Stay Safe, San Diego newsbriefs

14VOL. 5 ISSUE 8

Stay Safe, San Diegonewsbriefs

Inside California’s beleaguered unemployment department

What’s it like working at California’s unemployment department, where nearly 1 million claims are likely to remain backlogged until September? Some overwhelmed, overworked and frustrated employees have quit, citing increased pressure, outdated technology, red tape and inadequate training, the Los Angeles Times reports.

One state worker, who was recently transferred to the Employment Development Department to help handle an unprecedented volume of claims, said she was given an 800-page instruction manual and left to figure things out for herself. Others said they weren’t given authority to handle certain claims, leaving them unable to help angry, crying customers

who had called the department hundreds of times.

Samuel Kihagi, a temporary EDD employee who recently quit: “When we have someone who hasn’t had their money for months and they are calling this line, and they get me and all I can do is tell them, ‘Your payment is pending and I can’t do anything for you,’ that to me is kind of pointless.”

Tracie Kimbrough, who’s worked at EDD for 10 years: “Many times we are not able to do what is needed to assist our claimants (because of) outdated technology, limits on what we are allowed to do ... even if we have the skill set to do what is needed.”

Governor discloses plan to open California mask manufacturing plant

Gov. Gavin Newsom disclosed recently that he’s in talks with Honeywell and other companies to open a California mask plant and create hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs.

Meanwhile, California has sent 17 million masks to Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Alaska despite an influx of hospitalizations in Southern California and Central Valley counties that workers say have strained resources.

“It would have been wrong for

me to sit on 100 million masks ... and not help American citizens in real need. I wouldn’t have been able to sleep well at night,” said Newsom.

Newsom unveiled a $316 million contract for 420 million masks with BYD, the Chinese manufacturer with whom the governor struck a controversial and highly publicized $1 billion deal in April. BYD missed several delivery deadlinesafter initially failing to earn mask certification from federal health officials.

Truvian Sciences receives FDA emergency use authorization for COVID-19 test

Truvian Sciences, a San Diego health care company, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the company’s Easy Check COVID-19 IgM/ IgGTM antibody test. Truvian’s Easy Check test is being produced at mass scale at a U.S.- based manufacturing facility and will be available to health care practitioners immediately.

The test, which has been tested and validated by leading health care professionals and scientific experts at University of California San Diego and the University of Chicago, exceeds the current EUA requirements for current COVID-19 antibody tests by delivering a sensitivity rate of 98.44 percent and a specificity of 98.9 percent.

Additionally, the cross-reactivity evaluation determined no cross-reactivity (0 percent) with HIV, Influenza A and B and several coronavirus strains.

SDG&E customers to receive $64 bill credit for August, September

In August and September, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) residential customers will see their electricity bills reduced each month by $32.28 - or a total of about $64 - thanks to the California Climate Credit program designed to fight climate change.

The credit is from a state program that requires power plants, natural gas providers, and other large industries that emit greenhouse gases to buy carbon pollution permits. The credit on customers’ bills is their share of the payments from the state’s program.

“This bill credit provides some financial relief at a critical time when many people need it due to the COVID-19 economic crisis and summer weather driving up energy use,” said Scott Crider, SDG&E’s vice president of customer services.

Originally, the credit was

scheduled to appear on customer bills in April and October. To help reduce bill spikes in the summer, when energy usage typically goes up along with the temperature, SDG&E successfully petitioned the California Public Utilities Commission to change the timing of the credit to August and September -- the months when air conditioning use typically peaks.

There is no action required to receive the credit. All residential customers, including community choice aggregation customers, will automatically receive this credit from SDG&E on their August and September billing cycles.

Residential customers with natural gas service received the natural gas portion of the California Climate Credit -- $21.11-- in April. Next year, the electric and gas credit will follow the same schedule as this year.

Local News > LocalUmbrellaNews.com /LocalUmbrellaMedia @LocalUmbrellaMedia Advertise? Press@LocalUmbrella.com

Stay Safe, San Diego VOL. 5 ISSUE 8 15

Local News > LocalUmbrellaNews.com /LocalUmbrellaMedia @LocalUmbrellaMedia Advertise? Press@LocalUmbrella.com