Cases: One day after Los Angeles County reported a slow-down in the pace of COVID-19-positive patients being admitted to local hospitals, the number of those patients soared over the 700 mark on Friday, reaching its highest point in nearly four months.
According to state figures, there were 741 COVID-19-positive patients in county hospitals as of Friday, a 53-patient jump from 688 on Thursday. The number of those patients being treated in intensive care was 67, down slightly from 69 a day earlier.
The 741 patients is the highest number since early March.
The increase was notable, coming one day after the county reported that a weeks-long rise in COVID-19 admissions appeared to be slowing, and could be showing signs of leveling off. Dr. Paul Simon, chief science officer at the county Department of Public Health, said the seven-day average of new hospital admissions of people with the virus was 84 per day on Thursday, Simon said, only a small bump from 83 the previous week.
The rate of hospital admissions for the past week was 7.3 per 100,000 residents. That’s the same rate as the previous week, ending a steady trend of increases that has raised the possibility of a new universal indoor mask mandate in the county.
Under metrics set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the county would move from the “medium” category of virus activity to the “high” level if the rate of new hospital admissions reaches 10 per 100,000 residents. If the county reaches the high level and stays there for two weeks, a new indoor mask mandate will be imposed.
County health officials previously projected that at the previous rate of increase, the county would reach the “high” category by the end of the June, or early July. But with the pace of hospital admissions appearing to slow, Simon said the current projection is that the county won’t reach the “high” category until at least mid-July.
Simon also said the average rate of new daily COVID- 19 cases was about 4,400 per day over the last seven days. But the county on Friday reported 6,129 new infections.
The new cases gave the county a cumulative total from throughout the pandemic of 3,088,482. Another eight deaths were also reported Friday, raising the county’s virus-related death toll to 32,291.
The average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus was 11.3%, down slightly from 11.6% on Thursday.
Health officials have noted that the actual number of COVID-19 cases in the county is likely much higher than the number being reported each day, thanks to the prevalence of take-home tests, the results of which are not always reported to the Department of Public Health.
Vaccines: COVID-19 vaccine doses for children under age 5 began rolling out slowly in Los Angeles County on Tuesday, although health officials warned that due to shipping delays, the pediatric shots weren’t expected to be more widely available until at least today.
Federal authorities approved the doses for kids as young as 6 months over the weekend. The approval applies to vaccines manufactured by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech.
County health officials noted that young children are considered at lower risk of becoming severely ill or dying from COVID-19, but they said the risk is higher among unvaccinated children. They also contend that unvaccinated children are at higher risk of developing Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, or MIS-C.
According to the county, over the past three months, unvaccinated children age 12-17 were nearly four times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than vaccinated children. Among vaccine-eligible children in the county who contracted confirmed cases of MIS-C, 65% were unvaccinated, officials said. Some Southland pharmacies and pediatrician offices began administering the doses Tuesday, but availability was limited at many county-run sites.
According to the county Department of Public Health, shipping issues were causing the delay, with more widespread availability anticipated by Wednesday.
Ultimately, the county anticipates the shots being available at more than 900 vaccination sites. Information on locations and scheduling appointments is available online at vaccinatela county.com, or in Spanish, vacunatelosangeles.com.
The Economy: State reaches $9.5-billion gas relief deal-Newsom, lawmakers tentatively agree to give taxpayers $200 to $1,050 in refunds to offset high inflation. By Taryn Luna for the LA Times.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers have reached a tentative deal to send $9.5 billion in tax refunds to Californians, providing as much as $1,050 to families this fall in long-awaited financial relief from record-high gasoline prices and other rising costs.
The plan would provide larger refunds to households that earn less money and include an additional payment for dependents, according to documents outlining the proposal.
The plan to issue refunds is part of a larger state budget agreement the governor and legislators are expected to announce soon. The spending plan for the upcoming year includes more funding for K-12 education, COVID-19 bonuses for healthcare workers, money to address drought and wildfire, expanded access to abortion services and other funding priorities of California’s Democratic leaders.
The plan would provide refunds on a sliding scale based on three income levels. An individual who earns up to $75,000 a year would receive a $350 refund, which would double to $700 for joint filers earning as much as $150,000. Households would receive an additional $350 payment if they claimed any dependents, for a maximum refund of $1,050.
At the next income level, single filers who earn up to $125,000 would get $250 refunds. Households that file jointly and earn up to $250,000 would receive $500. Children or any other dependents would qualify taxpayers for an additional $250 payment, making families in the income bracket eligible for as much as $750 total.
Individuals who earn up to $250,000 would receive $200, and joint filers with income of as much as $500,000 would receive $400. Households with dependents would receive an extra $200, making this income bracket eligible for a maximum of $600.
