COVID-19
breaking news & updates
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February is American Heart Month
Each February, NHLBI (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute) and The Heart Truth® celebrate American Heart Month by motivating Americans to adopt healthy lifestyles to prevent heart disease. Learn how COVID affects the heart
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COVID Test Resources
Food Pantries
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These COVID-Sniffing Canines Are On The Job At Nursing Homes In Marin County
Dogs are detecting COVID in long-term care facilities in California, with an accuracy almost on par with rapid tests. Currently, two white labradors named Scarlett and Rizzo are on the job in Marin County. In less than a half hour, dogs can scan hundreds of patients at a nursing home by sniffing their shoes and ankles. If they identify COVID, they will sit down next to the suspected resident. A rapid antigen test can verify the results. The canines are sniffing for unique volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released in human breath or sweat when someone is positive for COVID. Dogs have hundreds of millions more specialized odor-detecting neurons than humans, which means a dog can detect the equivalent of one drop of a liquid in 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools. KQED Read more
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Antioch To Help Businesses Impacted By COVID Pandemic
For many businesses the pandemic is still something they need to recover from. The city of Antioch is providing help to local businesses still struggling to get back on their feet. Kirkland Smith is the owner of Solid Rock Café in Antioch. Like many restaurants during the pandemic, the shutdowns due to COVID surges hurt the bottom line for Smith’s Business. Even though COVID mandates are a thing of the past, revenue is still down for the business compared to before the pandemic. NBC Bay Area Read more
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Mask Rules Loosen Again As Sacramento County Re-Enters CDC’s "Low" COVID Risk Level
With COVID-19 numbers improving in Sacramento County, masks are no longer required in certain settings in accordance with California’s pandemic protocols. The county, in a weekly update Thursday from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, returned to the “low” community level for COVID-19 danger for the first time since the end of November. Sacramento Bee Read more
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COVID Vaccine/Treatment News |
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Who Should Get A COVID Booster Now? New Data Offers Some Clarity
Three years into the pandemic, it has become evident that COVID-19 isn’t going anywhere, and neither are vaccine boosters. Last week, an advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration unanimously agreed that the vaccine and booster process for Covid-19 needs to be simplified in terms of which version of the shot is offered and when and how often people should receive it. There was less consensus about what that simplified process will look like. NY Times Read more
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California’s COVID-19 Student Vaccine Mandate, On Hold Since April, Is Dropped
California’s student COVID-19 vaccine mandate — which has been on hold since April — has been quietly dropped as the state prepares to end emergency pandemic restrictions later this month, public health officials confirmed. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the policy in October 2021, saying it would eventually apply to all of California’s 6.7 million public and private schoolchildren — a move that put the state at the forefront of pandemic safety measures. But less than a year later, in April 2022, Newsom paused the mandate, and a bill that would have eliminated an exemption for personal beliefs was withdrawn. At the time, the California Department of Public Health announced that the requirement would be pushed to at least July 1, 2023, because the Food and Drug Administration had not yet fully approved COVID-19 vaccines for children. LA Times Read more
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The Good News About Vaccine Hesitancy
The world has just seen the largest vaccination campaign in history. At least 13 billion COVID shots have been administered — more injections, by a sweeping margin, than there are human beings on the Earth. In the U.S. alone, millions of lives have been saved by a rollout of extraordinary scope. More than three-fifths of the population elected to receive the medicine even before it got its full approval from the FDA. Yet the legacy of this achievement appears to be in doubt. Just look at where the country is right now. America may truly have experienced a recent drop in vaccine confidence — but from an inflated and unsustainable high. You need to take the long view,” says Douglas Opel, a pediatric bioethicist at Seattle Children’s Hospital who has been studying the ups and downs of vaccine hesitancy for more than a decade. The Atlantic Read more
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Merck COVID Drug Linked To New Virus Mutations, Study Says
Merck & Co.’s COVID-19 pill is giving rise to new mutations of the virus in some patients, according to a study that underscores the risk of trying to intentionally alter the pathogen’s genetic code. Some researchers worry the drug may create more contagious or health-threatening variations of COVID, which has killed more than 6.8 million people globally over the past three years. Mutations linked to the use of Merck’s pill, Lagevrio, have been identified in viral samples taken from dozens of patients, according to a preprint study from researchers in the US and at the Francis Crick Institute, Imperial College London and other UK institutions. Bloomberg Read more
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State/National/International News |
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COVID Emergency Declarations Are Ending. What Does That Mean For California?
