The opportunity to apply for PPP Loans may end today, unless there are unspent funds for the program. ONLY ABOUT $3 billion was left of the $800 billion provided through the Paycheck Protection Program as of Friday. Applications will be taken until Monday. Above, President Biden signs a PPP extension in March. Time is running out for small-business owners looking to get a government Paycheck Protection Program loan. Applications for the final round of PPP loans will be accepted only until Monday or until the remaining funds are drained, whichever is sooner. Most of the money is already gone. As of Friday, only about $3 billion was left of the $800 billion provided for the program, according to congressional staff. The Small Business Administration has approved more than 11 million of the loans over the course of the program. In these final few days, the SBA is offering PPP loans only through participating community financial institutions.
State Vaccine Toolkit for Employers: California has created an Employer Vaccination Toolkit, a website designed to help employers make COVID-19 vaccinations more convenient for their employees. The website includes links to help employers find local provider partners for scheduling an offsite vaccination event, information on requesting a worksite mobile clinic and vaccine education materials to share with employees.
Employers who seek to vaccinate fewer than 100 employees per event/day are encouraged to consider partnering with another employer or organization nearby in coordinating the vaccination clinic.
The step-by-step guide for submitting a mobile clinic request includes the infrastructure requirements for a worksite mobile clinic, such as the physical space needed for check-in, screening, registration, waiting, vaccination and post-shot observation areas.
Employers interested in requesting group appointments at nearby providers or setting up a mobile or pop-up vaccination clinic at their workplace must complete an online form to send their request to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). A representative will follow up within three business days and requests will be filled as resources allow. There is no financial cost to the employer.
The Employer Vaccination Toolkit is located at saferatwork.covid19.ca.gov/employer-vaccination-toolkit/.
CDC Guidelines: From the LA Times: CDC relaxes its mask guidelines for unvaccinated youth campers; State rules remain stricter for the time being but are set to ease on June 15. By Rong-Gong Lin II
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday significantly eased mask recommendations for youth campers in outdoor settings, saying all campers — even the unvaccinated — don’t need to wear masks outdoors unless community transmission of the virus is problematic. The CDC’s guidance is only a recommendation; state and local governments have the final say on mask rules, which can be more restrictive than the CDC’s guidance.
The California Department of Public Health’s most recent guidance for overnight camps, issued May 13, said that if all camp staff and attendees are fully vaccinated, they may operate without COVID-19 public health restrictions.
But if any camp staff and attendees have yet to be fully vaccinated, California requires everyone to wear a mask outdoors if they can’t distance themselves from others, and everyone must wear a mask indoors, regardless of physical distancing. Those rules are in effect until June 15, when California’s mask rules will relax, and fully vaccinated people will no longer need to wear face covering in most settings, except on public transportation and at transit hubs and at large events with 5,000 or more people indoors and 10,000 or more outside.
The California Department of Public Health on Friday said there are no plans currently to relax the existing mask guidance until June 15.
The guidance can change “with a lot of people vaccinated” because that results in “much less community transmission,” Ferrer said.
High vaccination rates “gets us to places where case rates are so low that you don’t have to worry as much about transmission in places where transmission is not as likely in the first place — which would be an outdoor setting when compared to an indoor setting,” Ferrer said.
Compared with adults, the noses of younger children have far fewer ACE2 receptors — proteins on the surface of cells to which the coronavirus adheres. The lack of ACE2 receptors generally explains why children are less likely to get or transmit the coronavirus to the same degree as adults.
The new CDC guidance issued Friday said camp programs should be supportive of those who choose to still wear a mask.
And the CDC suggested that if community transmission of the coronavirus is “substantial” or “high,” that people who are not fully vaccinated are encouraged to wear masks in “crowded outdoor settings during activities that involve sustained close contact with other people who are not fully vaccinated.”
Other CDC guidance: Avoid crowded and/or poorly ventilated indoor activities (for example, engaging in outdoor activities whenever possible and increasing ventilation for indoor activities). Masks should not be worn when doing outdoor activities that could get masks wet, like using boats and watercraft or swimming at the beach or pool. people in the pool at one time. A wet mask can make it difficult to breathe and might not work as intended. Masks should not be worn when sleeping.
A Brighter Summer from the New York Times: The Memorial Day weekend is typically the unofficial start of summer, but this year it could represent so much more: the return of optimism in the U.S.
A year ago, officials were canceling parades and banning large gatherings ahead of the holiday as the country neared 100,000 Covid deaths. This year, many Americans are being told to get out and have a good time.
“If you are vaccinated, you are protected, and you can enjoy your Memorial Day,” the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, said this week. “If you are not vaccinated, our guidance has not changed for you. You remain at risk of infection. You still need to mask and take other precautions.”
The vaccines have proved to be a game-changer in the fight against Covid-19, driving down new cases by 40 percent or more across the country. The daily death rate is also at its lowest level since last summer. The positive outlook, along with the lifting of virus restrictions across the country, has made Americans more comfortable with the idea of traveling.
