Medical teams from the California National Guard have been dispatched to five nursing homes in Los Angeles County, bolstering staff and resources in facilities that are especially hard-hit by coronavirus outbreaks.
It’s part of a larger effort by state and local officials to slow the spread of coronavirus in nursing homes, which have been particularly hard hit. In Los Angeles County alone, 40% of the more than 800 deaths have been at these facilities.
The teams arrived at nursing homes earlier this week, and the sites include Pasadena Meadows Nursing Center in Pasadena and the Motion Picture and Television Country House in Woodland Hills, as well as nursing homes in Hollywood, Gardena and El Monte, according to Lt. Col. Jonathan Shiroma, public affairs director for the California National Guard.
Each support team includes about five military medics, an administrative sergeant, and a physicians assistant or licensed nurse.
“They’ll augment the current staff at the respective skilled nursing facility,” said Shiroma, adding that the teams will remain on-site as long as they are needed.
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A pedestrian wearing a protective mask passes a mural on a store on Melrose Avenue in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles.
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Jonte Florence, a freestyle dancer, does a handstand on a mostly empty Hollywood Walk of Fame. Florence said he normally performs for hundreds of tourists along the busy street.
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The Tyrannosaurus rex overlooking the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue from the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum wears a protective mask while practicing social distancing.
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Businesses are shuttered and pedestrians are few and far between on Hollywood Boulevard.
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Daniel Rogerson wears a vintage military gas mask while riding a bike along the beach path in Santa Monica, which is closed to enforce social distancing because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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A man gets some exercise on Santa Monica Beach, which is closed to enforce social distancing because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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A face mask seller in colorful dress appears to be part of a mural behind a bus stop on Soto Street on Saturday morning in Los Angeles. Life around Cesar E. Chavez Blvd. and Soto St. has slow down as California officials extended stay-at-home orders into May and residents entered Easter weekend with unprecedented limits on their movements. Most of the people are adhering to the orders by mayor to wear masks while out running errands. Los Angeles, CA.
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Life around Cesar E. Chavez Blvd. and Soto St. has slow down as California officials extended stay-at-home orders into May and residents entered Easter weekend with unprecedented limits on their movements. Most of the people are adhering to the orders by mayor to wear masks while out running errands. Los Angeles, CA.
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A metro bus driver wears a face mask while driving the route along Soto Street, Los Angeles. Life around Cesar E. Chavez Blvd. and Soto St. has slow down as California officials extended stay-at-home orders into May and residents entered Easter weekend with unprecedented limits on their movements. Most of the people are adhering to the orders by mayor to wear masks while out running errands. Los Angeles, CA.
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UC Irvine Medical Center health care workers return their gratitude as about 25 Orange County first responders vehicles participate in a drive-by parade of gratitude as they battle COVID-19 at the hospital.
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Billy Budd, 55, of Hollywood, walks along Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood with a protective face covering against the coronavirus. Budd is a scenic artist for movies and television who is currently out of work due to the coronavirus outbreak.
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Stuart Reyes and his sister, Stephanie, sell masks for $5 each at 3000 block of West Century Boulevard in Inglewood. Stuart said he is selling masks to support his mother.
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A jogger runs on a closed trail past dozens of pieces of caution tape, torn off by hikers and mountain bikers at El Escorpion Canyon Park on Saturday in West Hills.
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Alex Herron and nurse Mercy Pineda at a blood drive sponsored by USC athletics and the American Red Cross at USC’s Galen Center.
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Los Angeles City Hall displays blue lights to show support for healthcare workers and first responders.
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After being indoors for several days because of rainy weather and coronavirus stay-at-home orders, Olivia Jacobs, 4, and her mom, Cia Jacobs, enjoy a warm and sunny afternoon making chalk drawings on the sidewalk in front of their home in West Hills.
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An Oceanview Plaza security guard sports a whimsical mask while on patrol.
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Jacob De Wilde, left, and Lesli Lytle load a car with food during a food distribution organized to mark Good Friday.
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As a late season storm continues to make its way across the Southland, a young basketball player dribbles along an alley through an Elysian Park neighborhood in Los Angeles.
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People are silhouetted in a window of an apartment building in Hollywood, where a stay-at-home order remains in effect to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.
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The Wilshire Grand Center display blue lights and a heart to show support for health care workers and first responders.
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Women wear masks as they stroll along Highland Avenue in Hollywood. Wearing masks while outdoors now is mandatory in the city of Los Angeles.
