Wednesday, 27 November 2024

Register

News

Posted On

 

Be careful on the road. Getty Images

Although there are fewer cars on America’s roads since the pandemic began, the number of fatal car crashes has increased.

Early nationwide data supports this counterintuitive finding: Although daily trips from households fell by as much as 35% in 2020, preliminary traffic fatality count data for the first nine months of 2020 shows 28,190 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes - a 4.6% increase compared with the same period in 2019. The same trend has been reported in countries outside the U.S., such as Australia, where less traffic has not produced fewer road deaths.

Curious about traffic crashes during the pandemic, we decided to use our skills as a social scientist and a research engineer who study vehicle crash data to see what we could learn about Connecticut’s traffic deaths when the stay-at-home orders first went into place last March.

A partnership between the Department of Transportation, local hospitals and the University of Connecticut discovered what many people intuitively knew: Traffic volume and multivehicle crashes fell significantly during the stay-at-home order. Statewide, daily vehicle traffic fell by 43% during the stay-at-home order compared to earlier in the year, while mean daily counts of multivehicle crashes decreased from 209 before the stay-at-home order to 80 during lockdown.

What was unexpected, however, was the significant increase in single-vehicle crashes, especially fatal ones. During the stay-at-home period, the incidence rate of fatal single-vehicle crashes increased 4.1 times, while the rate of total single-vehicle crashes was also up significantly.

Data about all crash types in the state, whether single- or multivehicle, tell a similar story. Although preliminary, police reports have placed the 2020 year-end total for traffic deaths at 308, a 24% increase from 2019.

It is unclear exactly why this is happening, but we are using data to investigate a few theories.

Data show that drivers are more likely to be speeding. Although traffic volume on Route 15 and Interstate 95 in Connecticut fell 52% in April 2020, the number of vehicles going more than 80 mph increased by 94%. Other states are seeing the same trends.

Drivers also appear to be very distracted. Data collected by Zendrive, a company that tracks smartphone data to predict drivers’ behavior, shows that in 57% of crashes nationwide in 2020, drivers were on their phones. From January (pre-lockdown) to March 2020, drivers in crashes spent 7% more time on their phones; when that data collection was extended to November, drivers checked their phones 17% more often. These trends are also holding up in other countries.

American drivers are also being riskier on the road: According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the percentage of injured road users – drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists – with alcohol, marijuana or opioids in their system all increased during the pandemic.

Any death during COVID-19 – whether it’s the direct result of the virus or its indirect effects on daily life – is a tragedy. Yet there are ways to keep drivers safe during this tumultuous period.

Check your speed

Fewer drivers does not make speeding less dangerous. In 2010, more than one-third of fatal crashes took place on local rural roads that tend to have relatively few cars – and nearly one-third of those crashes involved speeding.

In normal conditions, drivers often “go with the flow” of traffic, matching the speed of other cars. Without other cars around, it may be easy to unconsciously go much faster. Frequent speedometer checks can help combat this.

Setting cruise control to the speed limit – or, at most, five mph above – will lock in your speed and save you from having to check the speedometer.

Don’t drive angry

In addition, if you’re upset, try to avoid getting behind the wheel. The COVID-19 pandemic has left many feeling isolated, agitated or simply bored – but people who are feeling aggressive or angry are more likely to engage in unsafe driving. If you’re in a heightened emotional state, ask a friend or family member to drive, use public transit or ride-sharing services, take a walk, ride a bike or simply stay home.

Last, stay focused. With fewer vehicles on the road, it may also seem safer than usual to sneak a peek at your phone. That’s not the case, as the rise in phone use and fatal crashes during 2020 illustrates. To reduce the temptation of checking your phone, many free apps, such as Drivemode and Android Auto, simplify phone functions like GPS and music to minimize distractions.

This article was produced in collaboration with Knowable Magazine, a digital publication covering science and its emerging frontiers.The Conversation

Eric Jackson, Associate Research Professor, Director, Connecticut Transportation Safety Research Center, University of Connecticut and Marisa Auguste, Behavioral Research Assistant, Connecticut Transportation Safety Research Center, University of Connecticut

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Posted On

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – With the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic continuing, Mendocino College announced it will continue primarily remote instruction through the summer 2021 semester.

