August 24, 2020
Eden Health District COVID-19 Bulletin
“We basically have 50 laboratory experiments going on right now, and every state has a slightly different policy approach. If we get complacent, [the pandemic] could get out of control again. And we’ll have even less safety margin to manage it because we’re starting from a higher place.”
Dr. Joe Gerald, researcher at the University of Arizona College of Public Health, 8/24/20

Oakland-based nonprofit helping bridge digital divide in Native American tribal lands
Working with Native American nations to design, build and control their internet connectivity networks, Oakland-based MuralNet is bringing broadband access to tribal lands.

To reach 450 members of the Havasupai village at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, Dr. Chad S. Hamill needs to take a helicopter, walk 8 miles, or travel on a pack mule. He said the Havasupai were so isolated, there’s no high school, so students went to boarding school out-of-state. Online learning, now essential with the coronavirus pandemic, was not an option until the village got high-speed internet.

“This is a game-changer,” said Hamill, a Spokane tribe descendant who is vice president of the Native American Initiatives Office at Northern Arizona University. Dr. Hamill credits Oakland-based MuralNet, where he’s a board member.

“Less than 70% of some rural areas on tribal countries have connectivity,” said Martin Casado, who co-founded MuralNet in 2017. “We wanted to chew off a piece of the problem.”

Casado and MuralNet CEO Mariel Triggs help tribal nations build and operate their own reliable broadband networks.
“Almost all of our builds use existing infrastructure. I don’t have to build a tower,” said Triggs. “I just have to get something high enough, so I’m talking about rooftops, existing towers.” Triggs herself climbs the towers to install the hardware; the work takes half a day. The $10,000 to $15,000 cost is far cheaper than putting up a cell tower, which can cost half a million dollars.

With donated funds, MuralNet has built a dozen networks, like one for New Mexico’s Zuni tribe. College and career center director Hayes Lewis says thousands of students can now do homework at home without struggling to find Wi-Fi: “Many of our students were just carrying the handheld phones trying to find a place where they could get the signal,” Lewis said. “Now they don’t have to do that.”

By the Numbers
CONFIRMED CASES
Alameda County: 16,723

Contra Costa County: 12,869

Bay Area: 79,614

California: 668,324

U.S.: 5,723,181
REPORTED DEATHS
Alameda County: 234

Contra Costa County: 169

Bay Area: 1,047

California: 12,152

U.S.: 176,991
The California Department of Public Health has resolved the issue with the state’s electronic laboratory reporting system. All cases attributed to the backlog, however, have not yet been added to data at the county level. Bay Area consists of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma counties.
Bay Area News
Press Release, August 21, 2020
Effective August 28, 2020, in Alameda County the following is permitted:
  • outdoor, shared swimming and wading pools may open with restrictions;
  • hair salons, barbershops, nail salons, skin care and non-medical massage providers may provide services outdoors; and
  • wineries may provide outdoor tastings.
Schools must continue distance learning however:
  • in-person instruction permitted for children in detention facilities;
  • extracurricular activities permitted on campus for groups up to 14, and
  • one-on-one or group testing and learning assessments permitted.
The revised orders will not go into effect until Friday, August 28, 2020 due to wildfire smoke which is contributing to unhealthy air quality across Alameda County.
East Bay Times, August 24, 2020
Napa County residents woke up Monday morning with a distinction that none of their Bay Area neighbors could share: Their county was not on the state’s Covid-19 watch list. Health officials confirmed that the county was removed, because it has shown an average over three consecutive days of less than 100 new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people over a 14-day period, the minimum requirement to get off the list. It was removed from the list officially on Friday.

Whether the county will stay off the list for long remains another question, because the state data has sometimes conflicted with that reported by local health agencies. The figure must stay below 100-cases-per day over 14 days to stay off the list. The removal from the list allows the county to open some of its indoor operations, including barber shops, hair salons, fitness centers and worship services, but they must operate outside, according to state guidelines. Not until an order by a state health officer is rescinded can those businesses open their indoor operations.

