Coronavirus updates: 154 dead in California, 8 in Sacramento County and NorCal police officer
The coronavirus pandemic continues to reach somber milestones worldwide and within the United States, where more than 3,800 people have died of the virus, and serious concern is still growing surrounding hospital capacities and critically needed medical supplies like ventilators.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday called for “thousands and thousands” more medical workers to treat the state’s surge of COVID-19 patients, issuing an executive order giving flexibility in hospital staffing ratios and “scope of practice” regulations. Newsom also called for recently retired health workers to sign up for the state’s new Health Corps, to come back to the front lines and fight the virus.
The call to action comes as California health officials have reported more than 7,400 confirmed COVID-19 cases and at least 154 deaths as of midday Tuesday, according to a Bee survey of numbers released by county health departments.
Newsom opened a Tuesday afternoon news conference by saying that more than 25,000 people have already signed up for the California Health Corps
California Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly said during the governor’s Monday news conference that hospitals in the state or not yet overwhelmed, but that health officials will need to secure thousands more hospital beds and ventilators in the coming weeks — an additional 50,000 beds by the second half of May, he said — to ensure that doesn’t happen.
The coronavirus has infected more than 855,000 people worldwide and killed over 42,000, according to data kept by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. leads the world in volume of cases at more than 188,000 as of 5 p.m. Pacific time on Tuesday, more than 20 percent of all global infections, and has reported more than 3,800 fatalities.
A large percentage of the U.S. deaths, at more than 1,500, have come in New York state, the current epicenter for the coronavirus, where increasingly overwhelmed health systems have been documented by news outlets and on social media. More than 900 have died in New York City.
New York, California and a growing list of other states continue to keep mandatory stay-at-home orders in place, requiring residents to stay at their place of residence for all but essential reasons, such as grocery shopping or going to work at a job deemed essential to infrastructure.
Public life — many workplaces, nearly all schools, restaurants except for takeout and delivery services, movie theaters, events of all sizes and much more — has essentially been shut down in California since Newsom’s March 19 stay-at-home order. The end of social distancing requirements and a return to normal life, health experts have said in recent days, remains anywhere from several weeks to a few months away.
Latest numbers in California hot spots, 8 deaths in Sacramento County
Sacramento County is up to 300 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and eight people have died, the county’s health official, Dr. Peter Beilenson, said Tuesday evening during a town hall hosted by Rep. Ami Bera, D-Elk Grove.
That’s an increase of 76 cases and one death from numbers released Monday, when it was reported that the county’s confirmed cases had doubled over the previous five days.
In the rest of the four-county region, there have been a total of three fatalities among more than 100 confirmed cases, according to public health departments as of Tuesday: 67 cases in Placer County, including two deaths; 25 cases and one death in Yolo County; and 18 cases with no deaths yet reported in El Dorado County.
California’s current hot spots for coronavirus activity remain in the Los Angeles region and the Bay Area, where roughly two-thirds of the state’s 150-plus COVID-19 fatalities have occurred.
Los Angeles County has reported 54 COVID-19 deaths as of noon Tuesday, and nearby Riverside County has recorded nine fatalities. Another 28 have died in Santa Clara County, seven in Alameda County and six in each of San Francisco and San Mateo counties, according to those counties’ public health departments.
California’s latest hospitalization totals
Newsom during a Tuesday news conference said the state has confirmed 6,932 positive tests for COVID-19 and 150 deaths.
Newsom also said that there are now 1,607 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide, and that 657 of them are in intensive care units, the latter figure up from a total of just under 600 the previous day.
Speaking Monday, the governor said hospitalizations had doubled in a four-day span to 1,432, while the number of patients in ICU beds had tripled from about 200 in those four days.
1.6 million unemployment claims in recent weeks
Newsom also on Tuesday said that more than 150,000 Californians applied for unemployment insurance on Monday, a new record high.
A total of 1.6 million in California have filed unemployment claims so far in the weeks since the coronavirus crisis began impacting the state’s workers and employers, Newsom said.
4 California state prison inmates test positive for coronavirus
At least four inmates and 22 corrections employees across California’s state prison system have tested positive for COVID-19, authorities said Monday evening.
Three of the inmates are at California State Prison, Los Angeles County, in Lancaster, and the fourth is at the California Institution for Men in Chino, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The first inmate who tested positive was at Lancaster and was serving food to inmates before officials determined he had COVID-19, fellow inmate Samuel Brown told The Bee by phone from prison.
“They brought one of the guys to my job and he was in terrible shape,” Brown said. “I work in the health facility, like the prison hospital. Everybody was afraid. They didn’t know what to do.”