“We are looking forward to transitioning back to more on-ground/face-to-face classes at all locations and plan to see our fall 2021 class schedule reflect that,” said Superintendent and President Tim Karas. “We are happy to report that with the help of Mendocino County, we have been able to provide all interested employees access to the COVID-19 vaccine so they feel comfortable coming back to campus and providing excellent student service as before the pandemic began.”

The college has a “Transition Group” which consists of classified staff, faculty and management leaders brainstorming ways to get more students back on campus in a timely and safe manner.

The college is also surveying students to gather input about how that might look. In the fall 2021 semester, the schedule will offer an expanded on ground/face-to-face course listing.

“We won’t be 100 percent back to normal by fall, but we will be increasing the number of classes at all of our locations,” says Debra Polak, vice president of instruction. “We will be introducing innovative instructional methods in the fall that will allow us to have fewer students in classrooms. We hope some of these new methods will help us reach students in our vast geographic area in post-pandemic times as well.”

“In the fall, the centers in Fort Bragg, Lakeport and Willits will have a heavier on-ground presence to support students who have had a difficult time accessing online education. We plan to offer close to the traditional variety of courses, just with reduced class enrollment caps, that align with current county safety guidelines,” says Dean of Centers Amanda Xu. “The center computer labs will also be open during regular business hours so that our rural students can more efficiently access online courses.”

Since the pandemic began, Mendocino College has continued to expand support and services geared toward student success, including free tutoring, books, tuition and more.

More than half the students who attend Mendocino College qualify for some form of financial aid, and many meet the guidelines that eliminate unit fees completely, regardless of their financial situation.

For more information, visit https://www.mendocino.edu/financial-aid.

“There will be numerous opportunities for students to access funds to pay for tuition and other educational expenses in the coming months,” says Karas. “We want students to know that we’re here to help break down any barriers that may be preventing them from returning to school. There is no better time than now to pursue your educational goals.”

Currently enrolled students can register for summer classes using MyMendo beginning April 24 and new students can apply now online at www.mendocino.edu.

The summer 2021 semester officially begins June 7. To make a counseling appointment, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Posted On

The California Department of Public Health on Thursday updated public health guidance in the Blueprint for a Safer Economy to allow for additional safe and sustainable reopening activities in the state.

Breweries, wineries and distilleries

Beginning March 13, breweries, wineries and distilleries that do not serve meals may open outdoors only with modifications in the purple (widespread) and red (substantial) tiers.

The modifications include ensuring that patrons have reservations and patrons observe a 90-minute time limit. Service for on-site consumption must end by 8 p.m.

Previously, and through March 12, breweries and distilleries not serving meals were closed in the purple and red tiers.

In the orange (moderate) tier, indoor operations may begin with 25 percent of maximum capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer.

In the yellow (minimal) tier, indoor operations may increase to 50 percent of maximum capacity or 200 people, whichever is fewer.

The updated guidance does not apply to breweries, wineries and distilleries that provide meals. Those establishments should continue to follow the restaurant guidance.

Bars

Beginning March 13, bars that do not serve meals remain closed in the purple (widespread) and red (substantial) tiers.

In the orange (moderate) tier, bars may begin outdoor operations with modifications.

In the yellow (minimal) tier, bars may begin indoor operations with modifications of 25 percent maximum capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer.

Overnight sleepaway camps

Beginning June 1, overnight sleepaway camps will be allowed to resume with modifications in the red, orange and yellow tiers.

More information about these updates, and which activities are allowed in the various tiers, is here.
Blog Left ad
Posted On

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – A unified command of numerous state and regional agencies is continuing in response to the grounded vessel near Dillon Beach in Marin County, with a virtual open house planned on Saturday afternoon.

The 90-foot American Challenger grounded early on the morning of March 6. It was being towed southward by the Tug Hunter from Puget Sound, Washington, when the Tug Hunter lost propulsion due to a rope entangling the propeller.

On Friday, Coast Guard Pacific Strike Team members conducted a drone overflight to assess the American Challenger. There were no new reports of sheening.

Environmental shoreline assessment teams continued to conduct surveys in the area with no reports of debris.

There have been no confirmed reports of oiled wildlife. If oiled wildlife is seen, the public is asked not to approach and contact the Oiled Wildlife Care Network at 1-877-823-6926.

The unified command is scheduled to host a virtual open house for the public Saturday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87996831064, where staff will present information on the current status and future plans of the response.

Additionally, the American Challenger Response public survey can be found at the following site: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/AmericanChallengerResponsePublicSurvey.

