latimes--2020-07-17--Social workers failed to protect Noah McIntosh before his death, lawsuit alleges

A civil lawsuit filed against Riverside County last month alleges that social workers were aware of allegations of abuse being inflicted on 8-year-old Noah McIntosh nearly two years before the boy ’ s death but failed to properly investigate and intervene to protect him .
The boy ’ s father , Bryce McIntosh , is awaiting trial on torture and murder charges in connection with his son ’ s death last year .
Noah ’ s mother , Jillian Godfrey , pleaded guilty to two felony counts of child endangerment in December .
Noah was reported missing by his mother @ @ @ @ @ @ @ horrific abuse and neglect ” at the hands of his father that on at least three occasions triggered referrals by Riverside County Child Protective Services , according to the lawsuit .
Despite an intense search that produced many incriminating clues , Noah ’ s body has not been found .
The lawsuit , filed in Riverside County Superior Court on behalf of Noah ’ s older sister , who is a minor , names the county and five social workers who attorneys contend violated the state ’ s Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ failed to protect the girl and her brother .
“ There ’ s cases where social workers have to make tough calls , but this case in particular was one where it was clear that this boy and his sister were being abused and the father really didn ’ t deny it , ” said attorney Roger Booth , who is representing the girl .
“ They really had an opportunity to do something here and they just did nothing.
” County spokeswoman Brooke Federico noted that the county has made several improvements @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Children ’ s Services Division , including leadership changes and a “ shift in culture towards greater accountability and safer practices and outcomes.
” “ While the county is limited on providing specific details related to any pending litigation , protecting children , dependent adults and families from abuse and neglect is at the core of the Department of Public Social Services ’ mission and is a top priority for the county , ” Federico wrote in an email .
“ It ’ s heartbreaking when children and vulnerable adults suffer harm.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ day after a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge dismissed criminal charges of child abuse and falsifying public records against four social workers who had been accused of failing to protect Gabriel Fernandez .
The 8-year-old Palmdale boy was tortured and killed by his mother and her boyfriend in 2013 .
Gabriel ’ s case , which became the subject of a Netflix series , touched off a firestorm of debate over the breakdown of local government in protecting him and whether social workers should be held criminally liable in such situations .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Fernandez case is an example and the McIntosh case is an example — where it ’ s clear that CPS should act , ” Booth said .
“ They ’ re not just there to do investigations and write reports .
They are there to take action when action is required .
That ’ s what these cases are about.
” Noah and his sister lived for several years with their maternal grandparents in Orange County until July 2017 , when they went to visit their father in Corona and he refused @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , social workers were called to investigate allegations of neglect and physical abuse .
According to the complaint , over the course of their investigation , the workers learned that Noah ’ s hands and feet had been zip-tied together for long periods of time , he was handcuffed to a bathtub in cold water for hours , had his head dunked underwater — sometimes while wearing a blindfold — and was forced to consume laxatives and made to sit in his own feces if he soiled himself .
Noah ’ s sister @ @ @ @ @ @ @ carrying out the torture and was subjected to her own physical and psychological abuse , the lawsuit alleges .
The social workers acknowledged in writing that the father had “ inflicted serious physical harm on Noah ” and “ was a threat to continue to do so , ” the lawsuit states .
However , when McIntosh and Godfrey refused to cooperate with their investigation , the social workers closed their file without interviewing the children .
In November 2017 , social workers received another referral to the home , based on allegations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ McIntosh — as a form of punishment — had taken Noah to school wearing only toilet training pants and a shirt .
He had also forced the boy to wear girl ’ s clothing to school , according to the lawsuit .
Once again , the lawsuit alleges , the parents would not speak to social workers or allow their children to do so .
Social workers closed the investigation as inconclusive and took no further action .
Three months later , social workers received a third allegation of neglect and discovered that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a car with their mother .
Officials again closed the referral as inconclusive after the parents again refused to cooperate , according to the lawsuit .
The lawsuit is seeking an undisclosed amount in damages from the county .
It is also seeking punitive damages against the individual social workers , an effort to hold them legally accountable for their actions .
“ The parents ’ lack of cooperation , rather than being a reason to stop defendants ’ investigations in their tracks , should have made it clear to defendants that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” the lawsuit states .
“ Defendants did not exercise discretion in deciding not to take such steps .
Rather , they willfully turned a blind eye to the abuse and neglect and simply decided not to do their jobs .
”

A civil lawsuit filed against Riverside County last month alleges that social workers were aware of allegations of abuse being inflicted on 8-year-old Noah McIntosh nearly two years before the boy’s death but failed to properly investigate and intervene to protect him.
The boy’s father, Bryce McIntosh, is awaiting trial on torture and murder charges in connection with his son’s death last year. Noah’s mother, Jillian Godfrey, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of child endangerment in December.
Noah was reported missing by his mother in March 2019 after years of “horrific abuse and neglect” at the hands of his father that on at least three occasions triggered referrals by Riverside County Child Protective Services, according to the lawsuit. Despite an intense search that produced many incriminating clues, Noah’s body has not been found.
The lawsuit, filed in Riverside County Superior Court on behalf of Noah’s older sister, who is a minor, names the county and five social workers who attorneys contend violated the state’s Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act and breached their duties when they failed to protect the girl and her brother.
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“There’s cases where social workers have to make tough calls, but this case in particular was one where it was clear that this boy and his sister were being abused and the father really didn’t deny it,” said attorney Roger Booth, who is representing the girl. “They really had an opportunity to do something here and they just did nothing.”
County spokeswoman Brooke Federico noted that the county has made several improvements since late 2019 to the county’s Children’s Services Division, including leadership changes and a “shift in culture towards greater accountability and safer practices and outcomes.”
“While the county is limited on providing specific details related to any pending litigation, protecting children, dependent adults and families from abuse and neglect is at the core of the Department of Public Social Services’ mission and is a top priority for the county,” Federico wrote in an email. “It’s heartbreaking when children and vulnerable adults suffer harm.”
News of the lawsuit comes a day after a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge dismissed criminal charges of child abuse and falsifying public records against four social workers who had been accused of failing to protect Gabriel Fernandez. The 8-year-old Palmdale boy was tortured and killed by his mother and her boyfriend in 2013.
Gabriel’s case, which became the subject of a Netflix series, touched off a firestorm of debate over the breakdown of local government in protecting him and whether social workers should be held criminally liable in such situations.
“There’s certain cases — the Fernandez case is an example and the McIntosh case is an example — where it’s clear that CPS should act,” Booth said. “They’re not just there to do investigations and write reports. They are there to take action when action is required. That’s what these cases are about.”
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Noah and his sister lived for several years with their maternal grandparents in Orange County until July 2017, when they went to visit their father in Corona and he refused to return them. A month later, social workers were called to investigate allegations of neglect and physical abuse.
According to the complaint, over the course of their investigation, the workers learned that Noah’s hands and feet had been zip-tied together for long periods of time, he was handcuffed to a bathtub in cold water for hours, had his head dunked underwater — sometimes while wearing a blindfold — and was forced to consume laxatives and made to sit in his own feces if he soiled himself. Noah’s sister was forced to assist their father in carrying out the torture and was subjected to her own physical and psychological abuse, the lawsuit alleges.
The social workers acknowledged in writing that the father had “inflicted serious physical harm on Noah” and “was a threat to continue to do so,” the lawsuit states. However, when McIntosh and Godfrey refused to cooperate with their investigation, the social workers closed their file without interviewing the children.
In November 2017, social workers received another referral to the home, based on allegations of general neglect. They learned that McIntosh — as a form of punishment — had taken Noah to school wearing only toilet training pants and a shirt. He had also forced the boy to wear girl’s clothing to school, according to the lawsuit.
Once again, the lawsuit alleges, the parents would not speak to social workers or allow their children to do so. Social workers closed the investigation as inconclusive and took no further action.
Three months later, social workers received a third allegation of neglect and discovered that McIntosh had forced his children to sleep in a car with their mother. Officials again closed the referral as inconclusive after the parents again refused to cooperate, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit is seeking an undisclosed amount in damages from the county. It is also seeking punitive damages against the individual social workers, an effort to hold them legally accountable for their actions.
“The parents’ lack of cooperation, rather than being a reason to stop defendants’ investigations in their tracks, should have made it clear to defendants that more proactive steps were urgently needed,” the lawsuit states. “Defendants did not exercise discretion in deciding not to take such steps. Rather, they willfully turned a blind eye to the abuse and neglect and simply decided not to do their jobs.”


latimes--2020-07-17--San Francisco's coronavirus surge worsens, now on state watchlist

San Francisco Mayor London Breed said Friday the city has now been added to the state ’ s watch list because of rising hospitalizations for the coronavirus and implored residents to avoid gathering with others outside their households .
“ We have a small window of time now to get our cases under control , ” she said during a virtual news conference .
She said the city ’ s reopening has been put on hold indefinitely , and if conditions fail to improve , the city may close more businesses and activities .
The city will issue a new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to give same-day COVID-19 tests to residents with symptoms , those who have been exposed to infected people and workers whose jobs make them at high risk for contracting the virus , she said .
Breed disclosed she had tested negative for the virus a second time after being exposed to an infected person at an outdoor public event , “ but this does not mean I am immune or I can get let my guard down going forward , ” she said .
Dr. Grant Colfax , who joined Breed at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hospitalized are “ not only the elderly and the most frail.
” In fact , he said , the average age of COVID-19 patients at San Francisco General Hospital since July 1 has been 41 .
“ Young people , middle-aged people , older people are all at risk for this disease , ” he said .
Breed told the story of a city disaster worker who had to isolate after her roommate contracted the virus .
The roommate had gone camping with about 15 people.The group vowed to wear masks when together @ @ @ @ @ @ @ few days , “ as is human nature , ” the campers shared meals and the masks came off , Breed said .
One camper had cold symptoms , and the roommate returned with a cough and tested positive for the virus .
The city worker , who wore a mask around the roommate , tested negative , Breed said .
“ Gatherings remain inherently dangerous , and you need to give a lot of thought about whether they are worth it , ” Breed said .
Colfax said the city has been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and private health providers needed to step up .
Testing nationwide is suffering because of a lack of leadership from the federal government , he said , and some people are being forced to wait a week to get an appointment for a test and then wait a week or longer to get the results .
It took San Francisco 38 days to go from 2,000 positive cases to 3,000 cases but only 13 days to move from 4,000 cases to the nearly 5,000 cases in the city today , he said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Latinos continue to make up about 50 % of the positive cases even though Latinos represent only 15 % of the city ’ population .