Three years following the emergence of COVID-19, authorities at state and federal levels are preparing to lift emergency declarations originally issued to marshal pandemic responses. While the moves will undoubtedly be cheered in some circles, such steps aren’t merely symbolic. Transitioning out of the emergency phase could eventually spell the end of universal access to free vaccines, treatments and tests. But plans to rescind the emergency declarations also illustrate a turning in the years-long global battle against COVID-19. LA Times Read more
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This Winter's U.S. COVID Surge Is Fading Fast, Likely Thanks To A "Wall" Of Immunity
This winter's COVID-19 surge in the U.S. appears to be fading without hitting nearly as hard as many had feared. "I think the worst of the winter resurgence is over," says Dr. David Rubin, who's been tracking the pandemic at the PolicyLab at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. No one expected this winter's surge to be as bad as the last two. But both the flu and RSV came roaring back really early this fall. At the same time, the most contagious Omicron subvariant yet took off just as the holidays arrived in late 2022. And most people were acting like the pandemic was over, which allowed all three viruses to spread quickly. NPR Read more
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Most Virus Deaths In Older People, Study Confirms
Worldwide, over 80% of the people who died from COVID-19 in the first two years of the pandemic were over the age of 60, according to a new study. More than 5.4 million COVID-19 deaths were reported globally in 2020 and 2021, the report published Thursday by the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that there were 14.9 million excess deaths during that time — indicating the actual toll of the COVID-19 pandemic is nearly three times the official tally. SF Chronicle Read more
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How Quickly Does COVID Immunity Fade? What Scientists Know
Three years into the pandemic, the immune systems of the vast majority of humans have learnt to recognize SARS-CoV-2 through vaccination, infection or, in many cases, both. But just how quickly do these types of immunity fade? New evidence suggests that ‘hybrid’ immunity, the result of both vaccination and a bout of COVID-19, can provide partial protection against reinfection for at least eight months. It also offers greater than 95% protection against severe disease or hospitalization for between six months and a year after an infection or vaccination, according to estimates from a meta-analysis2. Immunity acquired by booster vaccination alone seems to fade somewhat faster. Nature Read more
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Low Immunity, Overwhelmed Hospitals Fuel COVID-19 Deaths In Ageing Japan
Low immunity against COVID-19 and a growing population of frail elderly is driving a surge in coronavirus deaths in Japan which had, for a long time, upheld some of the strictest pandemic restrictions. Japan once boasted one of the lowest Covid mortality rates, but the figure has been trending upwards since the end of 2022. It hit an all-time high on 20 January this year, surpassing the UK, US and South Korea, according to Oxford University's Our World in Data. BBC Read more
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Long COVID Might Ruin Booze For You
Before she came down with COVID in March 2020, Rebekah Stein was able to enjoy a handful of alcoholic drinks a week. She assumed nothing had changed after her mild infection, so when she saw her husband holding an enticing glass of whiskey one night, she took a tiny sip.
Within a minute, severe chest pain kicked in, and Stein, 30, became so drunk it felt like she had downed several drinks at once. The next day was worse, but it wasn’t your average hangover: She had an irregular heartbeat, chest pain, cough, sore throat, headache, and stuffy nose. BuzzFeed
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Will The State’s Big Medi-Cal Plan Really Fix Mental Health Care For Low-Income Californians?
A year has passed since a massive statewide effort called CalAIM began rolling out. Among several significant changes CalAIM promised: An overhaul of the availability of mental health care for young people insured by Medi-Cal, the public insurance program for low-income Californians. Advocates for youth mental health say they remain enthusiastic about CalAIM’s potential, using words like “game-changing” and “transformational.” But they also say the new framework is being born at a tricky time. Three years into the pandemic, provider burnout and escalating patient need have combined to create a severe mental health workforce shortage. CalMatters Read more
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The Funding Cliff For Student Mental Health
Public school districts that received a windfall of COVID relief funds for mental health services are confronting a new dilemma: How to sustain counseling, screenings, teletherapy and other programs when the money runs out. The youth mental health crisis is not getting better, and schools are increasingly being pressed into service as first responders amid rising rates of suicidal ideation, overdoses and gun violence. Axios Read more
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Pathological Lying Could Finally Be Getting Attention As A Mental Disorder
When Timothy Levine set out to write a book about deception in 2016, he wanted to include a chapter on one of its most extreme forms: pathological lying. “I just couldn’t find any good research base on this,” said Levine, chair of the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Now, it seems it’s the only thing anyone wants to talk to him about. CNN Read more
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Fentanyl Crisis/Drug Trends |
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Some Pharmacies In Mexico Passing Off Fentanyl, Meth As Legitimate Pharmaceuticals
If you walk down the right side street, the offers are plentiful, even in broad daylight. Young men in plain T-shirts draw near and call out their wares: Pills. Cocaine. Guns. But if you wave them away and go just a few feet farther, you can walk into a pharmacy where you might get something just as dangerous. You just won’t know it. A Los Angeles Times investigation has found that pharmacies in several northwestern Mexican cities are selling counterfeit prescription pills laced with stronger and deadlier drugs and passing them off as legitimate pharmaceuticals. LA Times Read more
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If Fentanyl Is So Deadly, Why Do Drug Dealers Use It To Lace Illicit Drugs?
With the nation still in the grips of an opioid epidemic that began decades ago, the crisis has deepened in recent years with the introduction of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is up to 100 times more potent than morphine. The driving force behind a record-breaking 100,000 overdose deaths per year, fentanyl is now being laced in traditional opioids like oxycodone and heroin, and increasingly, in non-opioids like cocaine and various counterfeit pills. But with its high death rate, why would drug dealers lace drugs with fentanyl, effectively killing off their potential customers? ABC News Read more
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Tracking The Opioid Crisis: Inside The DEA’s Secret Lab
Sitting among the warehouses of Dulles, Virginia, is one of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s forensic labs. It’s one of eight across the country where scientists analyze illegal drugs and try to stay ahead of what’s driving deadly overdoses. Starting in the late 1990s with overprescribing of prescription narcotics, the opioid epidemic has continued to plague the United States for decades. What has changed is the type of drugs that have killed more than half a million people during the past 20 years. CNN Read more
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Total Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 1,900,690
California: 12,008,942
U.S.: 102,592,711
Alameda County
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the Latest Figures
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Total Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 9,719
California: 100,318
U.S.: 1,111,507
Contra Costa County
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the Latest Figures
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COVID-19 Has Taken Its Toll On 50-Plus Americans
Not only were older adults hardest hit by COVID-19, a new AARP survey finds that more than half of Americans age 50 and older who were infected had some long COVID symptoms. More than 1 million Americans have died from COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, and 93 percent of those deaths were among adults 50-plus. 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 Pam Russo, Vice Chair Ed Hernandez, Secretary/Treasurer Roxann Lewis, Mariellen Faria and Surlene Grant. 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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