weeks, grocery stores are among the few retailers that remain open. Wando Evans had worked at a Chicago-area Walmart for 15 years when managers sent the 51-year-old home March 23 because he was displaying flu-like symptoms.

Two days later, he was found dead.

Now his brother, Toney Evans, alleges in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed Monday that the world’s largest retailer didn’t provide protective masks and gloves, adequately disinfect the store or keep workers apprised of their colleagues’ illnesses. Another store employee, Phillip Thomas, 48, died four days after Evans.

Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove said the retailer was “heartbroken” by the deaths. “We take this issue seriously and will respond with the court once we have been served with the complaint,” he said in a statement. The company declined to provide a full count of employees who have tested positive for the virus or died of related complications.

Some employees at a Whole Foods Market in Virginia say they are afraid to go to work. “It’s like you’re constantly in fight-or-flight mode,” said a worker in her 50s who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her job and health insurance. “It’s been scary, it’s been confusing, and there is a palpable fear among everyone who’s still working. It feels like a war zone.”

That fear, she says, picked up last week after a store manager called, texted and emailed late one evening to say that someone at the store had tested positive for the coronavirus. A number of cashiers called in sick the next day, leaving long lines that snaked through the aisles. Although there are signs and stickers at her store encouraging customers to stand six feet apart, not everyone does. (Whole Foods is owned by Amazon, whose founder, Jeff Bezos, owns The Washington Post.)

The store recently installed plexiglass dividers at registers and is offering masks to workers who want them. But, the employee said, there are no limits on how many people can be at the store at one time, and the company has made no specific accommodations for its older or more vulnerable workers.

A spokeswoman for Whole Foods said the company has had “crowd control protocols” at its stores since March 25. The company is also checking workers’ temperatures and providing gloves and masks before each shift, she said. AD

When the Virginia worker ended her shift that day, she told her manager she wanted time off. She plans to stay home for a couple of weeks, although her children are urging her to quit. Her daughter is helping her update her résumé.

“We’re in new territory, and nobody knows what to do,” she said. “But I also need to keep myself safe.”

Shoppers Food stores in Maryland recently began limiting the number of customers who can shop at one time. It is providing disposable gloves and paying employees an extra $2 an hour. But many workers are still scared. The store hasn’t been able to find masks for its employees, they said, and hasn’t provided them with hand sanitizer in days.

The chain’s parent company, United Natural Foods, did not respond to a request for comment.

“There are things they could have done to better protect us, sooner,” said Amber Stevens, 30, who has been working at the Forestville, Md., store for a dozen years. “It’s a scary feeling to be around so many people and then come home to my family.” Stevens says she’s lucky to still have a job when much of the economy is upside down. At least 17 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits since mid-March, and U.S. stock markets have tumbled from the all-time highs set in mid-February. But Stevens worries about passing on the virus to her 9-year-old daughter or 59-year-old mother.

Workers say grocers have done little to assuage their fears. Jasmine Kapralova says she has repeatedly asked her managers at a Trader Joe’s in Seattle for guidance on responding to the virus since late February, after dozens of infections had been confirmed locally. She and her colleagues asked to wear masks to work but were told they would be disciplined if they did, she said.

“Anytime we tried to talk to management about this outbreak, they made it clear they did not want us speaking about it,” said Kapralova, 39, who has worked at the company for nearly a decade. “They warned us not to freak each other out and cause panic.”

She and three colleagues, she said, came down with respiratory infections in early March. Kapralova took three weeks off with pay but says she was warned by her manager not to talk about her symptoms — which included a fever, body aches, a cough and difficulty breathing — on social media. She took an extra week off unpaid but is still sick.

Kenya Friend-Daniel, a spokeswoman for Trader Joe’s, confirmed that the company had given Kapralova three weeks of paid leave while she recovers. Managers were concerned, she said, that Kapralova’s social media posts speculating that she had the coronavirus were alarming her colleagues. They asked her to refrain from saying more online because she had not been formally diagnosed, Friend-Daniel said. Although the grocer initially discouraged workers from wearing masks, Friend- Daniel said it is now providing masks and gloves to all employees to keep up with changing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Kapralova has since asked managers to take her off the store’s schedule, Friend- Daniel said.

“I shouldn’t go in, but I feel pressured to go because I need the money,” Kapralova said. She and her 12-year-old daughter have been living with relatives since they lost their home in a fire five years ago. “I’m scared to death of dying but also of losing my job and not getting paid.”

Elsewhere in Seattle, a longtime Kroger employee says he’s facing a similar decision. At least two colleagues have tested positive for the coronavirus and about 20 more are home sick or awaiting results — although the company has instructed workers not to discuss this with shoppers.

“It scares the hell out of me,” said the employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he fears retribution. “We’re terrified, but what choice we do have? We’re college students or we’re parents trying to raise kids. We need the paychecks.”

Kroger spokeswoman Kristal Howard said the company is communicating “openly and transparently” with its employees and the public. “Our store teams should confirm when there’s been a diagnosed case, sharing how we’ve worked with the health department and the immediate actions taken to sanitize and clean the store,” she said.

The Seattle employee says it never occurred to him that the supermarket job he applied for 13 years ago to support his new wife and infant could one day put his life at risk. He feels vulnerable and scared. “Nobody told us,” he said, “that when the world falls apart, it’s going to fall on our shoulders.”

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CORONAVIRUS Black men fear homemade coronavirus masks could exacerbate racial proﬁling The CDC's guidance on wearing masks outside comes with an added burden for minorities. “If you’re a person of color, you can’t just wear a mask.”

Pedestrians pass Wyckoff Heights Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y.Pablo Monsalve / Corbis via Getty Images

April 9, 2020, 6:00 AM PDT / Updated April 10, 2020, 9:41 AM PDT By Gwen Aviles

A 15-pound poodle-mix, Banneker is far from your typical guard dog. Yet his owner, André Carrington, always makes sure to bring the puppy along as an added layer of protection when they leave home in Philadelphia for their daily walks.

“I think it actually matters that when I’m walking in public, the fact that I have a cute dog makes people feel more comfortable,” Carrington, an associate professor of African American literature at Drexel University, told NBC News. “I don’t think it would be as easy for me to avoid scrutiny in public, especially wearing my mask, if I didn’t have Banneker with me.”

Privacy - Terms Greg Iwinski, a comedy writer in New York City, who, like Carrington, is black, says he also takes added precautions to avoid drawing unwanted attention to himself while going outside during the coronavirus outbreak. While Iwinksi doesn’t have a dog, he ﬁnds strapping his 1-year-old son, who is biracial, in a stroller before venturing out is an equally eﬀective “mitigating factor.”

“It’s sending a signal: ‘Look, I have a cute baby. I can’t be that scary,’” Iwinski said. “And so I go with him whenever I go grocery shopping, partly because he is going insane not being able to go to the playground, and partly as a buﬀer.”

The only time Iwinski doesn’t take his son out is when he is going for a run, but in those instances, he hopes his jogging gear communicates his intent.

Many people of color, particularly black men, had grown accustomed well before the coronavirus outbreak to adjusting the way they present themselves in public so they don’t appear threatening to law enforcement or their white peers.

Yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recent guidance that all Americans should wear “cloth face coverings” outside to curb the spread of COVID19, came with added considerations and fears that makeshift masks, especially bandanas, could intensify already widespread racial proﬁling in communities of color.

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From walking with their pets and children to only wearing medical masks to forgoing masks all together, black Americans, who have been disproportionately aﬀected by the global pandemic, and others are taking precautions to ensure that following the CDC’s recommendation doesn’t put them at further risk.

“The CDC coming to you and saying ‘put a bandana over your face, walk out and that will make you more safe,’ as a black man in New York City, it’s like them saying put on a hoodie and walk behind a white grandma. That’s not how life works for us,” Iwinski said. “I already have people crossing the street to avoid me when I’m wearing my Warby Parker glasses and I sound like this. I’m very white- comfortable and even I’m thinking about: ‘Oh, am I wearing all red? Am I wearing all blue?”

Privacy - Terms Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

According to Mark Anthony Neal, chair of the department of African and African American studies at Duke University, bandanas have historically been associated with violence against people of color and wearing certain colors “in the wrong context” has gotten people killed.

Red bandannas and blue bandanas in particular have been connected with gang aﬃliation and been used by the Los Angeles gangs the Bloods and the Crips as a means of identiﬁcation.

“If you’re a person of color, you can’t just wear a mask,” Neal told NBC News. “You have to be conscious of wearing a mask in a way that it will be disarming, even comforting, for some of the people you share social spaces with and I’m sure those are concerns that most of our white peers don’t have to think about.”

Even before the CDC issued its face covering guidance, Matt Rogers, chief of staﬀ for Sen. Dave Mardsen, DVa., had been weighing the cost and beneﬁts of doing so.

Although his mother is a virologist, which gave him insight into how wearing a mask may protect against asymptomatic transmission of the coronavirus, Rogers, who is black, said his “worst fear” was that wearing a mask could lead to people calling the cops on him or getting him killed, especially after an incident in October 2018 in which he was escorted out of his apartment building after a white neighbor threatened to call the cops on him. He has been reusing N95 masks, hoping that their obvious technicality will show people he “is not a threat.”

After reviewing 20 million traﬃc stops for their book “Suspect Citizens,” Frank R. Baumgartner, Derek A. Epp and Kelsey Shoub found that blacks are almost twice as likely to be pulled over as whites, and another study released last year showed that police shootings are a leading cause of death among black men — ﬁndings that have sown distrust of law enforcement among black communities and other communities of color.

A YouTube video last month showing a white police oﬃcer following two black men wearing surgical masks in an Illinois Walmart and instructing them that a city ordinance prevents people from wearing masks in public has received nearly 200,000 views as of Wednesday morning and has stoked concerns that people of color could be targeted for following CDC guidelines.

Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

This is why Jenny Kipp, who has an 18-year-old black son, posted on Facebook urging her friends and acquaintances to “check your bias and not be scared of black people in masks.”

“Like every other mother, I want my son to be safe wearing a mask,” Kipp wrote. “I beg you to take a moment to breathe and check in with yourself before you let your unconscious bias aﬀect your behavior.” Privacy - Terms As for those who may criticize others’ decision to not wear a mask, Iwinski said they should take the time to emphasize and educate themselves.

“This should be a moment of extreme empathy,” Iwinski said. “We have the time and we have the space and we have the ability to understand how other people have suﬀered in ways that aren't a disease, but might be a societal disease and that this is a moment that we could stop and learn.”

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Privacy - Terms Cal State San Bernardino student prints face shields to fight coronavirus – Press Enterprise

NEWS • News Cal State San Bernardino student prints face shields to fight coronavirus 'It feels like we won the lottery,' one medical professional said of her group receiving dozens of face shields

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https://www.pe.com/...navirus/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise[4/10/2020 4:49:54 PM] Cal State San Bernardino student prints face shields to fight coronavirus – Press Enterprise

The MakerSpace lab run by San Bernardino Community College District staff members Roxane Joyce, left, and Juan Zavala has churned out hundreds of medical-quality face shields for local hospitals as they combat coronavirus. (Photo courtesy of Erick Zambrano)

By BRIAN WHITEHEAD | [email protected] | San Bernardino Sun  PUBLISHED: April 10, 2020 at 3:02 p.m. | UPDATED: April 10, 2020 at 3:03 p.m.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues, a Cal State San Bernardino student is using 3D printers at the San Bernardino Community College District to create hundreds of medical-quality face shields for local hospitals, nursing facilities and the campus police department.

Working daily with supervisor Roxane Joyce out of a MakerSpace lab with 19 industrial-grade 3D printers, 21-year-old Juan Zavala monitors the machines as they assemble shields out of plastic headpieces, clear sheets of plastic and rubber bands.

Each shield takes about two-and-a-half hours to assemble.

