Month: July 2020

SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CA — Officials on Thursday urged all residents to begin wearing face coverings as coronavirus cases and deaths continue to climb in San Diego County.

Employees of essential businesses who interact with the public will be required to wear face coverings. These include grocery stores, pharmacies, convenience stores and gas stations.

Officials also strongly encouraged all other residents to wear face coverings when leaving home.

The new order for essential business workers and guidance for other residents will go into effect at midnight Friday.

Face coverings should cover the nose and mouth, and they can include homemade masks, bandanas, scarfs and neck gaiters. Coverings should not be medical-grade masks, including N95 and surgical masks, as those are in short supply, officials said.

Officials also reminded residents to maintain social distancing and hand-washing guidelines, in addition to wearing face coverings.

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“People should continue to practice physical distancing even when wearing facial coverings,” said Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county’s public health officer. “They should also wash their hands and take other preventive measures, since they can still contract the virus if they touch their eyes, nose or mouth.”

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Among other new guidelines, essential businesses that remain open must now post social distancing and sanitization guidelines near the entrance of their business. The order goes into effect midnight Monday.

All public parks and beaches must close parking lots. Activities such as walking and hiking are permitted, but group activities such as basketball and volleyball are prohibited, officials said.

“This really is the month that will set the trajectory and course for our region,” Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said. “As we come together as a community and truly commit to the efforts that have been laid out, we can avoid the devastation we’ve seen playing out across this nation and across the world with hospitals being overrun with patients beyond their capacity to treat them. If we do not in the month of April, then we can expect as a region to encounter similar circumstances and situations.”

Law enforcement agencies throughout the region will be out cracking down on people and nonessential businesses in violation of stay-at-home orders.

Violations of the rules constitute misdemeanors punishable by fines up to $1,000 and up to six months in jail, San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said.

“The days of voluntary compliance are over,” Gore said.

The amended public health orders were announced as another death and 117 new coronavirus cases were reported. The latest victim was a 98-year-old woman.

As of Thursday, 966 coronavirus cases have been confirmed, and 16 residents have died from COVID-19 in the county.

Of the cases, 53.2 percent (514) were men and 45.4 percent (439) were women. The gender of 1.3 percent (13) was not listed. Of the known cases, 181 (18.7 percent) have required hospitalization, 70 (7.2 percent) had to be placed in intensive care and 16 (1.7 percent) have died.

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Teachers from a couple of New Rochelle schools organized parades to reconnect with students who have been studying from home during the new coronavirus outbreak. The point of the “Teachers’ Parade” was to greet and cheer students — from a safe distance.

Three of New Rochelle’s schools were closed March 11 when the state established a containment zone in the northern part of town due to the virus outbreak. The rest of the district’s schools were closed a couple of days later.

Students have been doing distance learning since that time. Most recently, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that all schools in the state would be closed at least through April 29.

Parades were set off from Columbus Elementary School and Henry Barnard Early Childhood Center Tuesday morning.

Renee Bartee, who teaches pre-kindergarten at Barnard, organized that school’s parade with reading teacher Debbie Rosario.

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Bartee said that New Rochelle is a strong community and the teachers just wanted to show their love and support.

“Kids are saying they’re missing the teachers,” she said, and “the teachers miss the students. We thought we would show them that we’re thinking about them” and that the teachers love them.

Aisha Cook, a fourth-grade teacher at Columbus, organized Columbus’ parade with Alexis Candelario.

“This was better than any of us could have imagined,” Cook said.

Jennifer DiFatta, who lives near Columbus, is the mother of Savanna, a seventh grader at Albert Leonard Middle School, and A.J., a fourth grader at Daniel Webster Magnet School.

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She said it was wonderful the way the teachers were staying connected to their students.

“It’s a real heartfelt sense of community,” DiFatta said. “They did it in style, too. There’s nothing like a good parade.”

Columbus first grader Sebastian waves excitedly to the passing cars in the parade.

His mother, Rosa De Leon, was thankful that the teachers did what they did in organizing the parade and that it showed what an amazing community New Rochelle is.

