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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors is seeking applicants to fill vacancies on the newly formed Lake County Agriculture Advisory Committee.
The purpose of this board is to focus on the county’s agricultural industry for the purposes of advising the board regarding the needs and interests of all local ag stakeholders.
Interested parties must fall under the categories of crop owner, organic farmer or ag processor.
Applications are online at www.lakecountyca.gov on the Board of Supervisors’ page or at the Lake County Courthouse, Clerk of the Board Office, Room 109, 255 North Forbes St., Lakeport.
Please note that membership on the committee is voluntary.
The purpose of this board is to focus on the county’s agricultural industry for the purposes of advising the board regarding the needs and interests of all local ag stakeholders.
Interested parties must fall under the categories of crop owner, organic farmer or ag processor.
Applications are online at www.lakecountyca.gov on the Board of Supervisors’ page or at the Lake County Courthouse, Clerk of the Board Office, Room 109, 255 North Forbes St., Lakeport.
Please note that membership on the committee is voluntary.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The National Weather Service said a “significant” storm system is on its way to Northern California, bringing with it the expectation of rain into next week and the potential for snow in higher elevations across the North Coast region.
Forecasters issued a winter storm warning that will be in effect from 2 p.m. Tuesday through noon on Wednesday.
It warns of a strong and cold storm system that will move across the region, bringing heavy snow above the 1,500-foot elevation level, along with wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour.
More specifically, the forecast calls for snowfall above the 2,500- to 3,000-foot elevation level in both Lake and Mendocino counties.
The National Weather Service has issued an additional winter weather advisory above 2,500 feet for southern Lake County to account for more minor snow accumulations along Highway 175.
Additional rain and snow is expected into the weekend, with the forecast calling for rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches in lower elevations just through Thursday.
The specific Lake County forecast calls for rain and snow after 10 a.m. Tuesday, with little or no snow accumulation and wind gusts of above 20 miles per hour.
On Tuesday night, rain is expected to be heavy, with between 1 and 2 inches in the forecast. Winds are forecast to be nearly 40 miles per hour in some higher elevations.
Up to an inch of rain is anticipated over the course of Wednesday during the day and at night, with more than a quarter of an inch possible on Thursday.
Chances of rain are forecast from Friday through Monday.
Temperatures overnight Tuesday were forecast to be in the mid-20s, with nighttime temperatures in the 30s and the high 40s through the end of the week, and daytime temperatures expected to edge into the low 50s early next week.
Email Elizabeth Larson atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Forecasters issued a winter storm warning that will be in effect from 2 p.m. Tuesday through noon on Wednesday.
It warns of a strong and cold storm system that will move across the region, bringing heavy snow above the 1,500-foot elevation level, along with wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour.
More specifically, the forecast calls for snowfall above the 2,500- to 3,000-foot elevation level in both Lake and Mendocino counties.
The National Weather Service has issued an additional winter weather advisory above 2,500 feet for southern Lake County to account for more minor snow accumulations along Highway 175.
Additional rain and snow is expected into the weekend, with the forecast calling for rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches in lower elevations just through Thursday.
The specific Lake County forecast calls for rain and snow after 10 a.m. Tuesday, with little or no snow accumulation and wind gusts of above 20 miles per hour.
On Tuesday night, rain is expected to be heavy, with between 1 and 2 inches in the forecast. Winds are forecast to be nearly 40 miles per hour in some higher elevations.
Up to an inch of rain is anticipated over the course of Wednesday during the day and at night, with more than a quarter of an inch possible on Thursday.
Chances of rain are forecast from Friday through Monday.
Temperatures overnight Tuesday were forecast to be in the mid-20s, with nighttime temperatures in the 30s and the high 40s through the end of the week, and daytime temperatures expected to edge into the low 50s early next week.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Monday, the California Employment Development Department provided an update on its efforts to get unemployment benefits to those struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic while stopping a multibillion-dollar wave of fraud against the unemployment system that has increased over the past year.
Investigations across the state – including in Lake County – have uncovered tens of thousands of cases of unemployment benefit fraud that state officials are estimating total at least $11 billion, and could be as much as $30 billion.