SF Chronicle, August 24, 2020
Firefighters present a unique challenge. It’s harder for them to maintain social distance when they sleep and eat together. They frequently drive to distant fires in cramped trucks with the windows rolled up. They often can’t wear face coverings while they work due to the extreme heat. In their downtime, wildfire crews typically live in massive camps with hundreds of their peers.

Those camps this year have been replaced by much smaller, scattered shelters, where crews of five to 20 hunker down together and avoid close interactions with others, fire officials said. Even among their units, firefighters are advised to sleep far apart if they can, or at least head to feet for some extra breathing room. They’re told to wear masks when possible. Sticking to these pods should prevent the spread of infection among much larger groups if one person falls ill, infectious disease experts say. It also means that fewer firefighters will need to be quarantined — and pulled off duty — if one case is identified.

Health News
STAT, August 23, 2020
The FDA announced Sunday that it has authorized the use of blood plasma from patients who have recovered from Covid-19 as a treatment for the disease. The decision to issue an emergency use authorization, which President Trump’s press secretary heralded ahead of time as a “major therapeutic breakthrough,” likely falls far short of that description — and could generate intense controversy inside the administration and the broader scientific community. So-called convalescent plasma is among a host of potential therapeutics that have been undergoing testing in clinical trials. The hope is that infusions of antibody-rich plasma from those who have recovered from Covid-19 can be injected into ill patients, kickstarting their immune system and allowing them to fight off the virus until they can generate their own antibodies.


STAT, August 24, 2020
Researchers in Hong Kong on Monday reported what appears to be the first confirmed case of Covid-19 reinfection, a 33-year-old man who was first infected by SARS-CoV-2 in late March and then, four and a half months later, seemingly contracted the virus again while traveling in Europe. Researchers at the University of Hong Kong sequenced the virus from the patient’s two infections and found that they did not match, indicating the second infection was not tied to the first. Experts cautioned that this patient’s case could be an outlier among the tens of millions of cases around the world and that immune protection may generally last longer than just a few months.

  • Akiko Iwasaki, professor of immunobiology, Yale University, Twitter, August 24, 2020. "This is no cause for alarm - this is a textbook example of how immunity should work. Second infection was asymptomatic. While immunity was not enough to block reinfection, it protected the person from disease."

Mercury News, August 24, 2020
Experts warn against a dangerous rush to get to the vaccine finish line first, saying that short cuts in testing for vaccine safety and efficacy endanger millions of lives in the short term, and will damage public confidence in vaccines and in science for a long time to come.

Nature, August 24, 2020
Most experts say that late 2020 or early 2021 is the soonest vaccines could be approved and rolled out; they must first undergo large-scale phase III clinical trials to assess their effectiveness and safety. But pre-orders are rolling in. By mid-August, the United States had secured 800 million doses of at least 6 vaccines in development, with an option to purchase around one billion more. The UK was the world’s highest per-capita buyer, with 340 million purchased: around 5 doses for each citizen. Meanwhile, an international effort to acquire vaccines for low- and middle-income countries is struggling to gain traction.
US and California Data
Source: Covid Tracking Project, 8/23/20 (bold lines are 7-day averages)
United States
California
California News
Mercury News, August 24, 2020
California reported the fewest average coronavirus cases and total hospitalizations this week in nearly two months, indicating that the summer’s crushing caseload has eased — even as epidemiologists warn of another potential upswing this fall. The state’s seven-day average for new cases hit 6,662 Friday. Hospitalizations, meanwhile, have dipped to 4,772 statewide, down from a peak of more than 7,000 in late July and marking the fewest patients since the end of June.
Even deaths — which take longer to catch up to case and hospitalization rates — have dropped off significantly, with the fewest average weekly deaths as of Friday (119) since July 30 (117).
Altogether, the consistent downward trends show that the crush of new patients and hospitalizations earlier this summer no longer threaten to overwhelm the state.

