COVID-19
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Mask Mandates Are Going Away, But In Many Bay Area Businesses Masks Will Remain
With every Bay Area county, save one, lifting indoor masking mandates for the fully vaccinated on Wednesday, it’s easy to imagine people in shops, restaurants and offices dropping them in unison. But the reality is likely to be a bit more uneven, as many local businesses say they will approach masking differently for themselves, their employees and their customers. SF Chronicle Read more
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Bay Area COVID Cases Stop Falling Just As California Prepares To Roll Back Mask Mandate
After falling sharply over the past few weeks, the rate of new daily coronavirus cases in the Bay Area appears to be leveling off just as California and local health officials prepare to pull back several COVID-19 safety measures, including indoor mask mandates. The Bay Area is averaging 86 new cases a day per 100,000 residents, compared to 60 cases a day last Monday — marking the first time since early January that the number has ticked up at the start of the week during the Omicron phase of the pandemic. SF Chronicle Read more
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Masks Still Required For Everyone Inside City of Hayward Facilities Through At Least Feb. 28
The City of Hayward will continue to require the wearing of masks by all visitors to City Hall, Hayward Public Library and other City facilities through at least the end of February as a continuing public health and workplace-safety measure. City of Hayward
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S.F. Pride Sets In-Person Return After Two Pandemic Years Online
After two years of migrating online because of the pandemic, San Francisco Pride plans to return in full force for 2022, with a slate of in-person events scheduled for June 25-26, including its signature parade. The year’s theme, “Love Will Keep Us Together,” is meant to celebrate a sense of return for a festival that bills itself as the largest annual gathering of LGBTQ individuals and supporters in the country. Datebook Read more
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San Jose Delays COVID Booster Mandate After Employees Fail To Comply
San Jose has extended the deadline for its COVID-19 booster mandate after hundreds of employees failed to comply in time for the initial cutoff. The deadline for the new booster mandate — previously set to expire on Feb. 11 — has been pushed out two weeks to Feb. 25 in order to “allow for additional time for employees to be ‘up-to-date’ with their COVID-19 vaccination,” according to an email sent out to the city’s workforce Tuesday afternoon.
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Marin Schools Test Scores Decline Amid Pandemic
Standardized test scores for Marin students dropped significantly last year as schools grappled with remote learning and safety measures during the pandemic. State and local education officials said the results, released by the state Department of Education, should be seen in perspective. “Given the pandemic with all of its challenges, it is impossible to see this package of results for what it is,” said Mary Jane Burke, Marin superintendent of schools. “One measure, on one day, in the middle of a pandemic.”
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CDC Study Links Infant Protection To COVID Vaccination During Pregnancy
Women who are vaccinated during pregnancy may not only protect themselves from COVID-19 but also their babies, according to new research published Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study found that infants under 6 months old were 61% less likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 if their mothers had received a Pfizer or Moderna vaccination against the disease during pregnancy, and concluded that vaccination during pregnancy “might help prevent COVID-19 hospitalization among infants.” “The data CDC is publishing today provides real world evidence that getting a COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy might protect infants,” said Dr. Dana Meaney-Delman, chief of the CDC’s infant outcomes monitoring research and prevention branch. East Bay Times Read more
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BioNTech Plans Modular Vaccine Factories In Africa
German vaccine maker BioNTech, which developed the first widely approved shot against COVID-19 together with Pfizer, unveiled plans Wednesday to establish manufacturing facilities in Africa that would boost the availability of much-needed medicines on the continent. The modular design presented at a ceremony in Marburg, Germany, consists of shipping containers fitted with the equipment necessary to make the company's mRNA-based vaccine, save for the final step of putting doses into bottles, a process known as fill and finish. “Our goal is to enable mRNA production on all continents,” BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin told The Associated Press. NBC Bay Area
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Vaccine Scientists Have Been Chasing Variants. Now, They’re Seeking A Universal Coronavirus Vaccine
Volunteers are rolling up their sleeves to receive shots of experimental vaccines tailored to beat the Omicron variant — just as the winter coronavirus surge begins to relent. By the time scientists know whether those rebooted vaccines are effective and safe, Omicron is expected to be in the rearview mirror. Already, mask mandates are easing. People are beginning to talk about normalcy. The disconnect highlights the exhausting scientific chase of the last year — and the one that lies ahead. And it underscores a more pressing, overarching conundrum: Is chasing the latest variant a viable strategy? Instead of testing and potentially deploying a new shot when a new variant pops up, what if a single vaccine could thwart all iterations of this coronavirus and the next ones, too? Washington Post Read more
