CoViD-19: County Adds Extended Hour & Mobile Vaccination Sites | Biden's America The Beautiful Plan l Fletcher Disses LA | Photos: San Diego Zoo & Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden |

  

Malayan Tapir Calf at San Diego Zoo (Taken 5.6.21)

I've been trying to make sure I do something every day beyond just watching briefings and reading email and sitting in my backyard, so today the May Gray called for a quick visit to the San Diego Zoo. Darren was doing laundry and Nova just got a book of Billie Eilish sheet music in the mail that she proceeded to deep dive into on piano and guitar, so I went alone after seeing video of a new okapi baby on exhibit. Of course, by the time I motivated it was almost 5pm so I didn't see the okapi, but I did get a lot of time with the Malayan tapirs who, while I'm probably just projecting, seemed to be playing hide and seek with me, moving from the lower part of their enclosure to the upper part and back again several times. They make my heart flutter and they make the coolest noise that is somewhere between a shrieking high whistle and an elephant's trumpet. So yes, I talk to them. Because of course I do. I also got some fun time with hippos Funani and Amahle who were all over their pool today. 

After the Zoo, I went to the Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden and everything is in bloom right now, and absolutely gorgeous. I'd highly suggest an early morning or late afternoon walk around. Plus, if you're vaccinated, there are a few people here and there, but it's open enough and empty enough that you can take the mask off and literally smell the roses. The colors are so vibrant and there's just so many of them. 

Today was the start of the later hours for three of the County's vaccination sites, so if you've had a hard time getting to the early daytime hours, perhaps the 1-8pm timeframe works better for you. Plus they've got a ton of mobile sites popping up to 'meet people where they are' all over the county, so if you haven't yet, it's time to get on the vaccination train. Psaki didn't have a press briefing today because the president was travelling, but apparently you can be sure that Nathan Fletcher won't ever be running for governor because he had a lot to say about LA, even if it was in a joking way how fans of a team egg on opponents. Clip at the end because it made me laugh out loud. Tomorrow the Casbah's newsletter will have a playlist from Mayor Todd Gloria and it's a pretty solid list that you might be interested in checking out. Be safe out there.  

• COVID-19:
• US COVID-19 cases hit 7-month low, but hotspots persist - Becker's Hospital Review (5.6.21)
• New Analysis Finds Global Covid Death Toll is Double Official Estimates - STAT News (5.6.21)
  In the United States, the analysis estimates, 905,000 people have died of Covid since the start of the pandemic. That is about 38% higher than the current death estimate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 561,594. The new figure also surpasses the estimated number of U.S. deaths in the 1918 flu pandemic, which was estimated to have killed approximately 675,000 Americans.
• The Countries Funding Covid-19 Vaccine R&D - Statista (5.6.21)
• Moderna says early data shows Covid vaccine is 96% effective in teens -CNBC (5.6.21)
  Moderna may apply for extended EUA for tweens by the end of the month. With the current timeline, that could make Moderna available to teens by end of June. 
• Anti-vaxxers aren’t the cause of America’s dropping vaccine rates. This fact is crucial to getting the US’s vaccination campaign back on track. - Vox (5.5.21)
• Politics: 
• Biden administration details plans to conserve 30% of US land and water by 2030 - CNN (5.6.21)
• Biden-Harris Administration Outlines “America the Beautiful” Initiative. Initial report details vision for 10-year, locally led and voluntary nationwide effort to restore and conserve America’s lands, waters, and wildlife   USDOI (5.6.21)
• Report: Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful 2021 
• White House: 
• White House Releases Fact Sheets to Highlight Nationwide Need and Impact of the American Families Plan
• Remarks by President Biden on the American Jobs Plan
• Notice on the Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to the Stabilization of Iraq
• Notice on the Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to the Actions of the Government of Syria
• Notice on the Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to the Central African Republic
• Press Gaggle by Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Aboard Air Force One En Route Lake Charles, LA
• nearly 940,000 Americans have signed up for health insurance through Healthcare.gov as a result of the Biden administration’s special enrollment period (per HHS)
• 54 percent of K-through-8 schools were open for fulltime, in-person learning, and 88 percent were open for either fulltime, in-person, and/or hybrid learning (via National Center for Education Statistics)
• News:
• County Budget Reflects Residents’ Needs, Builds Framework for Future - County News Center (5.6.21)
• Other Reading:
• ‘We’re terrorized’: LA sheriffs frequently harass families of people they kill, says report. Los Angeles sheriff’s department has routinely retaliated against victims’ relatives who speak out, NLG and ACLU say in report. - The Guardian (5.4.21)
• Global COVID-19 Stats (JHU 5.6.21 10:20pm):
• 156,077,747 Known Cases
• 3,256,034 Known Deaths
• US COVID-19 Stats 
• CDC COVID-19 Vaccination Data Tracker
• JHU
• 32,604,704 Cases
• 580,061 Deaths
• CDC Data Tracker:
• +41,909 New Cases/32,356,034 Known Cases 
• +730 New Deaths/576,238 Known Deaths
• 324,610,185 Doses Delivered/251,973,752 Doses Administered
• 149,462,265 Partially Vaccinated/108,926,627 Fully Vaccinated
• California COVID-19 Stats:
• State of California Safe Schools For All Hub
• Vaccination progress dashboard
• Aggregate California ICU Bed Availability: 32.8%
• R-effective: 0.88
• 39,942,590 Doses Delivered/31,398,938 Doses Administered
• 5,909,645 Partially Vaccinated/13,457,141 Fully Vaccinated
• 1,547 New Cases/3,648,276 Total Cases (4.0 new cases/100k)
• 65 New Deaths/60,927 Total Deaths (0.06 new deaths/100k)
• 1.3% 7-day test positivity rate
• 1,870 COVID-19 Hospitalizations (-23 patients, -1.2% from prior day)
• 413 COVID-19 ICU hospitalized in CA (-32 patients, -7.2% from prior day)
• 2,247 ICU beds available (-32 from prior day)
• San Diego County 
• Free Testing Sites and Schedule in San Diego
• VaccinationSuperstationSD
• Vaccination Dashboard
• San Diego County Of Education School Reopening Dashboard
• Evening COVID-19 Vaccination Clinics Coming to North, East, South County