In November, the California District Attorneys Association wrote to Gov. Gavin Newsom to ask him to become personally involved “in halting what appears to be the most significant fraud on taxpayer funds in California history.”
The group reported that district attorneys and federal prosecutors, along with local, state and federal law enforcement, “have discovered that there is rampant and large-scale pandemic unemployment assistance fraud occurring in our communities, in the jails and in state and federal prison.”
The Lake County District Attorney’s Office has confirmed to Lake County News that it is investigating numerous EDD fraud cases that emanated from the Lake County Jail.
In its Monday report, the EDD said that between March 2020 and January 16, 2021, it processed 19.5 million claims and paid out $114 billion in unemployment benefits.
EDD confirmed that 9.7 percent of payments – or more than $11 billion – have been made to fraudulent claims.
It also identified that up to an additional 17 percent of payments – totaling $19 billion – made during this time have been made to potentially fraudulent claims. The EDD said these claims are under investigation.
The state said the estimates it provided on Monday “are likely to shift as new claims come in and as older claims that have been flagged as suspicious are either validated or confirmed as
fraudulent.”
EDD estimated that the department’s existing fraud screening measures and new security protections put into place last fall prevented up to $60 billion in payments to fraudulent claims.
“EDD is now working with some of the country’s most successful fraud prevention businesses and law enforcement agencies to protect the state’s unemployment benefit system,” said California Labor and Workforce Development Agency Secretary Julie Su. “We know that many Californians are waiting on payments, and EDD is working quickly to validate their claims and get their benefits to them.”
EDD said it experienced more than five times as many unemployment claims in 2020 than in 2010, the worst full year of the Great Recession, and processed as many claims within the first eight weeks of the pandemic shut down as it did during all of 2010.
Nationally, unemployment systems paid more than $500 billion to unemployment benefits in 2020, according to a draft report by the National Association of State Workforce Agencies.
The EDD said California processed a record amount of unemployment benefit claims in 2020, primarily driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. “This flood of activity provided a window of opportunity for thieves.
California has been hit hard by fraud from international and national crime syndicates particularly targeting the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA, program.
“EDD was clearly under-prepared for the type and magnitude of criminal attacks and the sheer quantity of claims,” said Rita Saenz, the state’s new EDD director, who Gov. Newsom appointed in December. “We are focused on making the changes necessary to provide benefits to eligible Californians as quickly as possible and stopping fraud before it enters the system.”
Nationally, 35 percent of unemployment applications are fraudulent, according to ID.me.
The U.S. Department of Labor said California’s PUA program was particularly susceptible to fraud because it did not require income or employment verification upfront and allowed claimants to back-date their claim to February.
As of Monday, the EDD estimated that roughly 95 percent of the known fraudulent payments in California were made to PUA claims. The remaining 5 percent is associated with California’s existing Unemployment Insurance, or UI, program.
By comparison, in 2019, fraud accounted for about 6 percent of California’s total UI payments, the EDD said.
California has become one of the first five states to implement ID.me to prevent fraud in the unemployment system, said Blake Hall, CEO of ID.me.
Hall said the fraud targeting PUA programs is a national problem, calling it a crisis that “transcends any one state.”
On Monday, Hall said 21 states are either live with ID.me or in the final stages of implementation, noting that the program is blocking about $1 billion in fraud per week across the states it serves.
“The fraud rate for new claims is at least 35 percent and over ten times what we see at federal agencies,” Hall said.
The Newsom administration has come under fire due to the fraud issue. However, on Monday, the EDD maintained that last summer Newsom had set up a task force led by California’s Office of Emergency Services and law enforcement agencies to investigate fraud.
The agency said that beginning in October it instituted secure measures to verify claimants’ identity through the ID.me program to increase both claim efficiency and fraud detection, and expanded its contract with security firm Thomson Reuters to provide industry best practices to identify fraud.
In a legislative approach to ending the fraud, last month, State Senate Republican Leader Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) introduced a bill to mandate that EDD make it a standard practice to regularly cross check unemployment claims against records in state prisons.
