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Worker-Led Public Health Councils Proposed As Way To Slow Spread Of COVID-19

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Thousands of people who have been lost to COVID-19 were remembered Monday with a vigil in downtown Los Angeles.

covid 19 deaths vigil
(credit: CBS)

The photos of some of the 5,700 Los Angeles County residents who have died of COVID-19 were displayed alongside flowers and candles on the steps of the Board of Supervisors building on West Temple Street in downtown Los Angeles Monday. The vigil was put on leaders of community groups and worker's unions.

The group is calling for new measures to prevent more deaths from the pandemic, like worker-led public health councils.

"It would allow workers to be the eyes and ears within the workplace to make sure that everyone's adhering to the public health guidelines, because if not, when customer's come into a store, their lives are put at risk, the community's surrounding those businesses are put at risk, and those workers, when they go back home to their families and communities, are also put at risk," said Rob Nothoff of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

The workplace has been named by public health officials as one of the most common ways for the virus to spread.

The public health council proposal will be put before the Board of Supervisors Tuesday.

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