• State Data:
• Southern California ICU Bed Availability: 34.4%
• R-effective: 0.88
• 219 New Cases/277,098 Total Cases
• 3 Deaths/3,716 Total Deaths
• 5.5 cases/100k population (Assessed on 5/4. Unadjusted Case Rate)
• 2.2% Test Positivity (Assessed on 5/4)
• 2.7% Health Equity Positivity (Assessed on 5/4)
• 166 COVID-19 hospitalized patients (+3 patients, +1.8% from prior day)
• 41 COVID-19 ICU hospitalized patients (-2 patients, -4.7% from prior day)
• 207 ICU beds available (-7 from prior day)
• San Diego County Media Briefing:
• Vaccinations are going well
• 63% of eligible San Diegans have at least one shot, 44% have 2nd shots (Dashboard now ncludes DOD and VA numbers. Will update those numbers every 2 weeks)
• Vaccination supply has caught up with demand, allowing for appointments to be made a week out.
• Shifting sites to extend hours at 3 sites
• More pop-up drop-in vaccination centers. Identifying high visited areas with MTS, senior centers, faith-based orgs, Elks Lodge, American Council on Islamic Relations (to set up vaccinations after Ramadan concludes), more partnerships with employers
• County has multiple rotating vaccination events; most open every 3 weeks. For full list, check here. Mobile vax sites can be found here.
• 67.2% of South County residents are vaccinated. 
•  Media Questions:
• Can schools, public or private, make vaccinations mandatory? Dr. Wooten says it would be up to each individual district who would then have to vote on it, but as far as I've read, making vaccinations mandatory while still in EUA is a sticky situation and almost no entity has tried it. 
• County is encouraged by number of 16-19 year olds getting vaccinated as they've only been eligible since April 15.
• Daily testing numbers include countywide PCR tests. They do not count Antigen./Rapid Tests.
• LA and SF were able to descend to yellow tier because they had more cases (so reinfection now is low), high vaccinations, and higher numbers of people getting tested with negative results which dramatically drops case rate. (This is why I think everyone, especially people with kids in sports or school should continue to get tested regularly, even if parents are vaccinated)
• County now has more doses than demands for appointments
• Only one B.1617 (Indian Variant of Interest) detected in San Diego 
• County Data:
• San Diego County Update - County News Center 
• 226 New Cases/277,323 Total Cases 
• 0 New Daily Deaths/3,716 Total Deaths
• 3,445,425 Doses Received/3,071,489 Doses Administered
• 1,692,336 Partially Vaccinated/1,194,000 Fully Vaccinated
• 1% Daily Test Positivity/1.7% (7-day avg after 7-day lag)/1.4% Test Positivity (14-day average)
• 5.0 cases/100k population (Assessed on 5/4. Adjusted case rate per 100,000 excluding prisons.) 
• 96.8% Case Investigation 
• +2.6% Day Over Day COVID-19 Hospitalizations (137 patients. -16% over 30 days)
• 31% ICU Capacity (35 patients. -33% over 30 days)
• 51 Staffed ICU Beds Available
• 1 New/18 Community Outbreaks (7-day)
• Universities:
• SDSU COVID-19, UCSD COVID-19, USD COVID-19, CSU San Marcos, PLNU

Fletch burns LA:

San Diego Zoo/Rose Garden Photos (Taken 5.6.21)