COVID-19
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Contra Costa To Lift Masking Requirements In Some Indoor Settings On Nov. 1
With COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations declining, Contra Costa County will lift masking requirements on Nov. 1 in certain indoor settings where everyone is fully vaccinated. Eligible settings are in controlled spaces not open to the general public, including offices, gyms and fitness centers, employee commuter vehicles, indoor college classes and organized gatherings in any other indoor setting, such as a religious gathering. Contra Costa County Health Services Read more
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Hey, Teens! Get Vaccinated, And You Could Win A Full Scholarship To S.F. State
Alongside the free race car rides, surfing lessons and round-trip tropical vacations offered around the country as incentives for getting a COVID-19 vaccination, San Francisco State University dangles this tempting carrot for city residents: four years of free tuition for 10 prospective students ages 12 to 17. That’s worth nearly $30,000 at current prices, or $7,444 a year, for students who would otherwise pay out of pocket. Applicants who qualify for federal Pell Grants and state Cal Grants will also go for free and won’t have to pay the difference if they win. Winners whose tuition and fees are fully covered by grants will get an additional $2,000 a year. SF Chronicle Read more
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Not Enough Bay Area Seniors Are Getting Boosters - Confusion May Be A Reason
Amid mounting evidence of waning immunity and an increased risk for older adults to end up hospitalized with COVID even after vaccination, Bay Area public health officials are eager to increase uptake of boosters, especially ahead of what could be another winter surge. So far, interest in boosters has not matched the demand for first shots earlier this year, health officials say. Though data is somewhat unreliable, in most Bay Area counties roughly 10% to 30% of eligible older adults have gotten a booster since they were authorized for certain groups in August. SF Chronicle Read more
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More Than 100 San Francisco Police And Firefighters Remain Unvaccinated And Could Lose Jobs
Nearly 190 San Francisco police officers and firefighters were not yet fully unvaccinated hours before the deadline for these city workers to get shots by midnight October 13. Police Chief Bill Scott told the Police Commission Wednesday evening that 118 sworn police officers - 5% of all sworn officers - remain unvaccinated, and 61 are partially vaccinated. Another 31 non-sworn employees are unvaccinated and 11 are partially vaccinated. SF Chronicle Read more
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COVID Forced Bay Area Families To Make Agonizing Elder-Care Decisions
As the deadly winter surge in coronavirus cases began last November, Fred Mekata was doing something that had become unthinkable to millions of Americans: moving into an assisted-living facility. The love of his life, Ruth, had been diagnosed with dementia a couple of years earlier. Gone was the independent, sharp woman he’d shared his life with for more than 56 years. Over were the spontaneous weekend trips to Spain, a perk of her years with American Airlines. Instead, the pair were puttering around their 3,000-square-foot home in Danville, Fred trying to take charge of daily tasks like cooking that had always been Ruth’s domain and struggling to come to terms with the changes in their lives. So he packed up their belongings. Sold the house. Moved into a second-floor unit at The Watermark at San Ramon. Hunkered down for a quarantine. All as the pandemic raged on. Mercury News Read more
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Berkeley School Bus Service Canceled This Week Due To Staff COVID Exposure
Berkeley Unified School District is canceling bus service for its elementary schools this week due to a COVID exposure, officials say. In a letter sent to families, Superintendent Brent Stephens said many from the district's transportation department staff were involved in an exposure that requires them to quarantine. KTVU
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City of Oakland Launches New COVID Community Clinic in Downtown Oakland
The City of Oakland is expanding its free, walk-up COVID -19 vaccination AND testing clinic to operate 7 days a week through November 30. The clinic is located at 250 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza (next to City Hall), and is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. No appointment is needed. City of Oakland Read more
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FDA Panel Unanimously Recommends Moderna COVID Booster Shots For At-Risk Adults
A key Food and Drug Administration advisory committee unanimously recommended Thursday giving booster shots of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine to people age 65 and older and other vulnerable Americans, a crucial step before the U.S. can start administering third shots to some of the more than 69 million people who originally received that vaccine. The nonbinding decision by the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee would bring guidelines for Moderna in line with third shots of Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine. Those shots were authorized less than a month ago to a wide array of Americans, including the elderly, adults with underlying medical conditions and those who work or live in high-risk settings like health and grocery workers. CNBC Read more
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New Study Shows Vaccine Refusal's Staggering Cost In Human Life
COVID-19 is now the second-leading cause of death in the United States, despite the availability of safe, effective, and free vaccines. The promise of those vaccines showed itself when they first became widely available and COVID-19 dropped to be seventh on the list of causes of death. Then came the Delta variant, and the levels of vaccination in the U.S. were not enough. That proved deadly: A new study concludes that 90,000 deaths could have been avoided over a period of four months, from June through September, if more people had gotten vaccinated. Daily Kos Read more
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Fully Vaccinated Travelers Can Come To The U.S. Even If Their Doses Are Mixed, Authorities Say
International travelers who are fully vaccinated with mixed doses of approved coronavirus vaccines will be allowed into the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in recently updated guidance. The White House said U.S. travel restrictions will be lifted Nov. 8 for fully vaccinated international travelers, a policy that will in part require foreign travelers to show proof of vaccination before boarding a flight. According to a Friday update to CDC guidance, individuals will be considered fully vaccinated if they receive vaccines fully- or emergency- approved by the Food and Drug Administration or by the World Health Organization - including combinations of such shots. Washington Post Read more
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The Political Fight Over Vaccine Mandates Deepens Despite Their Effectiveness
