latimes--2020-04-28--Virtual pet therapy, a floor for potential cases: How children's hospitals responded to coronavirus

In the 14 months that 4-year-old Rhett has battled cancer , few things excite him more than visits with Cooper .
When the playful dog lies on Rhett ’ s bed at Children ’ s Hospital Los Angeles , the boy forgets about everything else .
At home , Rhett refers to every golden retriever and yellow Labrador he sees by the name of his canine friend and talks constantly about the dog until they are together again .
“ So much of their freedom and normalcy is stripped away when they ’ re here , ” Rhett ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said of the young patients at the hospital .
The dog therapy program at CHLA includes 127 pairs of patients and dogs , including Cooper .
The animals help ease children ’ s anxieties before surgery , during physical therapy and at checkups .
But amid the coronavirus crisis , the hospital has had to move its 19-year-old program to a virtual space , one of several changes made to lessen dangers posed by the virus .
Rhett was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma in February 2019 .
Before social distancing was a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the coronavirus , the Dupke family took similar measures to protect their son , who is now in his fourth round of immunotherapy .
It was as if they had a yearlong head start to what many now face daily , they said .
“ There wasn ’ t much that we ’ ve had to adjust to because we were always being extremely careful .
We couldn ’ t take Rhett to the store or to Chuck E. Cheese .
We had to pull him out of speech classes , ” Rhett @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , said .
“ With COVID-19 coming into the picture , we ’ ve been concerned by other people.
” Children aren ’ t supposed to be as susceptible to serious complications from COVID-19 , but at a hospital where patients are the most vulnerable of young people , risk remains .
The nationwide network of children ’ s hospitals began discussions in January about the novel coronavirus as it spread through China .
CHLA ’ s chief medical officer , Dr. Jim Stein , said the rapid spread prompted his hospital to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ N95 masks and gloves , and working to develop an in-house test for the illness in anticipation of what was to come .
More than 3,000 individuals have been tested for the virus at CHLA through its in-house pathology laboratory .
At least 440 children have tested positive for COVID-19 in Los Angeles County , where more than 20,000 people have been infected .
Two children with underlying health conditions tested positive at CHLA and have since recovered after intensive care treatment , Stein said .
The hospital has repurposed a floor to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the virus , in order to isolate them from others .
The cafeteria has closed , screenings are required of every person who enters the hospital — including roughly 3,500 employees — and only one parent at a time is allowed inside a child ’ s room .
Stein said that social workers and child psychologists attached to the hospital have been routinely examining ways to ease children into the increased health and safety protocols without disturbing them .
Face masks with colorful patterns have been distributed to patients , and a children @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a kid-friendly manner has been developed for children ’ s hospitals nationally .
“ In pediatrics , things bounce off kids a lot more than they do with adults .
They do get wrapped up less in fears than adults , ” Stein said .
The hospital is also using telemedicine in an effort to mitigate parents ’ concerns and keep them from canceling appointments .
More than 6,000 telehealth visits have been made at CHLA .
At Children ’ s Hospital Orange County , where virtual magic shows and ukulele lessons are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been instituted for families too nervous to go to the hospital .
About 500 virtual visits are made daily , said Dr. Katherine Andreeff , president of the medical staff at CHOC and assistant division chief of pediatric hospitalization .
It may be reasonable for parents to postpone some hospital visits , Andreeff said , but she worries that fears of the virus could prompt families to avoid necessary checkups for chronic conditions or scheduled vaccinations — decisions that could lead to an outbreak of pertussis or measles down the road .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are afraid to come seek appropriate care , ” she said .
“ If we ’ re not vaccinating our kids on time , that might be worse for our pediatric population than coronavirus.
” Last week , Rhett had his first virtual visit with Cooper .
His dad was in the room with him .
Dupke said that when Cooper appeared on the iPad screen , Rhett reached out his hand to pet the dog .
Cooper high-fived , and the handler gave the dog treats on the boy ’ s command @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a real-life visit , but it was better than no reunion at all .
“ He doesn ’ t know what cancer is or why all these things are happening to him .
He just views it as one inconvenience until he can play again , ” Dupke said .

In the 14 months that 4-year-old Rhett has battled cancer, few things excite him more than visits with Cooper.
When the playful dog lies on Rhett’s bed at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the boy forgets about everything else. At home, Rhett refers to every golden retriever and yellow Labrador he sees by the name of his canine friend and talks constantly about the dog until they are together again.
“So much of their freedom and normalcy is stripped away when they’re here,” Rhett’s mom, Jenn Dupke, 33, said of the young patients at the hospital.
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The dog therapy program at CHLA includes 127 pairs of patients and dogs, including Cooper. The animals help ease children’s anxieties before surgery, during physical therapy and at checkups. But amid the coronavirus crisis, the hospital has had to move its 19-year-old program to a virtual space, one of several changes made to lessen dangers posed by the virus.
Rhett was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma in February 2019. Before social distancing was a commonplace effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus, the Dupke family took similar measures to protect their son, who is now in his fourth round of immunotherapy. It was as if they had a yearlong head start to what many now face daily, they said.
“There wasn’t much that we’ve had to adjust to because we were always being extremely careful. We couldn’t take Rhett to the store or to Chuck E. Cheese. We had to pull him out of speech classes,” Rhett’s father Mike Dupke, 45, said.
“With COVID-19 coming into the picture, we’ve been concerned by other people.”
Children aren’t supposed to be as susceptible to serious complications from COVID-19, but at a hospital where patients are the most vulnerable of young people, risk remains.
The nationwide network of children’s hospitals began discussions in January about the novel coronavirus as it spread through China. CHLA’s chief medical officer, Dr. Jim Stein, said the rapid spread prompted his hospital to begin stockpiling personal protective equipment, including N95 masks and gloves, and working to develop an in-house test for the illness in anticipation of what was to come. More than 3,000 individuals have been tested for the virus at CHLA through its in-house pathology laboratory.
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At least 440 children have tested positive for COVID-19 in Los Angeles County, where more than 20,000 people have been infected. Two children with underlying health conditions tested positive at CHLA and have since recovered after intensive care treatment, Stein said.
The hospital has repurposed a floor to accommodate patients and parents who may contract the virus, in order to isolate them from others. The cafeteria seating area temporarily closed for cleaning, screenings are required of every person who enters the hospital — including roughly 3,500 employees — and only one parent at a time is allowed inside a child’s room.
Stein said that social workers and child psychologists attached to the hospital have been routinely examining ways to ease children into the increased health and safety protocols without disturbing them. Face masks with colorful patterns have been distributed to patients, and a children’s book explaining the coronavirus in a kid-friendly manner has been developed for children’s hospitals nationally.
“In pediatrics, things bounce off kids a lot more than they do with adults. They do get wrapped up less in fears than adults,” Stein said.
The hospital is also using telemedicine in an effort to mitigate parents’ concerns and keep them from canceling appointments. More than 6,000 telehealth visits have been made at CHLA.
At Children’s Hospital Orange County, where virtual magic shows and ukulele lessons are offered to patients, telehealth platforms have been instituted for families too nervous to go to the hospital. About 500 virtual visits are made daily, said Dr. Katherine Andreeff, president of the medical staff at CHOC and assistant division chief of pediatric hospitalization.
‘If we’re not vaccinating our kids on time, that might be worse for our pediatric population than coronavirus.’ — Dr. Katherine Andreeff
It may be reasonable for parents to postpone some hospital visits, Andreeff said, but she worries that fears of the virus could prompt families to avoid necessary checkups for chronic conditions or scheduled vaccinations — decisions that could lead to an outbreak of pertussis or measles down the road.
“What worries us most is that families are afraid to come seek appropriate care,” she said. “If we’re not vaccinating our kids on time, that might be worse for our pediatric population than coronavirus.”
Last week, Rhett had his first virtual visit with Cooper.
His dad was in the room with him. Dupke said that when Cooper appeared on the iPad screen, Rhett reached out his hand to pet the dog. Cooper high-fived, and the handler gave the dog treats on the boy’s command.
It wasn’t the same as a real-life visit, but it was better than no reunion at all.
“He doesn’t know what cancer is or why all these things are happening to him. He just views it as one inconvenience until he can play again,” Dupke said.


latimes--2020-04-28--Glowing blue waves lighting up SoCal coastline roll into the South Bay

Crashing waves emitting a flash of neon blue have lit up darkened stretches of Southern California ’ s coastline this month , most recently making an appearance in the South Bay .
The sporadic phenomenon — sometimes called sea sparkle — is something scientists have been studying for 120 years .
It ’ s associated with a red tide , or an algae bloom , made up of organisms called dinoflagellates .
These tiny single-celled organisms are common members of the coastal plankton community that float on or near the ocean ’ s surface and can emit bioluminescence , most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a predator .
The light acts to startle their attacker , according to Michael Latz , a marine biologist with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego .
Occasionally , the organisms are found in high concentrations , resulting in red tides and known for giving the ocean water a deep red , brown or orange hue during the day .
At night , they can put on a truly spectacular show when jostled by a crashing wave or the wake of a boat .
Red tides are difficult to predict @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bioluminescence .
Scientists still aren ’ t sure about all the factors that lead to them , Latz said .
“ This one is pretty spectacular [ in ] that it extends from Baja California all the way up into the Los Angeles region , ” he said .
The sea sparkle has put on a remarkable nighttime display , prompting ocean enthusiasts to head to the coastline despite stay-at-home restrictions due to the coronavirus outbreak .
On Saturday night , a handful of beachgoers made their way to the sand in Hermosa @ @ @ @ @ @ @ phenomenon .
Earlier in the week , photographer Patrick Coyne set out with a friend on an inflatable boat to film sea creatures that they hoped would illuminate in the glowing sea water .
The pair had been out for a few hours in the dark off the coast of Orange County without success and were about to give up when two dolphins emerged near their boat .
A few minutes later , more arrived .
The Torrance resident posted the video on social media , describing the experience as one of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ I ’ m not much of a crier , but as soon as the dolphins popped up , I definitely was shedding tears , ” Coyne told KABC-TV Channel 7 in a recent interview .
“ It ’ s just such a magical moment .
We definitely got lucky.
” It ’ s hard to pinpoint how long the red tide will last , experts say .
Previous events have lingered along the coast anywhere from a few days to more than a month .