USA Today, August 24, 2020
While national daily cases are declining, at a more local level, there are still cities where Covid-19 continues to spread at a growing rate. Using data from state and local health departments, 24/7 Wall St. compiled and reviewed the average number of new daily confirmed Covid-19 cases for the week ending Aug. 17 and compared it to the average from the previous week to determine the cities where the virus is growing the fastest. California is home to more than half of the 31 metropolitan areas on this list, led by Merced, Modesto, Madera and El Centro.

LA Times, August 22, 2020
Since the coronavirus shut down the state in mid-March, financial losses, concerns about exposure to the virus and navigating a maze of new safety guidelines have forced some 9,300 licensed child-care providers — almost 1 of every 4 in the state — to close, according to data from the California Department of Social Services that show closures through July 31. More than 1,200 of the closings are permanent, eliminating roughly 19,000 child-care spots, the state figures show.

A recent survey by the Center for American Progress estimated that California was at risk of losing more than half of its available child-care slots. Experts warn the decline of child-care spots has enormous implications for how well and how quickly individual families and the state’s economy as a whole will be able to recover from the pandemic. The effect is particularly acute for women of color, many of whom own and work in child-care centers, and mothers, who are often left to juggle the demands of child care and work.

CalMatters, August 21, 2020
Californians, particularly people with serious health conditions, are caught in a collision of crises: Fires are churning out dangerous smoke amid a record-baking heatwave and the relentless coronavirus pandemic. This dangerous combination has Californians unable to escape from the smoky air and reluctant to leave home to escape the heat. 

The crises are particularly acute in the Central Valley, which is a hotspot for triple-digit temperatures, billowing smoke and ash from lightning fires, unhealthful smog and rising infection rates. This dangerous combination has Californians unable to escape from the smoky air and reluctant to leave home to escape the heat. Lower-income people shoulder the worst of the multiple health risks and, according to a recent study, they also have less access to air conditioning

SF Chronicle, August 24, 2020
Since the start of the pandemic, 54 incarcerated people have died of Covid-19 in California’s 35 prisons, and even though the deceased were in state custody until they drew their last breaths, the state expects their loved ones to pay burial costs, which can run into the thousands of dollars. Families and advocates for incarcerated people say the policy is not only cruel, it discriminates against those without means to pay the sudden expenses. And with death numbers rising in the state prisons, the issue isn’t likely to go away.

East Bay Times, August 24, 2020
“Covid is terrible for a lot of the state,” said Truckee agent Sam Drury, “but not for Tahoe real estate.” He’s never seen the market as heated during his 25 years as an agent. More than half of sales are all-cash offers, and the amount of homes for sale is scraping record lows, he said. Most purchases are still second homes, he said, with owners expecting to spend more time in the resort community.
US News
CNN, August 24, 2020
Declines in the average number of daily Covid-19 deaths and in new cases indicate that the virus' summer surge through the US is waning.
The 7-day average of coronavirus deaths dropped below 1,000 a day over the weekend for the first time since late July. Also, the average number of new cases dipped to about 42,600 as of Sunday, well below its peak in mid-July of around 67,000 daily cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Although the trends are in the right direction, the US remains the world leader in total cases and deaths. For comparison, the European Union is experiencing a worrying surge in coronavirus; on Sunday, all 27 countries reported a total 7-day average of 17,000 new cases per day.

NY Times, August 24, 2020
After coronavirus cases surged in June and July, the number of new reported cases in the United States began to level off, then drop, though the infection rate remains one of the world’s highest. Of the states that are driving the decrease, all have at least some local mask mandates. And most have paused or reversed statewide reopening policies, again closing bars, gyms and theaters.

Experts say that the drop in reported cases cannot be attributed to the recent drop in testing volume. They explain that decreased hospitalizations and a lower share of positive tests indicate that the spread has most likely slowed. The drop can be attributed to local mask mandates, news media coverage of heightened risk, and the closure of gyms, bars, and theaters. The flattening — albeit still high — numbers are a positive sign, experts say. But they caution that resurgences can and will happen again as schools reopen and hurricane season begins.

Associated Press, August 24, 2020
As job losses accelerated, the pressure to reopen intensified. Though governors often work with business leaders to craft policy, the emails offer a new window into their decisions during a critical early juncture in the nation’s battle against the pandemic. Many governors chose to reopen before their states met all the nationally recommended health guidelines, which include a sustained downward rate of infection and robust testing and contact tracing.