The protective wear has gone to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, Mountains Community Hospital in Lake Arrowhead and Providence Healthcare Group, which runs local nursing S facilities.

33 Read Article By

Zalava, who is studying engineering at CSUSB, said in a news release that hospital staff members flash expressions of hope when they collect the latest batch of shields. R “We appreciate our opportunity to do our part for local heroes,” SBCCD Chairwoman Anne Viricel said in the release.

Viricel later commended community college staff and faculty members for springing into action so quickly.

“We appreciate the resilience and agility of all the district’s employees right now,” she said. “Our community is full of local heroes.”

SBCCD is believed to be the first community college in the region to deliver 3D-printed face shields to local hospitals.

Moreno Valley, Victor Valley and Barstow colleges are RELATED LINKS following suit.

Map shows coronavirus cases in San “It feels like we won the lottery,” Carol Wagner, director of Bernardino County cities clinical initiatives at Providence Healthcare Group, said in the release. “It means so much to help protect our nurses.” Food, bag shortages complicate schools’ student meals mission during coronavirus Donations to the San Bernardino effort can be made crisis through the Crafton Hills College Foundation or the San San Bernardino County reports 4 more Bernardino Valley College Foundation. coronavirus deaths, 88 more cases

Newsroom Guidelines San Bernardino County clarifies its coronavirus mask order won’t be enforced News Tips Contact Us San Bernardino County residents must Report an Error wear masks in public, have virtual religious services to slow coronavirus

Tags: Coronavirus, higher education, public health, Top Stories Sun

Brian Whitehead | Reporter Brian Whitehead covers San Bernardino for The Sun. Bred in Grand Terrace, he graduated from Riverside Notre Dame High and Cal State Fullerton. For seven years, he covered high school and college sports for The Orange County Register. Before landing at The Sun, he was the city beat reporter for Buena Park, Fullerton and La Palma.

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https://www.pe.com/...navirus/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise[4/10/2020 4:49:54 PM] Riverside County coronavirus cases rise 13% to 1,619; deaths still 41 – Press Enterprise

LOCAL NEWS • News Riverside County coronavirus cases rise 13% to 1,619; deaths still 41

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By JEFF HORSEMAN | [email protected] | The Press-Enterprise  PUBLISHED: April 12, 2020 at 2:37 p.m. | UPDATED: April 13, 2020 at 8:32 a.m.

Riverside County now has 1,619 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, a 13% increase from Saturday, according to the latest public health numbers released Sunday, April 12.

The number of deaths in the county blamed on COVID-19 is 41, unchanged from Saturday. The county had 1,431 cases entering Sunday.

The county had 665 cases on April 4, when Dr. Cameron Kaiser, the county’s public health officer, issued an order for county residents to cover their noses and mouths while in public. A statewide stay- at-home order remains in effect, and county officials have urged the public to wash their hands, only

https://www.pe.com/...till-41/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise[4/13/2020 11:21:15 AM] Riverside County coronavirus cases rise 13% to 1,619; deaths still 41 – Press Enterprise

leave home for essential reasons and stay at least 6 feet apart and cover their noses and mouths when outside the home.

One hundred ninety-four people have recovered from the virus, according to the county public health website. Recovered means someone has completed isolation, is no longer showing symptoms and has had their case closed by public health.

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Women make up 778 of the county’s COVID cases while men account for 758. A plurality of cases – 688 – are among 40 to 64-year-olds, following by 18- to 39-year-olds, who represent 452 cases.

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Those between 65 and 79 years old account for 237 cases, while 111 cases are among those age 80 and above. Thirty-one cases are among 5- to 17-year-olds while eight cases involve children age 4 and under.

Also Sunday, two employees of the Raincross at Riverside retirement community have contracted COVID-19 and are recovering at home, though no residents have tested positive for the virus, a spokeswoman for the property’s management company said.

“We are entirely focused on protecting resident safety and well-being,” said Jill Hofer, the director of communications for Watermark Retirement Communities, which manages the Riverside retirement community.

The company established a website at covid19.watermarkresponse.com to provide updates on the measures being taken by Watermark to safeguard its residents.

In a video posted to the site, the company’s president and https://www.pe.com/...till-41/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise[4/13/2020 11:21:15 AM] Riverside County coronavirus cases rise 13% to 1,619; deaths still 41 – Press Enterprise

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San Bernardino County now has 887 Magnolia Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Riverside to coronavirus cases; deaths rise to 31 other locations after employees failed to show up to work for two days in a row. At least sixteen staff members and 34 patients at the facility have tested positive for COVID- 19.

City News Service and Digital Producer Daniel Aitken contributed to this report.

CASES BY COMMUNITY

Here is the list of communities with confirmed cases and deaths. Riverside County is not releasing numbers for communities with fewer than 2,000 residents.

Anza: 5 cases, 0 deaths Banning: 53 cases, 1 death Beaumont: 33 cases, 2 deaths Bermuda Dunes: 3 cases, 0 deaths Blythe: 1 case, 0 deaths Cabazon: 1 case, 0 deaths Calimesa: 5 cases, 0 deaths Canyon Lake: 4 cases, 0 deaths Cathedral City: 46 cases, 1 death Cherry Valley: 1 case, 0 deaths Coachella: 54 cases, 0 deaths

Corona: 70 cases, 3 deaths Coronita: 1 case, 0 deaths Desert Edge: 2 cases, 0 deaths Desert Hot Springs: 17 cases, 0 deaths Desert Palms: 4 cases, 0 deaths East Hemet: 3 cases, 0 deaths Eastvale: 36 cases, 2 deaths El Cerrito: 4 cases, 0 deaths El Sobrante: 11 cases, 0 deaths French Valley: 19 cases, 0 deaths Garnet: 4 cases, 0 deaths Good Hope: 7 cases, 0 deaths Green Acres: 1 case, 0 deaths Hemet: 46 cases, 0 deaths Home Gardens: 3 cases, 0 deaths Homeland: 1 case, 0 deaths Idyllwild-Pine Cove: 3 cases, 0 deaths Indian Wells: 10 cases, 0 deaths Indio: 74 cases, 2 deaths Jurupa Valley: 36 cases, 0 deaths La Quinta: 29 cases, 0 deaths Lake Elsinore: 58 cases, 1 death Lake Mathews: 1 case, 0 deaths Lakeland Village: 7 cases, 0 deaths Lakeview: 1 case, 0 deaths Mead Valley: 13 cases, 0 deaths Meadowbrook: 1 case, 0 deaths Mecca: 7 cases, 0 deaths Menifee: 60 cases, 1 death Moreno Valley: 157 cases, 4 deaths Murrieta: 56 cases, 1 death Norco: 7 cases, 0 deaths North Shore: 0 cases, 0 deaths Nuevo: 4 cases, 0 deaths Oasis: 3 cases, 0 deaths Palm Desert: 56 cases, 3 deaths

Palm Springs: 67 cases, 8 deaths Perris: 56 cases, 0 deaths Rancho Mirage: 20 cases, 3 deaths Riverside: 247 cases, 6 deaths Romoland: 0 cases, 0 deaths San Jacinto: 13 cases, 0 deaths Sky Valley: 1 case, 0 deaths Temecula: 66 cases, 0 deaths Temescal Valley: 12 cases, 0 deaths Thermal: 3 cases, 0 deaths Thousand Palms: 3 cases, 0 deaths Valle Vista: 2 cases, 0 deaths Vista Santa Rosa: 0 cases, 0 deaths Wildomar: 24 cases, 1 death Winchester: 1 case, 0 deaths Woodcrest: 7 cases, 0 deaths

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Jeff Horseman | Reporter Jeff Horseman got into journalism because he liked to write and stunk at math. He grew up in Vermont and he honed his interviewing skills as a supermarket cashier by asking Bernie Sanders “Paper or plastic?” After graduating from Syracuse University in 1999, Jeff began his journalistic odyssey at The Watertown Daily Times in upstate New York, where he impressed then-U.S. Senate candidate Hillary Clinton so much she called him “John” at the end of an interview. From there, he went to Annapolis, Maryland, where he covered city, county and state government at The Capital newspaper before love and the quest for snowless winters took him in 2007 to Southern California, where he started out covering Temecula for The Press-Enterprise. Today, Jeff writes about Riverside County government and regional politics. Along the way, Jeff has covered wildfires, a tropical storm, 9/11 and the Dec. 2 terror attack in San Bernardino. If you have a question or story idea about politics or the inner workings of government, please let Jeff know. He’ll do his best to answer, even if it involves a little math. https://www.pe.com/...till-41/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise[4/13/2020 11:21:15 AM] Riverside County seeks volunteers for coronavirus fight – Press Enterprise

LOCAL NEWS • News Riverside County seeks volunteers for coronavirus fight

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By JEFF HORSEMAN | [email protected] | The Press-Enterprise  PUBLISHED: April 12, 2020 at 10:54 a.m. | UPDATED: April 12, 2020 at 10:55 a.m.

Riverside County is asking for volunteers to help in medical and non-medical capacities as part of the county’s response to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Active and retired physicians, nurses, nurse assistants and non-medical volunteers such as office staff and drivers with class A and B licenses are needed, especially workers willing to care for COVID-19 patients in skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities and other group care settings, the county said in a Friday, April 10 news release.

“We will provide full protective equipment to keep you safe,” said Dr. Michael Mesisca of Riverside University Health System. “But we need people to step up today.”

Opportunities vary and some paid openings are available. After undergoing a background check, volunteers will be contacted to match their skills and availability with what’s needed.

https://www.pe.com/...s-fight/?utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com[4/13/2020 11:20:48 AM] Riverside County seeks volunteers for coronavirus fight – Press Enterprise

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For more information, go to www.rivcoph.org/coronavirus and click on the “Volunteer” button or call 951-955-9227.

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https://www.pe.com/...s-fight/?utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com[4/13/2020 11:20:48 AM] Riverside County workers at highest risk for coronavirus-related layoff, by this math – Press Enterprise

BUSINESSHOUSING Riverside County workers at highest risk for coronavirus-related layoff, by this math 49% of positions are in industries with high job-loss risk

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https://www.pe.com/...-math/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise[4/13/2020 11:17:22 AM] Riverside County workers at highest risk for coronavirus-related layoff, by this math – Press Enterprise

Map shows job-loss risk, from highest (red) to lowest (green). (Source: Economic Roundtable)

By JONATHAN LANSNER | [email protected] | Orange County Register  PUBLISHED: April 13, 2020 at 8:37 a.m. | UPDATED: April 13, 2020 at 9:35 a.m. M

A new study estimates that Riverside County is tied for California’s highest share of workers in industries that are seen at high-risk of job loss due to the battle against coronavirus.

Researchers from the Economic Roundtable looked at statewide employment data and compared it with a job-loss risk list from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Fed economists found the employment traits with the highest risk factors due to business limitations imposed by the battle against the pandemic. The Economic Roundtable then translated those job-loss risk trends to California’s 39 largest counties.

“California needs to take direct action to address the COVID-19 economic emergency that is causing widespread business closures and extremely high unemployment,” the Roundtable’s report concluded. “The burden of unemployment is unequally distributed. It rests most heavily on young adults, Latinos, and workers in restaurant, hotel, personal care, and janitorial jobs. Young adults graduating from school and attempting to enter the job market face extremely difficult challenges.” https://www.pe.com/...-math/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise[4/13/2020 11:17:22 AM] Riverside County workers at highest risk for coronavirus-related layoff, by this math – Press Enterprise

Here is what the Roundtable found for the 1 million workers employed in Riverside County …

00:01 / 00:54

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Unemployment: 49% of positions are in industries with high job-loss risk. That tied Mendocino, Stanislaus and Tehama counties for the highest at-risk share among the 39 counties. Statewide, 43% are at risk.

