Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, October 17, 2020

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Mountain Views-News Saturday, October 17, 2020 

10/09/2020 3:30pm 

(Compared to 10/09/2020)

LOS ANGELE COUNTY* 10/16/20 10/09/20 

 Total Cases 287,222 278,665

Deaths 6,855 6,726 

STATS BY CITY Population Cases Deaths 

 (last week's stats in parenthesis)

 10/0920

Pasadena 14,1371 2,664 (2636) 129 (128

Uninc- East Pasadena 6,40386 (84) 2 (2)



City of Arcadia 57,754 556 (544) 36 (35)

Uninc. - Arcadia 7.981 95 (95) 4 (3)

City of Bradbury 1,06916 (14) 0 (0)

City of Duarte 22,016 604 (593) 31 (30)

Uninc.- Duarte4,428164 (157) 4 (4)

City of Monrovia 38,800 803 (785) 41 (41)

Uninc - Monrovia 3,88186 (83) 0 (0)



City of Sierra Madre 10,989 83 (80) 3 (3)

City of So.Pasadena 26,053307 (296) 26 (26)

Uninc.- Altadena 43,260 758 (750) 16 (16)

La County Testing as of 10/16/20: (2,865,592)

Positivity Rate (No. of persons positive out of total persons tested)

as 10/16/20: 9.8%

Nationally recommended Positivity Level: 5%

PUBLIC HEALTH ADVISES IT HAS NEVER BEEN 
MORE IMPORTANT FOR RESIDENTS TO GET 

IMMUNIZED AGAINST THE FLU

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) encourages 
residents to protect themselves from influenza this year by getting the flu 
immunization.

Because it is highly likely that both flu and COVID-19 will be present in L.A. 
County this year, it’s vital that we do all that we can to protect ourselves to prevent 
a serious flu season coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Every year, tens of thousands of people nationwide are hospitalized or die from 
flu-related illness. Considering the toll COVID-19 has had on our communities 
and our healthcare system, now more than ever it is important to be protected 
from influenza by getting immunized. Immunizations are safe and provide protection 
against the harmful effects of influenza and can also help keep people out 
of the hospital freeing up critical hospital resources.

Everyone 6 months and older should be immunized against flu. Anyone can get 
flu (even healthy people), but people at high risk of developing serious flu-related 
complications include: people 65 years and older, pregnant women, children 
younger than 5 years and people with chronic medical conditions (such as 
asthma, diabetes, heart disease, or HIV).

To get immunized for flu, visit your doctor, a pharmacy or a flu immunization 
clinic, where both walk-up and drive-thru service is available. To find a low-cost, 
or free, immunization, call 2-1-1 or go to PreventFluLA.com.

SUPERVISOR BARGER ASKS BOARD TO EXPAND ACCESS 
TO HIGH-SPEED INTERNET TO ENSURE EQUITY

Los Angeles County meets students’ and workers’ needsin light of disparity revealed by COVID-19



LOS ANGELES COUNTY – The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a motion au-thored 
by Supervisor Kathryn Barger and co-authored by Supervisor Hilda Solis to pro-vide more equitable 
access to high-speed internet for students and workers in need.



COVID-19 shed a light on many inequities within Los Angeles County. The pandemic re-vealed a 
great disparity for internet access, which impacts children who are learning online and residents 
who are teleworking.



“As many have transitioned to working from home and distance learning, the need for af-fordable, 
reliable telecommunications services and resources is now more important than ever,” said Supervisor 
Kathryn Barger. “We hope this effort will lead to a more just and equitable future in order to 
equip our residents with the access they need to learn, work, and thrive.”



The American Community Survey Data for Los Angeles County revealed that only 65 per-cent of 
households in low-income communities had internet access and only 51 percent had a computer. In 
total, 238,000 households lack internet access. According to a study by the USC Annenberg School 
of Communications, one in four families with school-age chil-dren in Los Angeles County do not 
have the resources necessary for distance learning and are likely to fall behind in their education 
during the pandemic.



“Bridging the digital divide is an educational justice issue,” said Supervisor Hilda L. Solis. “Communities 
of color, those from low-income families, people with disabilities, limited English-speakers, 
and people experiencing homelessness lack the appropriate technology to adequately telework or 
participate in distance-learning. No one should be left behind, and through this motion, the County 
hopes to ease this divide through digital innovation and inclusion.”



The motion raised by Supervisors Barger and Solis aims to create a plan to:

(1) Develop best practices for streamlining the permitting of high-speed broad-band internet;

(2) Explore both public and private options for providing access to internet, includ-ing leveraging 
grants;

(3) Develop a database and geographic information system to display existing broadband 
infrastructure;

(4) Explore revisions to the County’s General Plan to give unincorporated areas sufficient access to 
high-speed internet; and

(5) Explore new strategies to provide free, low-cost or permit based internet to disadvantaged 
communities.