The science is clear: Vaccines are a safe and effective way to prevent serious illness, hospitalization and death from the coronavirus, and vaccine mandate are an effective tool in promoting widespread vaccinations. Still, the battle to inoculate the nation against the coronavirus has reached a fever pitch in recent months. President Biden has focused on getting as many Americans as possible vaccinated against the coronavirus, most notably rolling out wide-reaching vaccine mandates for government employees and for businesses with more than 100 workers. But Republicans have grown increasingly hostile to the notion of mandatory vaccines - despite vaccine mandates existing in the background in parts of the United States since the 19th century - and have parlayed the fight against COVID-19 into a political battle, with vaccine mandates as the latest frontier in the great American defense of freedom and liberty. NPR Read more
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Biden Announces Vaccine Donation of 17 Million Doses for African Union
President Biden last Thursday announced the donation of millions of coronavirus vaccines to a group of African countries during a meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, which is contending with the pandemic and an unfolding humanitarian disaster in neighboring Ethiopia. The Biden administration’s donation of 17 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the African Union came a month after Mr. Kenyatta publicly pleaded for more equitable vaccine distribution around the world. NY Times Read more
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Will New COVID Treatments Be As Elusive For Poor Countries As Vaccines?
Nearly a year after the first COVID-19 vaccination campaigns began, the vast majority of the shots have gone to people in wealthy nations, with no clear path toward resolving the disparity. News this month that an antiviral medication had proved effective against the coronavirus in a large clinical trial has brought new hope of a turning point in the pandemic: a not-too-distant future when a simple pill could keep infected people from dying or falling severely ill. The drug, made by Merck, is easy to distribute and can be taken at home. The trial results showed it halved the risk of hospitalization and death among high-risk people early in their infections. NY Times Read more
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Former Secretary of State Colin Powell Dies of Complications From COVID
Colin L. Powell, who in four decades of public life served as the nation’s top soldier, diplomat and national security adviser, and whose speech at the United Nations in 2003 helped pave the way for the United States to go to war in Iraq, died on Monday. He was 84. He died of complications of COVID-19, his family said in a statement. He had been fully vaccinated and was treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, in Bethesda, Md., where he died, his family said. Mr. Powell had undergone treatment for multiple myeloma, which compromised his immune system, a spokeswoman said.
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CDC Releases 2021 Holiday Guidance To Prevent Spread Of COVID-19
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday released its official public health guidance for the 2021 holiday season, offering up mostly general advice on how to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The recommendations urge people to get vaccinated ahead of the holidays if they haven't done so already. For young children who aren't yet eligible for the vaccine, the CDC suggests reducing risk of exposure by making sure the people around them are vaccinated. The CDC also recommends that people continue to wear masks indoors in public spaces. "We fully expect that families and friends will gather for the holidays this year and we have updated our guidance on how to best to stay safe over the holidays," the agency wrote in a statement. "The best way to minimize COVID risk and ensure that people can safely gather is to get vaccinated or get the booster if you’re eligible." ABC News Read more
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They Resisted Getting Vaccinated. Here’s Why They Changed Their Minds
In the Bronx, a youth counselor closed his eyes and steeled himself for the shot. In Queens, a nurse calmed herself by humming gospel music. In Manhattan, a graduate student asked one last question about fertility while reviewing the consent form. With a mixture of nervousness, resentment and, sometimes relief, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers finally got a dose of coronavirus vaccine in recent weeks. In some cases, it was because they had a change of heart; perhaps more commonly, it was to keep their jobs. NY Times Read more
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"I Hope You Die": How The COVID Pandemic Unleashed Attacks On Scientists
Infectious-diseases physician Krutika Kuppalli had been in her new job for barely a week in September 2020, when someone phoned her at home and threatened to kill her. Kuppalli, who had just moved from California to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, had been dealing with online abuse for months after she’d given high-profile media interviews on COVID-19, and had recently testified to a U.S. congressional committee on how to hold safe elections during the pandemic. But the phone call was a scary escalation. “It made me very anxious, nervous and upset,” says Kuppalli, who now works at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland. Nature
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With Hospitals Crowded From COVID, 1 in 5 American Families Delays Health Care
Last month, Chelsea Titus, a 40-year-old mother of one in Boise, Idaho, needed surgery to relieve severe pain from endometriosis. But hospitals there are so full of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients that doctors told her she'd have to wait. Nearly 1 in 5 American households has had to delay care for serious illnesses in the past few months, according to a new poll from NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. NPR Read more
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48 Hours To Live: An Oklahoma hospital’s Rush To Find An ICU Bed For A COVID Patient
The COVID patient in Room 107 was bleeding internally and near death. So Robin Pressley, transfer coordinator at Stillwater Medical Center, was working fast to try to find an ICU bed at a larger hospital for Johnnie Novotny, a 69-year-old retired gas plant operator who had developed a hematoma and needed more specialized care than doctors at this modest rural hospital could provide. Pressley knew that other hospitals in the region were already choked with COVID patients due to a summer surge driven by the highly infectious Delta variant and the state’s large numbers of unvaccinated residents, like Novotny. But she also knew that Novotny’s life depended on her success. Washington Post Read more
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Los Angeles Unified School District Sued Over Student Vaccination Mandate
The Los Angeles Unified School District has been slapped with a lawsuit over its mandate that students 12 and older get their COVID-19 shots, a requirement which attorneys for the plaintiff contend is unlawful because it does not allow for religious or personal belief exemptions. The lawsuit was filed last week on behalf of a parent of a 12-year-old student who claims that their child, along with other LAUSD students who do not comply with the mandate, would be discriminated against by being denied an in-person education and the opportunity to participate in extracurricular programs.