Non-essential workers: 82% of positions are in industries not deemed “essential” and may face operational limitations due to “stay at home” mandates.That’s No. 13 highest among the 39. Statewide, 69% at risk.

No-flexibility: 74% of positions can’t be done from home, raising risk of layoffs. That’s No. 10 highest among the 39. Statewide, 77% at risk.

No salary: 49% of all positions are not paid a set regular salary, workers seen at lower risk of layoffs. That’s No. 1 highest among the 39. Statewide, 40% at risk.

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Coronavirus is new front in the war between L.A. County’s sheriff and supervisors

Sheri Alex Villanueva speaks in front of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

By ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN STAFF WRITER

APRIL 13, 2020 | 5 AM Two of Los Angeles County’s most powerful elected officials appeared together in front of a news camera last month to describe ramped-up efforts to battle the coronavirus outbreak.

That evening, Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s phone buzzed with a text from Supervisor Kathryn Barger.

“For what it’s worth: You were great today,” she wrote. “True leadership.”

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong after that March 12 show of unity. But the following week, the dynamic between Villanueva and Barger turned hostile, with both throwing punches over control of coronavirus messaging.

It reached a boiling point when the L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted — in a move it said was long in the works — to put the county’s chief executive in charge of its crisis response. In doing so, the board removed Villanueva as the director of the emergency operations center. Villanueva called the move a “silent coup.”

Opinions differ as to how the change will play out. Supervisors and other county officials said it won’t matter much in the day-to-day running of the center, with some describing the move as merely a name swap at the top of an organizational chart. But Villanueva is indicating that at some point after this crisis he will remove his troops from the center’s operations. He has asked the board to provide a transition plan to replace them.

“If we walked away, a lot of things would fall apart,” Villanueva said. “We’re not going to do that. We want to make sure this thing is done properly from start to finish.”

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He added, “We’re going to withdraw at some point.”

The flareup between the board and the sheriff continues a long-running power struggle that began when Villanueva took office in December 2018. But it comes as state, local and federal officials face intense scrutiny over their handling of life-and-death matters in response to the deadly coronavirus outbreak and casts the latest squabbling in a harsh light.

California coronavirus cases: Tracking the outbreak

It began around the time L.A. County was preparing to issue a stay-at-home order.

Villanueva said he got word of those plans March 19, but the emergency operations center was left out of the loop. He texted Barger, the board’s chairwoman, that afternoon, according to screenshots of the exchange provided by the Sheriff’s Department.

“We need to talk, I’m getting word you are going off-script with L.A. and Long Beach,” he wrote, asking if he should shut down the emergency operations center to avoid duplicative efforts. It was seven days after their joint news conference.

“What is this shadowy decision-making group, and who is in charge?”

Villanueva said he never received a response.

An hour and a half later, Barger announced the order in a live-streamed news conference with Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer and officials from L.A., Pasadena and Long Beach.

“In my wildest dreams, I never anticipated that a supervisor would go rogue and decide to branch off on their own,” Villanueva said in an interview. “That’s uncharted territory.”

Barger said later that the Sheriff’s Department was alerted early that morning to the impending order, and her office provided an email that was sent to two sheriff’s executives who were advised to notify Villanueva.

On a conference call that morning, department heads were asked for their input.

“We got nothing from the sheriff,” Barger said. “To have him say he was left out is a convenient omission on his part.”

Two days after Barger’s news briefing, Villanueva emailed the board and other officials complaining about decisions being made outside the established command structure, and two days after that, he aired similar complaints in a television interview.

It was from that interview, Barger said later, that she learned Villanueva planned to close gun shops during the pandemic, viewing them as non-essential businesses. He went back and forth on the issue, eventually deciding not to enforce the closures after the federal government weighed in, calling the shops essential. He saw the board’s proposal to displace him in the operations center as retaliation for his initial decision to close the gun stores.

Supervisors voted unanimously to approve the change the following week, a move they said stemmed from an audit of the deadly 2018 Woolsey fire that concluded that officials were unprepared for mass evacuations and other disruptions. The audit recommended that the county centralize coordination of its crisis response.

Villanueva and the board then had another dispute, when he asked them to secure retroactive pay for quarantined employees who he said had to dip into their personal sick leave prior to federal benefits kicking in for affected workers. Barger told the sheriff he had the authority to grant employees paid administrative leave. Then, in a sharply worded letter, supervisors further implored him to correct the record after they said his “false information” led to threats against Sachi Hamai, the county’s chief executive.

The county’s emergency operations center was activated March 4, staffed by 100 or so people — including about eight Sheriff’s Department personnel — tasked with coordinating resources to respond to what some have called a once-in-a-generation pandemic.

Day to day, staffers at the operations center might help set up COVID-19 testing centers or inventory the county’s access to N95 masks and other protective gear. They find shelters, food and supplies for people experiencing homelessness and others who have been exposed to the virus but can’t quarantine at home. They handle public messaging and field questions from government officials, businesses and news organizations.

John Stedman, a retired Sheriff’s Department chief who oversaw emergency operations, said that if the sheriff removes his staff, it might require a two-year transition that could include the Office of Emergency Management taking on some of the department’s training duties.

“I don’t know if it’s going to be a plus or minus. It could be a plus if OEM is going to take all that load off the department,” he said. “I don’t understand the move if all you’re going to do is put a different guy in charge.”

A 2012 report suggested that the head of the OEM was better suited than the sheriff to coordinate during an emergency. But the review also found that the OEM was “woefully understaffed,” with 15 full-time workers.

The staff has since doubled, according to Kevin McGowan, who heads the office and was assigned by Hamai to lead the emergency operations center. McGowan said he fully expects to continue working with the Sheriff’s Department.

“The sheriff has a key role to play in law enforcement,” McGowan said. “OEM has a responsibility to provide leadership and support within the emergency management function so these work symbiotically.”

L.A. County sheriffs have led the crisis center since the early 1970s. Since then, significant threats and emergencies have grown more complex. Experts said local government agencies began beefing up staffing and training within disaster response programs after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The L.A. County changes line up with Riverside County’s system, which is headed by the Emergency Management Department. The Sheriff’s Department, meanwhile, staffs the center’s law branch, said county spokeswoman Brooke Federico. Other counties operate differently. In Ventura County, the Office of Emergency Services — which McGowan headed from 2013 until he was hired last summer by L.A. County — is part of the sheriff’s office. But law enforcement there has taken a backseat in running the response to the coronavirus outbreak.

“The reality is, this is a public health emergency, so our role in it is very limited,” said Ventura County Sheriff’s Capt. Eric Buschow.

In Ventura County, McGowan oversaw the renovation of the emergency operations center and led emergency management for several disasters, including destructive wildfires, the mass shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill, an oil spill and an explosion at the Santa Clara waste treatment center.

Stewart Gary, a retired fire chief whose audit of the Woolsey fire response triggered L.A. County’s leadership shakeup, said in a statement that law enforcement is “one spoke in the wheel” of an emergency operations center.

“They are really good collaborative partners,” he said. “I would hope that in Los Angeles that would be the case as well.”

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This is the latest list of Los Angeles County communities with coronavirus cases

The Wilshire Grand Center in downtown Los Angeles displays blue lights to show support for healthcare workers and ﬁrst responders on Friday. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

By ALEX WIGGLESWORTH STAFF WRITER

APRIL 13, 2020 | 8:01 AM Los Angeles County recorded another coronavirus milestone Sunday.

County heath officials reported 31 additional coronavirus-related deaths on Easter Sunday, the largest single-day total since the outbreak began.

Twenty-five of those fatalities were people over the age of 65, and the other six were in the 41-65 age bracket, health officials said.

In all, 296 L.A. County residents have died of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The number of confirmed infections in the county rose to 9,192 — an increase of 323 since Saturday. That’s the lowest number of new cases on a single day since March 27.

Here is are the Los Angeles County communities with confirmed coronavirus cases. For the latest information, see The Times coronavirus tracker.

