Yes.
It is dismal. Infection rates and fatalities continue to mount as COVID-19 makes a massive resurgence following the holidays. The new, more contagious strain of coronavirus has been deteced in Los Angeles County.
There are vaccines available, but not in sufficient quantities to protect all of us.
Until those vaccines are readily available to everyone in our family, circle of friends and community, please take every precaution to protect ourself and others. Please WEAR A MASK IN PUBLIC! Please MAINTAIN SOCIAL DISTANCE! Please DO NOT GATHER WITH PEOPLE OUTSIDE YOUR IMEDIATE HOUSEHOLD! Please STAY HOME IF YOU FEEL AT ALL ILL! Please GET TESTED IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE BEEN EXPOSED and QUARANTINE UNTIL YOU HAVE NEGATIVE TEST RESULTS!
These measures may be inconveneint, but they can help save your life or the life of a loved one.
The news is grim:
From Fair Warning: Officials in Los Angeles County estimate that the coronavirus has infected one in three residents, Luke Money and Rong-Gong Lin II report for the Los Angeles Times. That works out to more than 3 million people in the county of 10 million, where Covid-19 has claimed more than 13,000 lives. Fewer than a third of those infected have tested positive, but experts say testing only captures a fraction of actual cases because those with mild or no symptoms often don’t get tested.
The county averaged more than 15,000 new confirmed Covid cases a day over the past week. Poor neighborhoods and Latino and Black communities are bearing the brunt, Money and Lin write. Wealthy neighborhoods are averaging 10 deaths a day per 100,000 residents, while poor neighborhoods are seeing around 36 deaths a day per 100,000 people. In November, Latinos were dying at an average rate of 3.5 per day per 100,000 people, but the situation has drastically deteriorated and the rate is now 28 deaths per day per 100,000 Latinos.
- Also: The coronavirus has sickened at least 23.3 million people in the U.S. and killed more than 390,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. Today, the global death toll topped 2 million.
On Friday, Pasadena reported an additional 103 cases of COVID-19 and one additional fatality. Pasadena has had a total of 9,141 cases and 191 deaths, as of Friday.
The City of Pasadena revised health protocols for fitness facilities. You can accesss those protocols here: https://www.cityofpasadena.net/public-health/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/Fitness-Facilities-Reopening-Protocol.pdf
Los Angeles County saw our 1millionth case on Saturday.
Vaccines: Pfizer and Moderna are churning out coronavirus vaccines for a desperate U.S. and global market. Carolyn Y. Johnson reports for The Washington Post that the U.S. by July is expected to have 200 million doses from each company, enough to vaccinate 70 percent of adults. But that’s assuming all goes smoothly (no unforeseen ingredient shortages or other bottlenecks) and that vaccine distribution picks up the pace.
PPP Loans: Since last week the SBA has been accepting PPP applications into our SBA portal from approved lenders that are Community
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan portal is now open to PPP-eligible lenders with $1 billion or less in assets for First and Second Draw applications. The portal will fully open on Tuesday, January 19, 2021 to all participating PPP lenders to submit First and Second Draw loan applications to SBA.
The below list of local PPP lenders represents those lenders taking PPP applications – First and Second Draw- from businesses without a pre-existing customer relationship. And, importantly, shows the lenders that are CFI’s (shaded in blue) and lenders with $ 1 Billion or less in assets (shaded in purple)- both of which now have access to SBA’s portal.
You can find all the information on the SBA website here: https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/coronavirus-relief-options/paycheck-protection-program