San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the city’s reopening has been put on hold indefinitely.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed said Friday the city has now been added to the state’s watch list because of rising hospitalizations for the coronavirus and implored residents to avoid gathering with others outside their households.
“We have a small window of time now to get our cases under control,” she said during a virtual news conference.
She said the city’s reopening has been put on hold indefinitely, and if conditions fail to improve, the city may close more businesses and activities.
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The city will issue a new health order Monday requiring private medical providers to give same-day COVID-19 tests to residents with symptoms, those who have been exposed to infected people and workers whose jobs make them at high risk for contracting the virus, she said.
Breed disclosed she had tested negative for the virus a second time after being exposed to an infected person at an outdoor public event, “but this does not mean I am immune or I can get let my guard down going forward,” she said.
Dr. Grant Colfax, who joined Breed at the news conference, warned that those being hospitalized are “not only the elderly and the most frail.”
In fact, he said, the average age of COVID-19 patients at San Francisco General Hospital since July 1 has been 41.
“Young people, middle-aged people, older people are all at risk for this disease,” he said.
Breed told the story of a city disaster worker who had to isolate after her roommate contracted the virus.
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The roommate had gone camping with about 15 people.The group vowed to wear masks when together and to distance. But after a few days, “as is human nature,” the campers shared meals and the masks came off, Breed said.
One camper had cold symptoms, and the roommate returned with a cough and tested positive for the virus. The city worker, who wore a mask around the roommate, tested negative, Breed said.
“Gatherings remain inherently dangerous, and you need to give a lot of thought about whether they are worth it,” Breed said.
Colfax said the city has been doing 60% of the COVID-19 testing, and private health providers needed to step up. Testing nationwide is suffering because of a lack of leadership from the federal government, he said, and some people are being forced to wait a week to get an appointment for a test and then wait a week or longer to get the results.
“The virus is moving very quickly,” Colfax warned.
It took San Francisco 38 days to go from 2,000 positive cases to 3,000 cases but only 13 days to move from 4,000 cases to the nearly 5,000 cases in the city today, he said.
Colfax said the city’s Latinos continue to make up about 50% of the positive cases even though Latinos represent only 15% of the city’ population.


latimes--2020-07-17--Charges filed against man who allegedly threatened, yelled slurs at LGBTQ patrons in downtown L.A. b

Charges filed against man who allegedly threatened, yelled slurs at LGBTQ patrons in downtown L.A. bar

The Los Angeles city attorney ’ s office has filed criminal charges against a man who allegedly threatened and yelled transphobic and homophobic slurs at a group of LGBTQ patrons in a downtown bar last year .
Eduardo Gonzalez , 28 , of Huntington Park has been charged with one count of making a criminal threat and a second count alleging that the criminal threat constituted a hate crime , according to city prosecutors .
He is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 7 .
Prosecutors allege the altercation occurred when Gonzalez and his girlfriend “ made multiple transphobic and misgendering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ transgender women and gay men last August at Las Perlas — a downtown bar .
As he was being removed , Gonzalez allegedly “ shouted threats to return with a gun , ” according to a statement Friday from the city attorney ’ s office .
The group said at the time that they were celebrating the LGBTQ community at the DTLA Proud Festival and decided to stop by the bar to eat afterward .
Khloe Rios , who filmed cellphone video of the incident , said last year that the couple approached @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are all men .
You guys don ’ t belong here.
” “ And we turned around and said , ‘ Please leave us alone .
We don ’ t want problems , ’ ” Rios said .
Video showing the women being forcefully removed by the bar ’ s security guards went viral on social media , and Pouring With Heart , the company that owns Las Perlas , later said it would hire a security company that has received sensitivity training .
The company also said at the time that it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the tapes and actions ... to make more specific analysis of exactly what happened and how to ensure it doesn ’ t happen again.
” “ Acts of hate against transgender people have no place in our society , ” L.A. City Atty .
Mike Feuer said in a statement Friday .
“ Transgender people , especially transgender people of color , already face an unconscionable risk of violence .
Perpetrators need to be held accountable .
”

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office has filed criminal charges against a man who allegedly threatened and yelled transphobic and homophobic slurs at a group of LGBTQ patrons in a downtown bar last year.
Eduardo Gonzalez, 28, of Huntington Park has been charged with one count of making a criminal threat and a second count alleging that the criminal threat constituted a hate crime, according to city prosecutors.
He is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 7.
Prosecutors allege the altercation occurred when Gonzalez and his girlfriend “made multiple transphobic and misgendering slurs” toward a group of Latinx transgender women and gay men last August at Las Perlas — a downtown bar.
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A heated argument ensued, and bar security eventually removed those involved.
As he was being removed, Gonzalez allegedly “shouted threats to return with a gun,” according to a statement Friday from the city attorney’s office.
California Downtown L.A. bar hiring new security after forced removal of transgender women The LAPD is investigating possible hate crime after transgender women were forcefully removed from Las Perlas bar in downtown L.A.
The group said at the time that they were celebrating the LGBTQ community at the DTLA Proud Festival and decided to stop by the bar to eat afterward.
Khloe Rios, who filmed cellphone video of the incident, said last year that the couple approached them and said, “You guys are all men. You guys don’t belong here.”
“And we turned around and said, ‘Please leave us alone. We don’t want problems,’” Rios said.
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Video showing the women being forcefully removed by the bar’s security guards went viral on social media, and Pouring With Heart, the company that owns Las Perlas, later said it would hire a security company that has received sensitivity training.
The company also said at the time that it had retained outside counsel to “review the tapes and actions ... to make more specific analysis of exactly what happened and how to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
“Acts of hate against transgender people have no place in our society,” L.A. City Atty. Mike Feuer said in a statement Friday. “Transgender people, especially transgender people of color, already face an unconscionable risk of violence. Perpetrators need to be held accountable.”


latimes--2020-07-17--School classrooms in most California counties won't open due to coronavirus surge