Long Beach 337 Glendale 248 Melrose 199 Torrance 143 Santa Clarita 143 North Hollywood 121 Carson 118 Pasadena 117 Inglewood 116 Hollywood 115 Sylmar 105 West Hollywood 102 Burbank 102 Downey 101 Palmdale 99 South Gate 96 Santa Monica 92 East Los Angeles 91 Lancaster 87 Redondo Beach 84 Van Nuys 80 Sherman Oaks 79 Silver Lake 76 Norwalk 76 Canoga Park 76 Beverly Hills 74 Gardena 74 Reseda 73 Hawthorne 70 Woodland Hills 68 Lynwood 68 Palms 67 Panorama City 65 Compton 64 West Vernon 61 Unincorporated Florence-Firestone 58 Boyle Heights 57 Pico Rivera 57 Westlake 56 Glassell Park 56 Manhattan Beach 54 Pacoima 54 Brentwood 53 Montebello 53 Temple-Beaudry 53 Encino 51 Whittier 51 Bellflower 50 Pico-Union 49 Koreatown 49 Pomona 48 Exposition Park 47 Granada Hills 46 Northridge 46 Hollywood Hills 46 Wilshire Center 46 Hancock Park 46 East Hollywood 45 North Hills 45 Florence-Firestone 45 San Pedro 45 Winnetka 44 Tarzana 44 Covina 43 West Adams 42 Huntington Park 42 Crestview 42 Lakewood 41 Vernon Central 40 South Park 39 Central 39 Rancho Palos Verdes 39 West Covina 39 Paramount 38 Altadena 37 Bell 37 Chatsworth 36 Athens-Westmont 36 Eagle Rock 35 Little Armenia 35 El Sereno 35 Palos Verdes Estates 35 Venice 35 Valley Village 35 Mar Vista 34 West Los Angeles 34 Westwood 34 Wilmington 33 Lake Balboa 33 Alhambra 33 Westchester 32 Valley Glen 32 Pacific Palisades 32 Cerritos 32 Highland Park 32 Harbor Gateway 32 Sun Valley 32 Del Rey 32 Monterey Park 31 Culver City 31 Baldwin Hills 31 Sunland 31 Little Bangladesh 31 Carthay 30 Hacienda Heights 30 West Carson 29 South Whittier 29 El Monte 28 Porter Ranch 28 Bell Gardens 28 Century Palms/Cove 28 Downtown 27 Watts 27 Century City 27 University Park 26 Beverly Crest 26 Maywood 26 Baldwin Park 25 Harvard Park 25 Lawndale 25 Vermont Vista 24 Mid-city 24 Arleta 24 Harbor City 24 Leimert Park 24 West Hills 23 Country Club Park 23 Calabasas 23 Arcadia 22 San Fernando 22 Los Feliz 21 La Mirada 21 Glendora 21 Bel Air 21 Cudahy 21 Willowbrook 21 Studio City 21 Mission Hills 21 Harvard Heights 21 Lomita 21 Azusa 20 Agoura Hills 20 South Carthay 20 Beverlywood 20 Diamond Bar 20 La Puente 20 Miracle Mile 20 Walnut Park 20 La Canada Flintridge 20 Historic Filipinotown 19 Wholesale District 18 San Dimas 18 Lincoln Heights 18 Lennox 18 Victoria Park 17 Hermosa Beach 17 View Park/Windsor Hills 16 Rowland Heights 16 Vermont Square 16 Lakeview Terrace 16 Malibu 16 Crenshaw District 16 Adams-Normandie 15 South Pasadena 15 Vermont Knolls 15 Hyde Park 15 Rosemead 15 Tujunga 15 Green Meadows 14 Canyon Country 14 Monrovia 13 San Gabriel 13 Ladera Heights 13 Mt. Washington 13 Walnut 13 Claremont 12 Unincorporated Covina 12 Temple City 12 Cloverdale/Cochran 11 West Whittier/Los Nietos 11 Rolling Hills Estates 11 Cheviot Hills 11 El Segundo 11 Stevenson Ranch 11 Playa Vista 10 Thai Town 10 Gramercy Place 10 Duarte 10 East Rancho Dominguez 10 La Crescenta-Montrose 10 Echo Park 9 Reseda Ranch 9 Castaic 9 Park La Brea 9 La Verne 8 Valinda 8 Marina Peninsula 8 Atwater Village 8 Elysian Valley 8 Rancho Park 8 Lafayette Square 7 Toluca Lake 7 Covina (Charter Oak) 7 Figueroa Park Square 7 Shadow Hills 7 South San Gabriel 7 San Marino 6 Westlake Village 6 North Whittier 6 La Rambla 6 Marina del Rey 6 Athens Village 6 Santa Fe Springs 6 Alsace 6 West Puente Valley 6 Santa Monica Mountains 6 Acton 5 Del Aire 5 Cadillac-Corning 5 Reynier Village 5 Quartz Hill 5 Rancho Dominguez 5 Elysian Park 5 Miracle Mile 5 Artesia 5 Industry 1-4 Rosewood/East Gardena 1-4 Rosewood 1-4 Roosevelt 1-4 Rolling Hills 1-4 San Francisquito Canyon/Bouquet Canyon 1-4 Regent Square 1-4 San Jose Hills 1-4 Pomona 1-4 San Pasqual 1-4 Playa Del Rey 1-4 Sand Canyon 1-4 Santa Catalina Island 1-4 Placerita Canyon 1-4 Pellissier Village 1-4 Pearblossom/Llano 1-4 Palos Verdes Peninsula 1-4 Saugus 1-4 Saugus/Canyon Country 1-4 Palmdale 1-4 Palisades Highlands 1-4 Sierra Madre 1-4 Signal Hill 1-4 North Lancaster 1-4 South Antelope Valley 1-4 Newhall 1-4 South El Monte 1-4 South El Monte 1-4 Mandeville Canyon 1-4 Longwood 1-4 Llano 1-4 Littlerock/Pearblossom 1-4 Littlerock/Juniper Hills 1-4 Southeast Antelope Valley 1-4 St Elmo Village 1-4 Littlerock 1-4 Little Tokyo 1-4 Leona Valley 1-4 Sun Village 1-4 Lakewood 1-4 Sunrise Village 1-4 Sycamore Square 1-4 Lake Manor 1-4 Lake Los Angeles 1-4 Lake Hughes 1-4 La Habra Heights 1-4 La Habra Heights 1-4 Kagel/Lopez Canyons 1-4 Toluca Terrace 1-4 Toluca Woods 1-4 Jefferson Park 1-4 Irwindale 1-4 Twin Lakes/Oat Mountain 1-4 Unincorporated Azusa 1-4 Rosewood/West Rancho Dominguez 1-4 Hidden Hills 1-4 Unincorporated Hawthorne 1-4 Unincorporated La Verne 1-4 Unincorporated Monrovia 1-4 Unincorporated West L.A. 1-4 Unincorporated Whittier 1-4 University Hills 1-4 Hi Vista 1-4 Val Verde 1-4 Valencia 1-4 Hawaiian Gardens 1-4 Harbor Pines 1-4 Glendora 1-4 Faircrest Heights 1-4 Exposition 1-4 Elizabeth Lake 1-4 El Monte 1-4 El Camino Village 1-4 Vernon 1-4 East Whittier 1-4 East Pasadena 1-4 View Heights 1-4 East Lancaster 1-4 East La Mirada 1-4 East Covina 1-4 Duarte 1-4 Wellington Square 1-4 Desert View Highlands 1-4 West Antelope Valley 1-4 Del Sur 1-4 Del Rey 1-4 Commerce 1-4 Claremont 1-4 Chinatown 1-4 Cerritos 1-4 West Rancho Dominguez 1-4 Brookside 1-4 Bradbury 1-4 Bradbury 1-4 Westfield/Academy Hills 1-4 Westhills 1-4 Bouquet Canyon 1-4 Bassett 1-4 Avocado Heights 1-4 White Fence Farms 1-4 Avalon 1-4 Arcadia 1-4 Angelino Heights 1-4 Angeles National Forest 1-4 Anaverde 1-4 Agua Dulce 1-4 Wiseburn 1-4 Manchester Square 1-4

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L.A. County stay-at-home order could last into summer; more social distancing essential, officials say

Alexander Martinez watches the sunset Monday from the 1st Street Bridge in Los Angeles during the shelter-in-place order. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

By RONG-GONG LIN II, MELANIE MASON, SEAN GREENE

APRIL 10, 2020 | 1 PM Los Angeles County health officials warned Friday that the region needs to significantly increase the social distancing to slow the spread of coronavirus and that stay-at-home restrictions could remain into the summer.

Even with the dramatic social distancing the county is now seeing, officials forecast that up to 30% of residents could be infected by mid-summer without more behavioral changes, such as reducing shopping trips.

As a result, Los Angeles County is extending the stay-at-home order for California’s most populous county through at least May 15.

Officials could not provide a definitive answer as to when the stay-at-home order will ease.

“Everybody wishes we could answer that and answer it definitively, and we can’t. We do know that we will reopen,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. “We do know that we will be lifting some of the restrictions and we do hope that we’re able to take a hard look this summer at what makes sense for us to be relaxing, in terms of some of the closures right now that are making it impossible, for example, for some people to get back to work. But it really does depend on the data.” While the strict physical distancing measures in L.A. County, which have been in effect for three weeks, have clearly had an effect in saving many lives, models presented by the county Friday show troubling forecasts if officials lifted the stay-at-home order now.

There are still too many people becoming infected with the coronavirus in Los Angeles County, officials said. And there is more than a 50% chance that the current supply of intensive care unit beds in Los Angeles County, roughly 750 beds now, could run out by late April.

“There’s a greater than 50% chance that if we did nothing to increase the number of ICU beds in the county relative to our normal footprint that we would run out of ICU beds near the end of April, or the beginning of May,” said Dr. Roger Lewis, a biostatistician and chair of the emergency medicine department at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Work is underway to increase the county’s ICU bed capacity.

Officials outlined the stark paths ahead for Los Angeles County. If the stay-at-home order was quickly rescinded and people resumed to their normal habits, an astonishing 95.6% of L.A. County residents would be infected with the coronavirus by Aug. 1, according to projections released by the county.

Staying at the current levels of physical distancing would still result in 29.8% of residents being infected by Aug. 1.

But increasing our efforts to stay apart from one another by one-third could reduce that to just having 5.5% of Los Angeles County residents infected by Aug. 1.

Put another way: Junking the stay-at-home order now would result in 18,000 people needing hospitalization in L.A. County by mid-May, in a county with fewer than 4,000 beds. But maintaining the current level of physical distancing would keep the number of those needing hospitalization under 1,000 by late May, and significantly lower if we improved our physical distancing. Officials cautioned that the forecasts will change over time as more data is fed into them. But the data indicates now is not the time to let up on the stay-at-home order, they said.

“Physical distancing is working. It has worked to date, and it is working now, and it is important that that physical distancing remain in place in order to reduce not just the strain on the hospital system, but more importantly the overall number of infections,” said Dr. Christina Ghaly, director of the L.A. County Department of Health Services. “It is absolutely the single most important weapon that we have in our arsenal to fight the virus.”

Still, Ghaly said, there are more infections being found every day. “Each person with the infection is still infecting more than one person,” Ghaly said. As long as that happens, the trajectory of coronavirus cases will continue to slope upward.

New coronavirus cases announced by day in Los Angeles County

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0 Mar. 1 Mar. 15 Apr. 1

Times reporting

Even just improving physical distancing by just one-third of our current efforts will have a dramatic effect, officials said. Officials are not contemplating new broadbased mandates to close down even more sectors of our society — local authorities across California have already said they think they’ve largely done all they can without shutting down essential sectors of our society.

But residents can do better. Officials will be looking to see if more people wearing cloth face coverings will help. And residents who continue to go to the supermarket every day are being urged to cut back on going out.

“I know that that has become for many people the routine, is like, ‘Well, I can still go to the grocery store,’ and I get that ... but we’re really telling people, ‘No, be very sensible: Limit the amount of of time that you’re out and about with other people, even to do those essential purchases,’” Ferrer said.

“We’re not talking about some dramatic new set of measures and opportunities to even further close down wholesale parts of our lives,” Ferrer added. “We have a lot of that in place. We just are all going to do a better job trying to stay safe, stay home, protect each other and keep our distance.”

New coronavirus deaths by day in Los Angeles County

0 Mar. 1 Mar. 15 Apr. 1

Times reporting Based on current data from the county and other communities, roughly 3% of people with COVID-19 require hospitalization. One-third of those patients, or 1% of total cases, will end up in the ICU. The majority of those in intensive care need to be put on a ventilator.

Officials said there are significant activities going on now to increase the total ICU bed capacity in the county, including opening a previously closed hospital and relying on the Navy hospital ship Mercy to take non-COVID patients into its intensive care facilities.

Authorities are optimistic they can increase the number of ICU beds in the coming weeks to meet projected demand. Another 400 to 500 beds are needed, and “I do believe that is a gap we can close,” Ghaly said. The naval hospital ship Mercy docked in the L.A. area adds 80 ICU beds; the Los Angeles Surge Hospital, where the shuttered St. Vincent Medical Center campus sits, has 266 beds, a large number of which can be converted into ICU beds; four of the county hospitals run by the Department of Health Services is looking at adding 100 to 150 ICU beds; and the county is working with privately owned hospitals to boost intensive care unit capacity.

Ferrer said she wished she could give a definitive answer when the stay-at-home order can be lifted.

“If the health care system can’t stay functional, you also will have a lot of increased mortality from from other people who will die of other diseases and conditions as well,” Ferrer said. “At the point we start seeing some serious significant declines in both the rate of new cases and the rate of deaths, we can talk about what’s a reasonable way to particularly get people back to work.”

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95% of L.A. supports stay-at-home orders, poll finds. But for how long? Life around Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard and Soto Street has slowed as California ocials extended stay-at-home orders into May. Most Angelenos are are adhering to orders to wear masks while out running errands. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

By DOUG SMITH, ALEX WIGGLESWORTH, RONG-GONG LIN II

APRIL 13, 2020 | 8:36 AM

Los Angeles County officials have said the stay-at-home order aimed at slowing the spread of coronavirus will stay in place until at least May 15 — perhaps longer.

The unprecedented social-distancing requirements, which have closed nonessential businesses, prohibited gatherings and shuttered beaches and trails, have been working. But more is needed, health officials say.

Polls suggest the public supports these measures — at least for now — even as the restrictions have devastated the economy. CALIFORNIA

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What does the polling show?

Ninety-five percent of respondents say they supported L.A. elected officials’ decision to implement a stay-at-home order for all but essential personnel, a new Loyola Marymount University poll found.

Those who identified as politically conservative tended to be more skeptical both of the stay-at-home orders and of the level of threat posed by the virus.

Only 76% of them viewed the virus as a real threat, compared with 91% among liberals. Conservatives also saw themselves as less vulnerable, with 74% saying they worried they would catch the virus, compared with 85% of liberals.

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“They have the level of fear; it is a real threat. They are worried about protecting their families, especially the elderly. There is a good understanding of how it spreads,” said Fernando Guerra, director of the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University, which conducted the poll.

The poll surveyed 2,000 households in Los Angeles County. It had a margin of error of 2.2%.

Both the LMU poll and an earlier UCLA poll show concern among residents about the coronavirus pandemic. Overall, 78% of L.A. County residents surveyed told UCLA researchers they were “very” or “somewhat” concerned that they or a family member might catch the virus.

“People view this as an existential crisis,” said Zev Yaroslavsky, a retired L.A. County supervisor and onetime L.A. City Council member who oversaw the UCLA poll. “They wouldn’t be adhering to this protocol of staying cooped up in their homes if they didn’t think there was a good reason for it.”

