New cases of COVID-19 in Pasadena remained at levels not previously seen in well over a year with only two new infections detected by public health officials on Thursday. The city’s average number of daily infections over the prior week declined to 1.7, which was the lowest rate recorded since March 26, 20210, according to Pasadena Public Health Department data. It’s been 20 days since a fatality has been reported in Pasadena, and 18 days since a daily case count exceeded single-digits. The local pandemic totals on Thursday stood at 11,278 known infections and 346 deaths.
Saying the numbers highlight the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, Los Angeles County Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said Thursday that the county has identified just 933 “breakthrough” cases of fully vaccinated residents testing positive for the virus — out of more than 3 million people.
Ferrer said the numbers translate to an infection rate of 0.03% among the nearly 3.3 million people who have been fully vaccinated in the county since May 7. Of those 933 people, 71 were hospitalized — a rate of 0.002% of the fully vaccinated population — and 12 died, Ferrer noted that of the 12 people who died, four had “severely weakened immune systems” from prior medical conditions or medications, highlighting the need for such people to
continue taking precautions even after being fully vaccinated.
As of May 16, more than 9.1 million doses of vaccine have been administered in the county, and more than 5 million residents have received at least one dose. She said among residents aged 16 and over, 61% have received at least one dose, and 47% are now
considered fully vaccinated.
The numbers are better among older residents, with 84% of residents aged 65 and over receiving at least one dose, and 70% being fully vaccinated.
There continue to be racial and ethnic disparities. Among the population aged 16 to 64, just 34% of Black residents have received at least one dose, compared to 57% of whites and 67% of Asians. The rate for Latinx residents is 42%.
The county reported another 19 COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, lifting the countywide death toll to 24,140.
Another 245 cases were confirmed, giving the county a cumulative total throughout the pandemic of 1,238,121. According to state figures, there were 355 people hospitalized in the county with COVID-19, down slightly from 356 on Wednesday. There were 82 people in intensive care, up from 81 a day earlier.
State health officials reported 1,292 new infections and 48 deaths on Thursday, raising the statewide totals to 3,668,842 COVID-19 cases and 61,603 fatalities. The state’s average positivity rate over the prior week inched up to 1%, 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 deaths.
COVID rules for workers may be relaxed-but not yet: From the LA Times, By Rong-Gong Lin II and Luke Money
As vaccine rates rise, California could end workplace masking, distancing regulations.
With coronavirus cases plummeting and vaccinations hitting new milestones, California is considering a dramatic liberalization of COVID-19 safety rules that would allow workers to return without masks and social distancing as long as everyone is vaccinated.
The push comes as employers are developing plans to bring back office workers after more than a year of remote work. There has been much debate about what the future of office work will look like, with some firms building elaborate barriers and spacing out workstations to avoid coronavirus spread.
But the dramatic success of efforts to contain COVID- 19 is changing the dynamics, with public health officials believing workers don’t need some of those protections in workspaces where everyone has gotten their shots. That could cover offices and some manufacturing businesses. But the relaxation of masking and physical distancing rules would not apply to workers who are exposed to customers who might not be vaccinated.
California is set to fully reopen its economy on June 15. On Wednesday, it celebrated another positive milestone : more than two-thirds of adult Californians, 67.3%, are at least partially vaccinated for COVID-19. After a slow start, California now ranks 11th out of all states and is well above the national figure of 60.2%, federal data show. By comparison, the states with the highest levels of partial coverage for adults are Vermont, 78.6%; Hawaii, 77.1%; and Massachusetts, 75.9%.
Public health experts say the increasing cumulative rate of immunization, coupled with the small rate of coronavirus spread, is allowing officials to reduce restrictions.
California’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board is expected to weigh further steps to relax masking and physical distancing requirements for vaccinated workers.
Among the proposed changes the board will weigh Thursday morning: dropping a requirement for workers to wear masks when everyone in a room is fully vaccinated and does not have COVID-19 symptoms; and no longer requiring physical distancing at locations where all employees are fully vaccinated.
Should the changes go into effect, a supermarket could potentially decide — if all workers on a shift were fully vaccinated — to let employees in a stockroom work without a mask or physical distancing. But vaccinated workers would still have to wear masks when working in public areas of the supermarket, where possibly unvaccinated customers might be shopping. Should the board approve the proposal, it will be submitted to California’s Office of Administrative Law, which will have 10 days to review it and make a decision.
