Eden Health District COVID-19 Bulletin
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With the COVID-19 outbreak, many Dreamers have put their own lives at risk to care for their patients and to protect the health of the public. The Supreme Court decision will allow Dreamers to continue making these essential, life-saving contributions now and into the future.
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She’s a nurse with DACA protections. The coronavirus pandemic was a call to duty
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Karen Garcia works 12-hour nursing shifts at Valleywise Health Medical Center in Phoenix, taking care of the gravely ill while knowing that she is highly at risk of being exposed over and over to the coronavirus. But until last week, her biggest fear was not the virus, it was been the US Supreme Court.
Garcia, 30, is a “dreamer”: she came to the United States as a child, grew up without legal status and was allowed to stay under the Obama-era policy of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, better known as DACA. At least 27,000 DACA recipients, like Garcia, work in healthcare, and many have spent the last few months attending to patients with COVID-19. Last week’s Supreme Court ruling provided some respite.
For Garcia, the ruling felt like an acknowledgement that Arizona is her true
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home. Exhausted from the frontline demands, she had tried to balance her calling with the fear of being deported.
“Everyone is working around the clock,” she said. “We’re trying to save lives. That’s my job — helping to save lives. … I’ve tried not to think about my immigration status while working, but it’s always there in the back of my mind.”
Garcia said she sees the ruling as an opportunity to help promote more DACA nurses. “We can help fill that void,” she said.
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Alameda County:
4,884
Contra Costa County:
2,294
California:
178,520
U.S.:
2,289,168
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Alameda County:
120
Contra Costa County:
62
California:
5,512
U.S.:
120,044
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SF Chronicle, June 22, 2020
As the region shuddered to a halt, the economic impacts were felt immediately. Layoffs and furloughs skyrocketed. Even people who kept their jobs often had hours and wages reduced. By mid-May, more than 1 out of every 8 workers in the nine counties were unemployed. It’s too soon to say how many shuttered businesses will never reopen, but the prospects for many are daunting. Among retailers, the shutdown accelerated the trend toward online shopping.
East Bay Times, June 21, 2020
Contra Costa County reported 92 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, the most ever reported in a single day in the county.
SFist, June 20, 2020
As companies continue adopting remote work models amid the pandemic, many San Francisco tenants are opting to not renew their leases, and leave town, altogether. Per
SFGate
, the median rent last month for a one-bedroom apartment dipped by some 9 percent from where it was a year prior.
Solano Avenue Association
Organizers have canceled the Solano Avenue Stroll scheduled for September 2020 due to concerns over the coronavirus. The annual Stroll is billed as the East Bay’s largest street festival with more than 500 vendors.
SF Chronicle, June 22, 2020
More than [200] prisoners have tested positive for the virus, a figure that has increased tenfold in the last two weeks, according to the state’s web tracker. In addition, more than 30 San Quentin employees have recently been infected. In late May, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation decided to transfer 121 incarcerated men from the Chino prison to San Quentin. At the time, officials in Sacramento said this was done to prevent the prisoners from falling victim to the Chino outbreak. But many of the men
weren’t tested for the coronavirus for up to a month
before the state put them on buses.
KQED, June 19, 2020
Performances by the
San Francisco Symphony
and
SF Opera
have been canceled through the 2020 calendar year, both organizations announced this week. The cancellations come “in accordance with statewide guidelines that live concert performances will not be permitted until the final stage of the reopening process,” said San Francisco Symphony CEO Mark C. Hanson in a statement.
SF Chronicle, June 22, 2020
The frenetic search for the miracle that will rid the world of Covid-19 is branching out in a thousand directions, and a large part of the microbial treasure hunt is going on in the Bay Area. The SF Chronicle reviews some of the most promising medications and vaccines under development with ties to the Bay Area.
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CNN, June 22, 2020
"You may have fever, you may have persistent coughing and all of those things can predict a headache," said Dr. Merle Diamond, president and managing director of Chicago's Diamond Headache Clinic. "However, the headache of Covid-19 is described as a really tight, sort of squeezing sensation, and typically worsens with coughing and fever." That sensation happens as our immune system rallys in response to the virus, releasing chemicals called cytokines. Cytokines produce inflammation, which is perceived as pain by the cerebral cortex of the brain. But a migraine presents much differently, Diamond said, with a throbbing pain that is moderate to severe, and can be accompanied with a sensitivity to light and noise and vomiting.