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Coronavirus is new front in the war between L.A. County’s sheriff and supervisors April 13, 2020 When will the stay-at-home orders end?

No one is sure. But health officials have said more time is needed.

Los Angeles County health officials warned Friday that residents of the region must adopt even more stringent social distancing practices to slow the spread of the coronavirus and that stay-at-home restrictions could remain for several more months.

Even with the dramatic social distancing that county residents are already practicing, local officials forecast that up to 30% of the population could be infected by midsummer without more behavioral changes, such as reducing shopping trips.

While the strict physical distancing measures in L.A. County, which have been in effect for three weeks, have clearly had an effect in saving many lives, models presented by the county Friday show troubling forecasts if officials lift the stay-at-home order now.

There are still too many people becoming infected with the coronavirus in Los Angeles County, officials said. And there is more than a 50% chance that the current capacity of intensive care unit beds in Los Angeles County, roughly 750 beds now, could be exhausted by late April.

Officials outlined the stark paths ahead for L.A. County. If the stay-at-home order was quickly rescinded and people resumed their normal habits, an astonishing 95.6% of L.A. County residents would be infected with the coronavirus by Aug. 1, according to projections released by the county. Get our free Coronavirus Today newsletter Sign up for the latest news, best stories and what they mean for you, plus answers to your questions.

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Staying at the current levels of physical distancing would still result in 29.8% of residents being infected by Aug. 1. But increasing our efforts to stay apart from one another could reduce that to just 5.5% of Los Angeles County residents being infected in that time.

The death toll, meanwhile, continues to rise. Los Angeles County officials reported 31 new coronavirus deaths on Easter Sunday, the largest single-day total since the outbreak began.

Twenty-five of those fatalities were people over the age of 65, and the other six were between the ages of 41 and 65, health officials said.

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What about the economic toll? The impact on the economy is the wild card, of course. It’s hard to know how public opinion will change as economic damage mounts.

The UCLA poll found that nearly half of the households in Los Angeles County have lost a job or had their work hours cut, and an additional 10% have lost other sources of income because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In the LMU poll, 83% say they fear the economic impact from the coronavirus closures.

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Doug Smith

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Los Angeles Times senior writer Doug Smith scouts Los Angeles for the ragged edges where public policy meets real people, combining data analysis and gumshoe reporting to tell L.A. stories through his 45 years of experience covering the city.

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BREAKING NEWS / BREAKING: L.A. County stay-at-home order extended through May 15 as coronavirus cases top 8,400

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LOCAL NEWS L.A. County stay-at-home order extended through May 15 as coronavirus cases top 8,400

by: Cindy Von Quednow, with reporting by Nouran Salahieh Posted: Apr 10, 2020 / 12:52 PM PDT / Updated: Apr 10, 2020 / 01:49 PM PDT

Los Angeles County on Friday extended its stay-at-home order until May 15 as ofcials continue to curb the spread of the illness as the number of cases increased to 8,430 and the death toll rose to 241. Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the county’s public health director, said that ofcials are extending the order because it is helping60° in the ght against COVID-19, but “we still have a ways to go.”

“Because everyone here is doing their part, because people are heeding the directives … what we can conrm is in fact the attening of the curve in a way that’s actually saving lives and allowing us to have a chance at making sure that our healthcare system remains able to serve all who need care,” Ferrer said

She said residents should continue to social distancing because the virus is continuing to spread in L.A. County.

As part of the extended order, all indoor and outdoor private gatherings and events should not occur, beaches and trailheads as well as all nonessential businesses, remain closed.

New measures taking effect next at midnight April 15 to make sure people working essential services re safer include:

All essential businesses must provide all employees who are required to be around others a cloth face covering to wear while performing duties. Provide a plan, share it with employees, and post it somewhere visible at business that actually explains how they’re implementing physical distancing and cleaning requirements in the workplace

In addition, those going into a business or site that provides essential services need to put on a face covering, Ferrer said.

She noted that it is still OK to engage in outdoor activities alone or with members of your household, and residents can still leave their homes to access or provide essential services, as long as they are practicing physical distancing and wearing a cloth face covering while out with others.

“Extending safety at home really means that we are able to keep in place the measures that we know are working and preventing a huge acceleration of COVID-19 cases,” Ferrer said.

The county continues to expand testing and more mobile testing sites are opening up, particularly in underserved communities.

And starting Friday, six sites across the county will be used to test for coronavirus antibodies to nd out how many people have already fought off the virus.

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Orange County reports 19th coronavirus death as case count nears 1,300 People adhere to coronavirus social-distancing rules while exercising on a bike path during a rainstorm in Huntington Beach on Friday. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

By LUKE MONEY STAFF WRITER

APRIL 13, 2020 | 10:02 AM

Orange County reported its 19th coronavirus-related death Sunday as the region’s overall infection count continued to climb.

Of those who have died as a result of COVID-19, 11 were 65 or older and five were 45 to 64, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.

Two other victims were between the ages of 25 and 34, and the other was 35 to 44.

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The county also announced 57 new coronavirus infections Sunday, bringing its cumulative total to 1,277.

Health officials have confirmed at least 50 new COVID-19 cases on 10 of the last 14 days — including each of the last five. That steady stream has swelled the county’s case count by 450 over the past week.

Countywide, 107 people battling COVID-19 are hospitalized, and 52 of them are in intensive care.

The bulk of confirmed coronavirus infections, about 58%, have been in adults who are at least 45 years old, health officials said.

As the case count increases, county officials are urging residents to take the necessary precautions to protect themselves. Those measures include following health orders to stay home as much as possible and regular, thorough hand washing.

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The county Health Care Agency also cast itself in the role of myth buster Friday, posting on its Facebook page that the World Health Organization assures “5G mobile networks DO NOT spread COVID-19.”

The misinformation supposedly connecting the wireless technology to the spread of the coronavirus has taken root in some corners of the internet and recently was amplified by social media posts from prominent individuals such as actors Woody Harrelson and John Cusack.

“Viruses cannot travel on radio waves/mobile networks,” the Health Care Agency wrote. “COVID-19 is spreading in many countries that do not have 5G mobile networks.” ochealth on Friday

Myth buster: Per the World Health Organization (WHO), 5G mobile networks DO NOT spread COVID-19. Spread facts. https://www.who.int/…/novel- …/advice-for-public/myth-busters #OCCOVID19

44 17 32

Rather, COVID-19 is “spread through respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks” or when someone touches “a contaminated surface and then their eyes, mouth or nose,” health officials said.

Fears over the proliferation of 5G predate the coronavirus’ arrival. Some residents throughout Orange County and the state have expressed concerns with the technology, which activists allege could endanger public health because of the use of higher- frequency radio waves. Cases statewide As of April 13, 9:14 a.m. Pacific 23,428 682 confirmed deaths

County Cases Deaths Los Angeles 9,197 300 San Diego 1,804 45 Santa Clara 1,621 54 Riverside 1,619 41 Orange 1,277 19

Statewide deaths by day

0 Feb. 1 Mar. 1 Apr. 1

See the full California coronavirus tracker

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CORONAVIRUS Dr. Fauci: Parts of U.S. could reopen in May; ‘rolling re-entry’ required

Parts of U.S. could open in May, Dr. Fauci says

by: Associated Press Posted: Apr 12, 2020 / 07:36 AM PDT / Updated: Apr 12, 2020 / 07:54 AM PDT

The United States’ top infectious disease expert says the economy in parts of the country could be allowed to reopen as early as next month. Dr. Anthony Fauci says there’s no light switch that will be clicked to turn everything back on. He says a “rolling re-entry”64° will be required based on the status of the new coronavirus pandemic in various parts of the country.

Fauci says those factors include the region of the country, the nature of the outbreak it already has experienced and the possible threat of an outbreak to come.

Social distancing guidelines imposed by President Donald Trump are set to expire April 30.

Trump is eager to restart the economy, which has stalled because most Americans are under orders to “stay at home” to help slow the virus’ spread.

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SCIENCE

We can’t shelter in place forever: How the coronavirus lockdown might end

A closed program at Ryan Bonaminio Park in Riverside. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

By DEBORAH NETBURN STAFF WRITER

APRIL 10, 2020 | 4 AM The coronavirus cannot keep us stuck in our homes forever.

Someday our kids will go back to school, we will return to work, and families and friends will gather once again for birthdays, holidays, weddings and funerals.

We will see movies in theaters, get drunk in crowded bars, and scream recklessly in packed sports stadiums — droplets be damned.

But how will we get from here to there? What will reentry to normal life look like? How will we ever trust the coronavirus, our unseen enemy, not to infect us at every opportunity?

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As with most things related to the coronavirus, there are still many unknowns.

This virus has only been circulating in the human population for about four months. Every day scientists learn more about how it spreads, how it makes us sick, and how we might protect ourselves from getting infected in the first place.

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Nobody can say for sure exactly what our return to normalcy will look like, or how long it will take to get there, but experts can offer some educated guesses. In California, public health officials said social distancing policies will probably remain in place for months, and they warn that lifting the strict rules too early could worsen the health crisis.

They also caution that coronavirus cases are likely to rise when stay-at-home orders are relaxed.

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These photos show how the coronavirus pandemic has reshaped California April 7, 2020

Julie Swann, head of the Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, said she expects the strict stay-at-home orders will be lifted before a vaccine is found — an endeavor that could take another year at least.

“If we ramp up our hospitals’ capability to deal with people who are sick, ramp up testing so we know who is sick and who has recovered, and if there is treatment that shortens hospitalization time, then we may not need to be as drastic as we are now,” she said.

Swann and other public health experts spoke to The Times about what a safe transition from our strange coronavirus reality to the regular life we yearn for could look like.

How will public health officials decide when it’s time to loosen stay-at-home restrictions?

Public health officials will want to see a drastic reduction in the number of new coronavirus infections confirmed each day before they begin to relax current restrictions, scientists said.

However, before they can feel confident that a drop has truly occurred, testing capacity must increase dramatically.

“In many states the testing capacity is still significantly behind demand, so the number of confirmed cases reported is likely to be way below the actual numbers,” said Pinar Keskinocak, director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

Once widespread testing is in place, officials can better understand how many new cases there truly are, where they are, and if we are indeed in a downward trend, she said.

How low will daily new cases need to be for restrictions to be relaxed?

In California, which has a population of nearly 40 million people, stay-at-home restrictions are not likely to be relaxed until the number of new cases statewide drops below 10, said Chunhuei Chi, director of the Center for Global Health at Oregon State University in Corvallis. “Then the state could do something like Taiwan is doing now — not totally resuming regular activity, but keeping a high level of regular activity while exercising caution,” he said.

In Taiwan, schools and businesses are still open, but people are required to wear masks on public transportation and inside enclosed areas like schools and shopping malls. Indoor gatherings must not exceed 100 people, and outdoor gatherings can be no larger than 500.

So there’s no chance things will go back to normal all at once?

A safe return to normal life is going to be incremental.

Once there has been a significant drop in new cases, local governments will be able to slowly reopen schools, shops and restaurants, Chi said.

However, shops and restaurants may be required to reduce the maximum number of people they serve at a time so customers can stay at a safe distance from one another.

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California won’t be lifting coronavirus stay-at-home rules anytime soon. Here’s why April 8, 2020

Swann said we will probably live in a hybrid reality for several months — not quite lockdown conditions, yet not quite normalcy.

“We can expect some services to open, but not all,” she said. “We are entering a new world.”

Are we going to be wearing masks for a long time?

“Absolutely,” Swann said. “It is possible that masks will become the new seat belts.”

The primary benefit of masks is not to protect the wearer from getting sick, but to keep asymptomatic people from accidentally passing on the disease.

“I think we will see a larger percentage of Americans wearing a mask even after the acute phase of this crisis,” she said.

