COVID-19
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"We're In Another Wave": Wastewater Data Shows How Fast COVID Is Spreading Across Bay Area
As COVID-19 infections grow across the state all eyes are on our wastewater. For the past four weeks, COVID levels have been increasing. "The concentrations right now are similar to what they were during the Delta surge back in the summer of 2021," said Prof. Alexandria Boehm, Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. Professor Boehm and her network are relying on a commercial lab to detect where the most infections are coming from. "We look at waste water from about 11 different waste wastewater treatment plants around the greater Bay Area from Sacramento to Yolo, San Francisco and Santa Clara County and San Mateo County," said Professor Boehm. ABC7 News Read more
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As COVID Cases "Swell" In The Bay Area, This Time It’s On You To Weigh The Risks
Coronavirus cases are ticking up again across the Bay Area as the region enters a fifth “swell” of the pandemic, but this wave will likely look very different from earlier surges, with far fewer people seriously ill and needing hospital care, health officials say. It also will play out differently in other remarkable ways: Though no one yet knows how high cases will climb before this wave crests, health officials don’t expect to have to put back in place mask mandates and other broad mitigation measures. That shifts the burden of responsible pandemic behavior squarely onto individuals’ shoulders. SF Chronicle
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COVID More Than Triples In A Week At Berkeley Schools, Superintendent Says
COVID-19 cases have more than tripled at Berkeley schools in a week's time, the district superintendent says. On Thursday, Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Brent Stephens sent a message to the community saying that their COVID-19 case response team processed 91 on-site cases. "This is more than three times the 29 cases from the prior week and aligns with an uptick in cases in our region. We are seeing similar numbers this week," Stephens wrote. He reminded the community to stay vigilant. "We are also experiencing a growing number of multiple-case infections in individual classrooms, on sports teams or among other groups. This is likely due to the increased transmissibility of the Omicron BA.2 variant and may also be exacerbated by the loosening of masking restrictions." KTVU Read more
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The Next COVID Surge May Hit San Francisco’s Wealthy Neighborhood The Hardest
As COVID-19 case rates once more begin to climb in San Francisco, wealthy neighborhoods are seeing higher case rates than less-wealthy ones — a rare occurrence in a pandemic that has most deeply impacted lower-income people of color. But unlike the omicron wave last December, which started in wealthy neighborhoods and then quickly migrated to lower-income ones, public health experts say there’s a chance this latest wave could be the first to hit wealthy people harder — thanks both to pandemic fatigue within the demographic, and its relatively lower rates of natural immunity from prior infections. SF Chronicle Read more
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COVID-19 Testing On The Rise As Cases Increase In Sonoma County
As a result of an increase in Sonoma County COVID-19 cases, the county has experienced an uptick in the number of people seeking to be tested over the past two weeks. Testing volume countywide has gone from 1,400 tests per day to 1,600 tests per day over the past two weeks, according to Matt Brown, a Sonoma County communications specialist. The COVID-19 case rate in Sonoma County is now at 14 cases per day per 100,000 people. |
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Marin Urges COVID-19 Precautions At End-Of-School-Year Events
Faced with an uptick in school-related COVID-19 outbreaks, Marin public health officials issued new safety guidelines Thursday for high school proms, graduations and other large end-of-year gatherings. The officials sent a letter to schools attributing the “significant increase” in infections in part to “post-spring break exposures and attendance at indoor events and gatherings without masks.
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COVID Vaccine/Treatment News |
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Vaccines For Young Kids Could Be Available In June, FDA Official Says
A top Food and Drug Administration official pledged Friday not to delay the rollout of coronavirus vaccines for the youngest children and said at least one of the two shots under review could become available in June. The remarks by Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, came in an interview about the agency’s new, but tentative, timeline for handling vaccine issues during the next two months. The FDA announced plans to convene meetings with its outside advisers on June 8, 21 and 22 to consider emergency use authorizations for pediatric coronavirus shots and to hold additional sessions for other pressing vaccine matters.