Washington Post, June 22, 2020
Health agencies and medical experts are urging elevator riders to follow additional rules: Wear masks. Tap buttons with an object or knuckle. Avoid speaking when possible.
Guardian, June 22, 2020
More than 100 scientists will publish a signed statement on Monday to reassure the public that reusable containers are safe during the Covid-19 pandemic. Amid fears that the environmental battle to reduce single-use plastic waste is losing ground over fears of virus contamination, scientists say reuseable containers do not increase the chance of virus transmission.
NPR, June 21, 2020
Researchers emphasize there are two main reasons to wear masks. There's some evidence of protection for the wearer, but the stronger evidence is that masks protect others from catching an infection from the person wearing the mask. And infected people can spread the virus just by talking.
Reuters, June 22, 2020
Levels of an antibody found in recovered Covid-19 patients fell sharply in 2-3 months after infection for both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients, according to a Chinese study, raising questions about the length of any immunity against the novel coronavirus.
SF Chronicle, June 19, 2020
After 100 days in, as most counties in the Bay Area have begun to open up, it can feel like the air is looser, that the worst part is over. But those who dealt with the virus say they haven’t necessarily defeated it, and their lives will never be the same. The SF Chronicle speaks to eight Bay Area survivors.
USA Today, updated June 19, 2020
Many Americans who've contracted the disease are confronting puzzling, lingering symptoms, including aches, anxiety attacks, night sweats, rapid heartbeats, breathing problems and loss of smell or taste.
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SF Chronicle, June 21, 2020
The number of people hospitalized in California with confirmed cases of Covid-19 reached its highest point Saturday since the onset of the pandemic, according data reviewed by The Chronicle. Saturday’s total marked a 22% increase in hospitalizations statewide since May 29. Large counties in Southern California account for a majority of the recent totals. Los Angeles (1,453), Orange (363), Riverside (297), San Diego (280) and San Bernardino (252) counties combined to report about 75% of state hospitalizations Saturday.
LA Times, June 22, 2020
Los Angeles county, a hotbed of Covid-19 in California, now has reported more than 3,000 deaths and 80,000 confirmed cases. The rising case numbers have sparked some worry about whether the economy is reopening too quickly and that easing stay-at-home orders could cause new outbreaks. But health officials continue to discount those concerns, saying total new cases is not the best measure of community spread because of aggressive levels of new testing. “The most important data continues to be looking at our death data and our hospitalization data and our rate of positivity, and . . . all of the indicators really point to the fact that we are fairly stable and that we in fact continue to slow the spread of Covid-19,” Barbara Ferrer, the county’s health director, said Friday.
CalMatters, June 20, 2020
Three months after the stay-at-home order was issued, Californians are slowly emerging from their homes and traveling for short vacations and road trips. Epidemiologists warn that it could cause infections to spike in some areas.
LA Times, June 22, 2020
The virus outbreak has slashed trade and devastated the economy, but it’s also provided opportunities to some companies and industries that have maintained supply chains and production close to home, and a prime example is Southern California’s shrunken but still vibrant apparel industry.
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Washington Post, June 22, 2020
A White House adviser said Sunday that the Trump administration is preparing for a possible second wave in the novel coronavirus pandemic this fall, as 29 states and U.S. territories logged an increase in their seven-day average of new reported cases after many lifted restrictions in recent weeks.
CNN, June 21, 2020
Officials in states across the South are warning that more young people are testing positive for coronavirus. The shifts in demographics have been recorded in parts of Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Texas and other states, many of which were some of the first to reopen. And while some officials have pointed to more widespread testing being done, others say the new cases stem from Americans failing to social distance.
Associated Press, June 19, 2020
As the coronavirus spreads deeper across America, it’s ravaging Latino communities from the suburbs of the nation’s capital to the farm fields of Florida to the sprawling suburbs of Phoenix and countless areas in between. The virus has amplified inequalities many Latinos endure, including jobs that expose them to others, tight living conditions, lack of health insurance, mistrust of the medical system and a greater incidence of preexisting health conditions like diabetes. And many Latinos don’t have the luxury of sheltering at home.