Most California public and private school campuses will not reopen when the academic year begins under statewide rules announced Friday by Gov .
Gavin Newsom , shifting instead toward full-time distance learning in response to the summer surge in coronavirus cases .
Schools will remain closed in 32 counties on the state ’ s COVID-19 monitoring list .
Public health conditions in those communities led state officials last week to require a variety of facilities to close , including gyms , shopping malls , hair and nail salons and places of worship .
The counties are home to 35.5 million @ @ @ @ @ @ @ instructions for all the obvious reasons — social , and emotional foundationally .
But only , only if it can be done safely , ” Newsom said .
At schools that can open , state officials will require all staff and students in grades three through 12 to wear masks .
Younger students will be encouraged to wear masks and students who are unwilling or unable to comply could be asked to switch to remote learning .
The new directives represent state government ’ s most far-reaching effort to direct the operations of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the pandemic .
But for at least one-quarter of the state ’ s 6 million schoolchildren , the mandate only reinforces plans already announced by local officials .
On Monday , leaders of the Los Angeles Unified School District and the San Diego Unified School District announced distance learning for all students returning for the coming year .
Other large districts in Southern California , the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento also voluntarily agreed to forgo classroom learning because of current health conditions .
Though the practical effect of the Newsom administration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some of the policy ’ s details are complex .
Schools in the counties being monitored for coronavirus spread would not be able to reopen until those counties see at least 14 consecutive days of declining coronavirus cases and are therefore removed from the state ’ s watch list .
Those schools would be subject to different rules , which will apply in counties with less persistent coronavirus problems .
There , the threshold for closing schools is dependent on testing for COVID-19 .
If a teacher or student in a classroom tests @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the class be sent home to self-quarantine .
If multiple classrooms are closed , Newsom said , school officials should close the campus .
School districts will be asked to close all campuses if 25 % of their locations had enough coronavirus cases to require a shutdown .
The rules for whether schools can open also apply to on-campus after-school programs .
And they apply , a state official said , to parochial schools such as those affiliated with the Catholic Church .
Newsom said schools that are allowed to open must , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ six feet of physical distancing between students and adults as well as take other health precautions .
“ We believe that school days should start with symptom checks , meaning temperature checks , ” the governor said .
“ We have robust expectations around hand-washing stations , sanitation , deep sanitation .
Deep disinfection efforts.
” Some education leaders briefed on the proposal questioned whether it is realistic to impose rules that depend on testing when many communities already face a shortage of test kits .
The new guidelines also ask for periodic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s decision to impose a strict statewide standard comes four days after he suggested the state had already provided ample guidance for schools — a stance that even some of his longtime allies suggested would put students , teachers and school employees at risk while leaving parents and families unsure of what would happen and when .
Last week , the powerful California Teachers Assn .
wrote Newsom to say that many schools could not safely reopen under current conditions , — including the lack of sufficient coronavirus testing and personal protective equipment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Black and Latino students , face major challenges with distance learning that state and local education officials need to address , community advocates said .
“ Things are harder than they were March 16 for our communities ... with the ongoing economic impact of the pandemic and the increase of the spread , ” said Maria Brenes , executive director of the East L.A. community organizing nonprofit InnerCity Struggle , and an L.A. Unified parent .
“ We ’ re talking about the essential , the front-line workers that keep our economy going @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we ’ re doing such a grave injustice to them , ” she said .
Students with disabilities also face challenges , said Elmer Roldan , executive director of the nonprofit Communities in Schools of Los Angeles , which provides support and case management for about 1,000 L.A. families .
Schools need to provide services for students with special needs through distance learning , he said , and must address the existing needs of families who are at a disadvantage with at-home schooling , such as those who speak a different language .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ connectivity issues ?
Whether it ’ s the students having a device or having internet that works or having the space where they can do homework ?
And then what happens when a student needs support that a parent is unable to provide , because a parent may need to work or the parent may be unable to comprehend the lessons that the students are learning ?
” Roldan said .
L.A. County schools Supt .
Debra Duardo said her office is trying to raise funds to address equity and social-emotional needs “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to succeed in a remote learning environment.
” The state also updated its guidance Friday for day-care centers , which will be allowed to remain open but must investigate whether work-related factors contribute to any outbreaks and implement preventive measures accordingly .
The new guidance requires day-care centers to provide training for staff and families on personal hygiene and the “ proper use , removal and washing of face coverings.
” Previous day-care recommendations include face coverings for staff and for children 2 and older , and health screenings of children and staff @ @ @ @ @ @ @ school districts are able to fully cover the costs of expanded distance learning remains unclear .
The state budget signed by Newsom last month commits $ 5.3 billion for school needs linked to the pandemic , most of that from the federal relief package enacted in the spring .
More than half the money will be allocated to schools based on the number of children who are English learners or come from low-income families .
That amount of money will help and is more than some states have to work with , said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Education Trust-West .
“ But especially with the announcement that we ’ re in this for the long haul for long-distance learning , we really need the resources to be able to implement it well and equitably across the whole state , ” she said .
Even then , K-12 schools will find their resources stretched .
The state budget spreads out the payment of some $ 13 billion in school funding obligations , to be covered in the short term by local cash reserves or by the school districts borrowing money .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ into the final budget that seems to require some level of in-person schooling , though lawmakers later insisted that would not prevent public health requirements from completely closing campuses .
Before Friday ’ s announcement , the new school year seemed to be starting much as the last one had ended — with local officials making their own decisions , on their own timetables .
Despite calls for statewide action , Newsom avoided a blanket policy dictating when to close schools as the virus spread throughout the state in the early spring .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ children , chose instead to approach the issue as a parent , telling reporters in mid-March that he told his daughter that schools probably wouldn ’ t reopen at the time — framing the comment as a reality check , not a directive from his office .

Most California public and private school campuses will not reopen when the academic year begins under statewide rules announced Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom, shifting instead toward full-time distance learning in response to the summer surge in coronavirus cases.
Schools will remain closed in 32 counties on the state’s COVID-19 monitoring list. Public health conditions in those communities led state officials last week to require a variety of facilities to close, including gyms, shopping malls, hair and nail salons and places of worship. The counties are home to 35.5 million Californians.
“We all prefer in-classroom instructions for all the obvious reasons — social, and emotional foundationally. But only, only if it can be done safely,” Newsom said.
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At schools that can open, state officials will require all staff and students in grades three through 12 to wear masks. Younger students will be encouraged to wear masks and students who are unwilling or unable to comply could be asked to switch to remote learning.
The new directives represent state government’s most far-reaching effort to direct the operations of more than 10,500 schools across California during the pandemic. But for at least one-quarter of the state’s 6 million schoolchildren, the mandate only reinforces plans already announced by local officials.
On Monday, leaders of the Los Angeles Unified School District and the San Diego Unified School District announced distance learning for all students returning for the coming year. Other large districts in Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento also voluntarily agreed to forgo classroom learning because of current health conditions.
Though the practical effect of the Newsom administration’s new mandate is simple, some of the policy’s details are complex. Schools in the counties being monitored for coronavirus spread would not be able to reopen until those counties see at least 14 consecutive days of declining coronavirus cases and are therefore removed from the state’s watch list.
Those schools would be subject to different rules, which will apply in counties with less persistent coronavirus problems. There, the threshold for closing schools is dependent on testing for COVID-19. If a teacher or student in a classroom tests positive, the state will suggest that the class be sent home to self-quarantine.
If multiple classrooms are closed, Newsom said, school officials should close the campus. School districts will be asked to close all campuses if 25% of their locations had enough coronavirus cases to require a shutdown.
The rules for whether schools can open also apply to on-campus after-school programs. And they apply, a state official said, to parochial schools such as those affiliated with the Catholic Church.
Newsom said schools that are allowed to open must, in addition to requiring masks, maintain six feet of physical distancing between students and adults as well as take other health precautions.
“We believe that school days should start with symptom checks, meaning temperature checks,” the governor said. “We have robust expectations around hand-washing stations, sanitation, deep sanitation. Deep disinfection efforts.”
Some education leaders briefed on the proposal questioned whether it is realistic to impose rules that depend on testing when many communities already face a shortage of test kits. The new guidelines also ask for periodic COVID-19 testing at schools.
Newsom’s decision to impose a strict statewide standard comes four days after he suggested the state had already provided ample guidance for schools — a stance that even some of his longtime allies suggested would put students, teachers and school employees at risk while leaving parents and families unsure of what would happen and when.
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Last week, the powerful California Teachers Assn. wrote Newsom to say that many schools could not safely reopen under current conditions, — including the lack of sufficient coronavirus testing and personal protective equipment.
Low-income communities, many disproportionately comprising Black and Latino students, face major challenges with distance learning that state and local education officials need to address, community advocates said.
“Things are harder than they were March 16 for our communities ... with the ongoing economic impact of the pandemic and the increase of the spread,” said Maria Brenes, executive director of the East L.A. community organizing nonprofit InnerCity Struggle, and an L.A. Unified parent.
“We’re talking about the essential, the front-line workers that keep our economy going, and this is their children and we’re doing such a grave injustice to them,” she said.
Students with disabilities also face challenges , said Elmer Roldan, executive director of the nonprofit Communities in Schools of Los Angeles, which provides support and case management for about 1,000 L.A. families. Schools need to provide services for students with special needs through distance learning, he said, and must address the existing needs of families who are at a disadvantage with at-home schooling, such as those who speak a different language.
“What do we do to address connectivity issues? Whether it’s the students having a device or having internet that works or having the space where they can do homework? And then what happens when a student needs support that a parent is unable to provide, because a parent may need to work or the parent may be unable to comprehend the lessons that the students are learning?” Roldan said.
L.A. County schools Supt. Debra Duardo said her office is trying to raise funds to address equity and social-emotional needs “so that students and families are able to succeed in a remote learning environment.”
The state also updated its guidance Friday for day-care centers, which will be allowed to remain open but must investigate whether work-related factors contribute to any outbreaks and implement preventive measures accordingly. The new guidance requires day-care centers to provide training for staff and families on personal hygiene and the “proper use, removal and washing of face coverings.”
Previous day-care recommendations include face coverings for staff and for children 2 and older, and health screenings of children and staff before they enter a facility.
Whether school districts are able to fully cover the costs of expanded distance learning remains unclear. The state budget signed by Newsom last month commits $5.3 billion for school needs linked to the pandemic, most of that from the federal relief package enacted in the spring. More than half the money will be allocated to schools based on the number of children who are English learners or come from low-income families.
That amount of money will help and is more than some states have to work with, said Elisha Smith Arrillaga, executive director of Education Trust-West.
“But especially with the announcement that we’re in this for the long haul for long-distance learning, we really need the resources to be able to implement it well and equitably across the whole state,” she said.
Even then, K-12 schools will find their resources stretched. The state budget spreads out the payment of some $13 billion in school funding obligations, to be covered in the short term by local cash reserves or by the school districts borrowing money. Districts have also worried about language tucked into the final budget that seems to require some level of in-person schooling, though lawmakers later insisted that would not prevent public health requirements from completely closing campuses.
Before Friday’s announcement, the new school year seemed to be starting much as the last one had ended — with local officials making their own decisions, on their own timetables. Despite calls for statewide action, Newsom avoided a blanket policy dictating when to close schools as the virus spread throughout the state in the early spring.
The governor, who has four young children, chose instead to approach the issue as a parent, telling reporters in mid-March that he told his daughter that schools probably wouldn’t reopen at the time — framing the comment as a reality check, not a directive from his office.


latimes--2020-07-17--Parents, what are your questions about the coming school year?

