Eden Health District COVID-19 Bulletin
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We in the Bay Area . . . are really trying to work together and take a scientific approach, let the data drive decision-making and not go too quickly."
Dr. Chris Farnitano, Contra Costa County health officer,
5/29/20
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In his search to keep creativity and surprise alive in the midst of the pandemic, illustrator Rob Sayegh and his partner came up with the idea to put drawings in the windows of their flat in San Francisco. They change the scenes, which depict humans and animals, every day.
In addition to entertaining local passers-by, the daily drawings have been a way for the couple, recent transplants to the Bay Area, to get to know their neighbors.
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Sayegh posts news illustrations on Instagram each day so friends near and far can enjoy them even if they cannot stop by. Source:
SF Gate
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When he entered the hospital back in March, Ronald Hill had no idea that it would be months before he could go home. Having spent 45 days at Kaiser Fresno, 29 of them in a medically induced coma, and 2 weeks in rehab learning how to walk again, Hill finally went home over the weekend, walking out of rehab on his own two feet.
Hill left both the hospital and rehab to a cascade of cheers from the frontline workers who helped him recover; now that he is home, he is looking forward to improving his golf game.
"I'm grateful to be alive," said Hill. "To see how he looked today, it was a miracle," says John Hill, Ronald's brother. Source:
ABC News
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SF Chronicle, May 28, 2020
Faced with a ruined economy and mounting political pressure, Gov. Newsom has opted for a speedy reopening of the state after two months of sheltering in place. Most of the Bay Area is refusing to go along with the governor’s accelerated pace, and a handful of local health officers have criticized his plan as overly risky, especially with COVID-19 case counts still climbing across the state. “I have concerns at how quickly the state is moving,” said Dr. Chris Farnitano, the Contra Costa County health officer, in a community briefing this week. “If you look at statewide numbers, the daily cases in California are on an upward trend.”
Berkeleyside, May 28, 2020
Berkeley has pledged to complete COVID-19 testing for all residents and staff in the city’s six skilled nursing and long-term care facilities as part of an effort to limit the spread of coronavirus in a population known to be among the most vulnerable to the deadly disease, officials announced this week. Testing at two of those facilities has already been completed, and it began at a third site this week, staff has said. Together, the six sites include 418 residents and 297 staff members, according to the city.
East Bay Times, May 29, 2020
A dozen workers at Cardenas Markets in Fruitvale have tested positive for coronavirus, a company spokesperson said Wednesday.
The company was notified of the most recent positive test result Sunday. The busy store, at 1630 High Street at Bancroft Avenue, remained open this week. The outbreak, which has not been previously reported, comes as Alameda County struggles with a spike in coronavirus cases. The 94601 zip code, where the market is located, has been the epicenter of that surge, with total of 290 COVID-19 cases, a rate of 519 cases per 100,000 residents, by far the highest of any zip code in the county.
SF Chronicle, May 28, 2020
People in San Francisco must wear a face covering outside in most circumstances under a major new health order announced Thursday, as the city paves a path toward reopening.
Under the new mandate
, which is scheduled to take effect at 11:59 p.m. Friday, face coverings are now generally required, with a few exceptions, when someone is exercising within 30 feet of another person, walking past someone else on a sidewalk or preparing food or other items for people who are not part of their household.
East Bay Times, May 29, 2020
In the Bay Area, the most cautious region in the state when it comes to reopening, the majority of the region’s houses of worship appear to be choosing to continue their online offerings rather than come together in the same space.
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Nature, May 27, 2020
The nose is the probable starting point for Covid-19 infections a
ccording to a recent study
. Richard Boucher and Ralph Baric at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and their colleagues tracked the ease with which the new coronavirus infects various cell types in the respiratory tract. The researchers found a gradient of infectivity that decreases from the upper to the lower respiratory tract: the most easily infected cells are in the nasal cavity, and the least easily infected deep in the lungs. The authors speculate that the virus gets a foothold in the nose, then sneaks down the respiratory tract when breathed into the airways. They say the results support the use of masks and preventative measures such as nasal cleansing.