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Pascacio DaVinci uses two campers as housing and storage for his artwork. He has been a street vendor in South L.A. for more than 20 years. “If it’s my time to die, it’s my time to die,” he said. “Mask or no mask, it won’t matter.”
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Patients are removed from Magnolia Rehabilitation and Nursing Center after 39 tested positive for the coronavirus and nursing staff was not showing up to work.
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A man drops off his self-administered coronavirus test in a blue bin at a drive-up test site at the Veterans Administration Parking Lot 15 outside of Jackie Robinson Stadium in Los Angeles.
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A mural and quote by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. overlooks a new mobile testing site for people with symptoms of the coronavirus at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in South Los Angeles.
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A specimen is turned in at the new mobile testing site for people with symptoms of the coronavirus at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in South Los Angeles.
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Hippie Kitchen in Los Angeles hands out food, water and toiletries to homeless people and residents of skid row. Additionally, masks were offered to help reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
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Nurses pose for a fun photo between breaks in drive-through public testing for the coronavirus at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton.
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Anthony Antonio, left, buys a mask along Prairie Avenue in Hawthorne.
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A man wearing a mask walks along Anaheim Street in Long Beach. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has announced an order requiring all residents to wear a face covering when visiting the majority of essential businesses, in hopes that it will protect workers and slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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A woman shows her notice from her doctor that allows her to obtain a test for coronavirus at a new drive-up testing site in a parking lot at the South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach.
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LAPD clears people from using the skate park at Venice Beach during the coronavirus stay-at-home order in Venice Beach.
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The sun sets as a lonely figure cycling up the 1st Street bridge toward Boyle Heights.
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Matthew Huff, left, who has lived in Los Angeles for 10 years and works as a personal trainer and rideshare driver, works out with his friend Cuauhtli, last name not given, at a park in the Boyle Heights neighborhood in Los Angeles.
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Wearing gloves and a mask, Robyn Freeman of Orange County prays after taking Communion on Sunday at the Godspeak Calvary Church in Newbury Park. Communion was given at the church using social distancing and other precautions.
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McDonald’s employees and supporters strike outside a McDonald’s in Crenshaw demanding the company cover healthcare costs of any worker or immediate family member who gets sick from COVID-19.
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A person who wishes to remain anonymous strikes from her car to support McDonald’s employees who are demanding the company cover healthcare costs of any worker or immediate family member who gets sick from COVID-19 in Los Angeles.
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June Gilmore, of Laguna Woods, uses a loud speaker and sign as her husband, Brian Gilmore, honks his horn while joining mostly Laguna Woods seniors protesting after learning nearby Ayres Hotel will be used to treat homeless COVID-19 patients.
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Cassidy Roosen, with Beach Cities Health District, holds up a sign that says, “We’re All in This Together,” while waiting to direct cars at a drive-through, appointment-only coronavirus testing location at the South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach.
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On Sunset Boulevard in Los Feliz, Greg Barris, in cowboy hat, picks up fresh produce he ordered through County Line Harvest, a local vegetable farm.
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Chantael Duke, 32, sits on the steps off of Sunset Boulevard in Los Feliz. She lost her two jobs due to coronavirus closures.
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Juliann Hartman, center, and her husband, Butch, wave signs they created to cheer up people on Calabasas Road in Calabasas during the pandemic.
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Grace Carter, 15, of Riverside, practices a dance routine at home after dance classes and school were canceled. She has to use the Zoom app on her iPhone to practice with her dance group.”It’s hard. My bedroom is a smaller space. I miss all my friends at the studio,” Grace said.
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A man works from his home in Long Beach.
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A San Bernardino County healthcare worker takes a sample at a coronavirus drive-through testing site at the county fairgrounds in Victorville.
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A Metro general service employee disinfects a bench in Boyle Heights.
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A runner jogs past the Pottery Barn in Pasadena. Some businesses in the area have boarded up their stores.
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Raquel Lezama and daughter Monica Ramos collect meals for the family at Manual Arts High School. Lezama was laid off from her $17.76-an-hour job at a Beverly Hills hotel.
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Homeless artist Matteo defends his work against removal by the Los Angeles Sanitation Department and police in Venice.
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A medical staff member enters Cedar Mountain Post Acute Care Facility in Yucaipa after 51 residents and six staff members tested positive for COVID-19.
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The Iron City Tavern in San Pedro tries an incentive to lure takeout customers.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Healthcare workers gather outside UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center to call for further action from the federal government in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
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Kristen Edgerle of Victorville collects information from a blood donor before drawing blood at The Richard Nixon Presidential Library blood drive during the coronavirus pandemic in Yorba Linda.
