Happy Friday everyone! I’m Winston Gieseke, philanthropy and special sections editor for The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, and I can’t wait to have a nice relaxing weekend staying home and continuing my quarantine. And you?
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California to set aside 10% of first doses of vaccine for educators and school staff
Governor Gavin Newsom said on Friday that the Golden State plans to reserve 10% of the first doses of the vaccine for educators, school staff and child care providers starting in March to bring children back to classrooms.
The move aims to jumpstart in-person learning after nearly a year of distance learning for most of California’s 6 million K-12 students. The news comes a day after California legislative leaders announced a $ 6.5 billion proposal to reopen schools in the spring. Newsom said it wasn’t fast enough and suggested he could veto it.
“I cannot support something that will delay the safe reopening of schools for our youngest children,” he said.
Meanwhile, the state’s virus cases, infection rates and hospitalizations have plummeted after reaching record levels in early January. Cases have fallen to 6,700 a day from a high of over 40,000, and hospitalizations are a third of what they were six weeks ago.
Winter storm delays more than half of California’s weekly vaccine supply
About 702,000 doses of vaccine en route to Golden State were stranded by the winter storm sweeping through the center of the country, Newsom told a press conference on Friday.
State officials had planned to receive 1.2 million doses this week. Due to the delay, pharmacies in several counties have reported that they canceled hundreds of appointments for the first dose. Others expressed frustration with the lack of available resources and information.
“The vaccine supply to San Francisco is limited, inconsistent and unpredictable, making vaccine planning difficult,” the city’s COVID command center said, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
While the governor did not know when the doses would arrive, he said after the storm passed, he expected the federal government vaccine allocation to increase with “modest increases every week.”
In other immunization news, Riverside County public health clinics lost 263 doses of the vaccine, according to county spokesman Jose Arballo Jr., who previously told the Desert Sun that the county had not followed this information. This week he said he was wrong.
Arballo said vaccinations could be lost in several ways, including a syringe breaking during vaccination or after a fall, a dropped vial or a vial exposed to too much light or sunlight.
California relaxes high school sports rules
California Department of Public Health released new guidelines on Friday for youth and high school sports, opening the door to a more rapid return to action for several sports, including football.
According to the report, “High-contact outdoor sports can be practiced in purple or red level counties with a case rate of 14 per 100,000 or less.” There are currently 27 counties in the state with fewer than 14 cases per 100,000.
These sports include football and water polo of the current season. Under the new guidelines, these sports can resume once the county hits that threshold if all players and coaches are tested once a week.
Before Friday, outdoor contact sports would not have been allowed until a county reached the orange level, which would have meant less than four cases per 100,000.
This new directive, which does not include indoor sports, will come into force on February 26.
Easy to digest newsletters
For those of you who are worried about engaging in more important information.
- Thousands of people around the world flood Yosemite National Park every February for a chance to see the ephemeral phenomenon of “fall of fire”, where a spin of sunlight seems to send molten lava down the eastern slope of El Capitan. The otherworldly view can only be seen when conditions are perfect for around 10 minutes as the sun sets in mid-February. Head to the Visalia Times Delta to see what park visitors thought about Tuesday’s experience.
- Several sources confirmed that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West had filed for divorce after – depending on what source of information you read – six and a half or seven years of marriage. And while I don’t have any additional information on that, I’m going to say that “Kimye” has never been one of my favorite celebrity coat racks. “Garfleck” was a good one, however. So was “Connermeci”.
- Spit into space: For just $ 99, LifeShip, a San Francisco-based company, says it’ll send your DNA to the moon – in the form of a tiny droplet of saliva. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, company founder Ben Haldeman “made a deal with a spacecraft trading company to place tiny fragments of human saliva aboard a privately-funded lunar landing United Launch Alliance, which is due to take off from Cape Canaveral in the fall. “It will be a giant leap for your saliva.
In California, a roundup of news from the editorial staff of the USA Today Network. Also contributing: San Francisco Chronicle. We’ll be back in your inbox on Monday with the latest headlines.
As the Philanthropy and Special Sections Editor of The Desert Sun, Winston Gieseke writes about nonprofits, fundraising, and people giving in the Coachella Valley. Contact him at winston.gieseke@desertsun.com.
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