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Coronavirus could leave U.S. with a lasting imprint: Masks as normal part of life April 3, 2020 Chi agreed.

“People should be wearing masks until we are very sure there is no longer community spread of this virus,” he said.

He noted that new research suggests as many as 30% of people who are infected with the coronavirus are asymptomatic, while another 40% to 50% have mild symptoms that they might mistake for the flu.

“You don’t know who is infected because they look healthy and normal,” he said. “That is the most tricky part of this virus, and that’s why wearing a mask is even more critical.”

After restrictions ease, will we be asked to shelter in place again?

That largely depends on when restrictions are lifted.

“If we resume normal life too soon, the chances of seeing a second wave are higher,” Keskinocak said.

Cases are likely to rise after restrictions are loosened, Chi said.

However, local health authorities may be able to manage them by carefully tracking everyone an infected person comes into contact with, testing those people for the virus, and quarantining them if they are sick.

“If the government is meticulously tracking, testing and quarantining people, then it is still safe to meet a friend for a drink,” he said.

Does this pandemic only end with a vaccine?

Not necessarily.

Ultimately, pandemics end when a sufficient percentage of the population has immunity to a disease, either because they already had it and recovered or because they get a medical treatment that makes them immune — like a vaccine.

However, our previous lives could largely resume before that comes to pass.

“The availability of an effective treatment — which would reduce not only symptoms but also the chance of complications — would certainly help in terms of getting back to normal,” Keskinocak said.

A treatment would free up hospital beds and ventilators, and reduce pressure on healthcare personnel.

SCIENCE

Ventilators for coronavirus patients are in short supply. How scientists might pivot April 7, 2020 “The combination of widespread availability of diagnostic and serological testing along with effective treatments would help us slowly get back to normal,” Keskinocak said.

Chi agreed that life should return to some kind of normal before a vaccine is found.

“Most experts predict it will take between eight and 12 months to get a vaccine,” he said. “We shouldn’t have to wait that long.”

SCIENCE WORLD & NATION CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

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Deborah Netburn

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Deborah Netburn is a features writer at the Los Angeles Times. She joined the paper in 2006 and has covered entertainment, home and garden, national news, technology and most recently, science.

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That's an expensive round of 'essential drinks.' Seven people ﬁned $1,000 each for violating stay-at-home order By Artemis Moshtaghian and Jay Croft, CNN  Updated 10:37 PM ET, Sun April 12, 2020

Hanging out during a pandemic can get expensive.

(CNN) — The cost of going out on a Saturday night just keeps going up and up.

For seven visitors to Santa Cruz, California, the bill came to $7,000 in ﬁnes for violating local shelter-in-place, or SIP, guidelines.

They "came from Fremont to get some 'essential' drinks," Police Chief Andrew Mills tweeted. "If you are not from Santa Cruz and you put our community at risk, you will get a ticket. #shelterinyourowntown."

The department tweeted, "7 x $1000 = One Expensive Hang Out. Everyone should know by now that this is not the time to meetup and party."

The drive from Fremont to Santa Cruz is nearly 50 miles. US LIVE T V Santa Cruz Police @SantaCruzPolice

7 x $1000 = One Expensive Hang Out Everyone should know by now that this is not the time to meetup and party. Officers cited seven $1000 tickets for #ShelterInPlace Violations to help these guys remember their time in Santa Cruz. #ShelterInYourOwnTown #SantaCruzPolice twitter.com/chiefandymills…

Andrew Mills @ChiefAndyMills 7 visitors came from Fremont to get some “essential” drinks. Essentially, they were all given $1,000 tickets for SIP violations. If you are not from Santa Cruz and you put our community at risk, you will get a ticket. #shelterinyourowntown @SantaCruzPolice #OneTeamOneTown View image on Twitter

434 10:03 AM - Apr 11, 2020 · Santa Cruz, CA

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Santa Clara County's Public Health Department's website says, "Sheltering in place" means people must stay home as much as possible and leave only for "essential activities." People cannot "host or attend any gatherings of any size."

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Business This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit https://www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-coronavirus-economic-reopening-will-be-fragile-partial-and-slow-11586800447

The Coronavirus Economic Reopening Will Be Fragile, Partial and Slow From airlines to car makers, companies are planning to gear up again. The new normal will look anything but.

By Erich Schwartzel, Alison Sider and Heather Haddon April 13, 2020 154 pm ET

Walt Disney Co. reached a coronavirus milestone of sorts last month when it reopened a portion of its Shanghai Disney Resort as China’s pandemic began to ebb.

But a trip to Tomorrowland may never be the same. Guests at the Shanghai resort must wear masks at all times, removing them only for eating. Hours and capacity are limited. And just to gain entry, visitors must submit to a temperature check and present a government-controlled QR code on their phone that indicates they are virus-free.

Executives around the world who rapidly overhauled operations when the coronavirus struck, and the politicians who made them do it, are now focused on restarting the economy and their own businesses. That restart, according to interviews with leaders across a range of industries, suggests that back to normal will be anything but.

The re-emergence over the coming weeks and months will be fitful, fragile and partial—and a bit dystopian, with frequent temperature checks, increased monitoring of employees and customers, and, potentially, blood tests to determine whether workers have likely immunity to the virus. Officials and business leaders predict that operations won’t fully return to normal until an effective vaccine hits the market, estimated at least a year away.

Some firms may bring office workers back in alternating groups to allow for social distancing in open-plan offices. Restaurant chains may operate at half capacity, installing plexiglas shields between booths, while stores may do away with tester cosmetics and sanitize items after customers try them on. Major League Baseball has discussed a season with no spectators, held in a part of the country where it can essentially sequester players for weeks at a time. Employees sit behind protective screens at a Hyundai Card cafeteria in Seoul. PHOTO: ED JONESAGENCE FRANCEPRESSEGETTY IMAGES

“When, where, and in what stages to do it,” said Rich Lesser, the chief executive of Boston Consulting Group, who has spoken with several CEOs on this topic. “It’s very top-of-mind.”

In many ways, companies are at the mercy of local and national governments to ensure that the reopening doesn’t reinvigorate the virus, which has so far infected nearly 1.8 million people world-wide and caused at least 110,000 deaths. Large-scale testing and tracing programs will become the norm, placing the average person under much greater scrutiny by the state.

The U.S. federal government has yet to launch a national test-and-trace strategy to find and isolate virus carriers and their contacts, although some state governments are discussing it. Many other developed countries are putting such programs at the heart of their efforts to keep the virus under control, using technology to identify those at risk of infection. One-third of Iceland’s population has already downloaded a new government-approved app that uses GPS to track users, who can give contact-tracing officials access to their data if they test positive for the virus. China was able to come out of lockdown thanks to its aggressive efforts to find and quarantine the infected, although it used draconian isolation policies that democracies would find hard to implement.

Companies themselves have a role to play, and many are laying plans to do their part. Dozens of companies have notiﬁed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that they are developing tests that indicate whether someone has had—and is likely immune to—the coronavirus, though some early eﬀorts have hit roadblocks in other countries.

“Testing capacity, which we still have to develop, that is going to be the bridge from where we are today to the new economy in my opinion,” New York Gov. Andrew. Cuomo said Wednesday. “It’s going to be a testing-informed transition to the new economy.” A sta member checks temperatures outside the dining and shopping venue at Disney’s Shanghai resort. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCEPRESSEGETTY IMAGES

Major airlines are discussing the feasibility of having passengers submit to temperature checks before boarding flights. It isn’t yet clear whether airlines or airport security would shoulder that task. Two weeks ago, American Airlines Group Inc. began asking frequent fliers and top corporate customers what it might take to get them comfortable with flying again. Their answer? Clean planes.

The airline has been disinfecting cabins more often, among other measures; now, part of its task is making sure customers know what American is doing, said Kurt Stache, American’s senior vice president of customer experience. It is also looking at how to limit contact between travelers during boarding and in ﬂight.

Passengers might grab their own beverages and snacks as they board through the jet bridge on short flights. The tradition of flight attendants’ serving hot nuts on a tray in first class may become a relic of a bygone age. There is no line to check in at the American Airlines counter in San Francisco. PHOTO: DAVID PAUL MORRISBLOOMBERG NEWS

Customers contacted by American say they think the crisis will abate within three to six months, with half of customers surveyed saying they’d consider ﬂying again about six weeks after the virus dissipates.

Manufacturers have redrawn factory ﬂoor plans and implemented processes, such as staggering shift workers or asking employees to take turns eating lunch in their cars to avoid cafeteria crowding, practices that may become standard as more plants come back online.

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Tyson, the biggest U.S. meat company by sales, is installing walk-through temperature scanners at its plants across the country and sending home workers showing potential Covid-19 symptoms, said Hector Gonzalez, Tyson’s head of U.S. human resources. Scanners could remain in place beyond the pandemic, he said, helping reduce colds and inﬂuenza among employees.

“They may present an advantage in the future that we didn’t have before,” Mr. Gonzalez said.

When Toyota Motor Corp.’s American auto assembly lines restart, the lines will likely run at slower speeds than normal due to steep drops in consumer demand. The slowed-down lines will also help maintain social distancing in plants, said Chris Reynolds, chief administrator for manufacturing at the company’s U.S. division. New Toyota sport-utility vehicles sit in storage in Zeebrugge, Belgium. PHOTO: OLIVIER MATTHYSBLOOMBERG NEWS

The Japanese auto maker, which has begun making face shields while its assembly lines are down, will integrate those emergency personal-protective-equipment eﬀorts into the business, said Mr. Reynolds.

Toyota is also testing protocols like on-site health screenings for workers involved in medical- supply production that can be widened as the company restarts auto production.

“We never let a pilot program go to waste,” he said.

The company would consider antibody testing for workers if required, but views it as tough to implement, Mr. Reynolds said.

“That essentially means taking blood samples from our team members,” he said. “That’s a little more intrusive than putting a thermometer to your forehead and asking a couple questions.”

General Motors Co. is considering a number of options for testing workers for the virus and is prioritizing tests with quicker turnaround for results, said Jim Glynn, the auto maker’s global chief of workplace safety. That could include antibody testing, he said.

“If it’s scalable, easy, noninvasive and people are willing to do it, of course we would ﬁgure out how to implement it,” Mr. Glynn said of antibody testing.

Some plans sound like science ﬁction. Major League Baseball is exploring the idea of staging some form of a season by setting up a biodome, or closed ecological system, in the Phoenix area and sequestering players and other essential personnel there, according to several people familiar with the matter. Games would be held at the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Chase Field in downtown Phoenix, nearby spring training facilities and on ﬁelds at local universities. The league said in a statement that while it has discussed the idea of staging games in one location, “we have not settled on that option or developed a detailed plan.” Many multinational operations are looking to their China units for a playbook.

Starbucks Corp. executives in the U.S. held talks with bosses in the company’s China division beginning in late January to understand the virus’ spread there. In February, the coﬀee chain imported procedures it had been using in China to the U.S., including stepped-up cleaning, paying workers to quarantine and pushing to-go oﬀerings, before closing dine-in service at most of its 8,870 company-owned stores last month.

Tables and chairs are taped up to keep social distancing at a Starbucks coee shop in Hong Kong. PHOTO: TYRONE SIUREUTERS

More than 95% of the company’s China stores are now open with limited hours and reduced seating, restrictions Starbucks could also implement in the U.S. as it returns to more normal service. Starbucks China “basically created a model that we are now using around the world,” Chief Executive Kevin Johnson said.

Disney’s Shanghai attraction may oﬀer some lessons for the rest of the company’s theme parks. Disneyland and Walt Disney World have now been closed for more days than every closure in their history combined. Disney is weighing several changes to its global parks operations before reopening to the public, including temperature checks for guests, according to people familiar with the situation.

