Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/)
While OC Health Care officials have been scrambling daily for weeks to find more N95 protective facemasks for a variety of first responders, doctors and nurses, in February HCA procurement executives listed as government surplus more than 100,00 of the cloth masks, possibly selling them for as little as $1 a piece.
120 temporary workers were hired to fill volunteer shifts after the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County had to suspend its volunteer operation at its distribution center amid concerns of spreading the coronavirus.
County officials are rolling out a mixture of tents, trailers and hotel/motel rooms to help shelter homeless people around Orange County during the novel coronavirus pandemic. The move is expected to thin some of the overcrowded homeless shelters.
Local hospitals, eyeing surges in coronavirus cases in other parts of the country, are stretching out their capacity to a total goal of 5,367 beds available countywide, and county health care agency officials say the medical facilities are more than 60% full.
Amid public pushes for more transparency, county health officials released the information on which cities of less than 25,000 people had over five confirmed cases.
Disease models estimate social distancing in California will need to remain fully in effect into July to reduce COVID hospitalizations to zero. And even after hospitalizations drop to zero, public health experts have recommended that social distancing largely remain in place for weeks, if not months, to prevent the virus from coming back.
Ralphs and Food for Less clerks are now getting the same temporary pay increase as grocery peers at other union-represented shops like Albertsons and Stater Bros, after the grocery union workers spoke out.
Grocery workers are demanding increased safety and sanitation measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus in their stores while they endure waves of customers filling the store and panic buying.
With OC jails experiencing a novel coronavirus outbreak, County officials are beginning to early release about scores of prisoners early and workers are getting apprehensive. Meanwhile, a group of criminal defense attorneys are asking a federal judge to clear out the jails.
While bus drivers and operations employees directly employed by OCTA get to keep their jobs and even their pay as some stay home, bus drivers employed through two private contractors the agency gives money to have been laid off, and will see their benefits follow their jobs out the door.
Officials announced the upcoming data release in response to a question from Voice of OC, which for nearly a week has been pressing county officials to disclose the number of people hospitalized for COVID and how many surge beds are being pursued.
Officials were preparing to for a 2 p.m. Monday news conference to start giving more data about their plans for a surge in people being hospitalized with COVID-19.