April 28, 2020
Eden Health District COVID-19 Bulletin
“We have no vaccine. We have no proven treatment right now. What we can do (is) we can empower ourselves with knowledge about what’s happening with the epidemic. And the way we can do that is by testing and responding.” - Dr. Diane Havlir, UCSF, 4/26/20
By the Numbers
CONFIRMED CASES
Alameda County: 1,500

Contra Costa County: 820

California: 45,218

U.S.: 990,135
REPORTED DEATHS
Alameda County: 52

Contra Costa County: 25

California: 1,793

U.S.: 56,475
County Dashboards: Alameda & Contra Costa
For Bay Area case and death trends visit the SF Chronicle coronavirus tracker .
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.
Bay Area News
SF Chronicle, April 27, 2020
In a joint statement, officials in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties and Berkeley, which has its own health department, said a new round of health orders would “largely” keep current restrictions in place through the end of May, but would also “include limited easing of specific restrictions for a small number of lower-risk activities.” The orders, which regional health officials are collaborating on, have not yet been released. Monday’s announcement, which amounts to a notice of the forthcoming orders, did not specify what activities will be permitted nor when the new mandates would take effect. The full health orders are expected this week.

SF Gate, April 27, 2020
The number of coronavirus patients in Bay Area hospitals, 584, hit its lowest mark since the state started recording county-by-county hospitalization data. For reference, April 7 marked the day of the most reported hospitalizations with 831. Data was first made available on April 1, and the region had 758 hospitalizations that day.

East Bay Citizen, April 27, 2020
Last week, Alameda County health officials began providing a daily breakdown of Covid-19 cases in the unincorporated areas. The numbers show more than half of the current cases coming from what the county describes as the “Eden Area,” the unincorporated hamlets of San Lorenzo, Cherryland, Ashland, and Hayward Acres.

East Bay Times, April 27, 2020
The Alameda County Social Services Agency, along with the Alameda County Community Food Bank and other organizations, have organized countywide data on food distribution and emergency resource information. The website is located at  www.acgov.org/maps/food-services.htm .

ABC7 News, April 27, 2020
A line of cars a quarter-mile long waited outside the Alameda County Fairgrounds Monday morning for the new COVID-19 test site, which opened at 9 a.m. The site has about 750 tests for each week and hope to be open for about four weeks.

Berkeleyside, April 27, 2020
The city of Berkeley has frozen all hiring in preparation for a 12% decrease in general fund revenues that is expected in the coming months.
Health News
Kaiser Health Network, April 27, 2020
The FDA has not reviewed the vast majority of tests on the market, and their validity, particularly point-of-care blood tests that promise rapid results within minutes, isn’t clear, said Dr. Michael Busch, director of the Vitalant Research Institute and a professor of laboratory medicine at UCSF. “Some of them have sensitivities that are quite poor,” he said. “You may even miss some infected people completely.” Other tests may flag people as positive for COVID-19 when they’re not infected.

SF Chronicle, April 28, 2020
Doctors in China reported heart damage in as many as one in five hospitalized patients. Some patients have suffered strokes or seizures. Many patients suffer kidney damage serious enough to require dialysis. Blood clots also are a recurring issue, doctors had to amputate the leg of a Los Angeles patient due to clotting that formed while he was seriously ill.

The Guardian, April 27, 2020
More than a dozen children have fallen ill with a new and potentially fatal combination of symptoms apparently linked to Covid-19, including a sore stomach and heart problems.
The children affected appear to have been struck by a form of toxic shock syndrome. All have been left so seriously unwell that they have had to be treated in intensive care. Most of the children affected have Kawasaki disease , a rare vascular condition that is the main cause of acquired heart disease in under-18s in the UK .

Reuters, April 27, 2020
Routine medical tests critical for detecting and monitoring cancer and other conditions plummeted in the US since mid-March, as the coronavirus spread and public officials urged residents to stay home. “We’re seeing a tremendous impact on preventative care, as well as on chronic conditions with massive implications for the healthcare system,” said Komodo Health Chief Executive Dr. Arif Nathoo. “It speaks volumes to just how much COVID is impacting everyone’s health and wellness.”

USA Today, April 27, 2020
Here are some strategies that will help you get the most out of your mask, and keep you and your family safe. 
Map of Alameda County COVID-19 Cases
new, interactive map released by Alameda County shows the geographic spread of COVID-19 cases by zip code.
California News
LA Times, April 28, 2020
The coronavirus is on the decline in many parts of California but continues to spread in Los Angeles County, sparking new debate about whether officials will need to begin easing stay-at-home restrictions in certain sections of the state while giving harder-hit regions time to flatten the curve. The state’s epidemiological map is starting to reflect the adage that California is many states in one. Nineteen counties from Humboldt to Tuolumne have recorded no fatalities from the virus. And even moderately populated counties such as Fresno and Monterey are holding single-digit death tolls. But Los Angeles County has had 944 people die from COVID-19, with 315 passing away last week alone. Even adjusted for its larger population, its rate of 9.3 deaths per 100,000 people is 58% higher than the next hardest hit urban county, Riverside, and 72% higher than the epicenter of the Bay Area, Santa Clara County, according to a Times analysis of coronavirus data.