Bloomberg, May 28, 2020
Face masks can help keep the coronavirus from spreading within households -- but only if they go on before symptoms appear, according to a study. Masks were 79% effective at halting spread of the virus if at least one person in the home started wearing a face covering before anyone got sick, according to a survey of 124 families in Beijing.
NY Times, May 28, 2020
Upon arriving at work, employees should get a temperature and symptom check.
Inside the office, desks should be six feet apart. If that isn’t possible, employers should consider erecting plastic shields around desks. Seating should be barred in common areas. And face coverings should be worn at all times. These are among
sweeping new recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
on the safest way for American employers reopening their offices to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
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“Is It Safe for Me to Go to Work?” Risk Stratification for Workers during the Covid-19 Pandemic
New England Journal of Medicine, May 26, 2020
Dr. Marc Larochelle of the Boston University School of Medicine proposes a framework to help clinicians counsel patients about continuing to work in the midst of the pandemic that is based on their occupational risk of contracting Covid-19 and their risk of death if they are infected.
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Alameda County:
3,195
Contra Costa County:
1,384
California:
104,108
U.S.:
1,729,185
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Alameda County:
95
Contra Costa County:
37
California:
3,996
U.S.:
101,963
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With
coronavirus cases rising across the Bay Area
in recent days, four counties - Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Marin - have backtracked on one critical goal in the region’s established checklist for reopening: a flattened case count.
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LA Times, May 28, 2020
Sonoma County was
one of the first regions
in California to begin reopening after months of restrictions aimed at controlling the spread of the coronavirus. Then, coronavirus cases began rising again, forcing officials to slow the county’s efforts to reopen. Sonoma County has reported 203 new cases of the virus in the last 14 days, doubling its case rate in that time from 20 per 100,000 residents to 41 per 100,000, the county’s health officer, Dr. Sundari Mase, said. One area officials are particularly concerned about is the increase in instances of the virus being transmitted between people who have recently returned to work, Mase said.
Cal Matters, May 28, 2020
In the city of Oakland, when census workers call residents, they’re on a dual mission. Not only do they ask if the individual has filled out a census card, they also ask whether that person wants to get tested for the coronavirus. If so, do they know where to go?
“It’s extremely creative,” said Dr. Tony Iton, a senior vice president of the California Endowment. “They’re doing census outreach in populations that are the hardest to reach, which are exactly the same populations that are disproportionately impacted by COVID.” As California and the rest of the nation grapple with the pandemic, one lesson has become painfully clear. While the virus can attack anyone at any time, some populations have been harder hit than others, and testing and contact tracing in these communities will likely take more effort, according to Iton and other public health experts.
LA Times, May 29, 2020
The coronavirus is hitting Los Angeles County’s less-affluent black and Latino communities in disproportionately high numbers, a surge that experts attribute to dense living conditions, health disparities and high-risk jobs. Early in the outbreak, richer, predominantly white areas such as Brentwood and Bel-Air, where there was better access to test kits, reported some of the highest infection rates in the county. Since mid-April, however, those rates have risen slowly in comparison with the increase in South and Central Los Angeles. In Pico-Union and Westlake in Central Los Angeles, and Vermont Square in South L.A., infection rates rank in the
top 10 of the county’s more than 300 communities
.
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Washington Post, May 28, 2020
Last Friday
, the administration released pandemic guidance for faith communities after weeks of debate flared between the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those guidelines
posted on the CDC website
included recommendations that religious communities “consider suspending or at least decreasing use of choir/musical ensembles and congregant singing, chanting, or reciting during services or other programming, if appropriate within the faith tradition.” It added: “The act of singing may contribute to transmission of Covid-19, possibly through emission of aerosols.” By Saturday, that version was replaced by
updated guidance
that no longer includes any reference to choirs or congregant singing and the risk for spreading virus.