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Many Americans Knowingly Disagree With Scientists About COVID Vaccines
A third of Americans who believe coronavirus vaccine misinformation are aware that they're in disagreement with scientists and medical experts, according to a new survey by The COVID States Project. This suggests that educating people on the science behind vaccines won't be sufficient to change many minds. Axios Read more
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Novak Djokovic Says He Will Skip Tournaments Rather Than Get The COVID Vaccine
Tennis star Novak Djokovic says he won't be getting vaccinated against COVID-19, even if it means he can't play in Grand Slam tournaments this year. But Djokovic also says that his decision is entirely personal and that he shouldn't be lumped in with anti-vaccination activists. "I understand the consequences of my decision" not to be vaccinated, Djokovic said in an interview with the BBC that was released on Tuesday. Djokovic said he made his decision based on his status as "an elite professional athlete," one who is very concerned about anything he consumes, from water to food and supplements. NPR Read more
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This 16-Year-Old Wanted To Get The COVID Vaccine. He Had To Hide It From His Parents
High school junior Nicolas Montero stays busy. He runs track, works night and weekend shifts at Burger King and keeps on top of his schoolwork at Neshaminy High School in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
But Montero's packed schedule is also strategic — he says it's a way to stay out of the house. Montero and his parents are separated by a political and cultural rift common throughout the U.S.: He says his parents are part of a small but vocal minority who oppose COVID-19 vaccination and have refused to let him get the shots. NPR Read more
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State/National/International News |
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U.S. "Excess Deaths" During Pandemic Surpassed 1 Million, With COVID Killing Most But Other Diseases Adding To The Toll, CDC Says
The United States has recorded more than 1 million “excess deaths” since the start of the pandemic, government mortality statistics show, a toll that exceeds the officially documented lethality of the coronavirus and captures the broad consequences of the health crisis that has entered its third year. The excess-deaths figure surpassed the milestone last week, reaching 1,023,916, according to Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. The center updates its estimate weekly. Washington Post Read more
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Omicron Drove Up Kids’ COVID-19 Hospitalization Rates
Bay Area pediatricians knew Omicron was like nothing they’d seen before for their youngest patients, and a new study released Tuesday confirms their alarm: The highly contagious variant sent kids to U.S. hospitals at rates four times higher than Delta, and rates were higher still for those under age 5, who are too young for COVID-19 vaccination. Although kids have been least vulnerable to the virus, the rise in severe illness among them as cases surged this winter alarmed health officials who have pleaded with parents to get their children vaccinated. Tuesday’s report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed the youngest children, up to age 4, were especially vulnerable: Hospitalization rates per 100,000 children in that age group were about five times higher during the peak omicron week, at 15.6, than during the delta peak at 2.9. Mercury News Read more
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Lifting The California Mask Mandate Basically Says Chronically Ill And Disabled Lives Don’t Matter
As the Omicron surge wanes, and the experts read the sewage like tea leaves, states from New York to California and everywhere in between have rushed to remove mask mandates, declaring that we have reached the magic inflection point between pandemic and endemic. And, once again, it will be the medically vulnerable who will suffer the casualties in this premature push for normalcy while COVID deaths in the U.S. still average near 2,500 per day. SF Chronicle Read more
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Coachella And Stagecoach Festivals Drop All COVID-Related Restrictions
After revealing last fall that vaccinations would not be required for entry, the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals have further revealed that there will no longer be any COVID-related barriers to entry at all, not even negative tests. Nor will a requirement to wear masks figure into the picture when millions of selfies go out from the desert this April. NBC News Read more
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Traffic Deaths Are Surging During The Pandemic
The United States is enduring its most severe increase in traffic deaths since the 1940s. It is a sharp change from the recent norm, too. Deaths from vehicle crashes have generally been falling since the late 1960s, thanks to vehicle improvements, lower speed limits and declines in drunken driving, among other factors. By 2019, the annual death rate from crashes was near its lowest level since cars became a mass item in the 1920s. But then came the COVID-19 pandemic. Crashes — and deaths — began surging in the summer of 2020, surprising traffic experts who had hoped that relatively empty roads would cause accidents to decline. NY Times Read more
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Turkish Man Sets Unenviable COVID Record By Testing Positive For 14 Straight Months
