September 20, 2020
Demonstrators took the streets of London, Tel Aviv, and other cities on Saturday to protest coronavirus restrictions, decrying how the measures have affected daily life even with infection rates rising in many places and the global death toll approaching 1 million. In the UK, new infections and hospital admissions have been doubling every 7 to 8 days and the death toll is Europe’s highest since the start of the pandemic. The government recently banned social gatherings of more than 6 people. Saturday’s protest saw hundreds of people which ended in clashes between demonstrators and police. Demonstrators in swimsuits gathered on a
beach in Tel Aviv to protest a full lockdown which began Friday coinciding with the High Holy Days, and 100 protesters in Australia gathered in Melbourne before being scattered by police. And in Romania’s capital city Bucharest, several hundred people protested against virus restrictions including the mandatory use of masks in schools
At a time when countries around the world are curtailing wedding ceremonies and imposing strict travel restrictions to stop the spread of the coronavirus, Gibraltar has welcomed couples of all nationalities, including Americans. Many of the marriages being celebrated in Gibraltar involve an American citizen marrying a partner from another country, because of the numerous hurdles the US has placed on immigration and travel. Other couples who have faced wedding restrictions in their own countries have also seized the opportunity to marry here this summer ahead of a potential second wave of the virus
South Korea owed much of its relative success in finding those infected with the coronavirus to its aggressive use of surveillance camera footage, smart phone data, and credit card transaction records. But it has also empowered troll and harassers and authorities have since pulled back on some of their more obtrusive tactics, though many South Koreans have raised relatively few outcries over privacy. However, the global fight against the pandemic has raised privacy concerns across other countries. Governments, including Italy, Israel, and Singapore have used cell phone data to track potentially infected people and their contacts. China has employed mobile phone apps with little disclosure about how they track people. Venezuela has urged neighbors to turn each other in. China and South Korea are the only countries whose governments have the power to collect such data at will during an epidemic. In South Korea, the government no longer publicly reveals a patient’s age, sex, nationality, or workplace, or names of the places recently visited. It now also removes from public view any information it does not disclose after 2 weeks
As the pandemic has laid bare healthcare inequities, more Black women are looking at home birth as a way to not only avoid the coronavirus but also to shun a system that has contributed to Black women being 3 to 4 times more likely to die of childbirth-related causes than white women, regardless of income or education. Researchers argue that the disparity — one of the widest in women’s healthcare — is rooted in long-standing social inequities, from lack of safe housing and healthful food to inferior care at the hospitals where Black women tend to give birth. The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked a flurry of new interest among women of all races in home births, which account for just over 1% of deliveries in the US. Birth centers and midwives who attend home births say they’ve been swamped by new clients since the pandemic began
According to the National Restaurant Assn., the pandemic cost the restaurant industry $120 billion in sales between March and May. That number is expected to climb to $240 billion by the end of the year. Prepandemic sales projections for 2020 were $899 billion. There is no current plan in place nationally or locally to bail out restaurants and landlords. When back rent is due, most businesses will already be in serious debt, with no ability to pay back or current rent. If the landlords abate rather than defer rent, some of them won’t be able to pay their mortgages
County officials are doubling the number of coronavirus tests they currently offer at San Diego State University, where Covid-19 cases are continuing to climb. Officials said though the university was not struggling to test its students, more testing was needed to bring the situation on and off campus under control. Since the start of the semester, 785 students have tested positive, including 32 cases reported on Friday. That contributed to the county’s case rate of 7.9% last week — a number that puts the region at risk of becoming the first county in California to drop a level in the state’s reopening tier system. The outbreak has called into question UC San Diego’s decision to welcome about 7,500 undergraduates into on-campus dorms beginning this weekend
LA County reported an additional 991 cases and 23 deaths. Totals are now 260,797 cases and 6,353 deaths. City Breakouts (Cases/Deaths): City of LA 105,946/2,715; Long Beach 11,503/238; Carson 1,812/60; El Segundo 130/1; Gardena 1,225/48; Hawthorne 1,916/43; Hermosa Beach 207/4; Inglewood 2,805/89; Lawndale 623/10; Lomita 237/9; Manhattan Beach 353/5; PV Estates 94/2; Rancho PV 293/13; Redondo Beach 545/10; Rolling Hills 11/0; Rolling Hills Estates 41/2; Torrance 1,397/67
Compiled by Charlene Nishimura
Media Sources: Los Angeles Times; New York Times; Washington Post; Wall Street Journal; Forbes Magazine; Business Insider; USA Today; CBS News; CNN; KTLA; OZY; ABC World News Tonight; Spectrum News 1; The Hill.com; WebMD; AP, Politico, Newsweek, Reuters, STAT, televised briefings from the White House, Governor Newsom, LA County Health Department, Mayor Garcetti; City of Torrance press releases; Torrance Area Chamber of Commerce press releases