LOS ANGELES, CA — Separate class-action lawsuits filed in Los Angeles accuse the nation’s largest banks of rigging the application process for the federally funded aid program designed to help small businesses imperiled by the coronavirus pandemic. The lawsuits allege JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and US Bank allowed bigger companies to drain the Paycheck Protection Program while passing over smaller companies seeking emergency loans.

Bank officials deny the allegations.

The lawsuits cap weeks of frustration over the disbursement of $349 billion Congress allocated in emergency funds to help American businesses survive the COVID-19 pandemic under the CARES Act. The PPP program which launched on April 3 was intended to provide loans up to two and a half times the total of a business owner’s monthly payroll but ran out of funds Thursday, leaving most of the small business applicants empty-handed, according to the plaintiffs. According the the lawsuits, the banks shuffled the large loans to the front of the line because they proved to be more profitable for the banks.

More than 25% of the aid went to less than 2% of the firms that got relief including several publicly traded companies with thousands of employees and hundreds of millions of dollars in annual sales, Reuters reported. Amid uproar over the process, at least one major chain, the Shake Shack, announced it would return its Paycheck Protection Program loan so that companies in greater need could access the cash.

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Even now, the White House and Congress are trying to fashion another bailout package aimed at helping to mitigate the pandemic’s economic and health consequences. The new package would amount to roughly $470 billion in new spending, including $370 billion directed to small businesses. President Donald Trump said he hoped for a Senate vote on Tuesday.

According to the lawsuits filed Sunday, instead of a “first-come, first-served basis,” the banks processed the biggest loan amounts first because it increased the banks’ origination fees while leaving more than 90% of the small businesses owners who applied for loans out of luck once the funds were depleted. An origination fee is the compensation the lender receives for processing a new application.

A JPMorgan spokesman declined comment, but provided informational material stating that nearly 70% of the applications approved and funded by the bank were from smaller businesses clients with roughly $20 million in revenue or less, while 80% of the bank’s paycheck protection loans have been for businesses with less than $5 million in revenue.

“We have more than 40,000 applications that are now fully processed, complete, and ready to submit to the (Small Business Administration). We are fully prepared to help our customers when the next round of funding is approved,” according to JPMorgan’s statement.

A Bank of America representative said only that the institution denies the allegations.

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A Wells Fargo spokeswoman also declined to comment on the lawsuit, but provided a statement saying the bank is “working as quickly as possible to assist small business customers with the Paycheck Protection Program in compliance with the regulations and guidance provided by U.S. Treasury and the SBA.”

“We have mobilized thousands of employees and launched new technology to better assist customers seeking assistance via the Paycheck Protection Program,” according to Wells Fargo’s statement.

US Bank issued a statement saying it plans to “vigorously” defend itself because the lawsuit is “without merit” and the “cumulative industry data provided by the SBA is not reflective of U.S. Bank’s practices or results. We continue to serve our small business customers and are prepared to process loans as quickly as possible should additional funds become available.”

By Max Blau/ Georgia Health News via ProPublica

On Tuesday afternoon in a small town in southwest Georgia, Army National Guard 2nd Lt. George Peagler stepped into a white hazmat suit, pulled up his bright green gloves and adjusted his N95 mask.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision to gradually reopen the state for business was beginning to show results. More cars were on the road than the week before. Locals lined up at the drive-thru at the only McDonald’s in Dawson, a predominantly black town in one of the poorest corners of the state.

Peagler headed into Dawson Health and Rehabilitation Center, a small nursing home where 14 of the 60 or so residents had died from COVID-19 over the past month. He and his fellow soldiers conducted their mission with efficiency, quickly testing the home’s surviving residents for the coronavirus. A military medic stuck a swab into each resident’s nose, then dropped it into a vial held by another guard member, who then handed it down an assembly line of soldiers until it was placed in an ice-filled cooler.

“If you were to see us, you would think we’ve been doing this longer than we have,” said Peagler, a native of suburban Atlanta, who, like many members of the Guard, had no formal medical experience before the pandemic. “That’s because we’ve had to pick up on it so quickly.”

As governors begin to reopen states for business, medical experts fear that those most vulnerable to the coronavirus — the elderly, the sick, the poor, minorities — will disproportionately bear the risk of those decisions.

