Last Week, Governor Newsom announced that the State imposed Stay at Home Order has been extended. Public Health also extended the Temporary Health Officer Order, which will remain in effect for as long as the State Public Health Officer's Regional Stay At Home remains in effect in the Southern California region. Please adhere to Public Health guidelines to stay home. Stay safe and do everything you can to protect your loved ones and your neighbors. "2020 has been an extremely difficult year, that goes without saying. As the year comes to an end, we know you want to celebrate. Please don’t go out for New Year’s Eve. Don’t celebrate with people outside your household. We have to get this surge under control. If we don’t, the beginning of 2021 will be even worse than the end of 2020." - Dr. Christina Ghaly, MD, Director, Department of Health Services
Applications Open: State of CA COVID-19 Grant Relief Program
The State of California has a new grant opportunity available for small businesses! Visit their website to learn eligibility requirements and get your documents ready. The application is now open. The first round of applications for the Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant Program will be extended until January 13, 2021.
A new, more virulent strain of COVID-19 has been detected in several countries. It has been identified in California, as well. The virus is more contagious, but symptoms are identical to the initial virus.
Pasadena: Pasadena reported an additional 225 cases of COVID-19 on New Year's Eve. Ten new deaths were reported on December 31st. On Saturday, January 2nd, Pasadena reported another 72 cases and no new fatalities. To date, Pasadena has identified 6,951 case and 167 fatalities from VOCID-19. In another milestone, Pasadena’s average number of daily infections over the prior week had reached a new maximum of 141, city data shows.
Huntington Hospital reported treating 179 novel coronavirus patients on Thursday, with 31 of them being treated in intensive care units. The hospital’s average number of daily COVID-19 admissions had dipped slightly to 23.8, after peaking above 26 in recent days.
Los Angeles County reported 138 more COVID-19 deaths and another 15,701 new cases Saturday, as the county surpassed the 800,000- case mark. A significant number of deaths reported Saturday were from the backlog associated with the Spectrum outage and Christmas holiday reporting delays, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. To date, there have been 10,682 deaths and 806,210 coronavirus cases. The case load has doubled in the last month.
The number of coronavirus patients in county hospitals rose to 7,627 people, and 21% of them are in the ICU. Conditions continue to worsen at hospitals in the county, with ambulances waiting up to eight hours to off-load patients, leading to a shortage of paramedic crews on the streets and longer 911 response times.
Cathy Chidester the director of the county Emergency Medical Services agency saidlast week that staff can't keep up. Hospitals are so overwhelmed that ambulances are waiting seven or eight hours in emergency bays. So patients are being treated in the ambulance instead of in the hospital. And more importantly, Chidester says that delay means fewer ambulances to respond to 911 calls and longer response times.
Health officials are very concerned about a post-New Year surge from people gathering despite repeated pleas to skip festivities this year. Such a surge could overwhelm a health care system that's already struggling to keep up.
More than 7,500 patients were hospitalized in the county with COVID-19, officials said. Twenty percent of them were being treated in ICUs.
As has been the case in recent months, “Younger residents continue to drive increases in community transmission in the county,” the L.A. County Department of Public Health said in a written statement.
“While the highest number of cases are among young adults, the individuals with the worst outcomes are those who are older,” the statement said. “We are also seeing increases in the rate of hospitalization among younger people. The hospitalization rate among people between the ages of 18 to 29 years old increased by 350% since November. Even children between the ages of 12 and 17 years old are being impacted – they have experienced a 200% increase in their rate of hospitalizations.”
L.A. County’s overall positivity rate stood at 15%, while the daily test positivity rate was 22.5%, officials said.
California: At the same time, the State of California reported a grim milestone as 428 new fatalities raised the statewide death toll to 25,386, according to the California Department of Public Health. State officials also announced 27,237 new detected infections, bringing the overall tally to 2,245,379. The state’s average positivity rate over the prior two weeks was recorded at 11.9%, down from 12.5% on Monday.
As of Thursday, L.A. County represented 34% of California’s total COVID-19 infections and 41% of the state’s deaths.
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The significant increases in COVID-19 cases, associated hospitalizations, and premature deaths across the United States, the State of California, and within Los Angeles County, have necessitated revisions to the Health Officer Order and two accompanying Appendices. These revisions include a mandatory quarantine order for those persons entering into Los Angeles County from outside the Southern California Region after non-essential travel. This message is to alert you to these three revised documents, which are posted on the LC County Health Department website : County Health Officer Order, Temporary Targeted Safer at Home Health Officer Order for Control of COVID-19: Tier 1 Substantial Surge Updated Response, dated December 30, 2020; Protocol for Social Distancing: Appendix A, dated December 29, 2020; Mandatory Directive on Travel: Appendix W, dated December 30, 2020
- Revisions to the Health Officer Order include the following:
- Except as provided in Appendix W, persons arriving in the County of Los Angeles from anywhere outside of the Southern California Region on or from non-essential travel, including returning County of Los Angeles residents, must self-quarantine for 10 days after arrival. Such persons must stay at home or another place of temporary shelter and away from contact with others, including those in one’s household (unless they are also under quarantine), for a period of 10 days.
- Quarantine may end after Day 10 if the traveler(s) never had any symptoms and they continue to monitor themselves for COVID-19 symptoms for 14 days after arrival. If such quarantined person develops symptoms of or tests positive for COVID-19 during the quarantine period, they must isolate themselves as required by the Health Officer's Order for Isolation. For purposes of this Revised Temporary Order, non-essential travel is defined as travel or transportation that is conducted mainly for tourism, recreation, or visitation purposes.
The Southern California Region (Region) is defined as the counties of Imperial, Inyo, Los Angeles, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura.
Appendix A is the Protocol for Social Distancing. Revisions to Appendix A include added definitions and multiple updates made to incorporate universal physical distancing, face covering use, and other infection control protocols for all businesses, facilities, and sites.
Appendix W is the Mandatory Directive on Travel. This Directive establishes the County Health Officer’s rules for mandatory quarantine after non-essential travel. There some limited exceptions to the required mandatory quarantine after travel.
The Order remains in effect for as long as the State Health Officer’s Regional Stay at Home Order remains in effect in the Southern California Region.