Record news services
LOS ANGELES State officials are expected to extend the strictest stay-at-home orders in Central and Southern California as hospitals in those regions are quickly running out of intensive care unit beds for coronavirus patients ahead of the presumed post-holiday surge.
The situation is already dire, and the worst is expected to come in the next few weeks after Christmas and New Year’s travelers return home. California hit 2 million confirmed coronavirus cases on Christmas Eve, becoming the first state to reach the grim milestone.
The stay-at-home orders for the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California are set to expire Monday they were first imposed three weeks ago but Gov. Gavin Newsom has signaled they would not be allowed to lapse. State officials said Sunday afternoon the orders were likely to be extended but did not make a definitive ruling.
The salon joins a growing number of business owners in Stockton refusing to comply with a state stay-at-home directive. Lodi and Stockton’s chambers of commerce joined a coalition of businesses organizations across California pushing back against the state s most recent round of sweeping COVID-19 stay-at-home orders even as California hit and quickly passed a staggering 2 million virus cases. Local cases are skyrocketing, too: Just as soon as it started back up again, University of the Pacific’s men’s basketball program had to suspend activities for the second time this season after another positive COVID-19 test.
Slaying deaths continue to mount
Julie Ownbey, a teacher at August Knodt Elementary School, died Tuesday from injuries sustained in a vehicle crash.
“We are deeply saddened by the death of one of our beloved teachers from August Knodt Elementary School,” Clark Burke, Manteca Unified School District superintendent, said.
In a statement, MUSD did not identify Ownbey by name out of privacy. But according to a report by the Pleasanton Weekly, Ownbey died in a solo-vehicle rollover crash along North Livermore Avenue outside the Livermore city limits on Tuesday evening.
“The Alameda County Coroner’s Bureau identified the victim as 52-year-old Julie Ownbey, who died at the scene of the violent crash,” the Pleasanton Weekly said. “Her LinkedIn profile confirmed Ownbey worked as a fourth-grade teacher in the Manteca Unified School District.”
Week in review: Vaccine brings new hope in virus fight [The Record, Stockton, Calif]
A vaccine that comes at possibly the darkest period yet in the coronavirus pandemic is bringing new hope and the prospect of a break for area and state hospitals under siege by a crush of critical coronavirus patients.
More: First San Joaquin County frontline health care workers receive COVID-19 vaccine
By week’s end, as the county’s death toll had hit 561 and California recorded more than 41,000 new cases and 300 deaths in a single day Friday, health care workers were continuing to receive the new Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The rollout will continue over the coming days, weeks and months in phases, with the highest risk first in line. By phase 4, everyone in the U.S. should have a chance for the shot.
By week’s end, as the county’s death toll had hit 561 and California recorded more than 41,000 new cases and 300 deaths in a single day Friday, health care workers were continuing to receive the new Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The rollout will continue over the coming days, weeks and months in phases, with the highest risk first in line. By phase 4, everyone in the U.S. should have a chance for the shot.
“Hope is springing up everywhere,” Dr. Scott Neeley, vice president and chief medical officer at Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Stockton, said in a virtual community update Friday. “We can see the light at the end of the tunnel with respect to this pandemic, but we have to stay safe together.”