Associated Press, May 29, 2020
U.S. consumer spending plunged by a record-shattering 13.6% in April as the viral pandemic shuttered businesses, forced millions of layoffs and sent the economy into a deep recession. Last month’s spending decline was far worse than the revised 6.9% drop in March, which itself had set a record for the steepest one-month fall in records dating to 1959.
LA Times, May 29, 2020
The Supreme Court is set to decide on a religious freedom claim from a south San Diego County church that wants an exemption from California’s COVID-19 rules, which limit large gatherings for services.
Lawyers for the South Bay United Pentecostal Church in Chula Vista argue that the 1st Amendment’s protection of the “free exercise” of religion outweighs the state’s power to enforce a quarantine during a pandemic.
Reuters, May 29, 2020
A spike in harassment of Asian-Americans since the coronavirus pandemic began has led community activists in the United States to fight back, forming street patrols, rallying on social media, and supporting each other online.
Hashtags like #RacismIsAVirus and #UnapologeticallyAsian are being shared and printed on T-shirts.
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Washington Post, May 28, 2020
The four children showed up at the Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital in late April and early May, almost exactly one month after the peak of New York City’s
coronavirus
surge. All had fevers, rashes and strange blood readings that did not look like any illness doctors had seen before. And yet, the cases looked remarkably similar to one another.
A study about the children
, ages 13, 12, 10, and 5, provides the first detailed look at the rapid progression of a mysterious syndrome linked to covid-19 that has alarmed public health officials.
All four children recovered,
left the hospital
and are back home now.
BuzzFeed News, May 26, 2020
As with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, there’s a lot experts do not know about a new syndrome similar to the inflammatory illness called Kawasaki disease, including what exactly is triggering it, who is most vulnerable, and how exactly it overlaps with Kawasaki disease. The good news, multiple pediatricians state is that the new syndrome is rare and most cases are treatable, and there’s so far been unprecedented coordination among academics, hospitals, and governments on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean to learn more.
Guidance for Parents
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Politico, May 28, 2020
Gov. Newsom’s reopening guidelines for schools include recommendations that students and teachers wear face coverings and receive daily temperature checks, according to a summary of the not-yet-released state guidance. A summary of the guidance obtained by Politico suggests keeping desks six feet apart or creating partitions between desks and staggering arrival and drop off times to minimize physical contact. It also includes considerations for increased sanitation and portable hand washing stations. Newsom is expected to release the guidelines publicly on Friday.
SF Chronicle, May 28, 2020
The state’s draft guidelines for reopening schools detail a costly and logistically challenging checklist that educators say will be nearly impossible to complete, given projected budget cuts. It is possible that students across the state would continue with 100% distance learning simply because their schools cannot afford to reopen safely, education officials said Thursday based on expected safety guidelines.
Guidance for Reopening Schools
Vox, May 27, 2020
A summary of the actions taken by Germany, Vietnam and New Zealand in reopening their schools.
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Bloomberg, May 29, 2020
Denmark and Norway have agreed to allow leisure travel between the two countries again after overseeing relatively successful efforts to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, but have excluded visitors from Sweden. Denmark and Norway introduced early lockdowns, closing their borders in the middle of March. The strategy appears to have worked, with Norway registering 8,411 confirmed cases of coronavirus to date, compared with Denmark’s 11,593. This contrasts with Sweden, which has adopted a more lax approach to the pandemic and has almost 36,500 cases. Sweden has also registered a much higher mortality rate, 41.89 per 100,000, compared with Denmark’s 9.8 and Norway’s 4.4.