The motion directs the Department of Public Works and the Department of Regional Planning to 
report back to the Board in 90 days with their plan.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY 

COVID-19 UPDATE 10/16/2020

Summary 

This guidance provides an updated plan for Californians 
to gather outside their household and replaces the prior 
gatherings guidance issued on September 12, 2020 and 
March 16, 2020. It applies to private gatherings, and all 
other gatherings not covered by existing sector guidance 
are prohibited. Gatherings are defined as social situations 
that bring together people from different households at 
the same time in a single space or place. When people 
from different households mix, this increases the risk of 
transmission of COVID-19.

Mandatory Requirements for All Gatherings

All persons planning to host or participate in a private 
gathering, as defined above, must comply with the following 
requirements. Local health jurisdictions may be 
more restrictive than this guidance. Refer to your local 
guidance for what is al-lowed in your area.

1.Attendance

• Gatherings that include more than 3 households
are prohibited. This includes eve-ryone present, including 
hosts and guests. Remember, the smaller the number 
of people, the safer.

• Keep the households that you interact with stable 
over time. By spending time with the same people, risk of 
transmission is reduced. Participating in multiple gather-
ings with different households or groups is strongly 
discouraged.

• The host should collect names of all attendees
and contact information in case con-tact tracing is needed 
later.

2.Gather Outdoors

• Gatherings that occur outdoors are significantly
safer than indoor gatherings. All gatherings must be held 
outside. Attendees may go inside to use restrooms as long 
as the restrooms are frequently sanitized.

• Gatherings may occur in outdoor spaces that are
covered by umbrellas, canopies, awnings, roofs, and other 
shade structures provided that at least three sides of the 
space (or 75%) are open to the outdoors.

• A gathering of no more than three households is
permitted in a public park or other outdoor space, even if 
unrelated gatherings of other groups up to three households 
are also occurring in the same park or other outdoor 
space. If multiple such gath-erings are occurring, 
mixing between group gatherings is not allowed. Additional-
ly, multiple gatherings of three households cannot 
be jointly organized or coordi-nated to occur in the same 
public park or other outdoor space at the same time – 
this would constitute a gathering exceeding the permitted 
size. 

3.Don't Attend Gatherings If You Feel Sick or You Are
in a High-Risk Group

• Anyone with any COVID-19-like symptoms (fever, 
cough, shortness of breath, chills, night sweats, sore 
throat, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, tiredness, muscle or 
body aches, headaches, confusion, or loss of sense of 
taste/smell), must stay home and not come into contact 
with anyone outside their household.

• Anyone who develops COVID-19 within 48
hours after attending a gathering should notify the other 
attendees as soon as possible regarding the potential 
exposure.

• People at higher risk of severe illness or death
from COVID-19 (such as older adults and people with 
chronic medical conditions) are strongly urged not to attend 
any gatherings.

4.Practice Physical Distancing and Hand Hygiene at
Gatherings

• For any gatherings permitted under this guidance, 
the space must be large enough so that everyone at a 
gathering can maintain at least a 6-foot physical distance 
from others (not including their own household) at all 
times. 

• Seating must provide at least 6 feet of distance (in 
all directions—front-to-back and side-to-side) between 
different households.

• Everyone at a gathering should frequently wash
their hands with soap and water, or use hand sanitizer if 
soap and water are not available. A place to wash hands or 
hand sanitizer must be available for participants to use.

• Shared items should not be used during a gathering. 
As much as possible, any food or beverages at outdoor 
gatherings must be in single-serve disposable containers. 
If providing single-serve containers is not possible, food 
and beverages must be served by a person who washes or 
sanitizes their hands frequently, and wears a face covering. 
Self-serve items from communal containers should 
not be used.

5.Wear a Face Covering to Keep COVID-19 from
Spreading

• When gathering, face coverings must be worn in
accordance with the CDPH Guidance on the Use of Face 
Coverings (PDF), unless an exemption is appli-cable.

• People at gatherings may remove their face coverings 
briefly to eat or drink as long as they stay at least 
6 feet away from everyone outside their own household, 
and put their face covering back on as soon as they are 
done with the activity.

• Face coverings can also be removed to meet urgent 
medical needs (for example, to use an asthma inhaler, 
take medication, or if feeling light-headed).

6.Keep it short

• Gatherings should be two hours or less. The longer 
the duration, the risk of trans-mission increases.

7.Rules for Singing, Chanting, and Shouting at Outdoor 
Gatherings

• Singing, chanting, shouting, and physical exertion 
significantly increases the risk of COVID-19 transmission 
because these activities increase the release of 
respira-tory droplets and fine aerosols into the air. Because 
of this, singing, chanting, and shouting are strongly 
discouraged, but if they occur, the following rules and 
rec-ommendations apply:

o All people who are singing or chanting should
wear a face covering at all times while singing or chanting, 
including anyone who is leading a song or chant. Because 
these activities pose a very high risk of COVID-19 
transmis-sion, face coverings are essential to reduce the 
spread of respiratory drop-lets and fine aerosols;

o People who are singing, shouting, chanting, or
exercising are strongly en-couraged to maintain physical 
distancing beyond 6 feet to further reduce risk.

o People who are singing or chanting are strongly
encouraged to do so quietly (at or below the volume of a 
normal speaking voice).