Grove, who accused Newsom’s administration of allowing fraud to run rampant in state prisons, also at that time delivered a letter supporting the California District Attorneys Association letter to the governor weeks earlier, and demanded that Newsom provide them adequate resources to investigate and prosecute EDD fraud cases.
Grove’s bill, SB 39, was introduced in the State Senate on Dec. 7. It cites an estimated 35,000 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims that were filed on behalf of inmates between March and August of 2020, noting that half of those claims were paid despite the individuals being ineligible under current law.
State Senate records show that the bill has been sent to committee to be referred for assignment.
Email Elizabeth Larson atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Investigations across the state – including in Lake County – have uncovered tens of thousands of cases of unemployment benefit fraud that state officials are estimating total at least $11 billion, and could be as much as $30 billion.
In November, the California District Attorneys Association wrote to Gov. Gavin Newsom to ask him to become personally involved “in halting what appears to be the most significant fraud on taxpayer funds in California history.”
The group reported that district attorneys and federal prosecutors, along with local, state and federal law enforcement, “have discovered that there is rampant and large-scale pandemic unemployment assistance fraud occurring in our communities, in the jails and in state and federal prison.”
The Lake County District Attorney’s Office has confirmed to Lake County News that it is investigating numerous EDD fraud cases that emanated from the Lake County Jail.
In its Monday report, the EDD said that between March 2020 and January 16, 2021, it processed 19.5 million claims and paid out $114 billion in unemployment benefits.
EDD confirmed that 9.7 percent of payments – or more than $11 billion – have been made to fraudulent claims.
It also identified that up to an additional 17 percent of payments – totaling $19 billion – made during this time have been made to potentially fraudulent claims. The EDD said these claims are under investigation.
The state said the estimates it provided on Monday “are likely to shift as new claims come in and as older claims that have been flagged as suspicious are either validated or confirmed as
fraudulent.”
EDD estimated that the department’s existing fraud screening measures and new security protections put into place last fall prevented up to $60 billion in payments to fraudulent claims.
“EDD is now working with some of the country’s most successful fraud prevention businesses and law enforcement agencies to protect the state’s unemployment benefit system,” said California Labor and Workforce Development Agency Secretary Julie Su. “We know that many Californians are waiting on payments, and EDD is working quickly to validate their claims and get their benefits to them.”
EDD said it experienced more than five times as many unemployment claims in 2020 than in 2010, the worst full year of the Great Recession, and processed as many claims within the first eight weeks of the pandemic shut down as it did during all of 2010.
Nationally, unemployment systems paid more than $500 billion to unemployment benefits in 2020, according to a draft report by the National Association of State Workforce Agencies.
The EDD said California processed a record amount of unemployment benefit claims in 2020, primarily driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. “This flood of activity provided a window of opportunity for thieves.
California has been hit hard by fraud from international and national crime syndicates particularly targeting the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA, program.
“EDD was clearly under-prepared for the type and magnitude of criminal attacks and the sheer quantity of claims,” said Rita Saenz, the state’s new EDD director, who Gov. Newsom appointed in December. “We are focused on making the changes necessary to provide benefits to eligible Californians as quickly as possible and stopping fraud before it enters the system.”
Nationally, 35 percent of unemployment applications are fraudulent, according to ID.me.
The U.S. Department of Labor said California’s PUA program was particularly susceptible to fraud because it did not require income or employment verification upfront and allowed claimants to back-date their claim to February.
As of Monday, the EDD estimated that roughly 95 percent of the known fraudulent payments in California were made to PUA claims. The remaining 5 percent is associated with California’s existing Unemployment Insurance, or UI, program.
By comparison, in 2019, fraud accounted for about 6 percent of California’s total UI payments, the EDD said.
California has become one of the first five states to implement ID.me to prevent fraud in the unemployment system, said Blake Hall, CEO of ID.me.
Hall said the fraud targeting PUA programs is a national problem, calling it a crisis that “transcends any one state.”
