Good morning.
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My colleague Thomas Fuller traveled to Alturas to report on a county that had been mercifully isolated from the coronavirus — until last week.
Here’s his dispatch:
Evergreen forests surrounded by lumpy mountains and vast valleys filled with thousands of cattle. Residents of Modoc County, population 8,800, like to point out that social distancing was a way of life well before the coronavirus arrived in California. Alturas, the Modoc County seat, has a single red flashing traffic signal at the intersection of what maps show as interstate highways but are really just winding two-lane country roads.
For five months, officials in Modoc had hoped that the county’s isolation in the northeastern corner of the state would spare it from the virus. And until last week, when a couple in Alturas tested positive, Modoc had been the last county in California without any confirmed cases.
Now the message seems clear: If the virus made it to Modoc County, where the closest big town is a two-hour drive, it’s everywhere in California.
[Track coronavirus cases by county in California.]
Modoc may be isolated, but it is not an island. The Modoc County Health Services Department did not identify the two people who contracted the virus, but Jodie Larranaga, an owner of the Brass Rail, a bar and Basque restaurant, said a waitress who worked at the bar was one of the people who tested positive. The waitress and her husband had recently returned from a family vacation to Fresno, Ms. Larranaga said.
When it announced the infections on Tuesday, the Health Department asked any residents who visited a bar in the past two weeks to call a hotline. But Ms. Larranaga said that was not casting the net wide enough.
“This couple has been all over the place,” she said. “They were all around town.”
Alturas had gone ahead with a July 4 parade and had hosted motocross races. Most residents still go maskless at supermarkets in Alturas, despite a statewide order to wear them in public places. Tex Dowdy, the Modoc County sheriff, refuses to implement the mask order.
Juan Ledezma, the owner of a thrift store in Alturas, said most of the two dozen daily customers came in without a face covering.
“I would say 20 percent wear masks,” he said. “I don’t ask them to do it because they might get offended.”
Rick Holloway, the publisher and editor of The Modoc County Record, the county’s weekly newspaper, says mask wearing often breaks along partisan lines.
“To most of the people here, it’s more of a political statement than a health statement,” he said.
“I would like to think that we’re going to do a better job of trying to prevent more people from getting Covid,” he said, “but I wouldn’t bet on it.”
[Read the full story here.]
The Coronavirus Outbreak ›
Frequently Asked Questions
Updated August 3, 2020
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I’m a small-business owner. Can I get relief?
- The stimulus bills enacted in March offer help for the millions of American small businesses. Those eligible for aid are businesses and nonprofit organizations with fewer than 500 workers, including sole proprietorships, independent contractors and freelancers. Some larger companies in some industries are also eligible. The help being offered, which is being managed by the Small Business Administration, includes the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. But lots of folks have not yet seen payouts. Even those who have received help are confused: The rules are draconian, and some are stuck sitting on money they don’t know how to use. Many small-business owners are getting less than they expected or not hearing anything at all.
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What are my rights if I am worried about going back to work?
- Employers have to provide a safe workplace with policies that protect everyone equally. And if one of your co-workers tests positive for the coronavirus, the C.D.C. has said that employers should tell their employees -- without giving you the sick employee’s name -- that they may have been exposed to the virus.
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Should I refinance my mortgage?
- It could be a good idea, because mortgage rates have never been lower. Refinancing requests have pushed mortgage applications to some of the highest levels since 2008, so be prepared to get in line. But defaults are also up, so if you’re thinking about buying a home, be aware that some lenders have tightened their standards.
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What is school going to look like in September?
- It is unlikely that many schools will return to a normal schedule this fall, requiring the grind of online learning, makeshift child care and stunted workdays to continue. California’s two largest public school districts — Los Angeles and San Diego — said on July 13, that instruction will be remote-only in the fall, citing concerns that surging coronavirus infections in their areas pose too dire a risk for students and teachers. Together, the two districts enroll some 825,000 students. They are the largest in the country so far to abandon plans for even a partial physical return to classrooms when they reopen in August. For other districts, the solution won’t be an all-or-nothing approach. Many systems, including the nation’s largest, New York City, are devising hybrid plans that involve spending some days in classrooms and other days online. There’s no national policy on this yet, so check with your municipal school system regularly to see what is happening in your community.
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Is the coronavirus airborne?
- The coronavirus can stay aloft for hours in tiny droplets in stagnant air, infecting people as they inhale, mounting scientific evidence suggests. This risk is highest in crowded indoor spaces with poor ventilation, and may help explain super-spreading events reported in meatpacking plants, churches and restaurants. It’s unclear how often the virus is spread via these tiny droplets, or aerosols, compared with larger droplets that are expelled when a sick person coughs or sneezes, or transmitted through contact with contaminated surfaces, said Linsey Marr, an aerosol expert at Virginia Tech. Aerosols are released even when a person without symptoms exhales, talks or sings, according to Dr. Marr and more than 200 other experts, who have outlined the evidence in an open letter to the World Health Organization.
Here’s what else you may have missed
We often link to sites that limit access for nonsubscribers. We appreciate your reading Times coverage, but we also encourage you to support local news if you can.
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With 12 people living in three bedrooms, it wasn’t surprising that once one person living in the house got sick with the coronavirus, others would, too. Overcrowded housing was a problem before the pandemic, but now it’s a key way the virus is spreading. [The New York Times]
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“There’s no win in this whole thing.” While many tenants have been pushed out of their homes — in some cases, apparently in violation of the state’s eviction moratorium — during the coronavirus crisis, some landlords said they’re having trouble removing squatters. [The Bakersfield Californian]
Read more about why the Central Valley has become the state’s latest coronavirus hot spot. [The New York Times]
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Some are preparing to fight a wave of evictions by taking advantage of a little-known state rule that allows people to take the bar exam without getting a law school degree. Welcome to “Radical Real Estate Law School.” [The Oaklandside]
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Meanwhile, in Downtown San Francisco, towers are closed, cafes are struggling and streets are eerily quiet. Will the district ever boom again? [The San Francisco Chronicle]
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Colleges are trying to figure out how to welcome masses of students back to campuses without Covid-19 spreading. It’s not easy. [The New York Times]
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More and more schools are abandoning plans for in-person classes. [The New York Times]
Learn more from this map showing where students are most at risk of encountering a classmate who arrived to school with the coronavirus. [The New York Times]
And read about California’s plan, which would keep most schools remote-only to start the year. [The New York Times]
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On Sunday, firefighters struggled to control the Apple Fire, a wildfire that started in Cherry Valley, southwest of the San Bernardino National Forest. About 7,000 residents were ordered to evacuate. [The New York Times]
Here’s a map of evacuations. [The Riverside Press-Enterprise]
And if you missed it, here’s how California prepared for wildfire season amid a pandemic. [The New York Times]
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The NASA astronauts riding in a capsule built and operated by Hawthorne-based SpaceX parachuted safely into the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday. It was the first water landing by NASA astronauts since 1975. [The New York Times]
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Looking for isolation? One of the smallest islands in California’s least-visited national park provides — for humans, anyway. Anacapa has a lot of wildlife and views, as long as you’re not afraid of heights. [The Los Angeles Times]
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Here’s how families celebrated Eid al-Adha amid a pandemic: “The story of Ibrahim is forcing us to check in with ourselves, and the quarantine is forcing us to check in with ourselves, our friends, our family more often.” [The New York Times]
California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for California Today here and read every edition online here.
Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, went to school at U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter.
California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.
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