COVID-19
breaking news & updates
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COVID Test Resources
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S.F. Wastewater Shows Virus Retreat Is Slowing
While the official number of daily COVID-19 cases reported by San Francisco’s health department continues to fall, the virus levels in the city’s wastewater samples — which do not depend on individual testing — appear to have stopped declining. Dr. Bob Wachter, UCSF’s chief of medicine, noted the discrepancy on Monday and in a Twitter thread highlighted that the hospital’s asymptomatic test rate has also plateaued. He said the numbers remain “fairly low” for now and that he will continue to feel safe dining indoors, especially two weeks after getting the updated bivalent booster, but that “it'll make me more apt to continue masking in crowded places (which is getting harder & more lonely) — since there's more virus in (the) air than case numbers indicate.”
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Indoor Air-Cleaning Strategies Are Key To Minimizing Virus Spread, Says Berkeley Lab
Along with vaccines, masks, and testing, indoor air hygiene and building engineering controls will be key to slowing the spread of airborne, highly infectious variants of COVID-19. In a recent review in the journal Indoor Air, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) presented a thorough review of the state of the science for several key strategies to reduce airborne infection risk using building controls – ventilation, filtration, airflow management and disinfection by germicidal ultraviolet (UV) light. “We found strong evidence that indoor environmental controls can be effective against transmission. Implementing building controls effectively and at scale while considering operational challenges and energy costs are critically important to support in-person activities in our schools, offices, and other types of indoor spaces where people gather,” said Berkeley Lab researcher Rengie Chan.
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Deadline For Eden Health District Grants Program Is Tomorrow
Community non-profit agencies serving residents of the Eden area (Hayward, San Leandro, Castro Valley, Ashland, Cherryland, San Lorenzo, Fairview, and Hayward Acres) are encouraged to apply for community grants up to $25,000. Key priorities for funding include mental health, housing and homelessness, and food and nutrition. Here is the link to apply: https://ethd.org/grants/application-forms/. Grant applications are due September 30 at noon. Grant awards will be made in December of 2022. Services funded by community grants should start in January of 2023. |
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COVID Vaccine/Treatment News |
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FDA Clears Additional Lots Of Moderna's COVID Booster
Amid Shortage
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Monday it has authorized an additional five batches of Moderna Inc.'s updated COVID booster shots made at a Catalent facility in Indiana, after it deemed them safe for use. Last week, the health regulator had allowed use of ten batches of Moderna's updated booster shots made at the Bloomington, Indiana facility, owned by a unit of Catalent Inc., which is currently not a part of the company's emergency use authorization. The FDA had earlier said Moderna had requested authorization for additional batches in light of the current supply issues. It did not provide details on the number of doses cleared in both instances. Reuters
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Pfizer Asks FDA To Authorize Omicron COVID Booster Shots For Kids Ages 5 To 11
Pfizer on Monday asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize its new COVID booster shots that target the omicron BA.5 subvariant for children ages 5 to 11. Pfizer's application to the FDA comes before clinical trial results of the new vaccines have been published. The company, in a statement, said its request is based on human data from a similar vaccine that targets the Omicron BA.1 subvariant and data from animal studies on the BA.5 shots. Pfizer’s main competitor on COVID shots, Moderna, asked the FDA to authorize its Omicron shots for kids ages 6 through 17 on Friday. CNBC Read more
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New Study Shows COVID Vaccines Can Temporarily Alter
Menstrual Cycle
Some people experience headaches or sore arms after getting vaccinated. Others may have nausea or swollen lymph nodes. Now, a growing body of research is pointing to yet another potential side effect of COVID-19 vaccines: changes in menstrual cycles. In a study published on Tuesday in BMJ Medicine, researchers reported that, on average, vaccinated people experienced about a one-day delay in their periods compared with those who did not get vaccinated. But like other side effects of vaccines, this change was temporary. One cycle after vaccination, people’s periods tended to return to normal.
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Flu Vaccine Or COVID-19 Booster? Which Shot Should You Get First This Fall?
As the official start of autumn approaches, there are two important decisions to be made when it comes to vaccinations. The first is when to get your annual influenza shot. Experts say Australia is finishing up a flu season in which the illness started early and finished strong. They warn the United States could be in store for a similar pattern as our winter season draws near. The second decision is when to get the new Omicron-specific COVID-19 booster shot that was authorized by the Food and Drug Administration a few weeks ago. Healthline Read more
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State/National/International News |
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Why COVID Cases Are Not Rising Dramatically Despite Schools
Being Open
Most children in the United States have returned to school for the year as districts aim to bring kids back to a setting that resembles the pre-pandemic normal. Masks are now optional in most classrooms and, last month, the Centers for Disease and Prevention said it was no longer recommending school use test-to-stay, which allowed students who were close contacts of those who tested positive for COVID-19 to continue to attend in-person classes if they remained asymptomatic and continued to test negative. Dr. Greta Massetti, chief of the field epidemiology and prevention branch at the CDC, told reporters at the time that because unvaccinated and vaccinated people were no longer being advised to quarantine, test-to-stay was no longer necessary. ABC News
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Long COVID Has Forced A Reckoning For One Of Medicine’s Most Neglected Diseases
Kira Stoops lives in Bozeman, Montana—a beautiful mountain town where it sometimes feels like everyone regularly goes on 50-mile runs. Stoops, however, can’t walk around her own block on most days. To stand for more than a few minutes, she needs a wheeled walker. She reacts so badly to most foods that her diet consists of just 12 ingredients. Her “brain fog” usually lifts for a mere two hours in the morning, during which she can sometimes work or, more rarely, see friends. Stoops has myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The Atlantic Read more
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Five Things About COVID We Still Don’t Understand At Our Peril
Since a new coronavirus launched the global pandemic that has now killed more than 6.5 million people — 16 percent of them in the United States alone — scientists in record numbers have devoted themselves full time to unraveling its mysteries. In less than three years, researchers have published more than 200,000 studies about the virus and COVID-19. That is four times the number of scientific papers written on influenza in the past century and more than 10 times the number written on measles. Still, the virus has kept many of its secrets, from how it mutates so rapidly to why it kills some while leaving others largely unscathed — mysteries that if solved might arm the world’s scientists with new strategies to curb its spread and guard against the next pandemic.
