Starting today, Sonoma County is for the next month. Los Angeles County on Tuesday to postpone nonessential gatherings and avoid some activities. The state prison system on Saturday as COVID surges among employees and inmates. A growing number of hospitals are .
Sound familiar?
Although both and , the state鈥檚 top health official, have repeatedly stressed that California doesn鈥檛 foresee further COVID-related shutdowns, they鈥檙e happening anyway as more people enter quarantine 鈥� raising questions about how long the state will be able to keep overburdened and understaffed schools, health care facilities and businesses open if the omicron wave doesn鈥檛 peak soon.
Newsom on Tuesday signed that allows schools through March 31 to extend substitute teachers鈥� assignments, ease the pathway for retired educators to return to classrooms, and expedite the hiring of short-term substitute teachers.
- Newsom: 鈥淚 think the surgeon general under the Obama administration said the most significant preventable disease inthis country is loneliness, social isolation. My gosh, that was before COVID. And our kids have lost a connection to their friends, their
community, to the normalcy of the cadence of life. 鈥� I鈥檓 very, very sensitive to this and the learning opportunities that are lost because kids are not safely in school.鈥�
Los Angeles Unified, the state鈥檚 largest, reopened Tuesday 鈥� but, , nearly 2,000 district employees had to step in to keep things running. Hayward Unified on Monday after more than 500 students tested positive and teachers were absent from more than half of classrooms. Palo Alto Monday only after 450 parent volunteers filled positions ranging from custodians to in-classroom roles; parents to help supervise classrooms in Sacramento City Unified.
Meanwhile, students and teachers in both and are threatening sickouts, saying they won鈥檛 show up to school without heightened health and safety protocols. West Contra Costa Unified, which reopened Tuesday after closing for two days with no instruction, employees to wear KN95 masks and students to wear surgical masks.
- : 鈥淪chool districts across the state are nearing their breaking point. When you have (teacher) absence rates exceeding 20%, meaningful in-person instruction is not always going to be viable.鈥�
The situation is similarly dire in other workplaces. More than 800 of 12,200 Los Angeles Police Department employees are out sick this week, and COVID-positive officers tend to be gone for an average of 24 days, . Santa Clara County on Monday at the request of already strained hospitals. And nearly 4,000 prison workers , a from the beginning of the month.
Restaurants are also shuttering across the state, and the mayors of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland and San Rafael recently joined 21 others across the country to provide emergency relief to stave off permanent closures and 鈥渃atastrophic鈥� economic impacts.
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