The California Employment Development Department said it has now processed a total of 19.6 million claims for unemployment benefits for workers in need due to the pandemic – far surpassing the claims total of 3.8 million in the worst year of the Great Recession in 2010.
The EDD has now resolved 99.9 percent of the 1.6 million backlogged claims identified by the EDD Strike Team in mid-September.
A backlogged claim is one that takes more than 21 days to issue first or further payment or disqualification, regardless if the claimant or EDD need to take some type of action.
The EDD said it will continue to provide weekly reports about the number of claims in process, including pending EDD action that delays payment beyond 21 days.
There will always be claims initiated by individuals who do not certify their eligibility for payment and abandon their claim. This agency said this happens for many reasons, including because the claimant returns to work or when the claim is fraudulent.
Additionally, there will always be more complex claims that take longer than 21 days to resolve, which is acknowledged by the U.S Department of Labor in their performance measures for states.
With that in mind, the EDD said it will adjust the data reflected on dashboards to better illustrate how many claims are in the queue awaiting EDD action beyond 21 days.
EDD is working on a new, more user-friendly dashboard and offers this clarification on the updates in the current two separate backlog dashboards.
Approximately 91 percent of the more than 900,000 unique claimants reflected on the two current dashboards come from these two categories: “Waiting for Claimant Certification” category on the current Initial Claims dashboard, and the “Potential Overpayment Non-Fault Queue” which is a subset of the “Resolving Other Eligibility Issues” category on the Continued Claims dashboard.
Changes on reporting this data in the new dashboard will include:
• In alignment with the recommendations from the state auditor, the EDD will remove the data that reflects “waiting for claimants to certify.” The EDD continues outreach to claimants about the requirement for completing a certification of eligibility before the first and any further payment every two weeks can be issued. Beyond that, this data does not constitute EDD work that is preventing payment.
• EDD will also remove the “potential overpayment” data. This work by EDD to assess if individuals may have received more in benefits than they qualify for does not prevent payments from being made.
Most of those remaining 9 percent of data reflected in the two backlog dashboards are associated with EDD’s efforts to implement the newly extended Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits, where new weeks of benefits are being added to older claims.
Status of suspended claims pending verification
The EDD recently suspended a total of 1.4 million claims that were deemed to be potentially fraudulent after applying additional screening. Emails and mailed notices started going out in early January to all individuals associated with these claims with instructions to either validate their identity, or that their eligibility must be determined before payments could resume. To date, only about half of the individuals two whom EDD sent emails have opened those emails.
The current breakdown includes:
• 1.1 million individuals were directed to ID.me for identity verification and have 30 days to respond from the date of their notice. So far, more than 300,000 have validated their identity through ID.me. Once EDD receives that information, if otherwise eligible, the payment barriers associated with the identity verification are lifted. It can take 7-10 days for the process to be completed and payment issued. Until then, claimants are encouraged to continue to certify for benefits in UI Online to prevent delays.
The EDD strongly encourages claimants to review the ID.me step-by-step guidance provided to fully utilize the fast and efficient self-service option for validating identity. This will help claimants avoid the wait times for an ID.me trusted referee via video chat.
Currently, 88 percent of claimants are able to utilize this self-service feature to quickly verify and protect their account.
• Another approximately 100,000 claimants without a UI Online account were mailed paper requests for identity verification. Once EDD receives and processes that information, if the claimant is otherwise eligible similar action is taken to lift the associated payment barriers and process the claim for payment.
The EDD strongly encourages claimants to register for an UI Online account to utilize the document upload feature to quickly verify and protect their account.
• The remaining 200,000 individuals are either receiving requests to validate their eligibility (other than identity), or are receiving a Notice of Determination explaining the reason for disqualification from benefits and their right to appeal.
Guidance for claimants who collected benefits from EDD in 2020
EDD is in the process of issuing a record 7.8 million Form 1099G federal tax forms to individuals who received benefits in 2020, such as unemployment, some types of Disability Insurance, or Paid Family Leave.
