COVID-19 Update for January 31, 2022-Paid Sick Leave, Cases, Vaccines and more

Cases: From the New York Times: The “stealth” Omicron variant isn’t a cause for alarm, but it could slow case decline.In recent days, headlines about a “stealth” Omicron variant have conjured the notion that a villainous new form of the coronavirus is secretly creating a disastrous new wave of Covid. That scenario is highly unlikely, scientists say. But the new variant, which goes by the scientific name BA.2 and is one of three branches of the Omicron viral family, could drag out the Omicron surge in much of the world. So far, BA.2 doesn’t appear to cause more severe disease, and vaccines are just as effective against it as they are against other forms of Omicron. But it does show signs of spreading more readily.

Here is the latest coronavirus case map of the United States

Health officials cite improvement in number of caseloads, but urge people to be wary, remain vigilant By Brennon Dixson for the Pasadena Star-News: Pasadena, like the rest of Los Angeles County, may well have made it past the peak of the devastating winter coronavirus surge propelled by the highly transmissible omicron variant.

But Pasadena Public Health Director Dr. Ying-Ying Goh said tough days still lie ahead and it is no time for residents to let down their guards. She echoed familiar guidance for the community: Get vaccinated, wear a high-quality face covering and, in general, just be careful.

Goh reported 203 coronavirus cases Thursday. That’s still more than a 500% increase over the levels of late December, but a significant decline from the Jan. 11 peak of 534.

Earlier this month, Goh and Huntington Hospital’s President/CEO Dr. Lori J. Morgan announced a meteoric rise in the city’s caseload — an 11-fold increase since late December when the city was reporting 33 cases a day on Dec. 20 compared to 361 on Jan. 6.

Pasadena has reported 25,629 cases since the pandemic began. The county is seeing similar declines in case rates and hospitalizations, indicating the worst of the omicron case surge may have passed.

Ferrer said COVID-19 deaths remain relatively high, averaging about 59 per day in the county. Friday, the county reported 101 new virus-related deaths, raising the overall pandemic death toll to 28,816.

Pasadena’s death toll, a statistic that lags the daily caseload, hit 381 on Thursday with two additional fatalities posted, according to Public Information Officer Lisa Derderian.

Huntington Hospital’s admitted COVID-19-positive patient count stood at 95 as of Friday, up five from Thursday, according to the hospital’s dashboard. The seven-day moving average of COVID-19-positive hospitalized patients is at 13 and trending downward.

Hospital officials said congestion at the hospital appeared to be easing.

Countywide, hospitalizations declined by about 10% from 614 patients one week ago to 552 admissions on Wednesday. A total of 4,192 people are currently hospitalized, representing a decline from the peak of 4,800 patients last week, officials said.

Amid the worst of the surge, local health leaders paid special attention this winter to nursing homes in Pasadena, where there are more per capita than Los Angeles County or Long Beach.

Dr. Goh’s team really had the foresight of recognizing quite early this time that having a booster (shot) was going to be critical in protecting people from a serious illness with omicron. And so they went out, rallied the troops and boosted everybody.

Goh explained the department staff also crossreferenced nursing home residency information with the California immunization registry to ensure everybody who was eligible for a booster had an opportunity to get one. She also acknowledged a mandate from state and county leaders requiring nursing staff to be full vaccinated by Tuesday likely played a role in health care workers going to get one of 2,000 vaccines being administered in Pasadena.

According to the county, 81% of eligible county residents aged 5 and above have received at least one dose of vaccine and 72% are fully vaccinated. Only 32% are fully vaccinated with a booster shot. Of the county’s overall 10.3 million population, 77% have received one dose, 69% are fully vaccinated and 31% are vaccinated and boosted.

Public health data reveals that COVID-19 cases among skilled nursing facility residents and staff are dropping “due in part to the high numbers of staff and residents who have been vaccinated and boosted” as Tuesday’s deadline approached, a Public Health news release said.

Science is ever-evolving, so Goh encouraged the public to stay aware and not let their guard down.

Getting a booster should be at the top of the list if they haven’t done so, according to Goh. Upgrading masks from cloth to N95 or K95-quality also is important, especially for those intending to attend a public event, such as Sunday’s NFC Championship game or the Feb. 13 Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium.

