Four people have died and three others have required a liver transplants after eating the death cap mushroom that is proliferating in California following a rainy winter.

California officials are warning foragers about a deadly outbreak linked to wild mushrooms.

California won’t make children get the coronavirus vaccine to attend schools.

As demand to get COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. collapses in many areas, states are scrambling to use stockpiles of doses before they expire and have to be added to the millions that have already gone to waste.

Officials said Friday, March 26, 2021, that the vaccine sites have provided nearly a half-million doses so far. The two sites in Oakland and Los Angeles opened in February for an eight-week pilot program that concludes on April 11. AdOfficials in the county and city of Los Angeles are in discussions about maintaining the site in some fashion, said Dr. Paul Simon, the chief science officer for Los Angeles County. “California’s commitment to equity is much more than just two vaccination sites," she said. It was updated on March 27, 2021 to correct that vaccination sites will close April 11, not April 15.

Some counties have opted to impose them even before the mandate kicks in, including five San Francisco Bay Area counties where the measures also take effect starting Sunday. San Francisco resident Michael Duranceau rushed to a market to load up on supplies. “I can’t emphasize this enough – everyone must take personal steps to protect themselves and protect others.”The other three regions — Greater Sacramento, Northern California and San Francisco Bay Area — were all around 21% capacity. The changes begin to take effect Sunday night in San Francisco, Santa Clara, Marin, Alameda and Contra Costa counties, as well as the city of Berkeley. ___Associated Press writers Olga R. Rodriguez and Juliet Williams in San Francisco, Robert Jablon and Brian Melley in Los Angeles and Adam Beam in Sacramento contributed.

Some counties have opted to impose them even before the mandate kicks in, including five San Francisco Bay Area counties where the measures also take effect starting Sunday. San Francisco resident Michael Duranceau rushed to a market to load up on supplies. The 11-county Southern California region, which includes the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, had only 12.5% of its ICU beds available, the California Department of Public Health reported Saturday. The figure was 8.6% for the San Joaquin Valley region, composed of a dozen counties in the agricultural Central Valley and rural areas of the Sierra Nevada. ___Associated Press writers Olga R. Rodriguez and Juliet Williams in San Francisco, Robert Jablon and Brian Melley in Los Angeles and Adam Beam in Sacramento contributed.

A review by the Kaiser Health News service and The Associated Press finds at least 48 state and local health leaders have resigned, retired or been fired since April across 23 states. At least 38,000 state and local public health jobs have disappeared since the 2008 recession, leaving a skeletal workforce for what was once viewed as one of the worlds top public health systems. In Oklahoma, both the state health commissioner and state epidemiologist have been replaced since the outbreak began in March. She said she knows many public health department leaders who are considering resigning or retiring because of the strain. Our elected officials in positions of power, whether presidents, governors or mayors, they arent supporting staff better or aligning messages," forcing public health officials to bear the political pressure, Brown said.

On Monday, the state released a framework that will permit counties to allow in-person worship services. Orange County supervisors may consider a resolution being introduced Tuesday to reopen houses of worship next weekend under federal and state health guidelines. The state guidelines limit gatherings to 25% of building capacity or 100 people, whichever is lower. Our church and places of worship across California have suffered greatly because our leaders chose to marginalize and criminalize faith-based gatherings," Pastor Jon Duncan said in a statement. Two church services that already were held without authorization have been sources of outbreaks; one in Mendocino County and the other in Butte County.

(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)LOS ANGELES California churches can resume in-person services but worshippers will be limited to 100 people and they should wear masks, avoid sharing prayer books and skip the collection plate under state guidelines released Monday. Some 47 of 58 counties have received permission to move deeper into the reopening by meeting state standards for controlling the virus. Churches are included in the next phase of the reopening plan, which could come in the next few weeks. But several thousand churches have vowed to defy the current stay-at-home order for May 31, which is Pentacost, a major holiday for many Christians. As of Monday, California had at least 94,558 confirmed cases of COVID-19, more than 3,000 hospitalizations and 3,795 deaths.