Current California emergency workplace health and safety regulations , which went into effect Nov. 30, require that workers wear masks when indoors, except when a worker is alone in a room or is eating or drinking, but they must be at least six feet away from other workers and outside air supply must be maximized. Workers must also wear a mask outdoors when less than six feet away from someone else.
Current rules also generally require workers be separated from one another by at least six feet. If not everyone in a room is vaccinated, the proposed standards call for employees to still wear face coverings and stay six feet away from other workers. If a workplace did seek to eliminate masks and physical distancing among employees who are fully vaccinated, the employer would need to obtain the workers’ vaccination records under the state’s proposal.
It was not immediately clear how workplace safety standards might change after June 15, when California is expected to allow vaccinated members of the public to stop wearing masks in indoor public settings. The state’s proposal retains the previous instruction that employers develop policies to “minimize employee exposure to COVID- 19 hazards originating from any person not wearing a face covering, including a member of the public.”
The proposal does suggest dropping, by the end of July, the state’s physical distancing requirement for all workers and the requirement to install cleanable solid partitions, such as in front of cash registers, where employees cannot maintain physical distance at all times.
The state’s proposed rules also ban companies from ordering employees to take off their masks should they choose to keep them on.
The state’s proposal would generally apply to all places of employment except for medical facilities, such as hospitals and nursing facilities, which have more stringent requirements.
No decision yet on masks at work; A state safety board delays a vote on easing on-the-job COVID restrictions. By Rong-Gong Lin II and Luke Money: A California workplace safety board postponed a vote Thursday on a proposal that would have allowed workers to return to their jobs without social distancing or face masks so long as everyone in a room is vaccinated. As a result, workers must continue to wear masks and practice physical distancing for now, unless they’re alone — either in a room or outside. Workers can remove masks when eating or drinking but must be physically distant from others.
The delay came after the deputy chief of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA, wrote a memo asking the seven-member Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board to “not vote to approve the current proposal .”
The request followed this week’s announcement that California would broadly loosen its mask rules in nonworkplace settings effective June 15 , allowing everyone who is vaccinated to remain maskless in most indoor and outdoor settings, while still requiring unvaccinated or partially vaccinated people to keep wearing masks in most settings when near other people. In light of those changes, Cal/OSHA asked the board to “instead allow us to present a new proposal at a future meeting,” wrote Eric Berg, deputy chief of Cal/OSHA.
The board will next meet June 3 to vote on new language that will be proposed by Cal/OSHA. A revised proposal would have to be posted for public review no later than May 28, officials said. Although they didn’t take any official action, a few board members expressed reservations about rolling back restrictions too far — even though the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has already relaxed its recommendations.
The changes that had been up for review Thursday included no longer mandating physical distancing at locations where all employees are fully vaccinated and scrapping a requirement for workers to wear masks when everyone in a room is fully vaccinated and none have COVID-19 symptoms. The easing of masking and physical distancing rules would not have applied to workers exposed to potentially unvaccinated non-employees, nor would they have necessarily meant customers could go mask-free when entering businesses.
Regardless of what the board ultimately opts to do, state officials have foreshadowed an even more drastic relaxation, saying they hope to fully reopen California’s economy June 15. That day, the state will align with recent guidance from the CDC and allow fully vaccinated Californians to ditch their masks in most indoor settings outside of workplaces.
Fully vaccinated people are highly protected from the coronavirus, even when in close contact with unvaccinated people, many experts say. In the rare instance that a vaccinated person gets infected anyway, chances are they will either show no symptoms or have very mild symptoms, and they are unlikely to transmit the virus to other people.
Some experts have said it was prudent of California to wait a bit longer until more people get vaccinated before easing mask requirements.
One reason for vaccinated people to continue masking up for a few more weeks — until case rates come down even further — is to avoid becoming the rare vaccinated person who still gets infected with the coronavirus and suffers from complications.
Unemployment: State is ‘locomotive’ of job gains, but there’s more to do-By Margot Roosevelt and Hugo Martín fo the LA Times:
California accounted for an outsized portion of the nation’s new jobs last month, although its path to economic recovery from the pandemic remains steep. “In April, California was the locomotive pulling the U.S. economy forward,” said Sung Won Sohn, a professor of finance and economics at Loyola Marymount University. The Golden State created 38% of the nation’s new jobs in April. But that was mainly due to the state emerging from a “lockdown harder and longer than in many parts of the country,” Sohn said.