There’s risk for a viral variant that spread more easily and cause worse symptoms. Until then, health care workers will continue to provide assistance to the community just as soldiers do during wartime and firefighters do during natural disasters.

County virus cases fall 45%; L.A.’s metrics are improving, but this is not the time to ease up on precautions, health officials say. By Alex Wigglesworth for the LA Times. Los Angeles County health officials on Saturday reported that the surge in COVID-19 cases fueled by the Omicron variant was abating but urged people to continue to take precautions, especially in light of upcoming events that could further spread the virus. The county recorded 21,709 new coronavirus cases Saturday, a 45% decline from a week ago, when there were 39,117, the public health department said in a news release.

The daily positivity rate fell below 10% for the first time since Dec. 23, and the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 dipped below 4,000 for the first time since Jan. 12, officials said. There were 3,998 COVID-19 patients in Los Angeles County hospitals as of Friday, a decline of nearly 10% from two weeks before.

The county reported 73 deaths Saturday, bringing the total number of COVID-19 fatalities to more than 28,800. Average death counts have increased by nearly 161% over the last 14 days, according to the Los Angeles Times’ coronavirus tracker.

That follows a nationwide trend: The daily toll across the U.S. is higher than it was during last fall’s Delta wave , and deaths are expected to keep rising for days or weeks.

The improvement in most metrics comes as family gatherings and community events are scheduled to mark the Lunar New Year this week. Additionally, the L.A. Rams will play the San Francisco 49ers at SoFi Stadium in Sunday’s NFC Championship game, with a trip to the Super Bowl — scheduled two weeks later in Inglewood — on the line. Those who plan on gathering should get tested beforehand, move activities outdoors if possible and wear masks when indoors or in crowded places, she said. People should not host or attend gatherings if they are sick.

L.A. County’s public health department reported an additional 405 active outbreaks at food and retail outlets and workplaces that have infected at least 10,000 workers. No deaths have been linked to those outbreaks.
Times staff writers Luke Money, Rong-Gong Lin II and Richard Winton contributed to this report.

Los Angeles County, with health officials confirming Wednesday that a 15-month-old child was among 91 newly reported deaths from the virus. Details about the 15-month-old were not released by the county Department of Public Health, but the agency confirmed the toddler is the “youngest resident to die of COVID-19-19 since the pandemic began, and a stark reminder that the virus can cause devastating outcomes among those most vulnerable, including young children not yet eligible for vaccinations.”

The 91 new deaths reported Wednesday is among the highest daily totals reported from throughout the pandemic, raising the county’s overall virus death toll to 28,630.

The county also confirmed 20,866 new COVID- 19 cases Wednesday, bringing the cumulative pandemic total to 2,560,768. Wednesday marked the two-year anniversary of the county’s first confirmed COVID- 19 case.

According to the county, 81% of eligible county residents aged 5 and above have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 72% are fully vaccinated. Only 32% are fully vaccinated with a booster shot. Of the county’s overall 10.3 million population, 77% have received one dose, 69% are fully vaccinated, and 30% are vaccinated and boosted.

The vaccination rate among children aged 5-11 remains low, with only 30% having received at least one dose, and only 20% are fully vaccinated. Ferrer said the low vaccination rate among children “creates significant vulnerability for spread” of the virus.

Ferrer said roughly half of the COVID-positive patients in county hospitals were actually admitted for reasons other than COVID, and only discovered they were infected when they were hospitalized. But Ferrer said even if a patient was admitted for a reason other than COVID, a virus-positive patient still requires more “resource-intensive precautions” that result in strain on short-staffed hospitals.

Paid Sick Leave: Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers said Tuesday they have worked out a deal to bring back paid coronavirus sick leave. The agreement, which comes after a similar law passed in 2021 expired several months ago, would give workers access to supplemental paid sick leave through Sept. 30.

The framework would provide up to two weeks of leave to fulltime workers at businesses with at least 26 employees. It would cover workers who are sick with the coronavirus and those caring for loved ones with COVID-19.

Workers who test positive would need to present a test to receive the full amount of paid leave, which would be retroactive to Jan. 1. The deal also proposes restoring suspended tax credits in a bid to help businesses shoulder the costs of the extra paid leave, which could be especially valuable for restaurants and other small businesses that have been battered by the pandemic.