For more information on this incident can be found at https://calspillwatch.wordpress.com/.
Posted On

This week, a judge gave preliminary approval to a settlement initially reached between Sutter Health and plaintiffs including the California Attorney General’s Office in December 2019 regarding allegations of anticompetitive practices.

The settlement agreement resolves allegations by the Attorney General’s Office, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and Employers Benefit Trust, or UEBT, and class action plaintiffs that Sutter’s anticompetitive practices led to higher health care costs for consumers in Northern California compared to other places in the state.

The nonprofit Sutter Health is the largest hospital system in Northern California. The Sutter network consists of some 24 acute care hospitals – including Sutter Lakeside Hospital in Lakeport – along with 36 ambulatory surgery centers and 16 cardiac and cancer centers. It also includes some 12,000 physicians and over 53,000 employees. In addition, Sutter negotiates contracts on behalf of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation and many affiliated physician groups.

The settlement “represents a huge step toward making health care more accessible and affordable for patients who need it, especially for Northern California patients served by Sutter,” said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.

“This landmark settlement will require Sutter to stop practices that drive patients into more expensive health services and to operate with more transparency. The California Department of Justice will continue to work to keep the healthcare market competitive so that patients, families, and employers aren’t left holding the bag when big players dominate the market,” Becerra said.

Sutter Health said in a statement released to Lake County News that the ruling “enables the settlement approval process to continue moving toward final approval, which will ultimately help preserve our integrated network of care and is in the best interests of our patients and the communities we serve.”

The settlement requires Sutter to pay $575 million in compensation, prohibits anticompetitive conduct, and requires Sutter to follow certain practices to restore competition in California’s healthcare markets.

This settlement is the result of litigation that began in 2014 when the UEBT and numerous individual plaintiffs — later consolidated into a class action — filed their lawsuit challenging Sutter’s practices in rendering services and setting prices.

They sought compensation for what they alleged were unlawful, anticompetitive business practices, which caused them to pay more than necessary for health care services and products.

In March of 2018, Attorney General Becerra filed a similar lawsuit against Sutter on behalf of the people of California, principally seeking injunctive relief to compel Sutter to correct its anticompetitive business practices moving forward.

The separate lawsuits were combined by the court into one case.

In October of 2019, on the eve of trial, the parties reached an agreement to settle. The settlement was filed with the court on Dec. 19, 2019, together with an unopposed motion for its preliminary approval.

This week’s ruling grants preliminary approval and following the required class notice period, sets a hearing date for final approval.

With approval of the settlement, Sutter is required to:

– Pay $575 million to compensate employers, unions and others covered under the class action, and to cover costs and fees associated with the legal efforts.
– Limit what it charges patients for out-of-network services, helping ensure that patients visiting an out-of-network hospital do not face outsized, surprise medical bills.
– Increase transparency by permitting insurers, employers, and self-funded payers to provide plan members with access to pricing, quality, and cost information, which helps patients make better care decisions.
– Halt measures that deny patients access to lower-cost plans, thus allowing health insurers, employers, and self-funded payers to offer and direct patients to more affordable health plan options for networks or products.
– Stop all-or-nothing contracting deals, thus allowing insurers, employers, and self-funded payers to include some but not necessarily all of Sutter’s hospitals, clinics, or other commercial products in their plans’ network.
– Cease anticompetitive bundling of services and products which forced insurers, employers, and self-funded payers to purchase for their plan offerings more services or products from Sutter than were needed. Sutter must now offer a stand-alone price that must be lower than any bundled package price to give insurers, employers, and self-funded payers more choice.
– Cooperate with a court-approved compliance monitor to ensure that Sutter is following the terms of the settlement for at least 10 years. The monitor will receive and investigate complaints and may present evidence to the court.
– Clearly set definitions on clinical integration and patient access considerations. The settlement makes clear that for Sutter to claim it has clinically integrated a system, it must meet strict standards beyond regional similarities or the mere sharing of an electronic health record, and must be integrating care in a manner that takes into consideration the quality of care to the patient population. This is important because clinical integration can be used to mask market consolidation efforts by hospital systems, when in fact there is no true integration of a patient’s care. For example, saying that hospitals are regionally close or that hospitals are sharing electronic health records is not enough, there must be close coordination that will lead to less costly, higher quality care for local communities.

A number of studies have shown how overconsolidation drives up prices for consumers.

For example, a University of California Berkeley report found that outpatient cardiology procedures in Southern California cost nearly $18,000 compared to almost $29,000 in Northern California.

