NYPD called after overwhelmed funeral home stores bodies on ice in rented trucks
Police were called to a Brooklyn neighborhood Wednesday after a funeral home overwhelmed by the coronavirus resorted to storing dozens of bodies on ice in rented trucks, and a passerby complained about the smell, officials said.
Investigators who responded to a 911 call found that the home had rented four trucks to hold about 50 corpses, according to a law enforcement official. No criminal charges were brought and the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation, spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Home was cited for failing to control the odors. The home was able to obtain a larger, refrigerated truck later in the day, the official said.
New York City funeral homes have struggled as at least 18,000 people have died in the city since late March.
The NYPD notified the state Department of Health, which oversees funeral homes, about the situation at the Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Home. It did not respond to an email seeking comment.
San Diego’s fruit swap captures spirit of neighbors helping neighbors during coronavirus crisis
All the loquats that grow on Marcela Talavera’s fruit trees don’t make it to the kitchen table.
The natural abundance of Talavera’s trees encouraged the resident of National City, in southwest San Diego County, to donate fruit from her yard to a fruit swap — where people can drop off produce and those in need can pick it up for free — in San Diego’s City Heights neighborhood.
Business owners, community organizations and residents joined forces in early April to run a weekly fruit swap at the public open space Fair@44 to help those in need during the coronavirus crisis.
Face masks thrown on freeway cause traffic jam in Northern California
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a Bay Area freeway suffered a mini-traffic jam Wednesday when someone tossed hundreds of face masks onto the road and some motorists stopped to grab them, the California Highway Patrol reported.
About 1:30 p.m., CHP officers received a report that a white truck had stopped on Interstate 880 in Union City and someone tossed out boxes of medical masks, the CHP reported.
Hundreds of the prized masks spread across southbound lanes, authorities said.
NHL offers hope players can return to ice in small groups by middle or end of May
NHL players, coaches and staff members will remain in self-quarantine indefinitely, the league and the NHL Players’ Assn. said Wednesday in a joint statement, but the two groups offered hope for a return to the ice by suggesting players might engage in small-group activities by the middle or end of May “provided that conditions continue to trend favorably.”
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman put the 2019-20 season on pause on March 12 in response to the coronavirus pandemic. He subsequently issued several stay-at-home directives, with the most recent period scheduled to run through Thursday. European-born players were permitted to return to their homelands to await word on whether the season will resume, and many have done so.
Bettman said last week he is willing to schedule games during the summer to complete the season and award the Stanley Cup, which he said could be accomplished without infringing on the 2020-21 season.
The regular season was about 85% complete when the season was put on hold and no decision has been made on whether the schedule would be played out — even though several teams were eliminated from playoff contention — or whether play would pick up with the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Riverside County health order is extended to June 19
In an attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Riverside County residents will be required to wear face coverings when outside and to continue practicing social distancing through June 19.
On Wednesday, Riverside County Public Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser extended his order to the date, reminding residents that the county is also moving “to fully align with the governor’s stay-at-home order” until it’s amended or rescinded.
Under the governor’s order, Riverside County residents are still required to stay home unless they must leave for essential business or activities, such as buying groceries or visiting their doctor.
Riverside County has seen 3,735 confirmed cases and 141 deaths caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“While we work within the governor’s plan for reopening the state, people must be mindful that COVID-19 has not been eliminated,” Kaiser said in a statement. “The new normal in Riverside County will still require social distancing, facial coverings and other precautions. Summer will only slow the virus, and we are already thinking about what will happen in the fall.”
Yankees’ Giancarlo Stanton to donate face shields to hospitals in Southland and New York
The shortage of personal protective equipment in America’s hospitals is a national problem. With more than a million Americans testing positive for the novel coronavirus and more than 60,000 dead, some doctors and nurses have been asked to care for patients without the fresh masks and shields that could protect them from contracting the illness.
Giancarlo Stanton did something about it. The 2017 National League most valuable player announced Wednesday that he is donating 15,000 face shields to hospitals in Southern California, where he grew up, and in New York, where he now plays for the Yankees.
The local recipients are Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys and East Los Angeles Doctors’ Hospital.
“The African American and Latino communities are hit the hardest,” Stanton said. “Those hospitals have the least resources. They were depleted.”
Florida to ease restrictions beginning May 4
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that on May 4 portions of the state would see eased restrictions.
Restaurants and retail shops would reopen at 25% capacity. But, DeSantis said, three of the most populous counties in the state — Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach — would stay under a strict order for several more weeks to help slow the spread of the virus.
Florida has seen 32,800 confirmed virus cases and at least 1,170 deaths. DeSantis said the state was taking a “very slow and methodical approach.”
“There’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
For a coronavirus infection, doctor’s orders, rest and fluids are the best medicine
There’s a wide range of symptoms of COVID-19, including fever, loss of smell and taste, headache and sore throat. Unfortunately, there isn’t yet an antiviral medication to treat it or a vaccine to prevent infection by this new coronavirus.
It’s difficult to develop treatments for viral illnesses because a treatment needs to be able to target a specific part of the virus’ life cycle that makes it possible to reproduce, according to Harvard Medical School.
As scientists work to develop treatments and a vaccine, what can you do if you are sick?
California to provide more food benefits to families during the coronavirus crisis
SACRAMENTO — With California campuses closed because of the coronavirus, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that low-income families would receive $365 per child to buy food during the next two months to make up for the loss of free and reduced-priced lunches previously provided by the schools.
Newsom estimated up to $1.4 billion in federal funds would be provided to 3.8 million families in California.
“We think that is a significant thing,” Newsom said during his daily coronavirus briefing. “We are going to do our best to get [the money] in people’s pockets because we deeply recognize people’s food insecurity, not just their economic insecurity.”
Families with children currently enrolled in the state’s food stamps program, CalFresh, or Medi-Cal or foster care programs do not need to apply for the extra money. They will receive a new pandemic electronic benefit transfer card in the mail in May.
Gov. Gavin Newsom says staying home now will help reopen California sooner
Gov. Gavin Newsom urged Californians on Wednesday to stay home and practice physical distancing to avoid spoiling the progress the state has made to prevent the spread of the coronavirus as he prepares to allow some businesses to gradually reopen.
“Why put ourselves in that position when we are just a week or two away from significant modifications of our stay-at-home [order], where we can begin a Phase 2, beginning to reopen sectors of our economy that are low risk?” Newsom said.
On Tuesday, Newsom unveiled a broad outline of a plan to lift his stay-at-home order and slowly ease the restrictions on Californians in four stages in the weeks and months ahead. The governor also announced that schools could potentially reopen in July or August, catching educators who were learning about it for the first time off guard.
