California Watch
News stories in this section spotlight activities in California, including actions by the state Assembly and state Senate; proposed legislation; regulators like the Department of Managed Health Care and Department of Insurance; and the state ACA exchange, Covered California.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom says he is going back to the drawing board for his budget proposal, abandoning the $222 billion plan he laid out in January as the coronavirus pandemic hammers the state’s economy.
Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara today alerted insurance companies that all workers affected by COVID-19 on the job are eligible for workers’ compensation benefits regardless of their immigration status. This includes workers engaged in front-line occupations such as health care, emergency services, food production, sales, and delivery, among others.
The coronavirus is surging in Los Angeles as the county emerges as the new epicenter of the virus in California — whereas in San Francisco, numbers are slowing, a payoff that officials say is because of the Bay Area’s fast action to impose aggressive restrictions on residents.
Yesterday, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order that will provide some relief for small businesses struggling during the COVID-19 crisis.
A proposal to retroactively lift a limit on state and local tax deductions would largely funnel money to relatively high earners in high-tax states.
Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an urgent call for healthcare workers to join the state in caring for an expected surge of COVID-19 patients while announcing an executive order to expand the services medical professionals can perform in their jobs.
Gov. Gavin Newsom expressed confidence Saturday that California has the capacity to produce enough ventilators to meet its projected needs in response to the coronavirus pandemic. But during a tour of a San Jose energy company that is refurbishing outdated ones, he cautioned that the state’s need could expand significantly if the public doesn’t maintain social distancing and the crisis worsens.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti issued dire warnings Friday that the nation’s second-largest city is headed for the same surge in COVID-19 cases as New York City after a 26% increase in California deaths overnight.
The number of coronavirus patients in California’s intensive care unit beds doubled overnight, rising from 200 on Friday to 410 on Saturday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said.
As California braced for an onslaught of desperately ill coronavirus patients, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans over the weekend to open two new hospitals, and President Donald Trump said the federal government will ship a number of mobile hospital units to the state, pay for National Guard deployments and deploy the San Diego-based naval hospital ship Mercy to Los Angeles.