The latest jobless report in Calif. shows unemployment claims were down. The unemployment rate in the state down 0.8 percent to 8.2 percent for November with 57,100 new jobs. The rate also the lowest since it’s been since March. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also shows the jobless rate down to 6.7 nationally, but twice as high as one year ago. Lake County is the 35th out of the state’s 58 counties for its jobless rate at 7.3%, Mendocino County wasn’t far behind with 6.8% unemployment, Sonoma, 5.5 percent, Yolo, at 5.8 percent.
The end of year funding for the government has been tacked on to a massive coronavirus relief package that’s expected to get to the president before Christmas. Congressmen John Garamendi (D-CA) and Mike Thompson (CA-05) voted yes for the omnibus and coronavirus relief bill, which will bring $600 direct payments to residents and an extra $300/week in unemployment for those who have lost their jobs. The bill has billions in relief for healthcare, including helping to pay to move the vaccine across the country and money to continue paying for testing and new therapies related to the pandemic. There’s also money in the bill to help schools and small businesses.
The CARES Small Business Assistance Grant Program in Lake County has distributed over $1 million in grants to eligible small businesses. Lake Co News reports the county, and the Lake County Economic Development Corp. are working together to help businesses during the pandemic to provide much-needed financial relief to businesses at a key juncture of COVID-19 pandemic response. The president of the corp. says the work is not done helping businesses. That we all have to do our part and support local businesses by using local pick up and home delivery, shop local and keep on visiting businesses in the county who can provide safe in person services too.
After massive, months long lasting wildfires, the forest supervisors in the Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers national forests report the August Complex vegetation and resource rapid assessment is done. The work after the massive gigafire to assess restoration areas, look for possible areas that are a risk to public safety, cultural or natural resources and come up with a way to manage the post-fire landscape across forest boundaries. It’s the first part of the work on hazard reduction and restoration. More work will be done with public input before the restoration work gets underway.
Cal Fire in Mendocino County has lifted the burn ban after recent rains and cooler temperatures. The agency says that has reduced the threat of wildfires. So starting next Monday, the 28th, you won’t need a burning permit for residential piles of 4 x 4 feet or smaller. Burn piles larger than 4 x 4 you will require a CAL FIRE burn permit. You have to follow the rules of the Mendocino County Air Quality District. You have to make sure you’re burning on a permissive burn day which you can do 24/7. They ask that you use caution while burning debris or agriculture, follow all guidelines provided, and maintain control of the fire at all times. Only dry, natural vegetative material like leaves, pine needles and tree trimmings can be burned. Someone needs to be there with the fire as it burns and it make sure it’s out. You can be held liable for the fire if it should get out of control or burn onto a neighboring property.
Police in Fort Bragg getting ahead of an expected surge in COVID-19 cases is closing the front lobby of the police department to walk in traffic. Starting Monday you can visit the department, but access will be restricted to protect the public and police department staff. For vehicle releases, property returns and ticket sign-offs, you can call into dispatch with the telephone right outside the front door. They will then be in touch with whoever on staff you need. They will not be offering Livescan services at this time and say they hope it’s a short closure, and that they’ll be back to full service again soon.
In Sonoma County they expect to vaccinate as many as 20,000 front-line medical workers this week. They will be doing the inoculations at many of the county’s 20 nursing and 177 long-term care facilities next week. The county has received 1,950 more doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, but that’s only two thirds what the county was expecting. The public health officer, Dr. Sundari Mase says they should be getting more vaccines soon including 5,800 doses of the newly approved Moderna vaccine. Mase says the county is facing the darkest days of the virus right now as there are nearly 42 new daily cases per 100,000 residents. Twice as many as last week. About 238 cases are reported everyday, as compared to 135 cases a day over the previous two weeks.
Almost 25% of the hospitals in Calif. have patients with the virus and there’s only about 2% ICU bed availability across all hospitals. This is the worst surge so far according to public health experts. New infections, hospitalizations, ICU patients and deaths are increasing without slowing. California has the second-most new cases per 100,000 residents this past week. Only Tennessee, in all of the states of the union, was ahead of Calif. There have been more than 512,000 new cases identified the last two weeks, that includes over 90,000 this past weekend. There are about 17,000 in the hospital and 3,600 in ICU beds as of Sunday.
Some counties in the state are reportedly not keeping up with their data dashboards. Health officials say the case rate is up, but the rate at which the cases are increasing is slower. Many counties had no update over the weekend though, so that could account for some of that. Even still cases are climbing up a steep hill with no signs of flattening. New cases did fall in Alameda, Los Angeles and San Francisco counties. There have been over 1,500 cases in Lake County and 22 deaths and more than 2,200 in Mendocino County and 25 deaths.
Looks like we’ll be seeing a continuation of the ever-so-long lasting backlog of unemployment claims. The amount is up again with as many as 683,200 California workers in limbo as the state tries to catch up with the mountain of jobless claims. There were 12,500 more claims last week compared to the week before. The backlog includes unpaid initial unemployment claims and unpaid continuing claims. There are 370,300 first time claims and nearly 313,000 continued claims. There’s been some upheaval at the department, but early this fall they vowed to catch up to all the backlogged claims by the end of January.
The pear harvest, like so many other things, is being impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. The Record Bee reports speaking to local growers who say not only did they have to shut down for public safety reasons, they saw a shift in the way people buy produce. Also the food service industry as a whole and bigger school districts slowed during the pandemic. One of the larger growers, the Scully family says they had hundreds of people working for them where social distancing was not possible, but they all wore masks, sanitized, socially distanced at break times, and used other protocols. The Public Health Officer, Dr, Gary Pace was also in contact with the growers during the season to help make sure they followed guidelines.
There have been more than a half million coronavirus cases in the state the last two weeks with the governor saying he believes the state could have almost 100,000 hospitalizations within a month. Some rural areas are getting hit hard and hospital capacity is nil. In Imperial County there are 175 people in one hospital, 131 are COVID positive. They can fit up to 161 beds and have added a 50-bed tent in the parking lot. The Governor is quarantined again too after a staffer in his office tested positive, the second time in two months. The state secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. Mark Ghaly, says soon entire chunks of the state may have no hospital beds at all even in these add on facilities. Right now we’re seeing the biggest spike in cases so far.
The state’s dealing with a shortage of nurses and doctors due to the pandemic. The state is in need of 3,000 temporary medical workers at the moment. The state’s reportedly asking for help from as far away as Australia and Taiwan, there are low case rates there, and high case rates in the states. The Governor says the state already has relationships with countries that can help provide aid during crises like wildfires. The state usually uses staffing companies in times of need for travel nurses, but Calif. has strict one nurse, to every 2 patients in ICU rules. And one for four patients in ER’s. There are not many available nurses with demand up nearly 50%. Calif. one of 5 states requesting more staff.