The fastest way to retrieve this form and related information is through a personal UI Online account, though forms are arriving by mail for those who did not opt for electronic form only. Information about opening an UI Online account is available on the File for Unemployment Overview Webpage.
Since the annual 1099G process for federal tax purposes may be new to many Californians, individuals are encouraged to visit EDD’s Tax Information webpage for more information, or access other tips and a helpful video through this one-page guide.
EDD staff will also assist by phone:
• Call 1-866-333-4606 if claimants don’t find their 1099G information in their UI Online account or to request a copy sent by mail. This is a self-serve line.
• Call 1-866-401-2849 if claimants don’t agree with the amount noted on their form or received it erroneously and need the issue corrected. This designated call center line is available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., except on state holidays.
Individuals who suspect fraud can also visit EDD’s Help Fight Fraud webpage to learn how to report fraud and find information on protecting yourself from identity theft, and can also report fraud through AskEDD.
“Animate Earth - Gateway to the Sky - 2021,” a monolith installed at Rabbit Hill in Middletown, California, with the artist who created it, Marcus Maria Jung. Courtesy photo. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Although 2021 has just begun, the start of the new year brings to completion some of the projects the Lake County Land Trust put into motion in 2020, despite the pandemic.
The first, a monolith installed at Rabbit Hill by Marcus Maria Jung in June, was the outcome of the LOCUS grant awarded to the Middletown Art Center from the National Endowment of the Arts, which supported community workshops to install public art.
The Middletown Art Center, or MAC, selected the Lake County Land Trust’s Rabbit Hill because of its location in central Middletown; its juxtaposition with Middletown Trailside Park, the site of the EcoArts trail; and the idea that a sculpture placed at Rabbit Hill could be symbolic of the resilience and rejuvenation of both nature and a community after a devastating wildfire.
Jung’s structure, tentatively entitled “Animate Earth - Gateway to the Sky - 2021,” is now complete with four pine benches placed in consideration of the four directions.
A beckoning entranceway consists of rock found on-site, placed in a cascading fashion along the sides of a set of railroad tie steps nestled into the hillside at the top of Rabbit Hill.
At different intervals, the artist worked alongside Stan Archacki, Denis Sullivan, Glenneth Lampert, Francis Hornback, Lorindra Moonstar and MAC’s LOCUS students and volunteers in placing and securing the structures.
“One of the Lake County Land Trust’s favorite aspects of Rabbit Hill is the community’s enjoyment of the spot, and their sense of ownership of it,” said Melissa Kinsel, development director for the Lake County Land Trust. “They treat it as if it were an extension of their own backyards, walking through it, relaxing, and taking care of it. Rabbit Hill matters to Middletown residents and they take good care of it.”
Jung’s work and his description of it add to the new narrative of Rabbit Hill: “This installation is an invitation to the local community and visitors to come together and gather in a timeless space in the heart and soul of the land around us. The sky opens up as we come to share our prayers and offerings with this site, the land and the greater world. In return we receive the bountiful blessings of nature and the wisdom of the earth in all her beauty.”
Lisa Kaplan, executive and artistic director at MAC added, “The LOCUS project as a whole commemorates place, the resilience of flora and fauna lost to fire, where we are now as a community, and the vision we have for our future.”
Rabbit Hill Preserve is located at 21281 Stewart Street in Middletown, and is open to visitors and their leashed dogs from dawn to dusk.
Socially distanced volunteers work on building a new boardwalk at the Rodman Preserve near Upper Lake, California. Courtesy photo. New boardwalk at Rodman Preserve
A 216-foot-long redwood boardwalk was completed at the Rodman Preserve that will enable the Land Trust to lead its popular guided nature walks at the preserve even during the rainy season.
A portion of the trail is below lake level and gets swamped most years when the rains are heavy. This new elevated walkway will prevent this section from being impassable.
Funds for the new boardwalk came from the Rose Foundation, through its Cal Wildlands grant program.
