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California Coronavirus Cases Update: The Latest Reports on the Outbreak California Coronavirus Cases Update: The Latest on the Outbreak
(1 day later)
Across California, daily life is unrecognizable from one week to the next. Students and parents are bracing themselves for the possibility of schools closing for the remainder of the academic year. Residents 65 years and older have been told to isolate at home. Countless bars and nightclubs have shuttered. And as the number of cases continued to climb, state officials have begun to take even more extreme measures in an attempt to halt the spread of the coronavirus. Across California, life is unrecognizable: Bars are shuttered. Gyms are empty. Malls look like ghost towns. From the sunny coasts of Southern California to the lakes and peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, everyone is being asked to stay home.
On Monday, health officials ordered millions in six counties in the Bay Area to “shelter in place,” one of the most significant restrictions yet to American life in the race to stop the coronavirus outbreak. “This is not the moment for half-measures, and history won’t forgive us for waiting an hour more,” said Mayor Sam Liccardo of San Jose. The most recent order, issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday night, represents the most drastic measure any state has taken to control the spread of the coronavirus, and it has upended life for all 40 million Californians.
“We will look back at these decisions as pivotal,” the governor said at a news conference.
Things are changing quickly. Here is a recap of what you need to know.
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As of Wednesday morning, the state had more than 870 cases, including 17 deaths. As of Friday morning, the state had more than 1,040 cases, including 19 deaths. Los Angeles County has had more than 200 confirmed cases, and San Diego and Santa Clara Counties have each had more than 100 patients.
Nearly 12,000 people are “self monitoring” their health after traveling to the U.S. through airports in SFO and LAX.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday that the state has so far conducted 12,600 tests. He said that he expects the number to ramp up over the coming weeks as more labs are outfitted to testing capacity. “We are increasing our capacity on an hourly basis,” he said in a news conference. Officials have conducted more than 16,000 tests, including from commercial and private labs. Mr. Newsom has said that he expects that number to ramp up over the coming weeks as more labs are outfitted to testing capacity.
This week, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties began piloting a program in partnership with Verily, the health and life science subsidiary of Alphabet, that will triage patients and screen them before testing them for the virus. “We are increasing our capacity on an hourly basis,” he said in a news conference earlier this week.
On Monday, seven counties in the Bay Area: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and the city of Berkeley, enacted measures to require residents to shelter in place beginning on Tuesday. The directive would be in effect for three weeks. San Benito, Monterey, Sacramento, San Luis Obispo, Solano, Yolo, and Napa counties and the city of Palm Springs have issued similar orders following Monday’s announcement. Santa Clara and San Mateo counties have also begun piloting a program in partnership with Verily, the health and life science subsidiary of Alphabet, that will triage patients and screen them before testing them for the virus.
Mayor Sam Liccardo of San Jose said this was the strongest directive yet in the United States. Residents were told not go out for three weeks except to meet “essential needs,” which including things like grocery shopping and caring for family members and pets. Here are the answers to important questions about the mandate. The governor made an important announcement Thursday from the state’s emergency operations center in Sacramento, normally a place where officials respond to wildfires and earthquakes. This time, Mr. Newsom spoke in stark terms of the risks of a more invisible threat.
On Wednesday, Orange County issued restrictions that prohibited nonessential gatherings and closed bars, theaters, health clubs and gyms but stopped short of ordering residents to shelter in place. Citing a model that state planners have been using, Mr. Newsom said that the coronavirus could infect 56 percent of Californians, or more than 25 million people, over eight weeks. “I think it’s time I tell you what I tell my family,” he said.
“Temporarily changing our routine is absolutely necessary to slow the spread of this pandemic,” said Dr. Sara Cody, Santa Clara County Public Health Officer in a statement. “The Health Officers from the largest jurisdictions in the San Francisco Bay Area are united and we are taking this step together to offer the best protection to our respective communities.” “This is not a permanent state,” he said. “This is a moment in time.”
Last Thursday, Gov. Newsom canceled gatherings of 250 or more people through the end of March. Smaller gatherings in places that don’t allow for attendees to maintain a distance of six feet are also outlawed. Furthermore, gatherings that include people who are at a higher risk for illness, should be limited to no more than 10 people. To combat the spread, he announced that all Californians were being asked to stay home as much as possible, until further notice.
