latimes--2020-03-31--Social distancing may have helped California slow the virus and avoid New York's fate

For California and Washington , the coronavirus triggers came early .
They pushed the two Western states to social distancing measures earlier than the rest of the country .
In the San Francisco Bay Area , the warning came while the Grand Princess cruise ship , carrying infected crew and passengers , lurked outside the Golden Gate .
As the coronavirus cases spread in Silicon Valley , health officers as early as March 5 urged employers to consider allowing more employees to work from home , and companies to cancel large gatherings and nonessential travel .
By the time the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the BART transit system had seen a 24 % drop in ridership compared with a typical Monday in February .
Ridership was down 75 % a week later , the same day the Bay Area issued the nation ’ s first coronavirus shelter-in-place order .
In Seattle , the early deaths at a suburban nursing home at the end of February shocked many into action .
By the first week of March , major tech companies were telling employees to work from home and local officials urged them to do so .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ both places , but so far at a rate slower than in the country ’ s other hot spots such as New York , New Jersey , Michigan and Louisiana .
To be sure , the epidemic still could get dramatically worse on the West Coast .
A San Francisco nursing home with more than 700 beds is contending with an outbreak that has infected two patients and nine staff members .
There are signs of the contagion at 11 Los Angeles County nursing homes , too .
But experts are looking to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ distancing is making a difference .
With all eyes on the sharply rising curves showing the dramatic rise in cases , “ if and when it flattens , you ’ ll see it here first , ” said Dr. George Rutherford , an epidemiologist and infectious disease expert at UC San Francisco .
The implementation of the shelter-in-place orders in the Bay Area “ happened closer to the introduction of the virus , so you haven ’ t had as many generations of transmission .
So there are fewer cases per capita in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ While cautioning that there ’ s no way to predict the future , it ’ s plausible the Bay Area ’ s early action will allow it to avoid a New York-style surge in cases , he added .
Dr. Robert Kim-Farley , an epidemiologist at UCLA , said the numbers of hospitalizations and deaths provide a more accurate indicator of the outbreak ’ s trajectory than the number of cases identified through uneven testing .
On Thursday , the total number of deaths in L.A. County nearly doubled in a single day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will continue to see increased in hospitalizations and deaths , but I think we should be able to see some leveling off of those numbers in a couple of weeks because of the physical distancing measures , ” Kim-Farley said .
Indeed , Gov .
Gavin Newsom said Monday that the number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 had doubled over the course of four days — and the number in intensive care units had nearly tripled .
After a person is infected with the coronavirus , it can take two to 14 days @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and shortness of breath — to appear .
Then , in cases where the illness becomes severe , it usually takes an additional eight to 15 days for a patient to require treatment in an intensive care unit .
That means it can take weeks for the effects of stay-at-home orders become evident .
And there are a number of things that can still go wrong for California .
The state does not know how many people are flouting the order to stay at home as much as possible and keep at least @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dr. Otto Yang , an infectious disease expert at UCLA Medical Center , where coronavirus cases have climbed sharply in the last couple of weeks .
A few news accounts suggest that some Californians are skeptical about the threat from the virus and the need for physical distancing .
The lack of widespread testing can also mask how many people are actually infected and passing the virus around , Yang said .
The true number “ is going to determine how much hospital resources are going to be needed , ” he said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on March 16 when health officers in six counties jointly ordered residents to shelter in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus , officially known as SARS-CoV-2 .
Eleven other California counties soon joined the order , and on March 19 it was expanded statewide by Newsom .
New York state , by contrast , issued a stay-at-home order on March 20 , and made it effective on March 22 .
California ’ s earlier , aggressive stay-at-home order is one reason why a model published by the University of Washington ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ suggests that New York state will see its worst day of the epidemic in early April , and that it will be dramatically worse than California ’ s worst day .
The report projects the peak of hospitalizations and deaths in California to come in late April .
“ Given what we ’ ve been seeing in California , we are expecting the peak of the epidemic — the intensity of it — to be lower than in New York , ” said Dr. Chris Murray , professor and director of the Institute @ @ @ @ @ @ @ author of the report .
“ That means the surge in the hospitals will be smaller.
” Officials advising President Trump said their model of the pandemic mirrors the University of Washington projections .
But other experts have raised doubts about the conclusions .
Nicholas Jewell , a biostatistics researcher at UC Berkeley , said he is “ very skeptical ” about the work .
He said it makes a number of assumptions that remain to be proved — including about the death rate in Wuhan , China , where the disease originated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hard hit by the coronavirus .
The University of Washington projections changed from Friday to Monday , as the researchers fed new data into their computer simulation .
On Monday , it showed that California would most likely be hit with 4,306 deaths , compared with the 6,109 forecast last week .
For New York , the projected death total rose considerably — from 10,243 to 15,546 .
Those sharp shifts were another factor giving Jewell pause .
“ I am not saying their answer is wrong , ” Jewell said .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t put too much confidence in it yet.
” A University of Washington biology professor also raised questions about the projections , saying they represent a “ best case ” model that appears to assume a degree of social distancing equivalent to that achieved in Wuhan .
“ It ’ s not obvious to me , especially in states without control orders , that we will get anything like the shutdown we saw in Wuhan , ” said Carl T. Bergstrom , an expert in mathematical and computational biology .
Besides the later @ @ @ @ @ @ @ potential factors for that state ’ s sharp rise in cases include New York City ’ s population density and crowded mass transit system , Murray said .
Unlike the U.S. , where tests have been in short supply , Asian cities had the advantages of being able to test for the virus widely , isolating the infected , finding their close contacts , and quarantining those who may have been infected .
Wide availability of tests in South Korea also gave health officials the ability to spot outbreaks before they emerged , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ potential to spread the virus away from uninfected people .
Models projecting the course of an epidemic can be controversial .
The modeling is only as good as the data it is based on , and California is at disadvantage because of the lack of available tests , Barbara Ferrer , Los Angeles County ’ s public health director , said Friday .
Still , Ferrer said she thinks it is plausible that case numbers will continue to increase for three more weeks in L.A. County .
Cases could continue to double every @ @ @ @ @ @ @ given the rapid rise that has been seen so far in the region .
“ Given what we know ... we ’ re likely to have a lot of people here that are going to be infected , ” she said .
Dr. Grant Colfax , the director of public health in San Francisco , said it ’ s still too early to tell whether the rise in COVID-19 cases is slowing down .
“ I simply do not know if our aggressive actions early on ... have had the intended effect , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ am hoping and praying that that is the case .
We still need the data to confirm that.
” In the meantime , doctors at UCSF Medical Center are using the time to prepare .
“ Every single day that goes by , we have an opportunity to get more ventilators , to re-purpose more clinical space , to open up isolation wards , to learn from our colleagues on the East Coast , ” said Dr. Jahan Fahimi , medical director of the hospital ’ s emergency department .
“ So even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have the ability to meet more demand.
” Lin reported from Millbrae , Karlamangla from Los Angeles , Greene from Thousand Oaks and Rainey from South Pasadena .