On Monday, Hall said 21 states are either live with ID.me or in the final stages of implementation, noting that the program is blocking about $1 billion in fraud per week across the states it serves.
“The fraud rate for new claims is at least 35 percent and over ten times what we see at federal agencies,” Hall said.
The Newsom administration has come under fire due to the fraud issue. However, on Monday, the EDD maintained that last summer Newsom had set up a task force led by California’s Office of Emergency Services and law enforcement agencies to investigate fraud.
The agency said that beginning in October it instituted secure measures to verify claimants’ identity through the ID.me program to increase both claim efficiency and fraud detection, and expanded its contract with security firm Thomson Reuters to provide industry best practices to identify fraud.
In a legislative approach to ending the fraud, last month, State Senate Republican Leader Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) introduced a bill to mandate that EDD make it a standard practice to regularly cross check unemployment claims against records in state prisons.
Grove, who accused Newsom’s administration of allowing fraud to run rampant in state prisons, also at that time delivered a letter supporting the California District Attorneys Association letter to the governor weeks earlier, and demanded that Newsom provide them adequate resources to investigate and prosecute EDD fraud cases.
Grove’s bill, SB 39, was introduced in the State Senate on Dec. 7. It cites an estimated 35,000 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims that were filed on behalf of inmates between March and August of 2020, noting that half of those claims were paid despite the individuals being ineligible under current law.
State Senate records show that the bill has been sent to committee to be referred for assignment.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
Officials with the California Department of Public Health on Monday ended the regional stay at home order, lifting the order for all regions statewide, including the three regions that had still been under the order – San Joaquin Valley, Bay Area and Southern California.
Four-week ICU capacity projections for these three regions are above 15 percent, the threshold that allows regions to exit the order. The Sacramento Region exited the order on Jan. 12 and the Northern California region, which includes Lake County, never entered the order.
State officials said this action allows all counties statewide to return to the rules and framework of the Blueprint for a Safer Economy and color-coded tiers that indicate which activities and businesses are open based on local case rates and test positivity.
The majority of the counties are in the strictest, or purple tier. Tier updates are provided weekly on Tuesdays. Individual counties could choose to impose stricter rules.
Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace said the action offers “no change for us.”
He said that Lake and the northern counties have had fewer restrictions than the southern areas.
Pace said Lake County remains in the purple tier.
“Californians heard the urgent message to stay home as much as possible and accepted that challenge to slow the surge and save lives,” said Dr. Tomás Aragón, CDPH director and state public health officer. “Together, we changed our activities knowing our short-term sacrifices would lead to longer-term gains. COVID-19 is still here and still deadly, so our work is not over, but it’s important to recognize our collective actions saved lives and we are turning a critical corner.”
While there are positive signs that the virus is spreading at a slower rate across the state, the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. It is still critical that Californians continue to wear masks when they leave their homes, maintain physical distance of at least 6 feet, wash their hands frequently, avoid gatherings and mixing with other households, follow all state and local health department guidance and get the vaccine when it’s their turn.
The state, in collaboration with local health departments and health care facilities statewide, took a long list of actions to support California’s hospitals and slow the surge in cases and hospitalizations.
The Regional Stay at Home Order urged Californians to stay home except for essential activities, which helped lower disease transmission levels and reduce burden on the hospital system.
California deployed more than 4,100 medical professionals to facilities across the state to ease the burden on frontline health care workers.
The state provided assistance within hospitals in the form of personal protective equipment, ventilators and help with oxygen supply.
California also helped hospitals expand their capacity by opening 16 alternate care sites, lower-acuity facilities where COVID-19 patients get a bridge from hospital to home as they are recovering.
Public health leaders implemented a statewide order to make it easier to transfer patients from over-crowded hospitals to those with more space and staff.
The administration of vaccines to health care workers has meant that fewer health care workers are falling ill to the virus, which helps keep staffing levels more stable.
“California is slowly starting to emerge from the most dangerous surge of this pandemic yet, which is the light at the end of the tunnel we’ve been hoping for,” said California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly. “Seven weeks ago, our hospitals and front-line medical workers were stretched to their limits, but Californians heard the urgent message to stay home when possible and our surge after the December holidays did not overwhelm the health care system to the degree we had feared.”
