COVID-19
breaking news & updates
|
|
|
COVID Test Resources
Food Pantries
|
|
|
Oakland Joins San Francisco And Berkeley In Requiring Proof Of Vaccination In Restaurants, Bars And Gyms
As Oakland prepares to enforce a new mandate Tuesday that requires patrons to show proof of COVID vaccination in indoor restaurants, bars, theaters, clubs and other establishments, many business owners said they welcome the new policy. Oakland is the latest Bay Area city to embrace the policy. In August, San Francisco became the first major city in the country to require proof of full vaccination in some indoor businesses. A month later, Berkeley followed. Oakland’s emergency ordinance, passed in December, applies to establishments where food and drinks are served, entertainment venues, fitness centers, senior adult care facilities and programs, and City Hall. The ordinance also applies to large indoor events. SF Chronicle Read more
|
|
|
Why It’s Suddenly Easier To Get A COVID Test In The Bay Area
The long lines outside testing sites have shortened. Appointments have opened up. Results are coming back faster. The winter coronavirus testing crisis is over. The Omicron surge peaked in early January just at the moment when people needed coronavirus tests the most: back from the December holiday season, surrounded by friends who had caught the bug, returning to school and work — and often needing proof of a negative test result. SF Chronicle Read more
|
|
|
When Will The Government’s Free N95 Masks Arrive In The Bay Area?
Government-provided N95 masks began arriving at drugstores in some parts of the country this week — but the Bay Area may have to wait a bit longer. Pharmacies across the country are receiving shipments of masks as the Biden administration pushes to distribute 400 million free, highly protective N95s to Americans through drugstores and community health centers. But at several Walgreens stores in San Francisco on Friday, customers were greeted with signs posted on the doors or at the checkout counters saying “Government provided masks are not available at this location,” adding that masks were available for purchase instead. SF Chronicle Read more
|
|
|
Stanford Lab Uses Global Database To Look For Any New COVID Variants
Bay Area health departments are on alert after two cases of the subvariant of Omicron BA.2 were confirmed in the South Bay, and labs are taking a deeper dive into the research. The two cases in Santa Clara County were detected after virus samples from two patients with COVID were sent to a lab for genetic sequencing. “The BA.2 sublineage is much rarer but it has begun to pop up in California, including Santa Clara County,” said Dr. George Han, Santa Clara County health officer. The Santa Clara County cases were detected using genomic sequencing and while Stanford Clinical Virology Lab is not the lab that found them, it’s on alert and looking for more. And that's important because BA.2 is nearly impossible to detect without this deeper dive.
|
|
|
Castro Valley Man Charged With Fraudulently Receiving $1 Million In COVID Unemployment Benefits
A Castro Valley resident was charged with fraud after he allegedly obtained more than $1 million in CARES Act unemployment benefits by impersonating other people, officials said. Between March and July 2020, Idowu Hashim Shittu, 46, allegedly used other people’s personal information to receive unemployment benefits through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act from multiple state agencies, notably the Washington State Employment Security Department. He then withdrew the funds from ATMs in the Bay Area “for his own personal gain,” according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court Friday. SF Chronicle Read more
|
|
West Contra Costa Unified Avoids Teacher Strike With New COVID Safety Agreement
West Contra Costa Unified School District’s teachers union has agreed not to go on strike after the district promised new COVID-19 safety measures to drive down a large number of absences that have upended the district's schools over the past month. United Teachers of Richmond, the faculty union, announced the tentative agreement in an email Saturday. The deal followed intensive negotiations that lasted until 3 a.m., past the Friday afternoon deadline that the union had set earlier in an ultimatum to the district. “This was possible because of the incredible organizing and advocacy from students, educators, families, and communities,” the union said in an email to members. East Bay Times Read more
|
|
|
The World Surpasses 10 Billion Vaccine Doses Administered, But Gaps Persist In Who Gets The Shots
When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel rolled up his sleeve in December 2020 to receive a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, kicking off one of the world’s first mass rollouts of COVID shots, he declared that it marked “the beginning of the end” of the pandemic. Thirteen months later, his prediction has proved far from true, but 10 billion vaccine doses have been administered globally, a milestone that reflects the astonishing speed with which governments and drug companies have mobilized, allowing many nations to envision a near future in which their people coexist with the virus but aren’t confined by it. NY Times Read more
|
|
|
Should You Get A 4th COVID Vaccine? UCSF's Bob Wachter Weighs In
With new preliminary research from Israel pointing to the benefit of a second COVID-19 booster, Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of the department of medicine at UCSF, addressed a question on many people's minds on Twitter: If you’ve already gotten three vaccines, should you get a fourth? No, not unless you're severely immunocompromised, was the conclusion Wachter came to in a long Twitter thread exploring whether there's enough evidence to support getting a fourth shot. SFGate Read more