Rong-Gong Lin II, Soumya Karlamangla, Sean Greene, James Rainey

Isabella Leader, 15, counts how many flags have been left for World War II veteran Lt. Col. Sam Sachs who was celebrating his 105th birthday at the Mom & Dad’s House, an assisted living facility, in Lakewood. Lt. Col. Sachs appealed to the public for birthday cards after the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of a big celebration and wound up receiving thousands, including a letter and photo from President Trump. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Denise Young looks on as her daughter, Allison, 9, a fourth-grader at EARThS (Environmental Academy of Research Technology and Earth Sciences) Magnet School in Newbury Park, receives a Chromebook. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Medical assistant Zoila Villalta works with Rosie Boston, 32, of Glendale, who is donating blood for her first time at L.A. Care Health Plan downtown. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
Hayley, CEO and founder of Love My Neighbor Foundation, right, dances with Crystal Armster, 51, while she and her colleagues continue to feed the homeless on skid row amid the pandemic. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Juan Diaz Jr., a lifelong Dodgers fan, prays that the season will start by May in front of Dodger Stadium on what would have been opening day. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
The JW Marriott at L.A. Live is sharing a message of hope with red lights in 34 windows, creating a 19-story display on the hotel’s north side. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
Venice residents Emily Berry and Gavin Kelley take a break at Venice Beach. Berry, a cocktail waitress at Enterprise Fish Co., lost her job due to the coronavirus outbreak. Kelley, a manager at a performing arts school with a focus on music, said that he still has a job and that classes at the school will resume online this coming Monday. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Protesters drive by the Getty House, the home of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, in Hancock Park. Tenant advocates are demanding a total moratorium on evictions during the coronavirus crisis. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
A lending library had some additional useful items, including a roll of toilet paper and cans of beans and corn, in a Hermosa Beach neighborhood. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Shauna Jin, of Los Angeles, with her dog, Bodhi, practices social distancing with John Kiss, of Los Angeles, at the entrance of Runyon Canyon Park in Los Angeles. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
Kristen Edgerle, of Victorville, collects information from a blood donor before drawing blood at The Richard Nixon Presidential Library blood drive during the coronavirus pandemic in Yorba Linda. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Healthcare workers gather outside UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center to call for further action from the federal government in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Raquel Lezama and daughter Monica Ramos collect meals for their family at Manual Arts High School. Lezama was laid off from her $17.76-an-hour job at a Beverly Hills hotel. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
A runner jogs past the Pottery Barn in Pasadena. Some businesses in the area have boarded up their stores. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
Grace Carter, 15, of Riverside, practices a dance routine at home after dance classes and school were canceled. She has to use the Zoom app on her iPhone to practice with her dance group. “It’s hard,” she said. “My bedroom is a smaller space. I miss all my friends at the studio.” (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Juliann Hartman, center, and her husband, Butch, wave signs they created to cheer up people on Calabasas Road in Calabasas during the pandemic. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Cassidy Roosen, with Beach Cities Health District, holds up a sign that says, “We’re All in This Together,” while waiting to direct cars at a drive-through, appointment-only coronavirus testing location at the South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
A person who wishes to remain anonymous strikes from her car to support McDonald’s employees who are demanding the company cover healthcare costs of any worker or immediate family member who gets sick from COVID-19 in Los Angeles. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
A woman shows a notice from her doctor that allows her to obtain a test for coronavirus at a new drive-up testing site in a parking lot at the South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Nurses pose for a fun photo during a break in drive-through public testing for the coronavirus at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Hippie Kitchen in Los Angeles hands out food, water and toiletries to homeless people and residents of skid row. Additionally, masks were offered to help reduce the spread of the coronavirus. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
A specimen is turned in at the new mobile testing site for people with symptoms of the coronavirus at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in South Los Angeles. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Patients are removed from Magnolia Rehabilitation and Nursing Center after 39 tested positive for the coronavirus and nursing staff was not showing up to work. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Women wear masks as they stroll along Highland Avenue in Hollywood. Wearing masks while outdoors is mandatory in the city of Los Angeles. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
The Wilshire Grand Center display blue lights and a heart to show support for healthcare workers and first responders. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
People are silhouetted in a window of an apartment building in Hollywood, where a stay-at-home order remains in effect to help curb the spread of the coronavirus. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
As a late season storm continues to make its way across the Southland, a young basketball player dribbles along an alley through an Elysian Park neighborhood in Los Angeles. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)
After being indoors for several days because of rainy weather and coronavirus stay-at-home orders, Olivia Jacobs, 4, and her mom, Cia Jacobs, enjoy a warm and sunny afternoon making chalk drawings on the sidewalk in front of their home in West Hills. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
Alex Herron and nurse Mercy Pineda at a blood drive sponsored by USC athletics and the American Red Cross at USC’s Galen Center. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
A jogger runs on a closed trail past dozens of pieces of caution tape, torn off by hikers and mountain bikers at El Escorpion Canyon Park in West Hills. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
Stuart Reyes and his sister, Stephanie, sell masks for $5 each on the 3000 block of West Century Boulevard in Inglewood. Stuart Reyes said he is selling masks to support his mother. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Billy Budd, 55, of Hollywood, walks along Hollywood Boulevard with a protective face covering. Budd is a scenic artist for movies and television who is currently out of work due to the coronavirus outbreak. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
UC Irvine Medical Center health care workers return their gratitude as about 25 Orange County first responder vehicles participate in a drive-by parade of gratitude as they battle COVID-19 at the hospital. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Life around Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard and Soto Street has slowed down as California officials extended stay-at-home orders into May and residents entered Easter weekend with unprecedented limits on their movements. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
A face mask seller in colorful dress appears to be part of a mural behind a bus stop on Soto Street in Los Angeles. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Daniel Rogerson wears a vintage military gas mask while riding a bike along the beach path in Santa Monica, which is closed to enforce social distancing because of the coronavirus pandemic. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
Businesses are shuttered and pedestrians are few and far between on Hollywood Boulevard. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Jonte Florence, a freestyle dancer, does a handstand on a mostly empty Hollywood Walk of Fame. Florence said he normally performs for hundreds of tourists along the busy street. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Cedar Mountain Post Acute Rehabilitation staff member Navi Cavaltera waters a flower pot put up by the community to show their support for the nursing staff of the facility in Yucaipa. Eighteen of 20 coronavirus-related deaths in Yucaipa were residents of the skilled nursing facility. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
A group of protesters cheer on cars during a vehicle caravan protest to call on state and local officials to reopen the economy in downtown Los Angeles. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Counter-protesters attend a protest to call on state and local officials to reopen the economy in downtown Los Angeles. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Medical staff, wearing protective gear, work inside a COVID-19 isolation area inside the emergency department at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, where patients with the virus are being treated. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Protesters stand along Mission Blvd. in Pacific Beach during A Day of Liberty rally on April 26. The protesters were against the government shutdown due to the coronavirus. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune)
Tom Sean Foley pauses on a walk with his kids, Cathelen Claire, “C.C.,” 3, and Timothy Joseph, 4, to take a photo in front of the “Love Wall,” mural by artist Curtis Kulig, outside of Smashbox Studios in Culver City. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Norm and Tracy Kahn enjoy eating dinner outside on a small cafe table sitting in blue chairs on their side yard during the coronavirus pandemic on April 27 in Riverside. “During this pandemic, eating outside offers us an opportunity to change surrounding and appreciate the calmness of being outdoors among trees, scents from nature and the sounds of birds,” she said. Also adding, “Mixing up where we eat puts variety into our days and takes away the sameness of feeling trapped at home.” (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Carson residents Kaeli Burks, 3, left, and her cousin Bailey Watson, 5, look out the window of their car after their mothers helped them with self-testing at a new drive-up testing site for COVID-19 in Carson. Free COVID-19 testing is available to all city residents thanks to a partnership between the city and US Health Fairs. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Healthcare workers celebrate as Claudia Martinez is discharged from the ICU after she recovered from COVID-19 at Scripps Mercy Hospital in Chula Vista. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Shuttered storefront businesses in the garment district of Los Angeles. California’s unemployment rate has skyrocketed since the statewide coronavirus shutdown took effect. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
Senior Mason Wise, left, helps his sister, Mackenzie, a sophomore, clean out her PE locker at El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills. School officials were allowing no more than five students at a time on campus to take home their belongings. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
Aerial view of over 100 vehicles lined up at the West Valley COVID-19 testing center at Warner Center in Woodland Hills. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
Tenants and their supporters from across Los Angeles gather at city hall to call on L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, the L.A. City Council and California Gov. Gavin Newsom to cancel rent and mortgage payments during the COVID-19 crisis. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
Gregory Kuhl, 69, heads home after a shopping trip in Hollywood on April 28. Big cracks in the street, cars parked in driveways blocking sidewalks and uneven pavement levels make navigating his route difficult. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
Mostly masked commuters keep their distance from one another on a Metro bus in downtown Los Angeles on April 29. (Gabriella Angotti-Jones / Los Angeles Times)
Grocery store workers, joined by United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 770 representatives and community members, hold a rally in support of strict social distancing on May 1 at a Ralphs store in Hollywood where 19 employees have tested positive for COVID-19. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)
Tango instructor Yelizaveta Nersesova leads a Zoom tango event from her Los Angeles home April 27 that brought together hundreds of dancers from around the world. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Beaches including Harbor Cove Beach were open but beachgoers were not supposed to be sitting on the sand. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
The majority of golfers are wearing masks while hitting balls on the driving range at Van Buren Executive Golf Course in Riverside. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Cody Purcell of Redondo Beach rides a wave, glowing from the bioluminescence, in Hermosa Beach, CA, after midnight Friday morning, May 8. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
Dominique Barrett, center, known as “King Vader” to his 2.4 million TikTok followers, prepares to shoot a video on April 30 in Glendora. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
Socially distanced bikers and walkers, against a backdrop of the Queen Mary, make their way along pedestrian and beach bike path on the first day that Long Beach reopened the path on Monday May 11, 2020. The city of Long Beach eased a few of its public health restrictions, allowing under certain guidelines the reopening of pedestrian and beach bike paths, tennis centers and courts. Beach bathrooms are also reopening, but the parking lots and beaches still remain closed. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
For California and Washington, the coronavirus triggers came early. They pushed the two Western states to social distancing measures earlier than the rest of the country.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, the warning came while the Grand Princess cruise ship, carrying infected crew and passengers, lurked outside the Golden Gate. As the coronavirus cases spread in Silicon Valley, health officers as early as March 5 urged employers to consider allowing more employees to work from home, and companies to cancel large gatherings and nonessential travel.
By the time the ship docked in Oakland on March 9, the BART transit system had seen a 24% drop in ridership compared with a typical Monday in February. Ridership was down 75% a week later, the same day the Bay Area issued the nation’s first coronavirus shelter-in-place order.
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In Seattle, the early deaths at a suburban nursing home at the end of February shocked many into action. By the first week of March, major tech companies were telling employees to work from home and local officials urged them to do so.
The coronavirus continues to spread rapidly in both places, but so far at a rate slower than in the country’s other hot spots such as New York, New Jersey, Michigan and Louisiana.
To be sure, the epidemic still could get dramatically worse on the West Coast. A San Francisco nursing home with more than 700 beds is contending with an outbreak that has infected two patients and nine staff members. There are signs of the contagion at 11 Los Angeles County nursing homes, too.
But experts are looking to California and Washington for signs that social distancing is making a difference.
With all eyes on the sharply rising curves showing the dramatic rise in cases, “if and when it flattens, you’ll see it here first,” said Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist and infectious disease expert at UC San Francisco.
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The implementation of the shelter-in-place orders in the Bay Area “happened closer to the introduction of the virus, so you haven’t had as many generations of transmission. So there are fewer cases per capita in the population,” Rutherford said.
While cautioning that there’s no way to predict the future, it’s plausible the Bay Area’s early action will allow it to avoid a New York-style surge in cases, he added.
Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, an epidemiologist at UCLA, said the numbers of hospitalizations and deaths provide a more accurate indicator of the outbreak’s trajectory than the number of cases identified through uneven testing. On Thursday, the total number of deaths in L.A. County nearly doubled in a single day.
“I will anticipate that we will continue to see increased in hospitalizations and deaths, but I think we should be able to see some leveling off of those numbers in a couple of weeks because of the physical distancing measures,” Kim-Farley said.
Indeed, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that the number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 had doubled over the course of four days — and the number in intensive care units had nearly tripled.
After a person is infected with the coronavirus, it can take two to 14 days for symptoms — commonly fever, cough and shortness of breath — to appear. Then, in cases where the illness becomes severe, it usually takes an additional eight to 15 days for a patient to require treatment in an intensive care unit.
That means it can take weeks for the effects of stay-at-home orders become evident.
And there are a number of things that can still go wrong for California.
The state does not know how many people are flouting the order to stay at home as much as possible and keep at least six feet away from others, said Dr. Otto Yang, an infectious disease expert at UCLA Medical Center, where coronavirus cases have climbed sharply in the last couple of weeks.
A few news accounts suggest that some Californians are skeptical about the threat from the virus and the need for physical distancing.
The lack of widespread testing can also mask how many people are actually infected and passing the virus around, Yang said. The true number “is going to determine how much hospital resources are going to be needed,” he said.
Tracking the coronavirus in California The latest maps and charts on the spread of COVID-19 in California.
The Bay Area stunned the nation on March 16 when health officers in six counties jointly ordered residents to shelter in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus, officially known as SARS-CoV-2. Eleven other California counties soon joined the order, and on March 19 it was expanded statewide by Newsom.
New York state, by contrast, issued a stay-at-home order on March 20, and made it effective on March 22.
California’s earlier, aggressive stay-at-home order is one reason why a model published by the University of Washington’s Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation suggests that New York state will see its worst day of the epidemic in early April, and that it will be dramatically worse than California’s worst day.
The report projects the peak of hospitalizations and deaths in California to come in late April.
“Given what we’ve been seeing in California, we are expecting the peak of the epidemic — the intensity of it — to be lower than in New York,” said Dr. Chris Murray, professor and director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and the author of the report. “That means the surge in the hospitals will be smaller.”
Officials advising President Trump said their model of the pandemic mirrors the University of Washington projections. But other experts have raised doubts about the conclusions.
Nicholas Jewell, a biostatistics researcher at UC Berkeley, said he is “very skeptical” about the work. He said it makes a number of assumptions that remain to be proved — including about the death rate in Wuhan, China, where the disease originated, and in one region of Italy hard hit by the coronavirus.
The University of Washington projections changed from Friday to Monday, as the researchers fed new data into their computer simulation. On Monday, it showed that California would most likely be hit with 4,306 deaths, compared with the 6,109 forecast last week. For New York, the projected death total rose considerably — from 10,243 to 15,546.
Those sharp shifts were another factor giving Jewell pause.
“I am not saying their answer is wrong,” Jewell said. “I am just saying we shouldn’t put too much confidence in it yet.”
A University of Washington biology professor also raised questions about the projections, saying they represent a “best case” model that appears to assume a degree of social distancing equivalent to that achieved in Wuhan.
“It’s not obvious to me, especially in states without control orders, that we will get anything like the shutdown we saw in Wuhan,” said Carl T. Bergstrom, an expert in mathematical and computational biology.
Besides the later stay-at-home order for New York, other potential factors for that state’s sharp rise in cases include New York City’s population density and crowded mass transit system, Murray said.
Unlike the U.S., where tests have been in short supply, Asian cities had the advantages of being able to test for the virus widely, isolating the infected, finding their close contacts, and quarantining those who may have been infected.
Wide availability of tests in South Korea also gave health officials the ability to spot outbreaks before they emerged, allowing authorities to keep those with the potential to spread the virus away from uninfected people.
Models projecting the course of an epidemic can be controversial. The modeling is only as good as the data it is based on, and California is at disadvantage because of the lack of available tests, Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles County’s public health director, said Friday.
Still, Ferrer said she thinks it is plausible that case numbers will continue to increase for three more weeks in L.A. County. Cases could continue to double every four to six days for weeks, given the rapid rise that has been seen so far in the region.
“Given what we know ... we’re likely to have a lot of people here that are going to be infected,” she said.
Dr. Grant Colfax, the director of public health in San Francisco, said it’s still too early to tell whether the rise in COVID-19 cases is slowing down.
“I simply do not know if our aggressive actions early on ... have had the intended effect,” he said. “I certainly am hoping and praying that that is the case. We still need the data to confirm that.”
In the meantime, doctors at UCSF Medical Center are using the time to prepare.
“Every single day that goes by, we have an opportunity to get more ventilators, to re-purpose more clinical space, to open up isolation wards, to learn from our colleagues on the East Coast,” said Dr. Jahan Fahimi, medical director of the hospital’s emergency department. “So even when the surge comes … we now have the ability to meet more demand.”
Lin reported from Millbrae, Karlamangla from Los Angeles, Greene from Thousand Oaks and Rainey from South Pasadena.