Nearly all the counties exiting the Regional Stay at Home Order today are in the Purple or widespread (most restrictive) tier. Services and activities, such as outdoor dining and personal services, may resume immediately with required modifications, subject to any additional restrictions required by local jurisdictions. See the county map to find the status of activities open in each county.
Because case rates remain high across most of the state, the state’s Hospital Surge Order remains in place to prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed. The Limited Stay at Home Order, which limits non-essential activities between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., expires with the Regional Stay At Home Order ending.
Four-week ICU capacity projections for these three regions are above 15 percent, the threshold that allows regions to exit the order. The Sacramento Region exited the order on Jan. 12 and the Northern California region, which includes Lake County, never entered the order.
State officials said this action allows all counties statewide to return to the rules and framework of the Blueprint for a Safer Economy and color-coded tiers that indicate which activities and businesses are open based on local case rates and test positivity.
The majority of the counties are in the strictest, or purple tier. Tier updates are provided weekly on Tuesdays. Individual counties could choose to impose stricter rules.
Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace said the action offers “no change for us.”
He said that Lake and the northern counties have had fewer restrictions than the southern areas.
Pace said Lake County remains in the purple tier.
“Californians heard the urgent message to stay home as much as possible and accepted that challenge to slow the surge and save lives,” said Dr. Tomás Aragón, CDPH director and state public health officer. “Together, we changed our activities knowing our short-term sacrifices would lead to longer-term gains. COVID-19 is still here and still deadly, so our work is not over, but it’s important to recognize our collective actions saved lives and we are turning a critical corner.”
While there are positive signs that the virus is spreading at a slower rate across the state, the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. It is still critical that Californians continue to wear masks when they leave their homes, maintain physical distance of at least 6 feet, wash their hands frequently, avoid gatherings and mixing with other households, follow all state and local health department guidance and get the vaccine when it’s their turn.
The state, in collaboration with local health departments and health care facilities statewide, took a long list of actions to support California’s hospitals and slow the surge in cases and hospitalizations.
The Regional Stay at Home Order urged Californians to stay home except for essential activities, which helped lower disease transmission levels and reduce burden on the hospital system.
California deployed more than 4,100 medical professionals to facilities across the state to ease the burden on frontline health care workers.
The state provided assistance within hospitals in the form of personal protective equipment, ventilators and help with oxygen supply.
California also helped hospitals expand their capacity by opening 16 alternate care sites, lower-acuity facilities where COVID-19 patients get a bridge from hospital to home as they are recovering.
Public health leaders implemented a statewide order to make it easier to transfer patients from over-crowded hospitals to those with more space and staff.
The administration of vaccines to health care workers has meant that fewer health care workers are falling ill to the virus, which helps keep staffing levels more stable.
“California is slowly starting to emerge from the most dangerous surge of this pandemic yet, which is the light at the end of the tunnel we’ve been hoping for,” said California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly. “Seven weeks ago, our hospitals and front-line medical workers were stretched to their limits, but Californians heard the urgent message to stay home when possible and our surge after the December holidays did not overwhelm the health care system to the degree we had feared.”
Nearly all the counties exiting the Regional Stay at Home Order today are in the Purple or widespread (most restrictive) tier. Services and activities, such as outdoor dining and personal services, may resume immediately with required modifications, subject to any additional restrictions required by local jurisdictions. See the county map to find the status of activities open in each county.
Because case rates remain high across most of the state, the state’s Hospital Surge Order remains in place to prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed. The Limited Stay at Home Order, which limits non-essential activities between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., expires with the Regional Stay At Home Order ending.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced a series of improvements to the state’s vaccination plan. Incorporating lessons learned from efforts to increase the pace of vaccination, these new steps will make it easier for people to know when they are eligible for vaccination and how to make an appointment, accelerate the administration of vaccines on hand and improve the state’s ability to track vaccination data.
California has tripled the pace of vaccinations from 43,459 per day on Jan. 4 to 131,620 on Jan. 15, the state reported.
