COVID-19
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NWS Issues Alert For Excessive Heat Watch In Bay Area
Parts of the Bay Area will experience “excessive heat” this week, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). The weather agency issued an alert Sunday saying temperatures in the eastern parts of the Bay Area will be “dangerously warm” on Tuesday. NWS says the “excessive heat watch” can result in high temperatures of 100 to 105 degrees. East Bay cities such as Concord and Livermore will be among those affected. A map posted by the agency shows Solano County, Contra Costa County and parts of Alameda County are expected to feel the heat. KRON4 Read more
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Eden Health District Announces Grants Program
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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"Harder To Stay The Course": Berkeley, Oakland Residents Grapple With COVID Burnout
It’s the third year of the pandemic and COVID-19 is not even close to disappearing. The latest surge, driven by the highly transmissible sub-variant BA.5, has created a plateau of high case rates that have persisted over several months, only beginning to subside in the last week or so. In Berkeley and Oakland, people have been taking the virus seriously for years—the majority of people are vaccinated and boosted; Berkeley’s death rate is among the lowest in California, and mask-wearing remains high even in schools and stores where it’s not required. But with the most recent surge, the pandemic fatigue that has plagued other parts of the country seems to have finally caught up with the East Bay. While some maintain a high level of vigilance, many others are taking BA.5 in stride, prioritizing learning to live with the virus rather than taking additional precautions. Berkeleyside Read more
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Polio Threat Virtually Nonexistent To Vaccinated People In Bay Area
Despite concern over a case of polio being found in New York State in July, Bay Area infectious disease experts say the risk to the vaccinated public is virtually nonexistent — although the fact that any case at all popped up underscores the need to make sure people, particularly children, have had their shots. “I’d say there is mild to moderate concern,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert with UCSF, but “it all depends on whether or not your kids have been vaccinated or you’ve been vaccinated.” SF Chronicle Read more
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New York Is Roaring Back From The Worst Of The Pandemic.
Why Isn’t San Francisco?
On a scorching summer evening, humidity choking the city, thousands of sweaty visitors lined up to ascend almost 1,400 feet. Children squealed in delight as they disembarked on the 57th floor Summit observatory at the One Vanderbilt tower, all of Manhattan unfolding in front of them through glass windows, from the delicate, silvery tip of the Chrysler Building to One World Trade Center catching the setting sun, a symbol of the city’s rebirth from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. San Francisco also knows how to attract people during these bizarre times — take Outside Lands, for instance — but there’s a difference between an annual extravaganza and, in Summit’s case, a typical Monday. Lethargic downtown San Francisco lacks the energy and sheer mass of daily locals and tourists who have reinvigorated Midtown Manhattan and beyond to provide a sense of how life in this metropolis used to be. SF Chronicle Read more
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COVID Vaccine/Treatment News |
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UK Becomes The First Country To Approve A Dual COVID Vaccine Targeting Omicron
Britain on Monday became the first country in the world to approve a dual COVID-19 vaccine, which tackles both the original virus and the newer omicron variant. The updated Moderna vaccine — known as a bivalent because it targets two variants — is expected to be available to adults as a booster jab from the fall after receiving the go-ahead from the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on Monday. It also received endorsement from the British government’s independent scientific advisory body, the Commission on Human Medicines. CNBC Read more
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Moderna CEO Says COVID Vaccines Will Evolve Like "An iPhone"
Forget taking two to three COVID shots a year. Moderna hopes to roll out a single-dose annual booster to cover the coronavirus, the flu and another common respiratory virus within the next five years. As COVID-19 continues to mutate, Moderna will need to keep updating the vaccines that turned it into a global household name while trying to make it more convenient for consumers, CEO Stéphane Bancel said in an interview with CNN Business Wednesday. He estimated a timeline of "three to five years" for the new combined product, and likened the development of the life-saving jab to that of a smartphone. CNN Read more
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FDA: Take 3 Home Tests If Exposed To COVID To Boost Accuracy
If you were exposed to COVID-19, take three home tests instead of two to make sure you’re not infected, according to new U.S. recommendations released Thursday Previously, the Food and Drug Administration had advised taking two rapid antigen tests over two or three days to rule out infection. But the agency says new studies suggest that protocol can miss too many infections, and could result in people spreading the coronavirus to others, especially if they don’t develop symptoms. The new guidance applies to people without symptoms who think they may have been exposed. People with symptoms can continue using two tests spaced 48 hours apart. AP Read more
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Here's Why Pharmacists Directly Prescribing Paxlovid Is No Quick, Easy Process Right Now
The antiviral drug that treats COVID-19, Paxlovid, must be taken within five days after symptoms begin. To expand quick access to the medication, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration revised the Emergency Use Authorization for Paxlovid in July to authorize state-licensed pharmacists to directly prescribe it. “We were seeing some really low uptake and even within the pharmacy we were seeing just the medication sit on shelves because prescriptions weren't coming in,” said Richard Dang, president of the California Pharmacists Association. “There's a large variety of different reasons for why that might be: Lack of information, but most likely it would be lack of access to a provider who can evaluate the individual and prescribe the medication within that five day time period. Now more than a month after the FDA’s new authorization, it is still not easy for many eligible patients to get a Paxlovid prescription directly from their pharmacist.
