Los Angeles County officials on Sunday reported 240 new coronavirus cases and seven new related deaths, reflecting the continuing decline in the spread of infection as the local vaccination campaign builds. Just over half of L.A. County residents have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine thus far, amounting to a total of 8.7 million doses administered, according to The Times’ tracker. This is slightly more than the 47% of Americans nationwide who have received at least one dose.

But as demand for vaccination begins to wane, health officials are pushing for parents to bring their children to get immunized, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children ages 12 to 15.
There are 2.1 million Californians in that age range, and vaccinating this group could significantly slow the pandemic, experts say. In recent weeks, coronavirus cases have been increasing among younger people, both in California and nationally.

L.A. officials also reported Sunday that 325 people were in the hospital with COVID-19, a significant drop from a peak of more than 8,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in January during the region’s winter surge.

California is now close to the bottom of the nation when it comes to coronavirus case rates. With increasing vaccinations, officials estimate that the county could reach herd immunity — with around 80% of the population eligible for vaccinations immunized — by July.

Pasadena reported two new cases on Sunday with no fatalities. Pasadena has had 11,268 cases and 346 fatalities to date. 

There were several major pandemic developments in recent days, among them the most important local news was the continuing trend of no new COVID-related deaths and few new cases. City officials on Sunday reported only five additional COVID-19 cases and no fatalities.

Last Thursday’s release of guidance by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) saying people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can largely stop wearing masks in most indoor and outdoor situations set off confusion, since many states and local jurisdictions — including Pasadena Los Angeles County — still have mask requirements in place. The CDC only releases general guidance, but individual jurisdictions can impose restrictions based on local virus circumstances.

L.A. County requirements allow fully vaccinated residents to shed masks while indoors with other fully vaccinated people. But mask mandates remain in place for everyone working at or patronizing businesses — such as grocery stores, restaurants or retail shops.
The state and county were reviewing the new CDC guidance, but changes in local regulations were unlikely to occur for at least another week. A county health official said the mask mandates remain in place largely to protect workers and customers at worksites, and state occupational health and safety regulators need to set policy for masking and social distancing in the workplace.

Supermarket chains including Trader Joe’s, Costco and Walmart have dropped the mask requirement for fully vaccinated customers, though store officials said they will not be asking for proof of vaccination.

COVID-19 vaccinations efforts expanded last week to include youth aged 12-15. Most providers in the county began offering shots to that age group. Pasadena has started those vaccinations.

Vaccinations are now available appointment-free at most sites in the county.

Thank you to the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership for this: California has a Huge Budget Surplus – and Gov. Newsom Plans to Spend It:

Sacramento is flush with cash – between a $76 billion state budget surplus and $23 billion in pandemic aid from the federal government, California has enough cash to support key priorities while also providing “stimulus” tax refunds to families across the Golden State. Governor Gavin Newsom will release his full budget plan today but he’s traveled across the state, announcing his plans to fund education, homeless services and housing construction, litter clean up on highways and roadways, as well as grant funding to help businesses get back on their feet as the state emerges from the pandemic. 

Newsom plans to put $1.5 billion into grants for small businesses to help them recover from the pandemic. His $20 billion education and school plan notably includes introducing universal pre-kindergarten for all 4-year olds in the state by 2024 with another $3 billion to create schools that also have mental health, social and family services on campus. 

Newsom’s $20 billion school plan includes: 

  • Universal pre-kindergarten for all 4-year-olds by 2024. 
  • $4 billion to address youth behavioral health. 
  • $3.3 billion to recruit and train new teachers. 
  • $3 billion to create thousands of “community schools” with wraparound mental health, social and family services. 
  • $2 billion to create college savings accounts for 3.7 million students, with a base deposit of $500 for low-income students and $1,000 for homeless or foster youth. (Newsom launched a similar program as San Francisco mayor.) 
  • $1.1 billion to improve the staff-to-student ratio in underserved communities. 

 

Newsom also plans to launch a $12 billion homeless initiative, that puts funding into shovel-ready affordable housing projects around the state as well as an expansion of Project Homekey, which purchased hotels to convert them into homeless housing  during the pandemic. Some $3.5 billion will go to expanding that project, turning these hotels into more lasting and sustainable homeless housing facilities. Another $3.5 billion will assist the elderly and people with disabilities maintain their housing. 

Many of Newsom’s budget proposals should be welcomed by state lawmakers but it remains to be seen how the final budget shapes up after this May revision on the initial projections made in January. The budget surplus is politically fortunate for Newsom, who can tout a robust tax-base despite that travails of the pandemic and can fund a host of major initiatives with the revenue at hand while heading into a major recall fight this fall.

Of particular note is that on Thursday, Governor Newsom said he will ask state lawmakers to add $1.5 billion to a program that gives free grants of up to $25,000 to small businesses. It would supplement the program’s $2.5 billion in existing funding, boosting the total to $4 billion.

Vaccines and CDC mask guidance: From the Pasadena Independent: People who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can largely stop wearing a mask in most indoor and outdoor situations, according to revised guidance released Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said.

It was not immediately clear if California and local health officials would align with the new CDC guidance. The CDC’s guidance serve as a series of recommendations, but state and local authorities can impose stricter requirements based on circumstances.

The new CDC guidance does not completely drop mask recommendations for vaccinated people. Face coverings are still recommended in some settings — such as aboard planes and buses or in crowded settings such as hospitals. Walensky also said people who are vaccinated but are “immune compromised” should “talk to your doctor before giving up your mask.”

