City Of Hermosa Beach Coronavirus Update For July 27, 2020

Press release from the City of Hermosa Beach:

July 27, 2020

To help keep the community informed, the City of Hermosa Beach is providing regular updates featuring the latest news about COVID-19; related local updates; and how the City is working to meet the needs of the community and protect public health.

Local Updates

Community Reminder - Join the Mayor This Thursday for the 2020 Hermosa Beach State of the City Address: Due to COVID-19, Hermosa Beach Mayor Mary Campbell will host the 2020 Hermosa Beach State of the City Address online at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 30. This year’s theme is “Resilient Together.” The presentation may be watched on the City’s website, Facebook or local access TV.

Virtual City Council Meeting Tomorrow: A reminder that tomorrow’s City Council Meeting will be conducted via videoconference due to ongoing health concerns about COVID-19. The Public Meeting will begin at 6 p.m. Items on the Meeting Agenda for City Council consideration include:

• Review of a mural display on historic Bijou Building
• Consideration of an urgency ordinance that would require wear face coverings in public
• Suspension of local zoning regulations to permit businesses’ outdoor operations consistent with the executive order issued by the City Manager to allow gyms and fitness and personal care establishments to operate outdoors
• Report on compliance with pandemic-related health orders at businesses, public spaces, and at the beach and City parks
• Discussion of extending temporary moratoriums on evictions
• Review of City’s parking asset restrictions
• Award of professional services agreements to provide on-call geotechnical services
• Dissolution of the agreement with neighboring cities for the stormwater infiltration project

The meeting can be watched on local access channels or on the City’s Meeting and Agenda Webpage. For more information, please see the City Council Meeting Agenda. To submit public comments, visit the City’s eComment platform.

Public Health Order Compliance Improving in Hermosa Beach: Hermosa Beach Police Department (HBPD) reported improved compliance with Public Health Orders over the weekend, with more people wearing face coverings and fewer gatherings or organized sports at the City’s parks and beaches. The HBPD and City Staff have been working with volleyball players to avoid large gatherings on the beach in violation of the Public Health Orders.

L.A. County Introduces New 3 C’s: Compliance, Containment and Collaboration: To underscore the ongoing need to protect the long-term health and well-being of residents and the workforce as the County moves forward in recovering and reopening during COVID-19, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health today introduced the following set of three Cs: Compliance, Containment and Collaboration.

• Compliance: Businesses must comply with Health Officer Orders and implement the strict infection control practices and distancing guidelines in place to protect the workforce and the public. Residents must continue to wear face coverings, maintain physical distancing, avoid gathering with people they don’t live with and continue washing their hands and cleaning high- touch surfaces.
• Containment: Adequate testing and case investigations are critical tools to contain spread. The Department of Health Services has announced testing capacity has expanded to over 65% to serve communities hardest hit by COVID-19 that experience racial and economic disparities. Case interviews and contact tracing of people who are positive or exposed are isolating and quarantining must continue. Businesses and employers must also do their part and alert the department to outbreaks at their work sites.
• Collaboration: Collaborating across all sectors and government is imperative to ensure clear messages to the public, uninterrupted supply chains for testing supplies and personal protective equipment, and unity in strategies for re-opening with as much safety as possible.

Since May, Majority of L.A. County COVID-19 Diagnoses in People Between 18 to 49 Years Old: The L.A. County Department of Public Health today reported 17 new deaths and 2,039 new cases of COVID-19. To date, Public Health has identified 176,028 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County, and a total of 4,375 deaths. Since May, the majority of countywide COVID-19 cases have occurred among people between the ages of 18 and 49 years old. People between the ages of 30 and 49 year old account for the largest proportion of cases and roughly the same proportion of cases as seen since May. Other age groups are flat or decreasing slightly. The County reported three additional COVID-19 cases in Hermosa Beach since the City’s last update this past Thursday, bringing the City’s total to 142 COVID-19 diagnoses and 2 COVID-19 related deaths.

Community COVID-19 Testing Reminder: As a reminder to residents, the nearest Los Angeles County COVID-19 Test Site is located at the Beach Cities Health District campus at 514 North Prospect Avenue in Redondo Beach. While L.A. County is encouraging residents to first contact their Primary Care Provider or Healthcare Center, COVID-19 tests are free and available to all residents of L.A. County at County testing sites. To sign up for a test at an open location, visit L.A. County’s new testing scheduling platform. The County’s main hub page will continue to provide updated information and resources and link users to the new platform.

State & Federal Updates

Federal and Local Help for Small Business: U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu held a Town Hall meeting on federal resources to help small businesses with Small Business Administration (SBA) Los Angeles District Director Victor Parker and others. They discussed loans and other assistance available to small businesses on the federal and county levels. To watch the full discussion with presentations on the Paycheck Protection Program, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, as well as L.A. County small business support resources and grant opportunities, please click here. For additional questions, please contact Rep. Lieu’s district office at 323-651-1040.

For small business assistance, please contact the SBA Los Angeles District Office at 213- 634-3855 or visit the website here to find a resource partner and get free virtual counseling, mentoring and training. The federal government extended the deadline for small businesses to apply for Paycheck Protection Program loans through August 8. These loans can be used to cover payroll, rent and other costs and can be forgiven if 60% of the funds are used for payroll. To learn more about the Paycheck Protection Program and get started, click here.

Mail-In Voting in California: Due to public health concerns caused by COVID-19, every registered voter in California will receive a mail-in ballot in time for the November 2020 election. Voting from home will help protect voters and election staff from the virus. To update addresses and other information, please visit lavote.net or call 800-815-2666.

Potential COVID-19 Vaccine’s Phase 3 Clinical Trial Begins: According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the first Phase 3 clinical trial of a potential COVID-19 vaccine in the United States began today. The investigational vaccine was developed by the biotechnology company Moderna and the National Institutes of Health, and the trial will be conducted at nearly 100 US research sites.

150+ Prominent U.S. Medical Experts Sign Letter Urging National Shutdown: More than 150 prominent US medical experts, scientists, teachers, nurses and others have signed a letter urging political leaders to shut down the country and start over to contain the surging COVID-19 pandemic. This news comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) updated national ensemble forecast predicts there will likely be between 160,000 and 175,000 total reported COVID-19 deaths by August 15th.

Global Coronavirus Figures: There are more than 16.3 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide since the start of the pandemic, and over 651,000 COVID-19 related deaths have occurred across the globe as of July 27, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

This press release was produced by the City of Hermosa Beach. The views expressed are the author's own.