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, the first state in America to put in place a coronavirus lockdown, has turned a page on the pandemic. The nation’s most populated state lifted most of its restrictions Tuesday, meaning no more state rules on social distancing or capacity limits at restaurants, bars, supermarkets, gyms, stadiums or anywhere else.
Fully vaccinated workers in California may be able to remove masks at work this week if a state safety board approves a proposal by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or Cal/OSHA.
None of us imagined at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic that we would continue to be working virtually over a year later. Even with the tier restrictions lifting here in Orange County and throughout the state, we have faced a point where decisions are being made to either return our workforce in-person, continue to work from home, or in many cases, implement some sort of hybrid arrangement.
The pandemic shackles on California’s economy will have officially lasted 452 days — from a full lockdown starting in March 2020 to an all-but-reopened business world after June 15. The economic toll of strict mandates to slow the spread of COVID-19 was high. For years to come, there will be grand debates over the government’s ...
The events of the last few days raise the question: In eight days, will Californians mistakenly believe that the COVID-19 pandemic is over? After all, Gov. Gavin Newsom has promised a “full reopening” of the state on that date.
Mask-optional workplaces are almost here, as long as a proposal from California’s workplace safety agency gets final approval. As the state moves toward lifting many COVID-19 pandemic restrictions June 15
At the start of the year, infectious disease experts across California were, in their own words, stumbling around in a blind frenzy.
California continues to help set the pace for U.S. COVID-19 recovery, now ranked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as one of just two states at the lowest level of coronavirus community transmission. In fact, according to the CDC’s four-level color-coded system, California’s transmission metrics were the lowest out of all 50 states ...
California enacted a new law in 2016 requiring employers that do not already sponsor an employee-retirement plan to participate in a state-run retirement program called CalSavers. The law, implemented in stages, compels automatic enrollment in the program for employees, beginning with a 5% salary reduction, although employees can opt-out or make changes to the plan. ...
When California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced cash incentives to spur coronavirus vaccine-hesitant residents to get their shots, he emphasized everyone who received a dose was automatically entered into state databases. “We have your information in our system,” he said, referring to the millions of vaccination records in the California Public Department of Health’s confidential, digital Immunization Information ...