Hello, Folks! I hope you had a great holiday and now back to work! For a lot of people, the business fires up today (Monday Jan 4th) while some will be on Tuesday the 5th. Feels good to get back at it. However….<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Please, please don’t get cocky with the virus. Prudence is needed now more than ever; hospitalizations and deaths are as high as they have ever been or higher and the vaccines are still months away from any significant distribution. While we are proud we are doing a better job than other film production centers around the world, with regard to Covid suppression, a relax of precautions now could change that for the worse in a fortnight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Check out the sentiments expressed in Variety Magazine yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Elaine Low, Variety, January 3rd, 2021 \u201cSouthern California hospitals are facing a crisis the likes of which we have never seen before,\u201d said SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris in the joint statement. \u201cPatients are dying in ambulances waiting for treatment because hospital emergency rooms are overwhelmed. This is not a safe environment for in-person production right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The organizations are encouraging a production halt until more hospital beds are available. As Variety<\/em> has previously reported, most major TV studios, including CBS TV Studios, Warner Bros. TV, Universal TV and Walt Disney-owned 20th TV and ABC Signature, last week extended their holiday production hiatus to mid-January<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Members of SAG-AFTRA who live in Southern California are urged to stay home, according to the joint statement, and \u201crefrain from accepting on-set employment for the next several weeks.\u201d Any actors who are slated to work over the next few weeks and have on-set safety concerns are encouraged to contact SAG-AFTRA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEven putting aside the risk of acquiring COVID on set \u2014 a risk that we have done a great deal to mitigate through our safety protocols \u2014 on set production always poses some risk of injury, whether because of a stunt gone wrong, an equipment failure or a garden-variety fall,\u201d said David White, SAG-AFTRA\u2019s national executive director. \u201cRight now, with few if any hospital beds available, it is hard to understand how a worker injured on set is supposed to seek treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n White also noted appreciation for the studios and producers that have already preemptively paused production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Los Angeles alone, 12,488 new COVID-19 cases were reported on Sunday, with a seven-day daily average of 77,520, according the the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. The current testing positivity rate stands at 18.4%. As of Sunday night, 7,544 people in L.A. are currently hospitalized with COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Amid surging COVID-19 cases in Southern California following the holidays, SAG-AFTRA<\/a>, the Producers Guild of America and the Joint Policy Committee are together recommending a \u201ctemporary hold on in-person production in Southern California.\u201d Together, the organizations represent thousands of actors, producers, commercial advertisers and ad agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n