Politico, August 23, 2020
The coronavirus recession that began as a short-term shutdown devastating low-wage workers is now bearing down on white-collar America, where employers have been slower to rehire and job losses are more likely to be permanent. The drop in overall employment that white-collar industries like real estate, information and professional and technology services have seen in five months is already on par with or worse than the hits they took during the Great Recession.

Associated Press, August 23, 2020
Florida is both a microcosm and a cautionary tale for America. As the nation starved the public health system intended to protect communities against disease, staffing and funding fell faster and further in the Sunshine State, leaving it especially unprepared for the worst health crisis in a century. According to an analysis of state data, the state-run local health departments spent 41% less per resident in 2019 than in 2010, dropping from $57 to $34 after adjusting for inflation.

Bloomberg, August 23, 2020
The Trump administration is considering whether to bypass normal U.S. regulatory standards to fast-track an experimental coronavirus vaccine from the U.K. for use in America ahead of the presidential election, the Financial Times reported. A spokesman for the U.S. Health and Human Services department told the Financial Times that any claim that an EUA would be issued before the election was “absolutely false.” The administration was hopeful that a vaccine would be developed by the first quarter of 2021, he said.

Bangor Daily News, August 22, 2020
An Aug. 7 wedding and reception in Millinocket, Maine that led to a coronavirus outbreak is now linked to 53 cases of the virus along with one previously reported death. State investigators have identified secondary and tertiary transmission of the virus stemming from the wedding and reception, meaning people are infected who did not attend but came into contact with attendees.
CA Education News
Mercury News, August 24, 2020
For the first time, the Bay Area’s K-12 students are beginning the school year on computer screens rather than in classrooms. And if students finally return to school this year, the minutes before the morning bell won’t be spent on the playground or chatting with friends. Instead, students will be standing in line for their daily temperature checks.

A minor cough that last year would have gone unnoticed will earn a trip to an isolated room, a speedy return home and a mandated test for Covid-19. But more than half of California school districts don’t have a nurse on staff to help them implement their plans to reopen safely. In many other districts, a single nurse is responsible for multiple schools and thousands of students.

LA Times, August 24, 2020
While the vast majority of California students are starting the academic year online, something extraordinary happened in one public school district in rural Northern California: Students sat in classrooms. With the region’s low case count, school administrators and teachers said they are confident they can reopen safely and quickly adjust if infections emerge. If the district is successful, it could be a preview for other California schools, including in Los Angeles County, as infections begin to decline.

Cal Matters, August 24, 2020
Some students are delaying their enrollment to another academic term, while others are enrolling in local community colleges instead of following their plans to enroll in universities outside California. International students, the largest group at many campuses to receive deferrals, are seeking to delay until the United States has crushed the coronavirus, and they can more easily get visas to enter the country.

The uncertainty students felt this summer is why for many CSU campuses, this is the first year they’ve allowed students to defer or delay their enrollment to another semester. The number of students requesting a deferral across the CSU and University of California campuses is small compared to the thousands of students enrolling in classes — albeit virtually — this fall. But they are higher than the number of deferrals requested last year, and they highlight the difficulties some students are facing.

Associated Press, August 24, 2020
The world’s three biggest computer companies, Lenovo, HP and Dell, have told school districts they have a shortage of nearly 5 million laptops, according to interviews with over two dozen U.S. schools, districts in 15 states, suppliers, computer companies and industry analysts. “This is going to be like asking an artist to paint a picture without paint. You can’t have a kid do distance learning without a computer,” said Tom Baumgarten, superintendent of the Morongo Unified School District in California’s Mojave Desert, where all 8,000 students qualify for free lunch and most need computers for distance learning.
US Education News
CNN, August 24, 2020
Universities in at least 19 states have reported outbreaks, despite health protocols on campus. Many outbreaks are tied to large group gatherings like parties, leading some schools to suspend students and organizations for breaking social distancing rules on and off campus.

