COVID-19
breaking news & updates
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October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Share Your Story
Did you know that 1 in 8 women in the United States will develop breast cancer in her lifetime? According to the American Cancer Society, when breast cancer is detected early, and is in the localized stage, the 5-year relative survival rate is 99%. Early detection includes doing monthly breast self-exams, and scheduling regular clinical breast exams and mammograms. The National Breast Cancer Foundation provides help and inspires hope to those affected by breast cancer through early detection,
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Halloween Health Advisory: Hemp-Derived Gummies, Brownies, Lollipops, and Candies Are Dangerous to Children
With Halloween approaching, the California Department of Public Health warns parents and consumers about the danger of children consuming hemp-derived products containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). These products look similar to common candies and baked goods, like gummies, lollipops, and brownies. As a result, these products can be attractive to children, and when consumed, can cause adverse reactions such as becoming ill, or in extreme cases, result in death. These products should not be eaten by children. CDPH Read more
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COVID Test Resources
Food Pantries
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Bay Area Residents Resume Halloween Celebrations After COVID Pause
Some are calling it the resurrection of Halloween. After the pandemic put a damper on celebrations these past two years, some are making up for it by going big this year. When you visit the Albertson family's San Jose home, it feels like you are stepping into several Pixar films at once. The Albertson family has a passion for creating movie magic at their home on north 16th Street and they’ve been doing this for more than two decades. “This is going to be our 21st year that we are doing this," said San Jose resident Eric Albertson. "We started it when we moved in. We started with a very small castle in front of our house and it has grown quite a bit." NBC Bay Area Read more
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Numbers Show Apathy Towards Booster Shot Across Bay Area
Despite widespread availability of the bivalent Omicron booster shot, there is a sense of booster apathy among people across the Bay Area and the country. According to statewide vaccination data, here are the percentages of eligible people who've received the bivalent booster across the Bay Area counties: Alameda: 13.7%; Contra Costa: 12.9%; Napa: 13.5%; San Francisco: 16.6%; San Mateo: 15%; Santa Clara: 12.9%; Santa Cruz: 13.9%; Solano: 10.5%; and Sonoma: 12.2%. When the original booster shot became widely available about a year ago, people waited in long lines to get it. But that isn't happening with the new booster shot, says Trish Erwin, the manager of San Mateo County's Immunization Program & COVID-19 Response Unit. CBS News Read more
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Bay Area Tenant Evictions Spike After Pandemic Protections End
Home evictions across the five-county Bay Area have more than doubled since state and local pandemic protections have petered out over the past year. From July of last year through June, the Bay Area had more than 6,300 eviction filings, with a surge after emergency tenant protections were rolled back in September, the San Jose Mercury News reported, citing a Bay Area News Group analysis of court cases. The evictions shot up even higher as statewide safeguards were gradually lifted before expiring at the end of June. Eviction cases rose sharply across Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco and Contra Costa counties. The exception was Alameda County, where local tenant protections remain in place. Despite lower cases, it had more than 1,000 eviction court filings in June and July. The Real Deal Read more
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Will COVID Experts Stay On Twitter After Elon Musk Takeover? Here’s What UCSF’s Wachter Says
UCSF Department of Medicine chair Dr. Bob Wachter, a prominent voice on Twitter for his COVID expertise, tweeted on Saturday that he is “staying put for now” on the platform despite concerns in the wake of Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase. The finalization of the deal Thursday — after which Musk immediately fired several top executives — reportedly led some users to jump ship to other social media services over fears that harassment, misinformation and hatred could increase under Musk’s control. SF Chronicle Read more
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COVID Vaccine/Treatment News
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The COVID Symptoms You Get Depend On How Many Vaccine Jabs You’ve Had, Major Study Says
If you’ve ever had COVID, there’s a chance you’re all too familiar with symptoms of the virus, which include a cough, tiredness, and headaches. But as the virus has evolved and new variants like Delta and Omicron have emerged, its most common symptoms have changed—and now, it seems, which ones you get depends on how many vaccine jabs you’ve had. Getting vaccinated against COVID reduces your risk of severe illness, hospitalization, and death if you do catch the disease—but according to new research, it could also dictate which batch of the milder, more common symptoms of the virus you end up getting. It’s thought that a large proportion of cases are still asymptomatic. Fortune Read more
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CDC’s Move Paves Way For California To Require School COVID Vaccines — But Lawmakers Have Given Up For Now