Health officials are also asking casinos and theme parks to limit the number of people allowed to congregate and to ensure a safe distance is maintained. Movie theaters were asked to reduce their capacity by 50-60 percent and sanitize seats in between showings. Under the order, restaurants, bars, entertainment venues, gyms, retail shops and most corporate offices will be closed. Essential businesses — like banks, grocery stores, pharmacies and laundromats — should remain open, officials said. Though residents are being asked to stay home except for essential needs, they are still allowed to go outside to take walks and visit grocery stores, as long as they stay six feet apart.
Nationwide, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called for a halt to all gatherings of more than 50 people for the next 8 weeks. [Read the full order here.]
The cap on gatherings is in line with the use of social distancing, which is proven to slow the growth of a pandemic among communities. Even before the governor’s order, counties in the Bay Area had issued strict instructions asking residents to “shelter in place.”
For a running list of events canceled around the country, see our list. Starting this week, the order applied to the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz, and the city of Berkeley. Other areas — Monterey, Napa, Sacramento, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Solano and Yolo Counties and the city of Palm Springs followed with similar orders.
On Monday night, Gov. Newsom urged cities and counties throughout the state to protect residents whose ability to keep up with rents, mortgages or utilities might be hampered by the effects of the coronavirus. He issued an executive order that authorizes local governments to take action. Residents were told not go out for three weeks except to meet “essential needs,” which including things like grocery shopping and caring for family members and pets. [Here are the answers to important questions about the mandate.]
“People shouldn’t lose or be forced out of their home because of the spread of COVID-19,” said Gov. Newsom in a statement. “Over the next few weeks, everyone will have to make sacrifices – but a place to live shouldn’t be one of them. I strongly encourage cities and counties take up this authority to protect Californians.” In Los Angeles County, officials announced their own order, which they called “safer at home.” A Los Angeles County sheriff’s official said on Twitter that the department did not plan on making arrests to enforce the order.
All of the orders, including the state order, are mandatory, but it remained unclear how they would differ in scope or enforcement. At their root, each gives residents similar guidance: Stay at home unless you need to leave the house.
Officials indicated that they would rely on enormous social pressure to help enforce the rules. “People will self-regulate their behavior,” Mr. Newsom said. “We’ll have social pressure to encourage people to do the right thing.”
Gov. Newsom has urged cities and counties throughout the state to protect residents who cannot keep up with rents, mortgages or utilities because of the coronavirus. He issued an executive order that authorizes local governments to take action.
“People shouldn’t lose or be forced out of their home because of the spread of COVID-19,” he said in a statement. “Over the next few weeks, everyone will have to make sacrifices — but a place to live shouldn’t be one of them.”
The order does not relieve tenants from the obligation to pay rent but it does request that banks halt foreclosures and evictions that stem from a person’s inability to pay their household expenses as a result of the pandemic. The protections are in effect until May 31.The order does not relieve tenants from the obligation to pay rent but it does request that banks halt foreclosures and evictions that stem from a person’s inability to pay their household expenses as a result of the pandemic. The protections are in effect until May 31.
Already, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, San Jose and San Francisco have put in place temporary moratoriums on evictions related to the loss of income due to the virus. Already, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, San Jose and San Francisco have put in place temporary moratoriums on evictions related to the loss of income because if the virus.
Civil rights groups say the order doesn’t go far enough in protecting tenants. They called on the Governor to issue a blanket moratorium on all evictions and utility shutoffs across the state. Civil rights groups say the order doesn’t go far enough in protecting tenants. They called on the governor to issue a blanket moratorium on all evictions and utility shutoffs across the state.
“This is overly complicated and does not protect tenants from evictions now, but leaves it up to local jurisdictions to enact such protections. It is imperative that there is a statewide moratorium that does not rely on local action,” they wrote in a joint statement.“This is overly complicated and does not protect tenants from evictions now, but leaves it up to local jurisdictions to enact such protections. It is imperative that there is a statewide moratorium that does not rely on local action,” they wrote in a joint statement.
On Sunday, Gov. Newsom called for all residents age of 65 and older to self-isolate at home. Though Californians face sweeping job and income losses in the face of the outbreak, Mr. Newsom has expressed confident that the state can survive the economic fallout from the crisis. California has a $21 billion budget surplus, plus a rainy-day fund of close to $16 billion. “We are well positioned from a cash perspective to get through this,” he said.
“We need to meet this moment aggressively,” Mr. Newsom said. “The most important thing is to protect our most vulnerable.” But like everything else, the situation is changing by the day.