For inpatient hospital procedures, the cost in Southern California is nearly $132,000 compared to more than $223,000 in Northern California, a more than $90,000 difference.

A 2016 study found that a cesarean delivery in Sacramento, where Sutter is based, costs more than $27,000, nearly double what it costs in Los Angeles or New York, making Northern California one of the most expensive places in the country to have a baby.

A copy of the order granting preliminary approval is published below.

Order Granting Preliminary Approval Sutter 20210309[3] by LakeCoNews on Scribd

Posted On

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Authorities said a man who was found seriously injured in Clearlake Oaks on Wednesday has died.

The man, whose name has so far not been released pending notification of next of kin, was found by sheriff’s deputies shortly after 2 p.m. Wednesday near Clark’s Island and E. State Highway 20, as Lake County News has reported.

Lt. Rich Ward of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said the man, described as a middle-aged Caucasian, was found unconscious with visible head injuries and a puncture wound to his stomach.

The assault victim was transported to Adventist Health Clear Lake Hospital. Ward said the man succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at 4:42 p.m. Wednesday.

Ward said the man’s death is being treated as a homicide and is under investigation by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit.

A cause of death will be determined at the conclusion of an autopsy, Ward said.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office encourages anyone with information pertaining to this investigation and/or surveillance footage in the area to contact Det. Richard Kreutzer at the Central Dispatch nonemergency line at 707-263-2690 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Posted On

A solar flare from AR 11944 emitted on January 7, 2014, seen in several different wavelengths of light from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. From right to left, the artificially-colored images show plasma at approximately 1 million degrees Fahrenheit, 4.5 million degrees Fahrenheit and 12.7 million degrees Fahrenheit. Credits: NASA/SDO.

Zipping through space at close to the speed of light, solar energetic particles, or SEPs, are one of the main challenges for the future of human spaceflight.

Clouds of these tiny solar projectiles can make it to Earth – a 93 million-mile journey – in under an hour.

They can fry sensitive spacecraft electronics and pose serious risks to human astronauts. But their onset is extraordinarily hard to predict, in part because we still don’t know exactly where on the Sun they come from.

A new study tracing three SEP bursts back to the Sun has provided the first answer.

“We have for the first time been able to pinpoint the specific sources of these energetic particles,” said Stephanie Yardley, space physicist at the University College London and coauthor of the paper. “Understanding the source regions and physical processes that produce SEPs could lead to improved forecasting of these events.”

Study authors David Brooks, space physicist at George Mason University in Washington, D.C., and Yardley published their findings in Science Advances on March 3, 2021.

SEPs can shoot out from the Sun in any direction; catching one in the vastness of space is no small feat.

NASA’s Heliophysics System Observatory – a growing fleet of Sun-studying spacecraft, strategically placed throughout the solar system – was designed in part to increase the chances of those lucky encounters.

Scientists have divided SEP events into two major types: impulsive and gradual. Impulsive SEP events usually happen after solar flares, the bright flashes on the Sun produced by abrupt magnetic eruptions.

“There's this really sharp spike, and then an exponential decay with time,” said Lynn Wilson, project scientist for the Wind spacecraft at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Gradual SEPs last longer, sometimes for days. They come in large swarms, making the blasts a bigger risk to astronauts and satellites.

Gradual SEPs are pushed along from behind by coronal mass ejections, or CMEs – large plumes of solar material that billow through space like a tidal wave. The SEPs act like surfers, caught by that wave and propelled to incredible speeds.

The greatest mystery about gradual SEPs is not what speeds them up, but where they come from in the first place.

For reasons still not fully understood, SEPs contain a different mix of particles than the other solar material streaming off the Sun in the solar wind – fewer carbon, sulfur, and phosphorous ions, for instance. Some scientists suspect they’re cut from an entirely different cloth, forming in a different feature or layer of the Sun than the rest of the solar wind.

To find out where SEPs come from, Brooks and Yardley traced gradual SEP events from January 2014 back to their origin on the Sun.

They started with NASA’s Wind spacecraft, which orbits at the L1 Lagrange point about 1 million miles closer to the Sun than we are. One of Wind’s eight instruments is the Energetic Particles: Acceleration, Composition, and Transport, or EPACT instrument, which specializes in detecting SEPs. EPACT captured three strong SEP blasts on January 4th, 6th and 8th.