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These Scientists Traced A New Coronavirus Lineage To One Office — Through Sewage
Virologist Dave O’Connor admits that he was getting desperate when he started asking dog owners for poo samples. For much of 2022, O’Connor, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and his colleagues have been tracking a heavily mutated variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Early this year, they discovered the variant in Wisconsin waste water drawn from more than 100,000 people. Following the sewer system to ever-smaller watersheds, they narrowed the variant’s source to one particular area. Nature Read more
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Canada Drops Coronavirus Rules For Travelers
Traveling to Canada is about to get a lot easier. Starting Oct. 1, the country is dropping all coronavirus entry and travel restrictions. That means visitors will no longer be required to show proof of vaccination, get tested, submit health information through an official online site, report symptoms, isolate or quarantine, or wear a mask on planes or trains. Washington Post Read more
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Binge Drinking Increases COVID Risk For Young Women
Young women who reported frequent binge drinking during the coronavirus pandemic were more likely to become infected with COVID-19, according to research by Rutgers. The study, published Tuesday in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, found that women between the ages of 25 to 28 who reported having four or more drinks in one sitting had the highest self-reported prevalence of infection among the subgroups studied. SF Chronicle
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Monkeypox Vaccine 79% Effective, According To Israeli Preprint Study
According to a new non-peer reviewed study out of Israel, the Jynneos vaccine is 79% effective against monkeypox infection. The study was based on patients eligible for monkeypox vaccine seen in the Clalit Health Services system between July 31 and September 12, 2022. Of 1,970 subjects eligible for the study, 873 (44%) were vaccinated with Jynneos and completed at least 25 days of follow-up. Fifteen unvaccinated subjects and three vaccinated participants contracted monkeypox during the study, with vaccine effectiveness estimated at 79% (95% CI [confidence interval], 24% to 94%). CIDRAP Read more
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"It Is Sinking Us Even Further": STI Clinics, Already Stretched Thin, Strain Under Weight Of Monkeypox Response
At the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s sexual health clinic, patients are normally seen within 24 hours. Recently, amid the monkeypox outbreak, it’s been a five-day wait. At Open Door Health, an LGBTQ+ community clinic in Providence, R.I., a standard test for a sexually transmitted infection might take 15 minutes. Testing for monkeypox — between authorizing the test and donning and doffing PPE — has dragged up to an hour. Insurance reimbursement doesn’t cover all that added time. At the Detroit Public Health STD Clinic, staff are so tied up responding to the outbreak that they enlisted local medical students to schedule vaccine appointments. STAT Read more
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Total Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 1,755,412
California: 11,237,759
U.S.: 96,212,310
Alameda County
Primary Vaccine Series and Boosted: 73.6%
Total Cases: 347,603
Total Deaths: 2,026
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 5.3%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 9/29): 82
ICU Beds Available (as of 9/29): 90
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Total Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 9,141
California: 95,843
U.S.: 1,058,004
Contra Costa County
Primary Vaccine Series and Boosted: 70.4%
Total Cases: 271,476
Total Deaths: 1,428
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 5.7%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 9/29): 54
ICU Beds Available (as of 9/29): 37
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Which COVID-19 Test Should You Get?
If you’re wondering about the differences between all of the COVID-19 tests, you’re not alone. As cases of the COVID-19 Omicron subvariant BA.5 continue to increase across the United States, many people who have either been exposed or have symptoms of the SARS-CoV-2 virus are taking tests to see whether they are positive. Several testing options are available, including at-home rapid antigen tests, RT-PCRs, and antibody tests. But knowing which COVID-19 test to take and when to take it can be confusing. 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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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Alameda County, cumulative
as of 9/29/2022
Oakland: 98,807
Hayward: 42,699
Fremont: 38,361
San Leandro: 21,247
Berkeley: 20,304
Eden MAC: 18,527
Livermore: 16,682
Union City: 15,309
Alameda: 12,894
Castro Valley: 12,342
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Contra Costa County, cumulative
as of 9/29/2022
Richmond: 37,529
Antioch: 34,437
Concord: 28,348
Pittsburg: 21,457
Brentwood: 17,799
San Pablo: 15,735
Walnut Creek: 14,586
San Ramon: 14,086
Oakley: 13,117
Martinez: 9,799
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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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