Hannah Fry, Mark Potts, Jay L. Clendenin

Crashing waves emitting a flash of neon blue have lit up darkened stretches of Southern California’s coastline this month, most recently making an appearance in the South Bay.
The sporadic phenomenon — sometimes called sea sparkle — is something scientists have been studying for 120 years. It’s associated with a red tide, or an algae bloom, made up of organisms called dinoflagellates.
Bioluminescent waves glow off Hermosa Beach. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
These tiny single-celled organisms are common members of the coastal plankton community that float on or near the ocean’s surface and can emit bioluminescence, most commonly when they’re grabbed by a predator. The light acts to startle their attacker, according to Michael Latz, a marine biologist with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
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Occasionally, the organisms are found in high concentrations, resulting in red tides and known for giving the ocean water a deep red, brown or orange hue during the day. At night, they can put on a truly spectacular show when jostled by a crashing wave or the wake of a boat.
Red tides are difficult to predict, and not all of them produce bioluminescence. Scientists still aren’t sure about all the factors that lead to them, Latz said.
HERMOSA BEACH, CA - APRIL 25: Bioluminescent waves glow off the coast of Hermosa Beach, CA, Saturday, April 25, 2020. The phenomenon is associated with a red tide, or an algae bloom, filled with dinoflagellates which react with bioluminescence when jostled by the moving water. During the daytime, due to the pigmentation of the dinoflagellates, the water can turn a deep red, brown, or orange color, giving red tides their name.(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) (Jay L. Clendenin/Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
“This one is pretty spectacular [in] that it extends from Baja California all the way up into the Los Angeles region,” he said.
The sea sparkle has put on a remarkable nighttime display, prompting ocean enthusiasts to head to the coastline despite stay-at-home restrictions due to the coronavirus outbreak.
On Saturday night, a handful of beachgoers made their way to the sand in Hermosa Beach to catch a glimpse of the phenomenon.
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Bioluminescent waves glow off Hermosa Beach. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Earlier in the week, photographer Patrick Coyne set out with a friend on an inflatable boat to film sea creatures that they hoped would illuminate in the glowing sea water.
The pair had been out for a few hours in the dark off the coast of Orange County without success and were about to give up when two dolphins emerged near their boat. A few minutes later, more arrived.
The Torrance resident posted the video on social media, describing the experience as one of the most magical nights of his life.
“I’m not much of a crier, but as soon as the dolphins popped up, I definitely was shedding tears,” Coyne told KABC-TV Channel 7 in a recent interview. “It’s just such a magical moment. We definitely got lucky.”
It’s hard to pinpoint how long the red tide will last, experts say. Previous events have lingered along the coast anywhere from a few days to more than a month.
Bioluminescent waves glow off Hermosa Beach. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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People lined up along the Esplanade with hopes of witnessing the blue bioluminescent waves glowing off the coast of Redondo Beach. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
People lined up along the Esplanade, which as been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic and trying to limit social gatherings, with hopes of witnessing the blue bioluminescent waves glowing off the coast of Redondo Beach. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)


latimes--2020-04-28--'Angels without wings' helped save a couple in their 80s from COVID-19

Sandra Borns glances at her husband , her expression a mix of surprise and concern .
His head is bowed .
His eyes glisten .
His forehead rests on a bony hand .
“ We ’ ve been married for over 60 years , ” she says .
“ I ’ ve never seen Bob cry.
” But on this Thursday morning in April , perched on a wheelchair in the living room he thought he would never see again , Bob Borns tears up over and over .
It mostly happens when he talks about how grateful he is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his loving family .
For the nurses who helped him and Sandra fight off death .
“ Angels without wings , ” he calls them , over and over again .
When their shifts ended , they promised the man some dubbed “ Papa ” that they would see him in the morning , that he would get better .
He was “ shocked , ” he says , “ that anybody would give a damn so much .
And work so hard.
” In the course of a week or so in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and their middle daughter Betsy were infected with the virus that has swept the globe , killed hundreds of thousands of people , cost millions their jobs and confined millions more to their homes in an effort to bring the pandemic to an end .
Betsy Borns was lucky .
She is 60 , a television comedy writer .
She had a mild case of COVID-19 , virtually no symptoms , she said , and spent three weeks quarantined in a bedroom in her own home so she would not expose her immediate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ neither cure nor vaccine .
But Sandra is 83 .
Bob is 84 .
That makes them , according to early statistics from China , among the more vulnerable people on the planet .
The early total mortality rate for the disease is 1.5 % , says Dr. Alan Williamson , chief medical officer at Eisenhower Health in Rancho Mirage , where the couple was hospitalized .
For people over 60 , that rises to 4 % , he says .
Over 70 , it ’ s about 8.5 % .
“ Then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it ’ s 13 % , ” he continues .
“ I wouldn ’ t say we expected them to die .
But a 13 % mortality rate is scary in medicine.
” Bob looks a little like his favorite actor in one of his favorite movies — Clint Eastwood , “ Gran Torino.
” That is , if Eastwood had spent four weeks in a hospital room , interrupted by two stints in the intensive care unit .
If he had dropped 20 pounds in short order and barely escaped being @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like Bob , he assumed he was a goner .
“ I thought I ’ d had it , ” Bob says in a voice still raspy from disease and treatment .
“ I wanted to say goodbye to my children and grandchildren.
” It didn ’ t take long for the Bornses to realize that something had gone terribly wrong .
On March 4 , they were en route home from a conference in Washington , D.C .
The airport was bustling .
The plane was packed , and Sandra couldn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ very much to cover my mouth and everything , but I knew I was sick then , ” she says .
“ My chest was on fire .
… Bob had a sore throat , but I was really sick .
And so they put me in the hospital first and had him at home in isolation.
” Sandra was admitted to Eisenhower Medical Center on March 9 , a day before the hospital ’ s COVID-19 unit opened for business .
She was whisked into a negative pressure room , the kind @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which keeps dirt , germs and viruses from escaping into the hospital at large .
She does not recall entering the hospital , or much about her 13 days there .
But Bob can not forget the day she was admitted .
“ The media was portraying what the common thought was , ” he says .
“ And they were saying , you know , if you ’ re in your 70s , you ’ re in trouble .
Well , she ’ s 83 .
I ’ m 84 .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know what was going to come and what we were facing.
” Just days later , Bob ’ s own condition deteriorated , and their oldest daughter flew from Massachusetts to stay with him in Rancho Mirage .
Stephanie Borns-Weil , a veterinarian , arrived on March 12 .
Because Bob was in isolation , they stayed in separate parts of the house and communicated via phone or by talking through the windows that overlook the Coachella Valley .
He got sicker and sicker .
Then on Friday the 13th , Bob walked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fell .
Borns-Weil called his doctor .
Because he was likely positive for the coronavirus , Bob didn ’ t want his daughter to drive him to the hospital and risk infecting her , too .
It took another day to arrange for an ambulance .
“ After the fall , while waiting for him to go to the hospital , I made sure to be outside the window when he got up from bed to move around the house so that if he should fall again , I would be there to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who is 61 .
“ The house has loads of glass , so it was easy to follow him from his room to the kitchen or the front door , where I left his meals for him.
” Bob was admitted to Eisenhower on March 14 .
For eight days , husband and wife were hospitalized on the same floor , three rooms apart .
They could not see each other .
They spoke by phone .
Sandra was discharged on March 22 .
The Bornses celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ miles and a global pandemic .
Sandra was home that day , recuperating in isolation .
Their daughters delivered her anniversary card to the hospital , along with a bouquet of flowers , and hoped that both would reach their destination .
Husband and wife spoke briefly via cell phone .
“ I think we both felt fortunate , ” Bob says .
He pauses .
Chokes up .
“ That we married each other.
” Another pause .
A big sigh .
“ I think we both know that you can do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but it ’ s a roll of the dice .
Who the hell knows what ’ s going to happen ?
” Sandra grins .
Looks fondly at her husband .
“ You may want to know what a love affair we had , ” she says .
“ We had two children before we were married two years .
And 18 years later , we had another child .
… You can call it still in love , or not very careful.
” That final child is Emily Borns , 43 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New York before moving to Rancho Mirage .
Sandra laughs and laughs .
“ I just want the public to know that he owes me an anniversary present.
” And what might that be ?
She thinks for a moment .
And knows that Bob has already paid up .
“ Oh , having my husband home , ” she says , “ is the best gift I could ever have in the world.
” But it ’ s a gift Sandra almost did not receive .
When their March 30 anniversary dawned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back home any day , that they could celebrate their milestone together , if a bit later than usual .
COVID-19 had other ideas .
Bob developed a blood clot in his lung , in what clinicians now realize is one of the virus ’ s deadliest side effects .
He was wheeled back to the intensive care unit for his second stay there .
Heart specialists in China warned in March about an increased risk of blood clots in patients with COVID-19 .
On Wednesday , the American College of Cardiology published @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the novel virus on blood clots and bleeding , although it said that data “ are quite limited.
” “ With the disease running as rapidly through the world as this , it ’ s hard to get definitive information , ” said Eisenhower ’ s Williamson .
Particularly about “ the effect the virus has on the blood clotting system .
… A lot of the damage from the virus in the lungs is not the virus itself , but the little tiny blood clots.
” Four days after the Borns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Rancho Mirage from Los Angeles County , she said , her father was doing fine .
But right after she arrived at her parents ’ , the hospital called .
Bob had taken a turn for the worse .
He was receiving the maximum level of oxygen possible .
The next step was a ventilator .
He wanted to say goodbye .
Sandra and his two oldest daughters were in the living room , not far from the piano crowded with family photographs .
“ At some point , I just , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and I don ’ t know why , ” he recounts .
“ I ’ m Jewish , and I had what I call a come-to-Abraham-and-come-to-Moses session.
” “ We told each other that we loved each other.
” “ We talked about how good life was .
And I told them , ‘ I think I ’ m done.
’ And everybody started carrying on .
I kept thinking , I ’ m going to heaven , going to have a chance to meet my parents and Sandra ’ s parents and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Abraham.
” Sandra went to bed , but she couldn ’ t sleep .
The phone rang the next morning .
“ It ’ s Bob , ” she says .
“ And he said , ‘ Ya know , I feel better ’ .
” Six days later , her husband came home .

