COVID-19 update, Friday, May 15

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•Dept. of Face Coverings: 

–Face coverings are required if you’re riding Metro with the exception of those with certain disabilities or medical conditions.

–The city of Los Angeles is telling people to wear face coverings when in public and the county is saying put on a face covering when around other people in public. From the county going the old school route:

•Bus and Rail Service Update: Metro has a four-phase plan to restore bus and rail service as some parts of our local economy and public places open in the coming weeks. Please see this Source post. For now, the enhanced Sunday service we’ve been running continues — although we’re adding bus trips where needed to accommodate demand and physical distancing.

•Dept. of Construction: Here’s the view of the street decking for the Purple Line Extension’s Wilshire/Rodeo Station in Beverly Hills on Wednesday versus the work last week. The full closure of Wilshire — approved by the city of Beverly Hills — has helped ramp up work on the future subway.

The decking will allow street traffic to resume on Wilshire while station excavation continues below.

Photos by Joe Lemon/LA Metro.

•Green Line work this weekend:

•If you want to see the Thunderbirds flyover today, here’s the route:

In the news…

•In the kind of article that makes you wonder if our region will ever get a grip on car-related injuries and deaths, there have been about the same number of vehicle deaths in the city of L.A, reports the LAT this year as in 2019. Even with traffic way down to the ongoing pandemic.

•Almost half of the state of California’s COVID-19 cases and more than half the deaths from the virus are in Los Angeles County, reports the LAT.

On a national scale, California’s numbers in terms of share of the population are middle-of-the pack at one in every 524 people compared to, for example, the one in every 56 people in New York state (where most cases are in the New York City metro area). It’s worth mentioning that many experts believe that there are far more cases than the official count, which only includes those who have been tested.

While it’s true that the vast majority of Americans don’t have the virus, the demographic breakdown (from the L.A. County Dept. of Public Health) of who has it and who is being killed by it offer a sobering reminder how serious this disease is.

•From the transit agency in Philadelphia:

•San Bernardino County is no longer requiring face coverings on its buses, per the Omnitrans website.

•The Stuttgart airport in Germany was used for a series of one-on-one concerts — that is, one musician and one audience member. Cool NYT article with great pics and video.

 

Categories: Transportation Headlines