McNamara: My husband’s cancer was diagnosed three days into the shutdown. Here’s the silver lining
As my surname might imply, I am not an optimist by nature. We have a refrigerator magnet that reads: “An Irishman has an abiding sense of tragedy which sustains him through temporary periods of joy.” (Or at least we did; someone’s probably stolen it by now.)
So you can imagine my surprise when I was recently gifted a small potential silver lining about a topic I previously considered un-silver-line-able: my husband’s cancer.
Second Riverside County inmate dies after testing positive for COVID-19
A Riverside County jail inmate who tested positive for COVID-19 died Tuesday, marking the second coronavirus-related inmate death in three days.
The back-to-back deaths come as the Sheriff’s Department faces questions from civil rights attorneys and activists about its efforts to protect people who live and work in the jails.
As of Wednesday, 141 inmates have tested positive for the virus and most have recovered, according to the Riverside University Health System-Public Health. The Sheriff’s Department has not provided a breakdown of coronavirus cases at each of the jails it runs.
Bon Temps in the Arts District closes permanently, a casualty of the shutdown
Less than a year ago, Lincoln Carson opened Bon Temps, a modern American restaurant in the Arts District that quickly received local and national acclaim.
But the restaurant won’t survive to see its first anniversary. The career pastry chef said Wednesday that he had closed Bon Temps permanently, a casualty of the shutdown forced by the COVID-19 crisis.
“We’re a new place, and regardless of how well we were written about, it was a big build-out, and the costs have been formidable in the first year,” Carson said in a phone interview. “In an industry with notorious margins, the expenses have only become tighter and tighter. I looked hard at our fixed costs and saw this prolonged closure wasn’t something we could come back from.”
Face masks won’t be required in Ventura County, health official says
Ventura County officials have credited social distancing and a local stay-at-home order with stemming the spread of the coronavirus and keeping the number of cases and deaths in the county low.
But Dr. Robert Levin, the county’s public health officer, says he will not require the wearing of face coverings, a step that neighboring counties like Los Angeles and Riverside have mandated for residents who are conducting essential business.
Moratorium on debt collection urged by L.A. City Council
Debt collection should be halted during the coronavirus crisis, the Los Angeles City Council urged in a proposal that passed unanimously Wednesday.
The proposal, introduced by Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, does not take any immediate action to halt the practice but calls on Mayor Eric Garcetti to impose a moratorium on debt collection. It also asks the mayor to declare collection and credit agencies to be nonessential businesses during the emergency order spurred by the pandemic.
Rodriguez billed the suggested move as a way “to further protect Angelenos who have lost their jobs and had their businesses closed.” Her plan passed without discussion Wednesday.
The push was applauded by groups such as the Western Center on Law and Poverty and the California Low-Income Consumer Coalition, which assert that California has not gone far enough to ease debt collection during the emergency.
Tom Hanks donates his plasma to UCLA after beating COVID-19: ‘As easy as taking a nap’
Helping others is in Tom Hanks’ blood.
On Wednesday, the screen icon shared on social media some up-close photos of his plasma, which he donated to coronavirus relief efforts earlier this month after beating COVID-19.
“Here’s last week’s bag of plasma,” the “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” star tweeted along with snaps of his blood contents. “Such a bag! After the paperwork, it’s as easy as taking a nap.”
Reopening California schools: 4 things you need to know
Could an early reopening of schools over the summer offer students a chance to catch up with work while offering parents a much needed respite from schooling at home?
With about 6.1 million California students shut out of their campuses since about mid-March amid the coronavirus crisis, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that public schools might be able to reopen their doors by late July or August. The plan is high on ambition but low on details.
School districts throughout the state are just now beginning to assess how to reopen what are almost certain to be reconfigured campuses and schedules to protect the health of students and staff.
Here are four things to know:
U.S. moves toward a slow reopening
Amid a bleak financial outlook in which the U.S. economy saw its steepest drop since the Great Recession, a mix of both optimism and caution blanketed the country on Wednesday as officials weighed responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo noted that the death rate had declined in recent days but was still high. At least 330 people died across the state on Tuesday, Cuomo said, down from 335 and 337 the previous days.
“You see the decline has been slow at best, and still disgustingly high,” Cuomo said during a news conference at the state Capitol building in Albany.
French deaths rise by 427; hospitalizations fall
France reported an increase in new deaths linked to the coronavirus on Wednesday, even as hospitalizations continued to decline.
Deaths rose by 427 to 24,087, the Health Ministry said in an emailed statement. France’s public health service reported 198,215 coronavirus infections as of Wednesday, after restating some data because of erroneous analysis earlier this week.
France plans to ease strict lockdown measures starting May 11, with a plan to reopen shops as one of the first steps, as the number of patients in hospitals and intensive care has steadily dropped for the past two weeks.
Patients in intensive care because of the virus, which health authorities consider a key indicator of how the pandemic is affecting France’s hospital system, fell by 180 to 4,207, the lowest in more than a month. Hospitalizations fell by 650 patients to 26,834, the biggest drop since the number first started falling April 15.
France’s daily coronavirus figures have fluctuated amid inconsistent reporting from nursing homes, which were first included in the tally this month.
Fauci calls data from Gilead drug trial ‘good news’
The U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert said early results of a closely watched clinical trial offered “quite good news” regarding a potential COVID-19 therapy made by biotechnology company Gilead Sciences Inc.
Anthony Fauci, head of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is conducting the study, said at a White House meeting with President Trump and Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards that the trial showed a significant positive effect in treating the virus.
Early Wednesday morning, Gilead issued a news release saying it had become aware of results from the NIAID trial showing its experimental drug remdesivir helped patients recover more quickly than standard care, suggesting it could become the first effective treatment for an illness that has turned modern life inside-out.
NIAID’s trial enrolled more than 1,000 patients internationally and compared remdesivir treatment alongside supportive care with a placebo. Patients who were given the drug recovered in an average of 11 days, while those who get a placebo recovered in 15 days, Fauci said.
L.A. councilman proposes ban on storage-unit evictions
Rebecca Wu wishes she could just grab some photo albums from her storage unit before everything in it is at risk of going up for auction May 1. She is two months late on the rent for the unit near where she lives in Placer County, northeast of Sacramento, and her access code to the facility has been turned off.
California has roughly 3,500 storage facilities, according to Self Storage, and has the most expensive storage rents in the country, according to statistics compiled by Neighbor, a company that matches people’s empty space with people who need to store items. With millions of people applying for unemployment during the coronavirus outbreak, storage represents another monthly bill many can’t pay right now.