On the K-12 front, school districts are still trying to figure out how to navigate the academic year during the pandemic. The CDC updated its school guidance Friday emphasizing the importance of keeping schools open if possible. One big change in the guidelines was how schools can handle a positive case. Rather than shut everything down immediately for a long period of time, the guidelines said one option is an initial short-term class suspension and cancellation of events and after-school activities, so that public health leaders can get the time they need to determine how widespread the infections are.

The Atlantic, August 23, 2020
The Covid-19 disaster has come to college with startling speed. This crisis was predicted. And yet even now, many other public universities across the country appear to be holding to the same plans, praying that the plague of Covid-19 will pass them over. Why have so many colleges, despite all the warnings, chosen to reopen anyway? To understand how they worked themselves into this impossible situation, one must look to the web of institutional and economic conditions that were slowly ruining American universities before the pandemic.

CNN, August 24, 2020
And as anticipated, some of those undergrads have already started to rebel. Their risky decisions have more to do with their development and mental resilience than conscious rule-breaking. During adolescence and into adulthood, the brain region most sensitive to social rewards -- the amygdala -- develops at a much faster rate than the frontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for rational, consequence-driven decision making.
That imbalance may drive them to make decisions others deem risky, like visiting friends or attending a party, said Ben Locke, the senior director for Counseling & Psychological Services at Pennsylvania State University.
"Their decision making is more about 'what's in the moment, what am I missing out on, what is the thing that would make me happiest in this moment?'"

Politico, August 22, 2020
The impending school year creates a conundrum for the Canadian government — and for some 500,000 international college students and thousands more who are younger. Americans historically have had an easier time than other foreign students when applying for Canadian study permits. Options have included applying online or in person at a Canadian port at the time of entry. But even now, it’s not clear how exactly Americans applying for student visas should proceed.
Covid-19 survivor cheats death several times and several hospitals
After 111 days of hospitalization and cheating death multiple times during a brave bout Covid-19), Tito Velasquez, of Valley Stream, New York, understands why he’s earned the title of “miracle patient.”

While members of the medical staff from each of the facilities that provided his treatment applauded his release from a rehabilitation facility, Velasquez, 36, and his family joyfully celebrated his triumphant return home.

Velasquez’s long journey to recovery began when he was admitted to the emergency department at the first hospital on April 28 with a dangerously low oxygen saturation level of 11 percent. He was placed on a ventilator, the first effort to save his life before a tragic chain of life-threatening events began to unfold.

“Tito has had a tremendous journey,” said Dr. Richard Stumacher, who oversaw Velasquez’s care. “He never gave up, mentally or emotionally. When I saw him stand up and take those first few steps and walk down the hallway, it was incredible.”
On July 10, Velasquez was transferred to a rehab center, where he completed his recovery.

“Seeing Mr. Velasquez walk out today on his own was probably one of the most satisfying moments of my career,” said cardiologist Dr. Kiki Poumpouridis. “He came in very sick and the chances of him walking out with any kind of function was so low that to see him walk out, fully recovered, made me cry.”

“I feel really grateful,” said Velasquez said through an interpreter, adding that he was going to continue his life after treatment “one day at a time.”

Source: Huntington Now
International News
Wall Street Journal, August 23, 2020
Coronavirus infections are climbing across Europe, and Spain is at the forefront of the rebound, accounting for around one-third of the Continent’s new daily Covid-19 cases.

Spain’s experience offers a cautionary tale about how hard-won progress against the coronavirus pandemic can come undone.
Faced with a deadly outbreak this spring, Spain imposed one of the world’s strictest lockdowns to bring it under control. By early June, new confirmed infections fell to under 300 a day, from a peak in March of nearly 8,000 daily cases.

Now, the virus has bounced back, with more than 5,000 cases a day detected on average. Spain shows that lockdowns alone aren’t enough: The key to containing the virus is how effectively a country builds up systems for testing, tracing and isolating potential virus carriers, while establishing clear safety rules as the economy reopens.