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Thousands Protest As Italy's COVID Pass Becomes Mandatory For Workers
A mandate for all workers in Italy to show a government-issued COVID-19 pass came into force last Friday, triggering protests at key ports and fears of disruption. Anyone who is on a payroll - in the public or private sector - must have a 'green pass' with a QR code as proof of either full vaccination, recent recovery from infection or a negative test within the previous 48 hours. Employees who go to work without the pass risk a fine of up to 1,500 euros ($1,730) and suspension without pay. Employers could also face fines if they allow staff to work without it. CNN Read more
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COVID Super-Immunity: One Of The Pandemic’s Great Puzzles
Around a year ago - before Delta and other variants entered the COVID-19 lexicon - virologists Theodora Hatziioannou and Paul Bieniasz, both at the Rockefeller University in New York City, set out to make a version of a key SARS-CoV-2 protein with the ability to dodge all the infection-blocking antibodies our body makes. The goal was to identify the parts of spike - the protein SARS-CoV-2 uses to infect cells - that are targeted by these neutralizing antibodies in order to map a key part of our body's attack on the virus. Nature Read more
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GOP Lawmaker, Banned From Flying Alaska Airlines Over Mask Mandate, Tests Positive For Coronavirus
An Alaska GOP lawmaker banned from flying on the state’s leading airline for refusing to wear a mask, and therefore unable to travel to and from the state capital, has now tested positive for the coronavirus, she said. State Sen. Lora Reinbold, a Republican representing an Anchorage suburb, wrote on Facebook last Tuesday night that it was her “turn to battle Covid head on.” “Game on! Who do you think is going to win?” Reinbold wrote of her infection. Washington Post Read more
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Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 588,359
California: 4,813,204
U.S.: 44,937,514
Alameda County
Vaccines Administered: 2,417,762
Cases: 117,073
Deaths: 1,374
Test Positivity: 1.5%
Hospitalized Patients: 128
ICU Beds Available: 107
Cases have decreased recently but are still high. The number of hospitalized COVID patients has also fallen the Alameda County area. Deaths have remained at about the same level. The test positivity rate in Alameda County is relatively low, suggesting that testing capacity is adequate for evaluating COVID spread in the area. NY Times
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Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 6,518
California: 70,620
U.S.: 724,417
Contra Costa County
Vaccines Administered: 1,721,918
Cases: 97,817
Deaths: 994
Test Positivity: 2.2%
Hospitalized Patients: 61
ICU Beds Available: 29
Cases have decreased recently but are 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 relatively low, suggesting that testing capacity is adequate for evaluating COVID-19 spread in the area. NY Times
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Why Used Car Prices Have Soared 26% During The Pandemic
Looking for a used car? Get ready for some sticker shock. The microchip shortage has slowed production of new vehicles, funneling buyers instead to pre-owned cars, trucks and SUVs, and prices have risen significantly as a result. The inventory of new vehicles in California is down 75%, according to Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds’ executive director of insights, who recently surveyed dealerships across the state. Mercury News 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 past week, Alameda County has averaged 111 new cases and 1.4 new deaths per day.
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Over the past week, Contra Costa County has averaged 106 new cases and 3.4 new death per day.
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Alameda County, as of 10/18/21
Oakland: 37,170
Hayward: 16,995
Fremont: 10,324
Eden MAC: 7,415
San Leandro: 7,270
Livermore: 6,357
Union City: 4,996
Berkeley: 4,951
Castro Valley: 3,636
Newark: 3,471
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Contra Costa County, as of 10/18/21
Richmond: 14,854
Antioch: 14,279
Concord: 11,016
Pittsburg: 9,384
San Pablo: 6,480
Brentwood: 6,079
Oakley: 5,154
Walnut Creek: 4,216
Bay Point: 3,734
San Ramon: 3,163
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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 Varsha Chauhan. 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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