Governor Gavin Newsom opened his daily briefing with comments on student loan debt. He said 21 out of the 24 largest student loan servicers have agreed to a 90-day forbearance on student loan debt, impacting over 1.1 million Californians with loan debt.
Also on debt, Newsom announced an Executive Order (EO) barring debt collectors from garnishing the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act stimulus money. He said the EO is retroactive. If money has been taken, it must be given back, effective immediately. However, Newsom stated this does not apply to those who owe childcare or spousal support. The same is true if you owe money to a victim, you still have to pay, he said, but no one else should have their federal aid money garnished. “Now is not the time to garnish those emergency contribution checks,” Newsom said.
Newsom thanked a group of 16 California doctors headed to New York City to help fight COVID-19 for two weeks. Additionally, he expressed gratitude to the over 22,000 people that have signed up to volunteer on the new website launched earlier this week, http://californiansforall.ca.gov.
On testing swabs, Newsom said 90,000 of the 100,000 swabs President Trump promised yesterday will arrive and be distributed Friday. The other 10,000 swabs will come next week.
Regarding unemployment insurance (UI), since March 15th, California has distributed $3.94 billion of unemployment insurance to 3.9 million individuals.
Consistent with past briefings, Newsom provided the latest COVID-19 hospitalization and intensive care unit (ICU) patient figures. The hospitalization case number is 3,343 (a 0.4 percent increase). The number of coronavirus patients in ICU beds is 1,204 (a 1.2 percent increase from the previous day). Persons under investigation also dropped, which means there is some stabilization in the curve but not anything to feel victorious about yet. However, the number of deaths and positives are still going up in the state.
Newsom urged patience from those calling the state to reopen. He said it won’t be a letter, a tweet, an expression of frustration that determines when the stay-at-home order is lifted. “It will be those indicators that drive our decision-making. We don’t debate dates. We look at facts,” said Newsom.
In closing, Newsom reiterated he would let the public know “in real-time” when the six critical indicators the state is watching “go green” allowing California to start reopening. “That is determined on one thing, and that is you [Californians],” he said.
Following yesterday update, the Governor’s office issued a press release with additional details regarding the plan to allow hospitals and health systems to resume delayed medical care for Californians, such as heart valve replacements, angioplasty and tumor removals, and key preventive care services, such as colonoscopies, which were deferred as the state’s health care delivery systems prepared for a surge of COVID-19 patients. The press release stated that, “the decision was based on progress toward preparing California hospitals and health systems for a surge in COVID-19 patients, one of the six critical indicators the governor unveiled last week as part of the state’s framework for gradually modifying California’s stay-at-home order.” A copy of the Governor’s office press release can be found here.
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced the most recent statistics on COVID-19. There are now a total of 35,396 confirmed positive cases and 1,354 deaths in California. As of April 21st, local health departments have reported 3,877 confirmed positive cases in health care workers. This includes on-the-job exposures, and other exposures, such as travel and close family contact. Also, as of April 21st, more than 308,600 tests had been conducted in California. At least 301,546 results have been received and another 7,200 are pending. More information regarding the most recent COVID-19 statistics can be found here.