COVID-19
breaking news & updates
|
|
|
COVID Test Resources
Food Pantries
|
|
|
COVID Test-and-Treat Center Launches In Bay Area
Tested and treated right on the spot. That's California's new initiative as COVID cases rise. San Mateo County is one of the first in getting a testing center where qualified individuals can get medications right on site. The testing centers are expected to roll out across the Bay Area. The test and treat center at the College of San Mateo is one of five locations open across the state. The state by next week hopes to transform all of its OptumServe sites into places certain people can show up, get tested and get meds. NBC Bay Area Read more
|
|
|
Bay Area Business Travel Industry Tries To Revive After COVID Collapse
There's a push to reignite travel and tourism to the Bay Area after two years of COVID decimating businesses and impacting the industry. There are already plenty of signs leisurely travel will meet or even surpass pre-pandemic numbers this year. But it's business travel and the hotel industry that are still taking a major hit. "I work right across from a hotel and very rarely do you see people going in and out of the hotels and you wonder oh they're still in business?" said Annie, who works in downtown San Francisco. CBS News Read more
|
|
|
5 Bay Area Landlords Sue Alameda Co. Claiming COVID Eviction Moratorium Is "Illegal"
Five Bay Area landlords are suing Alameda County "alleging that its eviction moratorium infringes on rental housing providers' constitutional rights and violates state law." Rakesh and Tripti Jain are among the property owners suing the county. The Jain family rented their house in Fremont to a tenant who they say defrauded them from the beginning. Their tenant gave them a fake W-2 and fake checks in early 2020. Two months later, the pandemic hit and for the past two years, Alameda County's COVID moratorium has protected those tenants from getting evicted. Their tenant owes them over $100,000 in back rent. Tripti says suing the county is their last resort. ABC7 News Read more
|
|
|
San Jose City Workers Must Wear Masks Once Again
With concerns about COVID-19 infections on the rise once more, San Jose city workers are required to wear masks through May 20. The temporary measure only affects workers at city facilities. The decision comes one month after the City Council voted to rescind the citywide masking requirement, as the BA.2 subvariant, a second strain of the omicron variant, spreads. Santa Clara County's COVID-19 data reports the seven-day rolling average at 481 new infections, compared to the low point in mid-March at about 140 cases. SFGate Read more
|
|
|
COVID Vaccine/Treatment News |
|
White House Documents Detail A Looming Squeeze On COVID-19 Boosters
The White House could run out of COVID-19 vaccines if it moves forward with plans to encourage all adults to get a second COVID-19 vaccine booster dose by roughly Sept. 1, according to a tranche of budget documents sent to Congress that have not previously been made public. Although Food and Drug Administration officials have hinted that all American adults may be encouraged to get second boosters this fall, right now, second booster doses are only available to people over the age of 50. The budget documents make it clear that if the administration does want to push second boosters, it will need more money to make it happen: it needs at least 87 million more vaccines for adult boosters, and another 5 million more for first boosters for kids. STAT Read more
|
|
|
Studies Show Promise For 2 New COVID Vaccine Platforms
Two studies based on phase 3 clinical trials published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine show promising results for two novel COVID-19 vaccine platforms—a plant-based coronavirus-like particle vaccine, and a receptor-binding domain (RBD)–dimer-based vaccine. And neither vaccine requires extreme cold chain storage, which makes them appealing candidates for low- and middle-income countries, a key component of global COVID-19 vaccination efforts. CIDRAP Read more
|
|
|
What’s Next For COVID Vaccines This Year? Here’s A Tentative Timeline
More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, most Americans are now vaccinated — with rates particularly high, between 80% to 90%, in most parts of the Bay Area. There is still much to come with vaccines, however. Children younger than 5 can’t so far get immunized, though that could change in the next several weeks. Additional booster shots for older adults may be coming by the fall or winter. And federal health officials believe the vaccine could become a periodic, even annual shot. Vaccine researchers are studying various combinations of existing vaccines to determine which cocktail would be the most effective in the long-term, as society learns how to live with the virus for years, perhaps even decades to come. SF Chronicle Read more
|
|
|
Bill Advances To Let California Teens Get Vaccinated Without Parental Consent
California kids 12 and older are one step closer to being able to get vaccinated without parental consent after a key legislative committee on Thursday passed a controversial bill on a 7-0 vote despite hundreds of people expressing fierce opposition. Just five of the eight bills introduced this year by a vaccine working group of Democratic lawmakers are still alive — and state Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco’s proposal to allow kids ages 12 to 17 to receive FDA-approved vaccines without a parent’s permission is by far the most contentious. CalMatters Read more
|
|
|
State/National/International News |
|
214,000 American Children Lost Parents To COVID. They Have "A Lifetime Of Grief Ahead Of Them"
Emilia Guerra took her first steps on Thanksgiving of 2020 as parents Laura and Rigo Guerra watched proudly. It seemed like the start of many holiday memories for the young family. A month later, it was Christmas Eve and Rigo, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, was in the hospital with COVID-19. He was dying. His daughter would never have her father at a holiday gathering again. As the United States prepares to mark the grim milestone of one million dead from COVID-19, a close inspection of the data reveals one of the pandemic’s most heart-wrenching tolls: At least 32,500 children in California and more than 214,400 nationwide — more than one out of every 360 — have lost at least one parent or primary caregiver to the virus, according to “Hidden Pain,” a report from the COVID Collaborative, a nonprofit advocacy group. At least 16,800 lost their sole parent or caregiver. SF Chronicle Read more
|
|
|
Governments Have Undercounted The COVID-19 Death Toll By Millions, The WHO Says
The COVID-19 pandemic directly or indirectly caused 14.9 million deaths in 2020 and 2021, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, in its newest attempt to quantify the outbreak's terrible toll. That's around 2.7 times more than the 5.42 million COVID-19 deaths the WHO says were previously reported through official channels in the same 2-year period. The pandemic's current reported death toll is 6.2 million, according to Johns Hopkins University's COVID-19 tracker. NPR Read more
|
|
|
A Guide To Help You Keep Track Of All The Omicron Subvariants
Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans can be forgiven if they’ve lost track of the latest coronavirus variants circulating nationally and around the world. We’ve heard of the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omicron variants, but a new Greek-letter variant hasn’t come onto the scene in almost half a year. Instead, a seemingly endless stream of "subvariants" of Omicron has emerged in the past few months. How much do they differ from one another? Can an infection caused by one subvariant protect someone from an infection caused by a different subvariant? And how well do COVID-19 vaccines — which were developed before Omicron’s emergence — protect against the subvariants? LA Times Read more
|
|
|
Why Getting COVID Is Still Nothing Like Getting The Flu — Even If It’s Just As "Normal"
Health officials are saying it, friends are saying it: COVID-19 seems on track to become as common and familiar to us as influenza. But experts stress that there are still limitations to this comparison — COVID is still, and may always be, no ordinary flu. “It is time to accept that the presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is the new normal,” leaders at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration wrote in a paper published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “It will likely circulate globally for the foreseeable future, taking its place alongside other common respiratory viruses such as influenza.” SF Chronicle Read more
|
|
|
Millions Of People Suffer From Long COVID. Why Is There Still No Treatment?