Associated Press, June 21, 2020
President Donald Trump said Saturday he’s asked his administration to slow down coronavirus testing because robust testing turns up too many cases of Covid-19.
Trump told supporters at his campaign rally that the U.S. has tested 25 million people, far more than any other country. The “bad part,” Trump said, is that widespread testing leads to logging more cases of the virus. “When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people, you’re going to find more cases,” Trump said. “So I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down, please.’ They test and they test.”
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Los Angeles Times, June 21, 2020
A cluster of mysterious deaths, some involving infants and children, is under scrutiny amid questions of whether the novel coronavirus lurked in California months before it was first detected. But eight weeks after Gov. Newsom declared a statewide hunt for undetected early COVID-19 deaths, the effort remains hobbled by bureaucracy and testing limits. Interviews and internal documents show medical examiners in Shasta, Sacramento and Santa Clara counties, meanwhile, are scrutinizing the deaths of children and babies, amid growing recognition of COVID-19 infection rates in children who show mysterious inflammatory symptoms.
News Reports on M
ultisystem Inflammatory Syndrome and Covid-19 Cases in Children
Axios, June 20, 2020
Although children themselves rarely get severe cases of the coronavirus, countries worldwide have struggled to keep it from spreading among people who live together. The problem is particularly acute among multigenerational households. "If you have essentially a daily mass gathering of children with teachers, you’re providing opportunities for transmission of the virus,” said Jeffrey Shaman, professor at Columbia University School of Public Health.
Marin Independent Journal, June 22, 2020
Marin schools are now being guided to plan for a full reopening of in-person classroom instruction in the fall. The new guidance for students from transitional kindergarten through 12th grade is for children to be in class five days a week — a major departure from the two days a week envisioned under a so-called “hybrid” instructional plan. The hybrid plan was to combine the classroom instruction on two days with three days a week of distance learning to accommodate limiting classes to small “cohorts” of 12 students each, all physically distanced, within the school buildings.
To make the five days per week of in-person instruction possible, all schools will follow
a 30-point coronavirus safety protocol
released Thursday, said Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County public health officer. That calls for larger but still stable student cohort groups that don’t intermingle with the general student population, masks to be worn by all staff and all children from TK-12th grades, except where contraindicated, daily health screenings and rigorous hand-washing, sanitizing and physical distancing.
Andrea Gough, teacher, Marin Independent Journal, June 22, 2020
All students deserve and need safe and healthy schools. Our county Board of Education and the school districts in Marin need to move with great caution when evaluating any return to site-based learning in August. The lives of students, teachers, and community members are on the line. We are motivated to dig in and prepare for a new round of more effective and balanced remote teaching in the fall. We just need the county to empower us with that mandate now and make decisions that value health and safety above all else.
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Mercury News, June 22, 2020
In a signal that California public education leaders are bracing for the possibility of drastic funding cuts, the state’s teachers association is counseling local unions how to forestall the worst in their districts. CTA President Toby Boyd said forthcoming slashes to public education funds will be “like nothing we’ve ever seen,” with the possibility of 50,000 teacher layoffs even if the state receives federal assistance. “Education needs to be a priority. Period,” Boyd said.
The legislature sent the state budget to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk on Monday, but it’s uncertain what happens next. Newsom has until June 30 to sign, edit it with line-item cuts or veto it. He’s warned of 10% cuts to the Local Control Funding Formula, or how schools are funded, in his May revision.
CalMatters, June 22, 2020
When the coronavirus pandemic interrupted education across the state, and classes shifted online, many teenage students in California’s agricultural communities went to work picking strawberries or other crops. Advocates worry they're falling behind. So far, state-issued guidance for returning to schools focuses mostly on pandemic safety, social distancing and taking temperatures, for instance, rather than offering recommendations for how to support students who have fallen behind. The state
Department of Education guidance
outlines three possible models for bringing students back that include distance learning, in-class small group instruction and a hybrid of the two.
