A.M. Brief: COVID-19 Infection Surges at L.A. Supermarkets

Los Angeles supermarkets are essential, but they’re not immune to COVID-19 spread. Like a lot of other local businesses, they’re seeing a big jump in infection. Also this morning: A passenger with coronavirus symptoms dies in flight on the way to LAX, there will be no Rose Bowl game this year, and a once in a lifetime astronomical event comes to the skies tonight. As usual, this is your news. Take it!

Morning News Rundown

L.A. County supermarkets are experiencing an explosion of COVID-19 outbreaks, a trend that has hit industries of all types this past month. At one Food 4 Less location in Palmdale, 21 employees recently tested positive. Overall, County Health Services says they are currently investigating coronavirus outbreaks at 490 businesses, compared with 173 last month. Public Health estimates that 1 in 80 people in the county are infected. [L.A. Times]

A man with coronavirus symptoms died on an LAX-bound United flight from Orlando last Monday. The man went into cardiac arrest shortly after takeoff, and the flight was diverted to New Orleans where the unresponsive passenger was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead on arrival. Passengers are required to certify they do not have COVID-19 before boarding, but a fellow passenger says she overheard the deceased man’s wife say he had tested positive for COVID-19 last week and had been symptomatic for days. The CDC is working with the airline to assess the possible exposure of other passengers. [CBS Los Angeles]

College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock confirmed over the weekend that there will be no game at the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day. Due to fears over the ongoing spread of COVID-19, the game has been moved to Cowboys Stadium in Dallas. [ABC 7]

Why isn’t the current Stay-at-Home order slowing COVID-19 infections as well as it did in the spring? Experts say that L.A.’s level of community of transmission is such that it has become nearly impossible to contain. Targeted measures that may have worked earlier in the year are now less effective. At the same time, residents are less likely to abide by restrictions either because they are militantly anti-lockdown or have become mentally fatigued by the ongoing orders. [L.A. Times]

Tonight’s “Great Conjunction” of Jupiter and Saturn will bring them closer together in the visible night sky than at any point in the last 800 years. The two planets will be just 0.1 degrees apart, about a fifth of the diameter of a full moon. If you want to catch the rare sight, you’ll want to look low to the horizon of the southwestern sky just after sunset. [CBS News]