California OSHA Undercounts Workers’ COVID Illnesses, Deaths The agency has been relying on self-reporting to determine the number of COVID cases that have been contracted in the workplace, resulting in severe undercounts that undermine the severity of workplace risk. Jason Pohl, Dale Kasler and Phillip Reese, The Sacramento Bee | February 2, 2021 | Analysis
(TNS) A year after the first COVID-19 case hit California, the state agency in charge of policing warehouses, offices, factories and other workplaces is woefully understaffed and significantly undercounting the number of employees who have fallen seriously ill or died as a result of the coronavirus.
California employers reported only 1,600 serious worker illnesses or deaths to the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/ OSHA, from the start of the pandemic through mid-December, according to data obtained by
‘Major, major problem.’ California failing to track workplace COVID infections, deaths [The Sacramento Bee]
Feb. 2 A year after the first COVID-19 case hit California, the state agency in charge of policing warehouses, offices, factories and other workplaces is woefully understaffed and significantly undercounting the number of employees who have fallen seriously ill or died as a result of the coronavirus.
California employers reported only 1,600 serious worker illnesses or deaths to the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA, from the start of the pandemic through mid-December, according to data obtained by The Sacramento Bee through a Public Records Act request.
Trucks loaded with hives are already arriving to almond orchards.
There’s a certain poetic symbolism about mid-February and what it represents (at least in non-COVID years) the Daytona 500, the NBA All-Star Game, Jimmy Hoffa’s birthday, Valentine’s Day, and the presumptive kick-off of the almond pollination period in California.
If tradition holds, trucks loaded with beehives have already begun arriving.
“Delivering those hives is a logistical feat,” said Fiona Edwards Murphy of ApisProtect, which monitors honeybee colonies. “They’ve been on pallets carried by flatbed trucks via multi-day, cross-country journeys from as far away as Florida, a 3,000-mile trip involving overheating, overcooling, and a myriad of other stresses before they’re expected to go right to work.”