Culver City Will Resume Regular Parking Enforcement on March 15, 2021
Expecting and New Moms, and Newborns
1. Non-Essential Travel is Still High-Risk
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health wants to remind everyone to stay local for spring break. Non-essential travel is still not recommended. If you are arriving or returning to LA County from out of state/country, you must quarantine for 10 days. View the travel advisory and guidance on the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health website.
2. Variants
The emergence of variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, reminds us that we all need to redouble our efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19. It is more important than ever that we all wear well-fitting face coverings, stay at least 6 feet apart from people who don’t live with us, avoid crowds and poorly ventilated spaces, and wash our hands often. These practices and the continued effort to vaccinate more people can help end this pandemic.
Some of these variants seem to spread more easily and quickly, which may lead to more cases of COVID-19. An increase in the number of cases will put more strain on health care resources and lead to more hospitalizations, and potentially more deaths.
So far, studies suggest that antibodies generated through vaccination with currently authorized vaccines recognize these variants. This is being closely investigated, and more studies are under way.
To date, the Los Angeles Department of Public Health has confirmed a total of 47 cases of COVID-19 U.K. variant, 9 cases of New York variant and one case of the P.2 Brazil variant in Los Angeles County. All the cases of the U.K. variant have been identified since Jan 15, and the first case of the P.2 variant from Brazil was identified two weeks ago. All 9 cases of the NY variant were identified since March 3. In addition, there have been 262 California variant cases identified, with the vast majority of these cases identified since December 1 of last year. There have been no cases identified in LA County with the South African variant. This latest analysis of specimens is the first time the New York variant was identified in Los Angeles County.
To learn more about COVID-19 variants and vaccines, visit the links below:
Currently, people eligible for the vaccine include healthcare workers, residents and staff at long-term care facilities, people 65 or older, education and childcare workers, food and agriculture workers, and emergency service workers and law enforcement.
Custodians and janitors, public transit workers, and airport ground crew workers are all now eligible to be vaccinated, as directed by the State. Emergency responders like social workers who handle cases of violence, abuse or neglect and foster parents providing emergency housing for young people, are also eligible to be vaccinated. The County is currently coordinating with unions and employers to set up vaccination sites and make appointments available for these groups. For the janitorial and custodial workers, the County is in the process of creating appointments this weekend on both Saturday and Sunday at the Forum and on Saturday at the LACOE/Downey vaccination site.
Per the State’s COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation Guidelines, beginning March 15, healthcare providers may use their clinical judgment to vaccinate individuals age 16 – 64 who are deemed to be at the very highest risk to get sick from COVID-19 because they have the following severe health conditions:
Cancer, current with weakened immune system
Chronic kidney disease, stage 4 or above
Chronic pulmonary disease, oxygen dependent
Down syndrome
Solid organ transplant, leading to a weakened immune system
Pregnancy
Sickle cell disease
Heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies (but not hypertension)
Severe obesity (Body Mass Index ≥ 40 kg/m2)
Type 2 diabetes mellitus with hemoglobin A1c level greater than 7.5%
OR
If as a result of a developmental or other severe high-risk disability one or more of the following applies:
The individual is likely to develop severe life-threatening illness or death from COVID-19 infection
Acquiring COVID-19 will limit the individual’s ability to receive ongoing care or services vital to their well-being and survival
Providing adequate and timely COVID care will be particularly challenging as a result of the individual’s disability.
The list of eligible conditions is subject to change as additional scientific evidence is published and as the California Department of Public Health obtains and analyzes additional state-specific data.
Registration is required for a vaccine appointment. Eligible LA County residents with internet access and a computer are urged to use the Vaccinate LA County website to reserve an appointment. For those without access to the internet, or with disabilities, a call center is open daily from 8 AM to 8:30 PM to help schedule appointments; dial (833) 540-0473 if you are in need of assistance. Please note that this phone line is reserved for people with disabilities or for those who don’t have internet access.
4. What You Can and Can’t Do Once You’re Vaccinated
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently issued guidance for fully vaccinated people and today, the County revised the Health Officer Order to reflect the new guidance. The guidance states that fully vaccinated people can gather indoors with other fully vaccinated people in small groups without wearing masks or practicing physical distancing. Individuals are considered fully vaccinated two weeks or more after they received the second dose of either Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or two weeks or more after they received the single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Fully vaccinated people can also visit with unvaccinated people from a single household who are at low risk for severe COVID-19 disease, indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing. For example, fully vaccinated grandparents can have short visits (i.e., two hours or less) with their unvaccinated grandchildren, as long as their grandchildren do not have serious health conditions.
If persons from a fully vaccinated household plan to visit with unvaccinated individuals at risk of severe COVID-19 illness (e.g., older adults, pregnant persons, people with underlying medical conditions, other people who need extra precautions), attendees must gather outdoors only, wear a well-fitted mask, and stay at least 6 feet away from people who do not live with them.
Fully vaccinated people should continue to wear a mask and maintain physical distance in public. They should mask, physically distance, only visit outdoors, and practice other prevention measures when visiting unvaccinated people at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease, or who have an unvaccinated household member at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease, and when around unvaccinated people from multiple households. Medium- and large-sized in-person gatherings are still not allowed by the County Health Officer Order, even amongst fully-vaccinated individuals.