Robert and Sandra Borns are home from separate stays at Eisenhower Medical Center after successfully fighting off COVID-19 in Rancho Mirage.
Sandra Borns glances at her husband, her expression a mix of surprise and concern. His head is bowed. His eyes glisten. His forehead rests on a bony hand.
“We’ve been married for over 60 years,” she says. “I’ve never seen Bob cry.”
But on this Thursday morning in April, perched on a wheelchair in the living room he thought he would never see again, Bob Borns tears up over and over. It mostly happens when he talks about how grateful he is. For his long life. For his loving family. For the nurses who helped him and Sandra fight off death.
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“Angels without wings,” he calls them, over and over again. When their shifts ended, they promised the man some dubbed “Papa” that they would see him in the morning, that he would get better. He was “shocked,” he says, “that anybody would give a damn so much. And work so hard.”
In the course of a week or so in early March, Bob and Sandra Borns and their middle daughter Betsy were infected with the virus that has swept the globe, killed hundreds of thousands of people, cost millions their jobs and confined millions more to their homes in an effort to bring the pandemic to an end.
Betsy Borns was lucky. She is 60, a television comedy writer. She had a mild case of COVID-19, virtually no symptoms, she said, and spent three weeks quarantined in a bedroom in her own home so she would not expose her immediate family to the disease, which has neither cure nor vaccine.
Robert Borns, assisted by Matthew Huppert, RN, exercises by walking laps around his living room days after successfully fighting off COVID-19. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
But Sandra is 83. Bob is 84. That makes them, according to early statistics from China, among the more vulnerable people on the planet.
The early total mortality rate for the disease is 1.5%, says Dr. Alan Williamson, chief medical officer at Eisenhower Health in Rancho Mirage, where the couple was hospitalized. For people over 60, that rises to 4%, he says. Over 70, it’s about 8.5%.
“Then, if you’re over 80, it’s 13%,” he continues. “I wouldn’t say we expected them to die. But a 13% mortality rate is scary in medicine.”
Bob looks a little like his favorite actor in one of his favorite movies — Clint Eastwood, “Gran Torino.” That is, if Eastwood had spent four weeks in a hospital room, interrupted by two stints in the intensive care unit. If he had dropped 20 pounds in short order and barely escaped being put on a ventilator.
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If, like Bob, he assumed he was a goner.
“I thought I’d had it,” Bob says in a voice still raspy from disease and treatment. “I wanted to say goodbye to my children and grandchildren.”
Bob Borns and his wife, Sandra, fell ill days before their 62nd wedding anniversary. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
‘My chest was on fire’
It didn’t take long for the Bornses to realize that something had gone terribly wrong.
On March 4, they were en route home from a conference in Washington, D.C. The airport was bustling. The plane was packed, and Sandra couldn’t stop coughing.
“I tried very much to cover my mouth and everything, but I knew I was sick then,” she says. “My chest was on fire. … Bob had a sore throat, but I was really sick. And so they put me in the hospital first and had him at home in isolation.”
Sandra was admitted to Eisenhower Medical Center on March 9, a day before the hospital’s COVID-19 unit opened for business. She was whisked into a negative pressure room, the kind usually reserved for patients with tuberculosis, which keeps dirt, germs and viruses from escaping into the hospital at large.
She does not recall entering the hospital, or much about her 13 days there. But Bob cannot forget the day she was admitted.
“The media was portraying what the common thought was,” he says. “And they were saying, you know, if you’re in your 70s, you’re in trouble. Well, she’s 83. I’m 84. I was scared. I didn’t know what was going to come and what we were facing.”
Robert and Sandra Borns, center, with daughters, Betsy Borns, left, and Stephanie Borns-Weil. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Just days later, Bob’s own condition deteriorated, and their oldest daughter flew from Massachusetts to stay with him in Rancho Mirage. Stephanie Borns-Weil, a veterinarian, arrived on March 12. Because Bob was in isolation, they stayed in separate parts of the house and communicated via phone or by talking through the windows that overlook the Coachella Valley.
He got sicker and sicker.
Then on Friday the 13th, Bob walked into his bedroom, passed out and fell. Borns-Weil called his doctor. Because he was likely positive for the coronavirus, Bob didn’t want his daughter to drive him to the hospital and risk infecting her, too. It took another day to arrange for an ambulance.
“After the fall, while waiting for him to go to the hospital, I made sure to be outside the window when he got up from bed to move around the house so that if he should fall again, I would be there to help him,” said Borns-Weil, who is 61. “The house has loads of glass, so it was easy to follow him from his room to the kitchen or the front door, where I left his meals for him.”
Bob was admitted to Eisenhower on March 14. For eight days, husband and wife were hospitalized on the same floor, three rooms apart. They could not see each other. They spoke by phone. Sandra was discharged on March 22.
The Bornses celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary at the end of March, separated by four miles and a global pandemic.
Sandra was home that day, recuperating in isolation. Their daughters delivered her anniversary card to the hospital, along with a bouquet of flowers, and hoped that both would reach their destination. Husband and wife spoke briefly via cell phone.
“I think we both felt fortunate,” Bob says. He pauses. Chokes up. “That we married each other.” Another pause. A big sigh. “I think we both know that you can do all the looking and thinking and choosing, but it’s a roll of the dice. Who the hell knows what’s going to happen?”
Sandra grins. Looks fondly at her husband.
“You may want to know what a love affair we had,” she says. “We had two children before we were married two years. And 18 years later, we had another child. … You can call it still in love, or not very careful.”
That final child is Emily Borns, 43, who was a professional chef in New York before moving to Rancho Mirage.
Sandra laughs and laughs. “I just want the public to know that he owes me an anniversary present.”
And what might that be?
She thinks for a moment. And knows that Bob has already paid up.
“Oh, having my husband home,” she says, “is the best gift I could ever have in the world.”
A turn for the worse
Robert and Sandra Borns are home from stays at Eisenhower Hospital after successfully fighting off COVID-19. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
But it’s a gift Sandra almost did not receive.
When their March 30 anniversary dawned, the Bornses thought Bob would be back home any day, that they could celebrate their milestone together, if a bit later than usual.
COVID-19 had other ideas. Bob developed a blood clot in his lung, in what clinicians now realize is one of the virus’s deadliest side effects. He was wheeled back to the intensive care unit for his second stay there.
Heart specialists in China warned in March about an increased risk of blood clots in patients with COVID-19. On Wednesday, the American College of Cardiology published an FAQ for doctors about the impact of the novel virus on blood clots and bleeding, although it said that data “are quite limited.”
“With the disease running as rapidly through the world as this, it’s hard to get definitive information,” said Eisenhower’s Williamson. Particularly about “the effect the virus has on the blood clotting system. … A lot of the damage from the virus in the lungs is not the virus itself, but the little tiny blood clots.”
Four days after the Borns’ anniversary, as Betsy was driving to Rancho Mirage from Los Angeles County, she said, her father was doing fine. But right after she arrived at her parents’, the hospital called.
Bob had taken a turn for the worse. He was receiving the maximum level of oxygen possible. The next step was a ventilator.
He wanted to say goodbye.
Sandra and his two oldest daughters were in the living room, not far from the piano crowded with family photographs.
“At some point, I just, I felt I was losing it, and I don’t know why,” he recounts. “I’m Jewish, and I had what I call a come-to-Abraham-and-come-to-Moses session.”
“We told each other that we loved each other.”
Bob’s voice is thick with tears.
“We talked about how good life was. And I told them, ‘I think I’m done.’ And everybody started carrying on. I kept thinking, I’m going to heaven, going to have a chance to meet my parents and Sandra’s parents and our relatives going all the way back to Abraham.”
Sandra went to bed, but she couldn’t sleep. The phone rang the next morning.
“It’s Bob,” she says. “And he said, ‘Ya know, I feel better’.”
She laughs.
Six days later, her husband came home.


latimes--2020-04-28--L.A. is using a streamlined coronavirus test. But it has potential risks and rewards