latimes--2020-03-30--Farmers markets in Santa Monica, Pasadena, Culver, Torrance to remain open after L.A.'s are ordered

Farmers markets in Santa Monica, Pasadena, Culver, Torrance to remain open after L.A.'s are ordered to close

Farmers markets in Los Angeles have been ordered to close after several were inundated over the weekend with shoppers who didn ’ t abide by social distancing guidelines .
The temporary suspension , announced by Mayor Eric Garcetti on Monday , includes all farmers markets within city limits , such as those in Hollywood and Brentwood .
Markets that wish to continue operating are required to submit a plan to ensure proper social distancing among customers ; if approved , the market will be allowed to reopen .
“ We want people to get access to food , but we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this disease , ” Garcetti said during a news conference .
Those in nearby cities can set their own rules , though .
On Monday evening , organizers for farmers markets in Santa Monica , Pasadena , Culver City and Torrance vowed to remain open .
Santa Monica farmers markets supervisor Jaclyn Rivera-Krouse said “ we have a good plan in place ” for markets taking place on Wednesdays , Saturdays and Sundays .
“ I will attempt to implement a one-entrance , one-exit approach on Wednesday.
” Gretchen Sterling , manager of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ market will be open on Tuesday and plans to be open on Saturday as well .
“ Pasadena looks at the guidelines from L.A. County , but they have their own process , ” she said .
The Tuesday market is “ small and sparsely populated anyway , ” and she plans to “ try to implement a one-entrance plan on Saturday .
I may have more than one exit.
” Cynthia Ojeda , who manages the Tuesday afternoon market in Culver City , said she spent the last two weeks working on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ go in place this week .
“ We ’ ve secured the perimeter in our plans , ” she said .
“ We ’ ll have one entrance and one exit on opposite sides of the market .
We ’ ll be open tomorrow , same location and time .
We ’ ve been working very hard to get this market open .
I feel 100 % confident as long as the public follows our instructions.
” Meanwhile , the Torrance farmers market , which closed for a week to reassess its guidelines @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Joyce Chan said entry to the market and lines inside it will be carefully controlled ; hand-washing stations will be set up ; and about 55 food vendors have been removed .
The market “ will announce to customers over loudspeaker to social distance and shop quickly every 10 minutes , and spread farmers 10 feet apart .
Still day to day , ” Chan said in an email .
Despite the closure of many businesses in Los Angeles County as part of shelter-in-place restrictions , farmers markets had been permitted to stay @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Many put up signs in recent weeks advising customers to keep a safe distance from one another , encouraged shoppers to use contactless payment methods and implemented other measures to help combat the spread of the novel coronavirus .

