Mandates: LA County, State Lift COVID Vaccine-Testing Verification Mandate for Indoor Events (From PasadenaNOW): Marking another milestone in the pandemic, Los Angeles County and the state Friday officially lifted the requirement that attendees at indoor mega-events such as sporting events or concerts show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test.
Pasadena, which operates its own Health Dept., has not followed suit with a local health order and is aligned with the state, according to a city spokesperson.
Though the requirement is lifted, the city continues to strongly recommend that venue and event operators hosting indoor events with 1,000 or more people require attendees age 2 and older to provide proof they are fully vaccinated or have received a negative COVID-19 test, according to City of Pasadena Public Health Department Deputy Director Manuel Carmona.
Health officials also have noted that private businesses are entitled to enact their own virus-control measures if they desire, such as requiring masks or checking for vaccinations or negative tests.
Mask-wearing, while no longer mandated in most settings, is still strongly recommended by health officials. Masks also remain mandatory in select locations, such as health-care settings, aboard public transit and airplanes and in airports and transit centers.
Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer noted Thursday that whenever major public-health mandates are lifted, there tends to be an uptick in COVID infections as more people interact. She said that is being seen again now locally, with the county’s weeks-long decline in COVID case numbers suddenly leveling off this week.
Entry screening is a strategy to help limit the spread of COVID-19. It is required by Cal/OSHA for all employees prior to entering the worksite. It is also required by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) for all visitors to healthcare facilities (AFL 20-38.7). This document provides supplemental guidance for facilities regarding entry screening. Please refer to the Los Angeles County Guidance for Businesses and Employers for other best practices to prevent COVID-19. Cal/OSHA COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS) require employers to develop and implement a process for screening employees for COVID-19 symptoms prior to entering the worksite. Entry Screening.pdf
Other pertinent information and resources can be found on the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health website at http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/Coronavirus/
Cases: From PasadenaNOW: On Saturday, Pasadena reported an additonal 20 cases of COVID-19 and no fatalities. Pasadena has seen a total of 28,154 cases and 412 deaths from COVID-19.
The county on Friday reported 1,167 new COVID infections, notably higher than the 784 reported on Thursday. Since the pandemic began, the county has recorded a cumulative total of 2,834,317 infections.
But while case numbers have stopped their decline, hospitalizations of COVID-19-positive people are still falling — with health officials crediting widespread vaccinations for preventing patients from falling seriously ill from infections.
On Friday, the number of COVID-positive patients in Los Angeles County hospitals fell below the 300 mark for the first time since early July 2021, reaching 287, down from 308 a day earlier. The number of those patients being treated in intensive care was 47 as of Friday, the same as Thursday.
Another 16 virus-related deaths were reported Friday, raising the county’s overall death toll to 31,683.
BA.2 has been driving up infection numbers in nations around the world, most notably Australia and parts of Europe.
The average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus was 0.9% as of Friday, down from 1.1% on Thursday.
BA.2 Subvariant of COVID Increases Grip in LA County; Case Declines Level Off The BA.2 subvariant of COVID-19 is continuing to strengthen its presence in Los Angeles County, now accounting for nearly one- third of all virus cases that are screened for variants, the public health director said Thursday.
The spread of the highly infectious variant, however, has not translated into a rise in virus-related hospitalizations, likely attributable to relatively high numbers of people who are vaccinated.
For the week that ended March 12, 32% of COVID infections that underwent laboratory sequencing turned out to be the result of BA.2, which is an offshoot of the Omicron variant that fueled a surge in cases over the winter months. Omicron is still the dominant variant found in the testing, but the percentage of BA.2 cases has been steadily increasing.
The county is beginning to see a leveling off of the declines in COVID case numbers that have marked the past several weeks, with the county now averaging about 660 cases per day.
The county on Thursday reported 784 new COVID cases, along with 16 additional virus-related deaths. The numbers raised the county’s cumulative totals to 2,833,206 cases and 31,669.
The average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus was 1.1% as of Thursday, up slightly from the roughly 0.7% rate from the past few weeks. The rate was 0.9% on Wednesday.
The number of COVID-positive patients in county hospitals fell to 308 on Thursday, down from 325 on Wednesday. The number of those patients being treated in intensive care was 47, down from 51 a day earlier.
According to the county, as of Sunday, 83% of eligible county residents age 5 and older had received at least one dose of COVID vaccine, and 75% were fully vaccinated. However, only 31% of children aged 5-11 have been fully vaccinated, the lowest rate of any age group.
The rolling average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus in Los Angeles County was 0.9% as of Wednesday, a slight rise from 0.7% over the past two weeks.
Second Booster Shots: City to Begin Offering Second Booster Doses of COVID Vaccine on Monday: From PasadenaNOW: Pasadena health officials said they will join their County counterparts on Monday and offer additional booster doses of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for those who are 50 years and older or immunocompromised and aged 12 or older.