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USA Today, June 22, 2020
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, which is tracking more than 860 institutions’ plans, two-thirds of colleges are planning to welcome back students in person, while only 7% are planning to hold classes only online. Many other colleges have yet to make a decision. Their approaches are as diverse as the roughly 3,000 four-year colleges and universities that span the United States.
Associated Press, June 21, 2020
If college football is to be played this season, schools will need to build protective bubbles around their teams, frequently testing players, tracing contacts of those who become infected and executing elaborate hygiene protocols. Athletes have already tested positive at more than a dozen schools from Boise State to Clemson, though some schools are not releasing details. On Saturday, Kansas State announced it was pausing voluntary workouts after 14 athletes tested positive, becoming the second school along with Houston to hit the brakes on what is essentially a ramp-up phase to returning to play. There is only so much a school can do to shield its athletes from a virus they can pick up in a dorm, at a bar, grocery store or church.
Daily Californian, June 19, 2020
After UC Berkeley
announced
its plan Wednesday for a hybrid fall semester that offers both in-person and online classes, incoming students have needed to make adjustments for the upcoming school year. There will be limited in-person class options for fall 2020, but physical attendance will not be required for classes or discussion sections. Other elements of campus life have been disrupted for students, particularly in terms of housing. On-campus housing will only accommodate 6,500 students, and priority will be given to those requiring special accommodations, including students with disabilities.
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New father finally gets to hold son after 54 days
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Tony Thomas came down with one of the worst cases of Covid-19 complications doctors at St. Francis Hospital in New York said they’ve ever seen in a patient so young. He got sick at the same time his wife who also had COVID-19, was giving birth.
Neither of them could see the baby boy, who went home with an aunt.
Although new mother Riya was able to return home soon after, Thomas fought a
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long battle. “I’d never been sick in my life. This COVID really took a toll on me. My condition was really bad,” Thomas said. The thought of holding his newborn son for the first time is what kept him going.
Thirty-nine days later, including 4 weeks on a ventilator, Thomas was released from the hospital. After weeks in rehab, he was finally able to hold baby Jonathan, two months old.
“I’m so thankful I was able to hold him,” Thomas said. “I was able to see him after 54 days. That is my greatest joy. I’m so glad I was able to fight through this. Father’s Day, this is my true bundle of joy, just being with them, spending time with them and being thankful every day.”
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Washington Post, June 21, 2020
Hector Garcia, manager of the Central de Abasto, told reporters April 26 that the coronavirus had been detected at the 1.3-square-mile market. The news was worrisome: The wholesale market supplied food to 22 of Mexico’s 32 states. Supermarkets, restaurants and families relied on its 90,000 workers. Now, Garcia said, two of those employees had died and an additional 23 were infected. The reality was far worse. Deep in the market, in Aisle Q-R, a half-dozen tomato vendors had already died.
Reuters, June 21, 2020
Europeans hospitals are already preparing for the next wave of infections. Countries have been giving medics crash courses in how to deal with Covid-19 patients, and are looking at ways to retrain staff to avoid shortages of key workers if there is a second wave of the novel coronavirus. “We need a healthcare army,” said Maurizio Cecconi, president-elect of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, which brings together medics from around the world who work in wards with extremely ill patients.
The Guardian, June 21, 2020
As Brazil’s confirmed overall death toll from Covid-19 passes 50,000, the virus is scything through the country’s indigenous communities, killing chiefs, elders and traditional healers – and raising fears that alongside the toll of human lives, the pandemic may inflict irreparable damage on tribal knowledge of history, culture and natural medicine.
Financial Times, June 21, 2020
Many Swedes were initially reassured that its response to the crisis had been led by healthcare experts, not politicians, fueling a belief that it acted rationally as other countries responded emotionally. But the stubbornly high death toll, 102 new deaths were announced on Wednesday, more than Norway has had in the past two months cumulatively, has led to sharper domestic criticism of officials, including Anders Tegnell, the state epidemiologist who crafted Sweden’s approach.
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Huffington Post, June 22, 2020
Covid-19
will rage “like a forest fire” in a U.S. that has no clear plan to deal with it and has regressed to a dismissive, “pre-pandemic” attitude, infectious disease expert Dr.
