COVID-19
breaking news & updates
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Eden Health District 2021 Annual Report
The recently published 2021 Annual Report highlights Eden Health District's innovative and meaningful responses to the pandemic, plus other actions that have positively impacted the health of the community. Read about how the District's work demonstrates the continuing value of an independent healthcare district serving the Eden Area.
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COVID Test Resources
Food Pantries
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BART Officials Consider Reinstating COVID Mask Mandate For Riders
BART riders could soon be required to mask up again while using the transit system. Three BART board members — Board President Rebecca Saltzman, Bevan Dufty and Janice Li — are preparing to propose reinstating the mandate at a meeting on April 28. “We really felt like we needed to move forward with our own to protect our riders, and particularly the most vulnerable communities,” Saltzman said. “I would much prefer for the federal or state or the county health officers to come together and mandate this, but short of that, we have a responsibility to BART riders.” To support her decision, Saltzman cited the rising COVID cases in the Bay Area and the fact that children under age 5 still are not yet eligible for vaccination. KPIX5 Read more
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A UCSF Doctor Calculates The Risk Of Not Masking Up In Public Transit
UC San Francisco Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine Dr. Robert Wachter discussed his risk calculations with CapRadio’s Randol White. He said he's super concerned about the ruling because he doesn't believe that decisions about public health should be made by a judge as opposed to an agency filled with experts on public health. He added that if the ruling stands, that's really problematic if the CDC or other appropriate federal agencies can't institute a mandate in the face of a rapidly changing pandemic threat, that puts us in a really bad place. CapRadio Read more
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Starting Today, San Francisco Will No Longer Require Masks At Public Meetings
Starting today, masks to protect against the transmission of COVID-19 will no longer be required in public commission and board hearing rooms in San Francisco city facilities, city officials said Friday. City employees and members of the public who want to continue to wear masks are encouraged to do so. The masking requirement while in City Hall and other city buildings was dropped March 18, except for in-session meetings. Now that requirement will be relaxed, too. Mercury News Read more
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Are There Still Places Where Proof Of COVID Vaccination Is Required In The Bay Area?
At this point in the pandemic, vaccination requirements are a patchwork of public and private rules. But generally in the Bay Area, you don’t need to pull your vaccine card from your wallet or produce verification on your phone nearly as often as you did last year. So where do we still encounter mandates in the Bay Area? Here’s a look at the situation on three levels: state government, local government and private settings.
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COVID-19 Outbreak Hits Another Bay Area Cruise Ship Voyage
Scores of passengers aboard the Ruby Princess cruise ship became sick with COVID-19 on a San Francisco to Hawaii voyage that ended last week and followed a trip to Panama in which dozens of passengers also were stricken with the virus on the same ship. The San Francisco Department of Public Health said 143 passengers aboard the Ruby Princess’ San Francisco to Hawaii round trip that ended April 11 tested positive for the virus, nearly twice as many as the 73 reported sick with COVID-19 after the ship’s March 27 return to San Francisco from Panama.
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San Mateo: Nearly 90 Students Test Positive For COVID-19 After Prom
Nearly 90 San Mateo High School students have tested positive for COVID-19 after attending prom earlier this month, according to school officials. The school held its prom April 9 at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. As of 11 a.m. Thursday, about 90 of the nearly 600 students who attended the event had tested positive for the coronavirus disease, said San Mateo Union High School District spokesperson Laura Chalkley. “From what is being reported to us, cases are mild or students are asymptomatic,” Chalkley said.
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COVID Vaccine/Treatment News |
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The Drive To Vaccinate The World Against COVID Is Losing Steam
In the middle of last year, the World Health Organization began promoting an ambitious goal, one it said was essential for ending the pandemic: fully vaccinate 70 percent of the population in every country against COVID-10 by June 2022. Now, it is clear that the world will fall far short of that target by the deadline. And there is a growing sense of resignation among public health experts that high COVID vaccination coverage may never be achieved in most lower-income countries, as badly needed funding from the United States dries up and both governments and donors turn to other priorities.
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Pfizer’s COVID Pill Will Soon Be Available Across The U.S.