The 10-day effort to ramp up vaccinations exposed key improvements needed to administer even more vaccines when increased supply becomes available.
On Monday, Gov. Newsom announced actions to address these challenges by simplifying the eligibility framework, standardizing vaccine information and data and ensuring the available supply of vaccine is administered as quickly as possible.
“Vaccines are the light at the end of the tunnel, and I am focused on taking the steps needed to get Californians safely vaccinated as quickly as possible,” said Newsom. “Our public health and health care systems have done heroic work administering more than 2.4 million vaccinations thus far. To reach the pace needed to vaccinate all Californians in a timely manner, we are simplifying and standardizing the process statewide.”
Moving forward, there will be a single statewide standard and movement through the tiers. The state will continue through 65+, health care workers, and prioritize emergency services, food and agriculture workers, teachers and school staff.
From there, the state will transition to age-based eligibility, allowing California to scale up and down quickly, while ensuring vaccine goes to disproportionately impacted communities.
Leveraging California’s spirit of innovation and technology, the state is also launching My Turn, a new system for Californians to learn when they are eligible to be vaccinated and a place to make an appointment when eligible as well as a mechanism to easily track vaccination data.
Through My Turn, individuals will be able to sign up for a notification when they are eligible to make an appointment and schedule one when it is their turn. Providers will be able to use My Turn to automatically share data on vaccines received and administered with the state, reducing lag times.
Technology from California companies Salesforce and Skedulo, and implementation by Accenture, are the foundation for My Turn. It is currently being piloted in Los Angeles and San Diego counties and is expected to be available statewide in early February.
Based on recent learnings, the governor has also directed his administration’s vaccine team to move to a unified statewide network that aligns the health care system, providers and counties with the strengths of each part of the health care system and ensures equitable and efficient vaccine administration, with a focus on communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
This effort will be implemented in partnership with counties and local health districts. It will control variability and maintain consistency and accountability. The details of the system will be forthcoming this week.
To increase available supply based on existing in-state vaccines, the Department of Public Health announced a process that will allow for the reallocation of vaccines from providers who have not used at least 65 percent of their available supply on hand for a week and have not submitted a plan for administering the remaining vaccine to prioritized populations within four days of notice.
Increasing the vaccine supply is the state’s top priority for the federal government as California accelerates the pace of vaccination.
To date, California has received more than four million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, roughly enough for two million people at two doses each.
California has 3 million health care workers and nursing home residents, 6 million people 65+, and 2.5 million Californians who work in education and child care, emergency services and food and agriculture.
In a Jan. 19 letter to President Biden, the governor named vaccines as California’s paramount priority with the Biden Administration.
At the ramped-up pace, California vaccinates about 120,000 Californians a day and is on pace to deliver toward President Biden’s goal of 100 million vaccines in 100 days, if supply persists, and the Newsom Administration said it is committed to striving to vaccinate even more.
California has tripled the pace of vaccinations from 43,459 per day on Jan. 4 to 131,620 on Jan. 15, the state reported.
The 10-day effort to ramp up vaccinations exposed key improvements needed to administer even more vaccines when increased supply becomes available.
On Monday, Gov. Newsom announced actions to address these challenges by simplifying the eligibility framework, standardizing vaccine information and data and ensuring the available supply of vaccine is administered as quickly as possible.
“Vaccines are the light at the end of the tunnel, and I am focused on taking the steps needed to get Californians safely vaccinated as quickly as possible,” said Newsom. “Our public health and health care systems have done heroic work administering more than 2.4 million vaccinations thus far. To reach the pace needed to vaccinate all Californians in a timely manner, we are simplifying and standardizing the process statewide.”
Moving forward, there will be a single statewide standard and movement through the tiers. The state will continue through 65+, health care workers, and prioritize emergency services, food and agriculture workers, teachers and school staff.
From there, the state will transition to age-based eligibility, allowing California to scale up and down quickly, while ensuring vaccine goes to disproportionately impacted communities.