Lumber and materials were purchased locally, and social-distanced volunteers including Bill Lincoln, Bob Schoenherr, Roberta Lyons, Val Nixon and Erica Lundquist met four times to cut, carry, install and secure the footings, framing and walkway planks.
A crew of 10 AmeriCorps volunteers who were isolating as a team and working on projects at Anderson March and Clear Lake State Park also pitched in to help for a day, completing in a day what would have normally taken three.
“When this is all over, we’ll have to have a toast with our supporters on the new boardwalk. We’re really looking forward to its debut. It’s remarkable what can be accomplished with a few dedicated volunteers even during a pandemic,” said Land Trust President Val Nixon.
Despite COVID-19 restrictions, a limited staff is on hand to open the preserve for self-guided walks on Tuesdays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Interested parties are encouraged to call ahead to 707-262-0707 to ensure the gate is unlocked.
The Lake County Land Trust was founded in 1994 with the goal to protect and preserve important natural habitats and wild land areas of Lake County.
The Rodman Preserve, located on Westlake Drive off of the Nice-Lucerne Cutoff, is the organization's flagship property and also features a small nature center. The preserve totals over 200 acres and is home to a variety of flora and fauna. The Land Trust owns four properties in fee title and holds three conservation easements. One of its main efforts is to protect and preserve the remaining natural habitat on the shores of Clear Lake.
Atmospheric rivers deliver rain to California in 2017. NASA
Ask people to name the world’s largest river, and most will probably guess that it’s the Amazon, the Nile or the Mississippi. In fact, some of Earth’s largest rivers are in the sky – and they can produce powerful storms, like the one now soaking California.
Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow bands of moisture in the atmosphere that extend from the tropics to higher latitudes. These rivers in the sky can transport 15 times the volume of the Mississippi River. When that moisture reaches the coast and moves inland, it rises over the mountains, generating rain and snowfall and sometimes causing extreme flooding.
Atmospheric rivers are an important water source for the U.S. West.NOAA
In the past 20 years, as observation networks have improved, scientists have learned more about these important weather phenomena. Atmospheric rivers occur globally, affecting the west coasts of the world’s major land masses, including Portugal, Western Europe, Chile and South Africa. So-called “Pineapple Express” storms that carry moisture from Hawaii to the U.S. West Coast are just one of their many flavors.
My research combines economics and atmospheric science to measure damage from severe weather events. Recently I led a team of researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Army Corps of Engineers in the first systematic analysis of damages from atmospheric rivers due to extreme flooding. We found that while many of these events are benign, the largest of them cause most of the flooding damage in the western U.S. And atmospheric rivers are predicted to grow longer, wetter and wider in a warming climate.
Rivers in the sky
On Feb. 27, 2019, an atmospheric river propelled a plume of water vapor 350 miles wide and 1,600 miles long through the sky from the tropical North Pacific Ocean to the coast of Northern California.
Just north of San Francisco Bay, in Sonoma County’s famed wine country, the storm dumped over 21 inches of rain. The Russian River crested at 45.4 feet – 13.4 feet above flood stage.
For the fifth time in four decades, the town of Guerneville was submerged under the murky brown floodwaters of the lower Russian River. Damages in Sonoma County alone were estimated at over US$100 million.
Events like these have drawn attention in recent years, but atmospheric rivers are not new. They have meandered through the sky for millions of years, transporting water vapor from the equator toward the poles.
In the 1960s meteorologists coined the phrase “Pineapple Express” to describe storm tracks that originated near Hawaii and carried warm water vapor to the coast of North America. By the late 1990s atmospheric scientists had found that over 90% of the world’s moisture from the tropics and subtropics was transported to higher latitudes by similar systems, which they named “atmospheric rivers.”
In dry conditions, atmospheric rivers can replenish water supplies and quench dangerous wildfires. In wet conditions, they can cause damaging floods and debris flows, wreaking havoc on local economies.
