Indoor Mask Mandates: From the Pasadena Star-News: The state of California is set to lift its COVID-19 indoor mask-wearing requirement for vaccinated people next week, but the Los Angeles County and Pasadena Public Health departments will maintain their own mandates for indoor face coverings for the foreseeable future.
State officials announced Monday the indoor mask wearing requirement for vaccinated people will expire at the end of Tuesday.
State officials announced Monday the indoor mask wearing requirement for vaccinated people will expire at the end of Tuesday. The change in state policy will affect counties that do not have local mandates of their own governing face coverings, such as Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties — all of which intend to ease masking requirements when the state allows.
Patrons of businesses in Los Angeles County and Pasadena, however, will have to mask up when indoors and for large outdoor mega-events like Sunday’s Super Bowl no matter their vaccination status.
Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer unveiled metrics last week for a possible relaxing of the county’s masking orders, saying the mandate will be dropped at outdoor “mega-events” and outdoors at schools and child-care centers if COVID-19-positive hospitalizations in the county fall below 2,500 for seven consecutive days.
Pasadena Public Health Director Ying-Ying Goh said Pasadena is expected “to be synchronized with L.A. County on masking requirements, with a common sense, risk-based approach.”
According to Goh and Ferrer, masking requirements will not be lifted until the county’s level of transmission falls to the “moderate” level as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and stays there for two consecutive weeks.
Reaching the “moderate” designation requires the county to have a cumu-lative, seven-day new case rate of less than 50 per 100,000 residents. According to the CDC’s website, the county’s rate was 1,098 per 100,000 residents as of Monday.
In addition to maintaining the “moderate” rate for two weeks, indoor maskwearing requirements will only be lifted if “there are not new variants of concern that appear to be a threat,” Goh said.
On Tuesday, Pasadena reported 91 confirmed cases and five probable cases, a slight decrease from last Friday when the city reported 96 confirmed cases and 17 probable cases.
No new deaths were reported in Pasadena, leaving the city’s death count at 384. To date, Pasadena has confirmed 27,063 cases of coronavirus.
Huntington Hospital’s admitted COVID-19-positive patient count stood at 56 as of Tuesday, down 21 from Friday, according to the hospital’s dashboard.
The seven-day moving average of COVID-19-positive hospitalized patients stands at 6.3. In mid-January, the figure hovered around 20.
Despite the encouraging news of declining cases, test positivity and hospitalizations, Goh and fellow Pasadena health leaders warned it’s way too early for the public to let its guard down. Huntington Hospital’s leading infectious disease expert Dr. Kimberly Shriner urged caution as the public prepares for a coming weekend of activities.
Ferrer noted many individuals living in hardhit communities are lowwage workers who face multiple exposures daily at their jobs and then return to high density communities where virus transmission is easier.
Paid Sick Leave: From the Pasadena Star-News: The California Legislature has passed a bill requiring many companies to give workers up to two weeks of paid time off if they get sick from the coronavirus. The bill, passed Monday, is retroactive to Jan. 1, so qualifying employees could be eligible for back pay for days missed when sick.
At the start of the pandemic, state and federal laws required most employers to give workers paid time off for the coronavirus. But many of those laws expired as more people got vaccinated and case numbers declined. California’s law expired in September.
Since then, omicron — a more contagious version of the coronavirus — has spread rapidly throughout the world. The variant set a record in California for the average number of new cases and contributed to an increase in hospitalizations, mostly among the unvaccinated population.
Labor unions have been pressuring their Democratic allies in the Legislature to renew the state’s sick leave law, culminating in a deal reached last month between Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders. Lawmakers approved the bill Monday and sent it to Newsom, who is expected to sign it into law. When he does, it will make California the fourth state to require paid time off for workers who get sick with the coronavirus. Similar mandates are still in effect in Massachusetts, Colorado and New York, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Five other states — Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington — have paid sick leave laws that, while not COVID-19-specific, can be used cover time off from the coronavirus.
The bill only applies to companies with more than 25 employees.
Employee Vaccine Mandate Proposed: California would mandate that all businesses require their employees and independent contractors to receive the COVID-19 vaccine under legislation announced Friday by Democratic state lawmakers that was immediately criticized by Republicans as government overreach.
Employees or contractors who qualify for medical or religious exemptions would have to be regularly tested under a planned amendment to the bill. New employees would have to get at least one dose by the time they start work and the second dose within 45 days of being on the job.
Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks introduced her bill months after delaying an original proposal last fall. The previous version would have allowed workers to submit to weekly testing as an alternative to getting vaccinated, but that is not an option in her new proposal.
Vaccines mandates are highly controversial and there have been many rallies at the state Capitol in Sacramento opposing such requirements.