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Wall Street Journal, May 28, 2020
A growing pool of global death statistics indicates that few countries are accurately capturing fatalities from the new coronavirus, and in some including the US the shortfall is significant. In the U.S., the U.K., the Netherlands and many other countries, the number of deaths recorded from all causes has jumped since March and far exceeded the number of deaths those countries report as linked to Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Belgium, which appears to have the world’s highest per-capita Covid-19 death rate, has emerged as an exception. Unlike most countries and many U.S. states, which list only
Covid-19 deaths confirmed by tests
,
Belgium also tallies suspected Covid-19 fatalities.
Bloomberg, May 29, 2020
Indonesia’s spiraling coronavirus crisis has citizens taking matters into their own hands, with networks of volunteers compiling data that shows the death rate in the world’s fourth-most populous nation may be three times higher than what the government says. More than 4,000 deaths among suspected Covid-19 patients since early March haven’t been included in the official numbers, according to data collected by the volunteers. That’s on top of the government’s tally of 1,520 fatalities, which already gives Indonesia the highest virus death rate in Southeast Asia.
Associated Press, May 29, 2020
The virus initially brought to Latin America largely by wealthy citizens or visitors coming from Europe and the US is now increasingly concentrated in poorer neighborhoods where residents have few means of protecting themselves. In megacities throughout the region infections first emerged about three months ago in upper-class neighborhoods. Data from city health bulletins show many of those areas have succeeded in slowing the virus, in large part because residents there are able to stay indoors, working from home or living off savings until the crisis passes. The disease took longer to reach the poorer areas of those cities, but now infections are surging in those heavily congested neighborhoods, and hospitals are stretched.
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Interview with Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former FDA Commissioner, Bloomber, May 29, 2020
"We're probably going to limit gatherings in the fall. People won't be traveling as much. People won't have large conferences. We're still going to Zoom into meetings. So all of that will have an impact. And then you layer on top of that more testing and contact tracing for a large minority of cases. There's no one thing that's a silver bullet. It's all going to be layers of protection. And what we're doing is, we're not trying to end Covid-19. We're never going to fully contain it, not in a country as big, diverse and noncompliant as the U.S. And so what we're looking to do is prevent states and cities from having to shut down for long periods."
Jennifer Rubin, opinion writer, Washington Post, May 29, 2020
As a society, we compel many things to insure public health — vaccinate your child, wear a seat belt, wear a helmet. It should hardly be surprising that some governors are beginning to compel mask-wearing in certain situations. The public needs to be educated, especially younger Americans who erroneously think they are not vulnerable to contracting the disease.
Anna Almendrala, health care correspondent, Kaiser Health News, May 29, 2020
As a health care reporter, I had covered America’s evolution on masks as the coronavirus spread across the globe. Back in January, I wrote an article about why
Chinese immigrants insisted
on wearing surgical and construction masks in the U.S., even though it went against official health recommendations at the time. At that time, Asian people wearing masks were targets for verbal and physical abuse. Now, of course, masks are the norm. And they’ve become more than just personal protection; they are symbols of courtesy and scientific buy-in. They have, to some extent, also become political signifiers. In a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation,
70% of Democrats said they wear a protective mask
“every time” they leave their house, versus 37% of Republicans.
Andrew Joseph, reporter, STAT, May 29, 2020
To suppress their epidemics to manageable levels, countries around the world have turned to contact tracing — tracking down people who might have been exposed to the coronavirus to ensure they don’t pass it to others, a way of stalking routes of viral spread and severing them before they reach more people. And, to varying degrees, it has worked. But, for it to succeed in the United States, experts are cautioning that it’s going to take more people, more money, and more cooperation than the country has in place.
Jeffrey Geller, psychiatrist, STAT, May 29, 2020
Just as the majority of Americans have dramatically changed their ways of life to combat Covid-19 infection, the federal government needs to dramatically change how it deals with mental illness. Without such action, Americans are ripe for a pandemic of depression and despair.
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Eden Area Food Pantries
We have gathered 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.
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lease contact bulletin editor Stephen Cassidy at
stephen.cassidy@ethd.org
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