Grants: SBA will begin sending invitations for supplemental awards for the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program. SVOG supplemental awards are to be provided to those who received an initial grant and have illustrated a 70% loss when comparing 2021’s first-quarter revenues to the same in 2019. Supplemental award applicants can choose to apply for any amount up to 50% of their original SVOG amount, with a $10 million cap of the initial and supplemental awards combined, according to the law. The supplemental awards also allow SVOG recipients to extend the time to use their grant funds for expenses accrued through June 30, 2022 and lengthen their budget period to 18 months from the initial grant’s disbursement date. Learn more
Cases: The spread of COVID-19 remained relatively stable in Pasadena on Thursday, with health officials reporting 23 new infections and no fatalities. The city saw 22 new infections on Wednesday, according to Pasadena Public Health Department data. The average number of new cases detected daily over the prior week held stable at 26.9. In all, Pasadena officials have documented 12.646 COVID-19 infections and 354 deaths.
Huntington Hospital reported treating 30 COVID-19 patients as of Wednesday, down from 36 the day before. Ten of the patients were being treated in intensive care units, compared with 11 the previous day.
L.A. County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferer reported 3,226 new infections and 31 deaths on Thursday, which raised the county’s totals to 1,394,488 cases of COVID-19 and 25,181 fatalities. Ferrer added that 1,731 patients were being treated at hospitals for the virus countywide, representing a decline of 59 patients since Thursday of last week. The county’s daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.75%, down from 3.7% last week, Ferrer said.
Even with the extra-potent Delta variant spreading, infections, hospitalizations, and deaths among vaccinated people remained extremely low, Ferrer said.
Of more than 5.2 million fully vaccinated L.A. county residents, 32,678 have tested positive for COVID, amounting to 0.63%, she said. Of those, 881 have been hospitalized, representing 0.017%, and 95 have died, which represents 0.0018% of vaccinated residents.
State public health officials announced 11,769 new infections and 129 deaths on Thursday. In total, the state had recorded 4,157,319 COVID-19 cases and 64,931 deaths. The statewide average positivity held stable at 5.4%, according to California Department of Public Health data.
As of Thursday, L.A.County accounted for 34% of California’s COVID-19 infections and 39% of the state’s fatalities.
Vaccinations: Last week, the Food and Drug Administration gave final approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. This is a major milestone towards the full reopening and recovery of our economy. With this final approval, millions of Americans will be able to seek any additional booster doses that may be needed to increase and maintain the level of protection against the deadly COVID-19 virus. It is our hope and belief that this final stamp of approval by the FDA will also serve to instill greater confidence in the efficacy of the vaccine amongst hesitant Americans. Millions of Americans and thousands of small businesses are eager to get back to work, and this decision by the FDA brings us closer to re-starting the economy.
Delta Air Lines has opened a new front in the push by companies to get employees vaccinated against the coronavirus. Yesterday, Delta said that workers who aren’t vaccinated by Nov. 1 will have to pay an additional $200 per month to remain on the airline’s health plan. More companies are considering imposing such fees on the unvaccinated, following the airline’s lead.
The shift from incentives like extra pay or time off to get the shot to financial penalties for choosing not to is a noteworthy change in corporate vaccination initiatives. Companies are taking a tougher stance even if they, like Delta, stop short of mandating that workers get the vaccine or lose their jobs.
Recent hospital stays because of Covid have cost Delta about $50,000 per employee, and every one of those workers was not fully vaccinated, Delta’s C.E.O., Ed Bastian, said in a memo to staff. Like most large employers, Delta insures its work force, meaning it pays health costs directly and hires an insurance company to administer its plans.
An insurance surcharge is technically complicated. Because employers can’t charge people with pre-existing health conditions higher insurance prices, the surcharges on the unvaccinated are structured as part of “wellness” incentive programs, which are permitted under the Affordable Care Act. These programs must be voluntary but can involve rewards or penalties as large as 30 percent of an employee’s health insurance premium.
Schools: The Pasadena Unified School District Board voted Thursday to require weekly COVID-19 testing for its unvaccinated staff and students starting September 1, amid public clamor for District action two weeks after schools reopened for in-person classes.