Michael Osterholm
said Sunday on
Meet the Press
. “I don’t see this slowing down through the summer or into the fall. I don’t think we’re going to see one, two and three waves. I think we’re going to just see one very, very difficult forest fire of cases,” he said.
Undark, June 22, 2020
With male voices dominating the pandemic narrative, female scientists are lamenting the loss of diverse perspectives. “Not only are women being passed over and ignored, but also we’re getting people that don’t know what they’re doing supporting decision makers,” said Caroline Buckee, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
STAT, June 22, 2020
Four months into a pandemic that has disproportionately devastated Black, Latino, and Native American communities, leading minority health experts within the Trump administration remain conspicuously quiet and have conducted minimal outreach to communities of color. The directors of two federal minority health offices, as well as the government’s $336 million health disparities research institute, have not conducted TV or radio interviews since the pandemic began in early 2020. None has testified before Congress, or appeared at a White House coronavirus task force meeting or public press briefing.
Associated Press, June 21, 2020
Clearly there was an initial infection peak in April as cases exploded in New York City. After schools and businesses were closed across the country, the rate of new cases dropped somewhat. But “it’s more of a plateau, or a mesa,” not the trough after a wave, said Caitlin Rivers, a disease researcher at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Health Security.
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In Focus: California Film and Television Industry
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On June 12, 2020, Hollywood’s major unions released extensive back-to-work guidelines for resuming production amid the continuing Covid-19 pandemic, with a heavy emphasis on testing.
The 36-page report
,
titled “The Safe Way Forward,” require every member of the cast and crew to be tested for Covid-19 before their first day of work, then be subject to regular testing during the course of their work on the production.
Performers will be tested at least three times a week. Individuals who work in areas like the production office can be tested less frequently, at a minimum of once a week.
"We're finding if there is no enforcement, lots of re-opening companies don't comply with Covid public-health & worker-safety protocols,” explained Art Pulaski, chief officer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. “It's like speed limit laws. If there is no cop out there giving a few tickets, no one obeys the law."
"The Hollywood guilds extensive back-to-work guidelines underscore the critical role labor unions can play in ensuring employers prioritize the safety of employees in reopening," observed Mark Friedman, Eden Health District CEO.
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Last Wednesday, CBS' long-running daytime drama
The Bold and the Beautiful
was the
first US broadcast series to return to production
under guidelines set by Los Angeles County and City of Los Angeles, and following agreements with the Hollywood guilds.
The cast and the crew were tested for the coronavirus prior to the start of production. All cast and crew members are required to wear masks at all times except for actors when they are filming a scene.
A Covid-19 coordinator was brought onto the set, ensuring that the production follows the safety guidelines. For scenes involving close contact or intimacy,
producers plan
to bring in the husbands and wives of the actors as stand-ins for their characters' significant others.
After just one day on the set, however, producers halted production. The
producers stated
, “We have paused very briefly to modify our testing protocol to better accommodate the large volume of testing needed.” Production is scheduled to resume tomorrow.
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Alameda County Data
: 931 n
ew cases have been recorded over the last 14 days. The number of confirmed infections is currently doubling every 42.3 days.
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Contra Costa County Data
: 626 new cases have been recorded over last 14 days. The number of confirmed infections is currently doubling every 28.8 days.
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Top 8 Locations of Cases in Alameda County
, data as of 6/20/20
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Oakland:
1,906
Hayward:
875
Eden MAC:
321
Fremont:
238
San Leandro:
219
Union City:
165
Castro Valley:
156
Newark:
141
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Top 8 Locations of Cases in Contra Costa County
, data as of 6/20/20
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Richmond:
561
Concord:
277
Antioch: 212
San Pablo:
206
Pittsburgh:
153
Bay Point:
122
Brentwood:
82
Walnut Creek:
76
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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.
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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.
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Your feedback is welcome. Please share the Bulletin.
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The
Eden Health District Board of Directors
are Gordon Galvan, Chair, Mariellen Faria, Vice Chair, Charles Gilcrest, Secretary, 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 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. Our Monday and Friday issues include a focus on children and education.
We welcome your feedback on our bulletin. Please contact editor
Stephen Cassidy
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