Shelley Hayden of Sonoma has a case of long COVID so serious that her “brain is broken,” she said. The 54-year-old marketing coach asked not to be interrupted in conversation so she wouldn’t lose her train of thought. Tyler Gustafson of Berkeley recovered from COVID-19 in 2020, then got hit last summer with what felt like a heart attack: deep, aching chest pain. His body tingled. His blood pressure soared. His left side grew numb, and his thinking slowed. Even his vision became distorted. Worst of all, the symptoms never let up, so the management consultant took medical leave. He was 30 years old. SF Chronicle Read more
|
|
|
Unruly Air Passenger Rates Declined In The U.S. After Mask Mandates Were Suspended
A week after a federal judge in Florida struck down a government mask mandate on public transportation, the number of unruly air passenger incidents reached its lowest level since 2020, according to data the Federal Aviation Administration released on Wednesday. The agency reported 1.9 incidents per 10,000 flights during the week ending April 24, down from 4.4 incidents per 10,000 flights a week earlier. It declined to cite a reason for the drop. NY Times
|
|
Challenged By COVID, The Class Of 2022 Looks Ahead To Better Days
The Class of 2022 didn’t have a typical high school experience. COVID shut down their schools midway through their sophomore year. California’s seniors spent the rest of that year and most, if not all, of their junior year at home on the computer taking remote classes. They weren’t allowed to play school sports or attend games. They couldn’t perform in the school band or in plays. There were no school dances, club meetings or academic competitions. They studied alone. EdSource Read more
|
|
|
Total Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 1,345,421
California: 9,288,293
U.S.: 81,877,929
Alameda County
Primary Vaccine Series Completed: 86.0%
Total Cases: 269,327
Total Deaths: 1,895
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 5.9%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 5/9): 59
ICU Beds Available (as of 5/9): 87
The community level of COVID-19 in Alameda County is low based on cases and hospitalizations, according to the most recent update from the C.D.C. on May 5.
|
|
Total Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 8,387
California: 90,497
U.S.: 997,539
Contra Costa County
Primary Vaccine Series Completed: 86.5%
Total Cases: 197,456
Total Deaths: 1,301
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 7.3%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 5/9): 40
ICU Beds Available (as of 5/9): 25
The community level of COVID-19 in Contra Costa County is low based on cases and hospitalizations, according to the most recent update from the C.D.C. on May 5. NY Times
|
|
|
What Should You Do If Someone Confronts You About Wearing A Mask?
Caren Gussoff Sumption, a writer who lives in the Seattle area, estimates about half of the people in her neighborhood are still wearing masks. That group includes Gussoff Sumption and her husband. They both have chronic health conditions and take immunosuppressant medications, so they’re in no rush to remove their face coverings. Not everyone is understanding. About a month ago, Gussoff Sumption was filling up her gas tank in South Seattle when a man on the opposite side of the pump shouted something at her. HuffPost Read more
|
|
|
- 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.
|
|
-
A viral test tells you if you have a current infection.
-
An antibody test might tell you if you had a past infection.
|
|
|
Over the past week, Alameda County has averaged 453 new cases and 0.7 new deaths per day.
|
|
Over the past week, Contra Costa County has averaged 261 new cases and 0.1 new deaths per day.
|
|
|
Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Alameda County, cumulative
as of 5/9/2022
Oakland: 78,826
Hayward: 34,383
Fremont: 27,755
San Leandro: 16,355
Eden MAC: 15,102
Berkeley: 15,130
Livermore: 13,361
Union City: 11,811
Alameda: 9,432
Castro Valley: 9,252
|
|
Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Contra Costa County, cumulative
as of 5/9/2022
Richmond: 28,772
Antioch: 26,092
Concord: 21,293
Pittsburg: 16,944
San Pablo: 12,237
Brentwood: 11,850
Walnut Creek: 10,111
Oakley: 9,841
San Ramon: 8,846
Martinez: 6,585
|
|
|
About Eden Health District |
|
The Eden Health District Board of Directors are Chair Mariellen Faria, Vice Chair Pam Russo, Secretary/Treasurer Roxann Lewis, Gordon Galvan and Ed Hernandez. 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.
|
|
|
Follow Us on Social Media |
|
|
|
|
|
|