Residents in long-term care facilities now face additional risks of exposure, as staffers circulate through environments where social distancing is decreasing. Some two dozen employees of the Dawson nursing home have already contracted the coronavirus.

In Georgia, Kemp has allowed barbers, bowling alley operators and tattoo artists to reopen their businesses. Restaurants may now resume dine-in service. Governors in Alaska, Oklahoma and South Carolina have also allowed some nonessential businesses to reopen, while their counterparts in several other states let stay-at-home orders expire in the past week.

On Thursday night, Kemp also allowed Georgia’s stay-at-home order to expire, though he urged residents to stay home.

Each new open business presents an additional exposure risk. As nursing home workers or soldiers with the National Guard interact with cashiers and store clerks who may be infected, they bring the risk of that contact with them into those long-term care facilities, unless rigorous safety protocols are followed, public health experts said.

States such as Maryland and Massachusetts have taken steps to mitigate that risk by mandating tests for all workers at long-term care facilities. Georgia does not have such a requirement. It is up to each facility to request tests for its workers.

“If you have a high-risk population congregated in a setting that was already struggling to take appropriate care, it’s a recipe for disaster,” said Dr. Harry Heiman, clinical associate professor of health policy and behavior sciences at Georgia State University.

Dawson Health and Rehabilitation Center is a cautionary tale of the toll already inflicted on vulnerable residents and the dangers they will face as Georgia reopens.

Long-term care facilities in larger metro areas have received national attention for the deaths of scores of their residents from COVID-19 outbreaks. In southwest Georgia’s impoverished “Pecan Belt,” there’s been less scrutiny but a similar toll; Dawson Health and Rehabilitation Center and nearby long-term care facilities have quietly and collectively endured an outsized number of fatalities.

An analysis of state data by Georgia Health News and ProPublica found that 12 percent of Georgia’s more than 1,100 COVID-19 deaths are from 17 long-term care facilities — a catchall term that includes nursing homes, private care homes and assisted living facilities — scattered across the state’s southwest. The 18-county area where the homes are located accounts for just 3 percent of the state’s population. Most of those counties have a black population whose percentage is higher than the statewide average of 31 percent. More than a quarter of residents in those counties live below the poverty line.

Officials with CHSGa, which owns the Dawson Health and Rehabilitation Center, said they had taken steps early to aggressively confront the possibility of an outbreak.

“Even More Concerning”

“Dawson Health and Rehabilitation has taken and continues to take active measures to combat the spread of COVID-19,” said Amy Abel, a spokesperson for CHSGa. “We are grieved by the loss of these patients, as well as for the loss of life caused by this virus throughout our state, our nation and around the world.”

Despite concerns about the risk to long-term facility residents, Kemp has insisted on moving forward with his decision to reopen parts of Georgia’s economy.

Kemp said he will maintain a limited shelter-in-place order for “medically fragile” people through June 12. But health experts say Kemp’s decisions to reopen Georgia could not only prolong the risks to the state’s most vulnerable communities, but also to workers who serve them.

Of the more than 1,560 infected staff members at long-term care facilities, more than 290 were employed by the southwest Georgia facilities hit hardest by the first wave of the pandemic. An analysis of state data by Georgia Health News and ProPublica found that those southwest Georgia facilities have collectively seen employee COVID-19 cases grow by nearly 40 percent since April 17.

Dr. Michael Barnett, an assistant professor of health policy and management at Harvard University’s public health school, said universal testing in “routine” intervals is needed to limit the risk of front-line workers spreading COVID-19 in the future.

“By the time a nursing home staff member or resident has COVID-19 symptoms, you are 100% too late,” Barnett said. “There’s simply too much mingling across all the staff and residents in any nursing home, even if they shut down communal dining and visitors.”

The troubles inside Dawson Health and Rehabilitation Center — which have not been previously reported — first surfaced in late March, when Georgia’s Army National Guard conducted “recon” missions at senior care facilities in the region.

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After visiting the Dawson home on March 27, Capt. Matthew Rushing called his superior officer, Brig. Gen. Randall Simmons, with some troubling news, according to interviews and emails obtained by Georgia Health News and ProPublica.

