California becomes the first state to surpass 2 million coronavirus cases
LUKE MONEY, RONG-GONG LIN II and SEAN GREENE, LA Times: "California has now recorded more than 2 million coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, according to a county-by-county tally conducted by The Times, the first state in the nation to reach that alarming milestone and another marker of the wrenching toll the virus is inflicting.
The novel coronavirus has been spreading with unprecedented speed in recent weeks, creating crisis conditions in hospitals and making California one of the hardest-hit parts of the United States. Available capacity at intensive care units across Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley remains at 0%.
Hospitals throughout Los Angeles County are now strained and overwhelmed, Health Services Director Dr. Christina Ghaly said Wednesday. At certain points of the day Tuesday, 96% of all hospitals in L.A. County were diverting certain kinds of ambulances to hospitals farther away because they were so full, a figure that is usually only 33% at this time of year."
‘Dangerous time’: Some Bay Area hospitals close to running out of ICU beds as death tolls near records
ERIN ALLDAY and AIDIN VAZIRI, Chronicle: "California on Wednesday became the first state in the nation to pass 2 million coronavirus cases in the pandemic, an unenviable milestone reached even as the state’s intensive care capacity was nearly maxed out and public health officials begged people to cancel holiday gatherings.
Just 1.1% of intensive care beds in California were available Wednesday, and the Bay Area’s availability fell to 11.4%, the lowest level since the state began reporting daily capacity on Dec. 3. Both Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley were over capacity for the sixth straight day.
“Our reality is rather grim at the moment,” said Dr. Sara Cody, the Santa Clara County health officer, in a news briefing Wednesday. She said 35 intensive care beds were available for the entire county, and eight out of 10 hospitals had fewer than five ICU beds left.
READ MORE about Pandemic: Shortage of staff, regulations keep monoclonal treatments for COVID on Bay Area hospital shelves -- PETER FIMRITE, Chronicle; California passes 2 million coronavirus cases, doubling its total in just six weeks -- NICO SAVIDGE and FIONA KELLIHER, MERCURY NEWS; Truckee to stop vacation rentals during COVID-19 stay at home order -- MOLLY SULLIVAN, SacBee.
Locked-down California runs out of reasons for surprising surge
VICTORIA COLLIVER, Politico: "America's most populous state has become one of the nation's worst epicenters for the disease, setting new records for cases, hospitalizations and deaths almost every day.
Things are so bad in Southern California that some patients are being treated in hospital tents, while doctors have begun discussing whether they need to ration care.
The turnabout has confounded leaders and health experts. They can point to any number of reasons that contributed to California's surge over the past several weeks. But it is hard to pinpoint one single factor — and equally hard to find a silver bullet.
California’s unemployment agency involved in hundreds more investigations than usual
DAVID LIGHTMAN, SacBee: "California’s unemployment agency is involved in 255 active criminal investigations into suspicious activity in the state’s battered jobless system.
Last year at this time it had 14 open cases.
About 75 investigations are proceeding jointly with the U.S. Labor Department’s inspector general, while another 180 are in partnership with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, according to Loree Levy, spokeswoman for the state’s Employment Development Department."
Sonoma County warns about New Year’s Eve party for 4,000 at tribal casino: ‘We do not have jurisdiction’
AIDIN VAZIRI, Chronicle: "Sonoma County officials said Graton Resort and Casino plans to host an indoor New Year’s Eve party with 4,000 guests on Dec. 31, as the county and the state grapple with soaring COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
Graton, located on tribal land in Rohnert Park, does not fall under California’s regional stay-at-home order as tribal governments and the casinos they operate are exempt from state regulation as sovereign regions.
“It would be our preference, obviously, to not have a party with 4,000 people indoors,” said Paul Gullixson, Sonoma County’s public information officer. “But we do not have jurisdiction there.”
Momentum to offer more in-person public school instruction in California comes to a halt
LOUIS FREEDBERG and ALEXANDER MONTERO, EdSource: "With the coronavirus out of control in California, and the health system reaching a breaking point, momentum toward opening more public schools for in-person instruction has largely come to a halt.
Some districts already offering in-person instruction are returning to distance learning, if only temporarily, as school leaders try to get through the holiday season and weather the full force of pandemic’s spread.
That’s according to an EdSource survey of the state’s 58 county offices of education conducted between Dec. 7 and Dec. 16. At the time, almost all counties in the state had moved onto the Tier One “purple” list, effectively prohibiting schools not already offering in-person instruction from doing so."
Most Influential: Home health nurse fights on pandemic’s second line
ANDRE MOUCHARD, OC Register: "To understand how Amanda Ells is improving an otherwise crummy 2020 for a lot of people, you need to understand this: She’s a nurse – in fact, she holds two different nursing jobs – but neither requires her to spend much time in an intensive care unit.
She doesn’t often help people struggling with the deadliest stages of COVID-19. And that, in theory, means less risk.
Still, Ellls’ role in the pandemic war is critical. One of her jobs is as a home health field nurse. Most nights, after finishing her day job as a health liaison at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, Ells pulls a second shift in kitchens and living rooms and bedrooms of people who need health services that can be dispatched at home but still require medical supervision.
Immigrant Advocates Sound Alarm Over Escalating COVID-19 Outbreak in Yuba County Jail
MICHELLE WILEY, KQED: "Immigrant advocates say a growing outbreak of COVID-19 at the Yuba County Jail is putting the people held there at risk, including some who are medically vulnerable.
On Dec. 16, Yuba County Jail officials closed the facility to visits after they identified seven confirmed cases. Since then, according to attorneys, the number of people infected has increased to 78, which is more than 30% of the total jail population.
While the majority of people housed at the Yuba County Jail are in county custody, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees are held there as well. In April, the San Francisco Public Defender's office filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of ICE detainees at the Yuba jail and the Mesa Verde detention facility in Bakersfield, citing dangerous conditions."
Trump pardons Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and Jared Kushner’s dad
CHRIS MEGERIAN, LA Times: "President Trump continued his string of pardons Wednesday night, bringing the two-day total to 41 and wiping felonies from the records of Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, two political advisors who were convicted in the Russia investigation.
Manafort and Stone had resisted cooperating with prosecutors. Manafort, who served as Trump’s campaign chairman four years ago, was convicted of bank fraud and tax evasion, and he also pleaded guilty to illegally lobbying for Ukraine. Although he was sentenced to more than seven years in prison, the veteran Republican operative has been under home confinement because of concerns about COVID-19.
He responded to news of his pardon by thanking and flattering the president on Twitter."