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State/National/International News |
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Omicron Is Considered A Milder Coronavirus, But Scientists Aren’t So Sure
For more than two years, Cathy Baron and Sara Alicia Costa managed to duck the coronavirus. But despite their being fully vaccinated and boosted, the Omicron variant finally caught them. Baron is an actress and dance instructor who lives in Santa Monica. Costa is an architect in Austin, Texas. Both are 40 and healthy. But the two friends saw two very different sides of the variant they expected to be gentler on its victims than earlier strains. For Costa, the Omicron variant lived up to its reputation for mildness, causing headaches and “something like a crummy cold” for a couple of days. She was visiting Baron and surfing in Santa Monica a week after testing positive. Baron’s illness was deeply chastening. She was flattened for several days with a high fever and debilitating muscle aches and was too exhausted to teach her pole dancing class for three weeks. Two months later, she’s still coping with fatigue, brain fog and episodic coughing fits. She hopes never to repeat the experience. LA Times Read more
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This New COVID Variant Is Shaping Up To Be A Déjà Vu Nightmare
The world has built up a lot of immunity in the nine months since the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus became dominant, driving a record wave of infections. That immunity from vaccines and past infection is helping to keep down hospitalizations and deaths even as Omicron’s offspring — a succession of subvariants — have become dominant, one after the other. Now the virus is trying to find a way around our antibodies. A new subvariant, BA.4.6, is beginning to outcompete its predecessor, BA.5. Its advantages include a particular mutation to the spike protein, the part of the virus that helps it to grab onto and infect our cells. The Daily Beast Read more
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Flu May Be Coming Back With A Vengeance, Experts Say, And Children Could Be At Risk
After a two-year hiatus, the flu may be back this season – and with a vengeance. Data from the Southern Hemisphere, which is in its flu season, show cases surpassing pre-pandemic levels, prompting health experts to worry about what’s in store for Americans this year. “This might be an early warning system for us that this is the time now to start thinking about influenza,” said Dr. Gregg Sylvester, chief medical officer at Seqirus, a flu vaccine manufacturer headquartered in New Jersey. “If we’re not prepared … we could have a very naïve population and we could see quite high rates.”
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Hundreds Of Americans Still Dying Of COVID Each Day Despite Signs The Latest Surge May Be Slowing
After several weeks of steady increases in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations, there are encouraging signs that the latest viral resurgence may be abating in the United States. The rate of new infections appears to be dropping, with the U.S. now reporting 107,000 new cases each day — an average that has fallen by 12% in the last week, according to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The number of virus-positive Americans currently receiving care in hospitals across the country has plateaued at around 43,000 patients, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Throughout the summer, hospital admission rates had been rising in many areas of the country, particularly in the South. ABC News Read more
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CDC Takes Back Control of Pandemic Hospitalization Data Despite Criticism
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has won a months-long battle for control of COVID-19 hospital data, a rare victory during its pandemic response that’s seen some of its functions handed off to other players amid widespread criticism.