Nineteen patients had been tested for COVID-19 in the 74-bed facility. The first patient test had just returned positive. Rushing feared it wouldn’t be the last.

During his visit, Rushing saw a disregard for basic mask and gown protocols. Residents had even mingled inside the facility, not keeping a safe distance from one another. Rushing wasn’t a medical expert, but he worried about sending his company members into the nursing home. Their mission was to sanitize facilities — and, with any luck, save lives. Their risk of COVID-19 exposure seemed too great.

Troubled by what he heard, Simmons typed out a summary to share with other high-ranking officers, including Maj. Gen. Thomas Carden. “I bet they all will have it in the end,” Simmons wrote in a March 27 email obtained by Georgia Health News and ProPublica. He added, “This virus runs through nursing homes like the Grim Reaper.”

Carden quickly forwarded the email to Dr. Kathleen Toomey, the state’s top public health official, and explained that he couldn’t send more help until the nursing home’s staff complied with guidelines for infection control. “Some very basic things need to happen there fast!” Carden wrote.

A public health veteran who had once overseen infectious disease initiatives at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Toomey had recently caught flak for her department’s slow rollout of COVID-19 testing and for capturing incomplete data about the growing pandemic. Recognizing the urgency of Simmons’ update, Toomey immediately tapped out a message from her iPhone, promising to get the issues resolved.

“This is even more concerning than I thought,” she told Carden.

After a worker at a beauty supply factory near Chicago died of COVID-19, her former co-workers staged a protest. But they didn’t seek help from OSHA. They sought help from a new advocate: the state attorney general’s office.

In an emailed response to questions, Abel, the CHSGa spokeswoman, did not specifically address Rushing’s allegations.

Abel said CHSGa nursing homes had enacted hand-washing protocols, ceased new patient admissions and screened its staff for respiratory symptoms prior to the Guard’s visit. The Dawson Health and Rehabilitation Center administrator also notified family members that their loved ones tested positive for COVID-19, and sought additional federal and state guidance on responding to the outbreak.

“Close, intimate care is provided multiple times throughout each patient’s day,” Abel said in a statement. “Out of necessity, social distancing between a patient and care giver is not feasible.”

Help Needed

Toomey’s concerns were well justified. Dawson and other long-term care facilities in southwest Georgia have proven especially vulnerable to COVID-19.

As of the latest information, nearly every resident at the Joe-Anne Burgin Nursing Home, 20 miles to the west of Dawson, has contracted COVID-19. Twenty miles southeast, PruittHealth-Palmyra nursing home has had positive tests for 120 residents and 47 staff members.

Representatives of companies that oversee eight of the 17 long-term care facilities that reported COVID-19 deaths in that stretch of southwest Georgia said they took early precautions against coronavirus following the news of the nation’s first deadly nursing home outbreak in Kirkland, Washington, at the end of February.

Early Memorial Nursing Home administrator Ginger Cushing said her staff locked down the facility on March 10. Spokespeople for three other facilities — Pelham Parkway Nursing Home, PruittHealth-Palmyra and PruittHealth-Ashburn — said their staffs had restricted visitors on March 13, 10 days before Kemp ordered “medically fragile” people to shelter in place.

Multiple long-term care facilities did not respond to interview requests.

Dawson Health and Rehabilitation Center lies in Terrell County, population 8,500. The county has long been a federally designated “medically underserved area,” with two of the nearest rural hospitals closing their doors since the Great Recession of 2008. The county currently has an infection rate of 1,972 cases per 100,000, one of the highest in the country.

As a state, Georgia has one of the highest fatality rates inside long-term care facilities, accounting for 41 percent of the state’s COVID-19 deaths, over 50 percent higher than the average for the 23 states that had publicly reported death data as of April 23, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

“By the time everybody knew, and started reacting, it was too late,” said Ernest M. Johnson, a Terrell County commissioner who runs a funeral home in Dawson. “It caught us, excuse my French, with our drawers down.”