“At least I wouldn’t be losing a couple of boxes of the really sacred stuff. To me, it wouldn’t be fair under the situation, but it would be decent,” said Wu, who lost her job in mid-March as a home healthcare worker.
Bay Area will allow some businesses to reopen, construction to resume
SAN FRANCISCO — Six San Francisco Bay Area counties will allow all construction projects, real estate transactions and certain outdoor businesses to resume operations with certain conditions on Monday, while also largely retaining other stay-at-home restrictions through the month of May intended to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The outdoor businesses that will be allowed to resume include wholesale and retail nurseries, landscapers, gardeners and other businesses that primarily provide outdoor services. Certain outdoor recreational facilities previously ordered closed, including skate parks, can reopen if they do not involve shared equipment or physical contact.
Restaurants will continue to only be allowed to offer food for sale for takeout, delivery or drive-through service, even if they offer outdoor seating.
What science can tell us about the psychological effects of isolation
When 13 passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship arrived in Nebraska in mid-February, David Cates was determined to make their mandatory stay as pleasant as possible.
The passengers were among the first Americans known to be exposed to the coronavirus and had been ordered to remain isolated at a national quarantine center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center for at least two weeks, or until they no longer tested positive for the disease. Some would spend more than a month at the center before returning home
As a psychologist and behavioral health consultant for the quarantine center, it was Cates’ job to tend to their emotional well-being while they remained isolated from friends and family in the outside world. He convened a daily “town hall” meeting via teleconference so those in isolation could ask doctors questions about the virus, give nurses feedback on the food they were served, and talk to case workers about tracking down their luggage and booking flights home.
Federal Reserve signals it will likely hold rates near zero for months
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve signaled Wednesday that it will keep its key short-term interest rate near zero for the foreseeable future as part of its extraordinary efforts to bolster an economy that is sinking into its worst crisis since the 1930s.
The Fed said it will also keep buying Treasury and mortgage bonds to help keep rates low and ensure that companies can continue to lend easily to each other amid a near-paralysis of the economy caused by the coronavirus. It did not specify any amounts or timing for its bond purchases.
“The Federal Reserve is committed to using its full range of tools to support the U.S. economy in this challenging time,” the central bank said in an unusually sweeping declaration at the top of its statement.
The Fed’s policy statement also said the viral outbreak and measures to contain it are “inducing sharp declines in economic activity and a surge in job losses.”
Widespread business shutdowns have caused roughly 30 million workers to lose jobs over the last month and a half. As layoffs mount, retail sales are sinking, along with manufacturing, construction, home sales and consumer confidence.
During two emergency meetings in March, the central bank cut its benchmark rate to a range between zero and 0.25% . It has also announced nine new lending programs to pump cash into financial markets and provide support to large and medium-sized businesses as well as cities and states.
The Fed’s statement Wednesday came on the same day that the Commerce Department released grim news about the economy: Economic output shrank at a 4.8% annual rate in the first three months of the year — the worst showing since the Great Recession struck near the end of 2008.
L.A. City Council debates converting developer fees for cultural events into arts relief fund
For every private development project of $500,000 or more in the city of Los Angeles, the developer must pay an arts fee to the city based on the square footage of the building or a percentage of the value of the permit. Those funds are then allocated to cultural events such as festivals and other public arts happenings.
But with dense public gatherings not possible for the foreseeable future, L.A. City Councilman David Ryu hopes to use those funds as relief grants for arts organizations. Earlier this month, the councilman made a motion to have the percent for arts funds for his district — the fees are distributed by council district — made available as a small-dollar grants program geared at small arts organizations. The measure is scheduled to go up for debate at Wednesday’s City Council meeting.
“Hundreds — if not thousands — of small arts organizations are at risk of closing their doors for good because of this coronavirus pandemic,” Ryu said in an emailed statement to The Times. “I don’t want to see Los Angeles lose its creative heart.”
How giant Tyson Foods helped create the meat shortage it now warns against
John Tyson, the billionaire whose family business reigns as the largest meat processor in the U.S., took out ads in national newspapers to complain about a “breaking” food supply chain.
No one would argue that supplies aren’t an issue right now. President Trump is invoking the Defense Production Act to secure meat production. But the roots of this problem go back to decades of consolidation that Tyson’s own company helped lead.
Tyson Foods Inc. and its top two rivals — JBS SA and Cargill Inc. — today control about two-thirds of America’s beef, and the large bulk of it is processed at a few dozen giant plants. Pork and chicken are similarly dominated.
“This is 100% a symptom of consolidation,” said Christopher Leonard, author of “The Meat Racket.”
Florida governor expected to announce plans for reopening
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was expected to reveal Wednesday just what he meant when he said the state would be taking “baby steps” to reopening the economy after the coronavirus shutdown that began in March and slammed many doors shut April 3.
DeSantis planned to hold an afternoon news conference to reveal Phase 1 of his reopening plan. The state, like the nation, has seen large swaths of its workforce thrown into unemployment because of the shutdown and its two biggest economic sectors, tourism and agriculture, decimated as visitors have fled and institutional produce buyers such as hotels and schools have closed.
More than 800,000 Floridians have filed for unemployment.
DeSantis was one of the last governors to issue a statewide stay-at-home order, preferring a county-by-county approach throughout March. Statewide, he closed bars and gyms on March 20, limited restaurants to takeout and delivery and banned gatherings of more than 10 people. Schools closed in late March.
On April 1, the Republican governor ordered the closure of nonessential businesses statewide and ordered employees to work from home wherever possible.
DeSantis has said his approach has worked, as Florida’s confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths are significantly lower per-capita than many states that instituted earlier and much stricter restrictions. Critics have said that, by not closing beaches, bars, restaurants and theme parks earlier, DeSantis allowed tourists to congregate and spread the disease, then return to their home states and countries — infections that wouldn’t show up in Florida’s totals.
As of Wednesday morning, the state reported 33,193 confirmed cases since early March and 1,218 deaths.
San Mateo County to reopen trails in 13 parks following closures
San Mateo has joined the growing cohort of California counties moving to reopen outdoor areas shuttered by the coronavirus pandemic.
Trails will reopen in 13 parks Monday, according to the San Mateo County Parks Department.
Certain restrictions, however, will still be in effect. Visitors will have to carry face coverings, maintain a buffer of six feet, avoid mingling with people they don’t live with, and hike single file on narrow paths.
Parks director Nicholas Calderon said the county — which closed 23 of its parks on March 27 in a bid to slow the spread of COVID-19 — is “eager to welcome visitors back” so they can “experience the physical and mental health benefits of being outdoors and on the trails.”
Poop may tell us when the lockdown will end
Every day, millions of Americans could be flushing critical coronavirus data down the toilet.