Unemployment: 

From the Pasadena Star-News: A mammoth backlog of unemployment claims in California has reached its highest levels inmore than twomonths, with well over 1 million workers stuck in bureaucratic limbo. As of Saturday, about 1.11 million California workers had filed jobless claims that were waiting for payment or resolution on the part of the state’s Employment Development Department, an EDD dashboard showed Thursday.

That’s an increase of 24,100 from the roughly 1.08 million California workers whose claims were trapped in the EDD unemployment logjam as of May 1, the dashboard shows.

The EDD backlog consists of two major components: claims that have taken more than 21 days for a resolution or payment and claims that are awaiting certification as the first step of the benefits process.

Claims that have been waiting more than 21 days for the EDD to pay or reject totaled 195,600 as of Saturday, an increase of 29,400 from the week before, up 17.7%.

From the Wall Street Journal: The fight is on for lower-wage workers.

Some of the biggest U.S. employers of entry-level workers are adding tens of thousands of new positions as the economy roars back from the coronavirus pandemic. Many are raising wages or adding perks to entice workers from other jobs or off the sidelines of the labor market.

Amazon.com Inc. said Thursday that it would hire 75,000 more workers and offer $1,000 signing bonuses in some locations, its latest hiring spree in a year of tremendous job growth. McDonald’s Corp. said it wants to hire 10,000 employees at company-owned restaurants in the next three months and that it would raise pay at those locations. Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., Applebee’s and KFC are among other chains seeking to hire tens of thousands of workers as they restore indoor seating and seek to bolster staffing.

Many companies have struggled to find enough available workers, though there are signs that more are entering the labor market to take some of those open positions. The Labor Department said Thursday that jobless claims had continued a several-week slide to new pandemic lows.

Demand for workers is so high that wages are rising, too. Average hourly earnings for private-sector employees rose by 21 cents to $30.17 last month, according to a recent Labor Department report. The gain is notable because strong hiring in the lower-wage hospitality sector would typically put downward pressure on average earnings, economists said.

From Bloomberg: More than a third of U.S. workers changed employers or lost their jobs since the start of the pandemic, double the typical level in the previous two decades, according to a study.

Among workers who had a job in February 2020, almost 37% were no longer with their employer a year later, according to a paper by Alexander Bick of Arizona State University and Adam Blandin of Virginia Commonwealth University. Almost 26% had a different employer, and the remaining 11% were out of a job.

The historically high level of churn, or rate of change, underscores the colossal challenge of bringing back millions of people to the labor market as the economy reopens.

Millions of workers who lost their jobs in the spring of 2020 were back at work in March this year, and the paper implies that the recovery is largelydue to people finding new jobs, rather than returning to their old employers.

For people who had been at their job for less than two years before the pandemic, the churn was much higher, according to the study. Almost 62% had separated from their workers a year later, versus about 16% for those who had been employed by the same firm for at least a decade.

That could help explain the current labor shortage, especially in the restaurant, entertainment and hotel industries, which lost the most jobs during the pandemic and are now struggling to hire fast to meet brisk demand. Turnover is traditionally high in those sectors.

Stimulus Funds: Lawmakers have unleashed more than $5 trillion in relief aid over the past year to help businesses and individuals through the pandemic downturn. But the scale of that effort is placing serious strain on a patchwork oversight network created to ferret out waste and fraud.
President Joe Biden’s admin-istration has taken steps to improve accountability and oversight safeguards spurned by President Donald Trump’s administration, including more detailed and frequent reporting requirements for those receiving funds. But policing the money has been complicated by long-running turf battles; the lack of a centralized, fully functional system to track how funds are being spent; and the speed with which the government has tried to disburse aid.

The scope of oversight is vast, with the Biden administration policing the tail end of the relief money disbursed by the Trump administration last year in addition to the $1.9 trillion rescue package that Democrats approved in March. Much of that money is beginning to flow out the door, including $21.6 billion in rental assistance funds, $350 billion to state and local governments, $29 billion for restaurants and a $16 billion grant fund for live-event businesses like theaters and music clubs.

The funds are supposed to be tracked by a hodgepodge of overseers, including congressional panels, inspectors general and the White House budget office. But the systemhas been plagued by disagreements and, until recently, disarray. Biden has tapped a longtime economic adviser, Gene Sperling, as his pandemic relief czar. Sperling, who twice headed the National Economic Council, has been racing to stand up the oversight architecture and is relying heavily on the investigative powers of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, a panel of inspectors general, in addition to the Government Accountability Office and the administration’s Office of Management and Budget.

Infrastructure Bill: Republicans say they won’t raise taxes on corporations. Democrats say they won’t raise taxes on people making less than $400,000 a year. So who is going to pay for the big public works boost that lawmakers and President Joe Biden say is necessary for the country?
Enter the IRS.

Biden is proposing that Congress build up the depleted and often-maligned agency, saying that a more aggressive collection of unpaid taxes could help cover the cost of his multitrilliondollar plan to boost infrastructure, families and education. More resources to boost audits of businesses, estates and the wealthy would raise $700 billion over 10 years, theWhite House estimates.

It’s just the latest idea emerging in the bipartisan talks over an infrastructure bill, which sawBiden huddle at theWhite House this week with congressional leaders and a group of Republican senators. The GOP senators, touting a $568 billion infrastructure plan of their own, said they were “encouraged” by the discussion with Biden, but all sides acknowledged that how to pay for the public works plan remains a difficult problem. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Biden brought up his IRS proposal as he met Wednesdaywith the top four congressional leaders.