Several studies have shown that people who live or work in long-term-care facilities are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Studies have also shown that minorities face a disparate impact. Black people are more likely to have chronic diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease, which are associated with worse outcomes. Those health risks are compounded by widespread structural inequities such as poverty, housing and low-wage jobs.

The result, Heiman said, is that southwest Georgia’s low-income communities of color — including elderly residents who are sick or frail — are facing a “perfect storm” of risk.

“Airplane in Flight”

On Thursday afternoon, hours before another set of Georgia’s restrictions were lifted, Rushing said the Georgia Army National Guard would continue to conduct testing for nursing homes and assisted living facilities upon request.

Even without a mandate, he said, the Georgia Army National Guard will continue its mission of ensuring that both long-term care facility residents and workers remain safe.

Rushing hoped tests that his soldiers collected at the Dawson nursing home would bring more clarity, more answers and more hope.

Like so many others faced with this unprecedented pandemic, he could not say for sure where those tests alone would be enough to do that.

“We’re learning as we go,” he conceded. “We’re building the airplane in flight.”

Chelsea and Manchester City are reportedly targeting Everton full-back Lucas Digne as both clubs search for a new left-back ahead of next season.

Frank Lampard and Pep Guardiola are both said to be interested in Leicester’s Ben Chilwell but are wary of his £75million price tag.

Chelsea’s 3-2 loss to West Ham highlighted their defensive issues, with Gary Neville claiming they made mistakes a six-year-old should know how to avoid.

And the left-back position is also a problem area for Guardiola, with Benjamin Mendy and Oleksandr Zinchenko not seen as long-term solutions.

 

 

And ESPN claim that while both clubs are reluctant to meet Leicester’s valuation of Chilwell, they are considering a move for Digne, despite Everton also demanding a ‘high fee’.

The 27-year-old moved to Goodison Park from Barcelona for £17m in August 2018, and has made 33 appearances across all competitions this campaign.

Toffees boss Carlo Ancelotti will be desperate to keep hold of the former Lille and Paris Saint-Germain star as he is plotting a title challenge.

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FEATURE: Premier League winners and losers

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“I hope soon Everton has to be competitive and fight for the first position of the Premier League with Liverpool, with Chelsea, with Tottenham, with Manchester United, with all the big teams,” Ancelotti told Sky Sports News.

“I don’t know how long it takes but I hope that soon we are able to compete.

“We have a young squad with young players with a lot of skills, a lot of ability.

“I think just the fact that we can improve this skill and this ability can give us more opportunity to stay at the top.”

 

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Jose Mourinho has hailed Liverpool for putting their “trust” in Jurgen Klopp despite a similarly mixed start at Anfield to his own in north London with Spurs.

Liverpool have finally won the Premier League after a 30 year wait, securing the title with seven league fixtures left to play.

And Mourinho sent his congratulations to Klopp, his players and the club for their achievement, claiming that “trust” and patience was all important to their success.

“Well I think first of all congratulations, it’s obvious, to everyone connected with Liverpool football club, not just the coaches, the players, but everybody at the club and every fan around the world,” said Mourinho in his pre-match press conference.

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“Many congratulations, it’s time for them to enjoy after so long. So really, really, honestly, many, many congratulations and of course the numbers don’t let you lie. Of course they deserve it.

“For a long, long time, since I was trying to be a pundit, that I told already in November I think that they were going to be champions.

“I think what they did is what you have to do, which is when you trust a manager you trust.

“It doesn’t matter how you do in your first season, doesn’t matter how you do in your second season, you keep working because you believe in him. So you keep working together.

 

 

“So if the results in the first season are not good, you improve. If the results in the second season are not good, you keep improving. And you go to the third season, and the fourth.

“And of course when the manager is good, and when the structure behind is good, and when they manage to do a collective work like they did, the results arrive.

“So I think it’s a great example for people that think in football everything is done in one week, in one month, or in one year. So I double my compliments to them exactly because of the profile, and the way that they accepted that it was a project. Well done.”

 

Eric Djemba-Djemba (that’s right) claims Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes would have been on the bench when he was at Manchester United.

The former Red Devil also believes Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has found the solution to be able to fit both Fernandes and Pogba into Manchester United’s midfield.

