California coronavirus updates: The latest on the pandemic

General overall view of sparse traffic on the Interstate 710 freeway amid the global coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, Thursday, April 9, 2020, in Los Angeles. Photo by Kirby Lee via AP

Health

As Californians stay at home, air quality improves – for now.

The global coronavirus pandemic has inadvertently achieved what state officials have sought to do for decades: Californians have parked their cars. Freeways and highways are clear. And the constant burn of fossil fuels has been markedly diminished.

By

Julie Cart

• April 12, 2020

California Divide

Farmers are forced to let crops rot and throw away milk while food bank demand soars

Last week, Isabel Solorio turned away five families from the Lanare food bank serving farmworkers in rural Fresno County. There just wasn’t enough food to feed the 215 families who showed up. It was twice the number of families that needed food a week earlier, she said. But that same week, on a farm just […]

By

Manuela Tobias

and

Robert Rodriguez

• April 11, 2020

California Divide

‘The perfect storm of vulnerability’: Protection in the fields doesn’t follow farmworkers home

When Jesus Francisco Meza Uriarte and Dian Alejandro Bienazul Atondo step into the van that will take them to a spinach field in Salinas each morning, it stinks of bleach. The van’s been sanitized between rides to kill any lingering bits of the COVID-19 virus. They ride to work, sitting at least six feet apart, […]

By

Kate Cimini

• April 11, 2020

A man wearing disposable gloves and a bandana over his face walks past a boarded up shop on Haight Street in San Francisco on April 7, 2020. California is entering the fourth week of sheltering in place to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus, and the number of Californians hospitalized and those in ICUs with COVID-19 is starting to edge up only slightly. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters

Coronavirus

Wary optimism: Small uptick of COVID-19 Californians in hospital and intensive care

Just a few days from a forecasted peak in California’s pandemic, it's seeing fewer hospitalizations and intensive care patients than anticipated.

By

Elizabeth Aguilera

• April 10, 2020

The Rev. Matthew Wheeler is seen on an iPhone screen live-streaming the celebration of the the Mass of the Lord's Supper at St. Anthony Parish in San Gabriel, Calif., Thursday, April 9, 2020. With no public Mass due to the coronavirus pandemic, the church live-streams its services. Photo by AP Damian Dovarganes, AP Photo

Coronavirus

Open for Easter? Legal spat brews over lockdown restrictions on Sunday service

Do California shelter-in-place rules violate religious liberty? One conservative legal group says so.

By

Ben Christopher

• April 10, 2020

Melina, 8, and her brother Adrian, 9, play minecraft before bed. Photo courtesy of Raul Torres

Education

California schools’ response to pandemic varies widely

Parents across the state have had very different experiences when it comes to communication from their children’s school. Wealth inequality appears to be a major factor.

By

Ricardo Cano

• April 10, 2020

Health

California offers discounted hotel rooms to health workers exposed to coronavirus

California health care workers may qualify for discounted hotel rooms under a new arrangement Gov. Gavin Newsom announced today as part of the state’s ongoing effort to limit the spread of coronavirus. More than 150 hotels around California have agreed to provide discounted rooms to help “a workforce that is deeply stressed out,” the governor […]

By

Laurel Rosenhall

• April 9, 2020

Cassie Gamboa, left, and Robert Romo, right, go into their new hotel room with Edwin Aviles, of Union Station Homeless Services on April 7, 2020. Photo by Michael Owen Baker courtesy of Los Angeles County

Housing

Here’s how putting California’s homeless in hotels actually works

State officials are trying to find hotel rooms for homeless Californians with COVID-19 or vulnerabilities, but say the logistics are daunting.

By

Matt Levin

• April 9, 2020

Medical student Shreya Thatai holds up a sign outside of Berkeley Bowl asking for mask donations to help health care workers. California Gov. Gavin Newsom promises to have solved the shortage by cutting a massive deal for new masks. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters

Coronavirus

The art of the deal: California’s alliance could solve the nation’s mask shortage

The governor has overhauled the supply chain to purchase 200 million masks per month for health workers battling the coronavirus

By

Jackie Botts

and

Dan Morain

• April 8, 2020

Gov. Gavin Newsom writes down a note during a March 28 tour of the Bloom Energy in Sunnyvale, which refurbished ventilators to meet the COVID-19 pandemic. This week Newsom announced the state would loan 500 ventilators to the national stockpile for use by New York and other states, and that it would share excess masks from its massive purchase of them. Photo by Beth LaBerge/Pool Photo via AP

Politics

Newsom the Beneficent? California governor steps into pandemic supply vacuum

California provides. That’s the message that Gov. Gavin Newsom has been sending to the rest of the country over the last week. For those short on ventilators, the Golden State will share its mechanical bounty, sending hundreds to New York, New Jersey and Illinois, ferried by California’s uniformed National Guard. For those who lack protective […]

By

Ben Christopher

• April 8, 2020