More than 37 million people are expected to venture 50 or more miles away from home this weekend, the American Automobile Association said, a 60 percent increase from last year. On Sunday, the T.S.A. screened more than 1.8 million people, the most since the coronavirus pandemic began in March 2020.
But the U.S. is not fully back to normal, and travelers can expect added complications this weekend, and into the summer, my colleague Concepción de León reports.
AAA said that drivers in major cities should be prepared for road trips to be double or triple the length of a normal trip. Those using ride-sharing apps might face long waits and elevated fares because so many drivers stopped working during the pandemic. Many travelers are finding that house rentals, hotel rooms and rental cars in some areas are almost entirely booked up. Many destinations are also struggling to hire staff, which means that service may be rocky.
Adding to the tension for travelers are the conflicting feelings and differing regulations around mask usage and other Covid-19 rules. The F.A.A. recently said that there had been a “disturbing increase” in the number of unruly passengers who had returned to the skies with the easing of pandemic restrictions.
The Economy: From the LA Times: Consumer spending edges up April’s 0.5% rise adds to evidence of a strengthening recovery
Americans increased their spending by 0.5% in April, a slowdown after a massive gain in March that had been powered by the distribution of billions of dollars in individual stimulus checks.
Even with the pullback from a 4.7% surge in spending in March, the April increase provided further evidence that consumers are driving a strengthening recovery from the pandemic recession.
Friday’s report from the Commerce Department also showed that personal incomes, which provide the fuel for spending, tumbled 13.1% in April. But the drop in income was expected, having followed a record 20.9% income gain in March that reflected the billions in one-time checks to most adults.
In addition, the report showed that a measure of inflation preferred by the Federal Reserve surged a bigger-than-expected 3.6% for the 12 months that ended in April. Excluding volatile food and energy, the so-called core increase was a still high 3.1%. Both figures are far above the Fed’s 2% target for inflation.
The April gain in consumer spending, slight as it was, supported the view that the economy is rebounding rapidly as individuals and businesses increasingly grow confident enough to spend, hire and invest. On Thursday, the government estimated that the economy grew at a robust 6.4% rate in the January-March quarter, powered in large part by consumer and business spending.
The economy is thought to be expanding even faster in the current April-June quarter.
The outlook for the rest of the year is brightening too on the strength of trillions of dollars more in government support, increased mobility as vaccinations keep increasing and a surge in pent-up consumer demand. More Americans are venturing out to shop, travel, dine and gather in large groups at sporting and entertainment venues.
For 2021 as a whole, many economists foresee growth, as measured by gross domestic product, achieving its fastest pace since at least 1984.
During much of the last year, spending on services — including haircuts, airline tickets and restaurant meals — plunged as Americans hunkered down at home and spent mainly on physical goods. Now, as people increasingly spend on services again, economists will be watching to see if they pull back on their purchases of goods or instead spend freely on both goods and services.
In the meantime, as the recovery rapidly expands, one major risk looms: Inflation, dormant for years, could begin to accelerate and might compel the Fed to respond with interest rate hikes that could derail the recovery. Inflation has been surfacing in the prices of some goods and services — a result, in many cases, of supply shortages.
When asked recently about the rise in inflation, Chair Jerome H. Powell and other Fed officials have said repeatedly that they believe the inflation jumps that have surfaced with some goods and services will prove temporary.
On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen echoed this sentiment but also cautioned a House committee that the economy could endure a “bumpy” period with high inflation through year’s end.
In its report Friday on spending and income, the government also reported that the savings rate stood at a still high 14.9% in April, down from 27.7% in March.
Unemployment: California unemployment claims have risen for the second straight week, in sharp contrast to declining claims across the United States, signaling the statewide jobmarket still suffers from coronavirus-linked ailments.
Workers in California filed 71,800 initial claims for unemployment during theweek ending Saturday, up 1,500 from 70,300filings the week before, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday.
U.S. unemployment claims totaled 406,000 last week, 38,000 fewer than the first-time filings of 444,000 the prior week, the Labor Department reported. These numbers were adjusted for seasonal variations.
California workers seeking government assistance from the Employment Development Department have encountered a bureaucratic maze of obstacles including a broken phone center, glitch-hobbled computer system, suspended benefit payments and fraud.
The latest filings in California are 60% above theweekly average for first-time claims during January 2020 and February 2020. Those were the final two months before state and local government agencies launched wide-ranging business shutdowns to combat the coronavirus.
California is producing a steadily rising share of all the unemployment claims filed nationwide when comparing equivalent figures that were not adjusted for seasonal variations.
Starting with the seven-day period ending May 1, California’s share of unemployment claims nationwide has risen each week, an analysis of the jobless filings shows. California’s share of the U.S. jobless filings was 12.8% on April 24, 13.8% on May 1, 14.2% on May 8, 15.5% on May 15, and 17.1% on May 22.
These numbers are far above the low point for California’s share of U.S. jobless claims, which occurred during the week ending Jan. 23, when the state accounted for only 6.3% of the nationwide claims.
The worst week for this metric was April 3, when California produced 19% of the U.S. initial unemployment filings. Now the numbers have edged steadily closer to the worst point.