Schools across Los Angeles will begin the fall semester with distance learning , a huge burden on parents and students @ @ @ @ @ exacerbated disparities in educational opportunity .
Likewise , schools in 32 California counties will be @ @ @ @ @ after an order from Gov .
Gavin Newsom on Friday .
That includes private schools @ @ @ @ @ wants to help with the resulting anxieties and questions .
Send us your questions using @ @ @ @ @ here if you can ’ t see it ) .
We ’ ll do our @ @ @ @ @ .

Many school campuses will be closed again in the fall.
Schools across Los Angeles will begin the fall semester with distance learning, a huge burden on parents and students and an approach that has exacerbated disparities in educational opportunity. Likewise, schools in 32 California counties will be required to conduct distance learning after an order from Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday. That includes private schools.
The Los Angeles Times wants to help with the resulting anxieties and questions. Send us your questions using the form below (click here if you can’t see it).
We’ll do our best to get you answers.


latimes--2020-07-17--Los Angeles County reports highest one-day total of new coronavirus cases

Los Angeles County public health officials reported more than 4,500 new coronavirus cases Thursday , shattering the record for the highest single-day increase in new infections .
There were a total of 4,506 new cases , marking the second time this week the county broke the grim record , having notched 4,200 cases of the virus on Tuesday .
“ Each case represents a person that is capable of , and in all probability is , infecting at least one other person , ” Barbara Ferrer , the county health director , said in a statement .
“ If you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to see why the alarm.
” A similar surge was taking place across California , which has now tallied 364,834 confirmed cases of the virus and 7,490 deaths , according to the Los Angeles Times ’ California coronavirus tracker .
On Tuesday , the state recorded its highest number of new cases in a single day , 11,142 infections .
Tuesday also marked the second-highest number of deaths in a single day statewide , with 144 deaths tallied , according to the tracker .
L.A. County , which has recorded a total of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reported 48 new COVID-19 deaths Thursday and is now on pace to surpass 4,000 deaths from the virus by the end of Friday .
“ This week we ’ ve hit concerning milestones , ” Ferrer said .
“ We have reported the most cases in a single day , the most hospitalizations and tragically high death numbers.
” L.A. County reported record numbers of confirmed coronavirus patients in its hospitals on Tuesday and then again Wednesday .
There were 2,173 confirmed coronavirus patients in county hospitals Thursday , with 27 % in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Twenty percent of the patients are between 18 and 40 , a higher share than at any other point during the pandemic , officials said Thursday .
The proportion of test results coming back positive also continues to climb , with more than 1.44 million people tested as of Thursday and 9 % testing positive .
An increase in the positivity rate indicates that the disease is spreading more rapidly in the community , experts say .
Officials believe the uptick in disease transmission began in late May , when more people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to work , attend social gatherings and visit newly reopened restaurants and other establishments .
It takes up to two weeks for the virus to incubate and then another week or two for cases to result in hospitalization or death .
County health officials said earlier this week that the coronavirus is spreading rapidly in workplaces that are not following safety rules .
The sectors with the highest numbers of cases are food processing and distribution facilities , including meatpacking plants , manufacturing facilities , garment factories and wholesale warehouses .
The worst @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Apparel , a garment manufacturer based in South L.A. More than 300 of the company ’ s nearly 2,300 employees have tested positive for COVID-19 and four have died , Muntu Davis , the county health officer , said Thursday .
The county public health department said that it first shut down operations at the garment manufacturer June 27 after inspectors found “ flagrant violations ” of public health infection control orders and said the company failed to cooperate with an investigation of a reported coronavirus outbreak .
The company ’ s founder @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and questioned whether there was evidence that the factory ’ s workers were being infected at a higher rate than those living in the surrounding community .
Higher mortality rates among lower-income communities and Black and Latino residents in L.A. County have remained a key concern for health officials .
Deaths among Latino residents make up 60 % of the fatalities that have occurred outside skilled-nursing facilities in the county , data show .
“ Unfortunately , a lot of disproportionality can be traced to the fact that a significant number of essential @ @ @ @ @ @ @ color , ” Davis said .
“ Oftentimes , people who are low-income can not stay home to work , and early in the pandemic , there were few protections offered at many work sites.
” Officials estimate that the effective transmission rate of the coronavirus has risen slightly to 1.07 , according to data released Wednesday , although the actual number could be anywhere from 0.94 to 1.2 .
That means officials estimate that on average , every 1 person infected with the virus transmits it to 1.07 other people .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Gov .
Gavin Newsom on June 28 ordered bars closed in L.A. County and several others , followed by indoor restaurant dining on July 1 .
It has been about two weeks since then , but it ’ ll take at least three weeks to learn whether the actions taken that week decisively changed the course of the pandemic , said Dr. Christina Ghaly , director of health services for Los Angeles County .
Ghaly said Wednesday that if people got back to safer behavior — staying home as much as possible @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coverings , keeping physical distance and workplaces following new safety protocols — L.A. County could avoid having hospitals and ICUs overwhelmed .
Still , given the exponential nature of the virus ’ growth , officials have expressed concern about the outlook in the coming days .
The 4,500-plus cases identified Thursday could lead to over 18,000 infected people “ in a few weeks , ” Ferrer said .
“ And this is just from one day of new cases , ” she said .
“ Without aggressive action on the part of every @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to slowing the spread .
”

Alex Wigglesworth, Hannah Fry, Rong-Gong Lin II

An employee has her temperature checked before entering LA Apparel, a company that has seen one of the worst local coronavirus outbreaks.
Los Angeles County saw three record-breaking single-day increases in new coronavirus infections this week and the highest number of cases logged in one week.
Surpassing 17,000 cases from last week, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti reported 23,310 new cases in the county from this week at a Friday evening briefing.
Los Angeles County public health officials reported 4,506 new coronavirus cases Thursday, shattering the record for the highest single-day increase in new infections of 4,200 from Tuesday.
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“Each case represents a person that is capable of, and in all probability is, infecting at least one other person,” Barbara Ferrer, the county health director, said in a statement. “If you do the math, it is easy to see why the alarm.”
Garcetti reported 2,885 new cases and 62 deaths on Friday in the county, for a total of 150,319 positive confirmed cases and 4,047 deaths, matching the expectations from the county to surpass 4,000 deaths by the end of the week.
“The simple truth of this fight is that this virus is affecting more and more of us every day,” Garcetti said.
A similar surge was taking place across California, which has now tallied 367,561 confirmed cases of the virus and 7,524 deaths, according to the Los Angeles Times’ California coronavirus tracker.
On Tuesday, the state recorded its highest number of new cases in a single day, 11,142 infections. Tuesday also marked the second-highest number of deaths in a single day statewide, with 144 deaths tallied, according to the tracker.
“This week we’ve hit concerning milestones,” Ferrer said. “We have reported the most cases in a single day, the most hospitalizations and tragically high death numbers.”
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L.A. County reported record numbers of confirmed coronavirus patients in its hospitals on Tuesday and again Wednesday. There were 2,173 confirmed coronavirus patients in county hospitals Thursday, with 27% in intensive care and 17% on ventilators.
By Friday, hospitalizations stood at 2,188 confirmed coronavirus patients.
Twenty percent of the patients are between 18 and 40, a higher share than at any other point during the pandemic, officials said Thursday.
The proportion of test results coming back positive also continues to climb, with more than 1.44 million people tested as of Thursday and 9% testing positive. An increase in the positivity rate indicates that the disease is spreading more rapidly in the community, experts say.
Officials believe the uptick in disease transmission began in late May, when more people began leaving their homes to go back to work, attend social gatherings and visit newly reopened restaurants and other establishments.
It takes up to two weeks for the virus to incubate and then another week or two for cases to result in hospitalization or death.
County health officials said earlier this week that the coronavirus is spreading rapidly in workplaces that are not following safety rules. The sectors with the highest numbers of cases are food processing and distribution facilities, including meatpacking plants, manufacturing facilities, garment factories and wholesale warehouses.
The worst local workplace outbreak occurred at Los Angeles Apparel, a garment manufacturer based in South L.A. More than 300 of the company’s nearly 2,300 employees have tested positive for COVID-19 and four have died, Muntu Davis, the county health officer, said Thursday.
The county public health department said that it first shut down operations at the garment manufacturer June 27 after inspectors found “flagrant violations” of public health infection control orders and said the company failed to cooperate with an investigation of a reported coronavirus outbreak.
The company’s founder, Dov Charney, disputed those claims and questioned whether there was evidence that the factory’s workers were being infected at a higher rate than those living in the surrounding community.
Higher mortality rates among lower-income communities and Black and Latino residents in L.A. County have remained a key concern for health officials. Deaths among Latino residents make up 60% of the fatalities that have occurred outside skilled-nursing facilities in the county, data show.
“Unfortunately, a lot of disproportionality can be traced to the fact that a significant number of essential workers are low-income or are people of color,” Davis said. “Oftentimes, people who are low-income cannot stay home to work, and early in the pandemic, there were few protections offered at many work sites.”
Officials estimate that the effective transmission rate of the coronavirus has risen slightly to 1.07, according to data released Wednesday, although the actual number could be anywhere from 0.94 to 1.2. That means officials estimate that on average, every one person infected with the virus transmits it to 1.07 other people.
In a bid to tamp down the uptick, Gov. Gavin Newsom on June 28 ordered bars closed in L.A. County and several others, followed by indoor restaurant dining on July 1.
Garcetti said Friday that he will hold off on additional closures.
It has been about two weeks since Newsom’s order, but it’ll take at least three weeks to learn whether the actions taken that week decisively changed the course of the pandemic, said Dr. Christina Ghaly, director of health services for Los Angeles County.
Ghaly said Wednesday that if people go back to safer behavior — staying home as much as possible, avoiding social gatherings, wearing face coverings, keeping physical distance and workplaces following new safety protocols — L.A. County could avoid having hospitals and ICUs overwhelmed.
Still, given the exponential nature of the virus’ growth, officials have expressed concern about the outlook in the coming days. The 4,500-plus cases identified Thursday could lead to more than 18,000 infected people “in a few weeks,” Ferrer said.
“And this is just from one day of new cases,” she said. “Without aggressive action on the part of every person, we will not get back to slowing the spread.”