Nemanja Matic’s return to form has been a welcome bonus for Solskjaer, and has provided some much needed balance to his side.

The partnership between Pogba and Fernandes has blossomed post-lockdown and United are playing some brilliant football.

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FEATURE: Man United playing a dangerous £50m Sancho game

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Solskjaer is expected to add to his squad in the summer, but Djemba-Djemba claims they don’t need a defensive midfielder as they will struggle to find a better option than Matic.

Djemba-Djemba told BettingApps.com: “I would just play Matic behind Pogba and Fernandes.

“I think that Matic is the best defensive midfielder at United at the moment. I don’t think that United need to sign any other midfielder.”

 

 

Asked about what Pogba can still offer the Red Devils, Djemba-Djemba added: “I think that Paul Pogba can still get a lot better.

“He still a young lad, and we can still expect better things to come from him.

“Dog days are very good player, and he needs those players around him.

“Now you will see, with Matic and Fernandes, Pogba will become a world-class player again.

“He needs them to push him, to tell him that he can do these things, to turn him into an even better player.”

On whether Pogba and Fernandes would both have been on the bench when he was at United, Djemba-Djemba insisted: “For sure!

“Fernandes and Pogba would definitely have been on the bench behind (Roy) Keane and (Paul) Scholes.

“Those two were amazing together. Roy Keane was like a coach, like a manager to the team.”

 

Spurs boss Jose Mourinho insists he wouldn’t swap Giovani Lo Celso for Manchester United star Bruno Fernandes if he was given the choice.

Tottenham were thought to be close to a deal for Fernandes last summer before instead opting to sign Lo Celso on loan from Real Betis.

Fernandes has scored five goals for the Red Devils having joined in January, while Lo Celso is yet to manage a goal or an assist in 21 league appearances.

Mourinho told Sky Sports News when asked if he would have liked Tottenham to sign Fernandes: “I don’t know anything about that, but if that is true, and if Giovani Lo Celso was the player that came to Spurs [instead of Fernandes], then I would say I wouldn’t change Giovani Lo Celso for any player.

“[I wouldn’t swap Lo Celso] for any player. It’s not just for Bruno, but for any player.

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FEATURE: Manager of the year candidates: Klopp and three more…

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“I came to the club and he wasn’t playing. I think the only match he started was Red Star Belgrade away in the Champions League – apart from that he was not playing.

“When I arrived I went in other directions and he did exactly what I love a player to do: ‘I’m going to show you’.

“[There was] no spoiled kid reactions, no crying, no moaning, no agents and family throwing messages to the press and to the social media. It was just between him and me: ‘I’m going to show you’, and he showed me step-by-step.

 

 

“The way he was working every day, the way he was coming to matches, the way he was changing matches.

“I remember the match against Liverpool: he was on the bench, he came on for the last half-an-hour and he changed the game.

“The only thing that didn’t happen was us changing the result because we were so unlucky, but he changed the game.

“When he had his first start: ‘Goodbye, I give you no chance and this place is mine’. In this moment, what people can see from him is an injured player playing, or a player that during the week is not working like the others.

“He’s working with lots of different conditions to try to play and to try to resist until the end of the season so what you see from Gio now is not the end product – he’s a fantastic player for us.”

 

LOS ANGELES, CA — A remote Los Angeles County jail has suffered an unlikely spike in coronavirus cases, and an investigation into the outbreak quickly explained why: jail security footage captured inmates deliberately trying to spread the virus.

The sickening plot worked. The North County Correctional Facility in remote Castaic accounts for nearly half the county’s inmate outbreak.

The North County Correctional Facility went from very few cases to 21 in just a week in April after inmates were seen in a common area sniffing a used mask and passing around and drinking from a single hot water dispenser. As of Sunday the jail has had 166 reported cases, according to the Department of Public Health.

Cases of COVID-19 in the Los Angeles County jail system spiked by nearly 60% in the span of a week, prompting sheriff’s officials to investigate evidence that some inmates were intentionally trying to catch the coronavirus.

Jail video surveillance “show inmates deliberately intending to infect themselves with the COVID-19 virus,” Sheriff Alex Villanueva said.

