outdoor dining reopening in LA today. this is what health officials have to say about it:
employees must wear face masks AND shields. tables must be eight feet apart. TVs must remain off. people eating a restaurant can't be in groups larger than six and must all be from the same household.
customers need to keep their masks on until their food arrives, and then put it back on after they are done eating. people must also put their mask on when their server approaches their table, or when they leave their table.
LA County's Dr. Muntu Davis reminds Angelenos that before the big surge, LA County was reporting about 1,200 cases a day. We're currently at 7,000ish. The risks of transmission are still very high.
"We can't relax. If we don't take precautions, in two weeks we're going to see cases rise again," said LA County's Dr. Muntu Davis. "Just because some sectors have reopened doesn't mean that the risk for community transmission has gone away."
this reminds me of how the last time I ate inside a restaurant was at the end of February in the smallest possible space crammed with tables. I remember diligently washing my hands in the bathroom ... as though that would protect me from COVID 🙃
shout-out to Northern Thai Food Club though. still regularly get take-out from them!!
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I just heard someone say that North Dakota and Arizona have way lower death rates from COVID than California, and that they've managed it without all our rules.
That's just not true! Everyone loves to bash California, but our death rate from COVID ranks 33 out of 50 states 🙃
Nearly 41,000 Californians have died from COVID -- about 1 of every 1,000 residents
If we had the same death rate as Arizona or North Dakota, we'd have around 75,000 dead. Even the rate of Florida, which everyone love to compare us to, would bring our toll to 50,000
Idk why people think California is doing so much worse than it is. It might be news coverage highlighting how big our surge has been -- it was undoubtedly huge, I don't dispute that -- or just that people like to make fun of California
LA County has confirmed its second case of the B117 variant, the one that is widespread in the UK and is believed to be more contagious.
The specimen, which came from a clinical facility, was sequenced as part of routine surveillance by the health department. Officials say they believe the variant is already spreading in the county and continue to test samples.
"Presence of the B.1.1.7 variant in L.A. County means virus transmission can happen more easily, and residents and businesses must more diligently implement and follow all of the personal protective actions and safety measures," according to a press release from the health dept.
So Gov. Newsom announced that the stay-at-home orders are being lifted. I talked to a bunch of epidemiologists to see what they were thinking about the news. Just like the public, their reactions varied widely
Some experts thought it was too soon. California has just started to turn around its numbers and it doesn't make sense to reopen things before they get lower, they said, because if there's another surge it will build upon this one that isn't over yet
UC Berkeley's Dr. John Swartzberg said that California has reopening too soon too many times.
“It’s like we’re climbing this mountain. We go two steps up and we just take one step back, and we take two steps up from there and one step back and we keep just having more cases."
A happy San Francisco Mayor London Breed says that Gov. Newsom's lifting of the stay-at-home order is good news. The city's COVID numbers are all trending downwards and outdoor dining can resume. "It's good news."
"You can get your hair done, you can get your nails done," starting on Thursday, Breed says. Outdoor museums, zoos, outdoor entertainment like skateparks and indoor funerals for up to 12 people were all banned but now will reopen on Thursday.
There will also be capacity increases at grocery stores and retail shops, Breed says.
Gov. Newsom just started his press conference. It's gonna be a doozy!
Newsom says that ICU capacity will be above 15% across the state by Feb. 21st
Gavin is really Gavin-ing today: "The goal of this announcement is to socialize our projections as well as illuminate and further advance an understanding, a deeper understanding, of what today means and it doesn't mean."
after California instated stay-at-home orders for most of the state in early December, our mobility -- a measure of how much everyone is moving around -- dropped to the lowest level since May. that undoubtedly helped turn around our terrible surge
maybe the rules can be loosened as things are improving, but they're barely improving! there are still way too many people in the hospital and health care workers are still stretched so thin ... like, look at this graph
the worst-case scenario we talked about so much, the surge-upon-a-surge, was about what would happen if there was a Christmas or NYE surge on top of the Thanksgiving/fall surge. as in, what happens when cases are already really high and they start growing again...