latimes--2020-07-17--Newsom reopened California without meeting his own coronavirus testing, tracing benchmarks

A month into his stay-at-home order and under pressure to lift restrictions , Gov .
Gavin Newsom drew a line in the sand : In order to safely reopen and suppress the coronavirus , California needed to be able to test everyone with COVID-19 symptoms and trace the contacts of confirmed cases .
“ The most important framework is our capacity to expand our testing to appropriately address the tracing and tracking of individuals , the isolation and the quarantine of individuals , ” the governor said of his thresholds for reopening at an April 14 news conference .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ businesses before meeting his own benchmarks .
Now , the governor has once again ordered closures as California surpasses 350,000 COVID-19 cases .
Hospitalizations have more than doubled and deaths have nearly tripled since Newsom launched the reopening on May 8 .
Many Californians are still struggling to get tested amid new shortages and growing demand .
The testing delays and inadequate resources for contact tracing make it impossible to halt spread of the virus , something that Newsom and state health officials had said the state needed to be prepared to do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly defended the governor ’ s approach in an interview with The Times , noting that the fluid nature of the virus requires the state to constantly learn and adapt .
He said counties attested to meeting the state ’ s requirements before they were allowed to move forward and he felt confident at the time that California was adequately testing symptomatic patients .
But in documentation submitted to the state attesting to their readiness for reopening , 17 counties wrote that they did not meet requirements for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more than two dozen hadn ’ t hit targets for daily testing thresholds when they applied .
Many of the counties said they intended to train more workers to investigate cases , or that they would have the capacity to boost testing , and Ghaly said those plans were sufficient for the state to allow them to reopen .
Those decisions are coming under scrutiny as the coronavirus is again surging unchecked .
An analysis by the Harvard Global Health Institute suggests California is conducting less than half the daily tests necessary to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ needed to stop the spread , while states such as New York show greater success with testing .
California ’ s testing rate was even lower when Newsom allowed counties to begin opening bars and gyms on June 12 .
“ California has kept the lid on the pot , but that ’ s not good enough , ” said Thomas Tsai , an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H .
Chan School of Public Health .
“ The goal is to turn the temperature @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stove.
” As efforts across the country to fight the deadly virus have been politicized , Newsom ’ s early assertion that the state ’ s reopening would be guided by science and health , not politics , was regarded as a gold standard by public health experts .
Tsai and other researchers say widespread testing , tracking confirmed cases and isolating anyone who may have been exposed are among the only ways to stop the spread of the virus , absent a vaccine .
Experts hailed California ’ s March 19 stay-at-home @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the early stages of the crisis , saying that his actions bought time for the healthcare system to prepare and prevented cases from overwhelming hospitals .
With businesses itching to reopen , Newsom called a news conference on April 14 and disclosed the parameters that he and top health officials had been privately using to determine when it was safe to return the state to some sense of normalcy .
In a document outlining the state ’ s six indicators for monitoring the stay-at-home order , officials posed key questions to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is our state to test everyone who is symptomatic ?
” and “ do we have the ability to identify contacts of those who are positive to reduce further transmission ?
” The governor introduced a four-phase reopening plan two weeks later .
A document provided by the administration on April 28 again described the thresholds as the “ ability to test , contact trace , isolate , and support the exposed.
” Among the key measures to move into Stage 2 were “ sufficient testing capacity to meet demand ” and “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ governor announced the imminent reopening of businesses and beginning of Stage 2 in early May , he called it a “ very positive sign ” that happened for only one reason : “ Data says it can happen.
” By that time , Newsom faced pressures from all sides .
While some local public health officials wanted the governor to keep the stay-at-home order in place , frustrated residents and a few local governments openly defied his restrictions .
More than 3.5 million Californians had filed for unemployment benefits at that point and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t survive a continued shutdown .
The governor ’ s plan also included something the state described as a variance process that would allow counties to reopen more quickly if they met a series of benchmarks to show they were capable of containing the spread of the coronavirus .
Among the criteria to be met was a requirement that counties ensure at least 15 staff members per 100,000 residents were trained and available to conduct contact tracing , which 17 counties said they had not yet met and detailed plans to increase @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Another requirement noted that counties must have the capacity to test a daily minimum of 1.5 residents for every 1,000 .
Though more than two dozen counties had not reached the daily testing threshold when they submitted their forms to reopen , they still met the state ’ s standard because they explained how they could scale up within their healthcare system .
Weeks later , as cases climbed , the governor defended his reopening decisions and adopted the same argument made by many critics of his original order : The consequences @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and mental health were too great to ignore .
“ We have to recognize you can ’ t be in a permanent state where people are locked away — for months and months and months and months on end — to see lives and livelihoods completely destroyed , without considering the health impact of those decisions as well , ” Newsom said on June 15 .
When pressured again in late June , Newsom conceded that some counties were struggling to contact trace and noted that the state needed to do more on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ responsibility to increase , not only the total number of tests , but who we test , and how we test , ” he said .
The governor has not specifically addressed why he created a testing and contact tracing benchmark and then seemed to disregard it before allowing the state to reopen .
Ghaly said hospitalizations and the rate of positives cases in the state had flattened at the time and officials were prepared to reinstitute changes if necessary .
He said California had been able to conduct sufficient tests and could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lab companies were going to re-experience really extreme testing turnaround time problems , which is what we ’ ve seen over the past two to three weeks now.
” He said the contact tracing plans were also built around far less community transmission than California is currently experiencing and noted that officials are constantly learning and reassessing the state ’ s approach .
“ And what else is one going to do in the setting of an unprecedented worldwide pandemic where , you know , there ’ s not too many instruction manuals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ testing and contact tracing goals are only effective if they can be measured .
But the state ’ s new contact tracing data management system , CalCONNECT , wasn ’ t widely used when most counties reopened .
The California Department of Public Health said Contra Costa County , one of two early adopters of CalCONNECT , used the system to reach and contact trace 809 of 894 cases in June .
Erika Jenssen , the deputy health services director for Contra Costa County , said the county ’ s testing and contact @ @ @ @ @ @ @ When the county received authority from the state last month to reopen more businesses , it wrote on its attestation form that it had not yet met the state ’ s requirement of 15 contact tracers per 100,000 residents .
Jenssen said the county asked to join the CalCONNECT program and also recently received 30 contact tracers from the state , part of an effort to train 10,000 people for the job statewide .
Jenssen said it ’ s been difficult to quickly train workers while adapting to the new system .
Delays @ @ @ @ @ @ @ made it hard to effectively trace contacts of people who may have been contagious weeks before getting their results .
The work of contact tracers is also made more difficult when cases are confirmed late .
Case investigators and contact tracers are often so far behind that they can ’ t stop an infected person from transmitting the virus to others and have to instead focus on the contacts of those who they already infected , or the individuals those people could have in turn exposed .
“ It ’ s challenging for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Jenssen said .
“ We ’ re saying , ‘ OK , you tested positive two weeks ago , where were you ?
’ ” The difficulties experienced by Contra Costa are being echoed in counties across the state as labs become overwhelmed with specimens .
Last week , Los Angeles County officials limited their testing criteria in light of a shortage of supplies .
“ The struggle in every arm of our response is just trying to keep pace with the demand , ” said Matt Willis , the public health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Costa and Marin counties have developed systems in which tests for high-risk cases , such as those tied to nursing homes or other dangerous outbreaks , are sent to government labs that process results more quickly and lower priority cases are directed to commercial labs with longer turnarounds .
Willis said he ’ s also seen the limitations of case investigations and contact tracing .
His county sends a mobile testing unit to workplaces with suspected outbreaks and to test workers on site .
The results often yield many more infections than those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people who have tested positive are asked to identify others with whom they came in close contact .
The inability to contain the virus at this point has led Solano County Public Health Officer Dr. Bela T. Matyas to believe that Newsom ’ s goal of testing , investigating , tracing and isolating cases to try and stop the disease has been futile for months .
“ It ’ s kind of like saying , ‘ I ’ m in the middle of a hurricane and my goal is to stop it from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Matyas said .
“ So , OK , I guess if that ’ s your goal , but since it ’ s completely impossible , how about an alternate goal like weathering the storm and making sure your family is safe ?
” Instead on focusing on containment , Matyas said the state should try to mitigate hospitalizations and deaths by protecting the elderly and medically fragile .
He said that approach would involve community surveillance testing at high-risk facilities such as nursing homes , and ensuring those types of care sites are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wouldn ’ t be wasting time testing a whole bunch of asymptomatic people who have jobs in sectors where high-risk people aren ’ t even being exposed , ” he said .
This week , the state began to change how it prioritizes testing , moving away from a model that recommends testing for everyone , including those without symptoms .
Ghaly announced new guidelines on Tuesday that call for officials to first test hospital patients , people linked to potential outbreaks and the contacts of those who test positive .
In its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ testing anyone with symptoms , as well as those without symptoms who live and work in high-risk settings .
While Ghaly agreed that contact tracing has becoming increasingly challenging and counties should focus on high-risk settings , he said the state has not departed from its goal of suppressing and containing the virus .
Matyas said it will be difficult for the governor to change direction from working to contain the virus to focusing entirely on mitigating the number of deaths and serious illnesses from COVID-19 , but predicted an inevitable course correction @ @ @ @ @ @ @ become overwhelmed with cases .
“ The problem is this has been driven by political forces , ” he said .
“ When you stake your authority and your position on a certain narrative , it takes a lot to shift from that .
”