Officials had only one test processing machine at its laboratory in Downey and had little hope of getting help from the federal government .
Swabs were scarce .
Laboratories were backlogged .
And there weren ’ t enough healthcare workers to take samples from patients .
So they turned to a brand-new Silicon Valley start-up with a novel approach that said it could provide a large number of drive-through tests very quickly .
That company , Curative-Korva , now performs most of the public testing across Los Angeles County for COVID-19 , the disease caused by the novel coronavirus .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a 24-year-old scientist and entrepreneur , processes nearly 6,000 samples per day at dozens of pop-up sites and claims to provide nearly 20 percent of all testing for the virus in California .
The company ’ s rapid growth owes in part to a unique approach that allows patients to self-administer the tests by swabbing their own mouths after coughing .
The advantages ?
It ’ s painless .
Less protective gear is needed .
And both patients and workers face less infection risk .
But the oral-based approach is not the one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which recommends an uncomfortable swabbing deep inside the nose , the more widely used technique .
And the test , like all others being used for the virus , has not been approved by the FDA but instead met a lower standard of authorization on an emergency basis only .
This makes Los Angeles County an unlikely laboratory for COVID-19 testing .
If Curative ’ s approach works , it could usher in a much more streamlined form of testing across the country at a time when tallying the number of those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But if the approach turns out to be less accurate than others , it could mean some of the measurements tracking the extent of the outbreak are muddier than previously known .
Curative is quickly expanding its reach , having landed a $ 13-million deal with the U.S. Air Force as well as providing testing for the states of Florida and Alaska .
The company ’ s executives , citing a 45-person study they did in partnership with two UCLA doctors , say their approach is just as accurate as the nasal-based @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are concerned that less of the virus can be picked up in oral fluids than in the back of the nose .
Nevertheless , many agree that sacrificing some certainty about the test ’ s accuracy for wider availability is a reasonable trade-off during a pandemic .
“ This kind of test is better than nothing , ” said Elodie Ghedin , a molecular virologist at New York University .
California still lags behind many states on testing , which is crucial for reopening the economy .
Gov .
Gavin Newsom said last @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more than 16,000 per day to 80,000 in the near future .
In Los Angeles County , officials turned to at least six testing companies , including Seegene , a South Korean firm which played a key role in testing in that country .
Firefighters initially staffed some of the pop-up stations in Los Angeles and the city even accepted help from actor Sean Penn ’ s nonprofit group to provide volunteer workers at the stations .
Curative quickly became the biggest provider of tests in Los Angeles .
Backed by the venture @ @ @ @ @ @ @ initially created to develop tests for sepsis but pivoted to COVID-19 once the outbreak accelerated into a pandemic .
The company is one of dozens that fast-tracked its own test and obtained emergency authorization from the FDA after the agency announced in late February that it was lifting regulatory hurdles .
Companies with emergency authorization are not allowed to promote their tests as “ safe or effective ” for the detection of the virus .
The policy spares the companies from having to meet approval guidelines that can take as long as two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seen anything like this , ” Carmen Wiley , president of the American Assn .
for Clinical Chemistry , said of the scramble by the nation ’ s labs to provide the tests .
What sets the Curative test apart is its collection method : Patients , sitting in their cars , cough a few times to bring up fluid from the lungs and then swab the inside of their cheeks and roofs of their mouths .
They put the specimen in a vial , seal it up and drop it in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ close contact with workers .
The company says the tests , analyzed nearby at KorvaLabs in San Dimas , are turned around in 24 hours on average .
Curative has provided the tests at numerous sites from Santa Clarita to East Los Angeles to the Los Angeles County Fairplex in Pomona .
Marc Eckstein , chief advisor on emergency medicine to Mayor Eric Garcetti and member of the city ’ s task force on the virus , said city leaders felt comfortable using Curative ’ s oral-swab test given the shortage of equipment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Conducting mass testing using nasal swabs was not possible for the city .
We made an informed decision to conduct testing based on the oral-swab method , rather than do no testing at all , ” Eckstein said .
Some experts point to studies showing that far more of the virus accumulates in the nasal passages than in the mouth .
“ If the virus is not captured in swab , it won ’ t be detected , ” said Nam Tran , associate clinical professor in the department of pathology and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Turner , Curative ’ s founder and chief executive , said the study his company did showed the self-administered oral-swab test is “ at least as accurate ” as the nasal-swab test performed by doctors and recommended by the FDA .
The study has not yet been published or reviewed by other scientists .
Some patients say Curative ’ s test is neither accurate nor fast .
Dennis Layton , an audio engineer in Lancaster , said he got a false negative result from Curative after swabbing himself at a test site at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ April 5 .
He had been suffering from body aches , a fever and difficulty breathing for several days before signing up for a free test through the website run jointly by the city and county of Los Angeles .
Workers at the site told him he would receive results within a day or two .
But Layton , 37 , didn ’ t hear back for five days .
In the meantime , he was admitted to the hospital , where a doctor diagnosed him with COVID-19 .
On April 10 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tested negative .
“ It ’ s disheartening and also misleading to the public , ” Layton said of the false negative result .
He said he worries that others with negative results will be less careful in public and put people at risk .
Curative executives said the company could not talk about results from individual patients .
The company sends a disclaimer to patients that a negative test could mean the sample was taken too early into an infection , and that people should minimize contact with others for at least @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said the company had worked with government officials to solve early problems including delays .
The city has so far paid Curative at least $ 5.9 million , or $ 137 for each test .
The company is also administering tests at some sites run by the county , which is paying $ 150 for each test , according to the contract .
By comparison , the federal government pays $ 100 for a test for Medicare patients .
Success in Los Angeles could dramatically boost revenue for Curative , which has ambitions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The top procurement officer for the U.S. Air Force , Will Roper , suggested the technology could be deployed beyond the military to the wider civilian population .
And the company also plans to sell at-home versions of the test .
Curative had already shipped dozens of the kits to consumers but pulled back after the FDA warned the public on March 20 not to use any at-home COVID-19 test because they could keep some patients from seeking care .
The profusion of new tests is eyed warily by many public health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ negative results in the nasal-based tests as well as ones that rely on less-established methods such as Curative ’ s oral-swab technique .
The tests are useful for determining if the patient is infected with the virus , but a negative result , they say , should be viewed with suspicion because the patient may still carry the virus .
“ If it comes back negative , ” said Ghedin , the NYU virologist , “ don ’ t believe it .
”

A woman takes a self-administered COVID-19 test, under the instruction of a health worker, at a drive-up testing site outside Jackie Robinson Stadium off the UCLA campus.
When the coronavirus hit, Los Angeles County faced a testing crisis.
Officials had only one test processing machine at its laboratory in Downey and had little hope of getting help from the federal government. Swabs were scarce. Laboratories were backlogged. And there weren’t enough healthcare workers to take samples from patients.
For the record: An earlier version of this article, in describing experts’ concerns about possible false negative results, referred only to the oral-swab technique. Experts also warn that nasal swab tests can deliver false negative results.
So they turned to a brand-new Silicon Valley start-up with a novel approach that said it could provide a large number of drive-through tests very quickly.
That company, Curative-Korva, now performs most of the public testing across Los Angeles County for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The firm, started in January by a 24-year-old scientist and entrepreneur, processes nearly 6,000 samples per day at dozens of pop-up sites and claims to provide nearly 20 percent of all testing for the virus in California.
Advertisement
The company’s rapid growth owes in part to a unique approach that allows patients to self-administer the tests by swabbing their own mouths after coughing. The advantages? It’s painless. Less protective gear is needed. And both patients and workers face less infection risk.
But the oral-based approach is not the one preferred by the Food and Drug Administration, which recommends an uncomfortable swabbing deep inside the nose, the more widely used technique. And the test, like all others being used for the virus, has not been approved by the FDA but instead met a lower standard of authorization on an emergency basis only.
This makes Los Angeles County an unlikely laboratory for COVID-19 testing. If Curative’s approach works, it could usher in a much more streamlined form of testing across the country at a time when tallying the number of those infected is essential to reopening the economy.
But if the approach turns out to be less accurate than others, it could mean some of the measurements tracking the extent of the outbreak are muddier than previously known.
Curative is quickly expanding its reach, having landed a $13-million deal with the U.S. Air Force as well as providing testing for the states of Florida and Alaska.
The company’s executives, citing a 45-person study they did in partnership with two UCLA doctors, say their approach is just as accurate as the nasal-based test, but some public health experts are concerned that less of the virus can be picked up in oral fluids than in the back of the nose.
Advertisement
Nevertheless, many agree that sacrificing some certainty about the test’s accuracy for wider availability is a reasonable trade-off during a pandemic.
“This kind of test is better than nothing,” said Elodie Ghedin, a molecular virologist at New York University.
California still lags behind many states on testing, which is crucial for reopening the economy. Gov. Gavin Newsom said last week he wants to increase testing from more than 16,000 per day to 80,000 in the near future.
In Los Angeles County, officials turned to at least six testing companies, including Seegene, a South Korean firm which played a key role in testing in that country. Firefighters initially staffed some of the pop-up stations in Los Angeles and the city even accepted help from actor Sean Penn’s nonprofit group to provide volunteer workers at the stations.
Curative quickly became the biggest provider of tests in Los Angeles. Backed by the venture capital firm DCVC, the start-up was initially created to develop tests for sepsis but pivoted to COVID-19 once the outbreak accelerated into a pandemic. The company is one of dozens that fast-tracked its own test and obtained emergency authorization from the FDA after the agency announced in late February that it was lifting regulatory hurdles.
Companies with emergency authorization are not allowed to promote their tests as “safe or effective” for the detection of the virus. The policy spares the companies from having to meet approval guidelines that can take as long as two years.
“We’ve not seen anything like this,” Carmen Wiley, president of the American Assn. for Clinical Chemistry, said of the scramble by the nation’s labs to provide the tests.
What sets the Curative test apart is its collection method: Patients, sitting in their cars, cough a few times to bring up fluid from the lungs and then swab the inside of their cheeks and roofs of their mouths. They put the specimen in a vial, seal it up and drop it in a bin, without having to come into close contact with workers.
The company says the tests, analyzed nearby at KorvaLabs in San Dimas, are turned around in 24 hours on average. Curative has provided the tests at numerous sites from Santa Clarita to East Los Angeles to the Los Angeles County Fairplex in Pomona.
Marc Eckstein, chief advisor on emergency medicine to Mayor Eric Garcetti and member of the city’s task force on the virus, said city leaders felt comfortable using Curative’s oral-swab test given the shortage of equipment and professionals to administer the tests.
“Conducting mass testing using nasal swabs was not possible for the city. We made an informed decision to conduct testing based on the oral-swab method, rather than do no testing at all,” Eckstein said.
Some experts point to studies showing that far more of the virus accumulates in the nasal passages than in the mouth.
“If the virus is not captured in swab, it won’t be detected,” said Nam Tran, associate clinical professor in the department of pathology and lab medicine at UC Davis.
Fred Turner, Curative’s founder and chief executive, said the study his company did showed the self-administered oral-swab test is “at least as accurate” as the nasal-swab test performed by doctors and recommended by the FDA. The study has not yet been published or reviewed by other scientists.
Some patients say Curative’s test is neither accurate nor fast.
Dennis Layton, an audio engineer in Lancaster, said he got a false negative result from Curative after swabbing himself at a test site at the Antelope Valley Mall in Palmdale on April 5.
He had been suffering from body aches, a fever and difficulty breathing for several days before signing up for a free test through the website run jointly by the city and county of Los Angeles. Workers at the site told him he would receive results within a day or two.
But Layton, 37, didn’t hear back for five days. In the meantime, he was admitted to the hospital, where a doctor diagnosed him with COVID-19. On April 10, an email from Curative said he had tested negative.
“It’s disheartening and also misleading to the public,” Layton said of the false negative result. He said he worries that others with negative results will be less careful in public and put people at risk.
Curative executives said the company could not talk about results from individual patients.
The company sends a disclaimer to patients that a negative test could mean the sample was taken too early into an infection, and that people should minimize contact with others for at least seven days after feeling symptoms.
Turner said the company had worked with government officials to solve early problems including delays.
The city has so far paid Curative at least $5.9 million, or $137 for each test. The company is also administering tests at some sites run by the county, which is paying $150 for each test, according to the contract.
By comparison, the federal government pays $100 for a test for Medicare patients.
Success in Los Angeles could dramatically boost revenue for Curative, which has ambitions to open new labs across the country. The top procurement officer for the U.S. Air Force, Will Roper, suggested the technology could be deployed beyond the military to the wider civilian population.
And the company also plans to sell at-home versions of the test. Curative had already shipped dozens of the kits to consumers but pulled back after the FDA warned the public on March 20 not to use any at-home COVID-19 test because they could keep some patients from seeking care.
The profusion of new tests is eyed warily by many public health experts, who warn of possible false negative results in the nasal-based tests as well as ones that rely on less-established methods such as Curative’s oral-swab technique. The tests are useful for determining if the patient is infected with the virus, but a negative result, they say, should be viewed with suspicion because the patient may still carry the virus.
“If it comes back negative,” said Ghedin, the NYU virologist, “don’t believe it.”