Attorneys for tens of thousands of mentally ill inmates have filed a motion with a special three-judge panel asking for an emergency order that would allow the release of nonviolent, older, infirm or ill inmates and others in a bid to reduce overcrowding and lessen the threat of an explosion of the coronavirus among inmates and prison staff.
The three judges are expected to hold a hearing on the issue Thursday.
Sacramento court extends closure
Sacramento Superior Court will now remain closed through at least mid-April, except for emergency matters.
Presiding Judge Russell Hom on March 19 issued temporary order that shut down court operations through Monday. Citing the “unsettled nature of the current public health risk from the COVID-19 virus,” Hom said in a statement late Monday that he will extend closures for two weeks. He will then reassess whether to restrict court access and shrink staff at court facilities.
California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye last week suspended jury trials for 60 days statewide.
Northern California police detective dies
A Santa Rosa police officer died Tuesday from coronavirus complications, the Santa Rosa Police Department announced.
The officer, identified as Marylou Armer, worked as a detective and was a 20-year veteran of the department.
Armer was among the first two members of the department to test positive for COVID-19 on March 24, the department said in a social media post and news release. She later “succumbed to complications from the illness.”
Eight officers in the Santa Rosa Police Department have so far tested positive for the disease, The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported. The department has more than 170 sworn personnel.
What’s the status on $1,200 stimulus checks?
A record $2.2 trillion economic stimulus package, which passed through U.S. Congress and was signed by President Donald Trump last week, will include checks in the amount of $1,200 to most adults in the United States and $500 for most dependents.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said those payments should be received by most Americans within three weeks, and that the checks would either be mailed to the address listed on each taxpayer’s most recent income tax return or direct-deposited by the Internal Revenue Service into the same account as was used to receive their tax return.
But on an IRS webpage set up for coronavirus updates, there’s little information about what to do if, for instance, you have moved or switched banks since your last tax filing:
“Stimulus payment checks: No information available yet, No sign-up needed,” the top of the website says. “Instead of calling, please check back for updates.”
California Rep. Josh Harder, D-Turlock, wrote a letter to Mnuchin on Monday, saying he’s heard concerns from his constituents about how to make sure they receive those checks sooner rather than later. Harder wrote that many of them have moved since they’ve filed their taxes and need to update their addresses or provide direct deposit information.
“People in my district are struggling to make ends meet and need these payments ASAP,” Harder said in a statement. “The Senate passed this almost a week ago and the IRS has had all that time in between to come up with a plan. If they have one, they should share it with the rest of us. If not, it’s time to get in gear. Normal bureaucrat speed won’t work during a pandemic.”
School districts distributing laptops, technology for online learning
Sacramento-area school districts are providing Chromebooks, laptops and WiFi hotspots to tens of thousands of students, with the technology becoming essential for families as schools have shuttered and are transitioning to “distance learning.”
Natomas Unified School District announced it will be distributing nearly 7,000 Chromebook laptops and about 2,000 WiFi Hotspots to families.
Sacramento City Unified said it has worked with the Sacramento County Office of Education to identify resources to purchase laptops, and told The Sacramento Bee that it used $5.1 million in Measure Q funding to order 20,000 Chromebooks last week.
The latter district plans to begin its online distance learning program on April 13. The county education office last week extended the closure of all Sacramento County public school campuses through at least May 1.
What is your daily life like? Share with The Bee
Serious or otherwise, The Bee is asking readers to share with us some insight into their daily lives amid the unprecedented coronavirus crisis, which has kept tens of millions of Californians homebound under the stay-at-home mandate, by way of video.
Anyone who would like to to send video diary entries our way, to potentially be shared with our viewers, can do so here. You can tell and show us about working from home, talk about your struggles or successes, share some lighthearted cheer with your fellow community members — whatever you think is appropriate.
What is COVID-19? How does the coronavirus spread?
Coronavirus is spread through contact between people within 6 feet of each other, especially through coughing and sneezing that expels respiratory droplets that land in the mouths or noses of people nearby. The CDC says it’s possible to catch the disease COVID-19 by touching something that has the virus on it, and then touching your own face, “but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”
Symptoms of the virus that causes COVID-19 include fever, cough and shortness of breath, which may occur two days to two weeks after exposure. Most develop only mild symptoms, but some people develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia, which can be fatal. The disease is especially dangerous to the elderly and others with weaker immune systems.
This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 7:53 AM with the headline "Coronavirus updates: 154 dead in California, 8 in Sacramento County and NorCal police officer."