Homeowner Relief: Nine months after launching a pandemic aid program to help cash-strapped renters avoid eviction, California began a new program to help homeowners save their properties from foreclosure or a forced sale.

he need for mortgage assistance pales in comparison with the amount of help being sought by renters, however, reflecting how most homeowners have largely been spared the pandemic’s financial wrath. Fewer homeowners lost their jobs or income during coronavirus-related shutdowns. And programs for those who did get into trouble were far more successful in helping owners regain their financial footing.

Meanwhile, the state’s Housing Is Key program is almost out of rent relief.

As of Jan. 19, two-thirds of the state’s rental assistance allocation had been doled out to less than a fourth of the renters applying for state help. The state reports 151,000 out of 625,000 applicants have received almost $1.8 billion in rental assistance, not counting the applications handled by four dozen local and tribal rental assistance programs.

The new $1 billion mortgage relief program, by comparison, is expected to help just 20,000 to 40,000 homeowners who face foreclosure or a forced sale.
Since the restaurant, hotel and tourism jobs that saw the biggest cuts during the pandemic are filled mainly by tenants, renters got hit far harder than homeowners, said Rick Sharga, executive vice president for RealtyTrac, an Irvine company that tracks foreclosures. In addition, by allowing homeowners to skip their house payments for up to 18 months, forbearance programs saved more than 7 million Americans from losing their homes.

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported on Jan. 18 that 1.4% of all U.S. mortgages, or fewer than 750,000, were in forbearance at the end of December, down from a high of almost 8.6% in June 2020.

Sixty-one percent of borrowers who exited from forbearance eventually resumed making payments and either repaid their missed payments or got them deferred to the end of their loan, according to the MBA. Another 21% either got a loan modification, refinanced into a new loan or sold their home and paid off their debts.

Strict income limits will further curb the number of homeowners getting state mortgage relief. Eligibility is limited to those earning no more than their area’s overall median income. For example, a family of four can’t earn more than $118,200 in Los Angeles County, $134,500 in Orange County or $79,900 in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Vaccine and Mask Mandates: The Biden administration has officially withdrawn a rule that would have required workers at big companies to get vaccinated or face regular COVID testing requirements.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration confirmed the withdrawal Tuesday. But the agency said it still strongly encourages workers to get vaccinated.

Health care workers in about half the states face a Thursday deadline to get their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine under a Joe Biden administration mandate that will be rolled out across the rest of the country in the coming weeks.
Though the requirement is welcomed by some, others fear it will worsen already serious staff shortages if employees quit rather than comply.

And in some Republican- led states that have taken a stand against vaccine mandates, hospitals and nursing homes could find themselves caught between conflicting state and federal demands.

The mandate affects a wide swath of the health care industry, covering doctors, nurses, technicians, aides and even volunteers at hospitals, nursing homes, home-health agencies and other providers that participate in the federal Medicare or Medicaid programs.

It comes as many places are stretched thin by the omicron surge, which is putting record numbers of people in the hospital with COVID-19 while sickening many health workers.

Nationwide, about 81% of nursing home staff members already were fully vaccinated as of earlier this month, ranging from a high of 98% in Rhode Island to a low of 67% in Missouri, according to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The data is unclear about the vaccination levels in hospitals and other health care sites.

The mandate ultimately will cover 10.4 million health care workers at 76,000 facilities.
It is taking effect first in jurisdictions that didn’t challenge the requirement in court. Those include some of the biggest states, with some of the largest populations of senior citizens, among them: California, Florida, New York and Pennsylvania.

The Economy: The U.S. economic recovery from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic continued strong last year. U.S. gross domestic product — the broadest measure of economic activity — expanded 5.7% last year, the fastest pace since 1984, when Ronald Reagan was in the White House, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Thursday.

The final three months of 2021 got a much better scorecard than economists had predicted: GDP grew at an annualized rate of 6.9% in the fourth quarter.
It was a substantial uptick from the delta-ridden third quarter, when GDP grew at an annualized pace of only 2.3%. In fact, it was the best quarterly performance since the third quarter 2020, when the initial reopening boom buoyed economic growth. But it wasn’t just the growth rate that jumped last year. Supply chain chaos, worker shortages and whopping demand also led prices to climb uncomfortably high.