latimes--2020-04-28--What's a city to do when half its population is in the crosshairs of coronavirus?

It was a choice Lisa Weaver wished she didn ’ t have to make .
Keep her restaurant open .
Risk contact with someone who has the coronavirus .
Bring the disease home .
To her doubly vulnerable partner , who is 68 and suffers from an autoimmune disorder .
Or close Dickey ’ s Barbecue Pit and risk losing her investment in the place — half the money she ’ d set aside for retirement .
Weaver would have to lay off her remaining employees .
For at least one , that paycheck means the difference between shelter and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ siblings .
“ I never thought I ’ d see something worse than summer , ” Weaver said on a Sunday during high season in this resort and retirement hot spot .
Summer ’ s when temperatures soar , tourists disappear and business evaporates here .
“ I bought this restaurant a year ago .
It ’ s not something I ’ d do again , knowing what I know now.
” The Coachella Valley may be best known for music festivals , tennis tournaments and championship golf , but it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ concentrations of senior citizens in California — the very same people with the greatest risk of contracting the coronavirus simply because of the year they were born .
That fact has changed daily life here in dramatic fashion .
Ten days before Gov .
Gavin Newsom issued a stay-at-home order for the entire state , the Riverside County public health officer recommended that “ those in the Coachella Valley who are elderly and have underlying conditions , including individuals who are HIV positive , limit non-essential travel and avoid large public gatherings.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ came just days after the county announced its first case of locally acquired COVID-19 .
Government and hospital officials did not identify the county ’ s “ patient zero , ” but she is believed to be an 83-year-old Rancho Mirage woman who was hospitalized on March 1 , according to the Desert Sun .
Many retired snowbirds , who winter here to escape harsh weather , fled home while they were still able to travel .
Seniors who volunteer throughout the region are sheltering in place , so the National Guard was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the valley ’ s regional food bank .
The Rancho Mirage City Council has written $ 8,000 checks to help hard-hit restaurants survive .
The main requirement ?
That they stay open for food delivery or curbside pickup through May 31 .
This rugged valley at the foot of the San Jacinto Mountains is home to three California ’ s cities with the highest percentages of residents age 65 and older : Indian Wells comes in at No .
2 , with 59 % of the population eligible for Medicare .
Rancho Mirage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; Palm Desert comes in at No .
8 , with 34 % .
( Topping the list is Orange County ’ s Laguna Woods , almost all retirement housing , where 83 % of the population is 65 and older . )
At the pandemic ’ s start , “ our demographics were working against us to a certain extent , ” said Dr. Alan Williamson , chief medical officer at Eisenhower Health in Rancho Mirage .
Among the hospital ’ s first patients “ were the country-club set that traveled , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Then very quickly thereafter , it became a communitywide disease.
” Although many area seniors are fit , active and healthy , Williamson said , many “ have diabetes , lung disease issues , heart disease issues .
...
They ’ re the tail end of the World War II generation into the Korean War generation .
A lot of smokers.
” Which means a lot of underlying conditions that make people vulnerable to the coronavirus .
But Williamson credits the senior population with adhering to stay-at-home guidelines , helping to keep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deaths fairly stable in recent weeks .
On April 12 , the Riverside County Public Health Department reported 373 COVID-19 cases and 17 deaths in the Coachella Valley ’ s nine cities ; by Friday , nearly two weeks later , the number of cases had risen to 562 , but only five new deaths had been reported .
`` We ’ ve flattened the curve .
These words have suddenly become what Americans long to hear ... And we can say it for our valley , ” Eisenhower Health ’ s leadership @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Thankfully , we ’ ve all been doing the right things , to the point where Eisenhower is now treating only five ( 5 ) inpatients for COVID-19 !
” The virus ’ impact , however , has been widespread here .
Eisenhower Memory Care Center ’ s day-care program for people with Alzheimer ’ s disease and dementia was closed the week of March 16 “ out of an abundance of caution.
” The Rancho Mirage Chamber of Commerce canceled ribbon cuttings and business mixers and began offering Zoom seminars — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Retail & Restaurant Rescue , ” “ Crisis Leadership.
” Golf courses were locked down for nearly three weeks , their vast green expanses inviting but untouchable .
They were allowed to reopen on April 20 with strict limitations .
Gated communities and country clubs have been shut tight .
Even cars in grocery store parking lots appear widely spaced , as if to keep a kind of automotive social distance .
FIND Food Bank , which serves communities in a 5,000-square-mile swath of Southern California desert , has been particularly hard hit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thrown out of work , the organization had to add 19 new mobile distribution sites .
“ Seventy percent of our volunteer base , about 5,000 annually , are people over the age of 65 , ” said Debbie S. Espinosa , president of the Indio-based organization .
“ They ’ re seniors and retired .
When shelter in place happened , we lost virtually all of our regular volunteers .
To top it off , the amount of people we ’ re serving is 30 % to 45 % higher.
” About @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have stepped into the breach , packing food in the warehouse , staffing the free community markets .
And Cardiff Limousine is now delivering meals to about 75 elderly clients .
It is a volunteer effort , Espinosa said .
Sadly , it ’ s not as if the drivers have much else to do , mid-pandemic .
“ People are coming to our lines that have never been to a food bank line before , ” Espinosa said .
“ You ’ ll get a gentleman who says , ‘ I ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my kids won ’ t have to.
’ People taking care of seniors who say , ‘ I need to make sure my mom eats .
I can no longer take care of both of us because my hours got cut by 75 % .
’ It ’ s hard .
It really is.
” ACT for MS , which helps Coachella Valley residents diagnosed with multiple sclerosis , has been hard hit by the virus .
The organization offers strength training , exercise programs and help with electric bills , along with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has been rescheduled to December .
Its exercise programs , which help assuage the disease ’ s impacts , have been suspended .
Gyms have closed .
Julie Drouyor misses them desperately .
The 54-year-old was diagnosed with MS in 1992 .
She took disability retirement from her job as a financial analyst with the University of California in 2016 , as her pain increased and her ability to move and think plummeted .
In the winter , she and her husband live in a 330-square-foot recreational vehicle on the border of Rancho @ @ @ @ @ @ @ summer , they drive their home to Idyllwild .
They can ’ t do that now , because of the stay-in-place orders .
And Drouyor doesn ’ t have access to the adaptive yoga and aquatic exercise programs that help keep her mobile .
“ I have to actually think about walking every step , ” said Drouyor , who is immunocompromised .
“ I ’ ve been distracted before and fallen .
... That ’ s where the exercise with ACT for MS helps me .
When you ’ re on disability @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same opportunities .
It costs quite a bit.
” Lisa Weaver stood behind a makeshift sneeze guard at midday in her barbecue joint .
On a table to her right was a display of paper towels , bleach , toilet paper , Pampers and disposable gloves — restaurant staples she is selling to help make ends meet .
On the plus side , the $ 8,000 grant from the city of Rancho Mirage will help her pay her employees for the next month or two .
On the minus side , it was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Valley ’ s high season , and there were no customers .
As she pondered how she ’ d live and still keep Dickey ’ s open , she talked about her plans to pitch in and help her community survive the difficult months of the COVID-19 pandemic .
“ This week , we ’ re going to feed the National Guard and the volunteers at the food bank , ” she said , with a bright smile .
“ They have to eat MREs [ meals ready to eat ] like they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ donated meals to the California Highway Patrol and the staff at Eisenhower Medical Center ’ s COVID-19 unit .
She ’ s helped feed the region ’ s homeless population and is scheduled to bring meals to grocery store workers .
For a week or so , she lived with friends to keep her partner safe .
Now , she has moved home — sort of .
She goes back-and-forth between the guest room and office via sliding glass doors to the backyard .
She does not venture into any other part of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meals or brings me water , ” Weaver said of her partner .
“ She leaves it at the door .
One day , she was gone , and I was hungry.
” The solution ?
A Chipotle Mexican Grill order .
Delivered .
Because the kitchen was out of bounds .
Business , she said , has improved some .
April has been looking up .
A generous donor gave her $ 5,000 , which will pay for 1,000 meals for people in need .
“ I cried , ” she said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ special deal that ’ s brought in supportive customers : “ Buy a meal and we ’ ll feed the homeless a meal .
”