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Jonathan Sanchez, manager of Choppy’s Produce Company at the LA Wholesale Produce Market, stands with an excess of inventory in the wake of the coronavirus Covid19 shutdown as LA’s produce wholesalers are seeing their business decline over 80%.
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A woman has the sidewalk all to herself while walking along California St. in downtown Ventura. Foot traffic is very light as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
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Shauna Jin of Los Angeles, with her dog, Bodhi, practices social distancing with John Kiss of Los Angeles at the entrance of Runyon Canyon Park in Los Angeles.
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A lending library had some additional useful items, including a roll of toilet paper and cans of beans and corn, in a Hermosa Beach neighborhood.
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Protesters drive by the Getty House, the home of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, in Hancock Park. Tenant advocates are demanding a total moratorium on evictions during the coronavirus crisis.
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The Strand and oceanfront of Hermosa Beach are closed in an effort to prevent crowds and slow the spread of the coronavirus.
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Venice residents Emily Berry and Gavin Kelley take a break at Venice Beach. Berry, a cocktail waitress at Enterprise Fish Co., lost her job due to the coronavirus outbreak, and Kelley, a manager at a performing arts school with a focus on music, said that he still has a job and that classes at the school will resume online this coming Monday.
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The JW Marriott at L.A. Live is sharing a message of hope with red lights in 34 windows, creating a 19-story display on the hotel’s north side.
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Juan Diaz Jr., a lifelong Dodgers fan, prays that the season will start by May in front of Dodger Stadium on what would have been opening day.
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Hayley, CEO and founder of Love My Neighbor Foundation, right, dances with Crystal Armster, 51, while she and her colleagues continue to feed the homeless on skid row amid the pandemic.
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A masked passenger on a Metro bus in downtown Los Angeles.
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Members of the Los Angeles Fire Department wear protective gear while handing out coronavirus test kits at a parking lot on Stadium Way near Dodger Stadium.
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Dede Oneal waits for a coronavirus test at the Crenshaw Christian Center in South Los Angeles.
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A man in a mask passes a closed restaurant along Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles.
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Artist Corie Mattie paints a mural on the side of a pop-up store as a man takes a picture in West Hollywood.
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Medical assistant Zoila Villalta works with Rosie Boston, 32, of Glendale, who is donating blood for her first time at L.A. Care Health Plan downtown.
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A couple wait for a bus outside the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
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With all Los Angeles schools closed until further notice, LAUSD buses sit idle in Gardena.
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A lone traveler makes his way to catch a flight in Tom Bradley International Terminal.
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Denise Young looks on as her daughter, Allison, 9, a fourth-grader at EARThS (Environmental Academy of Research Technology and Earth Sciences) Magnet School in Newbury Park, receives a Chromebook.
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Hollywood Boulevard is devoid of the usual crowds.
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Michael Ray, 11, plays before a movie at the Paramount Drive-In.
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Barbara Ferrer, the L.A. County health director, said Friday that the deployment came in response to a request from the county Department of Public Health that the state help with staffing at nursing homes.
“As we’ve identified staff that are sick or staff that are positive with COVID-19, they need to stay out of the workplace for an extended period of time, and in places where there are outbreaks, that can mean there are dozens of employees that are appropriately not coming to work,” Ferrer said. “So we do have staffing issues in all nursing homes where we’ve had significant outbreaks.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday that the National Guard would “help support the efforts to isolate, conduct tests and to make sure that we’re sharing best practices and protocols within the system.”
The National Guard’s assistance comes as health authorities have renewed their focus on nursing homes and assisted living facilities in L.A. and across the state.
“In terms of the vulnerable populations, the first priority has to be the skilled nursing facilities,” said Dr. Christina Ghaly, health services director for L.A. County. “That’s where the majority of the outbreaks have occurred.”
On Friday, Ferrer announced a new order that requires all congregate living facilities, including nursing homes, to limit entry to employees only and to end all communal dining. Staff will be required to wear surgical masks and personal protective equipment, and residents will also be required to wear surgical masks or a cloth face covering.
Congregate living facilities will also be required to test both asymptomatic and symptomatic residents and staff.
“It’s become really clear that asymptomatic people are in fact, both infected with the virus and capable of shedding the virus, and that means they’re capable of infecting others,” Ferrer said. “So in places where we have a lot of vulnerable people who reside — and that’s our nursing homes, all of our long-term care facilities — it’s really important to acknowledge … this new reality.”
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