Daily Update for Monday, August 30, 2021
- LA County Cases 1,403,053 (up from 1,400,837)
- LA County Deaths 25,245 (up from 25,240)
- LA Positivity Rate 2.31% (down from 2.75%)
- LA Hospitalizations 1692 (down from 1708)
There tends to be under reporting from the weekend – however – all numbers are down. 2,231 new COVID cases announded in LA County yesterday along with 5 unnecessary and preventable deaths. Positivity rate declines and hospitalizations drop.
HOSPITAL PATIENTS IN LA SKEW YOUNGER
Front page of the CA section in LA Times today – headline reads:
“Hospital Patients Skew Younger. Unvaccinated and otherwise relatively healthy people are filling up more beds and are more likely to enter the ICU, county data shows”
Among adults and the oldest teenagers who were in the hospital with COVID 19, the median age of the unvaccinated or partially vaccinated patients is 51. That’s notably younger than the median age of fully vaccinated patients which is 66.
Fully vaccinated people were also less likely to need admission in the ICU or to have such difficulty breathing that they need to be sedated and have a breathing tube inserted into their mouth and windpipe.
About 1 in 12 fully vaccinated people hospitalized with COVID had no underlying health conditions. By contrast, 1 in 5 unvaccinated people hospitalized with COVID had no underlying health conditions. This means that fully vaccinated people who were sick enough to require hospitalization were much more likely to have chronic diseases. This same reality is also playing out down in the OC.
PACE OF VACCINATIONS IS INCREASING
Federal officials said that they are encouraged that the pace of vaccinations has picked up. So far this month, 12.5 million first doses of vaccinations have been administered across the country. That’s 2 million more cases than in all of July.
DELTA VARIANT DRAGS THE US ECONOMY. WEST HOLLYWOOD CITY COUNCIL CONTINUES TO IGNORE COVID IMPACTS AND HARMS WEHO BUSINESS COMMUNITY
The business section of the LA Times has a 1/3 page article on Delta’s impact on the US Economy. The reports are coming out for August and the results are not good.
Airlines – the number of travelers moving through airport check points has started to drop again. Last Tuesday, 1.47 million travelers took flights – the fewest flyers in more than 3 months, according to TSA data . There’s been a deceleration in leisure booking and an increase in cancellations. The delay in companies returning to offices has also diminished business air travel.
Restaurant dining – Seated dining at US restaurants has been running about 10% to 11% below 2019 levels in recent weeks after narrowing the gap to just 5-6% in late July according to Open Table. The primary driver of the downturn is diner’s concerns about the rise in COVID cases.
Hotel Occupancy – Has now declined for four consecutive weeks according to STR, a lodging data tracker. Average room rates have declined for 3 weeks. Among 25 large US markets, NONE saw increased occupancy in the week that ended August 21st. Occupancy has dropped by 40% in San Francisco – the most of any market. There is a chill on travel caused by Delta variant case increases.
Job Listings – Labor demand is predicted to drop if psople cut back on travel, eating out and other services spending.
WEST HOLLYWOOD COUNCIL POISED TO HURT WEHO BUSINESS COMMUNITY. AGAIN.
And with all this grim economic news being caused by COVID, what is the West Hollywood City Council doing? Harming and threatening to harm our City’s travel, night life and dining services.
Recently, the council passed 4-1 a hotel ordinance that significantly increases overtime rates and decreases room square footage cleaned by hotel maids (and also diminishes number of new jobs for hotel maids) over the major protest by West Hollywood’s 21 hotels. The only sensible one on the council was Mayor Lauren Meister. The hotels are taking a major hit from the City Council just as they are struggling to get back on their feet. But the hotel union UNITE HERE played heavily in the campaigns to elect Lindsay Horvath, John Erickson and Sepi Shyne and demanded this ordinance – even though it is going to cause long term consequences for the hotels. Wehoville publisher Larry Block and Chamber of Commerce Chairman Nick Rimedio did their best to try and stop it – but the council pushed the harmful ordinance through.
And now what?
New councilman John Erickson is attempting to raise the minimum wage in West Hollywood to be higher than any other city in the State of California. This will severely hit all the restaurants, bars and nightclubs – some of whom were closed for 15 months due to COVID and are hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. Now? A minimum wage increase now when these businesses are doing their best to recover? Our Weho residents love our restaurants, bars and night clubs! Don’t kick them when they are down! Hopefully the council will realize this is not the right place and right time for this idea. Wait. Let the businesses get back on their feet and repay their outstanding debts before you saddle them with an across the board minimum wage increase. John D’Amico and Sepi Shyne please! Don’t hurt our travel/tourism/nightlife right now! They are just coming up for air! Genevieve Morrill and the Chamber of Commerce need Weho Residents to speak up and tell the Council to back off and cut the business community some slack while they recuperate.