It was a choice Lisa Weaver wished she didn’t have to make.
Keep her restaurant open. Risk contact with someone who has the coronavirus. Bring the disease home. To her doubly vulnerable partner, who is 68 and suffers from an autoimmune disorder.
Or close Dickey’s Barbecue Pit and risk losing her investment in the place — half the money she’d set aside for retirement. Weaver would have to lay off her remaining employees. For at least one, that paycheck means the difference between shelter and the street for her mother and younger siblings.
“I never thought I’d see something worse than summer,” Weaver said on a Sunday during high season in this resort and retirement hot spot. Summer’s when temperatures soar, tourists disappear and business evaporates here. “I bought this restaurant a year ago. It’s not something I’d do again, knowing what I know now.”
The Coachella Valley may be best known for music festivals, tennis tournaments and championship golf, but it’s also home to some of the densest concentrations of senior citizens in California — the very same people with the greatest risk of contracting the coronavirus simply because of the year they were born.
That fact has changed daily life here in dramatic fashion. Ten days before Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a stay-at-home order for the entire state, the Riverside County public health officer recommended that “those in the Coachella Valley who are elderly and have underlying conditions, including individuals who are HIV positive, limit non-essential travel and avoid large public gatherings.”
Advertisement
Dr. Cameron Kaiser’s targeted guidelines came just days after the county announced its first case of locally acquired COVID-19. Government and hospital officials did not identify the county’s “patient zero,” but she is believed to be an 83-year-old Rancho Mirage woman who was hospitalized on March 1, according to the Desert Sun.
Many retired snowbirds, who winter here to escape harsh weather, fled home while they were still able to travel. Seniors who volunteer throughout the region are sheltering in place, so the National Guard was called in to lend a hand at the valley’s regional food bank. The Rancho Mirage City Council has written $8,000 checks to help hard-hit restaurants survive. The main requirement? That they stay open for food delivery or curbside pickup through May 31.
Al and Cathy Kurtz of Wisconsin can’t use the community pool in their gated community because of coronavirus closures in Rancho Mirage. Some retired snowbirds fled to their home base after the virus began to spread; others are sheltering in place. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
This rugged valley at the foot of the San Jacinto Mountains is home to three California’s cities with the highest percentages of residents age 65 and older: Indian Wells comes in at No. 2, with 59% of the population eligible for Medicare. Rancho Mirage is No. 3 with 53%; Palm Desert comes in at No. 8, with 34%. (Topping the list is Orange County’s Laguna Woods, almost all retirement housing, where 83% of the population is 65 and older.)
At the pandemic’s start, “our demographics were working against us to a certain extent,” said Dr. Alan Williamson, chief medical officer at Eisenhower Health in Rancho Mirage. Among the hospital’s first patients “were the country-club set that traveled, got together and showed up COVID positive. Then very quickly thereafter, it became a communitywide disease.”
Although many area seniors are fit, active and healthy, Williamson said, many “have diabetes, lung disease issues, heart disease issues. ... They’re the tail end of the World War II generation into the Korean War generation. A lot of smokers.”
Which means a lot of underlying conditions that make people vulnerable to the coronavirus. But Williamson credits the senior population with adhering to stay-at-home guidelines, helping to keep the region’s COVID-19 cases and deaths fairly stable in recent weeks.
On April 12, the Riverside County Public Health Department reported 373 COVID-19 cases and 17 deaths in the Coachella Valley’s nine cities; by Friday, nearly two weeks later , the number of cases had risen to 562, but only five new deaths had been reported.
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“We’ve flattened the curve. These words have suddenly become what Americans long to hear ... And we can say it for our valley,” Eisenhower Health’s leadership wrote in an April 20 letter. “Thankfully, we’ve all been doing the right things, to the point where Eisenhower is now treating only five (5) inpatients for COVID-19!”
The virus’ impact, however, has been widespread here. Eisenhower Memory Care Center’s day-care program for people with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia was closed the week of March 16 “out of an abundance of caution.” The Rancho Mirage Chamber of Commerce canceled ribbon cuttings and business mixers and began offering Zoom seminars — “Stimulus Package Explained,” “Retail & Restaurant Rescue,” “Crisis Leadership.”
A resident in Palm Springs finds a peaceful spot to read at Tahquitz Creek Golf Resort, which was shut down due to the pandemic.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Golf courses were locked down for nearly three weeks, their vast green expanses inviting but untouchable. They were allowed to reopen on April 20 with strict limitations. Gated communities and country clubs have been shut tight. Even cars in grocery store parking lots appear widely spaced, as if to keep a kind of automotive social distance.
FIND Food Bank, which serves communities in a 5,000-square-mile swath of Southern California desert, has been particularly hard hit. Because so many people have been thrown out of work, the organization had to add 19 new mobile distribution sites.
“Seventy percent of our volunteer base, about 5,000 annually, are people over the age of 65,” said Debbie S. Espinosa, president of the Indio-based organization. “They’re seniors and retired. When shelter in place happened, we lost virtually all of our regular volunteers. To top it off, the amount of people we’re serving is 30% to 45% higher.”
News Seniors isolated amid coronavirus measures find help through new chat and crisis line The GoldenTalk senior chat and crisis line, launched by former Costa Mesa resident Kimberly Lewis, founder of the I Did Something Good Today Foundation, serves Californians 60 and older and has almost 200 volunteers.
About two dozen members of the National Guard have stepped into the breach, packing food in the warehouse, staffing the free community markets. And Cardiff Limousine is now delivering meals to about 75 elderly clients. It is a volunteer effort, Espinosa said. Sadly, it’s not as if the drivers have much else to do, mid-pandemic.
“People are coming to our lines that have never been to a food bank line before,” Espinosa said. “You’ll get a gentleman who says, ‘I’ll skip two days of eating so my kids won’t have to.’ People taking care of seniors who say, ‘I need to make sure my mom eats. I can no longer take care of both of us because my hours got cut by 75%.’ It’s hard. It really is.”
ACT for MS, which helps Coachella Valley residents diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, has been hard hit by the virus. The organization offers strength training, exercise programs and help with electric bills, along with other services. The annual March fundraiser has been rescheduled to December. Its exercise programs, which help assuage the disease’s impacts, have been suspended. Gyms have closed.
Grocery carts block off the front parking area of Best Buy, which is open for curbside pickup only as part of the coronavirus closures in Rancho Mirage. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Julie Drouyor misses them desperately. The 54-year-old was diagnosed with MS in 1992. She took disability retirement from her job as a financial analyst with the University of California in 2016, as her pain increased and her ability to move and think plummeted.
In the winter, she and her husband live in a 330-square-foot recreational vehicle on the border of Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert. In the summer, they drive their home to Idyllwild. They can’t do that now, because of the stay-in-place orders. And Drouyor doesn’t have access to the adaptive yoga and aquatic exercise programs that help keep her mobile.
“I have to actually think about walking every step,” said Drouyor, who is immunocompromised. “I’ve been distracted before and fallen. ... That’s where the exercise with ACT for MS helps me. When you’re on disability, you don’t have the same opportunities. It costs quite a bit.”
Lisa Weaver stood behind a makeshift sneeze guard at midday in her barbecue joint. On a table to her right was a display of paper towels, bleach, toilet paper, Pampers and disposable gloves — restaurant staples she is selling to help make ends meet.
On the plus side, the $8,000 grant from the city of Rancho Mirage will help her pay her employees for the next month or two. On the minus side, it was lunchtime on a Sunday in the Coachella Valley’s high season, and there were no customers.
As she pondered how she’d live and still keep Dickey’s open, she talked about her plans to pitch in and help her community survive the difficult months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This week, we’re going to feed the National Guard and the volunteers at the food bank,” she said, with a bright smile. “They have to eat MREs [meals ready to eat] like they’re in Afghanistan.”
Weaver has donated meals to the California Highway Patrol and the staff at Eisenhower Medical Center’s COVID-19 unit. She’s helped feed the region’s homeless population and is scheduled to bring meals to grocery store workers.
A medical worker picks up his takeout order from Dickey’s Barbecue Pit in Rancho Mirage. Restaurateur Lisa Weaver is pitching in to help her community survive by feeding the homeless and essential workers. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
For a week or so, she lived with friends to keep her partner safe. Now, she has moved home — sort of. She goes back-and-forth between the guest room and office via sliding glass doors to the backyard. She does not venture into any other part of the house.
“She makes me meals or brings me water,” Weaver said of her partner. “She leaves it at the door. One day, she was gone, and I was hungry.”
The solution? A Chipotle Mexican Grill order. Delivered. Because the kitchen was out of bounds.
Business, she said, has improved some. April has been looking up. A generous donor gave her $5,000, which will pay for 1,000 meals for people in need. “I cried,” she said. She’s been advertising a special deal that’s brought in supportive customers: “Buy a meal and we’ll feed the homeless a meal.”
She paused. Clarified. “We’ll feed them regardless.”


latimes--2020-04-28--Coronavirus worsens in Los Angeles County as hopes of an early reopening fade