California has a long way to go in recovering from its deep COVID-19 pandemic recession: More than half the jobs it lost have yet to return.
The unemployment rate remained stagnant in April at 8.3%, the same as in March, state officials reported Friday.
Although the state’s job creation pace was comparatively robust in April, it slowed slightly from the previous month . Employers added 101,800 positions last month for a total of more than 16.2 million. That was less than the 132,400 jobs added in March. Nearly two-thirds of California’s job growth in the last three months was in the leisure and hospitality businesses that were most damaged during the pandemic. Their employment level remained 28% below the pre-pandemic level.
In Los Angeles County, which relies heavily on tourism, the economy remained in dire straits. Unemployment grew to 11.7% from 11.4% in March and more than half a million people were counted as out of work.
The state’s jobless rate was the second highest in the nation in April, after Hawaii’s 8.5%. U.S. unemployment stood at 6.1% last month.
Year over year, California’s job growth has been slower than the nation’s; the state gained 8.7%, compared with 10.9% for the U.S.
Still, economists are growing more optimistic after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the state’s economy should fully reopen by June 15. “California’s economy is ready to boom this summer when business restrictions are lifted,” Reaser said.
Pomona College economist Fernando Lozano suggested job creation was “moderate” last month because many schools were only partially open, child care was sparse and federal business loans had dried up. “Many households moved to more affordable areas, yet the jobs are reopening in the more expensive, urban communities,” he said.
Southern California’s slowly reopening “fun” businesses created nearly two-thirds of April’s job growth, state employment stats show.
My trusty spreadsheet, filled with state job figures, found bosses in in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties had 7.21 million employees in all industries last month. This staffing level, derived from a survey of employers, was up 65,100 jobs or 0.91% in a month.
Last month’s hiring pace compares to adding 68,700 jobs the previous month and an average 48,158 workers added a month since April 2020’s economic bottom. But pandemic-linked business limitations and general economic unease leave the region 684,600 workers short of pre-coronavirus employment — or 91% of February 2020, the last time employers weren’t shackled by the virus.
Southern California’s jobless rate for April was 9.36% vs. a revised 9.39% the previous month and 4.17% in February 2020, according to my trusty spreadsheet.
The region’s economy this spring is enjoying fewer government health mandates as coronavirus cases drop and risks fall with widespread vaccinations. That’s been a boon to Southern California theme parks and entertainment facilities, now open with limited capacity, and numerous restaurants that can offer indoor dining.
Such looser restrictions on “fun” industries — retail, eateries, tourism and entertainment — got 41,400 back to work last month to a 710,000 combined workforce. Since January, these businesses added 134,600 jobs — 23% growth.
However, that’s still down 239,300 from February 2020, or 75% of pre-pandemic employment. Or look at the job hit this way: The ‘fun’ employment slice is roughly 10% of all local jobs, but still suffers 35% of pandemic job losses.
Pepperdine University economist David M. Smith predicted the Golden State economy will achieve full employment by the fall .
The professional and business services sector, which includes lawyers, accountants and technical specialists, added 19,000 positions. Payrolls in the “other services” sector, which includes hairdressers, auto repair shops and other miscellaneous businesses, grew by 10,500.
The largest loss was in the information sector, which shrank by 3,500 jobs, mainly in software publishing.
Unemployment claims in California are rising and remain stuck far above normal levels, a report released Thursday shows, a hint the state’s coronavirus-linked job ailments continue to infect the economy. California workers filed about 71,000 initial claims for unemployment during the week endingMay 15, the U.S. LaborDepartment reported Thursday. Last week’s claims were about 1,000 more than the approximately 70,000 jobless filings for the week ending May 8.
The number of workers seeking and receiving unemployment benefits through state and federal programs has reached pandemic lows ahead of this summer, when 22 states plan to end a $300 federal benefit early.
Initial unemployment claims through regular state programs dropped to 444,000 last week, marking a new low level since the pandemic hit in mid-March 2020.
The number of people claiming benefits through state and pandemic-related programs also declined in the week ended May 1 to a pandemic low of 16 million people from 16.9 million a week earlier, the Labor Department said on Thursday. That includes benefits through one of several programs, including regular state aid and federal emergency programs put in place in response to the pandemic.
U.S. stocks rose Thursday after release of the jobless claims data showed layoffs further easing in the labor market.
