Tag Archives: curtail

Health

LA County reports highest number of new COVID-19 cases ever for single day as officials urge public to curtail NYE celebrations

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LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Los Angeles County on Friday reported the highest number of new COVID-19 cases ever recorded for a single day in the region.

According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, there were 27,091 new positive COVID cases and 12 deaths.

Cases have nearly doubled in the last two days, and roughly one out of every four people are testing positive, officials said.

“Public Health urges everyone to minimize the risk of transmitting the virus by not hosting or attending large gatherings over this upcoming holiday weekend. Indoor parties, in particular, create significant risk as this virus can be spread through aerosolized droplets,” the release stated.

There were 1,464 patients in county hospital on Friday, up 99 from the day before. Of those, 218 were in intensive care, up four from Thursday.

Friday’s daily positivity rate ticked up nearly a full point overnight to 22.4%. Last month, the rate was less than 1%.

During a briefing on Thursday, L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer and county Supervisor Holly Mitchell urged residents to be cautious as they celebrate New Year’s Eve, with Ferrer noting, “The risk of virus transmission has never been higher in our county.”

Evidence suggests that only those who have recently completed their vaccination series or are boosted have significant protection from becoming infected with the highly contagious Omicron variant, according to Public Health officials.

“The days ahead will be extraordinarily challenging for all us as we face extraordinarily high case numbers reflecting widespread transmission of the virus. In order to make sure that people are able to work and attend school, we all need to act responsibly,” Ferrer said in a statement.

“With explosive transmission likely to continue for some weeks to come, all efforts now need to focus on protecting our health care system from becoming overwhelmed. Since most people in our hospitals with serious illness from COVID are unvaccinated, those not yet vaccinated or boosted need to please stay away from others as much as possible to avoid getting infected or infecting others,” she said.

More than 10,043,000 individuals have been tested since the pandemic began, with 15% having now tested positive. To date, 1,696,582 positive cases have been confirmed, while Friday’s 12 new deaths bring the cumulative figure to 27,637 fatalities.

MORE | LA County data: Unvaccinated 14 times more likely to die from COVID

City News Service contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2022 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.



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Business

Facebook’s latest effort to curtail leaks immediately leaked

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Facebook is ramping up its fight against leakers following the disclosures of whistleblower Frances Haugen. According to The New York Times, Facebook is to some internal groups that deal with “sensitive” issues like safety and elections. That the change, which was made to prevent further leaks, immediately leaked is both highly amusing and emblematic of some of the bigger issues the company is currently facing.

Ever since Haugen herself as the whistleblower, one of the more noteworthy aspects of her story is that the documents she provided to Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission were widely accessible to employees. The documents included slides detailing the company’s research into teen , as well as numerous memos about how the company has handled for VIPs, and other thorny issues.

As The Times points out, the reason these documents were so readily available is because Facebook has long had an open culture that promotes sharing. And employees themselves often take to its internal communication platform, Workplace, to discuss controversial issues facing the company.

But now the social network is moving away from that openness. The company is making some internal groups private, and will remove employees “whose work isn’t related to safety and security,” according to the report. “Sensitive Integrity discussions will happen in closed, curated forums in the future,” the company told employees in a memo.

On one hand, the fact that news of the change immediately leaked would seem to back up that the company is in fact more leaky than it has been in years past. But it could also signal increasing unrest among employees, some of whom are reportedly concerned that walling off teams that work on important issues could ultimately do more harm than good.

It also underscores just how much Facebook is still reeling from Haugen’s disclosures. In addition to the Senate hearing last week, Haugen is expected the select committee investigating the Jan. 6th insurrection, as well as investigating the company. The SEC also appears to be her claims.

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Entertainment

Netflix testing a new feature to curtail password sharing

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Netflix is testing a new feature that could prevent non-subscribers from piggybacking off of a friend’s or family member’s account and effectively stop people from sharing passwords for the streaming service.

The new feature is being tested among a small, random sample of customers worldwide. Selected users are being asked to confirm they either are — or live with — the account holder when they enter credentials to log in to the video streaming platform. A code is sent to the subscriber, which the user is then asked to provide. Test subjects also have the option to move past the prompt and verify the account later in order to continue streaming, or to create a new account. 

“This test is designed to help ensure that people using Netflix accounts are authorized to do so,” a Netflix spokesperson told CBS MoneyWatch.

Currently, Netflix offers three different memberships — top-tier subscribers are permitted to share their accounts with up to three additional household members. 


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A source familiar with Netflix’s test said that it doesn’t constitute a “crackdown,” but that the company is searching for “consumer-friendly ways to address password-sharing and protect members in the process.” 

The streaming platform also wants to protect its hundreds of millions of members against unauthorized use of their accounts. “The only way to rein that in is testing our way into this type of verification,” the source said, adding that how Netflix may proceed remains “up in the air.”

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings previously touched on password sharing without indicating any plans to take action. “Password sharing is something you have to learn to live with,” he said in 2016. “There’s so much legitimate password sharing, like you sharing with your spouse, with your kids, so there’s no bright line, and we’re doing fine as is.”

Netflix has more than 200 million subscribers across the world and recently raised its prices as its popularity continued to grow during the coronavirus pandemic. Streaming plans cost between $9 and $18 per month. 

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