With the nation growing ever more weary of sweeping stay-at-home orders and a worsening economy, some scientists say our poop could be the key to determining when a community might consider easing health restrictions.
From Stanford to the University of Arizona, from Australia to Paris, teams of researchers have been ramping up wastewater analyses to track the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Initial studies show that sewage monitoring, or “wastewater-based-epidemiology,” could not only tell us how much the virus might actually be spreading in a community — but also when the virus has finally gone away.
Understanding the true scale of COVID-19 has been a major stumbling block across the country as officials struggle with testing shortages, false negatives, and people who are infected but have no symptoms. Sewage data could potentially help fill these gaps by capturing critical information in the aggregate.
Column: What would Mary Poppins do during the lockdown? Julie Andrews launches a podcast
Somewhere in New York’s Suffolk County, perhaps right at this moment, a woman is holed up in a closet, surrounded by pillows, blankets and towels, and she’s reading a story from a picture book.
A story that might go something like this:
Once upon a time, in a green and pleasant land far, far away, there lived a little girl who liked to sing. She traveled around the country with her mother and stepfather, and they sang for all sorts of people — soldiers and lorry drivers and shopkeepers; housemaids and homemakers and, on one very special occasion, the king himself.
As the girl grew, so did her voice, and by the time she was a woman, people from all over the the world would stop whatever they were doing just to hear her sing. And when she grew older and no longer sang as often as she once did, the people were just as happy to hear her talk. Because her voice was a magical voice, still full of music and hope — so no matter how sad or scared or angry you might be, the sound of that voice would make you feel better.
Competition planned for COVID-19 tests
The U.S. National Institutes of Health is urging scientists and investors to compete in a $500-million national challenge that will help the agency identify the best candidates for at-home or point-of-care tests for COVID-19.
The NIH is likening the program to “Shark Tank,” the reality television show where entrepreneurs compete for financial backing. Scientists and innovators will compete for a share of a $500-million fund that will be awarded to those with the most promising technologies. Finalists also will be matched with technical, manufacturing and business experts to help advance their products.
The contest is part of a new program called the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics initiative, which received $1.5 billion in federal stimulus funding, the agency said Wednesday.
Brazil deaths on the rise
Brazil is rising in the ranking of places hit hardest by the coronavirus, becoming the third country with the largest number of deaths reported over the past 24 hours after the U.S. and the U.K.
Total virus-related deaths surpassed 5,000, with 474 on Tuesday alone. In contrast to other parts of the world, the curve of new cases in Brazil is climbing, Health Minister Nelson Teich said at a news conference Tuesday. As of Tuesday, the country had counted nearly 72,000 positive cases, 5,017 deaths, and a 7% death rate.
When asked during the same news conference about mounting fatalities, President Jair Bolsonaro answered, “So what? What do you want me to do about it?” before joking that even though his middle name means messiah in Portuguese, “I can’t make miracles.”
The leader has refused to follow World Health Organization guidance on combating the virus throughout the outbreak. On the domestic front, he’s criticized governors who have called for quarantines, fired his health minister for advocating for restrictions and containment measures, and personally took to the streets without a protective face mask, shaking hands and visiting crowded bakeries and markets as a rebellious gesture.
‘FREE AMERICA NOW’: Musk presses for U.S. to reopen ahead of Tesla earnings
Tesla Inc. shares have soared in spite of production shutdowns, likely demand disruptions and uncertainty about how soon the electric-car maker can restore more-normal operations.
The advance puts Chief Executive Elon Musk in position to receive the first tranche of stock options he’s eligible for as part of a pay package that set moonshot goals two years ago. Before he can cash in, the billionaire is advocating for the U.S. to reopen and may need to deliver earnings that keep investors bullish.
“Give people their freedom back!” Musk tweeted ahead of Tesla’s release of first-quarter results Wednesday. “Elon Musk: FREE AMERICA NOW,” he wrote in another post.
AMC says it will boycott Universal movies as ‘Trolls’ battle heats up
AMC Theatres, the largest theater chain, said Tuesday that it would boycott Universal Pictures movies at its cinemas after the studio suggested it would pursue online releases for more of its films.
“Effectively immediately AMC will no longer play any Universal movies in any of our theatres in the United States, Europe or the Middle East,” AMC Chief Executive Adam Aron said in a statement addressed to Universal Pictures Chair Donna Langley. “This policy affects any and all Universal movies per se, goes into effect today and as our theatres reopen, and is not some hollow or ill-considered threat.”
AMC’s move follows comments by NBCUniversal Chief Executive Jeff Shell about the release of “Trolls World Tour,” the sequel to 2016’s computer-animated musical, “Trolls.” The new DreamWorks Animation movie, which was originally planned for a wide theatrical run before the coronavirus outbreak, generated nearly $100 million in online sales in three weeks.
U.K. schools plan reopening
U.K. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson says schools in England will open to children in a “phased manner” once the coronavirus lockdown ends.
Williamson said Wednesday he could not yet give a date for schools to restart but would give them “as much notice as possible” so they could prepare properly. He ruled out opening them during the summer vacation between mid-July and the start of September.
“We recognize that the idea of schools all returning on Day One with the full complement of pupils is not realistic or practical,” Williamson told the House of Commons Education Committee in an online session on Wednesday. “I do expect schools to be opened in a phased manner.”
Schools, colleges and nurseries across the U.K. have been shut for five weeks, apart from a limited provision for vulnerable children and those of designated key workers. Williamson said he was looking at the experience of countries that had started to reopen schools, such as Germany and Denmark, to establish which age groups should return first.
No plans for more rescue money for airlines, Mnuchin says
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says he isn’t considering providing additional money to help airlines reeling from the effects of COVID-19.
U.S. airlines reached deals to access a share of $50 billion in federal payroll assistance to bridge funding gaps as the industry waits for customers to start flying again. Companies accepting the aid can’t furlough or reduce wages for workers until Sept. 30.
“At the moment, there are no thoughts for changing those restrictions or additional money,” Mnuchin told reporters Wednesday during a video conference. “This money was critical to keep the airlines together, which was important for national security.”
Many airlines announced the possibility of thousands of job cuts after September, including United Airlines Holdings Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co.
Airline analyst Helane Becker of Cowen & Co. said as many as 105,000 jobs could be lost in the industry unless there was a quick improvement in demand.
Half of the money Mnuchin is disbursing is in payroll grants, while the rest are loans. He has so far doled out more than $12 billion to 93 companies, and more is expected to be sent out on a “rolling basis,” the department has said.
“We’ve struck the right balance of both payroll support and offering them lending facilities, which will also create additional liquidity,” Mnuchin said. Airlines can also turn to the Federal Reserve for support, he said.