Farmers markets in Los Angeles have been ordered to close after several were inundated over the weekend with shoppers who didn’t abide by social distancing guidelines.
The temporary suspension, announced by Mayor Eric Garcetti on Monday, includes all farmers markets within city limits, such as those in Hollywood and Brentwood. Markets that wish to continue operating are required to submit a plan to ensure proper social distancing among customers; if approved, the market will be allowed to reopen.
“We want people to get access to food, but we can’t risk the spread of this disease,” Garcetti said during a news conference.
Those in nearby cities can set their own rules, though. On Monday evening, organizers for farmers markets in Santa Monica, Pasadena, Culver City and Torrance vowed to remain open.
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Santa Monica farmers markets supervisor Jaclyn Rivera-Krouse said “we have a good plan in place” for markets taking place on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. “I will attempt to implement a one-entrance, one-exit approach on Wednesday.”
Gretchen Sterling, manager of the Pasadena farmers market, said the market will be open on Tuesday and plans to be open on Saturday as well.
“Pasadena looks at the guidelines from L.A. County, but they have their own process,” she said. The Tuesday market is “small and sparsely populated anyway,” and she plans to “try to implement a one-entrance plan on Saturday. I may have more than one exit.”
Cynthia Ojeda, who manages the Tuesday afternoon market in Culver City, said she spent the last two weeks working on new measures for the market that will go in place this week.
“We’ve secured the perimeter in our plans,” she said. “We’ll have one entrance and one exit on opposite sides of the market. We’ll be open tomorrow, same location and time. We’ve been working very hard to get this market open. I feel 100% confident as long as the public follows our instructions.”
Meanwhile, the Torrance farmers market, which closed for a week to reassess its guidelines, will return Tuesday. Market manager Joyce Chan said entry to the market and lines inside it will be carefully controlled; hand-washing stations will be set up; and about 55 food vendors have been removed.
The market “will announce to customers over loudspeaker to social distance and shop quickly every 10 minutes, and spread farmers 10 feet apart. Still day to day,” Chan said in an email.
Despite the closure of many businesses in Los Angeles County as part of shelter-in-place restrictions, farmers markets had been permitted to stay open because they were deemed essential. Many put up signs in recent weeks advising customers to keep a safe distance from one another, encouraged shoppers to use contactless payment methods and implemented other measures to help combat the spread of the novel coronavirus.


latimes--2020-03-30--What you need to know if you're a renter in California during the coronavirus pandemic

More than 1 million Californians have applied for unemployment assistance as coronavirus cases have surged in recent weeks .
The pandemic and the economic devastation it has caused have led many renters to wonder how they ’ re going to pay rent on April 1 — after weeks of being asked to stay home and , in some cases , not work to slow the spread of the virus .
From eviction bans to mortgage relief , here ’ s a guide to protections for renters and homeowners in California .
Yes .
No government program passed to date relieves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Even in Los Angeles and other cities where renter relief efforts have been approved , tenants are required to ultimately pay back rent in full .
But what if I can ’ t pay ?
Will I get evicted ?
The federal government , state government and individual cities and counties have offered many protections for tenants at risk of getting evicted .
But there is no blanket ban preventing the legal process of eviction across California , and the strength of the protections that exist depends on where you live and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the state , however , are entitled to a delay of an eviction through May 31 if they can ’ t pay rent because of financial or medical circumstances caused by the coronavirus .
To qualify , renters must have lost their job or hours at work , or have had to take care of children whose schools are closed or family members with COVID-19 .
Tenants also must notify their landlords in writing no later than seven days after their rent is due — or by April 8 or May 8 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pay .
Come June 1 , affected tenants can still be evicted if they didn ’ t pay rent in April or May .
What about protections from the federal government ?
As part of the coronavirus economic stimulus package signed by President Trump last week , the federal government has offered additional safeguards for renters .
These provisions , however , are confusing and it will be hard for tenants to figure out if they qualify .
The package included a 120-day eviction moratorium for tenants who can ’ t pay rent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ renters in properties — both single-family homes and apartments — whose owners have federally backed mortgages .
Every renter who lives in federally subsidized low-income housing also is automatically covered , said Shamus Roller , executive director of the National Housing Law Project .
Overall , about 40 % of the nation ’ s single-family homes and about half of multifamily homes qualify , with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae , Freddie Mac or other federal sources , according to the National Housing Law Project and National Multifamily Housing Council .
But renters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their landlord has such a mortgage .
“ From the tenant perspective , it ’ s very difficult to understand whether you ’ re protected , ” Roller said .
What about protections from cities and counties in California ?
More than 80 local governments — including Los Angeles , San Diego , San Jose and San Francisco — have passed some version of a temporary ban on evictions , according to the California Apartment Assn.
, the state ’ s largest landlord group .
These measures provide protections beyond those offered by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the city of Los Angeles , renters who can not pay their rent because of economic hardship or because their health has been affected by the coronavirus are not allowed to be evicted .
Neither are Angelenos who have had family members move in because of the virus and increase the number of people that would otherwise be permitted under their lease .
Tenants in L.A. have up to a year after the city ’ s emergency order expires to pay back rent .
All late fees for nonpayment will be waived .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ landlords were planning to pull rentals off the market under the Ellis Act or had wanted to displace their tenants by moving in themselves .
On Monday , Mayor Eric Garcetti issued a separate executive order preventing the landlords of hundreds of thousands of apartments across the city from increasing rents during the pandemic .
Oakland approved a less strict policy as part of its eviction moratorium , which limits the ability for landlords to hike rents in properties covered by the city ’ s rent control policies .
What happens if my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Los Angeles renters can contact the city ’ s housing agency for assistance .
Tenants in L.A. and elsewhere in California also can use the moratoriums approved by their city , or rules approved statewide , as a defense against an eviction in court .
Also , an eviction filing might not go far right now .
Adhering to calls for social distancing , many courts across California have greatly restricted their activities , including the ability to hear eviction cases .
In Los Angeles , such cases have been suspended until further @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , many overlapping government programs provide some protections for tenants against getting evicted right now .
But none ultimately waive rent payments , and just about all of the protections on the books require tenants to demonstrate how they have been harmed by the coronavirus .
The best way for a renter to prevent an eventual eviction is to make sure they ’ ve saved all of their documentation , including employment and health records .
What will homeowners get ?
Homeowners are getting more than renters , as both the federal and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ financial assistance .
Under the federal plan , homeowners with federally backed mortgages can not be forced into foreclosure for at least two months .
Additionally , homeowners who have suffered economic hardship over the virus can request a six-month deferral of their mortgage payments — without penalties , interest or late fees .
Also , last week , Gov .
Gavin Newsom announced that four of the nation ’ s largest banks — Wells Fargo , U.S. Bank , Citibank and JPMorgan Chase — as well as 200 state-chartered banks and credit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to defer payments for at least three months .
Late payments would not be reported to credit agencies .
For landlords , under a plan offered by the federal government , apartment owners with federally backed mortgages can defer their payments for three months .
But if they accept that relief , they also have to agree not to evict their tenants and must waive late fees .
What are landlords doing ?
Some landlords are offering renters relief beyond what ’ s required under the law .
The California Apartment Assn .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ rent increases and evictions for those affected by the coronavirus , plus waive late fees and offer flexible payment plans .
These are just guidelines , however .
While the federal government has increased unemployment benefits and is issuing a one-time direct payout of up to $ 1,200 for most adults , many housing advocates — including landlord groups — believe that ’ s not enough money to ensure renters , particularly in high-cost states like California , can pay all their bills .
“ There isn ’ t direct rental assistance for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Carol Galante , faculty director at UC Berkeley ’ s Terner Center for Housing Innovation .
“ I think that ’ s a mistake.
” Homeowners , on the other hand , are likely to fare a bit better .