People over the age of 60, especially those with underlying health conditions, are particularly vulnerable to dying from the coronavirus. In China, where the virus was first recorded, the death rate for people under 50 was less than 1 percent. For patients over 80 years old, the death rate was 15 percent. Economists at the University of California, Los Angeles released a revised report saying that the nation’s economy had entered a recession, and predicting that the economic fallout would be worse in California, because of the state’s reliance on tourism and international transportation.
Over five million Californians are affected by the guidelines. The restrictions also apply to people with certain chronic health conditions, which is not a small group by any means. An estimated 60 percent of all Americans have at least one chronic condition. By next year, California could lose more than 280,000 jobs, including many in hospitality and transportation sectors, the report found.
Over the weekend, Gov. Newsom ordered bars, nightclubs, breweries and wineries to close but said that restaurants could stay open if they cut their occupancy in half. Reporting was contributed by Sarah Mervosh, Jill Cowan, Rick Rojas, Patrick J. Lyons, Sean Plambeck, Roni Caryn Rabin, Farah Stockman, Louis Keene, Emily Cochrane, Margot Sanger-Katz and Noah Weiland.
In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti took it a step further, ordering all restaurants to close, except to provide delivery and takeout orders. He also shuttered movie theaters, gyms, fitness studios throughout the city.
Pharmacies and grocery stores remain open throughout the state. In response to reports of panic buying, Mayor Garcetti assured residents that there is currently no shortage of food or interruptions in the food supply.
One confirmed coronavirus case that cropped up in Solano County, between San Francisco and Sacramento, was especially worrisome to health officials. The patient had not had contact with anyone known to be infected and had not traveled recently to a country where the virus is known to be in circulation.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was the first such case reported in the United States, and it raised the possibility that someone who is asymptomatic may be carrying the virus and infecting others without knowing it.
The patient, a woman, became ill and was first treated in a hospital in Vacaville, then transferred to the UC Davis Medical Center. Doctors there suspected coronavirus and requested a test. But the C.D.C. did not perform the test for days, because it was restricting testing to sick people known to have been exposed to the virus. The day after her case was confirmed, the C.D.C. broadened its criteria to allow testing of people like her who appear to be ill from coronavirus but have no known point of exposure.
Solano County is also the location of Travis Air Force Base, where many Americans have been quarantined.
A government whistle-blower has filed a complaint saying that the federal health officials sent to interact with quarantined people at the base were not given proper training or protective gear, were not monitored or tested, and were allowed to move freely around and off the base — practices that potentially could have spread the virus into the community. The Department of Health and Human Services said it was looking into the complaint.
Similar things may have happened at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego, another base where American coronavirus evacuees from Asia were taken to be quarantined, according to a person with direct knowledge of the efforts there
State officials at one point planned to move people infected with the virus to a state-owned facility in Costa Mesa, a city of more than 100,000 in Orange County. But city leaders fought to keep them out.
The authorities in California selected the site after the Defense Department informed them that patients who tested positive for the virus could no longer stay at Travis Air Force Base.
Federal officials had planned to move the patients to a government facility in Alabama, court documents said, but officials in California thought that moving the group, most of them said to be residents of the state, would be detrimental to their health and well-being.
Instead, state officials said the people would be moved from the base in Solano County to the facility in Southern California, where they would remain in isolation while recovering.
But the decision touched off a legal fight with Costa Mesa. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order to stop the move. The judge said she would reconsider the issue after state and federal authorities provide more details about how they plan to protect the health of the community, as well as the people with the coronavirus. The judge set a hearing for March 2.
“This is a new one in terms of claiming a right not to have infectious disease introduced into your community,” said Polly Price, a professor of law and global public health at Emory University. Although cities and towns once claimed “an absolute right” to guard against disease, she said, state-level control over isolation and quarantine has been the norm for more than a century.
Californians face sweeping job and income losses in the face of the outbreak, but Gov. Newsom said he was confident the state could manage the economic fallout from the crisis. The state has a $21 billion budget surplus, plus a rainy-day fund of close to $16 billion.
“We are well positioned from a cash perspective to get through this,” Mr. Newsom said.
However, like everything else, these assessments are changing by the day. ]
Economists at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management released a revised report on Monday predicting that the economic fallout will be worse for the state than for the rest of the country, due to the fact that California relies more on tourism and trans-Pacific transportation.
Reporting was contributed by Jill Cowan, Rick Rojas, Patrick J. Lyons, Sean Plambeck, Roni Caryn Rabin, Farah Stockman, Louis Keene, Emily Cochrane, Margot Sanger-Katz and Noah Weiland.