Governor Gavin Newsom held his roughly hour-long daily briefing to provide an update on the state’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Newsom kicked off his remarks by thanking health care workers who are on the frontlines. “We need to talk more about care for our caregivers,” he said and pointed out that this is a workforce that “is deeply stressed out, deeply stretched” amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Governor announced, starting April 10th, California will provide frontline health care workers with hotel rooms at no-or low-cost and free flights for California’s Health Corps. Frontline health care workers who are exposed to or test positive for COVID-19 can find accommodations through the new CalTravelStore website. Thus far, it has been reported that 150+ hotels in the state have agreed to participate. More information can be found here.
Additionally, 86,000+ people have applied for the new Health Corps. United Airlines, Southwest, Alaska, and Delta have committed to offering free travel for these workers to get to California. “It’s an open-ended commitment until this crisis passes,” the Governor said.
He also stated 350 health care workers who have applied through the Health Corps are getting letters today offering them employment through the state at medical facilities set up to accommodate the surge in COVID-19 patients.
Consistent with past briefings, the Governor provided the latest COVID-19 hospitalization and intensive care unit (ICU) patient figures. The number of coronavirus hospitalizations is now 2,825, a 4.1 percent increase from the previous day. The number of coronavirus patients in ICU beds is 1,132, 1.9 percent DROP. The 1.9 percent is “not a trend, it’s not a headline,” but nonetheless, “it’s encouraging,” Newsom said.
The Governor also addressed the fishing season. He said the fishing season has NOT been canceled, they are working to delay, not canceled it, but that are working on postponing fishing in some circumstances, due to the risks in some of those rural areas that have asked for help because if there were an influx of folks fishing (derbies, etc.). The healthcare systems in those areas would not be able to handle a larger scale COVID breakout (Mono & Inyo Counties). He stated, “I am passionate about fishing, myself.”
During the Q&A, Governor Newsom was asked about schools. It was noted by one of the reporters that many households are still lacking computers and the internet to access distance-learning opportunities. In response, the Governor said the Department of Education (CDE) is exploring options for summer school or repeating grades for students who lose out on learning. In the meantime, schools are working to help families facing barriers to learning at home, including working on getting more mobile hotspots and expanding connectivity/access.
On California’s COVID-19 modeling, the Governor said the state’s models have improved due to the stay-at-home order. He acknowledged that the state’s models are different than others, including academic models, but he stands by the projections that the peak will be in later and not within the next week.
On testing, the backlog is at 13,900 tests. Still “too high,” he said. But it is a much smaller sum than the 59,000+ test backlog of just a couple of weeks ago. California Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mark Ghaly stated that the state is looking forward to serological testing but has to do so in a methodical way.
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced the most recent statistics on COVID-19 – there are a total of 15,957 confirmed positive cases and 442 deaths in California. Starting April 8th, racial demographics of COVID-19 cases and deaths, along with expanded data on infection rates of healthcare workers, will be available. More information regarding the most recent COVID-19 statistics can be found here.
The https://www.covid19.ca.gov/ website is being updated continuously.