More than 1 million Californians have applied for unemployment assistance as coronavirus cases have surged in recent weeks.
The pandemic and the economic devastation it has caused have led many renters to wonder how they’re going to pay rent on April 1 — after weeks of being asked to stay home and, in some cases, not work to slow the spread of the virus.
From eviction bans to mortgage relief, here’s a guide to protections for renters and homeowners in California.
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Do I still owe rent?
Yes. No government program passed to date relieves California renters of their duty to pay. Even in Los Angeles and other cities where renter relief efforts have been approved, tenants are required to ultimately pay back rent in full.
But what if I can’t pay? Will I get evicted?
The federal government, state government and individual cities and counties have offered many protections for tenants at risk of getting evicted. But there is no blanket ban preventing the legal process of eviction across California, and the strength of the protections that exist depends on where you live and who your landlord is.
All renters in the state, however, are entitled to a delay of an eviction through May 31 if they can’t pay rent because of financial or medical circumstances caused by the coronavirus. To qualify, renters must have lost their job or hours at work, or have had to take care of children whose schools are closed or family members with COVID-19. Tenants also must notify their landlords in writing no later than seven days after their rent is due — or by April 8 or May 8 — if they’re unable to pay.
Come June 1, affected tenants can still be evicted if they didn’t pay rent in April or May.
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What about protections from the federal government?
As part of the coronavirus economic stimulus package signed by President Trump last week, the federal government has offered additional safeguards for renters. These provisions, however, are confusing and it will be hard for tenants to figure out if they qualify.
The package included a 120-day eviction moratorium for tenants who can’t pay rent. But the moratorium only applies to renters in properties — both single-family homes and apartments — whose owners have federally backed mortgages. Every renter who lives in federally subsidized low-income housing also is automatically covered, said Shamus Roller, executive director of the National Housing Law Project.
Overall, about 40% of the nation’s single-family homes and about half of multifamily homes qualify, with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or other federal sources, according to the National Housing Law Project and National Multifamily Housing Council. But renters have no easy way of knowing whether their landlord has such a mortgage.
“From the tenant perspective, it’s very difficult to understand whether you’re protected,” Roller said.
What about protections from cities and counties in California?
More than 80 local governments — including Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco — have passed some version of a temporary ban on evictions, according to the California Apartment Assn., the state’s largest landlord group. These measures provide protections beyond those offered by the federal and state governments.
In the city of Los Angeles, renters who cannot pay their rent because of economic hardship or because their health has been affected by the coronavirus are not allowed to be evicted. Neither are Angelenos who have had family members move in because of the virus and increase the number of people that would otherwise be permitted under their lease.
Tenants in L.A. have up to a year after the city’s emergency order expires to pay back rent. All late fees for nonpayment will be waived.
Also protected from eviction are tenants whose landlords were planning to pull rentals off the market under the Ellis Act or had wanted to displace their tenants by moving in themselves.
On Monday, Mayor Eric Garcetti issued a separate executive order preventing the landlords of hundreds of thousands of apartments across the city from increasing rents during the pandemic. Oakland approved a less strict policy as part of its eviction moratorium, which limits the ability for landlords to hike rents in properties covered by the city’s rent control policies.
What happens if my landlord tries to evict me anyway?
Los Angeles renters can contact the city’s housing agency for assistance. Tenants in L.A. and elsewhere in California also can use the moratoriums approved by their city, or rules approved statewide, as a defense against an eviction in court.
Also, an eviction filing might not go far right now. Adhering to calls for social distancing, many courts across California have greatly restricted their activities, including the ability to hear eviction cases. In Los Angeles, such cases have been suspended until further notice except for emergencies.
In short, many overlapping government programs provide some protections for tenants against getting evicted right now. But none ultimately waive rent payments, and just about all of the protections on the books require tenants to demonstrate how they have been harmed by the coronavirus.
The best way for a renter to prevent an eventual eviction is to make sure they’ve saved all of their documentation, including employment and health records.
What will homeowners get?
Homeowners are getting more than renters, as both the federal and state governments have secured different forms of financial assistance.
Under the federal plan, homeowners with federally backed mortgages cannot be forced into foreclosure for at least two months. Additionally, homeowners who have suffered economic hardship over the virus can request a six-month deferral of their mortgage payments — without penalties, interest or late fees.
Also, last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that four of the nation’s largest banks — Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, Citibank and JPMorgan Chase — as well as 200 state-chartered banks and credit unions will allow affected homeowners in California to defer payments for at least three months. Late payments would not be reported to credit agencies.
For landlords, under a plan offered by the federal government, apartment owners with federally backed mortgages can defer their payments for three months. But if they accept that relief, they also have to agree not to evict their tenants and must waive late fees.
What are landlords doing?
Some landlords are offering renters relief beyond what’s required under the law. The California Apartment Assn. is advising its members to halt all rent increases and evictions for those affected by the coronavirus, plus waive late fees and offer flexible payment plans. These are just guidelines, however.
What’s the bottom line?
While the federal government has increased unemployment benefits and is issuing a one-time direct payout of up to $1,200 for most adults, many housing advocates — including landlord groups — believe that’s not enough money to ensure renters, particularly in high-cost states like California, can pay all their bills.
“There isn’t direct rental assistance for everybody who needs it,” said Carol Galante, faculty director at UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation. “I think that’s a mistake.”
Homeowners, on the other hand, are likely to fare a bit better.


latimes--2020-04-01--As coronavirus death toll mounts, California sees life upended for weeks to come

With coronavirus cases and deaths spreading across California , officials were moving urgently Tuesday to slow the spread by releasing inmates from prisons , extending stay-at-home orders and confirming schools are not likely to reopen before the end of the academic year .
The number of confirmed cases in the state topped 8,000 , with more than 170 deaths .
Los Angeles County officials Tuesday confirmed 10 new coronavirus-linked deaths and reported the first such fatality of a healthcare worker .
The number of deaths in the county is at least 54 .
In Santa Rosa , police announced a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
While there are some early signs that the extreme social distancing rules across the state might be helping , officials said they will probably have to be in place for weeks to come , which will continue to take a devastating toll on the economy .
Across California , there were signs of how COVID-19 was upending life .
California is granting early release to 3,500 inmates in an effort to reduce crowding as coronavirus infections Lawyers for Gov .
Gavin Newsom on Tuesday told a panel of federal judges the state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ measures ” to slow the spread of the virus and protect those who live and work within California ’ s 35 prisons .
The accelerated prison discharges come in the face of pressure to do much more .
In court filings , state lawyers said California intends to accelerate release and parole dates for 3,500 inmates serving terms for nonviolent crimes and already due to be released within 60 days .
The releases are to be conducted “ within the next several weeks.
” Documents provided to The Times show state prisons have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exhibit flu-like symptoms .
That has heightened fears among family members , especially of those inmates who are older or at risk of severe illness from COVID-19 , the disease caused by the novel coronavirus .
As cases continue to rise , six Bay Area jurisdictions announced Tuesday that they would extend their stay-at-home orders through the beginning of May and put new restrictions on such things as residential construction projects and the number of .
The counties extending the order are San Francisco , San Mateo , Santa Clara , Alameda , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cody , the Santa Clara County public health officer , said the Bay Area ’ s strict stay-at-home order was working , but it needs more time .
“ I want to say that : The incredible sacrifice that everyone has made , I believe it is starting to bend the curve .
But it ’ s not enough and it hasn ’ t been in place long enough , so we need to keep at it , we just need to keep at it , ” Cody said at a briefing .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to make a difference , and it ’ s giving our hospitals more time.
” Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore said Los Angeles may also extend its stay-at-home order .
Still , experts warn the epidemic could get dramatically worse .
Several nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities across the state , including one San Francisco facility with more than 700 beds , are being monitored as potential hot spots of the virus .
In San Bernardino County , nearly 60 patients and staff members at a Yucaipa nursing home have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ residents have died in what may be the state ’ s largest outbreak at a single facility , authorities said Tuesday .
While testing continues , Cedar Mountain Post Acute Rehabilitation has been told to assume that all of its patients have the COVID-19 virus , San Bernardino County Department of Public Health Director Trudy Raymundo said at a briefing .
The nursing home , which has about 90 beds , isn ’ t accepting new residents or discharging any , and the facility has been closed to visitors under Newsom ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ An elected official in the , appalled by the shortage of personal protective equipment at a hospital leased by the state of California to care for coronavirus patients .
“ Here ’ s what I see : I see a disaster on the brink of happening , ” San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa said at a meeting of the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday about the shortage of personal protective equipment , a category that includes masks , gowns and gloves , at Seton Medical Center in Daly City .
There ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hospitals in San Mateo County , and there were just five empty intensive care unit beds as of Tuesday , out of a total of 66 available across the county , said Louise Rogers , chief of San Mateo County Health .
On the schools front , Supt .
of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said Tuesday in a letter to school district officials that campuses would probably not reopen before summer .
“ Due to the current safety concerns and needs for ongoing social distancing , it currently appears that our students will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ campuses before the end of the school year , ” Thurmond wrote .
“ This is in no way to suggest that school is over for the year , but rather we should put all efforts into strengthening our delivery of education through distance learning.
” Los Angeles Unified , the state ’ s largest school system , shut down its schools on March 16 .
L.A. schools Supt .
Austin Beutner recently to May 1 .
In a new recommendation , residents to cover their noses and mouths when out in public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Up to now , federal officials have wear masks .
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ’ s official advice , at least so far : Healthy people who do not work in the healthcare sector and are not taking care of an infected person at home do not need to wear masks .
St. John and Lin reported from Northern California , Winton and Blume from Los Angeles .
Times staff writers Susanne Rust , Colleen Shalby , Luke Money , Hannah Fry , Sonali Kohli , Phil Willon and Cindy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Associated Press also contributed .