The coronavirus is on the decline in many parts of California but continues to spread in Los Angeles County , sparking new debate about whether officials will need to begin easing stay-at-home restrictions in certain sections of the state while giving harder-hit regions time to flatten the curve .
The state ’ s epidemiological map is starting to reflect the adage that California is many states in one .
Nineteen counties from Humboldt to Tuolumne have recorded no fatalities from the virus .
And even moderately populated counties such as Fresno and Monterey are holding single-digit death tolls .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ die from COVID-19 , with 315 passing away last week alone .
Even adjusted for its larger population , its rate of 9.3 deaths per 100,000 people is 58 % higher than the next hardest hit urban county , Riverside , and 72 % higher than the epicenter of the Bay Area , Santa Clara County , according to a Times analysis of coronavirus data .
Half of all hospitalized coronavirus patients in California are being treated in Los Angeles County , which is home to a quarter of the state ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a peak in deaths will usually lag behind the peak in infections by one to three weeks , it ’ s hard to tell whether Los Angeles County has bent the curve on the virus ’ spread .
There were 7,218 confirmed new cases for the seven-day period that ended Sunday , compared with 3,152 the previous week .
But inconsistent testing and backlogs at laboratories often make those numbers unreliable .
Another key measure of infection , the number of hospitalizations , remained relatively stable last week , neither rising nor falling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are causing some local officials to chafe under Gov .
Gavin Newsom ’ s blanket stay-at-home order , while others are pushing to prolong it .
Officials in parts of the Central Coast , Central Valley and far Northern California , where the coronavirus appears more under control , want to reopen their economy and have asked Newsom to work with them to phase out their shelter-at-home order .
Some have proposed a slow reopening of such places as restaurants and churches , with a continued focus on social distancing and the use @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the how the coronavirus has affected various parts of California has become a vexing issue as talk turns to easing the restrictions .
Officials in the six counties in the north — Butte , Glenn , Tehama , Yuba , Sutter and Colusa — noted that as of Friday the region had only one COVID-19 patient in intensive care .
San Luis Obispo County , another place hoping to reopen , has recorded just one death .
Newsom has acknowledged these differences , saying “ local conditions ” will be taken into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ We will consider those things not only from the perspective of the spread of the virus , not only from the perspective of the number of deaths and trend lines , but also in terms of our broader capacity , ” he said .
But many urban counties , including Los Angeles , remain concerned that reopening too soon could cause new outbreaks and end up hurting the economy more in the long run .
Six San Francisco Bay Area counties hit hard by COVID-19 announced on Monday that they plan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ month of May .
“ Prematurely lifting restrictions could easily lead to a large surge in cases , ” said a statement by health officers for Alameda , Contra Costa , Marin , San Francisco , San Mateo and Santa Clara counties , as well as the city of Berkeley , which has its own health department .
They said they were planning to ease some of the restrictions , but did not specify which .
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti , who has also expressed concern about reopening too early , struck @ @ @ @ @ @ @ social distancing measures were proving effective , “ the curve really is beginning to flatten , ” and even suggested that easing restrictions under the city ’ s safer-at-home order could be weeks away .
Los Angeles County ’ s stay-at-home order lasts until May 15 .
Barbara Ferrer , the county ’ s director of public health , said officials are hopeful that coronavirus deaths and overall case counts will begin to decrease by mid-May .
“ We are going to be driven by our experiences — increase our capacity to test @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then do contact tracing , ” she said .
“ I think as we put those systems in place , we can be at the point where we can relax.
” A significant factor in the high number of deaths in Los Angeles County is the virus running through numerous assisted living facilities , where elderly patients are extremely vulnerable to the disease .
Medical troops with California ’ s National Guard have been deployed to assist staff at a handful of nursing homes .
As of Monday , 45 % of all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ linked to congregate living facilities , largely in nursing homes .
Of the 29 deaths Ferrer reported on Monday , 11 were healthcare workers .
And of all the people who have died during the pandemic , she said , 92 % had underlying health issues .
Bad as the numbers are , Los Angeles County is nowhere near New York City , which has suffered 11,708 deaths — a rate of 139 per 100,000 people .
Places such as New Orleans , Boston and Detroit also have death rates many times higher @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Colfax , the director of public health in San Francisco , said one of the key metrics he looks at is whether there ’ s a sustained decline in the number of people hospitalized .
“ I ’ m talking about significant reductions over a period of two weeks , ” Colfax said .
The incubation period of the coronavirus is believed to be from two to 14 days .
For now , the number of hospitalizations has remained roughly flat , and Colfax said he would be looking over the next two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in hospitalization numbers .
San Francisco Mayor London Breed said she understood it would be challenging to endure another month of staying at home as much as possible .
“ It has already been very difficult , I ’ m sure for many of you , especially kids who can not play with their friends or a lot of the seniors who are graduating high school .
The kids who want to go to the parks .
Not being able to see your grandma or grandpa , ” Breed said Monday .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mistakes San Francisco made during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic in lifting restrictions too soon , leading to a second deadly wave of flu cases .
“ Folks threw off their masks and went out into the streets and partied and had a good time , ” she said .
“ And a few days later , we were even worse off than when we started.
” Newsom said he expected to announce modifications to the stay-at-home order within a matter of weeks , while chastising people who flocked to the beaches in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ This virus doesn ’ t take the weekends off , ” Newsom said during his daily COVID-19 briefing in Sacramento .
“ The only thing that will set us back is people stopping to practice physical distancing and appropriate social distancing .
That ’ s the only thing that ’ s going to slow down our ability to reopen this economy.
” Times staff writers Luke Money , Alexandra Wigglesworth and Phil Willon contributed to this report .

