Cases: Pasadena reported 73 new cases and no fatalities on Friday, June 17th. To date, 31, 316 cases have been reported in Pasadena with 416 deaths. The city also reports that 99.9% (131,979) of eligible Pasadena's have had at least one dose of the vaccine. 93% (123,271) are fully vaccinated.
LA County reported 5,122 new cases on Friday. 3,057,004 LA County residents have been infected. The county also reported 5 new fatalities on Friday. In total, 32, 250 residents of LA County have died as a result of infection with COVID-19.
Vaccines: COVID-19 shots for U.S. infants, toddlers and preschoolers moved a step closer Wednesday.
The Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisers gave a thumbs-up to vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer for the littlest kids.
The outside experts voted unanimously that the benefits of the shots outweigh any risks for children under 5 — that’s roughly 18 million youngsters. They are the last age group in the U.S. without access to COVID- 19 vaccines and many parents have been anxious to protect their little children.
If all the regulatory steps are cleared, shots should be available next week.
Masks: With coronavirus infections continuing to rise in the county, and hospitalization numbers increasing over the past several weeks, Los Angeles County officials urged residents and businesses Tuesday to don masks before they become mandatory, which could happen by month’s end.
Companies should consider mandating face coverings, given the county’s high rate of virus transmission.
Supervisor Kathryn Barger echoed that sentiment, saying the county should make it clear to businesses that they have the right to require workers and customers to wear masks.
L.A. County Department of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said if the rate of coronavirus hospitalization numbers continues rising at the pace it has for the past two weeks, the county would move into the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “high” virus activity category by late June. Ferrer said if the county remains in the “high” category for two straight weeks, the county will reimpose a universal indoor maskwearing mandate.
But she said there’s no reason people should wait to start wearing masks again. Masks are still mandatory in high-risk settings, such as health care facilities, aboard transit vehicles and in transit centers and airports, in correctional facilities and at long-term care facilities.
The county is in the CDC’s “medium” level of coronavirus activity. It will move into the “high” category if its average daily rate of new coronavirus-related hospital admissions rises above 10 per 100,000 residents, or if the percentage of staffed hospital beds occupied by coronavirus patients tops 10%.
Since May 13, when the first case in the outbreak was reported in Europe, more than 2,000 people in 35 countries outside Africa have been diagnosed with Monkeypox. As of Wednesday, there were 16 cases identified in New York City, among 84 around the country. The most recent New York cases are not linked to travel, suggesting person-to-person transmission is taking place in New York City, the city health department said.
While the raw numbers are still low, epidemiologists are concerned because of the level of global transmission and because cases are cropping up without clear links to one another, suggesting broader spread. The World Health Organization will be meeting next week to determine if monkeypox now qualifies as a global health emergency.
Monkeypox, so named because it was first discovered by European researchers in captive monkeys in 1958, can infect anyone, regardless of gender, age or sexual orientation. While it mostly spreads through direct contact with lesions, it can also be spread via shared objects such as towels, as well as by droplets emitted when speaking, coughing or sneezing. Scientists believe it may also be transmitted through tiny aerosol particles, though that would probably require a long period of close contact. The virus in general is much less contagious than Covid-19.
The Economy: The Federal Reserve intensified its fight against high inflation Wednesday, raising its key interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point — the largest bump since 1994 — and signaling more rate hikes ahead as it tries to cool off the U.S. economy without causing a recession.
The unusually large rate hike came after data released Friday showed U.S. inflation rose last month to a four-decade high of 8.6%, a surprise jump that made financial markets uneasy about how the Fed would respond. The Fed’s benchmark short-term rate, which affects many consumer and business loans, will now be pegged to a range of 1.5% to 1.75%, and Fed policymakers forecast a doubling of that range by year’s end.
“We thought strong action was warranted at this meeting and we delivered that,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a news conference in which he stressed the central bank’s commitment to do what it takes to bring inflation down to the Fed’s target rate of 2%. Getting to that point, he said, might result in a slightly higher unemployment rate as economic growth slows.
Powell said it was imperative to go bigger than the half-point increase the Fed had earlier signaled because inflation was running hotter than anticipated, causing particular hardship on low-income Americans. Another concern is that the public is increasingly expecting higher inflation in the future, which can become a self-fulfilling prophecy by accelerating spending among consumers seeking to avoid rising prices for certain goods.
The central bank revised its policy statement to acknowledge that its efforts to quell inflation won’t be painless, removing previous language that had said Fed officials expect “the labor market to remain strong.”
Allianz SE’s Mohamed El-Erian said the U.S. inflation rate may increase further and recession risks are “tilted in a negative way right now.”
“I think you’ve got to be very modest about what we know about this inflation process,” El-Erian said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “And I fear that it’s still going to get worse. We may well get to 9% at this rate.”
The year-on-year increase in U.S. consumer prices unexpectedly accelerated to 8.6% in May, a 40-year high that’s likely to push the Federal Reserve to extend an aggressive cycle of interest rate hikes.
The Allianz chief economic adviser renewed his criticism that the Fed “fell behind” on inflation and said he expects a hike of 50 basis points at this week’s rate-setting meeting.
“We’re now in a period of stagflation,” El-Erian said, with a risk of persistent inflation that ends up tipping the U.S. economy into recession. The best scenario would be that the Fed “regains control of the inflation narrative” and achieves a socalled soft landing, he said.
He cited the strong U.S. labor market as a bright spot that’s “keeping us away from a recession right now. That’s why a recession is a risk scenario, not a baseline.”