Paige St. John, Rong-Gong Lin II, Richard Winton, Howard Blume

Schools are not likely to reopen before the end of the academic year.
With coronavirus cases and deaths spreading across California, officials were moving urgently Tuesday to slow the spread by releasing 3,500 inmates from prisons, extending stay-at-home orders and confirming schools are not likely to reopen before the end of the academic year.
The number of confirmed cases in the state topped 8,000, with more than 170 deaths. Los Angeles County officials Tuesday confirmed 10 new coronavirus-linked deaths and reported the first such fatality of a healthcare worker. The number of deaths in the county is at least 54. In Santa Rosa, police announced a well-respected detective had died from the virus.
While there are some early signs that the extreme social distancing rules across the state might be helping, officials said they will probably have to be in place for weeks to come, which will continue to take a devastating toll on the economy.
Across California, there were signs of how COVID-19 was upending life.
Advertisement
California is granting early release to 3,500 inmates in an effort to reduce crowding as coronavirus infections begin spreading through the state prison system.
Lawyers for Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday told a panel of federal judges the state is taking “extraordinary and unprecedented protective measures” to slow the spread of the virus and protect those who live and work within California’s 35 prisons. The accelerated prison discharges come in the face of pressure to do much more.
In court filings, state lawyers said California intends to accelerate release and parole dates for 3,500 inmates serving terms for nonviolent crimes and already due to be released within 60 days. The releases are to be conducted “within the next several weeks.”
Documents provided to The Times show state prisons have been locking down cell blocks where inmates exhibit flu-like symptoms. That has heightened fears among family members, especially of those inmates who are older or at risk of severe illness from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
As cases continue to rise, six Bay Area jurisdictions announced Tuesday that they would extend their stay-at-home orders through the beginning of May and put new restrictions on such things as residential construction projects and the number of people who can attend funerals .
The counties extending the order are San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa and Marin.
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Dr. Sara Cody, the Santa Clara County public health officer, said the Bay Area’s strict stay-at-home order was working, but it needs more time.
“I want to say that: The incredible sacrifice that everyone has made, I believe it is starting to bend the curve. But it’s not enough and it hasn’t been in place long enough, so we need to keep at it, we just need to keep at it,” Cody said at a briefing. “I believe it’s beginning to make a difference, and it’s giving our hospitals more time.”
Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore said Los Angeles may also extend its stay-at-home order.
Still, experts warn the epidemic could get dramatically worse. Several nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities across the state, including one San Francisco facility with more than 700 beds, are being monitored as potential hot spots of the virus.
In San Bernardino County, nearly 60 patients and staff members at a Yucaipa nursing home have tested positive for the coronavirus and two residents have died in what may be the state’s largest outbreak at a single facility, authorities said Tuesday.
While testing continues, Cedar Mountain Post Acute Rehabilitation has been told to assume that all of its patients have the COVID-19 virus, San Bernardino County Department of Public Health Director Trudy Raymundo said at a briefing.
The nursing home, which has about 90 beds, isn’t accepting new residents or discharging any, and the facility has been closed to visitors under Newsom’s 2-week-old stay-at-home order, Raymundo said.
An elected official in the Bay Area pleaded for help Tuesday , appalled by the shortage of personal protective equipment at a hospital leased by the state of California to care for coronavirus patients.
“Here’s what I see: I see a disaster on the brink of happening,” San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa said at a meeting of the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday about the shortage of personal protective equipment, a category that includes masks, gowns and gloves, at Seton Medical Center in Daly City.
There’s also a shortage of staffing at hospitals in San Mateo County, and there were just five empty intensive care unit beds as of Tuesday, out of a total of 66 available across the county, said Louise Rogers, chief of San Mateo County Health.
On the schools front, Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said Tuesday in a letter to school district officials that campuses would probably not reopen before summer.
“Due to the current safety concerns and needs for ongoing social distancing, it currently appears that our students will not be able to return to school campuses before the end of the school year,” Thurmond wrote. “This is in no way to suggest that school is over for the year, but rather we should put all efforts into strengthening our delivery of education through distance learning.”
Los Angeles Unified, the state’s largest school system, shut down its schools on March 16 . L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner recently extended that campus closure to May 1.
In a new recommendation, Riverside County health officials urged residents to cover their noses and mouths when out in public for such essential tasks as grocery shopping and medical visits.
Up to now, federal officials have urged the healthy not wear masks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s official advice, at least so far: Healthy people who do not work in the healthcare sector and are not taking care of an infected person at home do not need to wear masks .
St. John and Lin reported from Northern California, Winton and Blume from Los Angeles. Times staff writers Susanne Rust, Colleen Shalby, Luke Money, Hannah Fry, Sonali Kohli, Phil Willon and Cindy Chang contributed to this report. The Associated Press also contributed.


latimes--2020-04-01--An L.A. couple is trapped on a coronavirus-hit cruise ship with nowhere to dock

Fearing the coronavirus , the children of a Los Angeles couple are pleading for help for their elderly parents aboard the Zaandam , a cruise ship heading to Florida and trying to dock .
Shou-Yinn Cheng and husband Min-Lee Cheng started their two-week South American trip on March 6 , departing from Buenos Aires with eight friends , half of them from California .
They snapped pictures at the breathtaking Iguazu Falls , spanning the border of Argentina and Brazil .
They posed with penguins and spent evenings in the splendor of the ship ’ s dining hall .
Their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Italy , was designed to house as many as 1,432 guests .
But days into their trip , travelers began to hear about people falling ill with symptoms of COVID-19 , the disease caused by the coronavirus .
After exploring Chile ’ s Punta Arenas along the coast , Min-Lee Cheng , 72 , feeling feverish , went to consult with the ship ’ s staff .
He was surprised to find the medical center packed — and soon , as the global pandemic halted markets and activities worldwide — officials on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ On board , four people would die of COVID-19 .
Nine people have tested positive for the disease so far , according to Erik Elvejord , spokesman for Holland America Line , the cruise line .
Back home in Southern California , the couple ’ s sons , Jih-Fei and Jih-Hao Cheng , panicked .
They began to call members of the La Habra Heights City Council , where their parents live , along with elected leaders in Los Angeles , Sacramento and Washington D.C. , seeking to publicize the plight of more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on a ship denied entry at port after port .
“ We must get them off , everyone .
Catching this disease — that is the absolute primary concern , ” said Jih-Hao Cheng , a regional director for a sporting goods company from Fullerton .
“ They ’ re in a petri dish , and the risk of them contracting the virus is incredibly high .
They told me their next-door neighbor has been coughing and coughing nonstop night and day .
And you know the thin wall that separates them .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ moved but I understand how the staff is overwhelmed.
” Even with spotty Wi-Fi , he and his older brother tried to stay in constant contact with their parents who are barely eating or sleeping .
His father believes he may have gastritis .
He asked to be tested for COVID-19 , but without respiratory issues , doctors turned him away .
Crew members have separated the passengers ; those who have had no illness have been transferred to the Rotterdam , another ship owned by Holland America .
The Zaandam and Rotterdam @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deceased and two others in dire need of medical evacuation , possibly to Mexico .
The ships are destined for Florida ’ s Port Everglades , where Broward County officials , along with the U.S. Coast Guard , have demanded a plan “ for self-support of the medical issues occurring on board the vessels.
” Florida Gov .
Ron DeSantis , in an interview with Fox News , has said that “ we can not afford to have people who are not even Floridians dumped into South Florida using up those valuable resources.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ requested and were denied to disembark in Chile , Peru , Ecuador , Panama.
” Officials in Panama , however , allowed the ships to pass through its canal and , before that crossing , gave permission for crew members to transfer supplies between the two vessels .
Crew members also were permitted to bring provisions and medication on board the vessels in Chile .
There are 797 guests and 645 crew members on the Rotterdam ; 446 guests and 602 crew members are on the Zaandam , according to Elvejord , who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ provide the information ” that Florida officials are requesting .
Meanwhile , with each day blurring into the next , “ we are not on a regular clock or routine anymore , ” said Min-Lee Cheng , a retired public health official and expert on diseases transmitted via mosquitoes .
Jih-Fei Cheng , a Scripps College professor , said his father ’ s medical background helped him to “ stay calmer .
But we are all fearful .
Can you imagine them watching from their room as most of their friends boarded the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ behind ?
They heard that those friends have reserved flights that will take them home — as soon as they are allowed to disembark — while what will happen to them ?
” He said it surprised him that people were criticized about going on cruises , adding that “ when my parents flew out of Los Angeles ... they were under the impression that there were very few cases in South America .
None of us knew how huge this would be .
Early intervention would have prevented all of this trouble @ @ @ @ @ @ @ harder it will be to resolve.
” Min-Lee Cheng said “ the biggest challenge is the uncertainty .
We are not given current information on board the ship .
We only found out this morning there are people who have tested positive for COVID-19 .
”