Among the Fed’s coronavirus-related programs is the Main Street lending facility for midsize businesses. Mnuchin has so far committed $75 billion from Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund to backstop that program, which can create as much as $600 billion in liquidity.
The Fed has not yet launched the program.
Mnuchin said Wednesday he was open to adding more money should the program prove popular.
War-torn Yemen sees five new cases
CAIRO — War-torn Yemen has reported five new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection in the southern city of Aden, bringing the tally in the poorest Arab country to six.
Health authorities announced the cases Wednesday in a tweet. The first case was for a 73-year-old Yemeni national who worked at the port of Al Shahr in Hadramawt province. He was a confirmed COVID-19 patient on April 10.
Yemen is a dangerous place for the coronavirus to spread. Repeated bombings and ground fighting over five years of war have destroyed or closed more than half its health facilities. Deep poverty, dire water shortages and a lack of adequate sanitation have made the country a breeding ground for disease.
The U.N. health agency said Tuesday that 8.8 million require healthcare in Yemen, making them more susceptible to contracting infectious diseases like COVID-19 due to compromised immune systems.
Dr. Ahmed Mandhari, the World Health Organization regional director, says more than 13 million people a month are dependent on food assistance and 2.5 million children under age 5 require nutritional support.
In Greece, use of face masks will be compulsory
ATHENS — Greek authorities say the use of face masks will be compulsory — on pain of a 150-euro ($163) fine — in public transport and shops beginning May 4, when the country starts to ease its lockdown restrictions. But they’ll be optional in schools when secondary-school children start returning to class May 11.
Classes will have no more than 15 children, kept about 5 feet apart, while students in larger classes will be split up and attend lessons on alternate days, Education Minister Niki Kerameos says.
Coronavirus task force chief Sotiris Tsiodras said it was important for children to return to normal life as much as possible, adding that although transmission of the virus from children to adults couldn’t be ruled out, “it seems to be unusual.”
Health officials have reported one new death and 10 new COVID-19 infections in the previous 24 hours, bringing the country’s total to 139 deaths and 2,576 infections.
Britain’s death toll passes 26,000
LONDON — Britain’s official death toll from the coronavirus has jumped to more than 26,000 after deaths in nursing homes were added to the daily total for the first time.
The government says 3,811 more people died after testing positive for the coronavirus than had been previously reported.
The death toll now stands at 26,097, up from the 21,678 announced Tuesday.
Until now, hospital deaths have been reported daily, while deaths in nursing homes and other settings were reported separately on a weekly basis.
The new total is the second-highest official toll in Europe after Italy, although countries do not use exactly the same measures.
It is still likely to be an underestimate because testing has not been routinely carried out in nursing homes until recently.
After 6-week closure, Laguna Beach to reopen beaches on weekday mornings
Laguna Beach will reopen city beaches for several hours on weekday mornings beginning Monday, allowing water activities and walking or jogging along the shore.
The Laguna Beach City Council voted unanimously at its meeting Tuesday evening to approve reopening the city’s beaches from 6 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Visitors will not be permitted to sunbathe or lounge on the sand. Officials also reopened city trails, with the exception of the trail at the end of Alta Laguna Boulevard, which in the past has drawn significant crowds.
“I think the opening we’re discussing is moving in the right direction,” Mayor Pro Tem Steve Dicterow said. “People keep talking about the safety valve. Let’s open it slowly and progressively, and I think if we do that, we have the best chance of avoiding a real problem.”
Terminal Island prison inmates have worst outbreak in federal system
Nearly half of the inmates at the federal prison at Terminal Island in San Pedro have tested positive for the coronavirus in what has become the nation’s worst outbreak in a federal penitentiary.
As of Tuesday, 443 of the prison’s 1,055 inmates have the virus, along with 10 staff members. Two inmates have already died of complications related to COVID-19, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
In a week, the outbreak at FCI Terminal Island has quickly escalated as prison officials have ramped up testing. Dozens of inmates have been moved into tents in an effort to create social distancing, according to sources. Family members of inmates say the facility has locked down inmates in an effort to stop the spread of the virus in the low-security prison in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles.
Inmates told their families that a military-style medical facility was being erected in the prison yards to cope with the burgeoning number of sick.
Teens are feeling lonely and anxious in isolation. Here’s how parents can help
In March, not long before the Safer at Home order was extended to May 15, my 18-year-old son took part in a drive-by birthday caravan in the San Fernando Valley where he saw his friends for the first time since his school closed abruptly because of COVID-19.
If you’ve never heard of this touching act, it can be described as a social-distancing birthday party on wheels. As neighbors looked on and cheered, in the same vein as the nightly balcony celebrations for healthcare workers, my son Bob and his classmates offered birthday congratulations and honks as they drove by the beaming birthday celebrator.
I had hoped seeing his friends, even from afar, would be an uplifting experience, but he came home feeling lonelier than ever. “When am I going to be able to see my friends again?” he asked me.
California reopening: There’s a plan but no firm timetable and many questions
California has the beginnings of a framework for slowly reopening, but it’s not exactly a timeline.
Gov. Gavin Newsom released a four-part plan that he said could have some businesses running in weeks and some schools reopened by the summer.
But the outline, officials acknowledge, still has many uncertainties. It is contingent on improvement in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak and on increased testing to assess how the illness is spreading.
Under Newsom’s plan, some retail businesses, manufacturing, schools and open spaces could reopen first, with strict social-distancing rules. Down the line, certain entertainment venues and religious institutions could reopen. Live sports, concerts and other crowded events would be the last to resume.
Column: The COVID-19 crisis shows how dangerous misinformation becomes contagious
In olden times, it was fairly easy to identify the sources of misinformation and cultural ignorance: They were either commercial entities that profited from misleading the public, such as tobacco companies, or conspiracy theorists and other inhabitants of the lunatic fringe.
“When it comes to misinformation, I normally tell people not to trust information unless it comes from a trusted source,” says Mark Dredze, an expert at Johns Hopkins University on how health-related misinformation and disinformation spread via social media. “Don’t take your health information from random websites, and don’t take any medication without talking to your doctor.
“But how do you tell people to trust the federal government, but don’t pay attention to the president of the United States?”
California maritime academy gets OK to start limited in-person classes
VALLEJO, Calif. — California Maritime State University Academy has received permission to resume limited in-person classes this semester and hopes to send 350 students and staff on its annual summer training cruise — a graduation requirement for cadets, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Cal Maritime is a specialized campus of California State University offering licensed and non-licensed degree programs serving the maritime industry, including training ships’ officers. The move to reopen it comes as California’s other public colleges remain in remote learning mode.