“As a result of this behavior … 21 inmates tested positive … within a week,” the sheriff told reporters.

The North County Correctional Facility in Castaic had “extremely few cases … then all of a sudden (the numbers) just shot up overnight,” he said.

The new cases surprised authorities at a facility that has limited traffic compared with other county jails.

“It’s sad to think that someone would try to deliberately expose themselves to COVID-19,” Villanueva said.

According to Villanueva, 357 inmates had tested positive for the coronavirus since the outbreak began and nearly 40% of the jail population is in quarantine to prevent further spread.

The behavior captured by surveillance cameras in mid-April, occurred just as a nurse came to do temperature checks on the inmates. The inmates may have been trying to generate a higher temperature reading, Villanueva said.

More than a dozen inmates could be seen standing in close proximity to one another, ignoring social distancing guidelines, as others milled about the common area of the jail module. Other video footage showed inmates sniffing a common mask, Villanueva said.

Inmates mistakenly believed that they could force authorities to release more individuals from custody, according to the sheriff, who told reporters, “That’s not gonna happen.”

The coronavirus has already forced authorities to reduce the jail population significantly. More than 5,000 inmates awaiting trial on low-level offenses or close to serving their full sentence have been released from county jails to slow the spread of the coronavirus, bringing the population down from roughly 17,000 to about 11,700 individuals.

“We’ve done everything within our power to … prevent the spread of COVID-19 within our jail system,” Villanueva said.

In a separate midday briefing, Dr. Christina Ghaly, who manages Los Angeles County’s hospital system and jail health care, confirmed that the increase in cases is concentrated in the Castaic facility. Ghaly said health care professionals were working with the sheriff to roll out additional testing and protective measures.

“Our Department of Health Services Correctional Health Services is working very closely with the Sheriff’s Department to continue the quarantine and isolation measures that have been put in place there, as well as to encourage inmates to wear their cloth face coverings,” Ghaly said. “We are also in the process of continuing to roll out testing … including for all inmates at the point of entry.”

The spike in positive cases in the jails comes as public health orders are being relaxed in the outside world based on a slowdown in overall cases.

Asked about the jump in just a week’s time, Villanueva pointed out that 117 inmates have recovered and been returned to the general population after twice testing negative. He drew a comparison between a net 240 current cases and earlier numbers, but could not seem to point to a specific reason for the dramatic increase at this point in time.

He did note that the number of quarantined inmates fluctuates by as many as 1,000 people in a single day as custody officials move to quarantine or isolate anyone who shares a module with someone who tests positive. Villanueva called the quarantine numbers “not exactly indicative of the spread.”

Testing is now being done at booking to further limit the spread in the jails.

One prominent advocate for criminal justice reform accused Villanueva of demonizing people behind bars and pushed for more people to be released.

“He is taking a page right out of Trump’s playbook by gaslighting those who are already vulnerable and in absolute fear,” said Patrice Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter and founder of Dignity & Power Now. “Contrary to the sheriff’s allegations, what I’ve been hearing from prisoners is that there isn’t enough soap, there is no hot water, that sheriff deputies are taunting folks inside by coughing in their presence, telling them they’re going to die of COVID.”

Cullors is one of the plaintiffs in a proposed federal class-action lawsuit filed last month by JusticeLA against the Sheriff’s Department. JusticeLA seeks to require the department to comply with guidelines issued by public health agencies to cut down the spread of COVID-19 in the jails and release inmates who are at high risk for serious illness or death in the event of infection due to age or underlying medical conditions.

In her statement Monday, Cullors also called on the Board of Supervisors to offer universal testing for all prisoners and staff.

The Civilian Oversight Commission, a watchdog group established to oversee the Sheriff’s Department, used its recently approved subpoena power last week to order the sheriff to attend its next meeting, scheduled for Wednesday. The agenda includes a discussion of the department’s efforts to address the virus in the jails.

Among department employees, there are 107 positive cases and 320 deputies and non-sworn personnel have been quarantined. A total of 927 have recovered and returned to duty, according to the sheriff.

