Residents of the vast majority of California’s 58 counties should be wearing masks, according to the CDC. That’s because 40 of those counties are now designated communities with “High” Covid levels. Less than one month ago, the number was 13. The decision to return to mandated face coverings is not up to the CDC, however,
Lockdown
Under current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, 13 of California’s 58 counties moved today into “high” levels of Covid and are supposed to require masks in indoor public spaces. They include some of the state’s most populous counties, like Santa Clara and Sacramento as well as some of its smallest, like Del Norte
It’s a bizarre world, this (almost, more-or-less, maybe) post-Covid movie landscape. Pieces are falling into place: Production starts have been up for a year, box-office revenue continues to climb, though it’s still a long reach to pre-Covid highs. But so much is so different, and I don’t mean just the obvious shift toward streaming. Look
There’s a growing chorus from public health officials being heard across the country this week, and it consists of one just word: “Masks.” Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer on a Zoom with reporters today recommended, “Everyone two years of age and older should wear a mask in indoor gatherings and indoor settings
On November 9, 2021, the first case of a new Covid variant was detected in South Africa. On November 26, with cases rising across that country, the World Health Organization declared it a “variant of concern,” noting a likely increased transmissibility. They called it Omicron. By December 1, the first cases were found in the
Covid test positivity in California is up 47.6% in the past week, according to the California State data dashboard. One week ago, the 7-day daily test positivity rate was 2.1%. Today, it sits at 3.1%. That’s quite a jump for a metric that is averaged over seven days to account for daily fluctuations in data
Los Angeles County reported 1,355 new Covid cases on Friday, continuing an upward trend that began about a week ago as the more-infectious BA.2 subvariant continues to spread. Last week, the 7-day average daily number of new cases in the county was 878. By yesterday, the county was averaging more than 1,000 new Covid cases
A new state study suggests the number of people in Los Angeles County who have been infected with Covid-19 during the pandemic is far greater than the number confirmed through standard testing. That’s due largely to the number of people who never developed symptoms and so never got tested, or who couldn’t access tests, L.A.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said today that the county will relax its indoor mask-wearing requirement this week, allowing vaccinated people to remove masks in indoor spaces where people are checked for proof of vaccination. She says the change could take effect by Friday. “This puts us significantly closer to aligning with the State,”
For those not going to the Super Bowl in Los Angeles this weekend, the second best place to watch the game might now be Las Vegas. Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, lifted the Nevada’s indoor mask mandate on Thursday citing “a rapid decline in case numbers, coupled with declining hospitalizations, a drop in #COVID19 detected
Earlier today, California officials announced the state would allow vaccinated residents to be unmasked in most indoor public spaces beginning next week. Local jurisdictions are allowed to be more stringent with their requirements, however, and it looks like Los Angeles County will be forging its own path on masks. Not long after the state announcement,
Less than a week after a photo surfaced of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Magic Johnson maskless at SoFi Stadium, County Supervisor Katheryn Barger has ratcheted up the pressure on health officials to modify L.A.’s strict mask mandate for outdoor mega-events before the Super Bowl kicks off there on February 13. After the mayor
Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer today outlined a framework for reducing Covid mitigation measures as the current Omicron surge falls. She warned however that, even after the surge, the threat level would still be considered “high” and numbers would need to come down further before restrictions are lifted. “This is not the
One day after Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and were called out for posing for maskless photos inside SoFi Stadium, a Los Angeles County Supervisor today called for state and local health officials to reevaluate Covid mask mandates, saying it should be up to the individual to decide when to wear
On Sunday, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported 40 new deaths from Covid-19, as well as 16,835 new positive cases. The number of deaths and confirmed cases relayed today may reflect delays in weekend reporting. But today’s data brings the County to a total of 28,923 deaths and 2,648,751 positive cases. 3,852
Whoopi Goldberg fired back at Bill Maher over comments he made in his Real Time monologue Friday evening that included “I don’t want to live in your paranoid world anymore — your masked, paranoid world.” Maher told Deadline more specifically last week, “I’m over Covid…I was never scared of it. I was always scared of
On Saturday, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported 72 new deaths from Covid-19, along with 39,117 new positive cases. The number of deaths and confirmed cases reported today may reflect delays in weekend reporting. But today’s tallies bring the County to a total of 28,417 deaths and 2,467,797 positive cases. There have
On Saturday, Los Angeles County passed the milestone of 28,000 Covid-related deaths, reporting 66 new deaths, as well as 41,765 new positive cases. Today’s death count is the highest the Department of Public Health has reported in a single day since April 2, 2021, with daily deaths having increased fourfold in the course of the
California is seeing a surge in hospitalizations, up 59% in a little over a week, and the state’s latest ensemble forecast says it’s only the beginning. On December 31, state data showed 5,835 patients hospitalized with Covid. Eight days later, the total had jumped to 9,275 — data was not published for January 1 due
Los Angeles County reported a staggering 37,215 new Covid-19 cases today, by far the highest single-day number of the entire pandemic. Hospitalizations and deaths have doubled in the past week as well, although those counts are still well short of the peaks set during last winter’s surge in infections. The daily cases number broke a
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control on Monday shortened the recommended isolation and quarantine guidelines for Americans who contract or are exposed to Covid-19 from 10 to five days. The move drew swift criticism from many experts, who questioned the logic behind the decision. “I don’t think there’s any big change in science that justifies
The Delta and Omicron variants were driving a “dual surge” in Covid-related infections in Los Angeles today, according to health officials. That led to the county reporting 16,510 new cases in the past 24 hours, up 91% over the course of one week. It’s the highest daily case count since January 6 of this year,
On Tuesday, the United States recorded 512,553 daily new cases, according to Johns Hopkins University. That is, by far, the single highest daily case number recorded during the entire Covid-19 pandemic. University data indicates that the previous high was 294,015 on January 8, 2021. One mitigating factor is the Christmas weekend. May testing centers were
Los Angeles County reported 7,425 new cases of Covid and nine additional deaths on Monday. But those numbers were artificially low due to reporting delays from the holiday weekend. The region’s test positivity rate — which is considered a more accurate indication of infection spread because it is an average and also a percentage, rather
After a week of rising Covid cases in Los Angeles, the county’s daily count of new infections hit a high not seen in nearly a year. On Christmas Eve the region reported 9,988 new cases. The last time it saw a daily new cases count that high was mid-January 2021. On Tuesday of this week,
“Fifty percent of all of the sequenced genomes identify themselves as Omicron,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday. He was speaking of the positive Covid tests and wastewater in the state that have been examined for new cases of the variant. Newsom then hinted that numbers to be released today would be even higher.
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced today that the state had recorded nearly 11,000 new cases of Covid-19 over the past 24 hours. That marks a 100% increase from the daily number of 5,400 new cases recorded just one week ago. The actual count, according to the state’s Covid data dashboard, was 10,903. Newsom also announced
My good colleague Pete Hammond tells us the film awards season is in full swing, live and in-person. Screenings. Panels. Parties. Lunch with the stars. Just like 2019. Now, if the audience would only catch up. This weekend, an extremely important connection got missed, as Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, meant to be a crowd-pleaser,
On Saturday, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported 23 new deaths from Covid-19, as well as 1,834 new positive cases. The number of deaths and confirmed cases reported today may reflect delays in weekend reporting. But today’s data brings the County to a total of 27,325 deaths and 1,545,583 positive cases. At
Awards revenue took a sharp hit in the last fiscal year at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but rebounding investment income boosted finances even as viewers turned away from the Oscar show, according to the Academy’s annual report. Awards-related revenue declined 10.8 percent, to about $117.7 million from $131.9 million, in the