“To return to some semblance of normal, people will have to feel comfortable that they’re safe,” said Robert Iger, Disney’s executive chairman and former chief executive, in an interview with Barron’s, discussing tentative plans to reopen elsewhere. “We’ve asked ourselves the question, let’s prepare for a world where our customers demand that we scrutinize everybody. Even if it creates a little bit of hardship, like it takes a little bit longer for people to get in.” Sta workers wear protective masks in Disney’s Shanghai attraction. PHOTO: YIFAN DINGGETTY IMAGES

Employers with large oﬃce-bound workforces are thinking about ways to bring employees back without spreading contagion.

“We’re already getting a lot of questions from clients about, ‘how do we create that physical distancing with our employees,’ especially in open plans where they may be sitting tightly together,” said Janet Pogue McLaurin, a principal at Gensler, a global design and architecture ﬁrm.

Some firms may bring office workers back in waves to keep numbers low, or encourage employees to work from home a few days a week in rotation to allow for “de-densification,” she said.

Brokerage and real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield, which manages 800 million square feet of real estate in China, created a 300-page manual on safely reopening offices, including advice for every part of the workday from the moment an employee leaves home, said chief executive Brett White.

Cushman’s Amsterdam office is testing a workplace setup designed for social distancing. In the “Six-Feet Office,” transparent shields divide desks, markers direct foot traffic and disposable desk pads catch germs and can be discarded when a worker leaves for the day. “In the next four to six to eight weeks as people begin going back to work, companies aren’t going to have the time or the ability to remodel offices,” Mr. White said. Cushman & Wakeield ofices in Amsterdam dispay a new design concept called ‘Six Feet Ofice.’ PHOTO: CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD

Amol Sarva, chief executive of the flexible-office company Knotel, said he plans to add features to the company’s app for office tenants that would give employers the option to track some employee movements and trace their contacts to prevent the spread of illness.

“Security changed forever after 9/11, and it’s going to happen to the workplace now,” Mr. Sarva said.

As companies that cut swaths of their workforce think about hiring for a recovery, BCG’s Mr. Lesser said they’re likely to start by rehiring people they let go. And since the economy won’t be growing as fast as it was before, many of those people will come back, he predicted. “There won’t be so many job openings that workers will have much chance to jump to new employers,” he said.

Outside work, rituals like dinner and a movie or shopping trips will resume, although in vastly changed form.

Steakhouse chain Texas Roadhouse Inc. will likely reopen at reduced capacity through staggered seating, according to Travis Doster, a spokesman for the Louisville-based chain. The company may install plexiglas or wood dividers between booths and require customers waiting for tables to stand outside or remain in their cars, he said.

“You just don’t know how people are going to return,” said Mr. Doster.

Panera Bread Chief Executive Niren Chaudhary told his employees during a virtual company meeting Wednesday, that the fast-casual brand, which largely depended on dine-in customers, needed to ﬁnd new revenue sources. “We will have to very carefully rebuild the brand for a new world,” he said. The chain plans to keep the curbside, order-ahead business launched in response to coronavirus, along with the makeshift grocery stores to sell staples like bread, milk, and produce in 90% of its cafes—with delivery options. The 2,200 unit-chain owned by Krispy Kreme’s parent JAB is also considering building sites with smaller dining areas to give more room for the likely bigger to-go business.

Diners at Kith/Kin, a Washington, D.C., restaurant, may encounter disposable menus and silverware sealed in plastic instead of linen, said Chef Kwame Onwuachi. Restaurant signs will detail how surfaces are sanitized. Waiters may end up wearing gloves in his dining room.

“We’re going to need to look at more transparency in our practices,” said Mr. Onwuachi.

Mark O’Meara says he hopes to open his two independent movies theaters in Fairfax, Va., by June or July. In addition to stepped-up cleaning, he’s considering limiting capacity to 50% at reopening. Since Hollywood’s major studios have removed many of the highly anticipated titles from the summer calendar, Mr. O’Meara says he is open to flexible pricing for a short time to help entice moviegoers to come see lower-profile films, though he can’t make the decision on his own.

“We’re thinking about things to do we’ve never thought of,” Mr. O’Meara said.

Tim Leiweke, chief executive of Oak View Group, which operates and advises major concert and sports venues around the world, says “sanitation and cleanliness of facilities will be an ongoing issue for the rest of my career.”

Venues will add a new shift to sanitize after janitors ﬁnish cleaning venues post-events, and cashless transactions and protective shields at all points of purchase will become the norm, he said. Food and merchandise will be sold as grab-and-go.

School systems and colleges are planning scenarios for a hoped-for return to campus in the fall, if not earlier. David Greene, president of Colby College, a private liberal-arts college in Waterville, Maine with 2,000 undergraduates, said he has recently begun considering how Colby could operate if the mandate to socially distance continues into the future.

“Do we thin the number of people on campus? Does it mean more online instruction? We’re planning for any and all of those, including a very diﬀerent type of year next year,” Mr. Greene said.

Colby has had early discussions about the need for dorm rooms to house single occupants in that scenario, or having students come to campus for shorter-term modules to rotate students on and oﬀ campus. “Our students come from 90 diﬀerent countries and every state,” he said. “It’s not so simple to imagine,”

Miller Library towers above the Colby College campus in Waterville, Maine. PHOTO: ROBERT F. BUKATYASSOCIATED PRESS

—Lauren Weber, Jacob Bunge, Ben Foldy, Kathryn Dill, Konrad Putzler, Anne Steele, R.T. Watson, Juliet Chung, Nora Naughton, James Marson and Jimmy Vielkind contributed to this article.

Write to Erich Schwartzel at [email protected], Alison Sider at [email protected] and Heather Haddon at [email protected]

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit https://www.djreprints.com. ADVERTISEMENT

CALIFORNIA

Trailers sent to Orange County fairgrounds could house homeless

The 150-acre site in Costa Mesa could be used to house homeless at risk of contracting coronavirus. (Raul Roa / Daily Pilot)

By HANNAH FRY, FAITH E. PINHO

APRIL 10, 2020 | 2:22 PM

Less than a week after a proposal to house the homeless at a boutique hotel withered under intense public opposition, officials moved forward Friday with a plan to use the Orange County fairgrounds as a location for temporary housing and potential emergency medical facilities amid the coronavirus pandemic. The 150-acre site in Costa Mesa will receive 10 trailers Friday afternoon that fairgrounds officials say will assist with housing for unsheltered residents who may have risk factors that make them vulnerable to COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus.

“Fairgrounds all over the state are being called into service to assist their communities, and we are happy to do our part in helping Orange County through this pandemic,” Michele Richards, chief executive of OC Fair & Event Center, said in a statement.

The trailers are arriving from Santa Ana, where the state previously allocated 39 of the structures. Santa Ana will keep 22 to isolate homeless people from the local shelter who develop symptoms or test positive for COVID-19 and will return the remaining 17 trailers to the county to distribute to other locations.

Each of the trailers is expected to house one or two senior or chronically ill individuals. Temporarily housing people in trailers would be “a preventative measure among our most vulnerable homeless population,” Costa Mesa assistant city manager Susan Price said during a presentation to the City Council this week.

Mercy House, the nonprofit organization that runs the city’s homeless shelter at Lighthouse Church of the Nazarene, would maintain and operate the trailers if they are used. The city has already been housing senior and chronically ill homeless people at area hotels, Price said; the costs of this are expected to be reimbursed by the state.

Three buildings in the fairgrounds main mall area are also being considered for emergency medical use to assist with hospital overflow. Officials with the Orange County Health Care Agency toured the site last month to assess the fairgrounds’ infrastructure, power, heating and cooling systems, restroom accessibility and more for possible use in housing hospital patients.

County officials wrote in an email that “based on the initial assessment, medical and nursing experts felt the site could best be used to support less ill patients, who would still require hospitalization.”

Homeless people, who are more likely than the general population to have underlying health conditions and weakened immune systems, often from living on the streets, are at a higher risk for developing severe forms of COVID-19, health experts say. Officials across the state, including those in Orange County, have been working on ways to quickly move people indoors amid fears that an outbreak in this vulnerable population could strain an already fragile health system.

County Executive Officer Frank Kim said during a news conference last week that the county was looking at several sites that could eventually care for at-risk unsheltered individuals.

“Speed is of the greatest importance,” he said at the time.

The county and the Ayres Hotel in Laguna Woods brokered an agreement last week to use the site for homeless housing and medical care. However, that deal quickly withered in the face of strident opposition from residents of Laguna Woods Village, who objected to having homeless patients or the staff who care for them so close to their retirement community, which has thousands of residents who are older than 55.

The news comes as confirmed cases of coronavirus in Orange County continue to grow steadily.

The Orange County Health Care Agency announced 62 new cases of coronavirus infections on Friday, bringing the county’s total to 1,138 — up more than 400 from a week ago. The county’s death toll remained at 17 in the latest update.

To date, more than 12,800 people have been tested for coronavirus countywide. Officials reported that 124 people are hospitalized for the illness, and 57 of those are in intensive care.

In an effort to limit the spread of the virus, county public health officials this week issued a recommendation “strongly encouraging” employees at businesses open during the pandemic to wear face coverings while at work. Laguna Beach, which has 35 confirmed cases, took the recommendation a step further, issuing an order requiring all essential workers not providing medical services to wear a face covering.

Starting Friday, all essential employees at grocery stores, pharmacies, home improvement stores, gas station convenience stores, restaurants providing take-out or delivery services, banks, savings and loans and credit unions are required to wear a face covering that shield their noses and mouths while at work. Workers are discouraged from using medical-grade equipment such as N95 masks, which are in short supply among healthcare workers.

“This is an additional level of protection for both our residents and our essential workers still on the front lines providing food and critical services to our community,” Laguna Beach City Manager John Pietig said in a statement.

Daily Pilot staff writer Lilly Nguyen contributed to this report

CALIFORNIA 64°

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LOCAL NEWS Who needs to wear a mask in SoCal and how to make one at home, according to ocials

Seal Beach face mask requirements spark confusion

by: Kristina Bravo, Erin Myers, Ellina Abovian Posted: Apr 12, 2020 / 02:23 PM PDT / Updated: Apr 13, 2020 / 06:29 AM PDT

A number of jurisdictions across Southern California started implementing rules on facial coverings in April as the nation continued to battle the coronavirus pandemic. Since conrmed cases of COVID-19 began to rise in the U.S., ofcials have been advising against the general64° public’s use of surgical and N95 masks so that they remain available to health care workers who desperately need them while caring for patients.

Now, with a number of local authorities requiring the use of non-medical masks when out in public, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has offered tutorials on how people can make their own masks at home.

This step-by-step guide to create a homemade mask appears on the CDC website in April 2020.

The U.S. surgeon general also demonstrated how to create a facial covering with cloth and elastics: ktla5news View Profile 64° Washington D.C.

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How to make your own facial covering? @u.s.surgeongeneral Jerome Adams shows how to create one out of items found around the home in this video released by @cdcgov. All you need is some cloth and rubber bands. Federal officials have recommended Americans wear facial coverings to prevent further spread of the coronavirus but emphasized that social distancing remains the best way to help curb COVID-19. #facemasks #coronavirus #covid19 #ktla view all 383 comments

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California has not mandated the statewide use of facial coverings, emphasizing that frequent hand washing, physical distancing and staying at home remain the best way to stop the spread of the coronavirus. State ofcials, however, are allowing local jurisdictions to require residents wear facial coverings while64° out in public. The state released the following guidelines on how to use facial coverings effectively:

• Facial coverings do not replace your need to stay at least 6 feet away from others who are not members of your household. • Wash your hands before and after touching your facial covering. • The covering can be sewn by hand or made in a factory using cotton, silk or linen. • You can also use items found in the home such as scarves, T-shirts, sweatshirts or towels. • The mask must cover the nose and mouth. • Wash facial coverings after each use or at least once daily. You can also keep them in a bag or bin before placing them in a washing machine with detergent and hot water and drying them in a hot cycle.

Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer showed how to properly wear a facial covering: ktla5news View Profile 64° Los Angeles County, California

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Dr. Barbara Ferrer of @lapublichealth demonstrated how people can safely use their cloth face masks, reminding everyone that practicing physical distancing is still the best defense against the spread of the coronavirus. She said cotton is a good material for a reusable face mask and people should get rid of masks that don’t properly cover the mouth and nose. Children aged 2 and under should not be wearing face masks, Ferrer said. L.A. County requires the public to wear a face covering to enter essential businesses, which also have to provide their workers with masks. #ktla #stayhomestaysafe #losangelescounty view all 290 comments

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Here’s a list counties that have announced guidance and rules on facial coverings, as well as some of the cities that have released their own stricter mandates: • Beverly Hills: Effective April 10, everyone must wear facial coverings, including essential workers and64° residents who leave their homes for walks through their neighborhood. Those driving alone or with members of their households don’t need to wear coverings unless they lower their windows to interact with others such as rst responders and food service employees. Click here for more information. • Burbank: On April 8, the city proclaimed that essential workers and residents visiting essential businesses must wear face coverings. Click here for more information. • Carson: In an April 9 order, the city declared that workers, residents and visitors must wear a face mask or covering over their nose and mouth while inside businesses and while outside or leaving their home. • Long Beach: On April 10, the city announced an order that requires residents to wear facial coverings while shopping at grocery stores and other businesses. The city has partnered with the Long Beach Post to create a marketplace that connects local individuals and businesses with individuals looking to buy masks and facial coverings. • City of Los Angeles: Effective April 10, essential workers and customers at grocery stores and other essential businesses are required to wear facial coverings. Click here for more information. • Los Angeles County: In guidelines released on April 10, county ofcials asked everyone interacting with people who are not members of their households to wear facial coverings in public and private spaces. • Orange County: On April 9, county ofcials made a “strong” recommendation that essential workers and residents wear face coverings but stopped short of making it an order. • Pasadena: Customers who visit essential businesses must wear facial coverings over their nose and mouth. If they don’t, businesses can deny them service. Businesses must provide facial coverings to their workers by April 15. Click here for more information. • Riverside County: After rst recommending in late March that residents wear facial coverings when leaving home, county ofcials made it mandatory beginning April 4. Sheriff Chad Bianco has warned that the rule is “enforceable by ne, imprisonment, or both.” • San Bernardino County: Residents must wear facial coverings when going outside. Drivers who are traveling alone or with members of their households don’t need to have them on unless they lower their window and interact with others. • Seal Beach: In an April 11 Facebook post, the Seal Beach Police Department, said masks and other personal protective equipment is required for people who are out of their house or vehicle and are interacting with workers. Masks are not required while walking or exercising “since it is not essential business,” the message said. • Ventura County: In an April 9 announcement, the county’s health ofcer urged residents to cover their mouth and nose with a cloth face covering if they plan to be around others. Click here for more on the county’s proclamation. http://www.hidesertstar.com/covid-19/article_bb456692-7b71-11ea-b11b-e7a25cc8fab7.html Final primary election results: Morongo Unied school bond loses, Dawn Rowe wins

By Stacy Moore, Hi-Desert Star Apr 10, 2020

MORONGO BASIN — Measure C lost and San Bernardino County 3rd District Supervisor Dawn Rowe won in the March 3 election, the nal results from the county elections oce show.

Workers nished counting ballots, including those that were damage or dicult to read, or whose signatures didn’t seem to match those on le, last week at the San Bernardino County registrar of voters.

Measure C, a bond measure for Morongo Unied School District, failed with 59.5 percent voting “no.”

For the county board of supervisors, District 3, Rowe won by 54.9 percent. Because she got more than 50 percent plus one vote, she will not have to run in the November general election.

Closest behind her was Redlands City Councilman Eddie Tejeda with 18.5 percent.

In the two races for superior court judges, Joel Agron beat Jason Liso with 55.3 percent of the vote and Stanford Reichert beat David Tulcan with 53.7 percent.

The county also released voter turnout records for March 3.

Nearly 48 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of Republicans voted in their presidential primary in San Bernardino County.

Turnout was lower for the smaller parties: around 30 percent for the American Independents, 25 percent for Green Party members, 29 percent for Libertarians and 12 percent for Peace and Freedom.

Although growing numbers of voters are registering with no party preference, which is now the third most common “preference” among county voters, few participated in the March election, with turnout around 12 percent. Among county Democrats, nearly 40 percent voted for Bernie Sanders and nearly 32 percent for Joe Biden. Almost 95 percent of Republicans voted for Donald Trump.

State election results still aren’t nal

Workers with the California Secretary of State are still counting and conrming ballots. They expect to have nal results by April 24.

Candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives and state Assembly are both awaiting the state results, since they straddle two or three counties.

For the 8th District in the House of Representatives, Republican Jay Obernolte leads with 35 percent of the vote, followed by Democrat Christine Bubser with 28.7 percent. The two will face off in the November general.

Paul Cook, formerly of Yucca Valley, will step down from that seat in Congress to become a county supervisor in the 1st District.

In the state Assembly, Chad Mayes will face off against Andrew Kotyuk in November. Mayes, a former Republican now registered as no party preference, won 35 percent of the vote in the primary and Kotyuk got 33.6 percent.

The third candidate, Democrat DeniAntionette Mazingo, was just behind him with 31.4 percent. 64°

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LOCAL NEWS Passenger killed during crash while allegedly eeing police in San Bernardino identied

The intersection of 16th Street and Medical Center Drive in San Bernardino, as viewed in a Google Street View image.

by: Brian Day

Posted: Apr 12, 2020 / 05:44 PM PDT / Updated: Apr 12, 2020 / 05:49 PM PDT Authorities on Sunday released the identity of an 18-year-old man who died when the stolen car he was riding as64° a passenger in crashed while the driver was allegedly eeing from police in San Bernardino last week.

Daisean Washington of San Bernardino was killed in the crash, which took place just before 1 a.m. Thursday at 16th Street and Medical Center Drive, San Bernardino Police Department Sgt. Jeff Harvey said in a written statement.

Police also claried the identity of the driver, who initially gave a false name to investigators, ofcials said.

Garyon Jaquise Perkins, 19, of San Bernardino was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and evading police resulting in death, according to police and county booking records.

Police said they tried to pull over a stolen Kia Soul being driven by Perkins, with Washington riding as a passenger, but the driver ed.

As the chase reached Medical Center Drive heading east on 16th Street, the driver lost control, Harvey said at the time. The Kia struck a parked car, a utility pole and a tree before coming to a rest.

Paramedics pronounced Washington dead at the scene and took Perkins to a hospital with major injuries, police said.

Bail for Perkins was set at $1 million pending his initial appearance in San Bernardino County Superior Court, which was scheduled Tuesday.

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Passenger killed, driver critically injured after stolen car crashes while eeing police in San Bernardino: Ocials

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Soak Your Dark Spots With This One Thing (Trending Morning Routine) Gundry MD San Bernardino commits additional $10 million to replace Mt. Vernon Bridge – San Bernardino Sun

LOCAL NEWS • News San Bernardino commits additional $10 million to replace Mt. Vernon Bridge The city's total commitment to the SBCTA-led project will be just shy of $26 million

   

https://www.sbsun.com/2020/04/11/san-bernardino-commits-additional-10-million-to-replace-mt-vernon-bridge/[4/13/2020 11:24:03 AM] San Bernardino commits additional $10 million to replace Mt. Vernon Bridge – San Bernardino Sun

The Mt. Vernon bridge above the BNSF Railway San Bernardino Yard in San Bernardino is seen on Saturday, April 11, 2020. Mt. Vernon Bridge in San Bernardino is set to be replaced in the future. Presently, San Bernardino, the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority, BNSF and CalTrans are working on funding options. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press- Enterprise/SCNG)

By BRIAN WHITEHEAD | [email protected] | San Bernardino Sun  PUBLISHED: April 11, 2020 at 6:01 p.m. | UPDATED: April 11, 2020 at 6:02 p.m.

San Bernardino plans to commit an additional $10 million to replace Mt. Vernon Bridge after a bid in the fall for the long-awaited project pegged design and construction costs at $230 million, about $63 million more than anticipated a year earlier.

1 of 8 A man wears a protective mask as he crosses Mt. Vernon bridge above the BNSF Railway San Bernardino Yard in San Bernardino on Saturday,  April 11, 2020. Mt. Vernon Bridge in San Bernardino is set to be replaced in the future. Presently, San Bernardino, the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority, BNSF and CalTrans are working on funding options. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

San Bernardino, the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority, BNSF and CalTrans are funding the SBCTA-led project.

The city’s total investment will be just shy of $26 million, drawn from fees developers pay to build in town and future revenue from Measure I – the half-cent sales tax collected throughout San Bernardino County for transportation improvements. Construction on Mt. Vernon Bridge could take up to three years.

San Bernardino’s general fund will not be used to cover costs, city staffers said.

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SKIP AD These chain restaurants are selling cost effective City leaders agreed to the plan during a special web conference Wednesday, April 8.

“This is a long-overdue project and the conditions for this bridge are deplorable at this point,” Councilman Juan Figueroa said. “This (project) definitely needs to happen. We cannot kick the can down the road any further with this project.”

Built in 1934, Mt. Vernon Bridge connects north and south San Bernardino to the westside of town.

More than two decades ago, CalTrans called the 1,016-foot-long bridge, which crosses freight and commuter rail tracks, “structurally deficient and functionally obsolete.” According to CalTrans’ 2011 Environmental Assessment of the project, the overpass at one point had a sufficiency rating of two out of 100.

To slow its deterioration, San Bernardino leaders in 2008 prohibited all commercial vehicles on the

four-lane bridge. Tens of thousands of motorists cross the bridge daily, a figure expected to continue rising each year.

Four years ago, San Bernardino, SBCTA and BNSF established a cooperative funding agreement to share project costs not covered by federal funds. City leaders agreed to cover about $16 million of those costs with Development Impact Fees and Measure I money.

Council members are expected to finalize the new funding plan May 6.

“This is something our community needs,” Mayor John Valdivia said. “It’s been long-awaited. I certainly don’t want to get in the way of progress. This is real big for our community.”

Leveraging future Measure I funds will not impact active or planned street widenings, extensions, rehabs and other capital improvement projects previously funded with Development Impact Fees and Measure I funds, city staffers said.

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https://www.sbsun.com/2020/04/11/san-bernardino-commits-additional-10-million-to-replace-mt-vernon-bridge/[4/13/2020 11:24:03 AM] All News Featured Hesperia News San Bernardino County Fire Crews Deliver Baby Girl at Hesperia Home

VictorValley News   • April 11, 2020

 (San Bernardino County Fire) 17 HESPERIA, Calif. (VVNG.com) — Fireghters from Hesperia helped deliver a baby girl at a home Wednesday morning.

On April 8, 2020, EMS personnel on Medic Ambulance 302 responded to a report of childbirth /contractions at a private residence.

Upon arrival, MA302 personnel found a female in living room couch experiencing frequent contractions. Deeming childbirth to be imminent, EMS personnel quickly prepared for a delivery at the scene.

At approximately 955am, Mom gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Both mother and newborn baby were quickly assessed then transported to Desert Valley for further care.

A few hours later, MA302 personnel followed up to Desert Valley Labor and Delivery Ward to deliver a bouquet of owers and congratulations card to the new parents.

MA302 is proud to serve the community of Hesperia with professionalism. Congratulations to the new parents!

Family gave consent to San Bernardino County Fire Department to share their story and photograph.

MA302 personnel: AO/PM Jake Gallagher & AO/EMT Frank Campos

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