The County began providing the secondary boosters on Wednesday after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its recommendations to allow qualified people who received an initial booster dose at least 4 months prior to be eligible for another mRNA booster (Moderna or Pfizer).
City officials said earlier Pasadena waited to verify that the MyTurn.ca.gov system was set up to properly record and track the second booster doses before arranging to provide the additional vaccinations in Pasadena.
“We want to make sure that digital records are accurately tracking all doses,” Pasadena city spokesperson Lisa Derderian explained Tuesday afternoon.
Pasadena residents can find a COVID-19 vaccine clinic at MyTurn.ca.gov, visit a PPHD clinic (click here for more) or call the city’s Citizen Service Center at (626) 744-7311 for assistance finding a clinic.
Appointments are not needed for PPHD clinics.
The city’s calendar shows three vaccination clinics are scheduled for the week of April 4, one on Monday from 1:30 to 4 p.m. and one on Tuesday from 8:30 to 4 p.m. at the PPHD building at 1845 N. Fair Oaks Ave., and a third on Wednesday from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at First AME Church, at 1700 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena.
Local health officials said COVID-19 vaccines and boosters remain safe and continue to be highly effective against severe disease. As a reminder, people aged 5 and older with moderately or severely weakened immune systems should get a third primary dose.
I am getting my second booster on Tuesday!
The Economy-Employment-The US recorded another month of jobs growth in March as higher wages lured more workers back to the labor force, giving the Federal Reserve more evidence to support an aggressive tightening policy to tame inflation.
Gas Prices: The White House announced a “historic release” of 1mn barrels a day of oil from the country’s emergency stockpile in a bid to cool crude prices, and has also said it will seek to punish some US oil companies that do not begin drilling.
The new release, by far the biggest ever announced, will last for six months, amounting to about 180mn barrels in total, draining almost a third of the US’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Consumer Spending: From the Pasadena Star-News: An inflation gauge that is closely monitored by the Federal Reserve jumped 6.4% in February compared with a year ago, with sharply higher prices for food, gasoline and other necessities squeezing Americans’ finances.
The figure reported Thursday by the Commerce Department was the largest year-over-year rise since January 1982. Excluding volatile prices for food and energy, so-called core inflation increased 5.4% in February from 12 months earlier.
Robust consumer demand has combined with shortages of many goods to fuel the sharpest price jumps in four decades. Measures of inflation will likely worsen in the coming months because Thursday’s report doesn’t reflect the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which occurred Feb. 24. The war has disrupted global oil markets and accelerated prices for wheat, nickel and other key commodities.
Squeezed by inflation, consumers increased their spending by just 0.2% in February, down from a much larger 2.7% gain in January. Adjusted for inflation, spending actually fell 0.4% last month. The decline partly reflected a shift away from heavy spending on goods to a focus on services, such as health care, travel and entertainment, which consumers had long avoided during the worst of the pandemic.
Spending on such services grew 0.6%, the most since July, while purchases of autos, furniture, clothes and other goods dropped 2.1%. Many economists had previously suggested that a shift away from goods purchases might loosen supply chain snarls and cool inflation. But prices are still rising rapidly for goods, including a 1.1% increase in February.
Wages climbed at a rapid pace in the year through March and the unemployment rate dropped notably last month, signs of a hot labor market that could keep pressure on the Federal Reserve as it contemplates how much and how quickly to cool down the economy.
The central bank is trying to slow demand to a more sustainable pace at a moment when inflation is running at its fastest pace in 40 years. Fed officials began raising interest rates in March and have suggested that they may increase rates by half a percentage point in May — twice as much as usual. Making money more expensive to borrow and spend can slow consumption and eventually hiring, tempering wage and price growth.
Friday’s employment report could bolster the case for at least one half-point increase.
Wages have picked up 5.6% over the past year, the report Friday showed, a far quicker pace than the 2%-3% annual pay gains that were typical during the 2010s. At the same time, the jobless rate fell, to 3.6% in March from 3.8% in February. Unemployment is now just slightly above the half-century lows it had reached before the pandemic.
Businesses have been raising pay to attract and keep employees — a trend that is benefiting workers but also giving employers cause to raise prices to offset their higher labor costs. That cycle is helping fuel inflation.
In February, food costs climbed 1.4%, the most in nearly two years. Energy costs spiked 3.7%, the biggest such increase since October.
The Federal Reserve responded in March to the inflation surge by raising its benchmark short-term interest rate by a quarter-point from near zero, and it’s likely to keep raising it well into next year. Because its rate affects many consumer and business loans, the Fed’s rate hikes will make borrowing more expensive and could weaken the economy over time.