Wicks and other supporters said the mandate is needed even as California moves to ease other requirements and anticipates moving into a new “endemic” phase that accepts the coronavirus is here to stay but is manageable as immunity builds.
The mandate would stay in place unless the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decides that COVID-19 vaccinations are no longer needed. The bill would require state health and occupational safety officials to advise employers on what qualifies as a medical condition, disability, religious belief and valid vaccination status. Businesses that didn’t comply would face penalties that have yet to be determined.
Cases: Against the backdrop of steadily declining new confirmed coronavirus cases in Pasadena, city officials reported four infected Pasadenans died in January.
The fatalities bring to 389 the number of Pasadena residents whose deaths were attributed to COVID-019 since the start of the pandemic.
53 confirmed and 4 probable new cases of COVID in Pasadenans were reported by city health officials Thursday. The daily new case numbers continue to fall. As recently as late January and early February, hundreds of new cases were often reported every day.
Huntington Hospital said it was caring for 45 patients who tested positive for COVID as of Thursday. Nine of those patients were in the ICU, a drop from recent double-digit highs.
The number of COVID-19-positive patients in Los Angeles County hospitals fell below 2,500, opening the door for a possible lifting of the county’s outdoor mask-wearing mandate as early as next week for large events, schools and childcare centers.
According to the latest state figures, there were 2,464 COVID-positive patients in local hospitals as of Thursday, down from 2,597 on Wednesday. Of those patients, 492 were being treated in intensive care, a drop from 528 a day earlier.
Under guidelines announced last week by county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer, if the hospitalization number stays below 2,500 for seven consecutive days, the county will consider itself to be entering a “post- surge” phase, and it will lift its mask mandate for outdoor “mega-events” and outdoors at schools and childcare centers.
Ferrer said Thursday that absent a sudden increase in hospitalizations, the outdoor mask mandate could be lifted as early as next Wednesday.
While the outdoor masking requirements could be lifted next week, the indoor masking mandate will remain in place until much stricter criteria are met. That’s in spite of the state planning to lift its indoor mask requirement for vaccinated people next week.
According to Ferrer, the county’s indoor mask rule will not be lifted until the county’s virus-transmission rate falls to the “moderate” level as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for two straight weeks, or until COVID vaccines have been available to children under 5 years old for eight weeks.
Reaching the CDC’s “moderate” designation requires the county to have a cumulative, seven-day new case rate of less than 50 per 100,000 residents. According to the CDC’s website, the county’s rate was 622 per 100,000 as of Thursday. That’s down from 1,098 per 100,000 residents on Monday.
Ferrer said the county’s rate has been dropping roughly by about 3.5% every day, and if that pace continues, the county could reach the “moderate” transmission level in 25 to 30 days. If so, the indoor mask mandate could potentially be lifted by late March.
She also noted that vaccines for children under age 5 could potentially be approved by the end of February.
County Supervisor Kathryn Barger this week again said the criteria was too stringent, and “not even realistic.” She urged the county to align with the state to lessen confusion among residents. However, her board supervisors were content to stick with the current criteria.
Ferrer reiterated Thursday that she believes it is still too soon to lift the indoor mask requirement.
She noted that vaccine-verification or testing requirements will remain in place at indoor and outdoor “mega-events,” and for indoor portions of bars, restaurants, nightclubs, breweries and lounges.
The county on Thursday reported another 81 COVID-related deaths. Ferrer noted that while case and hospitalization rates have been falling, daily deaths remain high.
The new fatalities gave the county a pandemic total of 29,690. Another 6,276 new cases were also confirmed Thursday, giving the county a cumulative total of 2,746,866. The average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus was 4.7% as of Thursday, a rate that has been holding steady each day this week.
The most recent figures show that as of Feb. 6, 82% of all eligible county residents aged 5 and older have received at least one dose of COVID vaccine, 73% are fully vaccinated and 35% are fully vaccinated with a booster shot.
For the overall county population of about 10.3 million people, 78% have received at least one dose, 70% are fully vaccinated and 33% are vaccinated and boosted.
She noted that during the week that ended Feb. 6, the county administered its lowest number of first vaccine doses since the shots became available.
The indoor masking mandate, however, will remain in place until much stricter criteria are met, despite the state of California lifting its indoor mask requirement for vaccinated people next week. According to Ferrer, the county’s mask rule will not be lifted until the county’s virus- transmission rate falls to the “moderate” level as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for two consecutive weeks, or until COVID- 19 vaccines have been available to children under 5 years old for eight weeks.
Those guidelines mean indoor masking will remain a requirement until at least March, but more likely at least April.
Vaccines: An early look at the performance of COVID-19 booster shots during the recent omicron wave in the U.S. hinted at a decline in effectiveness, though the shots still offered strong protection against severe illness.