Four people have died of COVID-19 on the Zaandam cruise ship, which was on a South American trip when passengers fell ill. Above, the Rotterdam, which is now sailing in tandem with the Zaandam.
Fearing the coronavirus, the children of a Los Angeles couple are pleading for help for their elderly parents aboard the Zaandam, a cruise ship heading to Florida and trying to dock.
Shou-Yinn Cheng and her husband, Min-Lee Cheng, started their two-week South American trip March 8, departing from Buenos Aires with 10 friends, half of them from California. They snapped pictures at the breathtaking Iguazu Falls, spanning the border of Argentina and Brazil. They posed with penguins and spent evenings in the splendor of the ship’s dining hall. Their comfortable, elegant vessel, built in Italy, was designed to house as many as 1,432 guests.
But days into their trip, travelers began to hear about people falling ill with symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
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After exploring Chile’s Punta Arenas along the coast, Min-Lee Cheng, 72, feeling feverish, went to consult with the ship’s staff. He was surprised to find the medical center packed — and soon, as the global pandemic halted markets and activities worldwide — officials on the Zaandam urged all passengers to self-quarantine.
On board, four people would die of COVID-19.
Nine people have tested positive for the disease so far, according to Erik Elvejord, spokesman for Holland America Line, the cruise line.
Back home in Southern California, the couple’s sons, Jih-Fei and Jih-Hao Cheng, panicked. They began to call City Council members in La Habra Heights, where their parents live, along with elected leaders in Los Angeles, Sacramento and Washington, seeking to publicize the plight of more than 1,000 travelers and crew members captive on a ship denied entry at port after port.
“We must get them off, everyone. Catching this disease — that is the absolute primary concern,” said Jih-Hao Cheng, a regional director for a sporting goods company from Fullerton. “They’re in a petri dish, and the risk of them contracting the virus is incredibly high. They told me their next-door neighbor has been coughing and coughing nonstop night and day. And you know the thin wall that separates them. I’ve requested that they be moved, but I understand how the staff is overwhelmed.”
Even with spotty Wi-Fi, Jih-Hao Cheng and his older brother tried to stay in constant contact with their parents who are barely eating or sleeping.
Their father believes he may have gastritis. He asked to be tested for COVID-19, but without respiratory issues, doctors turned him away.
Crew members have separated the passengers; those who have had no illness have been transferred to the Rotterdam, another ship owned by Holland America.
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The Zaandam and Rotterdam are sailing in tandem, carrying the deceased and two people in dire need of medical evacuation, possibly to Mexico. The ships are destined for Florida’s Port Everglades, where Broward County officials, along with the U.S. Coast Guard, have demanded a plan “for self-support of the medical issues occurring on board the vessels.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in an interview with Fox News, said that “we cannot afford to have people who are not even Floridians dumped into South Florida using up those valuable resources.”
Elvejord said company representatives have “requested and were denied to disembark in Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Panama.”
Officials in Panama, however, allowed the ships to pass through its canal and, before that crossing, gave permission for crew members to transfer supplies between the two vessels.
Crew members also were permitted to bring provisions and medication on the vessels in Chile.
There are 797 guests and 645 crew members on the Rotterdam; 446 guests and 602 crew members are on the Zaandam, according to Elvejord, who added that the company “will certainly provide the information” that Florida officials are requesting.
Meanwhile, with each day blurring into the next, “we are not on a regular clock or routine anymore,” said Min-Lee Cheng, a retired public health official and expert on diseases transmitted via mosquitoes.
Jih-Fei Cheng, a Scripps College professor, said his father’s medical background helped him to “stay calmer. But we are all fearful. Can you imagine them watching from their room as most of their friends boarded the Rotterdam while they were asked to stay behind? They heard that those friends have reserved flights that will take them home — as soon as they are allowed to disembark — while what will happen to them?”
He said it surprised him that people were criticized about going on cruises, adding that “when my parents flew out of Los Angeles … they were under the impression that there were very few cases in South America. None of us knew how huge this would be. Early intervention would have prevented all of this trouble. The longer we wait, the harder it will be to resolve.”
Min-Lee Cheng said “the biggest challenge is the uncertainty. We are not given current information on board the ship. We only found out this morning there are people who have tested positive for COVID-19.”


latimes--2020-04-01--Column: These ER doctors are rooming together to avoid taking coronavirus home to their families

They did their residencies together , they work in the same emergency room and they each recently started families .
And now these three doctors on the front lines of the pandemic have become even closer — though not in a way any of them really wanted .
Andrew Herzik , Ben Musser and Craig Torres-Ness , who all treat coronavirus patients at Good Samaritan Hospital , recently became roommates , moving into temporary quarters together after deciding they didn ’ t want to risk exposing their wives and children to what they might bring home from the hospital .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ conclusion because we were coming into contact with the virus every day , ” said Herzik .
Even after scrubbing at the end of a shift , he told me , he didn ’ t feel comfortable being close to his wife and two kids , a 2 ½-year-old and an 11-month-old .
“ We ’ d feel terrible if we got our wives and children sick , ” said Musser , whose daughter is 10 weeks old .
“ It ’ s pretty inevitable that it ’ s only a matter of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if , but when , ” said Torres-Ness , whose kids are almost 3 and 11 weeks .
As the number of cases surges , he noted , medical professionals are at greater risk .
Rather than go home to their families after work , the doctors decided a week and a half ago to rent a three-bedroom Airbnb apartment not far from the hospital .
But that didn ’ t go so well .
“ Oh my goodness , it was a disaster , ” said Musser , explaining that the walls @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was loud .
“ You could hear every footstep and you could even hear the refrigerator door open .
... At 2 a.m. , all you heard was loud bass.
” Musser and Torres-Ness each survived one night in the apartment after grueling ER shifts , but they couldn ’ t get the rest they needed .
They gave a heads up to Herzik , and Plan B was hatched .
Herzik grew up in Redondo Beach , where he still serves as a lifeguard — the job that made him want to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wife , Alyson Bourne , now live several minutes away from his parents , also in Redondo .
The solution seemed obvious to one and all .
Herzik ’ s parents , Terry and Deborah , agreed to pack up quickly and move out of their house and into their son ’ s home along with Alyson and the two kids .
That cleared the way for Andrew and his two doctor pals to move into his childhood home .
“ My parents were like , super-game , ” said Herzik .
Herzik @ @ @ @ @ @ @ urchin diver and his mother is a nurse practitioner at El Camino College , where she had concerns about her own exposure to the virus .
But Deborah Herzik has been working from home of late , practicing telemedicine , so moving into Andrew ’ s home seemed safe enough .
“ So now they have a nice comfy home to live in and we get to be here to help Aly and be with our grandchildren , ” said Deborah .
About every other day , depending on his ER schedule , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ walk or to have dinner .
The routine is for him to wait until his kids are asleep , then walk around to the backyard of his home .
He sits on the patio while Alyson and his parents stay a good 10 feet or so away .
“ Gus would want to run into his arms if he saw Andrew , ” Alyson said of their 2-year-old son , who has asthma , a condition that makes them extra leery of exposure .
On Monday night , all three doctors gathered in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and wife made pasta Bolognese , with broccoli , and set the food on a patio table for the doctors to retrieve .
They may be working in a medical war zone , the doctors said , but they didn ’ t feel deserving of much sympathy on this particular night .
Being served a gourmet dinner in a nice backyard near the beach didn ’ t seem like all that much of a sacrifice , Musser and Torres-Ness said .
“ I ’ m 35 years old and having a slumber party @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But being without their families , and dealing with the growing crush of patients and the uncertainty of how bad things will get , is more than a little stressful , and they know it is stressful for their wives to manage without them , too .
Musser visits his home in Montrose when he can for safe-distance visits , Torres-Ness does the same in Los Feliz , and there are lots of phone calls and Facetime connections .
“ I sit in my backyard and it ’ s like a prisoner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ Stay six feet away , and no touching.
” Torres-Ness said he slept on the living room sofa in his two-bedroom apartment until that felt unsafe because of the tide of patients coming through ER with virus symptoms .
He ’ s seeing as many as 10 such cases daily , and to conserve equipment in anticipation of a possible surge , he and his colleagues are often re-using the same protective gear for extended periods .
Even routine emergencies are problematic now , he said .
Because patients can be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be protected against the virus even to treat someone with an injury or a heart problem .
And yet despite the growing risk , Torres-Ness said , he postponed a scheduled paternity leave to serve during the crisis .
“ This is what we trained for , ” he said .
“ To be able to respond to whatever the situation is.
” All three doctors are employed by USC ’ s Keck School of Medicine , which provides emergency services at Good Sam , Verdugo Hills Hospital , L.A. County-USC Medical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dr. Carl Chudnofsky directs all of Keck ’ s ER services and called Herzik , Musser and Torres-Ness “ three really good young doctors.
” In the time since the trio made their own housing arrangement , Chudnofsky said , Keck has begun providing hotel rooms and apartment units for other employees .
“ This involves two types of housing , one for those who have been exposed and need to self-quarantine , and we ’ re also offering housing for front-line caregivers who don ’ t want to go home because of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sick person or because they ’ ve got a new baby , ” Chudnofsky said .
Of those quarantined , Chudnofsky said , no one has tested positive .
But ER patient volume ticked up on Monday , and it surged again Tuesday , so Chudnofsky is planning for the possibility of greater demands on his staff .
He said he ’ s pulling his own ER shifts , too , and is working 10 to 12 hours a day , seven days a week .
“ Hopefully we ’ ll get through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , adding that Keck is also making mental health counseling and other supportive services available to employees who need them.. As for the three doctors , they said they tried to get a refund after moving out of the apartment they rented , but so far no luck .
If they get stiffed , maybe the apartment can be one of the housing options for their colleagues , Torres-Ness said , if the party house next door turns down the volume .
That doesn ’ t sound like too much to ask , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are making these days .
“ My wife sent me a video yesterday of our 11-month-old , walking for the first time , ” Herzik said with a combination of pride and regret .
This is a time when all of us are learning to sacrifice and adapt , to be together and to be apart , and to be grateful to those who stand ready to serve .

