00:00 And in other news, the M Street Navigation Center is expected to be closed for seven
00:05 days following a COVID outbreak.
00:07 That's according to the Community Action Partnership of Kern that says they're making the move
00:11 to protect the health of both existing and potential clients, as well as members of the
00:16 staff.
00:17 By and large, what we are seeing is that people get through this.
00:22 It's much like a flu, but because it is so capable at spreading.
00:28 We are taking all the steps that we can to isolate people in hotel rooms and then quarantine
00:36 them so that we don't have the entire population regularly exposed.
00:42 Gil says the Navigation Center is expected to reopen by next Monday.
00:47 Federal officials believe that the U.S. averted a homeless crisis at the height of the pandemic.
00:52 The Department of Housing and Urban Development released a new report last month showing that
00:56 sheltered homelessness decreased by 17 percent from 2019 to 2020.
01:02 Now the department credits pandemic relief for that decrease.
01:07 Four officials cited historic funding and resources like emergency rental assistance,
01:13 expanded unemployment benefits and a national ban on evictions as reasons why.
01:19 Meantime COVID sending more Americans to the hospital, according to the latest data from
01:22 the CDC.
01:24 The agency reporting more than 12,600 new hospital admissions in the week ending August
01:29 12th.
01:30 That was 22 percent higher than the previous week.
01:33 Some health experts say the increase should be a wake-up call to Americans to take the
01:38 virus seriously before winter arrives.
01:41 And many Americans believe false claims about COVID-19 and vaccines.
01:45 A new poll by KFF, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, found that about a third of adults
01:51 believe COVID shots caused thousands of sudden deaths in healthy people.
01:55 Nearly a third also said they believe the medication Ivermectin was an effective treatment
02:00 against the virus.
02:01 Health experts have said several times that there is no evidence to back up either claim.