For 2021, the personal consumption expenditure price index — a key measure of inflation — rose 3.9%, the largest increase since 1990.
In the fourth quarter, PCE inflation was 6.5%, the biggest jump since the third quarter of 1981. 

New home sales jump in December as prices fall: Sales of new single-family homes in December rose to their highest level in 10 months as buyers snapped up cheaper homes in anticipation of higher interest rates.

The increase put the seasonally adjusted annual sales pace to 811,000 for the month, according to the Commerce Department, an 11.9% increase over November’s figure, which was revised down to 725,000 from 744,000.

The median price of a new home, the point where half the homes sold for more and half for less, fell to $377,700, last month, its lowest level since June but about 4% higher than December 2020.

In the months following the pandemic outbreak in the spring of 2020, new home sales exploded as people sought out more space. Including December’s big increase, sales for 2021 fell 14% from the red-hot 2020.
New home sales rose in three of the four regions, with the Midwest leading the way with a whopping 56.4% increase. Sales rose 14.9% in the south and nominally in the West, offsetting a 15.6% decline in the Northeast.

Historically low mortgage rates have fed the demand for housing, even though rates are expected to rise as the Federal Reserve dials back its bond purchases to tamp down surging inflation. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac says the average rate on long-term, 30-year mortgages in the U.S. has risen from just over 3% a month ago to 3.5% last week, the highest level since March 2020.

 Child Care: From the Pasadena Star-News: Child care providers already were struggling to meet demand even before COVID-19’s omicron variant tore through California — forcing shutdowns and stranding parents whose own jobs depend on their ability to find child care. One day last week in San Diego County, only three of 22 sites operated by Educational Enrichment Systems could be open, said Celine Krimston, a vice president at the company. The rest were temporarily shuttered because of positive COVID-19 cases or exposures among staff or children.

In California, about 117,000 child care teachers help support nearly 3 million children ages 0-5. The California Chamber of Commerce even wrote a letter to lawmakers last week endorsing additional spending on child care.

Providers face high employee turnover

Last summer, the center at UC Berkeley found that more than half of child care programs have laid off or furloughed staff. The study also found that among child care centers, 62% of open centers had staffers who were not working because of concerns about health risks and 48% had staffers who were not able to work because of caring for their own children.

Child care experts and advocates say the pandemic worsened an already challenging child care situation in California. They cite a labor shortage, low wages and not enough slots for kids who need child care. With the pandemic and the omicron surge, those problems now have grown.

The median wage for a child care worker was $13.43 in 2019 in California. For younger children, the pay is lower — even though mandatory staffing ratios are higher for infants and younger children. Low pay has led to increased turnover throughout the pandemic, a problem that exploded with omicron.

California is down child care workers by 8%, according to a study by the Berkeley center. A September U.S. Treasury report estimated the national child care worker turnover rate at 26% to 40% of the total workforce each year — and that was before the omicron variant.

Omicron: From bad to worse

From the start of the pandemic, Rodriguez, the provider in the Riverside County city of Hemet, struggled to keep the business she runs with her husband afloat. When essential workers needed child care providers to remain open longer, Rodriguez hired another person to make that possible, but then the new hire later quit. Even before omicron hit, Rodriguez said she was forced to turn to her daughters and ask for help.

‘Covid Days’ provide some relief

The state provides some support for child care providers, won by Child Care Providers United. The union negotiated its first contract with the state last year, much of it dealing directly with support for COVID-19 challenges For those who care for state-subsidized children, the state agreed to provide reimbursement for up to 16 days of closure due to COVID-19. Providers worry those days will vanish at the end of the fiscal year in June if the Legislature does not extend benefits. Child care provider Algorri in Chula Vista got sick with COVID-19 earlier in January and had to close her business for eight days.

Without the additional state reimbursement for nonoperation due to COVID-19 and other union-fought benefits like supplemental income and payment based on enrollment instead of attendance, she said, she would’ve had to close long ago. “There was no way I could have kept my assistant employed because this is not a business where you make tons of money … to use during the rainy days,” she said. “I would have had to close my business.”