|
|
|
Pope Denounces Fake News About COVID, Vaccines, Urges Truth
Pope Francis denounced fake news about COVID-19 and vaccines Friday, blasting the “distortion of reality based on fear” but also urging that people who believe such lies are helped to understand true scientific facts. Francis met with Catholic journalists who have formed a fact-checking network to try to combat misinformation about the pandemic. Francis has frequently called for responsible journalism that searches for the truth and respects individuals, and his meeting with the “Catholic fact-checking” media consortium furthered that message. ABC News Read more
|
|
|
Some Americans Are Hesitant About COVID Vaccines. But They’re All-In On Unproven Treatments
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has refused to say whether he’s received a booster shot. He’s suggested, misleadingly, that COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility. He hired a surgeon general who has questioned the data surrounding vaccines and called those who refuse to be immunized “brave.” But when it comes to experimental COVID therapeutics, DeSantis and his government are all-in — even when outside researchers, the Food and Drug Administration, and the medicines’ own manufacturers say they don’t work. Stat Read more
|
|
|
Morocco Starts Construction Of COVID Vaccine Plant
Morocco has inaugurated the construction of a COVID vaccine manufacturing plant in partnership with Swedish firm Recipharm, as the country also announced it would end a flight ban that has been in place since last November. The factory, to be known as Sensyo Pharmatech, will produce vaccines against coronavirus and other diseases, with production expected to reach 116 million units in 2024, the official news agency MAP reported on Thursday.
|
|
Why These Vaccine Holdouts Finally Decided To Get their First Jab
Jose Angel hadn’t really wanted to get the coronavirus vaccine. “I thought it was turning people into zombies,” said the 33-year-old construction worker from Corona. Last weekend, though, he finally gave in. He and his wife, Virginia, got their first shots at a pop-up clinic at the Corona-Norco YMCA. “I wanted to travel, but you can’t do anything” without proof of vaccination, Angel said. Plus, his mom, who he said follows the news more than he does, kept encouraging him to get it. Mercury News Read more
|
|
|
State/National/International News
|
|
5 Numbers That Show The Incredible Toll COVID Has Exacted In The Last Two Years
Exactly two years ago, Santa Clara County’s top public health officials huddled in a conference room and began listing everything they knew and didn’t know about the mysterious deadly virus circulating the globe. “The first column was rather short and the last column was very long,” said Public Health Director Sara Cody, reflecting on the day when her calendar officially switched from B.C. – Before COVID. In the 730 days since COVID-19 has crept into every pocket of the country and every corner of our lives, exacting an almost incomprehensible toll. “It probably wasn’t even in the realm of my imagination,” Cody said, “that we would still be on full-time pandemic response two years later.” East Bay Times Read more
|
|
|
Most Americans Say Pandemic Will Be Over When Virus Becomes Comparable To Seasonal Flu
As the coronavirus pandemic enters its third year, a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research indicates that only a small minority of Americans need COVID-19 to be largely eliminated before they will regard the health emergency as over. By contrast, 83 percent of the 1,161 respondents said they would see the pandemic as a thing of the past once the virus evolves into a less severe, occasional presence in life — not unlike the seasonal flu. That’s a view taken by many public health experts and the countries that are pushing for “living with covid” policies once the virus becomes endemic, or at “a point at which the infection is no longer unpredictably disruptive.” Washington Post Read more
|
|
|
60 Million Households Have Requested Free COVID-19 Rapid Tests, White House Says
The White House said on Friday some 60 million households have requested free COVID-19 rapid tests so far, with tens of millions tests having "gone out the door" as part of the Biden administration's program to mail more than half a billion rapid tests to Americans around the country. This means the federal government has about 260 million tests still on hand out of the initial order of 500 million, which is enough for an additional 65 million households. CNN Read more
|
|
|
Omicron May Be Milder, But California Just Entered Its Second-Highest COVID Death Wave
We’ve all heard by now how Omicron is the milder of the mutants, but it’s leaving a significant mark on California’s coronavirus death toll: COVID-19 death rates in the Golden State hit a new high this week in the post-vaccine era of the pandemic. As of Thursday, the state was averaging 157 new COVID deaths a day, more than anytime since last winter’s deadly surge, before vaccines became widespread, a 300% increase from just a month ago. Mercury News Read more
|
|
|
How The Omicron Surge Is Straining California’s Health Care Workers
Even as the number of new coronavirus cases appears to be tapering off in California, the situation at our hospitals remains dire. Operations are being canceled, ambulances have nowhere to unload their patients, and people coming to emergency rooms for care sometimes wait hours, or even days, for a bed. State projections show that the number of Covid-19 patients in California hospitals is most likely peaking this week. That’s good news, but it also means we’re just about halfway through the current hospital surge.