In a series of actions, the Board voted to:
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Place mobile testing teams at schools for students and employee testing
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Require all students under age 12 to get weekly COVID-19 tests
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Require all student-athletes to get weekly COVID-19 tests; and
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Require that students age 12 and older show proof of vaccination or take weekly tests.
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Require all unvaccinated employees to be tested weekly starting Wednesday.
The proof of vaccination requirement for staff and eligible students will be adhered to prior to October 15
Stimulus Funds for Families: A new round of stimulus cash is heading to California residents beginning at the end of August, according to the state’s Franchise Tax Board.
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On July 12, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 129, which includes $12 billion in cash relief for middle-class families “hit hardest by the pandemic.”
“The state is taking on the inequities laid bare by the pandemic, expanding our support for Californians facing the greatest hardships…,” Newsom said of the $100 billion California Comeback Plan. The bill also includes billions of dollars aimed at combating homelessness, climate change, affordable housing, primary education and other infrastructure updates. The Golden State Stimulus payments were drawn from federal pandemic recovery funds and the state’s $75.7 billion budget surplus.
Newsom’s office estimates nearly two-thirds of Californians will be eligible for a stimulus check of $600. Qualifying families with children will receive an additional $500.
California workers make up 11.7% of the nation’s workforce, and in recent weeks the state accounted for 21.4% of all unemployment benefits. More than 3 million people in the state are still receiving some form of unemployment benefits. The state’s unemployment rate was 7.6% in July, the secondhighest in the nation tied with New Mexico and New York.
Rent Relief: The $46.5 billion rental aid program created to pay rent accrued during the pandemic continues to disbursemoney at a slow pace, as the White House braces for a Supreme Court order that could strike down a new national moratorium on evictions. The Emergency Rental Assistance Program, funded in the two federal pandemic relief packages passed over the past year, sputtered along in July, with just $1.7 billion being distributed by state and local governments, according to the Treasury Department, which oversees the program. TRhe money meted out was a modest increase from the prior month, bringing the total aid disbursed to about $5.1 billion, figures released early Wednesday showed, or roughly 11% of the cash allocated by Congress to avoid an eviction crisis that many housing experts now see as increasingly likely. That cash was slated to be spent over three years, but White House officials who have spent months pressuring local officials and tweaking the program to make access easier had hoped states would have spent much more by now.
Economy: GDP notches 6.6% growth, with a catch: The U.S. economy grew at a robust 6.6% annual rate last quarter, slightly faster than previously estimated, the government said Thursday in a report that pointed to a sustained consumer-led rebound from the pandemic recession. But worries are growing that the delta variant of the coronavirus is beginning to cause a slowdown.
The report from the Commerce Department estimated that the nation’s gross domestic product — its total output of goods and services — accelerated slightly in the April-June quarter from the 6.5% it had initially reported last month. The economy’s expansion last quarter followed a solid 6.3% annual growth rate in the January-March period. In recent weeks, many economists have been downgrading their estimates of GDP growth for this quarter, and for 2021 as a whole, as the now-dominant delta variant has sent confirmed COVID- 19 cases rising throughout the country.
The government’s upgraded estimate for growth in the April-June quarter fell somewhat shy of expectations. Some economists had predicted a 7% annual rate or more. They based that view on a belief that consumer spending had accelerated even faster than the sizzling 11.8% rate first reported. Thursday’s revised estimate for consumer spending, which drives about 70% of economic activity, was upgraded by 0.1 percentage point to 11.9%.
California workers filed more initial claims for unemployment during the week of July 31 than they did the week before, raising questions about whether the state’s job market is recuperating from COVID-linked ailments.
In the week ending July 31, California workers filed 65,500 claims for jobless benefits, up 1,000 from the week ending July 24, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday.
California produced one-fifth of the jobless claims filed in the United States.
Nationwide, workers filed 385,000 initial claims for unemployment last week, down 14,000 from the first-time claims the week before, the Labor Department reported. These numbers were adjusted to account for seasonal volatility. The unemployment claims filed in California last week represented 20.2% of the claims nationwide, even though the state has only 11.8% of the workers in the U.S. The unemployment claims filed in California represent the highest weekly number posted since the state reopened its economy in mid-June.