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccination advisors voted recently to recommend all children get the COVID-19 vaccine, a move that does not change California’s list of vaccines required for children to attend school. The addition of the COVID-19 vaccine to the CDC’s recommended vaccines for kids is not a mandate for states’ school attendance requirements. Any additions to California’s list must be made by the state Legislature or the state Department of Public Health. In the last 12 months, the Newsom administration and the Legislature separately tried to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for kids to attend school, and both failed. CalMatters Read more
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COVID-19 Symptoms Can Rebound Even If You Don’t Take Paxlovid
When the antiviral treatment Paxlovid came into wider use for COVID-19 infections earlier this year, doctors who prescribed it and patients who took it noticed that symptoms sometimes flared up again a few days after having gone away. Some people even tested negative before they experienced the rebound. But this puzzling phenomenon can occur whether you take Paxlovid or not, according to a new study. Researchers found that when patients received a placebo instead of treatment, a portion of them still experienced a rebound of their symptoms after they had initially improved. NY Times Read more
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People Of Color Less Likely To Receive Paxlovid And Other COVID-19 Treatments, According To CDC Study
People of color – especially Black and Hispanic people – were less likely to receive Paxlovid and other Covid-19 treatments, according to a study published Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Throughout the pandemic, Black and Hispanic people have been about two times more likely than White people to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19. The new study showed Black COVID-19 patients were 36% less likely than White patients to be treated with Paxlovid, and Hispanic patients were 30% less likely than non-Hispanic patients to receive the antiviral pill.
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NIH Backs Study Of Paxlovid As A Long COVID Treatment
Duke University researchers will explore the effectiveness of the Pfizer antiviral drug Paxlovid against the complex medical condition known as long COVID. The details of the randomized trial, posted on clinicaltrials.gov, show a plan to test the treatment against a placebo control in 1,700 adult volunteers. SF Chronicle Read more
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State/National/International News
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Omicron Subvariants Resistant To Key Antibody Treatments Are Increasing Every Week In The U.S.
Two Omicron subvariants that are resistant to key antibody treatments are on the rise in the U.S., according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The subvariants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 now represent 27% of infections in the U.S., a significant jump from the week prior when they made up about 16% of new cases, according to CDC data published Friday. Omicron BA.5, though still the dominant variant, is diminishing every week. It now represents about 50% of infections in the U.S., down from 60% the week prior, according to the data. CNBC Read more
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Yes, People Are Lying About Their COVID Symptoms. Here’s How To Deal With It
At this stage in the pandemic, with health mandates and contact tracing no longer the rule, it can be really difficult to reconcile our own risk tolerance with what the rest of the world is doing around us. This is especially challenging when people’s direct actions, over which we have little control, put us at direct risk. SF Chronicle Read more
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Black Patients Suffered Delays In COVID Care After Faulty Readings By Common Device, Study Finds
Black patients experienced delays in COVID-19 treatment because a common medical device that measures blood oxygen levels tended to give inaccurate readings for darker-skinned individuals, according to a new study by Sutter Health. The inaccurate measurements contributed to nearly five-hour delays in COVID-19 treatment, which was critical time for the potentially fatal virus, according to the study. “The findings underscore the fact that bias is not only human, it can be ingrained in the devices and tools clinicians rely on, too,” said Dr. Stephanie Brown of Sutter Health’s Institute for Advancing Health Equity. Sacramento Bee Read more
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For Those Still Trying To Duck COVID, The Isolation Is Worse Than Ever
Of course Jeremy Pelofsky and Christine Grimaldi want people to meet their new baby. This is their only child, after all, the long-awaited first grandkid on either side. But first, some ground rules. The visit will take place in the backyard. Anyone who wants to come over will need to take a rapid coronavirus test. And if guests want to hold the baby or go inside to use the bathroom, they’ll be asked to wear a mask. These measures seem like common sense to Pelofsky and Grimaldi. They’re trying to keep themselves and their infant safe, plus they want to protect their elderly parents and do their part to reduce community spread. Not long ago, the couple felt that their precautions were in sync with much of the rest of society. But in recent months, their idea of COVID common sense has grown painfully out of tune with the view that it’s time to throw caution to the wind and masks in the garbage. Washington Post Read more