The U.S. government is finishing plans to make Pfizer Inc.'s COVID-19 pill available at any pharmacy across the country, with supply increasing as the BA.2 sub-variant drives an uptick in cases and hospitalizations. The administration will outline a plan next week aimed at getting the pill, Paxlovid, to additional people who’d otherwise face a more serious case of COVID-19, an administration official said Friday. Use of oral antiviral pills in the U.S. jumped 103% between March 27 and April 10, the official said. The White House wants to drive that number higher, and signal to health providers to err on the side of prescribing the pills, rather than worrying about scarcity. Bloomberg Read more
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When Will The U.S. Have A COVID-19 Vaccine For The Youngest Children?
It’s been more than a year since adults first got COVID-19 vaccines, but about 18 million children under 5 in the U.S. are still waiting – and will probably have to wait until the summer, despite some predictions that shots would be available in the first part of 2022. While Moderna has shared some data on two doses of COVID-19 vaccine for younger children, Pfizer and BioNTech’s data on three doses for younger children is not yet available. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is weighing whether to consider emergency use authorization for both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for young children at the same time, rather than considering them separately, Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Biden, said Thursday. CNN
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Longer COVID Vaccine Dose Interval Tied To Higher Antibody Levels
An interval of over 10 weeks between COVID-19 vaccine doses was associated with SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels up to 11 times higher than with an interval of 2 to 4 weeks in never-infected participants, according to a preprint paper to be presented at the upcoming annual congress of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ESCMID). CIDRAP Read more
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State/National/International News |
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COVID The Third Leading Cause Of Death In U.S. In 2021
COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the United States in 2021, following heart disease and cancer, for the second year in a row, according to provisional data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The overall age-adjusted death rate for all causes in the U.S. was about 1% higher in 2021 that in was in 2020, but the death rate from COVID-19 increased by nearly 20%. The data was published Friday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Mercury New Read more
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How Many California Lives Were Saved By COVID-19 Vaccines? Scientists Have An Answer
A new project from researchers at UC San Francisco in collaboration with the California Department of Public Health draws the clearest picture to date on what the state might have looked like had the vaccines never materialized. In the first 10 months of their availability, COVID-19 vaccines prevented an estimated 1.5 million coronavirus infections, nearly 73,000 hospitalizations, and almost 20,000 deaths in California, according to a study published Friday in the journal JAMA Network Open. LA Times Read more
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The "Underappreciated" Case For Delaying COVID Infection As Long As Possible
Although the few remaining pandemic restrictions and mandates are being dialed back — most recently, the federal mask mandate for public travel — medical experts say that avoiding infection carries benefits right now, and that it’s still possible to engage with life while taking health precautions. “Delaying infections is actually an undervalued or underappreciated point,” said Dr. Abraar Karan, an infectious disease expert at Stanford. SF Chronicle Read more
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Orange County ICUs’ COVID-19 Cases Far From Surge Highs, But Is It Too Soon To Get Hopes Up?
January was grim, grim, grim. The creepy, mechanical rasp of ventilators, breathing for gravely ill people who couldn’t breathe for themselves. The beep, beep, beep of heart monitors announcing each labored muscle contraction. The machine’s piercing wail when those heartbeats stopped. On one day in January, COVID-19 sent 207 very sick people to Orange County intensive care units. But four months later — in mid-April — it seemed like an alternate universe. There were just eight COVID-19 cases in Orange County ICUs. But as last week wore on, ICU cases crept up to 10, and then to 14. Orange County Register Read more
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Confused? Confounded? Why Is L.A. County Requiring Masks Again At Airports And Public Transit?