After an atmospheric river event that caused severe flooding in Chile, sediment washed down from hillsides into the Itata River can be seen flowing up to 50 kilometers from the coast.NASA Earth Observatory
Helpful and harmful
Researchers have known for some time that flooding due to atmospheric rivers could cost a lot of money, but until our study no one had quantified these damages. We used a catalog of atmospheric river events compiled by Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes, and matched it to 40 years of flood insurance records and 20 years of National Weather Service damage estimates.
We found that atmospheric rivers caused an average of $1.1 billion in flood damages yearly in the western U.S. More than 80% of all flooding damages in the West in the years we studied were associated with atmospheric rivers. In some areas, such as coastal northern California, these systems caused over 99% of damages.
Our data showed that in an average year, about 40 atmospheric rivers made landfall along the Pacific coast somewhere between Baja California and British Columbia. Most of these events were benign: About half caused no insured losses, and these storms replenished the region’s water supply.
But there were a number of exceptions. We used a recently developed atmospheric river classification scale that ranks the storms from 1 to 5, similar to systems for categorizing hurricanes and tornadoes. There was a clear link between these categories and observed damages.
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Atmospheric River category 1 (AR1) and AR2 storms caused estimated damages under $1 million. AR4 and AR5 storms caused median damages in the 10s and 100s of millions of dollars respectively. The most damaging AR4s and AR5s generated impacts of over $1 billion per storm. These billion-dollar storms occurred every three to four years.
A moister atmosphere means worse storms
Our most significant finding was an exponential relationship between the intensity of atmospheric rivers and the flood damages they caused. Each increase in the scale from 1 to 5 was associated with a 10-fold increase in damages.
Several recent studies have modeled how atmospheric rivers will change in the coming decades. The mechanism is simple: Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, warming the planet. This causes more water to evaporate from oceans and lakes, and increased moisture in the air makes storm systems grow stronger.
Like hurricanes, atmospheric rivers are projected to grow longer, wider and wetter in a warming climate. Our finding that damages increase exponentially with intensity suggests that even modest increases in atmospheric river intensity could lead to significantly larger economic impacts.
Scientists have developed a scale for categorizing atmospheric rivers that reflect both their replenishing capacities and their dangerous effects.
Better forecasting is critical
I believe that improving atmospheric forecasting systems should be a priority for adapting to a changing climate. Better understanding of atmospheric rivers’ intensity, duration and landfall locations can provide valuable information to residents and emergency responders.
It also is important to discourage new construction in high-risk areas and help people move to safer locations after major disasters, rather than rebuilding in place.
Finally, our study underlines the need to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. These storms will keep coming, and they’re getting stronger. In my view, stabilizing the global climate system is the only long-term way to minimize economic damage and risk to vulnerable communities.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has several more big dogs waiting for homes this week.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Belgian Malinois, German Shepherd, hound, husky, Labrador Retriever, mastiff, pit bull and Rottweiler.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).
This male husky-shepherd mix is in kennel No. 14, ID No. 14318. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Husky-shepherd mix
This male husky-shepherd mix has a medium-length tan and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 14, ID No. 14318.
“Sargent Chunk” is a young male Rottweiler in kennel No. 15, ID No. 14303. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Sargent Chunk’
“Sargent Chunk” is a young male Rottweiler with a short red and black coat.
He is in kennel No. 15, ID No. 14303.
This male pit bull puppy is in kennel No. 18, ID No. 14311. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Pit bull puppy
This male pit bull puppy has a short brindle coat.
He is in kennel No. 18, ID No. 14311.
This young male pit bull terrier-hound mix is in kennel No. 19, ID No. 14276. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male pit bull terrier-hound
This young male pit bull terrier-hound mix has a medium-length brown coat.
He is in kennel No. 19, ID No. 14276.
This male shepherd is in kennel No. 27, ID No. 14319. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male shepherd
This male shepherd has a long tan and white coat.
He has been neutered.
He’s in kennel No. 27, ID No. 14319.