When Muzaffer Kayasan first caught COVID-19, he thought he was destined to die since he was already suffering from leukemia. Fourteen months and 78 straight positive tests later, he is still alive - and still battling to shake off the infection. Kayasan, 56, has Turkey's longest recorded continuous COVID-19 infection, doctors say, possibly due to a weakened immune system from the cancer. Despite being in and out of hospital since November 2020, his spirits have been high. Nine months in hospital and five months mostly alone in his flat have separated him from much of the outside world. Reuters Read more
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The COVID Strategy America Hasn’t Really Tried
It is common knowledge that COVID risk goes up with age, but how steeply it rises is still astounding to see after two years of living and dying with this coronavirus. Compared with someone in their 20s, a person over 65 years old is not slightly more likely to die of COVID but at least 65 times more likely to die of COVID. Over age 75, they become 140 times more likely to die. Over age 85, they are 340 times more likely to die. No other basic fact of life matters as dramatically as age for COVID.This is why, even though America’s vaccination and booster rates look better in the older groups compared with the young, they are still too low. The Atlantic
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Disneyland Drops Mask Requirements For Vaccinated Visitors
Disneyland visitors will no longer need to wear COVID-19 face coverings on Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion, but that doesn’t mean they can leave their masks at home just yet. Disneyland and Disney California Adventure will no longer require vaccinated visitors to wear masks indoors starting on Thursday, Feb. 17. Unvaccinated visitors will still be required to wear masks indoors at the Anaheim theme parks. Mercury News Read more
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New York City Fires 1,430 Municipal Workers Over Vaccine Mandate
New York City fired 1,430 municipal workers after they refused to get fully vaccinated for COVID-19 or submit proof of their shots, City Hall confirmed Monday. That figure represents less than 1 percent of the city’s 370,000-person workforce. The workers who were let go fell into two categories: new hires who got their first dose but never submitted proof of their second dose, and staff who were placed on leave without pay and opted out of their health coverage because they refused to get vaccinated. Politico Read more
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Total Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 1,251,024
California: 8,860,498
U.S.: 78,130,928
Alameda County
Total Vaccines Administered: 3,485,200
Total Cases: 244,025
Total Deaths: 1,681
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 5.4%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 2/16): 235
ICU Beds Available (as of 2/16): 85
As of February 16, cases have decreased recently but are still extremely high. The numbers of hospitalized COVID patients and deaths in the Alameda County area have also fallen. The test positivity rate in Alameda County is very high, suggesting that cases are being significantly undercounted. NY Times
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Total Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 7,582
California: 83,251
U.S.: 927,716
Contra Costa County
Total Vaccines Administered: 2,419,478
Total Cases: 185,145
Total Deaths: 1,178
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 7.6%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 2/16): 145
ICU Beds Available (as of 2/16): 35
As of February 16, cases have decreased recently but are still extremely high. The number of hospitalized COVID patients has also fallen in the Contra Costa County area. Deaths have increased. The test positivity rate in Contra Costa County is very high, suggesting that cases are being significantly undercounted. NY Times
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COVID-19 Travel Recommendations By Destination
Federal health officials are warning U.S. travelers to avoid more than 135 destinations as of Monday due to COVID-19. The destinations are grouped into Level 4 (very high risk), Level 3 (high risk), Level 2 (moderate risk), Level 1 (low risk) and Level unknown. CDC Read more
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- COVID-19 testing is a good idea, but keep in mind, people who test negative can still harbor the virus if they are early in their infection.
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A viral test tells you if you have a current infection.
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An antibody test might tell you if you had a past infection.
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Over the past week, Alameda County has averaged 805 new cases and 4.9 new death per day.
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Over the past week, Contra Costa County has averaged 569 new cases and 5.3 new deaths per day.
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Alameda County, cumulative
as of 2/16/2022
Oakland: 71,008
Hayward: 32,322
Fremont: 24,815
San Leandro: 15,041
Eden MAC: 14,074
Livermore: 12,441
Berkeley: 12,183
Union City: 10,855
Castro Valley: 8,365
Newark: 7,625
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Contra Costa County, cumulative
as of 2/16/2022
Richmond: 27,368
Antioch: 24,998
Concord: 20,003
Pittsburg: 16,221
San Pablo: 11,663
Brentwood: 11,141
Oakley: 9,345
Walnut Creek: 9,093
San Ramon: 7,840
Bay Point: 6,109
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About Eden Health District |
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The Eden Health District Board of Directors are Chair Mariellen Faria, Vice Chair Pam Russo, Secretary/Treasurer Roxann Lewis, and Gordon Galvan. 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.
We welcome your feedback on our bulletin. Please contact editor Lisa Mahoney.
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