Alyson Bourne places dinner on a table rather than handing it directly to doctors Andrew Herzik, Bourne’s husband, left, Ben Musser, center, and Craig Torres-Ness.
They did their residencies together, they work in the same emergency room and they each recently started families.
And now these three doctors on the front lines of the pandemic have become even closer — though not in a way any of them really wanted.
Andrew Herzik, Ben Musser and Craig Torres-Ness, who all treat coronavirus patients at Good Samaritan Hospital, recently became roommates, moving into temporary quarters together after deciding they didn’t want to risk exposing their wives and children to what they might bring home from the hospital.
From left, Terry Herzik, Alyson Bourne, Deborah Herzik and doctors Andrew Herzik, Ben Musser and Craig Torres-Ness, and dog Little Dude, before they share dinner Monday. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
“We all came to the same conclusion because we were coming into contact with the virus every day,” said Herzik. Even after scrubbing at the end of a shift, he told me, he didn’t feel comfortable being close to his wife and two kids, a 2 ½-year-old and an 11-month-old.
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“We’d feel terrible if we got our wives and children sick,” said Musser, whose daughter is 10 weeks old.
“It’s pretty inevitable that it’s only a matter of time before we get sick — not if, but when,” said Torres-Ness, whose kids are almost 3 and 11 weeks. As the number of cases surges, he noted, medical professionals are at greater risk.
Rather than go home to their families after work, the doctors decided a week and a half ago to rent a three-bedroom Airbnb apartment not far from the hospital.
But that didn’t go so well.
“Oh my goodness, it was a disaster,” said Musser, explaining that the walls were thin and the family next door was loud. “You could hear every footstep and you could even hear the refrigerator door open. ... At 2 a.m., all you heard was loud bass.”
Musser and Torres-Ness each survived one night in the apartment after grueling ER shifts, but they couldn’t get the rest they needed. They gave a heads up to Herzik, and Plan B was hatched.
Andrew Herzik by the fireplace in his backyard. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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Herzik grew up in Redondo Beach, where he still serves as a lifeguard — the job that made him want to be a doctor. He and his wife, Alyson Bourne, now live several minutes away from his parents, also in Redondo.
The solution seemed obvious to one and all.
Herzik’s parents, Terry and Deborah, agreed to pack up quickly and move out of their house and into their son’s home along with Alyson and the two kids. That cleared the way for Andrew and his two doctor pals to move into his childhood home.
“My parents were like, super-game,” said Herzik.
Herzik’s father is a commercial sea urchin diver and his mother is a nurse practitioner at El Camino College, where she had concerns about her own exposure to the virus. But Deborah Herzik has been working from home of late, practicing telemedicine, so moving into Andrew’s home seemed safe enough.
The doctors have dinner with Herzik’s parents. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
“So now they have a nice comfy home to live in and we get to be here to help Aly and be with our grandchildren,” said Deborah.
About every other day, depending on his ER schedule, Andrew Herzik meets his wife for a walk or to have dinner. The routine is for him to wait until his kids are asleep, then walk around to the backyard of his home. He sits on the patio while Alyson and his parents stay a good 10 feet or so away.
“Gus would want to run into his arms if he saw Andrew,” Alyson said of their 2-year-old son, who has asthma, a condition that makes them extra leery of exposure.
On Monday night, all three doctors gathered in the backyard while Herzik’s parents and wife made pasta Bolognese, with broccoli, and set the food on a patio table for the doctors to retrieve.
Alyson Bourne, wife of Dr. Andrew Herzik. (Patrick T. Fallon/For The Times)
They may be working in a medical war zone, the doctors said, but they didn’t feel deserving of much sympathy on this particular night. Being served a gourmet dinner in a nice backyard near the beach didn’t seem like all that much of a sacrifice, Musser and Torres-Ness said.
“I’m 35 years old and having a slumber party with my buddies,” said Torres-Ness.
But being without their families, and dealing with the growing crush of patients and the uncertainty of how bad things will get, is more than a little stressful, and they know it is stressful for their wives to manage without them, too. Musser visits his home in Montrose when he can for safe-distance visits, Torres-Ness does the same in Los Feliz, and there are lots of phone calls and Facetime connections.
“I sit in my backyard and it’s like a prisoner having a visit,” said Musser. “Stay six feet away, and no touching.”
Torres-Ness said he slept on the living room sofa in his two-bedroom apartment until that felt unsafe because of the tide of patients coming through ER with virus symptoms. He’s seeing as many as 10 such cases daily, and to conserve equipment in anticipation of a possible surge, he and his colleagues are often re-using the same protective gear for extended periods.
Dr. Craig Torres-Ness. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
Even routine emergencies are problematic now, he said. Because patients can be asymptomatic, the entire medical team has to be protected against the virus even to treat someone with an injury or a heart problem. And yet despite the growing risk, Torres-Ness said, he postponed a scheduled paternity leave to serve during the crisis.
“This is what we trained for,” he said. “To be able to respond to whatever the situation is.”
All three doctors are employed by USC’s Keck School of Medicine, which provides emergency services at Good Sam, Verdugo Hills Hospital, L.A. County-USC Medical Center and the Keck Medical Center. Dr. Carl Chudnofsky directs all of Keck’s ER services and called Herzik, Musser and Torres-Ness “three really good young doctors.”
In the time since the trio made their own housing arrangement, Chudnofsky said, Keck has begun providing hotel rooms and apartment units for other employees.
“This involves two types of housing, one for those who have been exposed and need to self-quarantine, and we’re also offering housing for front-line caregivers who don’t want to go home because of living with an elderly person or a sick person or because they’ve got a new baby,” Chudnofsky said.
Dr. Ben Musser. (Patrick T. Fallon/For The Times)
Of those quarantined, Chudnofsky said, no one has tested positive. But ER patient volume ticked up on Monday, and it surged again Tuesday, so Chudnofsky is planning for the possibility of greater demands on his staff. He said he’s pulling his own ER shifts, too, and is working 10 to 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
“Hopefully we’ll get through this relatively unscathed,” he said, adding that Keck is also making mental health counseling and other supportive services available to employees who need them..
As for the three doctors, they said they tried to get a refund after moving out of the apartment they rented, but so far no luck. If they get stiffed, maybe the apartment can be one of the housing options for their colleagues, Torres-Ness said, if the party house next door turns down the volume.
That doesn’t sound like too much to ask, given the compromises so many medical pros are making these days.
The group practices social distancing during their backyard dinner in Redondo Beach. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
“My wife sent me a video yesterday of our 11-month-old, walking for the first time,” Herzik said with a combination of pride and regret.
This is a time when all of us are learning to sacrifice and adapt, to be together and to be apart, and to be grateful to those who stand ready to serve.
Steve.lopez@latimes.com