This male German Shepherd-husky mix is in kennel No. 28, ID No. 14307. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male German Shepherd-husky mix
This male German Shepherd-husky mix has a medium-length black and tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He’s in kennel No. 28, ID No. 14307.
This young male Belgian Malinois is in kennel No. 29, ID No. 14269. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male Belgian Malinois
This young male Belgian Malinois has a medium-length red and black coat.
He is in kennel No. 29, ID No. 14269.
This male pit bull terrier is in kennel No. 30, ID No. 14314. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male pit bull terrier
This male pit bull terrier has a short blue and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 30, ID No. 14314.
This male Rottweiler in kennel No. 31, ID No. 14315. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male Rottweiler
This male Rottweiler has a short black and brown coat.
He has been neutered.
He is in kennel No. 31, ID No. 14315.
This young male German Shepherd-husky mix is in kennel No. 33, ID No. 14309. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. German Shepherd-husky mix
This young male German Shepherd-husky mix has a medium-length black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 33, ID No. 14309.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Seven minutes of harrowing descent to the Red Planet is in the not-so-distant future for the agency’s Mars 2020 mission.
NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission is just 22 days from landing on the surface of Mars. The spacecraft has about 25.6 million miles (41.2 million kilometers) remaining in its 292.5-million-mile (470.8-million-kilometer) journey and is currently closing that distance at 1.6 miles per second (2.5 kilometers per second).
Once at the top of the Red Planet’s atmosphere, an action-packed seven minutes of descent awaits – complete with temperatures equivalent to the surface of the Sun, a supersonic parachute inflation, and the first ever autonomous guided landing on Mars.
Only then can the rover – the biggest, heaviest, cleanest, and most sophisticated six-wheeled robotic geologist ever launched into space – search Jezero Crater for signs of ancient life and collect samples that will eventually be returned to Earth.
“NASA has been exploring Mars since Mariner 4 performed a flyby in July of 1965, with two more flybys, seven successful orbiters, and eight landers since then,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “Perseverance, which was built from the collective knowledge gleaned from such trailblazers, has the opportunity to not only expand our knowledge of the Red Planet, but to investigate one of the most important and exciting questions of humanity about the origin of life both on Earth and also on other planets.”
Jezero Crater is the perfect place to search for signs of ancient microbial life. Billions of years ago, the now-bone-dry 28-mile-wide (45-kilometer-wide) basin was home to an actively-forming river delta and lake filled with water.
The rock and regolith (broken rock and dust) that Perseverance’s Sample Caching System collects from Jezero could help answer fundamental questions about the existence of life beyond Earth.
Two future missions currently in the planning stages by NASA, in collaboration with ESA (European Space Agency), will work together to bring the samples back to Earth, where they will undergo in-depth analysis by scientists around the world using equipment far too large and complex to send to the Red Planet.
“Perseverance’s sophisticated science instruments will not only help in the hunt for fossilized microbial life, but also expand our knowledge of Martian geology and its past, present, and future,” said Ken Farley, project scientist for Mars 2020, from Caltech in Pasadena, California. “Our science team has been busy planning how best to work with what we anticipate will be a firehose of cutting-edge data. That’s the kind of ‘problem’ we are looking forward to.”
The Mars Perseverance Rover. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Testing future tech
While most of Perseverance’s seven science instruments are geared toward learning more about the planet’s geology and astrobiology, the mission also carries technologies more focused on future Mars exploration.
MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment), a car-battery-size device in the rover’s chassis, is designed to demonstrate that converting Martian carbon dioxide into oxygen is possible.
Future applications of the technology could produce the vast quantities of oxygen that would be needed as a component of the rocket fuel astronauts would rely on to return to Earth, and, of course, the oxygen could be used for breathing as well.
The Terrain-Relative Navigation system helps the rover avoid hazards. MEDLI2 (the Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation 2) sensor suite gathers data during the journey through the Martian atmosphere. Together the systems will help engineers design future human missions that can land more safely and with larger payloads on other worlds.