Cal Maritime President Thomas Cropper said in a letter to the Vallejo campus Friday that the approval is for “a limited reopening of our campus to resume face-to-face instruction” for completion of the spring 2020 semester.
Two Georgia men hospitalized after drinking cleaning products
ATLANTA — Two Georgia men were hospitalized after drinking cleaning products over the weekend.
Georgia Poison Control director Gaylord Lopez told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the men had histories of mental health issues and were expected to recover.
Lopez said he didn’t know if the men ingested the cleaning solutions because of President Trump’s musings on whether injecting disinfectants could treat the virus during a White House briefing on Thursday.
Lopez said the first man, in his 50s, drank about 16 ounces of bleach on Saturday. He was treated in a hospital and had since been discharged from a psychiatric ward.
A second man, in his 30s, was discharged after guzzling a mixture of Pine-Sol, pain medications and other liquids on Sunday.
According to the CDC, calls to poison centers about disinfectants have increased 20% in the first three months of this year.
Italy doubles ventilators for possible 2nd wave
ROME — Italy’s head of the coronavirus pandemic strategy says the country is prepared for a second wave of infections “even bigger than the first” if its gradual reopening leads to a surge in new cases.
Domenico Arcuri told the lower Chamber of Deputies that Italy’s 20 regions now had twice as many ventilators as were currently needed and that the country had doubled its number of intensive care beds to 9,000.
Italy, the European epicenter of the pandemic with more than 27,000 dead, entered the crisis with a fraction of the ICU capacity compared with other developed nations.
Arcuri told lawmakers that beds in sub-intensive care had increased sixfold, the same increase in Italy’s bed capacity in infectious disease and pneumology wards.
Italy’s planned reopening begins May 4.
Germany sees output shrink by 6.3%
Germany expects the impact of the coronavirus to plunge the economy into its worst recession since the nation began its recovery in the aftermath of World War II, as confidence at companies and households plummets across Europe.
Gross domestic product is forecast to shrink by 6.3% in 2020, more than during the financial crisis a decade ago, according to Economy Ministry projections published Wednesday. The low point of the recession is expected in the second quarter, before a gradual recovery and growth of 5.2% next year.
U.S. will be ‘really rocking again’ by July, Kushner says
“You’ll see by June a lot of the country should be back to normal and the hope is that, by July, the country’s really rocking again,” said Kushner, Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, in a Fox News interview. May will be a transition month, he said.
“You’ll see a lot of the states starting to phase in the different reopening based on the safety guidelines that President Trump outlined on April 19,” Kushner said.
A look at the NHL teams that could be most affected by the shutdown
The roster of NHL owners includes some heavyweights in the world of billionaires. Among them are Walmart heir Ann Walton Kroenke and her commercial real estate magnate husband, Stan Kroenke (Colorado Avalanche); real estate/arena operator Philip Anschutz and partner Edward Roski Jr. (Kings); Broadcom co-founder Henry Samueli and his wife, Susan (Ducks); and assorted software, venture capital and media moguls.
Most NHL teams have owners whose pockets are deep enough to keep them going during the league’s ongoing pause. But a few teams — listed alphabetically — could be in precarious shape even if the NHL resumes play.
‘You’re one of the lucky ones’: A nurse and her father say their goodbyes
As Donald Lackowski lay in a hospital bed at Torrance Memorial Medical Center, a woman covered in protective gear from head to toe, revealing only her eyes, walked into his room.
Lackowski, who suffered from dementia, recognized his daughter, Elizabeth Seyferth, through the layers of protection.
“Liz is that you?”
“Yes Dad, I’m here and I love you.”
“I love you, too, Liz,” he told her.
How a Zoom party connects dancers across the globe
Some danced the tango with a partner, gracefully maneuvering around furniture in their living rooms and kitchens. Others danced the tango alone — embracing a pillow or a pink stuffed flamingo or nothing at all, their arms holding an invisible companion. And still others simply watched the dance party, smiling and bobbing along to tango classics including “Andate con la Otra.”
Like many other gatherings in the age of social distancing, the tango lovers were united via the video conferencing platform Zoom for the biweekly “Earth Virtual Milonga.”
L.A.-based Argentine dancer and instructor Yelizaveta Nersesova organized the first Zoom tango affair in early April, bringing together nearly 400 friends and strangers from five countries. Two weeks later, the 4½-hour session attracted more than 600 people from 11 countries, including Australia, Spain and China.
The most recent virtual tango event featured a rotating cast of DJs and a live Portland-based musician playing jazzy renditions of songs like Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day” on guitar while people danced or watched from the comfort of their homes.
Spain outlines loosening of restrictions
MADRID — With 325 new confirmed deaths from coronavirus as of Wednesday, Spain is seeing a slight rebound in fatalities, for a total of 24,275 since the beginning of the pandemic.
Infections now number more than 212,000, although the Health Ministry’s figure only includes the cases confirmed by the most reliable laboratory tests, which are not being conducted extensively.
Authorities say they’ll allow the country to emerge from a near-total freeze on social and economic life in stages and at different speeds, depending on how its provinces and islands are able to respond to the health crisis during the rollout of the plan.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Tuesday announced his plan and called it “a road to a new normal” but one “without a GPS system.”
Individual exercise will be allowed beginning Saturday, as well as haircuts and other personalized services with an appointment. In most places, some shops will open on May 11. Socializing will be permitted in outdoor cafés and bars, and services will be allowed in churches and mosques at one-third of capacity.
Territories that by that point have kept the epidemic at bay will be granted further relaxation of restrictions in restaurants, cinemas, theaters and museums by the end of May. Preschools will reopen then but only for parents who need to work, since in-classroom education won’t resume until the new school year in September.
Barring any worsening of the outbreak, capacity in venues will be increased toward mid-June and beaches will open before gradually settling into a “new normal” that will allow domestic travel. International travel still needs to be sorted out by the European Union, Spain says.
U.S. economy, in clear sign of recession, shrinks 4.8% in first quarter
WASHINGTON — In the broadest measure so far of COVID-19’s economic damage, the government said Wednesday that total U.S. output in the first quarter fell 4.8% — faster than at any time since the Great Recession.
But economists quickly noted that even this decline was likely the tip of the iceberg because the first-quarter number included January and February, and reported coronavirus cases did not begin to surge until March. The full dimension of the pandemic’s economic damage will not be visible in the data until the second quarter.
It left little doubt that the nation’s record 10½ years of economic expansion had come to an abrupt end, with profound political and economic repercussions.
Wednesday’s negative news, coupled with grimmer prospects ahead, pose serious challenges to President Trump’s reelection strategy, which was designed to capitalize on now-vanishing prosperity.