NPR, April 27, 2020
High temperatures drew large crowds to beaches along the California coastline over the weekend, and Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that photos of the packed shorelines show "what not to do." That behavior could put the progress the state has made in battling the coronavirus pandemic in jeopardy, the governor warned at a news conference.
"I cannot impress upon you more, to those Californians watching, that we can't see the images like we saw, particularly on Saturday in Newport Beach and elsewhere, in the state of California," Newsom said. "This virus doesn't go home because it's a beautiful, sunny day around our coasts."

Cal Matters, April 27, 2020
The doctors should never have assumed that the patients they tested, who came for walk-in COVID-19 tests or who sought urgent care for symptoms they experienced in the middle of a pandemic, are representative of the general population, said Dr. Carl Bergstrom, a University of Washington biologist who specializes in infectious disease modeling. He likened their extrapolations to “estimating the average height of Americans from the players on an NBA court.” And most credible studies of COVID-19 death rates in reality are far higher than the ones the doctors presented. 
U.S. News
Washington Post, April 27, 2020
Governors, congressional leaders and public health officials have pressed for a robust testing plan from the federal government, insisting that frequent and widespread testing is crucial to ending the stay-at-home orders that have idled businesses across much of the country. President Trump responded Monday by announcing what the White House called a “blueprint” for increasing testing capacity. But it leaves the onus on states to develop their own plans and rapid-response programs.

NY Daily News, April 27, 2020
Expanded testing suggests that nearly 1 in 4 New Yorkers have contracted coronavirus since the pandemic tore into the city last month, Gov. Cuomo said Monday. Some 24.7% of people tested at random in the five boroughs had coronavirus antibodies, meaning they have had the deadly disease and recovered. Cuomo also announced that 337 New Yorkers died of coronavirus in the past day. “The number is down from the past few days,” he said. “But that’s no solace for 337 families who are suffering today.”

Washington Post, April 27, 2020
In the early weeks of the coronavirus epidemic, the US recorded an estimated 15,400 excess deaths, nearly two times as many as were publicly attributed to Covid-19 at the time, according to an analysis of federal data conducted by a research team led by the Yale School of Public Health. The excess deaths, the number beyond what would normally be expected for that time of year, occurred during March and through April 4, a time when 8,128 coronavirus deaths were reported.

USA Today, April 27, 2020
JetBlue Airways will require passengers to wear face masks or other face coverings beginning May 4, becoming the first U.S. airline to do so as the coronavirus pandemic continues. “Wearing a face covering isn’t about protecting yourself it’s about protecting those around you,” Joanna Geraghty, JetBlue's president and chief operating officer, said in a statement announcing the change. "This is the new flying etiquette.
High School Students Helping Our Health Care Heroes
When it heard about the PPE shortages in hospitals, Heritage High’s robotics team decided to try to figure out how to use 3D printing to fill the gap. Tweaking a design by the National Institutes of Health, sophomore Aaron Wong at the Brentwood high school figured out how to produce face shields with the printers, and soon the team was shipping shields to John Muir Health Urgent Care Center and Kaiser Permanente Antioch.

The team members paid for the initial shipments out of their own pockets; they now have a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for more materials and are considering expanding to provide shields to local EMTs. Source: The Press
International News
NY Times, April 27, 2020
At least 40,000 more people have died during the coronavirus pandemic over the last month than the official Covid-19 death counts report, a review of mortality data in 12 countries shows, providing a clearer, if still incomplete, picture of the toll of the crisis. In the last month, far more people died in these countries than in previous years, The New York Times found. The totals include deaths from Covid-19 as well as those from other causes, likely including people who could not be treated as hospitals became overwhelmed.

The Guardian, April 28, 2020
At least 15 million more cases of domestic violence are predicted this year as a result of pandemic restrictions, according to new data that paints a bleak picture of life for women over the next decade. Researchers expect 15 million additional cases of domestic violence for every three months that lockdown is extended. They also estimate that the disruption to violence prevention programs because of the pandemic and the diversion of resources elsewhere could mean a third fewer cases of violence are averted by 2030.

The Cairo Review, April 27, 2020
As governments across the globe make major disaster declarations due to COVID-19, many victims of domestic violence have found themselves locked at home with their abusers. Forced to shelter in place, victims of domestic abuse have become even more vulnerable. 