Bloomberg, August 23, 2020
The hope was that we could relax travel and social restrictions this summer because people are much less likely to catch the virus when they’re outside enjoying the warm weather. European economies depend on tourism and couldn’t afford a season of empty sun loungers and restaurants. Airlines and hotels would collapse without new bookings, and they implemented new hygiene measures to reassure customers. People were desperate to see friends and families again.

The experiment has backfired. We’re not even through August and cases are surging in western Europe, while south-eastern Europe, which avoided the worst of the initial virus wave, is up against it too. Germany won plaudits for its handling of the spring outbreak, but it recorded more than 2,000 new cases on Saturday — the biggest daily jump since April. 

One big factor has been the restart of intra-European travel, including people going on vacation or visiting family and friends. There has also been a spate of European cases linked to parties. Free movement is central to the EU project, and shutting borders contributed to a collapse in economic output in the spring. Yet politicians can’t ignore the fact that people are catching the virus abroad and bringing it home.

The Guardian, August 23, 2020
Four months ago, South Korea was basking in international praise for containing the coronavirus pandemic. But now it stands on the brink of a second serious outbreak, and much of the blame is again being directed at the country’s evangelical churches.

Authorities say a recent surge in cases traced to Sarang Jeil, an ultra-conservative church in Seoul, have contributed to an outbreak that is affecting major cities across the country. Some members of its congregation also attended a large anti-government rally in the capital last weekend that officials believe could have helped the virus spread.

Reuters, August 21, 2020
The Brazilian government has not allowed Médecins Sans Frontières to provide assistance to prevent and detect suspected cases of Covid-19 in seven villages of the Terena Indigenous tribe in southern Brazil, the medical NGO said on Thursday.
MSF, or Doctors Without Borders, presented a plan to assist the seven communities with about 5,000 inhabitants, adding in a statement that it had been invited to help by tribal leaders.

Indigenous rights organizations have complained that the government has allowed Christian missionaries to work with isolated tribes despite the risk of contagion by outsiders. The coronavirus pandemic has endangered Indigenous communities with no access to healthcare in remote parts of the Amazon and other parts of Brazil whose communal living under large dwellings make social distancing impossible.


Analysis/Opinion
Tatiana Sanchez, SF Chronicle, August 24, 2020
A national conversation about health in the Black community is part of that approach, spurred by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man killed by Minneapolis police in May, and by the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit communities of color disproportionately hard. Not a lot is known about the health consequences of racism specifically. But it is well known that stress can set off a cascade of biological responses, potentially leading to hypertension, heart disease, cancer, inflammation, abnormal gene activity and a weakened immune system. And numerous studies indicate that persistent racism is a leading cause of stress, particularly among Black people.

Douglas L. Rothman, Jessica E. Rothman, and Gerard Bossard, STAT, August 24, 2020
Recent reports have suggested that Covid-19 has become markedly less lethal in the United States. Our analysis of death rates and infection fatality rates from Arizona, the U.S. as a whole, and New York City shows it isn’t, indicating that public health measures to reduce infections should not be relaxed.

If Covid-19 is not becoming less deadly, what explains the five-fold lower fatality rate in Arizona now compared to New York City in the spring? The most likely explanation is that the large increase in testing since the spring has increased the number of diagnosed cases several fold. The reported infection fatality rate is calculated by dividing the number of deaths by the number of cases. A larger number of cases would decrease the rate. This conclusion is consistent with a CDC report that the number of infections was underestimated in the U.S. during the March-to-May period by as much as 10 fold.

Given progress in the diagnosis and treatment of Covid-19, why has there been no apparent improvement in the infection fatality rate? The two main possibilities are that the improvements that have been made in treating Covid-19 are not enough to make a detectable difference in the infection fatality rate, or that a large fraction of those who die of Covid-19 do not get to the hospital in time for successful treatment.

LA Times, August 23, 2020
Social distancing varies by income, a new study published by UC Davis shows. America’s wealthiest, who are typically the country’s most mobile, became its most stationary as the coronavirus spread, while poorer people went from the most inert to the biggest movers. “People in poor areas may be at more risk of infection because they are social distancing less,” economist Joakim Weill said.

