SF offers assistance program to small businesses falling behind on council tax San Francisco officials on Tuesday announced a program to help small businesses, primarily restaurants and food-related businesses, affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, some businesses behind on health department permit fee payments can continue to operate with valid permits as long as they get on a payment schedule by April 30, the mayor’s office announced. “We know that COVID-19 has posed extraordinary challenges for small business owners,” said Treasurer José Cisneros. “Giving businesses the opportunity to participate in payment plans will provide needed flexibility to small businesses during this recovery period without sacrificing revenue.” The press release says more than 1,000 businesses are behind in fees totaling $2.6 million to the San Francisco Department of Health and $7 million in other taxes to the city. They will now be able to repay these funds in installments. “This new law will provide tremendous assistance to small businesses, particularly those owned by immigrants and people of color who must overcome other challenges beyond the effects of COVID,” said District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan. Offering these businesses the opportunity to pay outstanding fees in installments will help lower barriers to their operations so they can thrive in San Francisco.”

Yosemite is abandoning the park reservation system adopted during the pandemic Love it or hate it, the policy of requiring a reservation to enter busy Yosemite National Park is no longer in effect. Park officials announced Tuesday that the controversial crowd control policy that was put in place during the first two years of the pandemic and continued for a third year because of construction will not be implemented next year. The reservation requirement covered the park’s peak summer season, when Yosemite has historically been one of the most popular places in the National Park Service. While the reservation system succeeded in keeping numbers down when park staff and services were cut due to the coronavirus, it became a sore point for last-minute travelers who couldn’t win entry and gateway communities that depend on tourist traffic. Others liked the program because it eliminated much of Yosemite’s notorious congestion. Park officials say they will take stock of the broken reservation system, survey the public and decide how to manage crowds in the future. Read the full story.

Biden is asking for $9.25 billion to combat the potential increase President Biden is asking Congress to provide $9.25 billion in COVID-19 funding to prepare for a possible winter outbreak and help fight the virus nationwide. The administration’s funding request comes with a request for more than $37 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine, the Associated Press reports. Government funding ends in mid-December and Ukraine and COVID aid will be part of the package to fund the government until the end of September 2023. The coronavirus funding request is significantly lower than the previous request of $22 billion, reflecting in part the changing nature of the virus and the ongoing effort to combat it, but also the reluctance of Republicans in Congress to continue funding the effort. COVID-19. It includes $2.5 billion for vaccines and therapeutics, $5 billion to support the development of new vaccines, $750 million to support long-term COVID research, and $1 billion to fight the virus internationally.

Newer variants cause more symptoms and more disruption, study finds Newer variants of the coronavirus cause a greater variety of symptoms than their predecessors, according to a new study from Imperial College London. Researchers tracked transmission and symptoms in more than 1.5 million randomly selected adults, including 17,448 patients with COVID-19, from May 2020 to March 2022. About 76% of patients were infected with BA. 2, the dominant variant at the time of the study Conclusions, reported at least one of 26 symptoms, compared with 70% of those infected with BA.1, 63.8% of those with delta, 54.7% with alpha and 45% with the original wild-type strain. “Contrary to the notion that recent variants became successively milder, omicron BA.2 was associated with reporting more symptoms, with greater impairment in daily activities, than BA.1,” the authors wrote. At least 17.6% of people infected with BA.2 said their symptoms affected their ability to complete their daily activities “a lot”, compared to 10.7% of people infected with BA.1 and 10.5% with the delta. “With the lifting of restrictions and the reduction of routine testing in many countries, monitoring the changing symptom profiles associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection and the impact on daily activities will become increasingly important,” they said.

The Cambodian president tested positive after meeting with Biden Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday he has COVID-19 and is pulling out of the Group of 20 meetings in Bali, days after hosting President Joe Biden and other world leaders for a summit in his country’s capital. The diagnosis came as the heads of the top economies of the G-20 and other nations began a two-day meeting on the resort island of Indonesia, the Associated Press reports. In a post on his Facebook page, the Cambodian leader said he tested positive for the coronavirus on Monday night and an Indonesian doctor confirmed the diagnosis on Tuesday morning. He canceled his G-20 meetings as well as the upcoming APEC economic forum in Bangkok to return home. The White House said Biden tested negative Tuesday morning and is not considered a close contact as defined by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Outbreak at veterans home leads to $58 million settlement A federal judge has approved a nearly $58 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit filed in response to the deaths of dozens of veterans who contracted COVID-19 at a Massachusetts veterans’ home, the Associated Press reports. “It is with a heavy heart that we have reached the final stretch of this case,” plaintiffs’ attorney Michael Aleo said Tuesday, the day after a judge approved the settlement in U.S. District Court in Springfield. The coronavirus outbreak at Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke in the spring of 2020 was one of the deadliest long-term care facility outbreaks in the US. Prosecutors for the plaintiffs said 84 residents died and about the same number fell ill. A total of 164 plaintiffs include veterans who tested positive for the disease and survived, as well as the families of those who died. Several of the veterans who survived COVID-19 have died of other causes since the lawsuit was filed, Aleo said. The original settlement amount announced in May was $56 million, but that has increased to about $58 million with the addition of three additional plaintiffs, he said. Families of veterans who died will receive at least $400,000 each, while veterans who contracted the disease and survived will receive at least $10,000 under the terms of the settlement.

White House chief says winter surge unlikely – mask mandates off the table Ashish Jha, the White House’s COVID-19 coordinator, doesn’t expect the U.S. to experience a major holiday spike like it did last year with Omicron. “We are in a very different place and we will remain in a different place,” Jha said at the STAT Summit in Boston on Tuesday, noting that 90% of Americans have received at least one dose of vaccine and “a large portion of Americans have been infected.” While he acknowledged that newer variations could change the picture, Ja said, “I think we’re somehow a better place no matter what Mother Nature throws at us.” He added that Americans are unlikely to see the return of any mandatory virus mitigation measures, such as indoor cover-up requirements or limits on participation in large gatherings. “We’re at a point now where I think if you’re up to date on your vaccines, you have access to treatments … there really shouldn’t be any restrictions on people’s activities,” Jha said. “I pretty much live life the way I lived life in 2019.”

CVS pharmacists can prescribe Paxlovid now CVS Pharmacy announced Tuesday that pharmacists at its more than 9,000 locations nationwide can clinically evaluate patients who test positive for COVID-19 and, if eligible, prescribe the oral antiviral treatment Paxlovid. Service is available in 49 states, Washington, DC and Puerto Rico. CVS pharmacists can assess eligible COVID-19 positive patients and prescribe oral antiviral medications at most locations. “Enabling pharmacists to assess patients and prescribe Paxlovid when clinically appropriate increases patient access and lowers barriers to care and treatment for those who need it,” said Prem Shah, president and chief pharmacy officer, CVS Pharmacy . “Paxlovid has proven to be an important tool in the fight against COVID-19 by helping to reduce the severity of…