Another technology demonstration, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, is attached to the belly of the rover. Between 30 and 90 days into the rover’s mission, Ingenuity will be deployed to attempt the first experimental flight test on another planet.
If that initial flight is successful, Ingenuity will fly up to four more times. The data acquired during these tests will help the next generation of Mars helicopters provide an aerial dimension to Mars exploration.
Getting ready for the red planet
Like people around the world, members of the Mars 2020 team have had to make significant modifications to their approach to work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While a majority of the team members have performed their jobs via telework, some tasks have required an in-person presence at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which built the rover for the agency and is managing the mission.
Such was the case earlier this month when the team that will be on-console at JPL during landing went through a three-day-long COVID-adapted full-up simulation of the upcoming Feb. 18 Mars landing.
“Don’t let anybody tell you different – landing on Mars is hard to do,” said John McNamee, project manager for the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission at JPL. “But the women and men on this team are the best in the world at what they do. When our spacecraft hits the top of the Mars atmosphere at about three-and-a-half miles per second, we’ll be ready.”
Less than a month of dark, unforgiving interplanetary space remains before the landing. NASA Television and the agency’s website will carry live coverage of the event from JPL beginning at 11:15 a.m. PST (2:15 p.m. EST).
More about the mission
A key objective of Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.
Subsequent missions, currently under consideration by NASA in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 mission is part of a larger program that includes missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Charged with returning astronauts to the Moon by 2024, NASA will establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028 through NASA's Artemis lunar exploration plans.
JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
Composed of multiple precisely aligned images from the Context Camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, this annotated mosaic depicts a possible route the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover could take across Jezero Crater as it investigates several ancient environments that may have once been habitable. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace said more Lake County residents have received the COVID-19 vaccine and the case rate is showing improvement.
“Fortunately, it appears Lake County’s rise in COVID-19 cases that started in November has begun to improve,” Pace said Friday.
Lake County was up to 2,748 total cases on Friday, with 32 deaths.
Statewide, California passed 40,000 COVID-19 deaths on Friday, with more than 3,273,600 cases, according to information posted by Public Health departments in all 58 counties.
Pace said Lake County’s daily case rate remains very high, at 61 out of 100,000, so there is still a strong likelihood of coming into contact with the virus when visiting out in the community and doing things like visiting busy stores.
He said test positivity is beginning to decrease and on Friday was at 12.2 percent.
“Hospitals are not nearly as full as they have been for the last several weeks,” he added.
Lake County remains in the state’s purple tier, the most restrictive on the Blueprint for a Safer Economy. In that tier, indoor dining remains prohibited; only outdoor dining is allowed.
Regarding the county’s vaccine distribution effort, Pace said that so far approximately 3,500 Lake County residents have been vaccinated over the past month and a half.
Pace said the Lake County Health Department received 800 doses of vaccine this week – up from 300 to 400 weekly in recent weeks – and will get another 800 next week.
“Given the continuing shortage, prioritization remains necessary. Vaccination of school staff will be complete by the end of next week. Vulnerable elders are a focus, as well,” Pace said.
According to 2019 estimates, Lake County has 5,300 residents aged 75 and above and 9,100 residents aged 65 to 74.
“We continue to move vaccine out into the community, sharing doses with clinical partners and vaccinating people at standup sites in Lakeport and Clearlake, with the aim of using up all vaccine we receive each week,” Pace said.
Pace said accelerating the rate of immunization remains a primary focus. “We are advocating to get significantly more doses, and making preparations to accommodate further vaccination clinics.”
He said Public Health is not making appointments for the general public at this point; those in eligible categories are being contacted to schedule.
“Please do not show up at our sites without an appointment. You will not get a vaccine,” he said.
Senior centers are reaching out to the most vulnerable people they regularly serve. Pace said not to call the senior centers as it’s not an effective way to get an appointment.
If you or a loved one are in an eligible group and you haven’t been contacted, Pace said to reach out to your medical provider.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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