|
|
|
In California Nursing Homes, Omicron Is Bad, But So Is The Isolation
Dina Halperin had been cooped up alone for three weeks in her nursing home room after her two unvaccinated roommates were moved out at the onset of the Omicron surge. “I’m frustrated,” she said, “and so many of the nursing staff are burned out or just plain tired.” But the ongoing safety protocols at this and other nursing homes — including visitor restrictions and frequent testing of staff and residents — can be soul-killing. For the 1.4 million residents of the nation’s roughly 15,000 nursing homes, the rules have led to renewed isolation and separation. California Healthline Read more
|
|
|
Africa May Have Reached The Pandemic's Holy Grail
When the results of his study came in, Kondwani Jambo was stunned. He's an immunologist in Malawi. And last year he had set out to determine just how many people in his country had been infected with the coronavirus since the pandemic began.
Jambo, who works for the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme, knew the total number of cases was going to be higher than the official numbers. But his study revealed that the scale of spread was beyond anything he had anticipated — with a huge majority of Malawians infected long before the Omicron variant emerged. "I was very shocked," he says. NPR Read more
|
|
|
Why Did Everyone I Live With Get COVID But Not Me? Experts Have Answers
If someone in your home catches COVID-19, there’s basically no escaping it, right? Actually, that turns out not to be the case, even with the more easily transmissible Omicron coronavirus variant sweeping the United States, experts say. “Some people manage to escape even though they’re in close quarters with others,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the division of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University. Sacramento Bee Read more
|
|
Spotify Responds To Complaints About COVID Misinformation
The chief executive of Spotify responded on Sunday to growing complaints from musicians and listeners over the role of Joe Rogan, the streaming service’s star podcaster, in spreading what has been widely criticized as misinformation about the coronavirus. Last week, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell — two musical icons whose cultural influence is far greater than their streaming numbers — removed their music from Spotify to protest the platform’s support of Rogan. NY Times Read more
|
|
|
Total Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 1,140,788
California: 8,292,735
U.S.: 74,354,249
Alameda County
Total Vaccines Administered: 3,392,565
Total Cases: 223,454
Total Deaths: 1,609
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 14.8%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 1/31): 417
ICU Beds Available (as of 1/31): 67
As of January 31, cases have stayed about the same recently and are still extremely high. The number of hospitalized COVID patients has risen in the Alameda County area. Deaths have remained at about the same level. The test positivity rate in Alameda County is very high, suggesting that cases are being significantly undercounted. NY Times
|
|
Total Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 7,223
California: 79,801
U.S.: 884,368
Contra Costa County
Total Vaccines Administered: 2,361,987
Total Cases: 175,257
Total Deaths: 1,102
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 19.1%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 1/31): 285
ICU Beds Available (as of 1/31): 29
As of January 31, cases have decreased recently but are still extremely high. The numbers of hospitalized COVID patients and deaths in the Contra Costa County area have risen. The test positivity rate in Contra Costa County is very high, suggesting that cases are being significantly undercounted. NY Times
|
|
|
UC Davis Researchers Dissect COVID-19’s Impact On Sense Of Smell
Otolaryngologist Toby Steele and molecular neuroscientist Qizhi Gong recently received a two-year, $275,000 National Institutes of Health grant to study how COVID-19 disrupts the sense of smell. In this unique collaboration, the UC Davis Health team hopes to potentially identify diagnostic tools and therapeutic treatments. They'll be characterizing the severity and length of patient smell loss, collecting samples and conducting in-depth protein analyses to dissect the mechanisms that cause olfactory dysfunction.
|
|
|
- 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.
|
|
-
A viral test tells you if you have a current infection.
-
An antibody test might tell you if you had a past infection.
|
|
|
Over the past week, Alameda County has averaged 3,190 new cases and 4.6 new death per day.
|
|
Over the past week, Contra Costa County has averaged 2,015 new cases and 1.4 new deaths per day.
|
|
|
Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Alameda County, cumulative
as of 1/31/2022
Oakland: 66,099
Hayward: 29,746
Fremont: 22,120
San Leandro: 13,751
Eden MAC: 12,890
Livermore: 11,392
Berkeley: 10,446
Union City: 9,848
Castro Valley: 7,641
Newark: 6,886
|
|
Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Contra Costa County, cumulative
as of 1/31/2022
Richmond: 26,062
Antioch: 23,584
Concord: 18,981
Pittsburg: 15,475
San Pablo: 11,074
Brentwood: 10,507
Oakley: 8,855
Walnut Creek: 8,532
San Ramon: 7,369
Bay Point: 5,861
|
|
|
About Eden Health District
|
|
The Eden Health District Board of Directors are Chair Mariellen Faria, Vice Chair Pam Russo, Secretary/Treasurer Roxann Lewis, and Gordon Galvan. 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.
|
|
|
Follow Us on Social Media
|
|
|
|
|
|
|