The US won’t renew its contract with TeleTracking Technologies Inc., a private company that took over COVID-19 hospitalization data collection from CDC in 2020, according to an email seen by Bloomberg News. Hospitals will resume reporting the data to the CDC in mid-December, with TeleTracking’s contract expiring on Dec. 31. Bloomberg
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Children Hospitalized With COVID-19 Can Have Lingering Health Issues Months Later
More than a quarter of children hospitalized with COVID-19 in the early stages of the pandemic had health problems two to four months later. Research published recently in the journal Pediatrics reports that 27 percent of children hospitalized with COVID-19 had either activity impairment, persistent symptoms, or both conditions two to four months after being treated for the disease. “Almost three quarters were back to baseline, which is reassuring. But, unfortunately, more than one in four were not,” Dr. Adrienne Randolph, lead investigator of the study and a senior associate in critical care medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, said in a press release. Healthline Read more
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U.S. Monkeypox Cases Surpass 10,000 As CDC Still Aims For "Containment"
More than 10,000 Americans have now tested positive in the monkeypox outbreak across the U.S., according to figures published late Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as federal health officials say they are still racing to contain the virus. Cases have been reported in every state but Wyoming while 15 states and the District of Columbia have reported more than a hundred cases. The largest numbers are in New York, California and Florida. No U.S. deaths have so far been reported, out of the 12 monkeypox fatalities the World Health Organization has tallied so far this year. CBS News Read more
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New Data From Several States Show Racial Disparities In Monkeypox Infections
New data emerging from some states and localities closely tracking monkeypox outbreaks show extreme racial disparities that are alarming experts. In Georgia, 82% of people with the disease are Black. In North Carolina, it’s 70%. But in other places that have released detailed demographic data, there are fewer and sometimes no apparent racial or ethnic disparities in monkeypox cases. In both states, and nationally, almost all cases involve men who have sex with men. STAT Read more
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What To Do If You Think You Have Monkeypox
As cases of monkeypox continue to rise regionally, many people are still unsure what to do if they suspect they have the disease. UC Davis Health is recommending patients who are concerned about a possible monkeypox infection contact their primary care physician’s office and ask to speak to an advice nurse. The advice nurse can provide guidance on how to obtain further evaluation and assist with scheduling a test if needed. In most cases, monkeypox is not a medical emergency, so patients do not need to go to the emergency department. UC Davis Health Read more
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Total Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 1,703,267
California: 10,901,310
U.S.: 92,993,111
Alameda County
Primary Vaccine Series Completed: 82.7%
Total Cases: 336,178
Total Deaths: 1,972
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 11.4%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 8/15): 153
ICU Beds Available (as of 8/15): 100
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Total Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 8,879
California: 94,119
U.S.: 1,037,039
Contra Costa County
Primary Vaccine Series Completed: 83.0%
Total Cases: 242,801
Total Deaths: 1,391
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 12.9%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 8/15): 97
ICU Beds Available (as of 8/15): 40
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If I Take Paxlovid For COVID, How Does That Affect My Future Immunity?
According to Dr. Bob Wachter, UCSF’s chair of medicine, there’s no evidence that taking Paxlovid could give you a lower immunity boost than if you fought the virus off naturally. “If you get COVID, your body is exposed to an awful lot of virus, to an awful lot of spike protein,” he explained. Because of that, it would be “a little hard to believe the immune system isn’t appropriately revved up from infection just because you took Paxlovid,” he said. SF Chronicle 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 8/15/2022
Oakland: 95,812
Hayward: 41,255
Fremont: 36,785
San Leandro: 20,386
Berkeley: 19,361
Eden MAC: 18,114
Livermore: 16,113
Union City: 14,695
Alameda: 12,340
Castro Valley: 11,974
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Contra Costa County, cumulative
as of 8/15/2022
Richmond: 33,852
Antioch: 31,151
Concord: 26,286
Pittsburg: 19,939
Brentwood: 14,505
San Pablo: 14,292
Walnut Creek: 13,199
San Ramon: 12,290
Oakley: 11,769
Martinez: 8,469
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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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