NPR, April 28, 2020
Nigeria's president has announced the country will begin easing a more than month-long coronavirus lockdown in the capital Abuja, and its largest city, Lagos, even as he imposed restrictions on another city where COVID-19 has surged. President Muhammadu Buhari said the stay-at-home orders imposed on March 30 have come at a "very heavy economic cost," as ordinary Nigerians, many of whom rely on daily wages to survive, have been left without enough money to eat. Instead, Buhari said, there would be a "phased and gradual" lifting of the lockdown beginning on May 4.

The Guardian, April 28, 2020
Doctors in Kano in north-west  Nigeria  are reporting hundreds of fatal cases of pneumonia after local media raised concerns over a sudden rise in reported deaths in recent days. Authorities in Kano, however, have denied that Covid-19 is responsible for the wave of fatalities, variously blaming malaria, meningitis, hypertension and other illnesses for the increased mortality.

CNN, April 28, 2020
When it comes to what worked, New Zealand had some advantages in tackling the virus. It had the benefit of time, New Zealand confirmed its first case of coronavirus on February 28, well over a month after the United States confirmed its first case.
It's a relatively remote island nation, and relatively few flights transit through New Zealand. It's also centrally governed, meaning it doesn't have states like the US or its neighbor Australia. But the real key to New Zealand's success appears to be an approach that could be applied anywhere, moving swiftly, testing widely, and relying heavily on good science.

New Zealand Herald, April 28,2020
Long lines formed at McDonald’s drive-thru locations in New Zealand early Tuesday after the country eased strict lockdown measures after five weeks.
Analysis/Opinion
STAT, April 28, 2020
As the coronavirus pandemic takes a devastating toll on health care workers, death notices published in recent weeks starkly show that it is hitting Filipino Americans, who make up an outsized portion of the nation’s nursing workforce, especially hard. An estimated 4%, or about 150,000, of nurses in the U.S. are Filipino, but in some regions they account for a much larger share of caregivers. In California, for example, nearly 20% of registered nurses are Filipinos. And because they are most likely to work in acute care, medical/surgical, and ICU nursing, many “FilAms” are on the front lines of care for Covid-19 patients.

Editorial, NY Post, April 27, 2020
The pandemic inflicts that personal toll on every single health-care worker — each working feverish hours, separated from family and loved ones, all the while trying to keep COVID-19 victims alive and too often reduced to merely easing their end. The human cost of this pandemic is far greater than just the long list of the dead. Our hearts are with the families of Dr. Lorna Breen and EMT John Mondello — and with every health professional out there, in the ERs and on the streets in ambulances, trying to save lives. You have our undying gratitude.

Washington Post, April 27, 2020
Repeated warnings about the coronavirus were conveyed in January and February issues of the President’s Daily Brief, a sensitive report that is produced before dawn each day and designed to call the president’s attention to the most significant global developments and security threats. For weeks, the PDB, as the report is known, traced the virus’s spread around the globe, made clear that China was suppressing information about the contagion’s transmissibility and lethal toll, and raised the prospect of dire political and economic consequences. But the alarms appear to have failed to register with the president, who routinely skips reading the PDB and has at times shown little patience for even the oral summary he takes two or three times per week, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Yascha Mounk, contributing writer, The Atlantic, April 28, 2020
The fatality rate from COVID-19 is likely to be significantly lower than early estimates suggested. Americans have followed social-distancing guidelines to an impressive degree. So far, we have succeeded in flattening the curve, and have not had to turn thousands of people in desperate need of medical treatment away from the emergency room. We are not in the worst of all possible timelines. And yet, our hopes for the pandemic’s quick resolution should clearly be shelved. Taken together, the three major developments of the past few days paint a bleak picture of the months that lie ahead: COVID-19 is too deadly to let it rip through the population. An effective cure is not in sight. And the federal government is incapable of formulating a coherent pandemic response.

Jennifer Senior, opinion columnist, NY Times, April 26, 2020
In the coming months, all of us are going to have to figure out how to gird ourselves psychologically for whatever the new normal might be. “Optimism tempered by realism,” tends to be the favored formulation, and sure, that’s fine; it may even be politically and economically sound. But I’d also like to make a positive case for pessimism. Defensive pessimism, specifically. Because if things start going downhill, defensive pessimists will be the ones with their feet already on the brakes.
Donate PPE To Area Hospitals
Hospitals throughout the East Bay are experiencing a shortage of medical supplies. They are seeking donations of new Protective Personal Equipment (masks, gowns and other products). For more information visit:

Your feedback is welcome. Please share the Bulletin.
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.

Please share our bulletin with your contacts. If you would like to submit feedback or stories on the local response to the pandemic, please contact bulletin editor Stephen Cassidy at stephen.cassidy@ethd.org . And if you are operating a local food bank and would like your organization profiled in our nonprofit spotlight, please contact us.

We welcome subscribers to our free bulletin. Please click here to subscribe.

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.