Hoping that Larry Block at Wehoville and Paulo Murillo at Weho Times and Troy Masters at the LA Blade watch and cover this issue in the upcoming months. Weho has a Golden Goose that lays the Golden Eggs: Hotels, nightlife and restaurants. That’s our local economy. Don’t kill the Golden Goose during COVID!
COVID-19 vaccines go through many tests for safety and effectiveness and are then monitored closely.
Source: World Health Organization
38Marco Pelusi, Paulo Murillo and 36 others
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Another virus on the horizon.
https://nypost.com/2021/09/07/india-fighting-to-contain-nipah-a-virus-deadlier-than-covid-19/
No kidding about hotel occupany affected by COVID concerns.I recently came to LA to attend Outfest,the annual film festival.
I normally would stay the whole week to see screenings,but this year,I elected to stay for four days only. Multiple that decision by hundreds and you have a downturn in the local hotel occupancy rate.
As for the attempt to raise the minimum wage in the city,it is a noble goal,but this is not what the bars and restaurants need right now. i would not be surprised if places close after this effort succeeds.
How young is too young for JD?
I don’t feel sorry for businesses that are struggling right now. In my opinion, for years the Gay community has been fleeced by businesses who price gouge. When bars are charging $15. for a cocktail which costs, on average less than a dollar for the bar, that’s disgusting enough. But, when businesses are now crying poor mouth because they apparently didn’t save or invest any of the vulgar amounts of profit to carry them through slow times, it’s just plain greed. The businesses had a cash cow for years. It’s not the consumers or employees fault that business owners spent… Read more »
What is disgusting is how you consistently show your hate of people who choose to open a business and take risks and provide a service. Something you have never had to deal with. it’s no wonder you are not successful. I was your neighbor and you were awful, didn’t pay your rent and got evicted -multiple times I understand. If you can’t afford the drink then trash those who are more successful then you who can. If you can’t afford your apartment just don’t pay for it. IF you cant afford the five guys burger just keep eating mcdonalds.
Thank you. He rarely says anything positive, or that I agree with. Eric, how about that time that you were running for City Council and LIED about the person who created a “fake Dudesnude profile with your stolen laptop?” After you bragged about it, right here on this site? Make up your mind. I’m no prude, and don’t care about public nudity (I’ve partaken), but I will call you out on this lie, again and again. You’ve never owned up to it, and you were asking the public to earn your trust as an elected Councilmember. I’m guessing this comment… Read more »
I cut a very nice deal with dudesnude when I ran for city council. I never wanted to win city council and never expected to. that was not the point. it was always my intention to move on and move up and out of WEHO after the election, which i did. but, i am still a stakeholder in WEHO and will be there for it’s fall and it’s renaissance. I am not affected by negative and hateful comments by people whose opinion don’t matter to me. the old school mindset and negative attitudes is what will be the downfall of… Read more »
“I cut a very nice deal with dudesnude when I ran for city council. I never wanted to win city council and never expected to. that was not the point. it was always my intention to move on and move up and out of WEHO after the election, which i did.” — WOW. Just WOW. Thank you for finally acknowledging this. So, basically, you were abusing the public process, which takes a ludicrous number of votes to get on the ballot (I believe it is 100, or maybe 50?). “I am not affected by negative and hateful comments by people… Read more »
In other words, a garden variety fraud.
Idiots are neither planned nor planted, they just pop up on their own.
No lies. Wehoville knew about the arrangement with dudesnude, but Hank decided it was not newsworthy so I was never asked about it by anyone. Anyway, before you make accusations, you should examine every fundraising and contract deal made by the past and current council members, commissioners, former city attorney and former city manager. I don’t think you want to open that Pandora box. I was always told by an attorney I worked for that “never let them know what you know” so you will have to discover all of the dirty little secrets on your own or wait until… Read more »
The fact that you think you look remotely good naked is laughable. Maybe, maybe 35 years ago, but not now.
It’s so easy to get guys like you to spew your hate. It’s almost comical. The hate is just simmering at the surface and all that guys like you need is someone to tell the truth for your hate to surface. West Hollywood is over. I know it’s not pleasant to hear the truth and the truth hurts.
It’s equally fascinating that guys like you leave and need to create negativity upon your exit. You post about a West Hollywood full of fraud and lies yet just admitted your own here. Why focus so much energy and negativity on city you left? Gracious goodbyes are always best. Lord knows very few have you or your rants front of mind as we continue to live in West Hollywood. Girl move on…..he’s not interested in you.
‘Why should customers continue to pay high prices when the businesses don’t value their staff enough to pay fair wages?’
Excellent point! That leads up to tipping, so everyone that is not respected as a worker by their employer expects to get tips to make up the difference, respect, which goes back to Pullman railroad times, in which tipping is really a racist act that needs to be eliminated if anyone cares. Or is this issue too big for West Hollywood to deal with?
Why are you still commenting on here? Your city council run wasn’t embarrassing enough? You’re not relevant any longer, actually never were.
Of course younger! Soon infants will be a leading cause of death in US!