A pedestrian walks past a mural which reads "Stay at Home, Life is Beautiful" Thursday, April 2, 2020, in Los Angeles. California. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
While warning residents not to take the information as a trend, California Governor Gavin Newsom said the state's number of ICU hospitalizations had fallen nearly two percent over the past 24 hours
However, Newsom also revealed that cases now total 18,309, with 492 deaths up by 50, in the same period, and the number of people hospitalized up to 2,825, slightly more than a four percent increase from yesterday.
"These are not statistics, behind every stat is a real person, real lives that have been torn apart," he said.
Despite the casualties and nearly three weeks after ordering the entire state to begin social distancing, the Golden State governor said “stay-at-home is working in the state of California.
"I caution anybody to read too much into that one point of data, but nonetheless, it is encouraging and it just again reinforces all of the incredible work that all of you are doing to practice physical distancing," Newsom said, warning against complacency. The state now expects the peak of cases to extend into May.
“The curve has been bent in this state, but it also, again, has been stretched. We continue to be vigilant," and California needs to do more to take care of the “deeply stressed out, deeply stretched” healthcare workforce, including psychological support, according to the governor.
Newsom announced a program to fund lodging for those "stretched" healthcare and frontline workers. He said the state will provide vouchers and stipends for workers who need to stay closer to patients or away from their own families. For low-wage workers, he said the state will provide 100 percent reimbursable cost at hotels. The voucher program will be funded with help from FEMA.
The governor also said 350 people should receive letters today to begin work in California's Health Corps and will be considered part-time state employees.
Meanwhile, in the past few days, California sent 500 ventilators across the country to help other states struggling to keep up with the coronavirus pandemic. In response to criticism he sent ventilators out-of-state, Newsom said those states have committed to returning them when California has its own needs and said there are more than 8,000 ventilators not in use currently within its hospital system. Newsom said this does not include the number of ventilators in the state's storage or those that have been sent out.
“We can’t just sit on assets when we can save lives and help our fellow Americans,” he said, stating it was the moral and ethical decision to lend aid.
There is a new player in the mobile app stock trading space.
Zingeroo recently announced a funding round of $8.5 million. The company says it aims to bring 'friendly competition' to stock trading, by literally breaking trading down into daily and weekly competitions between friends. Zingeroo also says it hopes its new approach can make trading more accessible, educational, and social than ever before. Zingeroo co-founder and CEO Zoe Barry joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell for more.
Sweta Chakraborty, U.S. President of We Don't Have Time and climate change expert, joins Cheddar News to discuss how mining the proper resources for the clean energy sector is crucial.
Throughout 2021, several Americans found themselves finding a renewed emphasis on what work-life balance looked like. The labor market experienced several people either quitting their jobs or leaving the workforce altogether. Editor at Labor Notes Alexandra Bradbury, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Whitney Johnson, CEO of human capital consultancy Disruption Advisors and author of 'SMART GROWTH: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company', joins Cheddar News to discuss the rise in entrepreneurship and explores new opportunities to grow personally and professionally.
Two major high profile cases on opposite ends of the country, as they both now lie in the hands of the jury. In New York, jury deliberations continue in the sex trafficking trial of Jeffrey Epstein's longtime partner, Ghislaine Maxwell. Jurors in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial will be back to deliberate just a day after the judge told asked them to stay for an extra hour, as they signaled they're still far from a verdict in that sex trafficking case. The Elizabeth Holmes jury also apparently no closer to a verdict after five days of deliberations as well. Florina Altshiler criminal defense attorney & former prosecutor spoke to Cheddar about the latest on the cases.
2021 proved that crypto currency is here to stay. This year saw more and more adoptions of crypto, from top athletes looking to be paid in bitcoin, to Elon Musk even experimenting with bitcoin and dogecoin payments for a bit over at Tesla. And it wasn't all bitcoin either - other cryptos like Cardano and Solana saw some action in 2021 as well. Patrick McConlogue, CEO of Overline and former Citadel Investment Group Engineer explains why 2021 was such a good year for crypto, and what to expect in 2022.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index showed an 18.4 percent surge in October as the housing market continues to boom. October's levels are a slight downturn from the roughly 19 percent increase the index saw in September, but come roughly in line with economist expectations. Michael J. Romer, Managing Partner, Romer Debbas joined Wake Up with Cheddar to discuss.
U.S. airlines have canceled more than 6,000 flights since Christmas eve, causing headaches for travelers.
Airlines cited staffing shortages amid the omicron outbreak as the primary reason for the interruptions to service. The cancellations come at the busiest time of year for air travel. Steve Shur, President, The Travel Technology Association joined Wake Up with Cheddar to discuss.