The report, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday, is considered an early and limited look at the durability of booster protection during the omicron surge that exploded in December and January but has been fading in recent weeks.
“COVID-19 vaccine boosters remain safe and continue to be highly effective against severe disease over time,” said Kristen Nordlund, a CDC spokesperson.
The researchers looked at patient visits to hospitals and urgent care centers in 10 states. They estimated how well Pfizer or Moderna booster shots prevented COVID-19-related visits to emergency departments and urgent care centers.
The Economy: From the New York Times: The U.S. trade deficit in goods soared to record levels in 2021, topping $1 trillion as Americans continued to spend heavily on computers, toys, bicycles, clothing, pharmaceuticals and other goods made in foreign factories during the pandemic.
The overall trade deficit in both goods and services also hit an annual record, rising 27% as the country’s imports far outpaced its exports, according to data released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday.
The widening deficit — which climbed to $859.1 billion from $678.7 billion the previous year — was a reflection of a highly unusual pandemic economy. Americans, sheltering at home from the coronavirus and with savings swelled by government relief packages, slashed their spending on travel, restaurants and movies and splurged on furniture, electronics and other goods instead.
It is also the latest sign of how dependent the United States remains on other countries, particularly China, for the things that consumers want to buy.
While both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have talked about reviving U.S. manufacturing, the United States continues to be deeply reliant on factories in China and other lowcost countries to produce a vast array of consumer goods.
Imports surged by $576.5 billion, or 20.5%, last year as both the quantity and the price of the foreign products that Americans purchased increased.
Exports grew 18.5%, or by $394.1 billion. Demand for foreign goods was so strong that it snarled global supply chains and clogged U.S. ports, in some cases making it difficult for some exporters to get their products out of the country.
The slowdown in demand during the pandemic for services, usually a strength for the U.S. economy, also pushed up the trade deficit, as foreigners drastically reduced their spending on tourism in the United States. The United States typically records a large trade surplus in services, which is subtracted from the overall deficit.
Last year, the trade surplus fell 5.6% to $231.5 billion.
For the month of December, the goods and services deficit rose 1.8.% to $80.7 billion.
The ballooning trade deficit subtracted more than 1 percentage point from economic growth figures last year, more than it has in decades. And both
Republicans and Democrats appeared likely to seize on the number to criticize the government for failing to curb America’s dependence on foreign goods.
Economists argue that the imbalances reflected in a large trade deficit can be related to a variety of economic issues.
“It’s devastating,” said Robert E. Scott, director of trade and manufacturing policy research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. He added that the trade deficit was “draining jobs away from the recovery.”
The US consumer price index rose 7.5 per cent last month compared with January 2021, its fastest annual pace since 1982, as inflationary pressures continue to afflict the rapid economic recovery.
Inflation soared over the past year at its highest rate in four decades, hammering American consumers, wiping out pay raises and reinforcing the Federal Reserve’s decision to begin raising borrowing rates across the economy.
The Labor Department said Thursday that consumer prices jumped 7.5% last month compared with a year earlier, the steepest year-over-year increase since February 1982. The acceleration of prices ranged across the economy, from food and furniture to apartment rents, airline fares and electricity.
When measured from December to January, inflation was 0.6%, the same as the previous month and more than economists had expected. Prices rose 0.7% from October to November and 0.9% from September to October.
In Southern California, inflation spiked the highest in the Inland Empire, which had the nation’s fourth-highest rate at 8.6%. Los Angeles and Orange counties matched the national figure. Riverside and San Bernardino counties’ rate of inflation was the bimonthly index’s highest reading in its three-year history. Shortages of supplies and workers, heavy doses of federal aid, ultra- low interest rates and robust consumer spending combined to send inflation leaping in the past year. And there are few signs that it will slow significantly anytime soon.
Wages are rising at the fastest pace in at least 20 years, which can pressure companies to raise prices to cover higher labor costs. Ports and warehouses are overwhelmed with hundreds of workers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation’s busiest, out sick last month. Many products and parts remain in short supply as a result.
Prices for a broad range of goods and services accelerated from December to January, and not just for items directly affected by the pandemic. Apartment rental costs rose 0.5% in January, the fastest pace in 20 years. Electricity prices surged 4.2% in January, the sharpest rise in 15 years and are up 10.7% from a year earlier. Last month, household furniture and supplies rose 1.6%, the largest one-month increase on records dating to 1967.
Food costs, driven by pricier eggs, cereal and dairy products, increased 0.9% in January. Airfares rose 2.3%. New car prices, which have jumped during the pandemic because of a shortage of computer chips, were unchanged last month but are up 12.2% from a year ago. The surge in new-car prices has, in turn, accelerated used-car prices; they rose 1.5% in January and are up a dizzying 41% from a year ago.