There is a growing body of evidence that fully vaccinated people are less likely to have asymptomatic infection and potentially less likely to transmit COVID-19 to others. However, given the need for additional research, preventive measures continue to be important during vaccine implementation.
5. COVID-19 Counts in Culver City and LA County
The City of Culver City mourns the loss of our residents who have passed away, which sadly includes the passing of residents due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The County of Los Angeles Public Health Department tracks COVID-19 cases and deaths of County residents.
Culver City’s Case and Death Counts – as of March 10, 2021
Cases in Culver City – 2,117
Deaths in Culver City – 95
Cases in Los Angeles County – 1,514 new cases were reported today (1,206,713 cases to date)
Deaths in Los Angeles County – 119 new deaths were reported today (22,213 deaths to date)
There are 1,079 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized, and 30% of these people are in the intensive care unit. Testing results are available for nearly 5,915,000 individuals with 19% of people testing positive. Today's daily test positivity rate is 2.3%. View additional COVID-19 metrics on the LA County COVID-19 Surveillance Dashboard and the COVID-19 Cases and Deaths by City/Community table.
According to the State's Blueprint for a Safer Economy, Los Angeles County has begun to meet the metric thresholds for the red tier that allows for additional re-openings, including on-site learning for grades 7 through 12. To move into the less restrictive red tier, LA County’s daily case rate must be at or below 7 new cases per 100,000 people and the County's test positivity rate must be at or below 8% for two consecutive weeks. LA County's adjusted case rate dropped from 7.2 new cases per 100,000 people to 5.2 new cases per 100,000 people. The test positivity rate dropped from 3.5% to 2.5%. Should the cases and test positivity rates remain at or below the red tier metrics next week, the County would move to the red tier on March 17.
The state also updated the Blueprint framework to include vaccine equity. Once 2 million vaccine doses have been administered statewide to the communities with the lowest score in the Healthy Places Index, the threshold to move from the purple tier to the red tier will go from 7 new cases per 100,000 people to 10 new cases per 100,000 people. This would accelerate LA County's move to the red tier, since the county has two consecutive weeks with case rates below 10 new cases per 100,000 residents.
Once 4 million vaccine doses have been administered in the state to the communities with the lowest score in the Healthy Places Index, the threshold to move from the purple tier to the red tier will remain at 10 per 100,000 people, but the threshold will change for moving to the orange tier, from 4 new cases per 100,000 residents to 6 cases per 100,000 people, and to move to the yellow tier, the threshold will change from 1 new case per 100,000 residents to 2 cases per 100,000 people.
6. Culver City Will Resume Regular Parking Enforcement on March 15, 2021
To make every effort to help people stay home and slow the spread of COVID-19, the City of Culver City has relaxed parking enforcement throughout the pandemic and has extended relaxed parking enforcement until March 14, 2021.
Beginning March 15, 2021, the City of Culver City will resume enforcing the following:
Street sweeping restrictions in residential areas
Parking enforcement around closed schools
Ticketing and towing abandoned vehicles
Fines for oversize vehicle overnight parking
Parking fine increases following a citation
Loading zone restrictions
Enforcement is ongoing for the following:
Residential permits
Peak-hour restrictions
Colored curb violations
Meter violations
7. Expecting and New Moms, and Newborns
Public Health continues to track the impact of COVID-19 on expecting and new moms and newborns. As of March 1, there have been a total of 11 deaths among the 6,589 pregnant women who tested positive for COVID-19. Seventy-eight percent of pregnant women testing positive for COVID-19 are Latina/Latinx, 10% are White, 5% are African American/Black, 4% are Asian, less than 1% are Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 2% identify with another race, and race/ethnicity was unknown or unspecified for 1%. Among the 4,726 births where there was testing information, 49 infants tested positive for the virus.
Expecting and new moms are encouraged to take extra care and remain home as much as possible to avoid exposure to COVID-19. If you are sick or positive for COVID-19 and breastfeeding, wear a mask while breastfeeding or bottle-feeding, and be sure to wash your hands before touching the baby or any pump or bottle before using. If possible, ask someone else to feed the baby your breastmilk by bottle. Public Health has detailed guidance for expecting and new moms available online.
We want you to know that we are here for you. If you or another Culver City resident would like a check-in call for a quick chat, let us know. Our friendly City staff are making weekly phone calls to any residents 18 and older just to say “hi," see how you are doing, or offer information and resources. You don’t need a reason—we’ll call you. If you would like to sign-up for the weekly phone call program, give us a ring at (310) 253-6890 (Monday through Friday, 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM).
Questions? Call the Culver City Hotline
If you or someone you know has a non-emergency, non-medical need or question related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and you would like assistance, please email the City or call the City’s Coronavirus Hotline at (310) 253-6890 (Monday through Friday, 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM). If you email or leave a message at the Hotline after hours, please include your name, address, phone number, email address, and your need or question. In an emergency, please dial 9-1-1.