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Why Aren’t More Californians Getting Second COVID Booster Shots? It’s Complicated
In the four weeks since U.S. health regulators began allowing Americans 50 and older and adults of any age who are immunocompromised to get a second COVID-19 booster shot, relatively few have done so — a stark contrast to the furious scramble to get first shots last year. In California, only about 15% of the nearly 6.6 million eligible residents 50 and older have gotten their second booster, according to the state Public Health Department. SF Chronicle Read more
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Long COVID Mystery: Do Vaccines Help Or Hurt?
After months of struggling with Long COVID, 25-year-old Ibrahim Rashid was excited to be vaccinated, seeking to prevent reinfection and perhaps ease his symptoms. To his delight, the deep fatigue, chest pain and “brain fog” suddenly lifted. But within a month, the symptoms returned with a vengeance – accompanied by a shocking loss of balance and leg strength. “After I got the vaccine, I was having the best time of my life. I was the happiest person in the world,” said Rashid, a graduate student at the University of Chicago who once excelled at skateboarding and martial arts. “Then it all just started roaring back,” he said. “And my walking disappeared…One day I was reading a book underneath a tree, and I just couldn’t get up.” Mercury News Read more
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Denmark Becomes The First Country To Halt Its COVID Vaccination Program
Denmark has become the first country to halt its COVID vaccination program, saying it is doing so because the virus is now under control. “Spring has arrived, vaccine coverage in the Danish population is high, and the epidemic has reversed,” the Danish Health Authority said in a statement Wednesday. “Therefore, the National Board of Health is now ending the broad vaccination efforts against COVID-19 for this season,” it said. People will not be invited for vaccines from May 15, it said, although everyone will be able to finish their course of vaccination. CNBC Read more
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Moderna Expects "Large Amounts" Of Omicron Booster Available By Fall
Moderna’s Chief Medical Officer Paul Burton said on Sunday that his company was preparing to provide large amounts of its vaccine booster against omicron and other COVID-19 variants this fall. “We’re confident by the fall of this year we should have large amounts of that new booster vaccine that will protect against Omicron and other variants,” Burton said in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
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Paxlovid’s Failure As A Preventative Measure Raises Questions, But Doctors Still Back It As A Therapeutic
Pfizer released news late Friday that Paxlovid, the antiviral currently subject to a big push from the U.S. government, failed to prevent people living with COVID patients from catching the infection. The news is one of several bad headlines for the new COVID pill, but one experts say doesn’t affect the medicine’s primary use: treating people who are already sick. STAT Read more
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State/National/International News |
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Coronavirus Cases are Rising Across The U.S., But Most Are Mild
Coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are rising in a majority of American states, in what appears to be the first widespread increase since the peak of the Omicron surge in January. Reports of new cases were nearly flat in the United States at the beginning of April, but as the month drew to a close, they were increasing in all but three states, signaling a wave that is increasingly national in scope. “Most of the cases are relatively mild,” said Dr. Eric S. Toner, a senior scholar at the Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. NY Times Read more
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Another Rare Virus Puzzle: They Got Sick, Got Treated, Got COVID Again
Shortly after he served on a jury in March, Gregg Crumley developed a sore throat and congestion. The retired molecular biologist took a rapid test on a Saturday and saw a dark, thick line materialize — “wildly positive” for the coronavirus. Crumley, 71, contacted his doctor two days later. By the afternoon, friends had dropped off a course of Paxlovid, a five-day regimen of antiviral pills that aims to keep people from becoming seriously ill. The day he took his last dose, his symptoms were abating. He tested each of the next three days: all negative.Then, in the middle of a community Zoom meeting, he started feeling sick again. Crumley, who is vaccinated and boosted, thought it might be residual effects of his immune response to the virus. But the chills were more prolonged and unpleasant. He tested. Positive. Again. Washington Post Read more
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What Actually Happens In Your Body When You Have Asymptomatic COVID?