The Legislature will vote on refunds and a final state budget plan in a series of bills next week.
Under the new agreement, money for refunds would increase by $1.5 billion above the Legislature’s initial plan.
The refund deal comes after President Biden asked Congress to approve a gas tax holiday through September. Biden also called on states to suspend fuel taxes to further curb prices.
From the New York Times: The painful path-The government’s plan to fight inflation could cost jobs and restrict wage growth.
Rocky road ahead-Americans’ household finances are headed for a rough patch.
Consumer prices are climbing at the fastest pace since 1981, and given the breadth of today’s rapid inflation — which is showing up in costs as diverse as airfares and apartment rents — it is unlikely to fade fully on its own. The government’s efforts to wrestle it down will most likely prove painful for many working families.
The country’s main tool for fighting price increases is Federal Reserve policy. The Fed is trying to bring inflation back under control by raising interest rates, which sets off an economy-cooling chain reaction. Higher interest rates increase the cost of mortgages and company borrowing, which slows business growth and translates into less hiring. As the job market weakens, paycheck growth slows, which further tamps down buying. Less shopping gives supply a chance to catch up.
The challenge for many working families is that their wages might slow down before price increases do. Fed officials predicted last week that unemployment would begin creeping up by the end of the year but that inflation would remain elevated at 5.2 percent.
That means that consumer buying power is likely to erode, after several months in which wage growth has already failed to keep up with rising prices. At the same time, rising rates have unsettled markets and prompted stock prices to plummet, chipping away at many household nest eggs. Higher mortgage costs are slowing the housing market and could lower home values, further cutting into wealth — because for many families real estate makes up a big chunk of net worth.
As incomes and household balance sheets take a beating, many Americans may wonder: Isn’t there a better way to deal with inflation? Today, I will explain why policymakers are choosing this painful path.
The explanation
Prices generally jump when consumers and businesses demand more goods and services than companies are able, or willing, to supply. To use a recent example, demand for cars bounced up last year, but car companies could not ramp up production fast enough to meet the surge amid a parts shortage. As shoppers competed for a finite supply of sedans and pickup trucks, prices skyrocketed.
Fed policy works on the demand side of that equation. When fewer people shop for cars, because auto loans are expensive and the job market feels less secure, a smaller supply of vehicles might be enough to go around without causing prices to shoot up.
But crushing demand ranks somewhere between unpleasant and agonizing. When the Fed pushed interest rates to double-digit levels in the early 1980s, in an effort to bring down rapid inflation, it set off brutal back-to-back recessions that pushed the unemployment rate to nearly 11 percent. (Right now, the rate is at a historically low 3.6 percent.)
The White House and Congress could help to ramp up production in key parts of the economy, offering relief on the supply side of the inflation equation.
The issue is partly one of timing. While the government can try — and is trying — to help build more affordable housing, for instance, those policies take a while to have an effect. By the time they help, consumers and businesses may have come to expect fast inflation. And with prices, expectations can be self-fulfilling: Workers who anticipate heftier rent and grocery bills might demand higher pay to cover those costs, prompting their employers to raise prices to cover climbing labor expenses and setting off an inflationary cycle.
That is one reason the Fed is stepping in with its painful, but quicker, tool.
The bottom line
The Fed last week lifted interest rates by the largest increment since 1994, while signaling that it expects to raise them more this year than it did over the entire economic expansion stretching from 2009 to 2020.
Even if it doesn’t cause a full-blown recession, the Fed’s approach is expected to hurt, and it’s already tanking stocks. But officials contend that allowing inflation to go unchecked would be worse, in part because it would stoke uncertainty and hurt low-income people with limited wiggle room in their budgets.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell sought Wednesday to reassure the public that the Fed will raise interest rates high and fast enough to quell inflation, without tightening credit so much as to throttle the economy and cause a recession.
Testifying to the Senate Banking Committee, Powell faced skeptical questions from members of both parties about the Fed’s ability to tame inflation, which has surged to the top of Americans’ concerns as congressional elections near. Democrats wondered whether the Fed’s accelerated rate hikes will succeed in curbing inflation or might instead just tip the economy into a downturn. Several Republicans charged that the Powell Fed had moved too slowly to begin raising rates and now must speed up its hikes.
Powell acknowledged that a recession is possible as the Fed pushes borrowing costs steadily higher.
He said the pace of future rate hikes will depend on whether — and how quickly — inflation starts to decline, something the Fed will assess on a “meeting by meeting” basis.
The central bank’s accelerating rate increases — it started with a quarter-point hike in its key short-term rate in March, then a half-point increase in May, then three-quarters of a point last week — has alarmed investors and led to sharp declines in the financial markets.