A month into his stay-at-home order and under pressure to lift restrictions, Gov. Gavin Newsom drew a line in the sand: In order to safely reopen and suppress the coronavirus, California needed to be able to test everyone with COVID-19 symptoms and trace the contacts of confirmed cases.
“The most important framework is our capacity to expand our testing to appropriately address the tracing and tracking of individuals, the isolation and the quarantine of individuals,” the governor said of his thresholds for reopening at an April 14 news conference.
But three weeks later, Newsom began reopening businesses before meeting his own benchmarks.
Now, the governor has once again ordered closures as California surpasses 350,000 coronavirus cases. Hospitalizations have more than doubled and deaths have nearly tripled since Newsom launched the reopening on May 8. Many Californians are still struggling to get tested amid new shortages and growing demand.
1 / 18 Sharon Chavez, 26, use the oral swab on her 7-year-old daughter Melany Garcia to test for Coronavirus the parking lot of a Food4Less Grocery in the Westlake area. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) 2 / 18 Thomas Aleman Jr. 9, and sister Hailey Aleman, 7, use the oral swab for their first coronavirus test in the parking lot of a Food4Less Grocery in the Westlake area. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) 3 / 18 Tuntipumiamorin Thawat, 60, gets instruction from lead tester Daniela Burza as he uses the oral swab for Coronavirus testing in the parking lot of a Food4Less Grocery in the Westlake area. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) 4 / 18 Michael Lewis Childress Sr. waits for coronavirus testing in the parking lot of a Food4Less Grocery in the Westlake area. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) 5 / 18 Carlos Miranda deposits his test for Coronavirus in the parking lot of a Food4Less Grocery in the Westlake area. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) 6 / 18 Gerardo Garibay, 75, uses the oral swab to test for coronavirus in the parking lot of a Food4Less Grocery in the Westlake area. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) 7 / 18 Cynthia Leonard helps her son Messi McDaniel, 6, with an oral swab test outside the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in South Los Angeles. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) 8 / 18 A worker registers a driver who is celebrating a birthday with a test for coronavirus infection at the Hansen Dam Recreation Area testing site. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times) 9 / 18 Cars wait in line at the free COVID-19 testing site at the Hansen Dam Recreation Area in Sylmar. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times) 10 / 18 A worker checks the coronavirus test registration of a driver at the Hansen Dam site. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times) 11 / 18 Motorists line up for COVID-19 testing at Dodger Stadium. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) 12 / 18 Mari Cruz takes a COVID-19 test from Tiffany Im at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times) 13 / 18 Hundreds of motorists wait for COVID-19 tests in the Dodger Stadium parking lot. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times) 14 / 18 Maritza Perez, a registered nurse, puts on her personal protective equipment before administering COVID tests to some 50 to 65 patients at AltaMed Health Services in Anaheim. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times) 15 / 18 Wilma Thomas, a registered nurse, left, and Viviana Robles, a licensed practical nurse, stand near a mister on a hot day of coronavirus testing at AltaMed Health Services in Anaheim. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times) 16 / 18 Gregory Williams helps daughter Althea, 7, with an oral swab COVID-19 test at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in South L.A. His wife, Zulema Cuevas, holds their 2-year-old. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) 17 / 18 Walk-ins wait at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science testing site. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) 18 / 18 Dalton Caputo delivers his family’s test samples at the Charles R. Drew site. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
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The testing delays and inadequate resources for contact tracing make it impossible to halt the spread of the virus, something that Newsom and state health officials had said the state needed to be prepared to do before opening up.
California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly defended the governor’s approach in an interview with The Times, noting that the fluid nature of the outbreak requires the state to constantly learn and adapt. He said counties attested to meeting the state’s requirements before they were allowed to move forward, and he felt confident at the time that California was adequately testing symptomatic patients.
But in documentation submitted to the state attesting to their readiness for reopening, 17 counties wrote that they did not meet requirements for available, trained contact tracing staff, and more than two dozen hadn’t hit targets for daily testing thresholds when they applied. Many of the counties said that they intended to train more workers to investigate cases or that they would have the capacity to boost testing, and Ghaly said those plans were sufficient for the state to allow them to reopen.
Those decisions are coming under scrutiny as the coronavirus is again surging unchecked.
An analysis by the Harvard Global Health Institute suggests California is conducting less than half the daily tests necessary to mitigate the virus and far fewer than needed to stop the spread, while states such as New York show greater success with testing. California’s testing rate was even lower when Newsom allowed counties to begin opening bars and gyms June 12.
“California has kept the lid on the pot, but that’s not good enough,” said Thomas Tsai, an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “The goal is to turn the temperature down or get the pot off the stove.”
As efforts across the country to fight the coronavirus have been politicized, Newsom’s early assertion that the state’s reopening would be guided by science and health, not politics, was regarded as a gold standard by public health experts. Tsai and other researchers say widespread testing, tracking confirmed cases and isolating anyone who may have been exposed are among the only ways to stop the spread of the virus, absent a vaccine.
Experts hailed California’s March 19 stay-at-home order and credited Newsom’s decision-making in the early stages of the crisis, saying that his actions bought time for the healthcare system to prepare and prevented cases from overwhelming hospitals.
With businesses itching to reopen, Newsom called a news conference April 14 and disclosed the parameters that he and top health officials had been privately using to determine when it was safe to return the state to some sense of normality.
In a document outlining the state’s six indicators for monitoring the stay-at-home order, officials posed key questions to be answered before reopening: “How prepared is our state to test everyone who is symptomatic?” and “Do we have the ability to identify contacts of those who are positive to reduce further transmission?”
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The governor introduced a four-phase reopening plan two weeks later. A document provided by the administration April 28 again described the thresholds as the “ability to test, contact trace, isolate, and support the exposed.” Among the key measures to move into Stage 2 were “sufficient testing capacity to meet demand” and “contact tracing capacity statewide.”
When the governor announced the imminent reopening of businesses and the beginning of Stage 2 in early May, he called it a “very positive sign” that happened for only one reason: “Data says it can happen.”
By that time, Newsom faced pressures from all sides. Though some local public health officials wanted the governor to keep the stay-at-home order in place, frustrated residents and a few local governments openly defied his restrictions. More than 3.5 million Californians had filed for unemployment benefits at that point, and businesses across the state worried they couldn’t survive a continued shutdown.
The governor’s plan also included something the state described as a variance process that would allow counties to reopen more quickly if they met a series of benchmarks to show they were capable of containing the spread of the coronavirus.
Among the criteria to be met was a requirement that counties ensure at least 15 staff members per 100,000 residents were trained and available to conduct contact tracing, which 17 counties said they had not yet met, and detail plans to increase staffing over the coming weeks or months.
Another requirement noted that counties must have the capacity to test a daily minimum of 1.5 residents for every 1,000. Though more than two dozen counties had not reached the daily testing threshold when they submitted their forms to reopen, they still met the state’s standard because they explained how they could scale up within their healthcare system.
Weeks later, as cases climbed, the governor defended his reopening decisions and adopted the same argument made by many critics of his original order: The consequences of the COVID-19 shutdown for the economy and mental health were too great to ignore.
“We have to recognize you can’t be in a permanent state where people are locked away — for months and months and months and months on end — to see lives and livelihoods completely destroyed, without considering the health impact of those decisions as well,” Newsom said June 15.
When pressured again in late June, Newsom conceded that some counties were struggling to contact trace and noted that the state needed to do more on testing.
“We certainly have a responsibility to increase, not only the total number of tests, but who we test, and how we test,” he said.
The governor has not specifically addressed why he created a testing and contact tracing benchmark and then seemed to disregard it before allowing the state to reopen.
Ghaly said hospitalizations and the rate of positives cases in the state had flattened at the time and officials were prepared to reinstitute changes if necessary. He said California had been able to conduct sufficient tests and could not have predicted that “big national lab companies were going to re-experience really extreme testing turnaround time problems, which is what we’ve seen over the past two to three weeks now.”
He said the contact tracing plans were also built around far less community transmission than California is currently experiencing and noted that officials are constantly learning and reassessing the state’s approach.
“And what else is one going to do in the setting of an unprecedented worldwide pandemic where, you know, there’s not too many instruction manuals?” he said.
Tsai said testing and contact tracing goals are effective only if they can be measured. But the state’s new contact tracing data management system, California Connected, wasn’t widely used when most counties reopened.
The California Department of Public Health said Contra Costa County, one of two early adopters of California Connected, used the system to reach and contact trace 809 of 894 cases in June.
Erika Jenssen, the deputy health services director for Contra Costa County, said the county’s testing and contact tracing remain a work in progress. When the county received authority from the state last month to reopen more businesses, it wrote on its attestation form that it had not yet met the state’s requirement of 15 contact tracers per 100,000 residents.
Jenssen said the county asked to join the California Connected program and also recently received 30 contact tracers from the state, part of an effort to train 10,000 people for the job statewide. Jenssen said it’s been difficult to quickly train workers while adapting to the new system.
Delays in testing from commercial labs have also made it hard to effectively trace contacts of people who may have been contagious weeks before getting their results. The work of contact tracers is also made more difficult when cases are confirmed late. Case investigators and contact tracers are often so far behind that they can’t stop an infected person from transmitting the virus to others and have to instead focus on the contacts of those who they already infected, or the individuals those people could have in turn exposed.
“It’s challenging for people to recall where they were,” Jenssen said. “We’re saying, ‘OK, you tested positive two weeks ago, where were you?’”
The difficulties experienced by Contra Costa are being echoed in counties across the state as labs become overwhelmed with specimens. Last week, Los Angeles County officials limited their testing criteria in light of a shortage of supplies.
“The struggle in every arm of our response is just trying to keep pace with the demand,” said Dr. Matt Willis, the public health officer in Marin County.
Both Contra Costa and Marin counties have developed systems in which tests for high-risk cases, such as those tied to nursing homes or other dangerous outbreaks, are sent to government labs that process results more quickly and lower priority cases are directed to commercial labs with longer turnarounds.
Willis said he’s also seen the limitations of case investigations and contact tracing. His county sends a mobile testing unit to workplaces with suspected outbreaks and to test workers on site. The results often yield many more infections than those identified in case investigations, in which people who have tested positive are asked to identify others with whom they came in close contact.
The inability to contain the virus at this point has led Solano County Public Health Officer Dr. Bela T. Matyas to believe that Newsom’s goal of testing, investigating, tracing and isolating cases to try to stop the disease has been futile for months.
“It’s kind of like saying, ‘I’m in the middle of a hurricane and my goal is to stop it from raining and being windy,’” Matyas said. “So, OK, I guess if that’s your goal, but since it’s completely impossible, how about an alternate goal like weathering the storm and making sure your family is safe?”
Instead of focusing on containment, Matyas said, the state should try to mitigate hospitalizations and deaths by protecting elderly and medically fragile Californians. He said that approach would involve community surveillance testing at high-risk facilities such as nursing homes and ensuring those types of care sites are protected from outside risks.
“I wouldn’t be wasting time testing a whole bunch of asymptomatic people who have jobs in sectors where high-risk people aren’t even being exposed,” he said.
This week, the state began to change how it prioritizes testing, moving away from a model that recommends testing for everyone, including those without symptoms.
Ghaly announced new guidelines on Tuesday that call for officials to first test hospital patients, people linked to potential outbreaks and the contacts of those who test positive. In its second priority tier, the state recommends testing anyone with symptoms, as well as those without symptoms who live and work in high-risk settings.
Though Ghaly agreed that contact tracing has becoming increasingly challenging and that counties should focus on high-risk settings, he said the state has not departed from its goal of suppressing and containing the virus.
Matyas said it will be difficult for the governor to change direction from working to contain the virus to focusing entirely on mitigating the number of deaths and serious illnesses from COVID-19, but he predicted an inevitable course correction as the virus spreads and more counties become overwhelmed with cases.
“The problem is this has been driven by political forces,” he said. “When you stake your authority and your position on a certain narrative, it takes a lot to shift from that.”