Wind’s data showed that these SEP events indeed had a specific “fingerprint” – a different mix of particles than is typically found in the solar wind.

“There is often less sulfur in SEPs compared to the solar wind, sometimes a lot less” said Brooks, lead author of the paper. “This is a unique fingerprint of SEPs that allows us to search for places in the Sun's atmosphere where sulfur is also lacking.”

They turned to JAXA/NASA’s Sun-watching Hinode spacecraft, an observatory in which Brooks serves a critical operational role for NASA from Japan. Hinode was watching Active Region 11944, a bright area of strong magnetic field with a large dark sunspot visible from Earth. AR 11944 had produced several large flares and CMEs in early January that released and accelerated the SEPs Wind observed.

Hinode’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer, or EIS instrument, scanned the active region, breaking the light into spectral lines used to identify specific elements. They looked for places in the active region with a matching fingerprint, where the specific mix of elements agreed with what they saw in Wind’s data.

Closed magnetic field lines loop back to the Sun, surrounded by open field lines that reach out into space, as depicted in this illustration. Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Lisa Poje/Genna Duberstein.

“This type of research is exactly what Hinode was designed to pursue,” said Sabrina Savage, the U.S. project scientist for Hinode. “Complex system science cannot be done in a bubble with only one mission.”

Hinode’s data revealed the source of the SEP events – but it wasn’t what either Brooks or Yardley expected.

As a rule, the solar wind can escape more easily by finding open magnetic field lines – field lines anchored to the Sun at one end but streaming out into space on the other.

“I really thought we were going to find it at the edges of the active region where the magnetic field is already open and material can escape directly,” Brooks said. “But the fingerprint matched only in regions where the magnetic field is still closed.”

The SEPs had somehow broken free from strong magnetic loops connected to the Sun at both ends. These loops trap material near the top of the chromosphere, one layer below where solar flares and coronal mass ejections erupt.

“People have already been thinking about ways it could get out from closed field – especially in the context of the solar wind,” Brooks said. “But I think the fact that the material was found in the core of the region, where the magnetic fields are very strong, makes it harder for those processes to work.”

The surprising result raises new questions about how SEPs escape the Sun, questions ripe for future work. Still, pinpointing one event’s source is a big step forward.

“Normally, you have to infer this kind of thing – you’d say, ‘look we saw an SEP and a solar flare, and the SEP probably came from the solar flare,’” said Wilson, who wasn’t involved in the study. “But this is direct evidence tying these two phenomena together.”

Brooks and Yardley also demonstrate one way to use NASA’s growing Heliophysics System Observatory, combining multi-spacecraft observations to do science that previously wasn’t possible.

“It's a way of thinking about all the spacecraft that are in flight that you can use to do a single study,” Wilson said. “It's like having a bunch of weather stations — you start to get a much better picture of what the weather is doing on a larger scale, and you can actively start to try to predict it.”

“These authors have done a remarkable job combining the right data sets and applying them to the right questions,” Savage said. “The search for the origins of potentially harmful energetic particles has been critically narrowed thanks to this effort.”

Miles Hatfield works for NASA.
Posted On

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Clearlake Animal Control is offering six dogs to new homes this week.

The following dogs are ready for adoption or foster.

“Dorito.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Dorito’

“Dorito” is a male American Staffordshire Terrier mix with a short white and gray coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 4576.

“Hector.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Hector’

“Hector” is a male American Pit Bull Terrier mix with a short brindle coat.

He is dog No. 4697.

“Inky.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Inky’

“Inky” is a male German Shepherd mix with a long black coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 4324.

“Ranger.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Ranger’

“Ranger” is a male husky mix with a long red and white coat.

He has been neutered.

Ranger is dog No. 4443.

“Tia.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Tia’

“Tia” is a female American Bully with a short black with white markings.

She is dog No. 4602.

“Toby.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Toby’

“Toby” is a friendly senior male boxer mix.

He has a short tan and white coat.

He is dog No. 4389.

Call the Clearlake Animal Control shelter at 707-273-9440, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to inquire about adoptions and schedule a visit to the shelter.

Visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Posted On

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A Lakeport man has entered a plea in a child pornography possession case that led to his arrest last year.

Jeffery Scott Cramer, 59, entered the no contest plea to felony possession of child pornography on Tuesday, a day after he had been set to go to preliminary hearing, said District Attorney Susan Krones.

Cramer’s attorney, Jane Gaskell of Santa Rosa, declined comment on the case when contacted by Lake County News.