Elizabeth Svoboda, health writer, Washington Post, August 22, 2020
Thousands of us are less afraid than we were at the pandemic’s outset, even though in many parts of the country mounting case counts have increased the danger of getting the virus. Social scientists have long known that we perceive risks that are acute, such as an impending tsunami, differently than chronic, ever-present threats like car accidents. Part of what’s happening is that covid-19 — which we initially saw as a terrifying acute threat — is morphing into more of a chronic one in our minds. That shift likely dulls our perception of the danger, risk perception expert Dale Griffin said.

John Pinsker, The Atlantic, August 23, 2020
Americans are five months deep in a historic economic crisis. American families face “a looming hunger crisis and a looming eviction crisis,” Lawrence Katz, an economist at Harvard, told me. “No national economic shock or downturn in the U.S. has ever happened as fast as this one,” Katz said. “We had increases in unemployment [over the course of] two months that took two years in the Great Depression.” That was the last time the unemployment rate was higher than 15 percent. (At the height of the Depression, it reached 25 percent.)
East Bay Focus
by day as of 8/23/20
by day as of 8/23/20
Over the last two weeks, Alameda County officials have confirmed 3,399 new cases, which amounts to 214 cases per 100,000 residents.
Over the last two weeks, Contra Costa County officials have confirmed 3,514 new cases, which amounts to 307 cases per 100,000 residents.
Top 8 Locations of Cases in Alameda County, cases as of 8/23/20
Oakland: 6,866

Hayward: 2,358

Fremont: 1,120

Eden MAC: 996

San Leandro: 890

Livermore: 721

Union City: 551

Castro Valley: 432
Top 8 Locations of Cases in Contra Costa County, cases as of 8/24/20
Richmond: 2,582

Antioch: 1,674

Concord: 1,663

Pittsburgh: 1,419

San Pablo: 1,150

Bay Point: 650

Walnut Creek: 482

Brentwood: 482
We are proud to partner with the East Bay Community Foundation in publishing this bulletin. Through donations to its Covid-19 Response Fund, the EBCF provides grants to East Bay nonprofit organizations delivering essential services to those most impacted by the economic fallout from the pandemic.
Mask On Eden Area
Working in collaboration with the Alameda County Public Health Department, the Cities of Hayward and San Leandro, and the Castro Valley and Eden Area Municipal Advisory Councils, the District has printed “Mask On” posters for each city and community in the Eden Health District area. The posters are free and intended for businesses, health clinics, schools, churches, public agencies and nonprofit organizations to display in their entrances.

“Wearing masks in public or any gatherings, including events with friends and extended families, is essential for slowing the spread of the virus,” stated Eden Health District Director Pam Russo. “We are seeing signs of progress in California, Alameda County remains a Covid-19 'hot spot' in the Bay Area. Please wear a mask to protect yourself while protecting others.”
The public is welcome to download and print or share “Mask On” posters from the District’s website. Posters are available in English, Spanish and Chinese languages.

Posters may also be retrieved during business hours from the lobby of the Eden Health District office building located at 20400 Lake Chabot Road, Castro Valley. Posters for the City of Hayward are also available from the Hayward Chamber of Commerce located at 22561 Main Street, Hayward.
Eden Area Food Pantries
We have posted information on food pantries and food services in the cities of Hayward and San Leandro and unincorporated Alameda County including Castro Valley and San Lorenzo. You can access the information here on our website. Alameda County has also released an interactive map listing food distributions and other social services. 
Your feedback is welcome. Please share the Bulletin.
The Eden Health District Board of Directors are Gordon Galvan, Chair, Mariellen Faria, Vice Chair, Roxann Lewis and Pam Russo. The Chief Executive Officer is Mark Friedman.

The Eden Health District is committed to ensuring that policy makers and community members receive accurate and timely information to help make the best policy and personal choices to meet and overcome the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Each bulletin includes a summary of the top health, Bay Area, California, national, education and international news on the pandemic plus links to a diverse range of commentary and analysis. We publish the Bulletin on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

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