Villanueva said it was possible that criminal charges would be pursued against inmates seeking to spread the infection.

Crime outside the jails continues to be down year-over-year, with the exception of homicides, which ticked up 7% as compared with this time last year, according to department data.

Violations of public health orders have resulted in just one new arrest last week, for a total of four, and 65 citations so far.

This story on the new coronavirus is updated throughout the day with national news and developments from around our network of local Patches. Scroll down for links, helpful for day-to-day living and the most recent stories.

More than 2 million people applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week, a sign that companies are still slashing jobs in the face of a deep recession caused by the new coronavirus.

About 41 million people have now applied for aid since the virus outbreak, though not all of them are still unemployed. Around 21 million people are currently receiving unemployment benefits, according to the Labor Department’s report.

The updated unemployment report Thursday came less than 24 hours after the number of coronavirus deaths in the United States reached a monumental milestone Wednesday.

In just three months, at least 101,400 Americans have now lost their lives to the virus, Johns Hopkins University reported Thursday afternoon.

President Donald Trump remained silent as the country passed the 100,000 mark Wednesday afternoon, waiting until Thursday to offer his condolences on the “very sad milestone” through a tweet:

“To all of the families & friends of those who have passed, I want to extend my heartfelt sympathy & love for everything that these great people stood for & represent. God be with you!”

Earlier this month, the Trump administration privately increased its projections, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times. The Trump team predicted the daily death toll would reach about 3,000 people per day on June 1 — a 70 percent increase from the current number of about 1,750.

A study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington estimated nearly 135,000 deaths in the United States by the beginning of August.

The actual number of cases and deaths, though, will largely depend on public response to the virus. For example, the Institute made its revisions as states started to reopen, writing that the adjustments reflected “rising mobility in most U.S. states as well as the easing of social distancing measures.”

41 Million Have Lost Jobs, But Layoffs Slow

Another 2.1 million people applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week, even as more businesses reopen and rehire some laid-off employees.

The national jobless rate was 14.7 percent in April, the highest since the Great Depression, and many economists expect it will near 20 percent in May.

States are gradually restarting their economies by letting some businesses — from gyms, retail shops and restaurants to hair and nail salons — reopen with some restrictions. Some of these employers, including automakers, have recalled a portion of their laid-off employees, causing the number of people receiving unemployment benefits to fall.

First-time applications for unemployment aid, although still high by historical standards, have now fallen for eight straight weeks. Additionally, 1.2 million Americans applied last week under a new program for self-employed and gig workers, who are eligible for jobless aid for the first time.

Disney, SeaWorld Announce Plans To Reopen In FL

SeaWorld and Walt Disney World will reopen in Orlando, Florida, in June and July after months of inactivity because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to plans an Orange County task force approved Wednesday.

The proposals must still be approved by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The plan would see SeaWorld open to the public on June 11. Disney would reopen in phases, first with the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom on July 11, followed by Epcot and Hollywood Studios on July 15.

“We are developing a series of ‘know before you go’ communication vehicles, and our objective is to reinforce our health and safety messages to guests before they arrive on our property,” Disney’s senior vice president of operations, Jim McPhee, told the Florida task force.

McPhee also said the parks would open with limited capacity, but he didn’t specify the number.

Governors Offer States As Alternative RNC Convention Site

After Trump threatened in a tweet to pull the Republican National Convention from Charlotte, North Carolina, two GOP governors are offering up their states as an alternative.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp sent an open plea to Trump on Tuesday to consider his state as an alternate site for the quadrennial convention, which is set to gather more than 2,500 delegates and thousands more guests, press and security officials.

Kemp’s offer was followed by one from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who told reporters at a Miami news conference that he “would love” to have the GOP or even the Democratic convention.

A day earlier, Trump accused North Carolina’s Democratic governor of being in a “shutdown mood” that could prevent a fully attended event.

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Trump Threatens To Pull RNC From North Carolina

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NoVA Leaders Address Possible Reopening

Leaders say the region has met four of six criteria for the first phase of reopening. The potential reopening date for Northern Virginia, the city of Richmond and Accomack County is Friday; the rest of Virginia moved into phase one May 15.

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