Lake County Sheriff’s detectives arrested Cramer in May as the result of an investigation spanning several months.

Detectives served search warrants at Main Street Bicycles – which Cramer owned at that time – and at a residence on Seventh Street in Lakeport in May, seizing digital devices from both locations, as Lake County News has reported.

The sheriff’s office reported that detectives were able to identify social media accounts associated with Cramer that had been used to upload child pornography on at least five occasions between August 2019 and February 2020.

Cramer has been a coach for high school mountain biking teams at Clear Lake and Kelseyville high schools, but authorities said the case was not linked to his involvement with the schools.

Krones said that the prosecution and defense agreed to Cramer serving felony probation due to his lack of a prior criminal record.

She said the term of the probation is two years. As of Jan. 1, a new law limits felony probation to two years except in limited circumstances pursuant to Penal Code 1203.1.

In addition, Cramer is facing a jail sentence. Krones said it will be up to a judge to determine the amount of jail time, up to 364 days local jail.

“He will participate in a 52-week sex offender counseling program starting when he completes any jail time imposed,” said Krones. “He will be required to register for his lifetime.”

Krones said Cramer will be sentenced at 3 p.m. May 10.

On March 6, Main Street Bicycles reported on its Facebook page that it is now under new ownership.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Posted On

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Changes to the state’s COVID-19 Blueprint for a Safer Economy are expected to move 26 of California’s 58 counties – including Lake – out of the most restrictive purple tier and into the red tier over the coming week.

The California Department of Public Health said Friday that two million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to Californians in some of the state’s hardest-hit communities, increasing immunity where the state's transmission rates and disease burden have been the highest during the pandemic.

With this equity metric met, and because vaccines slow the spread of disease and serious illness, the previously announced update to the Blueprint for a Safer Economy to account for progress with vaccine administration goes into effect.

After reassessment using new thresholds, 13 counties will move to a less restrictive tier, from purple (widespread) to red (substantial): Amador, Colusa, Contra Costa, Los Angeles, Mendocino, Mono, Orange, Placer, San Benito, San Bernardino, Siskiyou, Sonoma and Tuolumne.

Twenty-one counties will remain in the purple tier, 33 will be in the red (substantial) tier, three remain in the orange (moderate) tier and one remains in the yellow (minimal) tier. These changes will take effect on Sunday, March 14.

On Tuesday, CDPH said it also expects Sacramento, San Diego and 11 additional counties – Kings, Lake, Monterey, Riverside, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara, Sutter, Tehama, Tulare, Ventura and Yuba – to shift from purple to red based on current data and projections.

These tier adjustments will be assigned on Tuesday and take effect on Wednesday.

Lake County has been in the purple tier since the end of November.

There is potential for additional counties to move tiers next week based on next week’s blueprint tier assessment and assignment.

Going forward, the purple tier threshold is greater than 10 cases per 100,000 people.

“California is doubling down on its mission to keep equity a top priority as we continue to get COVID-19 doses into the arms of all Californians as safely and quickly as possible,” said Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of California’s Health and Human Services Agency. “Focusing on the individuals who have been hardest hit by this pandemic is the right thing to do and also ensures we are having the greatest impact in reducing transmission, protecting our health care delivery system and saving lives.”

On March 4, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that the state had set aside 40 percent of vaccine doses for the hardest-hit communities and established an equity metric to increase vaccinations in those communities. Doing so recognizes that the pandemic did not affect California communities equally.

Forty percent of COVID cases and deaths have occurred in the lowest quartile of the Healthy Places Index, which provides overall scores and data that predict life expectancy and compares community conditions that shape health across the state.

Six of Lake County’s zip codes – Clearlake, Clearlake Oaks, Finley, Lucerne, Nice and Upper Lake – are in the lowest quartile on the Healthy Places Index.

“While we have reached a milestone today, we still have a lot of work ahead of us to help ensure we can put an end to this pandemic,” said Tomás Aragón, CDPH director and state Public Health officer. “We must all do our part by getting vaccinated as soon as it’s our turn and continue to wear masks and practice physical distancing to keep our communities safe.”

The blueprint will be updated again when four million doses have been administered in the vaccine equity quartile.