Criticism grows over Gov. Newsom’s management of the crisis
SACRAMENTO — Advocates for seniors and people with disabilities blasted Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration last week for advising hospitals to prioritize younger people with greater life expectancy for care during the coronavirus outbreak, saying the state’s medical shortage guidelines were discriminatory and crafted without their input.
“The disability, aging and older-adults community had reached out a number of times to the state of California sharing our concerns ahead of time and offering to meet,” said Claudia Center, legal director for the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund. “We got no response.”
Then, as quietly as the guidelines were initially posted online, the document was removed and replaced with another version stating California’s commitment to prohibiting discrimination and promising that the administration would revise what had been previously labeled as the final recommendations “to ensure that they reflect our values as a state.”
Expecting deep cuts, L.A. County OKs $35.5-billion budget
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a recommended $35.5-billion budget for the coming fiscal year — a spending plan that is expected to change substantially over the next few months as the county continues to navigate the coronavirus outbreak and its significant drain on funds.
Already, the county is projective that it will lose $2 billion in tax revenue — $1 billion by the end of the fiscal year in June and an additional $1 billion in revenue in 2020-21, according to the county executive’s office.
The county’s chief executive, Sachi A. Hamai, predicted a budget process “unlike any we’ve ever faced.”
“We are in a profoundly challenging economic environment that may get worse before it gets better,” Hamai said in a statement. “There are many factors outside the county’s control, including the length and severity of the COVID-19 crisis, and the amount of assistance we will receive from the state and federal governments.”
French autoworkers start trickling back to work
ONNAING, France — Masked and keeping their distance, French autoworkers are returning to factory floors at Toyota and Renault in a cautious move toward reviving the virus-battered economy.
Renault restarted assembly lines Tuesday for its Zoe electric cars at a plant in Flins outside Paris, though only a quarter of staff is allowed in so far. The company — which is negotiating with the French government for billions of euros in potential bailout funds —
has resumed some activity at plants in China, Spain, Portugal, Russia and Romania, but work remains halted in India, Latin America and most facilities in its home country of France.
In the northern town of Onnaing near Valenciennes, Toyota workers came back to work this week at a plant that used to churn out more than 1,000 Yaris a day. Employees are having their temperatures checked and being given masks, and new social distancing rules are in place on the factory floor and cafeteria and other common spaces.
Talk of reopening grows in L.A. and Orange counties despite rising death toll
Los Angeles County passed another grim coronavirus milestone Tuesday with more than 1,000 fatalities even as officials began preparing to ease stay-at-home orders and to restart the economy.
The county continues to be the coronavirus hotbed of California, accounting for an outsize number of deaths and total cases. Consequently, officials have said the restrictions on movements must continue for now. The county represents about a quarter of California’s population but about half of all COVID-19 hospitalizations.
As of Tuesday, the number of confirmed cases surpassed 21,000. Residents in institutional settings account for 46% of all county deaths.
Still, officials are developing a plan to ease the Safer at Home order, which is set to expire May 15. Public Health Department director Barbara Ferrer said Tuesday there were no plans to extend the current order but that, as the deadline approaches, officials would reevaluate what was best for the county.
More than 20,000 in the county of 10 million have tested positive for the novel virus. County officials have warned that, although social distancing practices have worked to slow the spread of the virus, the number of those who have been infected is likely far higher than the official count.
Boris Johnson and partner, who both had COVID-19, announce birth of baby boy
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his partner, Carrie Symonds, announced the birth of a son on Wednesday, just two days after Johnson returned to work following hospitalization for the coronavirus.
Johnson’s office said Symonds gave birth to a “healthy baby boy at a London hospital” on Wednesday morning, and both mother and son were doing well.
Johnson, 55, and Symonds, 32, announced in February that they were engaged and expecting a child together. At the time, they said the baby was due in early summer.
Johnson only returned to work Monday after suffering from a bout of coronavirus that left him dangerously ill. He spent a week in a London hospital, including three nights in intensive care, before recovering for two weeks away from London.
A family of strawberry growers had big dreams. Then came the pandemic
They were picking strawberries, father and son, in the afternoon sunlight of the Oxnard Plain.
The men, 62-year-old Javier Carranza and his son Cruz, 43, piled the ripened fruit into cardboard boxes destined for farmers markets. Father on one row, son on another, moving steadily from mound to mound.
Once or twice, the pickers chomped into a berry, testing their crop for flavor. Yes, these were ready for sale tomorrow. Not any longer, like so many supermarket varieties picked before peak ripeness. As if to emphasize it, Cruz leaned in to offer a visitor a brilliant red strawberry.
The pandemic age gives this normally kind farm-life gesture a new layer of risk. Could this organically grown fruit have been contaminated by something other than regular old dirt? The strawberry hadn’t been anywhere but here, where it was born. In a bite, the spike of acid and sweetness shook the brain.
There is nothing like the taste of a fresh California strawberry, one of the state’s most plentiful and emblematic agricultural staples. Crimson, shiny in any light, firm but juicy, the strawberry in peak form is a marvel of taste that has been grown on the coastal plains for generations.
German pharmaceutical company says it has begun testing a vaccine
BERLIN — German pharmaceutical company BioNTech says it has begun testing a potential vaccine for the new coronavirus on volunteers.
BioNTech, which is working with U.S.-based Pfizer, said Wednesday that 12 participants of a clinical trial in Germany had received doses of the vaccine candidate BNT162 since April 23.
Numerous pharmaceutical companies are racing to deliver a vaccine for the virus that has caused the COVID-19 pandemic and led to more than 218,000 deaths worldwide and sickened at least 3 million people.
BioNTech said in a statement that, in a next step, it will begin increasing the dose of BNT162 in a trial involving about 200 participants ages 18 to 55.
The company said it expected to receive regulatory approval to begin trials in the United States soon.
Plan to administer hydroxychloroquine to crowded Indian slums is shelved
Public health officials in India have shelved their plan to administer hydroxychloroquine — or HCQ, an untested anti-malarial — to thousands in Mumbai’s crowded slums as a way of preventing infections in healthy people.
Health officials in Mumbai said that the plan to “conduct a test” was still in the cards but had not yet been approved by the Indian government. For now, they will follow federal guidelines that say that the drug can only be used for “high-risk” groups: healthcare workers taking care of COVID-19 patients, contacts of confirmed patients, and those in quarantine centers.
Experts have pointed out that there is little evidence to show that HCQ can help treat COVID-19 infections and none to justify its use to prevent infections.
India has reached the grim milestone of more than a thousand deaths. There are over 30,000 cases in the country, and cases are doubling roughly every 10 days.