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Humans Transmit SARS-CoV-2 To Their Pets, Household Study Finds
Among a sample of 107 households with pets and at least one COVID-19–infected adult in Idaho and Washington state, 21% of dogs and 39% of cats had signs of infection, 40% of dogs and 43% of cats had SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, and 5% and 8%, respectively, tested positive on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, finds a new study in Emerging Infectious Diseases. University of Washington researchers led the study of households with a total of 119 dogs and 57 cats. Households were recruited through COVID-19 clinical trials and community studies, social media, word of mouth, community partners, and contact tracers. The team surveyed a member of each household, reviewed COVID-19 test results, and, when possible, visited the home to collect pet blood and nose-throat and fecal swabs. CIDRAP Read more
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The Pandemic Tested And Reshaped The Hearts Of American Cities
The downtown has long been the beating heart of many American cities. Jumbles of offices, apartments, theaters and restaurants are braided together by overlapping cultures and histories, and life pulses to the beats of traffic, construction and crowds. America’s downtowns faced hard times long before the coronavirus pandemic — troubles brought on by suburban flight, economic dislocation and freeway-construction projects that gutted neighborhoods, among other things. But the blast waves of COVID posed a threat that was new, and even existential, for places where density is part of the DNA. NY Times Read more
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China’s Latest COVID Lockdown Affects A Major iPhone Factory
A COVID-19 outbreak at the largest iPhone manufacturing plant in Zhengzhou, China, has forced some factory workers into quarantine, part of a citywide outbreak that has also prompted shops and hotels near the factory to close. Foxconn, a major manufacturer for Apple, confirmed in a statement to The New York Times on Thursday that a “small number of employees” had been asked to quarantine, but declined to comment on details of the outbreak. NY Times Read more
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Where Can I Travel In Europe? A List Of COVID Entry Rules For Every European Country
Most countries still have some travel restrictions in place in a bid to control the spread of COVID-19. The latest big changes include: Spain, Luxembourg, Netherlands, France, Malta, Portugal, Finland, Germany, Estonia, Italy, Cyprus, Austria and Greece no longer have any COVID-19 travel restrictions for visitors. Passengers flying in the EU no longer need to wear masks in airports or aboard flights. Euronews Read more
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Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)
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Bay Area Pediatricians, Hospitals “Slammed” With Kids With RSV
October is usually a quiet month for Dr. Julie Kim and her colleagues at their pediatrics practice in Los Gatos, after the summer rush for physicals. But this October? “It’s just crazy,” she said. “We’re double capacity.” The main culprit is a respiratory bug known as RSV that can be especially difficult on infants and young children, and is responsible for a rise in pediatric hospital visits across the country. Kim said she has been seeing up to 50 kids in a day for a range of respiratory illnesses, but especially RSV. And while the virus usually ramps up during the heart of the winter, “this year it is coming abnormally early, hitting health care systems and hospitals hard,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a UCSF professor of medicine who specializes in infectious diseases. East Bay Times
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RSV: What To Know About Symptoms, Transmission And Treatment
You may have seen respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, in the news recently, as rates of the virus have ticked up across the United States. RSV usually circulates from late December to mid-February. But this year, an early spike in cases is resulting in markedly higher numbers of infections and hospitalizations. As rising RSV rates coincide with the expected wintertime surge in COVID-19 as well as an early flu season, experts are worried about a “tripledemic” and the strain it could place on hospitals and emergency departments that are already stretched thin. NY Times Read more
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Total Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 1,782,800
California: 11,363,979
U.S.: 97,455,455
Alameda County
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the Latest Figures
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Total Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 9,298
California: 96,892
U.S.: 1,070,296
Contra Costa County
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the Latest Figures
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6 Surprising Ways COVID-19 Has Changed Friendships
Much like a plant or any living thing, the more care and attention given to friendships, the stronger they grow and the more connected people feel. So when COVID-19 came along, and the term “social distancing” became the new norm, friendships were put to the test. Some bonds, because of the pods people formed in an effort to limit virus exposure, grew stronger. Others, after months of limited or no interaction, faded away or were lost entirely. AARP 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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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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