In a move criticized by business groups and hailed by labor advocates, California’s workplace regulators extended the state’s coronavirus pandemic regulations into next year with revisions that employers said could worsen the state’s severe labor shortage.

The revised rules require that vaccinated but asymptomatic workers who come in close contact with someone infected with the virus must wear masks and stay 6 feet from others for 14 days if they return to work.

The current rules allow those employees to keep working without restrictions unless they show symptoms _ under the assumption that the vaccine generally will protect them.

(TNS) - If everything goes according to plan, much of California could come close to herd immunity levels of vaccination by late summer. Within weeks, the effects could be dramatic: very low case rates, people comfortably allowed to gather again, maybe even some looser rules around mask-wearing.

Of course, little about this pandemic has stuck to the plan.

Between the emergence of new coronavirus variants, unreliable vaccine supplies and uneven access to the doses available, it may take months or even years longer than anyone would like to hit herd immunity. It's possible California, the nation and the world may never get there.

(TNS) - California is more than eight weeks into a mass vaccination campaign to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, administering tens of thousands of shots a day.

The California Department of Public Health on its vaccine tracker reported Wednesday providers have administered 5,089,484 out of about 7.6 million doses that have been distributed to hospital systems and local health offices, an increase of 174,854 from Tuesday. The total grew by about 168,000 from Monday to Tuesday.

(TNS) - Dec. 20—Orange County logged another single-day record on Sunday, Dec. 20, for new reported cases of the coronavirus as a winter surge spreads through its communities and packs local hospitals.

The additional 4,606 cases reported Sunday by the OC Health Care Agency in its daily update put the cumulative total since tracking began at 124,428 people testing positive for the virus.

Some 1,682 people needed hospitalization as of Sunday, 375 of them in intensive care units.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign recently completed its in-person fall semester. And as the nation watches the COVID-19 virus surge, the school continues the virus testing program that has worked so well since it began in August.

The COVID-19 positivity rate for the entire student body and faculty for the past seven days was 0.45 percent. The number of total tests given since the inception of the program? A staggering 908,158. But it’s that rate of testing and contact tracing that reduced the positivity rate from a high of nearly 3 percent in late August to what it is now.

(TNS) - The COVID-19 pandemic has largely been a story of numbers.

Daily reports tell us the number of new cases, the number of hospitalizations, the number of outbreaks and the number of deaths.

The numbers are a dispassionate, point-in-time measure necessary to track the footprint of the deadly coronavirus as it continues its advance into homes, businesses, churches, even hospitals.

But they can't quantify the sense of loss that has pervaded life since the pandemic began six months ago — the loss of intimacy, tradition, confidence, and economic well-being.

A Northern California nursing home hit hard by a deadly coronavirus outbreak is a highly rated facility. But even with a good track record, it wasn’t prepared to combat the coronavirus when it arrived.

At least 17 people died and dozens of staff members got infected after a housekeeping employee tested positive April 2 and was the first confirmed to have the virus at Stollwood Convalescent Hospital, a nonprofit nursing home in Woodland that received high marks from inspectors and a national accreditation bureau, the Sacramento Bee reported Saturday.

By now, all states and local municipalities are back to work in either a full or limited capacity. For most businesses, this is a welcome sign, but reopening does not occur without some risks. Employers and employees will now need to consider both new and old risks before reopening their doors. For a business to successfully open, the organization will need to prioritize three goals: 1) reduce the likelihood of transmission within the workplace, 2) resume and maintain business operations, and 3) continue to promote a healthy and safe work environment. These three goals are unachievable without developing a thorough, comprehensive business resumption plan and addressing the potential business disruptors.

(TNS) - Desperate for face masks, California paid $800 million to a politically connected firm that failed to deliver most of the state's order.

State officials in Mississippi paid nearly $500,000 to a company whose owner was convicted on federal fraud charges after he resold to grocery stores food that was intended for animals or meant to be destroyed.

(TNS) - Facetime, Zoom, Google Meets — and ham radio.

Video conferencing may have come into prominence during the coronavirus pandemic as part of the effort to stay connected. But in contrast to the virtual online spaces where many convene, some central Ohioans are instead taking to the airwaves.

The Madison County Amateur Radio Club has expanded its weekly "nets" — a channel for multiple radios to use for communication — to almost every night, giving its members a space to entertain, educate and converse with each other. The radio club, made up of about 60 licensed amateur radio operators in Madison County and central Ohio, first expanded its "nets" in late March following Gov. Mike DeWine's initial stay-at-home order.