Governor Newsom Announces COVID-19 App
In the midst of the holidays, as Christmas decorations go up, so does the rate of COVID-19 infections. L.A County health officials are seeing their early holiday predications coming to light after Thanksgiving, as many visited with others outside their residences. The result has sent L.A. County into stricter Stay-At- Home order guidelines.
“The new Stay-at-Home order gives us an opportunity to place a pause on all non-essential activities that increase the risk of transmitting the virus so that we are able to get the surge under control,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “The most important action we can all take to stop the surge is to stay home as much as possible.”
She added, “Please, as we watch these numbers go up to levels we have never seen here in L.A. County, I ask everyone to make it their mission to do their part to prevent further transmission of the virus. We owe it to ourselves and to each other.”
As of Monday, December 7, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed 27 new deaths and 8,086 new cases of COVID-19. There were 2,988 people with COVID-19 hospitalized with 24% of these people in the ICU. The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 surpassed all-time highs since December 1, and increased nearly every day since November 1. According to the State, as of December 6, the Southern California region has 10.9% staffed adult ICU capacity remaining.
The Stay-At-Home order guidelines includes:
*public transportation and businesses that keep utilities running will remain open
*worship services and political expression continue to be permitted outdoors, with face coverings and distancing requirements
*schools that have previously reopened for either high-need students or through the waiver program can remain open
*all retail can remain open, operating at 20% occupancy or below at all times
*stand-alone grocery stores, where the principal business activity is the sale of food, may operate at 35% capacity
*hotel and lodging entities are not permitted to accept out-of-state; non-essential reservations are not permitted unless the reservation is for the minimum period of quarantine and that person is quarantining at that lodging
*essential critical infrastructure, including government, healthcare, courts, food and agriculture production, communications, and essential manufacturing will remain open
*restaurants for take-out and delivery only, outdoor fitness facilities, parks, trails, day care and schools remain open
*health care facilities, including clinics and dental offices; everyone should continue to seek needed healthcare
*cardrooms, wineries, breweries, distilleries except for retail, museums, botanical gardens, zoos, aquariums, hair salons, barbershops, nail salons, playgrounds, family entertainment centers must temporarily suspend operations
*on-site consumption of food, beverages and alcohol at any business is not permitted
*gatherings of any size are prohibited
As of Monday, December 7, Public Health identified 457,880 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 7,936 deaths.
Laboratory confirmed total cases show 457,880 with Los Angeles County 435,608 cases, Long Beach with 18,075 cases and Pasadena with 4,197. By race and ethnicity, COVID-19 statistics show: American Indian/Alaska Native with 548; Asian with 14,815; African American with 13,520; Hispanic/Latino with 177,823; Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander with 1,405; White with 40,711; those of other race and ethnicity with 44,004 and 142,782 under investigation.
On Monday, Governor Gavin Newsom announced the statewide launch of CA Notify, a new digital tool to in combating COVID-19. Starting Thursday, December 10, Californians will have the choice to receive COVID-19 notifications informing them if they have been exposed to someone who has tested positive for the virus.
“CA Notify will help slow the spread by alerting those who opt in to receive an alert if they’ve come into contact with someone who has tested positive. The process is private, anonymous and secure, and is one of the many tools in the State’s data-driven approach to help reduce the spread,” said Governor Newsom. “Throughout this pandemic, we have tapped California’s talent pool to fight this virus and that includes working with tech innovators like Apple and Google.”
It’s been stated that CA Notify is a digital tool that protects privacy and security – it does not collect device location to detect exposure and does not share a user’s identity. The tool was developed in partnership with Google and Apple and piloted with the help of the University California, San Diego and the University of California, San Francisco.
Starting Thursday, December 10, Californians can enable CA Notify in their iPhone or Android phones by downloading the CA notify app from the Google Play Store. Californians may start receiving availability alerts from their phones on Thursday, December 10.
For more information and statistics on COVID-19 in Los Angeles County, please visit http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/