More information about the Blueprint for a Safer Economy is available here and additional details on the state's efforts to end the pandemic through equitable vaccine administration is available here.
Posted On

 

Nurse Nicole Chang celebrates after receiving one of the first injections of the COVID-19 vaccine Dec. 16 at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Westwood, California. Brian van der Brug/Getty Images

If you’ve been vaccinated for COVID-19, is it safe to gather with friends and loved ones in person? According to guidelines issued Monday by the Centers from Disease Control and Prevention, yes, fully vaccinated people can gather in small groups with other fully vaccinated people. And you can do that without the encumbrance of a mask or social distancing.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, CDC director, explains the new guidelines.


More than 30 million people in the U.S. are now fully vaccinated against coronavirus, meaning that a fraction of the population is immune to COVID-19. This is because vaccination with the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines offers very high levels of protection against the coronavirus. However, there is still a small risk that vaccinated people could transmit the disease to others.

As an infectious-disease doctor, I’ve been fielding a lot of questions from my patients as well as my friends and family about what someone is allowed to do once vaccinated. Do vaccinated people need to wear masks, socially distance and avoid travel?

If you are fully vaccinated – that is, if you are more than 10 days out from receiving both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson – you can visit other fully vaccinated people without socially distancing or wearing masks, according to the new CDC guidelines. You can even visit indoors with unvaccinated people from a single household who are at low risk for severe COVID-19 disease without wearing masks or physical distancing.

The CDC does suggest you be tested if you develop symptoms that could be COVID-19. You should then stay isolated until you are shown to be uninfected. If you are fully vaccinated, you should still avoid social settings that include multiple unvaccinated households. And, you should avoid medium to large crowds because of the increased risk. You also should continue to wear a well-fitted mask, wash your hands frequently and maintain physical distance when outside the home. Worshipping indoors at a synagogue, mosque or church is still not advisable unless all attending are vaccinated.

Also unchanged are travel recommendations: The CDC recommends avoiding travel even if you are fully vaccinated. The aim of delaying travel is to protect yourself and others from the small risk of acquiring or transmitting COVID-19, since travel on public transportation exposes you to unvaccinated people from multiple households.

So in the face of continued pandemic transmission and new viral variants, we all need to remain vigilant and observe good health practices even after being vaccinated. However, it is very good news that we can prudently lift some of the restrictions that have so limited our ability to be with loved ones. This is especially good news for seniors who are particularly vulnerable to the downside of isolation.

[Research into coronavirus and other news from science Subscribe to The Conversation’s weekly science newsletter.]The Conversation

William Petri, Professor of Medicine, University of Virginia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Posted On

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County saw snowfall on Tuesday night and Wednesday, and could see more early next week, according to the latest forecast from the National Weather Service.

Snow began to fall in parts of the county, including Cobb, Lakeport and Upper Lake, on Tuesday night, and was followed early Wednesday afternoon by nearly an hour’s worth of steady snowfall along the Northshore. In the case of Wednesday’s snow, it quickly melted off.

The National Weather Service’s observation stations reported the following 24-hour precipitation totals in inches through 12 a.m. Thursday:

– Bartlett Springs: 0.46.
– Cache Creek near Lower Lake: 0.17.
– County line (at Colusa side): 0.11.
– Hidden Valley Lake: 0.48.
– Kelseyville: 0.17.
– Knoxville Creek: 0.28.
– Lyons Valley (northwest of Lakeport): 0.49.
– Soda Creek: 0.82.
– Upper Lake: 0.47.
– Whispering Pines: 0.52.

Frosty conditions are expected Thursday morning and possibly Friday morning as well, based on the forecast.

The National Weather Service said high pressure will bring quiet and dry weather with a fair amount of sunshine and light winds Thursday through Saturday.

Forecasters said the next cold front is projected to swing through the region around Sunday or Sunday night, with snow levels forecast to be at around the 4,000 foot elevation mark on Sunday.

About half and inch to an inch of rain expected for most of northwest California, with lighter amounts likely in Lake County, the forecast said.

Across much of Lake County, the forecast calls for chances of rain on Saturday and Sunday, with the potential for snow to return on Monday morning, dropping to as low as the 1,500-foot elevation mark, the forecast said.

Once that front passes, the forecast calls for clearer weather through midweek.

Through the weekend, daytime temperatures are expected to climb into the high 50s and low 60s around Lake County, dropping into the high 30s at night.

Cooler temperatures are expected early next week, with some parts of the county likely to see daytime temperatures in the high 40s and nighttime conditions in the mid to high 30s.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LCNews

Responsible local journalism on the shores of Clear Lake.

 

Memberships:

 

Search