Rong-Gong Lin II, Joe Mozingo, Melanie Mason

The coronavirus is on the decline in many parts of California but continues to spread in Los Angeles County, sparking new debate about whether officials will need to begin easing stay-at-home restrictions in certain sections of the state while giving harder-hit regions time to flatten the curve.
The state’s epidemiological map is starting to reflect the adage that California is many states in one. Nineteen counties from Humboldt to Tuolumne have recorded no fatalities from the virus. And even moderately populated counties such as Fresno and Monterey are holding single-digit death tolls.
But Los Angeles County has had 944 people die from COVID-19, with 315 passing away last week alone.
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Even adjusted for its larger population, its rate of 9.3 deaths per 100,000 people is 58% higher than the next hardest hit urban county, Riverside, and 72% higher than the epicenter of the Bay Area, Santa Clara County, according to a Times analysis of coronavirus data.
1 / 37 Drive-through COVID-19 testing in Boyle Heights. Experts say widespread testing is crucial for states to be able to safely reopen their economies. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 37 Testing in Boyle Heights. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 37 A testing sample is sealed. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 37 Putting on personal protective equipment before testing. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 37 Testing in Boyle Heights. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 37 A patient is screened before testing. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 37 Information is collected from a patient. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 37 Boyle Heights COVID-19 testing. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 37 Juan Infante, a certified medical assistant, takes the temperature of a patient before she gets tested. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 37 Carson City Mayor Albert Robles does self-testing at a new drive-up testing site for COVID-19 outside of a community center in Carson. Free COVID-19 testing is available to all city residents. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 37 Carson residents Kaeli Burks, 3, left, and her cousin Bailey Watson, 5, look out the window of their car after their mothers helped them with self-testing at a drive-up testing site for COVID-19 in Carson. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 37 A Carson resident passes a sealed self-test to a health official at a drive-up testing site. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 37 Carson resident Melvin Smith, 64, does self-testing. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 37 A person drops a specimen at a COVID-19 mobile testing site in Bell. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 37 A person swabs their mouth at a COVID-19 mobile testing site in Bell. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 37 A man talks with a healthcare worker outside Kedren Community Health Center in South LA, where they are offering walk-up coronavirus testing along with other medical services. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times) 17 / 37 A specimen is turned in at the new mobile testing site for people with symptoms of the coronavirus at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in South Los Angeles. (Christina House/Los Angeles Times) 18 / 37 A portrait and quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. overlooks a new mobile testing site for people with symptoms of the coronavirus at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in South Los Angeles. (Christina House/Los Angeles Times) 19 / 37 Julie Montez, right, sits in her car as a nurse administers a coronavirus test at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times) 20 / 37 Nurses pose for a fun photo between breaks at a drive-through public testing for coronavirus at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times) 21 / 37 Healthcare workers tend to a driver in line at a drive-through Coronavirus (COVID-19) testing site at the Westminster Mall in Westminster. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times) 22 / 37 Healthcare workers tend to a driver in line at a drive-through Coronavirus testing site at the Westminster Mall in Westminster. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times) 23 / 37 Gessie Lurlay is working as a coronavirus screener at the Camarena Health Center in Madera. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times) 24 / 37 Francis Gon-Gibbs, of LA County Fire Department Lifeguard Division, stands at the entrance of a new mobile testing site for people with symptoms of the coronavirus at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in South Los Angeles. (Christina House/Los Angeles Times) 25 / 37 A man drops off his self-administered COVID-19 test in a blue bin at a drive-up test site at the Veterans Administration Parking Lot 15 outside of Jackie Robinson Stadium in Los Angeles. (Genaro Molina/Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times) 26 / 37 Workers direct drivers at a drive-up test site for COVID-19 at the Veterans Administration Parking Lot 15 outside of Jackie Robinson Stadium in Los Angeles. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times) 27 / 37 A man misses the blue bin while dropping off his self-administered COVID-19 test at a drive-up test site at the Veterans Administration Parking Lot 15 outside of Jackie Robinson Stadium in Los Angeles. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times) 28 / 37 Workers help conduct drive-thru coronavirus testing at Crenshaw Christian Center in South Los Angeles. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times) 29 / 37 A sign directs people to drive-thru coronavirus testing at Crenshaw Christian Center in South Los Angeles. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times) 30 / 37 Cassidy Roosen, with Beach Cities Health District, holds up a sign that says, “We’re All In This Together,” while waiting to direct cars at a drive-through, appointment-only coronavirus testing location, at the South Bay Galleria, in Redondo Beach. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times) 31 / 37 A woman shows her notice from her doctor that allows her to obtain a test for COVID-19 at a new drive-up testing site in a parking lot at the South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times) 32 / 37 Coronavirus CO drive-thru sample collection takes place at the county fairgrounds in Victorville. (Irfan Khan/Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times) 33 / 37 San Bernardino County health care worker takes a sample at a coronavirus drive-thru sample collection that took place at the county fairgrounds in Victorville. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times) 34 / 37 Motorists, line up on Stadium Way, near Dodger Stadium, waiting to enter a parking lot and be tested for the coronavirus. (Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times) 35 / 37 Members of the Los Angeles Fire Dept. wear protective gear while handing out kits to people to swab the inside of their mouths to test for the coronavirus, inside a parking lot on Stadium Way, near Dodger Stadium. (Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times) 36 / 37 Riverside County medical personnel screen a car of load of four people at a coronavirus drive-though testing facility for Coachella Valley residents in the parking lot of the Southwest in Indian Wells. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times) 37 / 37 Aerial views cars lined up for drive-through coronavirus testing inside a parking lot on Stadium Way near Dodger Stadium. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Half of all hospitalized coronavirus patients in California are being treated in Los Angeles County, which is home to a quarter of the state’s population, the analysis found.
Though a peak in deaths will usually lag behind the peak in infections by one to three weeks, it’s hard to tell whether Los Angeles County has bent the curve on the virus’ spread. There were 7,218 confirmed new cases for the seven-day period that ended Sunday, compared with 3,152 the previous week.
But inconsistent testing and backlogs at laboratories often make those numbers unreliable. Another key measure of infection, the number of hospitalizations, remained relatively stable last week, neither rising nor falling.
The differing situations across the state are causing some local officials to chafe under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s blanket stay-at-home order, while others are pushing to prolong it.
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Officials in parts of the Central Coast, Central Valley and far Northern California, where the coronavirus appears more under control, want to reopen their economy and have asked Newsom to work with them to phase out their shelter-at-home order.
Some have proposed a slow reopening of such places as restaurants and churches, with a continued focus on social distancing and the use of face coverings.
The stark differences in the how the coronavirus has affected various parts of California has become a vexing issue as talk turns to easing the restrictions. Officials in the six counties in the north — Butte, Glenn, Tehama, Yuba, Sutter and Colusa — noted that as of Friday the region had only one COVID-19 patient in intensive care. San Luis Obispo County, another place hoping to reopen, has recorded just one death.
Newsom has acknowledged these differences, saying “local conditions” will be taken into account when considering decisions to ease restrictions.
“We will consider those things not only from the perspective of the spread of the virus, not only from the perspective of the number of deaths and trend lines, but also in terms of our broader capacity,” he said.
But many urban counties, including Los Angeles, remain concerned that reopening too soon could cause new outbreaks and end up hurting the economy more in the long run.
Six San Francisco Bay Area counties hit hard by COVID-19 announced on Monday that they plan to largely retain shelter-in-place orders through the month of May.
“Prematurely lifting restrictions could easily lead to a large surge in cases,” said a statement by health officers for Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, as well as the city of Berkeley, which has its own health department.
They said they were planning to ease some of the restrictions, but did not specify which.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who has also expressed concern about reopening too early, struck an optimistic note Monday. He said social distancing measures were proving effective, “the curve really is beginning to flatten,” and even suggested that easing restrictions under the city’s safer-at-home order could be weeks away.
Los Angeles County’s stay-at-home order lasts until May 15. Barbara Ferrer, the county’s director of public health, said officials are hopeful that coronavirus deaths and overall case counts will begin to decrease by mid-May.
“We are going to be driven by our experiences — increase our capacity to test, identity people who are positive and then do contact tracing,” she said. “I think as we put those systems in place, we can be at the point where we can relax.”
A significant factor in the high number of deaths in Los Angeles County is the virus running through numerous assisted living facilities, where elderly patients are extremely vulnerable to the disease. Medical troops with California’s National Guard have been deployed to assist staff at a handful of nursing homes. As of Monday, 45% of all coronavirus deaths in L.A. County have been linked to congregate living facilities, largely in nursing homes.
Of the 29 deaths Ferrer reported on Monday, 11 were healthcare workers. And of all the people who have died during the pandemic, she said, 92% had underlying health issues.
Bad as the numbers are, Los Angeles County is nowhere near New York City, which has suffered 11,708 deaths — a rate of 139 per 100,000 people. Places such as New Orleans, Boston and Detroit also have death rates many times higher than Los Angeles County.
Dr. Grant Colfax, the director of public health in San Francisco, said one of the key metrics he looks at is whether there’s a sustained decline in the number of people hospitalized.
“I’m talking about significant reductions over a period of two weeks,” Colfax said. The incubation period of the coronavirus is believed to be from two to 14 days.
For now, the number of hospitalizations has remained roughly flat, and Colfax said he would be looking over the next two to four weeks to see a decline in hospitalization numbers.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed said she understood it would be challenging to endure another month of staying at home as much as possible.
“It has already been very difficult, I’m sure for many of you, especially kids who cannot play with their friends or a lot of the seniors who are graduating high school. The kids who want to go to the parks. Not being able to see your grandma or grandpa,” Breed said Monday.
But she warned again of not repeating the mistakes San Francisco made during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic in lifting restrictions too soon, leading to a second deadly wave of flu cases.
“Folks threw off their masks and went out into the streets and partied and had a good time,” she said. “And a few days later, we were even worse off than when we started.”
Newsom said he expected to announce modifications to the stay-at-home order within a matter of weeks, while chastising people who flocked to the beaches in Ventura and Orange counties over the weekend.
“This virus doesn’t take the weekends off,” Newsom said during his daily COVID-19 briefing in Sacramento. “The only thing that will set us back is people stopping to practice physical distancing and appropriate social distancing. That’s the only thing that’s going to slow down our ability to reopen this economy.”
Times staff writers Luke Money, Alexandra Wigglesworth and Phil Willon contributed to this report.


latimes--2020-04-27--Its COVID unit is full. Photos show life inside this San Diego hospital

The impact of novel coronavirus on Scripps Mercy Hospital Chula Vista is being felt with increasing intensity as significant numbers as the number of new cases steadily increases due , at least in part , to the facility ’ s proximity to Baja California where COVID-19 is straining medical resources .
On a recent afternoon the hospital , its main COVID unit already full , the call came down to clear the way for a patient , already on high-flow oxygen treatment , who needed to be admitted to the intensive care unit and placed on a mechanical ventilator due @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Quickly helping each other slip into protective equipment , a team of intensivists quickly sedated the patient before inserting a breathing tube and connecting it to the ventilators .
It is moments like these , said Dr. Juan Tovar , an emergency medicine specialist and operations executive at Scripps Chula Vista , that show medicine is truly a team effort .
From making sure that the hospital ’ s hallways were clear to backing each other up inside the patient ’ s room , communication , he said , is a supremely-important weapon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the biggest things that we ’ ve learned in this environment is that we need constant communication , both with the intensive care unit , and with our sister facility up in San Diego , ” Tovar said .
“ Everybody needs to know what ’ s coming.
” As hospitals closest to the border start to see their COVID units fill , intensive care nurse manager Terry Taylor said the focus on the mechanics of bed space management are becoming more immediate .
A constant eye must be kept on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which can quickly see patients go from stable to critical .
“ If half of them get sick , I ’ m suddenly full in the ICU , ” she said .
“ That ’ s the thing I fear every day on the floor.
” But there are plenty of bright spots .
On Thursday , the hospital ’ s intensive care unit celebrated releasing its first two COVID patients , taking them off ventilators and sending them off the ward with music and applause .

The impact of novel coronavirus on Scripps Mercy Hospital Chula Vista is being felt with increasing intensity as significant numbers as the number of new cases steadily increases due, at least in part, to the facility’s proximity to Baja California where COVID-19 is straining medical resources.
On a recent afternoon the hospital, its main COVID unit already full, the call came down to clear the way for a patient, already on high-flow oxygen treatment, who needed to be admitted to the intensive care unit and placed on a mechanical ventilator due to severe and worsening respiratory distress.
Quickly helping each other slip into protective equipment, a team of intensivists quickly sedated the patient before inserting a breathing tube and connecting it to the ventilators.
It is moments like these, said Dr. Juan Tovar, an emergency medicine specialist and operations executive at Scripps Chula Vista, that show medicine is truly a team effort.
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From making sure that the hospital’s hallways were clear to backing each other up inside the patient’s room, communication, he said, is a supremely-important weapon in the COVID-19 fight.
“One of the biggest things that we’ve learned in this environment is that we need constant communication, both with the intensive care unit, and with our sister facility up in San Diego,” Tovar said. “Everybody needs to know what’s coming.”
As hospitals closest to the border start to see their COVID units fill, intensive care nurse manager Terry Taylor said the focus on the mechanics of bed space management are becoming more immediate. A constant eye must be kept on the hosptial’s 26-bed general COVID unit which can quickly see patients go from stable to critical.
“If half of them get sick, I’m suddenly full in the ICU,” she said. “That’s the thing I fear every day on the floor.”
But there are plenty of bright spots.
On Thursday, the hospital’s intensive care unit celebrated releasing its first two COVID patients, taking them off ventilators and sending them off the ward with music and applause.
Nurse practitioner Charlotte Thomas readies her supplies to stabilize a patient who has just been intubated. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Dr. Dennis Amundson, center, works with colleagues to help a patient who has just arrived in the ICU. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Dr. Juan Tovar and nurse practitioner Charlotte Thomas watch as an intubation is performed on a patient. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Respiratory therapist Sandra Sandoval in protective gear inside a negative pressure isolation room. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
From left, nurse practitioner Charlotte Thomas, respiratory therapist Sandra Sandoval and registered nurse Saul Reynoso work on a COVID-19 patient. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Lornna Hopping signals to a colleague as personnel monitor the removal of protective gear inside an anteroom that connects to an isolation room housing a COVID-19 patient. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Nurse practitioner Charlotte Thomas works with an infected patient. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Healthcare workers celebrate as Claudia Martinez is discharged from the ICU after recovering from COVID-19 symptoms at Scripps Mercy Hospital. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Claudia Martinez is discharged from the ICU after her recovery. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
California California poppy bloom tempts visitors to break coronavirus stay-at-home order A bloom of California poppies springs up in the Antelope Valley,enticing visitors stuck at home. But the live cam is your best bet, officials say.