latimes--2020-07-17--Manhattan Beach will fine those not wearing masks in public, the latest city to do so

Those who don ’ t wear a face covering in public will now face citations and fines in Manhattan Beach .
The move , authorized under an emergency order that went into effect Wednesday , comes as California continues to see record levels of coronavirus infection and officials stress that residents must do their part to stymie the spread of the virus .
“ The drastic increase in positive COVID-19 cases in our city and around Los Angeles County have shown us that additional measures must be taken to make it clear to the public that face coverings are essential @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said in a statement Thursday .
“ The time for warnings is over .
Face coverings must be worn when you are outside of your home in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
” Under the order , failing to wear a face covering is subject to an administrative citation — with fines of $ 100 for the first violation , $ 200 for the second and $ 350 for each one after that .
As of Thursday , there had been 217 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Manhattan Beach and four deaths @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Department of Public Health .
The city ’ s order stipulates that “ all persons shall wear a cloth face covering over both the nose and mouth whenever they leave their place of residence ” except for children younger than 2 , those who are hearing impaired or communicating with someone who is , and those with disabilities or medical or mental health conditions that prevent them from wearing masks .
Masks also don ’ t have to be worn when swimming or engaging in other water-based activities .
“ If we do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Gavin Newsom could expand business sector closures and thereafter , close our treasured beaches once again , ” Montgomery said .
“ We want to do the right thing and be proactive to avoid additional negative consequences.
” Putting on masks in public has been required in Los Angeles County since mid-May .
On June 18 , Newsom ordered all Californians to wear face coverings while in public or high-risk settings , including when shopping , taking public transit or seeking medical care .
Though health officials say wearing face coverings is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — as they can help keep those who are infected from spreading the disease to others — the mandates have proven controversial , with some residents and business owners objecting on personal or political grounds .
Enforcement has also remained an open question .
Some local governments and county-level law enforcement agencies have said they mask requirements and instead focus on educating the public to encourage compliance .
Manhattan Beach isn ’ t alone in taking the opposite tack , though .
Other cities — including West Hollywood , Santa Monica and Beverly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will be subject to citations and fines .
Capt .
Edward Ramirez of the West Hollywood sheriff ’ s station said Friday that deputies so far “ have issued a total of 12 citations to people without masks ” in the city .
“ That said , each person cited was provided a mask to wear by deputy personnel , ” he wrote in an email .
Beverly Hills spokesman Keith Sterling said one citation has been issued there so far .
“ Our code enforcement and police officers have had hundreds of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and most have complied when educated about our face covering rules , ” he wrote in an email Friday .
This isn ’ t the first time residents and visitors in Manhattan Beach have faced potential fines if they don ’ t follow coronavirus-related health orders .
Authorities issued 129 citations and shut down four construction projects in early April for violations related to social distancing .
A surfer in the city also was fined $ 1,000 in March after he was accused of ignoring warnings by police and lifeguards not to go @ @ @ @

Those who don’t wear a face covering in public will now face citations and fines in Manhattan Beach.
The move, authorized under an emergency order that went into effect Wednesday, comes as California continues to see record levels of coronavirus infection and officials stress that residents must do their part to stymie the spread of the virus.
“The drastic increase in positive COVID-19 cases in our city and around Los Angeles County have shown us that additional measures must be taken to make it clear to the public that face coverings are essential right now,” Mayor Richard Montgomery said in a statement Thursday. “The time for warnings is over. Face coverings must be worn when you are outside of your home in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”
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Under the order, failing to wear a face covering is subject to an administrative citation — with fines of $100 for the first violation, $200 for the second and $350 for each one after that.
As of Thursday, there had been 217 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Manhattan Beach and four deaths, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
City Council directed an emergency order to be issued strengthening the requirement to #wearafacecovering when in public & setting penalties for those who do not comply w/the order. The City’s order is pursuant to the @lapublichealth #PublicHealthOrder. https://t.co/WtNmENOqbR pic.twitter.com/5v94G8wtJ6 — Manhattan Beach City (@citymb) July 16, 2020
The city’s order stipulates that “all persons shall wear a cloth face covering over both the nose and mouth whenever they leave their place of residence” except for children younger than 2, those who are hearing impaired or communicating with someone who is, and those with disabilities or medical or mental health conditions that prevent them from wearing masks.
Masks also don’t have to be worn when swimming or engaging in other water-based activities.
“If we do not take this action, Gov. Gavin Newsom could expand business sector closures and thereafter, close our treasured beaches once again,” Montgomery said. “We want to do the right thing and be proactive to avoid additional negative consequences.”
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Putting on masks in public has been required in Los Angeles County since mid-May. On June 18, Newsom ordered all Californians to wear face coverings while in public or high-risk settings, including when shopping, taking public transit or seeking medical care.
Though health officials say wearing face coverings is a vital tool in the fight against COVID-19 — as they can help keep those who are infected from spreading the disease to others — the mandates have proven controversial, with some residents and business owners objecting on personal or political grounds.
Enforcement has also remained an open question. Some local governments and county-level law enforcement agencies have said they would not enforce mask requirements and instead focus on educating the public to encourage compliance.
Manhattan Beach isn’t alone in taking the opposite tack, though. Other cities — including West Hollywood, Santa Monica and Beverly Hills — have also said face-covering scofflaws will be subject to citations and fines.
Capt. Edward Ramirez of the West Hollywood sheriff’s station said Friday that deputies so far “have issued a total of 12 citations to people without masks” in the city.
“That said, each person cited was provided a mask to wear by deputy personnel,” he wrote in an email.
Beverly Hills spokesman Keith Sterling said one citation has been issued there so far.
“Our code enforcement and police officers have had hundreds of contacts with the public in recent days and most have complied when educated about our face covering rules,” he wrote in an email Friday.
This isn’t the first time residents and visitors in Manhattan Beach have faced potential fines if they don’t follow coronavirus-related health orders.
Authorities issued 129 citations and shut down four construction projects in early April for violations related to social distancing.
A surfer in the city also was fined $1,000 in March after he was accused of ignoring warnings by police and lifeguards not to go in the water.


latimes--2020-07-17--An expert debunks myths about wearing face masks to combat the coronavirus