Many people who get tested regularly for COVID-19 — including, recently, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris — test positive despite reporting no symptoms at all. But such asymptomatic infections, which can also occur with other kinds of viruses, are difficult to track, since you may never know if you had one. So for those who remain symptom-free, what actually happens in the body, and what does that mean for how the virus is transmitted? SF Chronicle Read more
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Measles Cases Surge Nearly 80% In Wake Of COVID Chaos, With Fears Other Diseases Could Follow
Measles cases have surged nearly 80% worldwide this year amid disruption caused by COVID-19, the UN has said, warning that the rise of the “canary in a coalmine” illness indicated that outbreaks of other diseases were likely to be on the way. The coronavirus pandemic has interrupted vaccination campaigns for non-COVID diseases around the world, creating a “perfect storm” that could put millions of children’s lives at risk, the UN’s children’s agency Unicef and the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement. The Guardian Read more
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Italy, Greece Relax COVID-19 Restrictions
For travelers heading to Europe, summer vacations just got a whole lot easier. Italy and Greece relaxed some COVID-19 restrictions on Sunday before Europe’s peak summer tourist season, in a sign that life was increasingly returning to normal.
Greece’s civil aviation authority announced that it was lifting all COVID-19 rules for international and domestic flights except for the wearing of face masks during flights and at airports. As of Sunday, visitors to Italy no longer have to fill out the EU passenger locator form, a complicated online ordeal required at airport check-in. AP Read more
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Tourists Are Finally Coming Back To California Following Two Years Of Pandemic
California tourism is making a comeback from a dismal and devastating 2020, state tourism leaders said Friday, but the industry still lags far behind pre-pandemic levels — except in Napa, a bright spot among the state’s tourist destinations. In 2019, a record year for tourism in California, the industry supported about 1.2 million jobs and generated $145 billion in visitor spending. But the pandemic pounded California tourism, causing more than a half million hotel and hospitality workers to lose their jobs and leading to an $86 billion drop in tourist spending in 2020. SF Chronicle Read more
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Total Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 1,328,919
California: 9,236,835
U.S.: 81,382,356
Alameda County
Primary Vaccine Series Completed: 85.8%
Total Cases: 265,202
Total Deaths: 1,889
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 4.7%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 5/2): 42
ICU Beds Available (as of 5/2): 98
As of May 2, cases have increased recently and are very high. The number of hospitalized COVID patients has also risen in 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-19 spread in the area. NY Times
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Total Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 8,369
California: 90,329
U.S.: 993,767
Contra Costa County
Primary Vaccine Series Completed: 86.3%
Total Cases: 195,168
Total Deaths: 1,302
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 6.2%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 5/2): 33
ICU Beds Available (as of 5/2): 43
As of May 2, cases have increased recently and are very high. The number of hospitalized COVID patients has also risen 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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5 Tips For Managing Anxiety As Mask Mandates End
This spring marks the first time in nearly two years that most people in the United States aren’t advised to wear masks indoors. It’s a big change – one that took effect in late February when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) eased its masking guidelines related to COVID-19. The percentage of Americans that live in an area the CDC deems a low or medium level of community COVID-19 spread is continuing to rise. This means that the communities where levels are high and where the CDC still recommends wearing a mask in an indoor public setting are becoming fewer and fewer by the day. Some people are celebrating the changing guidance, while others are left feeling anxious. Masks may have helped them feel more comfortable and protected during the pandemic, and now that protected feeling is gone. Providence
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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 344 new cases and 2 new death per day.
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Over the past week, Contra Costa County has averaged 218 new cases and 0.4 new deaths per day.
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Alameda County, cumulative
as of 5/2/2022
Oakland: 77,587
Hayward: 34,071
Fremont: 27,276
San Leandro: 16,163
Eden MAC: 14,988
Berkeley: 14,585
Livermore: 13,247
Union City: 11,651
Alameda: 9,256
Castro Valley: 9,123
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Contra Costa County, cumulative
as of 5/2/2022
Richmond: 28,520
Antioch: 25,903
Concord: 21,088
Pittsburg: 16,824
San Pablo: 12,144
Brentwood: 11,742
Walnut Creek: 9,911
Oakley: 9,752
San Ramon: 8,634
Martinez: 6,489
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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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