California’s State Compensation Insurance Fund on Monday announced another series of actions designed to support policyholders and workers affected by the COVID-19 crisis, including doubling the size of its newly announced Essential Business Support Fund announced earlier this week to $50 million.

Since the fund was announced last week, State Fund said it has received more than 700 applications for COVID-19 workplace safety support funds. The first several payments, all at the maximum $10,000 reimbursement, were sent to qualified applicants on Monday.

Hacking activity against corporations in the United States and other countries more than doubled by some measures last month as digital thieves took advantage of security weakened by pandemic work-from-home policies, researchers said.

Corporate security teams have a harder time protecting data when it is dispersed on home computers with widely varying setups and on company machines connecting remotely, experts said. Even those remote workers using virtual private networks (VPNs), which establish secure tunnels for digital traffic, are adding to the problem, officials and researchers said.

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara on Tuesday issued a notice requiring insurance companies and other California Department of Insurance licensees to comply with their obligations to fairly investigate all business interruption claims caused by COVID-19.

The notice follows numerous complaints from businesses, public officials, and other stakeholders of certain insurance representatives attempting to dissuade business policyholders affected by COVID-19 from filing a notice of claim under business interruption insurance coverage or refusing to open and investigate these claims upon receipt of a notice of claim, according to the CDI.

California has evacuation plans for earthquakes, floods, mudslides and, of course, wildfires, but what if one of those disasters occurs as the state is dealing with the coronavirus outbreak when everyone is being urged to stay home?

State and local officials are trying to figure that out.

California’s State Compensation Insurance Fund announced on Monday that it will establish two new funds to support the health and recovery of essential workers and workplace safety during the COVID-19 crisis.

The first fund, the Essential Worker Support Fund, is a $25-million relief fund to support State Fund policyholders’ essential workers, as defined by an executive order from Gov. Newsom, who contract COVID-19 or are ordered to self-isolate due to a potential exposure.

(TNS) - As the country buckles down to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, local governments are in constant contact with officials from the state and federal levels to ensure they have the necessary supplies.

Overseeing that process in Clark and Floyd counties are the emergency management agencies [EMA]. Each county’s EMA has set up emergency operations centers, where representatives from multiple organizations coordinate response efforts.

The COVID-19 pandemic has become the ultimate stress test for communities, countries and the world. It falls into the "once in a lifetime" category, but the dynamics and challenges it will entail have been studied for years by researchers investigating “super wicked problems,” ”transboundary crises” and “mega crises.”

Global warming will lead to growing intensity and frequency of severe weather events, rising losses, as well as greater uncertainty in the assessment of these events by the insurance industry, which could make some weather risks uninsurable, according to a report published by Swiss Re.

“Failure to take immediate, tangible action to confront warming temperatures could lead to climate systems reaching irreversible tipping points,” said the sigma report titled “Natural catastrophes in times of economic accumulation and climate change.”

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.9 rattled much of inland Southern California on Friday evening but no damage or injuries were reported, the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed.

The quake struck just after 6:53 p.m. and was centered near Anza in a remote desert area of Riverside County, southeast of Los Angeles and not far from Palm Springs. However, it was felt as much as 100 miles from the epicenter, according to a U.S. Geological Survey website.

(TNS) - Ramona Moll remembers grappling with an elderly dementia patient who showed all the signs of COVID-19: fever, difficulty breathing and a persistent cough. The patient had tried to bite her while the staff struggled to keep him from tearing off his mask and oxygen tubes, she said.

Days later, Moll said she began to develop a cough and grew so weak she could barely speak or climb stairs. She wound up hospitalized herself and tested positive for COVID-19. She became one of the first employees at UC Davis Medical Center to test positive for the disease.