The malaria drug had been widely touted by President Trump for treating the new coronavirus and has, since, been advised by India for front-line healthcare workers. But a large analysis of its use in U.S. veterans hospitals last week found that more death was recorded among those given the drug, versus standard care.
Experts in South Korea downplay possible reinfections
South Korean infectious disease experts have downplayed concerns that patients could get reinfected with the new coronavirus after fully recovering.
While hundreds in South Korea have tested positive again after their release from hospitals, Oh Myoung-don, who heads the country’s central clinical committee on new infectious diseases, told a news conference on Wednesday there was a “high possibility” that such test results were flawed.
He said South Korea’s standard real-time PCR tests, designed to amplify the genetic materials of the virus so that even tiny quantities are detected, doesn’t reliably distinguish between remains of dead virus and infectious particles. He said lab tests on animals suggested that COVID-19 patients would maintain immunity for at least a year after their infections.
He also said it was unlikely that the virus could be reactivated after remaining dormant when it didn’t seem to be a type that caused chronic illness.
As of Tuesday, 277 people in South Korea tested positive for the virus for a second time after being diagnosed as recovered. Health authorities have tested some of their samples, but none so far have been successfully cultivated in isolation, indicating a loss of infectiousness.
Newport Beach council votes to keep beaches open, despite crowds and rebuke from Newsom
The Newport Beach City Council on Tuesday rejected a measure that would have closed its beaches for three consecutive weekends in May.
Instead, the council advised city staff to maintain beach access with additional enforcement of social distancing. Any visitors to the city’s beaches will see an increased presence of police officers and lifeguards, and the council supported citing anyone who didn’t follow the social distancing order, according to a city news release.
The council action followed a busy weekend in Newport Beach as thousands of visitors sought to escape the Southern California heatwave.
“The vast majority of the beach visitors this weekend were practicing social distancing, but many were not,” the city said in its statement.
O.C. learning center comes to the rescue for panicked parents during pandemic
Emeteria Hernandez walked through the empty supermarket aisles, hunting for food, hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes for her family.
Nothing.
The month-old memory still brings fresh tears to her eyes.
“I thought the world was going to end,” the 41-year-old cook said in Spanish. “And I didn’t have food for my [three] kids.”
That afternoon, she received a call from Myrna Zornoza, an educator at the Shalimar Learning Center, the Costa Mesa-based founding facility of the not-for-profit organization Think Together.
“What do you need?” asked “Ms. Myrna,” as Hernandez affectionately calls her, after two years of attending Think Together’s parenting classes while her son Jeremy went to after-school teen classes.
Soon, Hernandez received the first bins from Think Together, filled with food, sanitizer and soap. The next week, more food came. Then more food, soap, toothpaste and $100 gift cards.
In the age of the coronavirus, organizations that offered one kind of service — such as Think Together’s educational programs after school and during the summer — have found themselves pivoting to serve the ever-changing requests of an increasingly needy population.
The Shalimar Learning Center had just hit 25 years of offering educational services to about 120 families in its predominantly Latino and low-income neighborhood in Westside Costa Mesa, called Shalimar. The center, which operates out of an apartment in Shalimar, was the go-to after-school place for nearly 250 neighborhood children whose parents worked multiple jobs. At various points, it also provided translation services for families, as well as all-around academic support and college and career guidance.
L.A. County releases first neighborhood breakdown of COVID-19 deaths; poor areas hit hard
The first neighborhood-level glimpse of the COVID-19 death toll in Los Angeles County shows in grim detail that poorer areas are seeing an outsize number of fatalities.
Some of the highest death rates are in low-income neighborhoods of Central Los Angeles, a Times analysis of county health department data released Tuesday shows.
Working-class neighborhoods such as East Hollywood, Pico-Union and Westlake all have more than 40 deaths per 100,000 people, which is four times higher than the countywide rate of 9.9 per 100,000. Many neighborhoods across South L.A. also had higher death rates, figures show.
County health officials said this week that those who live in lower-income communities in L.A. County are more likely to die of the disease than those in wealthier communities.
Orange County creating guidelines for when businesses reopen
The Orange County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a set of business guidelines Tuesday that could help inform the county’s eventual easing of stay-at-home rules that have helped slow the spread of the coronavirus.
The county is seeking to “strike a balance between the need for continued protection from the disease and the need for the economy to function again,” Supervisor Don Wagner said.
“These guidelines are intended to state clearly the minimum that business owners and operators must do, in addition to following all applicable jurisdictions’ orders,” he said.
Employers should require customer-facing workers to wear disposable gloves or wash their hands or use hand sanitizer every 30 minutes, according to the guidelines.
Third construction worker at SoFi Stadium tests positive for COVID-19
A third construction worker at SoFi Stadium has tested positive for COVID-19, according to an internal email Tuesday from the joint venture overseeing the $5-billion project in Inglewood.
The worker, who hadn’t been on the 298-acre site since last week, was involved in “light pole foundation work” outside the stadium structure.
“First and most importantly the worker is doing well, had shown no symptoms, and is at home under self-quarantine,” the email from Turner-AECOM Hunt to trade partners said.
Equipment, facilities and tools the worker might have used have been disinfected, according to the email, and other workers who may have been in “close contact” with him are under self-quarantine until May 8.
In Gov. Newsom’s four-phase plan to reopen the state, concerts are Phase 4
Concerts in California will be on hold until a vaccine or other therapeutic treatments for COVID-19 are developed, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In a new four-step plan outlined by Newsom on Tuesday morning, some aspects of California’s economy could start reopening in less than a month. “We believe we are weeks, not months, away from making meaningful modifications” to the current shutdown rules, Newsom said.
Retail and offices, movie theaters and religious services will be among the businesses and events to resume in the second and third phases of the plan. Mass gatherings will be, as expected, in the final tier of public life to resume.
Stage 4 means “reopening the highest-risk parts of our economy — once therapeutics have been developed,” Newsom wrote on Tuesday. Among the industries singled out? Concerts, live sports and conventions.
L.A. County working to ease stay-at-home order by May
Los Angeles County officials passed a motion Tuesday to develop a plan to ease the Safer at Home order, strict social distancing rules that have slowed the spread of the coronavirus, which is set to expire May 15.
Public Health Department director Barbara Ferrer said Tuesday there were no plans to extend the current order but that, as the deadline approaches, officials would reevaluate what was best for the county.
More than 20,000 in the county of 10 million have tested positive for the virus, and nearly 950 have died. County officials have warned the public that, although social distancing practices have worked to slow the spread of the virus, the number of those who have been infected is likely far higher than the official count.