• Instrumental music is allowed as long as the
musicians maintain at least 6-foot physical distancing. 
Musicians must be from one of the three households. 
Playing of wind instruments (any instrument played 
by the mouth, such as a trumpet or clarinet) is strongly 
discouraged. 

Context

COVID-19 continues to pose a severe risk to communities 
and requires all people in California to follow necessary 
precautions and to adapt the way they live and function 
in light of this ongoing risk. The safest way to gather 
is to spend time with people in the same household or to 
gather virtually.

In general, the more people from different households a 
person interacts with at a gathering, the closer the physical 
interaction is, and the longer the interaction lasts, the 
higher the risk that a person with a COVID-19 infection, 
symptomatic or asymptomatic, may spread it to others. 
Public health studies have also shown that the risk 
of transmission is increased in indoor spaces, particularly 
when there isn't appropriate ventilation.[1] Unlike 
indoor spaces, wind and air in outdoor spaces can help 
reduce spread of the virus from one person to another.

Planning scenarios published by the CDC estimate that, 
on average, a person with COVID-19 goes on to infect 
between 2-4 people, with a best estimate of 2.5 when 
there are no preventive measures.[2] For example, if each 
infected person spreads the virus to two people, who in 
turn spread it to two others each; those four will spread 
the virus to eight others; those eight will spread the virus 
to 16; and so on. As a result, after 10 transmission cycles, 
one person could be responsible for 1,024 other people 
contracting the virus.[3] Additionally, there is broad 
agreement that people who are not experiencing symptoms 
can still spread COVID-19[4]. The fact that COVID-
19 can be spread by people who don't have symptoms 
or aren't showing symptoms yet is one of the aspects of 
the COVID-19 that makes it difficult to control.

All gatherings pose a higher risk of transmission and 
spread of COVID-19 when people mix from different 
households and communities. The likelihood of trans-
mission and spread increases with laughing, singing, 
loud talking and difficulty maintaining physical distance. 
Limiting attendance at gatherings is a way to re-duce the 
risk of spread as it lowers the number of different people 
who are inter-acting. Additionally, by limiting attendance 
there is an improved ability to perform effective contact 
tracing if there is a positive case discovered, which can 
help to slow the spread of COVID-19[5]. People who 
do choose to attend gatherings should discuss and agree 
upon the specific group rules before convening together.

CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH

GUIDANCE FOR PRIVATE GATHERINGS 

TABLE FOR TWO by Peter Dills

thechefknows@yahoo.com

Hey all on vacation this week but with the elections coming up I thought we could 
re run this!!! 

Let’s talk minimum wage. The Federal Government sets it at $7.25 but that amount 
can be superseded (big word) by individual states, including California. If you dig 
further, cities such as Santa Monica, Pasadena and San Francisco have their own. 
For example, San Francisco’s minimum wage is $16.07 - this isn’t some Newsom 
mandate; this was passed by the voters in San Francisco. 

Many restaurant owners I talk to 
have supported this wage as long as 
it is for non-tipped employees. This 
where it gets tricky - besides what 
they and we are going through now 
restaurants have a very slim margin 
so the question I have for you is: “Is 
that too much? Too little?” And, 
if you work in or have worked in a 
restaurant would you rather work 
for as much as you can get (performance based) or take a living wage say, $23 an 
hour but no tips? Places like Target and WalMart pay a minimum wage, and at 
$16 a hour I could see that attracting a pretty good young worker, although when 
I was growing up working at McDonald’s or Target was purely meant for side cash 
not supporting a family. While I’m not an economist what I’ve read tells me that 
as wages go up, menu raises also go up, so it makes sense that in a restaurant if 
the menu prices go up tips will also go up. However for over 70% of restaurant 
employees, their take home pay has not gone up. Tipping is down an average of 
23% every time a restaurant enacts a price hike due to minimum wage, while only 
5% said that tips have gone up, so there goes theory one. Consumers often feel that 
servers are making more money so why tip more. I still tip 20%. Remember TIPS 
ensure good service and when I’m out I want it all.

Some restaurants have added surcharges instead of adding to the menu prices - 
this restaurant goer is opposed to that, but open to discussion.

Tipping has been around forever and there has to be a solution of rising wages and 
tips - maybe a tip credit? I have known workers that work at the Red O or Paradise 
Cove or Carrows who make $45 an hour. That is a living wage.

Join me for more discussion on Go Country 105 FM Sunday Morning at 8AM


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