USC Arcadia Hospital announces leadership changes. The appointments will "better serve its community and align with Keck Medicine of USC health system." Colleen Wilcoxen, is now chief nursing officer. Robert Begg has been named Vice President of Human Resources and will supervise workforce training and development. Beginning January 29, Lisa Johnson will serve as the USC-AH chief quality officer.
Indictment implicates Baldwin Park's ex-city attorney Robert Tafoya in $70,000 bribery scheme to help secure cannabis permit from a vote by Councilman Ricardo Pacheco. Special agents with the FBI and IRS arrested former Compton Councilmember Isaac Galvan, 36, and another person, a 50-year-old Arcadia resident, who is the owner and operator of a cannabis grower that obtained a permit in Baldwin Park.
Los Angeles Board of Supervisors agreed on Tuesday, February 28, to lift COVID emergency declarations on March 31, while warning that the move doesn't mean the virus no longer poses a threat. This does not mean COVID-related restrictions go away. This decision came the same day the statewide COVID emergency declaration ended.
California State to loosen its mask mandate at end of day February 15 for vaccinated people, due to the 65% drop in infection rate since the peak of the winter surge caused by the omicron variant of the coronavirus, as well as stabilization in hospitalization numbers. This won't affect Los Angeles County, which plans to keep its own rules in place past the deadline. Lifting the indoor mask requirement in Los Angeles County will require the level of transmission to fall to the "moderate" level as defined by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and stays there for two weeks straight, said Barbara Ferrer, the Los Angeles County Public Health Director.
LA County expected to reach COVID-19 herd immunity by July. The rate of people getting vaccinated has slowed, so it is taking longer to reach herd immunity. We have probably over 2 million more first doses to go until 80% of all LA County residents age 16 and over, will have received at least one vaccine.