California Gov. came out swinging Monday. The state of California will mandate starting next week that all 246,000 state employees as well as the state's health care workers bevaccinated or comply with mask rules and testing protocols. State workers who are not vaccinations will be required to wear masks indoors and submit to a vaccine verification program.
Private employers should consider taking similar steps. He emphasized that the state has partnerships with large private health care providers. Infections and hospitalizations are rising in the state and across the nation.
There was a 16% increase in the number of people who werevaccinated last week in California, which is seen as a sign that outreach efforts are making an impact. About 75% of Californians eligible to receive the vaccine have received at least one shot. The entertainment industry is carefully watching federal, state and local efforts to battle the fourth major wave of the virus in the hopes of a bullish rebound to pre-pandemic level of business activity including movie-going, concerts and live events.
Safety protocols instituted by the state will surely have influence on how Hollywood adjusts its own work rules for film and TV productions. State and local officials are stepping up efforts to promote vaccination as the road to returning to everyday activities without masks and other protection, in-person public education and to keep the state's economy moving in the wake of the spike in infections. In a briefing, officials from California's Health and Human Services Agency and Department of Human Resources painted a stark picture of how the spread of the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus is hitting hardest among those who have not been vaccinations.
According to officials, there was a gain of 200 in just 36 hours, compared to less than 150 on May 15. 669 of those hospitalized are in intensive care units. State officials are seeing about 7,500 positive COVID cases per day, which is up from the seven-day average of 6,400.
That makes for a case rate of 9.6 per 100,000 people, which is up sharply from May when that measure stood at 1.9 per 100,000 people. The positivity rate in Los Angeles County was 4.51%. There were 716 hospitalizations as of July 25.
Over the weekend, more than 600 people were admitted to hospitals for COVID per day across the state. The positivity rate for unvaccinated Californians is above 14. The rate is hovering around 2 for those who have had the shot.
Health care workers at hospitals, nursing homes and other long-term and acute care facilities are included in the vaccine verification plan. More to come. California Gov.Gavin Newsom is pictured.
