Welcome to the 74th issue of the California Coronavirus Weekly Recap newsletter.
In This Issue:
- The Economy & Your Finances: Nationwide hiring up in July, unemployment rising in California
- The Market & Industry: CDC announces new eviction moratorium
- Around the State: Cases and hospitalizations increasing swiftly
- Health Check-Up: Children account for roughly 19 percent of new infections nationwide
The Economy & Your Finances: Nationwide hiring up in July, unemployment rising in CaliforniaThe U.S. added 940,000 jobs in July, exceeding economists’ projections of 860,000 new jobs and pushing the national unemployment rate down to 5.4 percent. Thus far, the Delta variant of the coronavirus has not stunted the U.S. economy’s recovery, in part due to the fact many local governments have not imposed the same level of restrictions as earlier during the pandemic to combat the fourth wave.
In California, unemployment claims jumped again last week to their highest level since the state reopened in mid-June. California now accounts for one-fifth of all unemployment claims nationwide, even though the state is only home to 11 percent of the nation’s workers.
On September 4, 2021, the following federally-funded unemployment programs will end: the federal increase of $300 per week for all unemployment benefits; the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program; and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) program. An estimated 2 million Californians will lose benefits, which can be as much as $750 a week.
The EDD recently warned Californians to be alert for scammers pretending to be the EDD or Bank of America and attempting to trick recipients into providing personal information via text or telephone. If you receive a text message from the EDD, check your UI Online account or your mailed notice to verify its legitimacy. Don’t ever click on any links in unexpected text messages claiming to be from the EDD or Bank of America. Text messages asking you to reactivate a card by clicking a link are usually scams.
Sources: AP News, The Mercury News, The Sacramento Bee, California Employment Development Department, EDD
The Market & Industry: CDC announces new eviction moratorium
The CDC announced a new 60-day eviction moratorium last week. The order applies only to counties with substantial or high transmission of COVID-19 — which right now includes most of the country — and is set to expire on October 3. The new moratorium may face legal challenges.
Interest rates fell back below 2.8 percent last week and recently released construction data shows that California is on track to build at least 30 percent more homes this year than it did in 2020. And last month, the number of California consumers that felt it was a good time to purchase a home fell to an all-time low of just 17 percent.
Sources: NPR, C.A.R.
Around the State: Cases and hospitalizations increasing swiftly
Cases continue to surge across California at the fastest rate since the start of the pandemic, fueled by the Delta variant. Last Friday, California recorded 14,402 new cases — the highest number of new infections since January 2021 and up 50 percent from just the day before. The number of people hospitalized with COVID has nearly doubled in the past two weeks.
In response to rising case levels, California is implementing a new requirement that all healthcare workers statewide be vaccinated against COVID-19. The order applies to those who provide services or work in hospitals, nursing facilities, psychiatric hospitals, clinics and doctor’s offices. It also includes dialysis centers and residential substance use treatment centers and at least a half-dozen other facilities. As of 10:38 a.m., cases in California number 4,050,159 and hospitalizations numbered 6,259. The statewide average for ICU bed availability was 30.3 percent.
With more individual employers issuing mask mandates at work, California has seen a significant increase in the number of people getting vaccinated in the last two weeks. Still, California’s vaccination pace lags far behind its peak. Even with the recent uptick, at the current pace it would take months before enough Californians are vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.
Millennials are accounting for the biggest rise in cases, with infections among Californians between the ages of 18 and 34 rising 554 percent in two weeks. The findings come at a time when hospitals across the US are reporting that younger patients make up a growing portion of hospitalizations and some doctors say they are seeing sicker young patients.
Sources: KTLA, NPR, Deadline, The New York Times, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times
Health Check-Up: Children account for roughly 19 percent of new infections nationwide
Serious cases remain rare, but coronavirus infections among children are on the rise. In the first week of August, nearly 72,000 cases were reported in children nationwide — roughly 19 percent of the total number of new cases. Severe illness and death are still uncommon in children who have contracted the virus, but a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association emphasizes the need for further study of the long-term effects of the virus on children.
California schools are now beginning to reopen, and so far only Marin County will require teachers and staff to present proof that they’ve been vaccinated or the results of a weekly negative COVID-19 test when the school year resumes.
A new, large-scale study from the Journals of Gerontology warns that COVID-19 can look different in older adults. About one-quarter of seniors who were hospitalized with COVID between March and April of 2020 reported functional decline, including falls, dizziness, fatigue, and difficulty walking or getting out of bed. And 11 percent experienced altered mental status, including agitation, forgetfulness, lethargy, and confusion.
Sources: NPR, The San Francisco Chronicle