America ’ s mainstream medical establishments have given their endorsement : Universal masking is essential for the nation to find its way out of a crippling COVID-19 pandemic and get schools back in session and the economy restarted .
“ The data is clearly there , that masking works , ” Dr. Robert Redfield , director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , said Tuesday in a webcast with the Journal of the American Medical Assn .
“ If we could get everybody to wear a mask right now , I really do think that in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we could bring this epidemic under control.
” A CDC study released Tuesday said that by early May , a survey estimated that about 76 % of American adults who left the house in the week prior had used a cloth face covering .
Another report by the CDC about two hairstylists at a salon in Missouri showcased masks ’ remarkable effectiveness in preventing disease transmission .
The stylists fell ill with respiratory symptoms yet continued to work at the salon for several days , only to later test positive for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while they were ill , typically spending 15 to 45 minutes with each of them .
Yet not a single client was reported to have become sick , and none of those tested receive a positive test result .
The reason ?
Scientists believe it was because both the hairstylists and their customers wore masks .
There ’ s a host of myths being circulated that suggest that masks are not needed or are somehow harmful .
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong , professor of medicine and an infectious disease specialist at UC San Francisco @ @ @ @ @ @ @ town hall panel discussion .
Myth No .
1 : You don ’ t need to wear a mask while outside because sunlight kills coronavirus floating in the air That ’ s wrong .
Sunlight doesn ’ t immediately zap the coronavirus .
While outdoors is generally safer than being indoors , it is possible to get infected while outside .
One study identified an outbreak that occurred outdoors in a village in the central Chinese province of Henan .
A recent study determined that 90 % or more of the virus would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to 34 minutes of midday sunlight in most U.S. cities in the summer .
But that applies only to viruses deposited on surfaces .
“ This does not translate to human transmission , ” Chin-Hong said .
Myth No .
2 : You only need to wear a mask if you have symptoms Incorrect .
People with mild symptoms , or who are infected but will never show signs of illness , make up more than half of all COVID-19 cases , Chin-Hong said .
So-called silent spreaders are responsible for the majority @ @ @ @ @ @ @ found .
“ Furthermore , such silent transmission alone can sustain outbreaks even if all symptomatic cases are immediately isolated , ” the authors wrote .
“ Talking , yelling , exercising and singing can also spread [ virus-carrying respiratory ] droplets , in addition to what we focus on , which is coughing and sneezing , when someone is physically ill , ” the study found .
False .
There have been a number of erroneous social media posts claiming that wearing masks lowers oxygen and increases carbon dioxide levels in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like oxygen can get in , carbon dioxide can safely get out , ” he said .
Tests using a device called pulse oximeters have confirmed that wearing masks cause no decline in blood-oxygen levels .
Masks are even safely used by patients suffering from severe lung disease .
Myth No .
4 : Anything other than an N95 mask is useless for limiting virus transmission Not accurate .
N95 masks are certainly important in certain hospital settings when healthcare providers are inserting breathing tubes down patients ’ throats .
But for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ keep most of the wearer ’ s potentially infectious respiratory droplets from landing in other people ’ s eyes , nose and mouth .
A mask helps the wearer avoid infection too : If you come close to an infectious person , a mask will still filter a fair amount of virus particles .
Breathing in a smaller amount of the virus may lead to no disease or a mild infection ; with no mask at all , you might otherwise inhale a large volume of virus particles , and that can result @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Any mask can provide a barrier to respiratory droplets , ” Chin-Hong said .
“ Fit and comfort is more important than anxiety about the type of mask you wear in the community.
” Wearing a mask is not about eliminating all risk , however .
It ’ s about reducing risk .
“ When I give you a cholesterol medicine ...
I ’ m not telling you you ’ re never going to get a heart attack .
I ’ m saying it ’ s going to reduce your risk substantially , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ So the bottom line is : Wear any mask that is comfortable .
And don ’ t obsess about what type of mask you ’ re wearing , ” he added .
A face shield with a drape on the bottom edge can be an alternative .
That ’ s what L.A. County officials require of people whose jobs bring them into regular contact with others but are exempt from wearing a face covering due to a medical condition .
Experts also warn about the use of a specific kind of N95 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a person ’ s breath to be concentrated when it escapes .
Those masks are intended to protect the person wearing them — such as construction workers wanting to avoid breathing in dust — but are terrible in a pandemic because they funnel a person ’ s potentially infectious breath outward .
To convert the N95 masks that have vent holes in the front , simply place a piece of tape over the external vent to cover it , health experts said .

People, some with masks and others without, walk along the Venice Boardwalk earlier this month.
America’s mainstream medical establishments have given their endorsement: Universal masking is essential for the nation to find its way out of a crippling COVID-19 pandemic and get schools back in session and the economy restarted.
“The data is clearly there, that masking works,” Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday in a webcast with the Journal of the American Medical Assn. “If we could get everybody to wear a mask right now, I really do think that in the next four, six, eight weeks, we could bring this epidemic under control.”
A CDC study released Tuesday said that by early May, a survey estimated that about 76% of American adults who left the house in the week prior had used a cloth face covering.
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Another report by the CDC about two hairstylists at a salon in Missouri showcased masks’ remarkable effectiveness in preventing disease transmission.
The stylists fell ill with respiratory symptoms yet continued to work at the salon for several days, only to later test positive for the coronavirus.
The stylists served 139 clients while they were ill, typically spending 15 to 45 minutes with each of them. Yet not a single client was reported to have become sick, and none of those tested receive a positive test result. The reason? Scientists believe it was because both the hairstylists and their customers wore masks.
There’s a host of myths being circulated that suggest that masks are not needed or are somehow harmful. Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, professor of medicine and an infectious disease specialist at UC San Francisco, recently debunked them during a campus town hall panel discussion.
Myth No. 1: You don’t need to wear a mask while outside because sunlight kills coronavirus floating in the air
That’s wrong. Sunlight doesn’t immediately zap the coronavirus. While outdoors is generally safer than being indoors, it is possible to get infected while outside. One study identified an outbreak that occurred outdoors in a village in the central Chinese province of Henan.
A recent study determined that 90% or more of the virus would be inactivated after being exposed to 11 to 34 minutes of midday sunlight in most U.S. cities in the summer. But that applies only to viruses deposited on surfaces. “This does not translate to human transmission,” Chin-Hong said.
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Myth No. 2: You only need to wear a mask if you have symptoms
Incorrect. People with mild symptoms, or who are infected but will never show signs of illness, make up more than half of all COVID-19 cases, Chin-Hong said.
So-called silent spreaders are responsible for the majority of transmission cases, a recent study found. “Furthermore, such silent transmission alone can sustain outbreaks even if all symptomatic cases are immediately isolated,” the authors wrote.
“Talking, yelling, exercising and singing can also spread [virus-carrying respiratory] droplets, in addition to what we focus on, which is coughing and sneezing, when someone is physically ill,” the study found.
Myth No. 3: Masks reduce blood oxygen levels and increase carbon dioxide levels
False. There have been a number of erroneous social media posts claiming that wearing masks lowers oxygen and increases carbon dioxide levels in the blood, Chin-Hong said.
In fact, all masks provide adequate airflow.
“Just like oxygen can get in, carbon dioxide can safely get out,” he said.
Tests using a device called pulse oximeters have confirmed that wearing masks cause no decline in blood-oxygen levels. Masks are even safely used by patients suffering from severe lung disease.
California Californians turn against each other amid 2nd coronavirus shutdown Californians have expressed anger at politicians over the pandemic. After a second shutdown, many turn anger on each other for not being careful.
Myth No. 4: Anything other than an N95 mask is useless for limiting virus transmission
Not accurate. N95 masks are certainly important in certain hospital settings when healthcare providers are inserting breathing tubes down patients’ throats.
But for the general public, the point is to keep most of the wearer’s potentially infectious respiratory droplets from landing in other people’s eyes, nose and mouth.
A mask helps the wearer avoid infection too: If you come close to an infectious person, a mask will still filter a fair amount of virus particles. Breathing in a smaller amount of the virus may lead to no disease or a mild infection; with no mask at all, you might otherwise inhale a large volume of virus particles, and that can result in severe symptoms or death.
“Any mask can provide a barrier to respiratory droplets,” Chin-Hong said. “Fit and comfort is more important than anxiety about the type of mask you wear in the community.”
Wearing a mask is not about eliminating all risk, however. It’s about reducing risk.
“When I give you a cholesterol medicine ... I’m not telling you you’re never going to get a heart attack. I’m saying it’s going to reduce your risk substantially,” Chin-Hong said as a comparison.
“So the bottom line is: Wear any mask that is comfortable. And don’t obsess about what type of mask you’re wearing,” he added.
A face shield with a drape on the bottom edge can be an alternative. That’s what L.A. County officials require of people whose jobs bring them into regular contact with others but are exempt from wearing a face covering due to a medical condition.
Experts also warn about the use of a specific kind of N95 mask that has a vent that allows a person’s breath to be concentrated when it escapes.
Nonmedical N95 masks have a valve can let germs escape. (Photo illustration courtesy Brenton Simpson)
Those masks are intended to protect the person wearing them — such as construction workers wanting to avoid breathing in dust — but are terrible in a pandemic because they funnel a person’s potentially infectious breath outward.
To convert the N95 masks that have vent holes in the front, simply place a piece of tape over the external vent to cover it, health experts said.