Though jobless claims are on a downward trend, April’s job gain of 266,000 fell far short of the one million economists had forecast, fueling
concerns about the recovery. Republicans also are concerned that enhanced federal unemployment payments are discouraging people from seeking work.
Thursday’s report from the Labor Department coincides with moves by nearly all the nation’s Republican governors to cut a $300-a-week federal unemployment benefit that they and many business executives blame for discouraging the unemployed from seeking jobs. Those cutoffs will begin in June.
Jobless people have been able to receive the $300 weekly benefit on top of their regular state unemployment aid.
In addition to ending the federal benefit, most of the same states are also withdrawing from programs that provide jobless aid to self-employed or gig workers and to people who have been unemployed for more than six months.
Twenty-two states, from Texas and Georgia to Ohio and Iowa, will end the $300 federal payment, starting in June, according to an Associated Press analysis. Two more states, Florida and Kansas, are considering doing so. Those 24 states all have Republican governors and state legislatures. About 3.5 million people will have their benefits reduced in the coming months, according to Oxford Economics.
About 16million people nationwide were receiving unemployment benefits during the week ending May 1, the latest period for which data is available, the government said Thursday.
That is down from 16.9 million in the previous week, and it suggests that some Americans who had been receiving aid have found jobs.
As the job market steadily recovers from the pandemic recession, consumers are showing more confidence and spending at a healthy rate. Most economists think the economy could expand 7% this year, which would amount to the fastest annual growth in more than 35 years.
Yet the rapid reopening from the pandemic has created a wide range of supply shortages that have disrupted what economists had hoped would be a smooth rebound. Home building fell sharply in April, for example, as builders struggled with shortages of lumber and labor.
Eliminating the $300-a-week payment is one of several measures that states have taken to restrict or eliminate jobless aid and press more recipients to seek work. That trend gainedmomentumafter the April jobs report, released earlier this month, showed that employers added far fewer jobs than expected, in part because many couldn’t find enough workers.
Research suggests roughly half theunemployed are receiving more income fromjobless benefits, when you include the weekly $300 federal supplement, than their former jobs paid them. An analysis by Bank of America found people who earned under $32,000 at their old jobs are likely now receivingmore in unemployment aid thantheydid from working.
Yet some point to the steady decline in the number of Americans receiving jobless benefits as evidence that most of the unemployed are still willing to take jobs when they’re available.
“Today’s data indicates that unemployment aid is not keeping workers on the sidelines,” saidAndrew Stettner, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation.
“Emergency unemployment aid is doing what it is meant to do: Serving as a temporary lifeline while workers search for and return to work.”
Small Business Stuggling to Find Workers: U.S. companies of all sizes are struggling to fill jobs as surging demand and a reluctant labor force have resulted in a shortage of available workers. Some of the smallest firms said they are feeling acute pain because they have fewer people to pick up the slack and can’t easily match the pay increases, benefits and other perks that larger companies are offering to fill openings. The situation is only expected to become more difficult for business owners such as Mr. Johnson, who said his 20-person company needs to double in size over the next six months to a year. "With the growth I see in the market…in five years I’m going to be tapping out everyone in this country,” said Mr. Johnson, chief executive and co-owner of Freya Systems LLC, a software and data analytics consulting firm.
More than two-thirds of small businesses reported having a hard time finding qualified workers, according to a monthly survey of 611 small firms for The Wall Street Journal by Vistage Worldwide Inc. At the same time, they are planning for their workforces to grow. According to the survey results, 75% of small busi- nesses are expecting their head counts to rise over the next year.
Businesses with fewer than 20 employees saw employment grow 13.5% last month compared with a year earlier, while businesses with between 20 and 49 employees saw it rise 15.9%, according to data from the ADP National Employment Report. Businesses with 1,000 or more employees saw employment growth of 7.3%.
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, which collaborates on the ADP report, said that while small businesses can compete when it comes to hiring workers, they pay a heavier price for unfilled positions. “If they don’t have that person, they lose the sale,” Mr. Zandi said. That isn’t necessarily the case at a bigger company, he added.
Companies cite several reasons for the struggle to lure Americans back to work, including fear of becoming sick with or spreading Covid-19, lack of child care and enhanced unemployment benefits that exceed what they would be making at available jobs. Small-business owners said unemployment benefits and a lack of applicants with the right skills are among the factors keeping them from filling jobs.