Leveraging California’s spirit of innovation and technology, the state is also launching My Turn, a new system for Californians to learn when they are eligible to be vaccinated and a place to make an appointment when eligible as well as a mechanism to easily track vaccination data.
Through My Turn, individuals will be able to sign up for a notification when they are eligible to make an appointment and schedule one when it is their turn. Providers will be able to use My Turn to automatically share data on vaccines received and administered with the state, reducing lag times.
Technology from California companies Salesforce and Skedulo, and implementation by Accenture, are the foundation for My Turn. It is currently being piloted in Los Angeles and San Diego counties and is expected to be available statewide in early February.
Based on recent learnings, the governor has also directed his administration’s vaccine team to move to a unified statewide network that aligns the health care system, providers and counties with the strengths of each part of the health care system and ensures equitable and efficient vaccine administration, with a focus on communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
This effort will be implemented in partnership with counties and local health districts. It will control variability and maintain consistency and accountability. The details of the system will be forthcoming this week.
To increase available supply based on existing in-state vaccines, the Department of Public Health announced a process that will allow for the reallocation of vaccines from providers who have not used at least 65 percent of their available supply on hand for a week and have not submitted a plan for administering the remaining vaccine to prioritized populations within four days of notice.
Increasing the vaccine supply is the state’s top priority for the federal government as California accelerates the pace of vaccination.
To date, California has received more than four million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, roughly enough for two million people at two doses each.
California has 3 million health care workers and nursing home residents, 6 million people 65+, and 2.5 million Californians who work in education and child care, emergency services and food and agriculture.
In a Jan. 19 letter to President Biden, the governor named vaccines as California’s paramount priority with the Biden Administration.
At the ramped-up pace, California vaccinates about 120,000 Californians a day and is on pace to deliver toward President Biden’s goal of 100 million vaccines in 100 days, if supply persists, and the Newsom Administration said it is committed to striving to vaccinate even more.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A Ukiah man died early Sunday in a solo vehicle crash near Lakeport.
Lt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office identified the man who died as Quinn Williams, 22.
The California Highway Patrol’s Clear Lake Area office said in a Monday report that at 12:05 a.m. Sunday Williams was driving his black 2014 Jeep Cherokee southbound on Highway 29 north of 11th St. in Lakeport at an unknown speed.
Williams’ Jeep veered left into the dirt center median, then veered back to the right, crossing the southbound lanes of Highway 29, the CHP said.
The CHP said the Jeep continued to the right, traveling onto the dirt shoulder where it hit a tree. It then hit a fence before overturning and coming to rest on Mountview Road.
Firefighters responding to the scene early Sunday found the Jeep in the 1500 block of Mountview Road, near the intersection with Scotts Valley Road, according to reports from the scene. The crash had been reported by someone who heard it.
Williams was ejected from the Jeep and succumbed to his injuries at the scene, the CHP said.
An inspection of the Jeep revealed that Williams’ seatbelt was not worn during the collision, according to the CHP report.
It is unknown if drugs or alcohol contributed to this collision, the CHP said.
Email Elizabeth Larson atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Lt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office identified the man who died as Quinn Williams, 22.
The California Highway Patrol’s Clear Lake Area office said in a Monday report that at 12:05 a.m. Sunday Williams was driving his black 2014 Jeep Cherokee southbound on Highway 29 north of 11th St. in Lakeport at an unknown speed.
Williams’ Jeep veered left into the dirt center median, then veered back to the right, crossing the southbound lanes of Highway 29, the CHP said.
The CHP said the Jeep continued to the right, traveling onto the dirt shoulder where it hit a tree. It then hit a fence before overturning and coming to rest on Mountview Road.
Firefighters responding to the scene early Sunday found the Jeep in the 1500 block of Mountview Road, near the intersection with Scotts Valley Road, according to reports from the scene. The crash had been reported by someone who heard it.
Williams was ejected from the Jeep and succumbed to his injuries at the scene, the CHP said.
An inspection of the Jeep revealed that Williams’ seatbelt was not worn during the collision, according to the CHP report.
It is unknown if drugs or alcohol contributed to this collision, the CHP said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at