KATHLEEN RONAYNE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 16, 2020, 8: 07 PM
Updated 3 hours ago
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SACRAMENTO– California is still dealing with “locations” of the coronavirus around the state, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday as officials thought about evacuating locals of a California retirement home with 156 infections and 10 deaths and the state inspected a Central Valley Safeway storage facility facing an outbreak.
” We’re still seeing hot spots throughout the state,” Newsom said at his everyday briefing, calling for continued watchfulness even as California thinks about when it will alleviate virus-related restrictions.
He cited the retirement home in Visalia, where at least 156 people tested favorable and 10 died, and the distribution center in Tracy, where he stated 51 individuals were contaminated and one passed away.
Teamsters Resident 439, which represents employees at the Safeway facility, stated Pedro Zuniga, a veteran employee, passed away.
Northern California Safeway spokeswoman Wendy Gutshall stated about 3%of the 1,700 employees at the Tracy center have evaluated positive for the virus and improved safety measures are in location. It offers groceries to about 300 stores throughout Northern California, Nevada and Hawaii.
” We continue to reinforce with all associates the value of social distancing as the most efficient tool we need to fight the spread of COVID-19,” Gutshall stated in a declaration. She stated all typical areas are closed and employees are motivated to take breaks by themselves.
More than 950 individuals have passed away from the virus in California, according to Johns Hopkins University. Los Angeles County, which has nearly half the statewide deaths, on Thursday reported 55 brand-new deaths, its greatest daily death toll without a doubt.
The break out at the Redwood Springs Healthcare Center in Visalia, where 106 citizens and 50 employee evaluated favorable and 10 have died, is the largest reported outbreak at a California nursing home. The California Department of Public Health on Thursday didn’t supply the overall number of break outs at nursing facilities throughout the state.
All clients and personnel were being tested and the 176- bed center in the farming Central Valley is receiving staffing support from the county, state and health centers, stated administrator Anita Hubbard. The county might evacuate the house as an “absolute worst-case scenario,” Tim Lutz, director of the Tulare County Health and Human Being Solutions Company, told the Visalia Times Delta.
For the majority of people, the coronavirus triggers mild or moderate signs, such as fever and cough that clear up in 2 to 3 weeks. For some, specifically older adults and individuals with existing health problems, it can cause more extreme health problem or death.
At the Safeway center, the first favorable test for the virus came 2 or 3 weeks back, stated Rome Aloise, the Teamsters West Region International vice president.
” People work in close quarters in these storage facilities and we’re unsure at the starting people were taking the appropriate preventative measures,” he stated. “We make certain they didn’t have the correct PPE for everybody,” he included, referring to personal protective equipment like masks.
When the pandemic began, Safeway was first offering wipes and hand sanitizer to workers, he said.
Gutshall said in her declaration that “sourced masks to be worn by all associates” are now among the preventative measures being taken there.
The California Division of Occupational Security and Health went to the facility on Thursday, a day after it released statewide coronavirus standards for grocery stores.
Newsom signed an executive order Thursday requiring large agricultural businesses, grocery chains and other food companies to provide two weeks of paid authorized leave to full-time employees who are considered important during the infection, on top of whatever leave they currently have.
For more stories about the coronavirus, go here.
Track cases in Sonoma County, throughout California, the United States and around the globe here.