A new health officer order in Los Angeles County that went into effect today has the nation’s most populous county again enacting COVID-19 rules more stringent than the state’s or nation’s. So why is L.A. County again requiring mask use at its airports and on public transit, including trains, buses, subway stations, taxis, Ubers and Lyfts? On Monday, a federal judge in Florida voided the national mask mandate for airlines and other public transportation, saying the order exceeded the authority of U.S. health officials in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. By Tuesday, most transit companies — including major airlines and ridesharing companies, as well as local agencies like the Metrolink commuter rail system and L.A. County’s Metro system — made masking optional. LA Times Read more
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Can An Employee’s Spouse Who Contracts COVID Sue The Employer? A Federal Court Wants The California Supreme Court To Weigh In
In a case from San Francisco, a federal appeals court asked the California Supreme Court on Thursday whether a worker’s spouse who contracts COVID-19 can sue the worker’s employer — an answer that seems likely to be affirmative, based on the state court’s past actions. The suit was filed by Corey Kuciemba and her husband, Robert Kuciemba, an employee of Victory Woodworks, a furniture construction company in San Francisco. After the city imposed COVID health restrictions on workplaces in May 2020, they said, the company brought in workers from an infected site, disregarded the restrictions and required Robert Kuciemba to work near them. SF Chronicle Read more
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Their Mom Died Of COVID. They Say Conspiracy Theories Are What Really Killed Her
One thing everyone agrees on is that Stephanie didn't have to die. Even months after it happened, her family is struggling to figure out why. "There is no perfect puzzle piece," says Stephanie's daughter Laurie. "I literally go through this all the time." Stephanie was 75 when she succumbed to COVID-19 this past December. But Laurie says it wasn't just COVID that killed her mother. In the years leading up to her death, Stephanie had become embroiled in conspiracy theories. Her belief in those far-out ideas caused her to avoid vaccination and led her to delay and even refuse some of the most effective treatments after she got sick. "I don't believe she was supposed to die," Laurie says. "I blame the misinformation." NPR Read more
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This Patient Had COVID-19 For 505 Days Straight, Study Shows
A U.K. patient with a severely weakened immune system had COVID-19 for almost a year and a half, scientists reported, underscoring the importance of protecting vulnerable people from the coronavirus. There’s no way to know for sure whether it was the longest-lasting COVID-19 infection because not everyone gets tested, especially on a regular basis like this case.
But at 505 days, “it certainly seems to be the longest reported infection,” said Dr. Luke Blagdon Snell, an infectious disease expert at the Guy’s & St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Mercury News
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Uncomfortable Flying Without A Mask Mandate? Some Airlines May Refund Your Ticket
Flying is rife with uncertainty after a federal judge threw out a federal mask mandate for airline passengers, only to have the federal government decide to appeal the ruling. Hesitant fliers seeking to cancel travel plans and get a refund won’t get much more clarity. If flying without a mask mandate makes you nervous, some airlines will offer you a refund. Others won’t give you a break unless you have a refundable ticket, and some carriers say they will deal with refund demands on a case-by-case basis.
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Total Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 1,315,276
California: 9,192,666
U.S.: 80,989,903
Alameda County
Primary Vaccine Series Completed: 85.7%
Total Cases: 262,447
Total Deaths: 1,875
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 4.1%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 4/25): 46
ICU Beds Available (as of 4/25): 106
As of April 25, cases have increased recently and are very high. The number of hospitalized COVID patients has also risen in the Alameda County area. Deaths have decreased. The test positivity rate in Alameda County is relatively low, suggesting that testing capacity is adequate for evaluating COVID-19 spread in the area. NY Times
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Total Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 8,337
California: 90,014
U.S.: 991,349
Contra Costa County
Primary Vaccine Series Completed: 86.3%
Total Cases: 193,384
Total Deaths: 1,299
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 5.0%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 4/25): 28
ICU Beds Available (as of 4/25): 39
As of April 25, cases have increased recently and are very high.The number of hospitalized COVID patients has fallen in the Contra Costa County area. Deaths have remained at about the same level. The test positivity rate in Contra Costa County is relatively low, suggesting that testing capacity is adequate for evaluating COVID-19 spread in the area. NY Times
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How Do mRNA Vaccines Protect You From COVID-19?
Vaccines help protect us from a variety of infections. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve all heard a lot about a type of vaccine called an mRNA vaccine, which stands for messenger ribonucleic acid. While mRNA vaccines may seem very new, researchers have been working on them for a long time. Healthline 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 246 new cases and 1.1 new death per day.
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Over the past week, Contra Costa County has averaged 124 new cases and 0.1 new deaths per day.
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Alameda County, cumulative
as of 4/25/2022
Oakland: 76,516
Hayward: 33,948
Fremont: 26,825
San Leandro: 16,098
Eden MAC: 14,638
Berkeley: 14,158
Livermore: 13,150
Union City: 11,527
Alameda: 9,087
Castro Valley: 9,008
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Contra Costa County, cumulative
as of 4/25/2022
Richmond: 28,310
Antioch: 25,771
Concord: 20,897
Pittsburg: 16,706
San Pablo: 12,076
Brentwood: 11,635
Walnut Creek: 9,757
Oakley: 9,695
San Ramon: 8,459
Martinez: 6,420
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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, 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.
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