COVID-19
breaking news & updates
|
|
|
COVID Test Resources
Food Pantries
|
|
|
COVID & Beyond: A Community Meeting For People With Disabilities & Seniors
Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson invites residents with disabilities and seniors to join him for a virtual community meeting. Now that the State and County emergency health orders have ended, there are valid concerns many have about their health and safety. Come learn about the latest COVID-19 updates and what this new phase means for Alameda County, and share your comments and concerns about issues that are important to you. The guest speaker will be Nicholas J. Moss, MD, MPH, Alameda County Health Officer. The event is scheduled for Monday, March 13, from 5-6 p.m. Register
|
|
|
As Virus Slows Elsewhere, S.F. Sees Another Uptick
While COVID-19 metrics have largely plateaued or shown signs of declining in most regions of California, including a majority of Bay Area counties, San Francisco is experiencing an uptick in cases and hospitalizations. The city’s health department data shows the seven-day rolling coronavirus test positivity rate, which tracks the percentage of lab test results that are positive for the virus, climbing back to 7.4% after falling to 5.2% just two weeks ago. The city’s two wastewater facilities show levels of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material steadily increasing, while the current effective virus reproduction number (R-effective estimate) of 1.15 shows the “spread of COVID-19 is likely increasing.” SF Chronicle Read more
|
|
|
Vaccine/Testing/Treatment News |
|
Flu And COVID Combo Shots Won't Come In Time For This Year, FDA Official Says
Vaccines that offer protection against both COVID-19 and influenza with a single shot will likely not be ready in time for this year, a top federal official said Wednesday. However, tweaks to update the current COVID vaccines and drugs are expected soon. The Food and Drug Administration's top vaccines official, Dr. Peter Marks, had previously said in September that vaccines to cover both viruses could be deployed this year. But at a webinar this week by the National Foundation for Infectious Disease, Marks acknowledged the effort had proved "too heavy a lift" for this fall, ending hopes of a combined option for the 2023 fall and winter respiratory illness season. CBS News Read more
|
|
|
How To Improve COVID Vaccination Rates With Emergency Room Messaging
Distributing pro-COVID-19 vaccination information in English and Spanish in emergency departments (EDs) increases the likelihood that patients will choose to be vaccinated, according to research published by UC San Francisco researchers in the Journal of the American Medical Association(JAMA). The team conducted a cluster-randomized, controlled trial in seven EDs across the country, and found that COVID-19 vaccination messaging resulted in significantly greater vaccine acceptance and uptake within 30 days, particularly among Latinx persons and study participants without primary care physicians. UCSF Health Read more
|
|
|
Does Taking Paxlovid Help Prevent Long COVID? Here’s The Evidence So Far
Long COVID, a wide-ranging set of sometimes debilitating symptoms following a COVID infection, is a pressing and worrisome challenge for both patients and medical researchers, who are racing to figure out how to both prevent and treat the disease. Some evidence has emerged that Paxlovid, an oral antiviral medication used to treat COVID-19, can help reduce the risk of ending up with long COVID, experts said — and it’s one more reason to seek the treatment. SF Chronicle Read more
|
|
|
State/National/International News |
|
COVID Call Centers And Testing Sites Close In Further Sign U.S. Is Moving Past The Pandemic
COVID-19 call centers and testing sites are closing across the United States as more Americans look to move on from the pandemic and with the emergency declaration set to end in May. In Rockland County, New York - just north of New York City - the call center closed Tuesday after three years in operation. The center was launched in early March 2020 after the county's health department became inundated with telephone calls from people asking questions about the virus. According to a press release, the center received 19,163 calls during its operation and provided residents and businesses with information about COVID-19 guidance, testing sites, testing results and how to schedule vaccination appointments. ABC News Read more
|
|
|
California Nurses Slam State Decision To Roll Back COVID-19 Requirements In Health Care Settings
A prominent group of nurses in California slammed a state plan to rollback masking and COVID-19 vaccine requirements in health care settings starting in April, arguing that the decision puts health care workers at risk. The condemnation came Friday after the California Department of Public Health announced earlier in the day that it will no longer require masks to be worn in indoor high-risk and health care settings nor require health care workers to be vaccinated for COVID-19 starting April 3. The department noted that federal rules still ensure most health care workers are vaccinated for COVID-19.
But Bonnie Castillo, the executive director of the California Nurses Association, said in a release that the decision is a “failure of public health leadership.” The Hill Read more
|
|
|
"It’s Going To Be Devastating": End Of Emergency Food Benefits Expected To Impact Millions Of Californians
A gallon of milk, a dozen eggs, a loaf of bread, a pound of chicken: That may be all the groceries some Californians can buy each month with their CalFresh benefits now that emergency federal pandemic funds that boosted food benefits have ended. The severance comes at a time when Californians are already reeling from inflation and the high cost of groceries, leaving local food bank leaders in fear of a “food cliff” as demand soars and their budgets tighten. The federal food program, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, received boosts throughout the pandemic as Americans faced furloughs and layoffs and dipped into their savings. But that emergency aid has come to an end, and eligible households will lose at least $95 a month in benefits, with some seeing their benefits dip to as low as $23 a month. Benefits are determined by income and household size. East Bay Times Read more
|
|
|
Three Years Since The Pandemic Wrecked Attendance, Kids Still Aren't Showing Up To School
When this school year began, Issac Moreno just couldn't get himself to go. During the pandemic, he'd gotten used to learning from his family's home in Los Angeles. Then, last fall, he started junior high, five days a week, in person. "It was a lot," he says. The last fully normal school year Issac remembers is third grade. Now, he's in seventh, with multiple classes each day, a busier schedule and new classmates. Issac's mother, Jessica Moreno, says it's been a struggle to get Issac back into the routine of going to school. Her eyes well up as she describes it: "Three days a week or four days a week, he will say to me, 'I'm sick. I don't feel OK. Can you just pick me up? I don't want to be here.' " NPR Read more
|
|
|
Long COVID Linked To Lower Brain Oxygen Levels
Long COVID is associated with reduced brain oxygen levels, worse performance on cognitive tests and increased psychiatric symptoms, according to a new study. In an analysis of two parallel studies — a laboratory study involving cognitive testing and imaging and a population survey — researchers from the University of Waterloo found that individuals who experienced symptomatic COVID-19 illness showed impaired brain function compared to those who had not been infected. The paper was published Wednesday in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. SF Chronicle Read more
|
|
COVID-19’s Enormous Death Toll: Worldwide Life Expectancy Has Experienced A Steep Decline
Thus far, recorded COVID-19 deaths worldwide are at 6.86 million. This is likely an underestimate, given the underreporting of fatalities in countries, such as China. More importantly, based on excess mortality calculations there’s mounting evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a massive toll on global life expectancy. Not since the famine in China in 1959, have we seen such a sharp decline in life expectancy worldwide. The increase in the number of deaths during the pandemic has had a substantial impact on global life expectancy. Forbes Read more
|
|
|
Forcing Californians Into Mental Health Treatment Would Get Easier With Proposed Legislation
A state senator is attempting to make it easier to force people into treatment when they are incapable of caring for themselves, the latest in a series of reforms intended to move Californians with severe mental illnesses off the streets. Two new bills introduced by Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman, a Stockton Democrat, would overhaul how the state handles conservatorships — a last-resort program for those who are incapacitated due to mental illness or addiction. The current system, which has been in place for decades, makes it difficult to help those with severe mental illness who are unable to take care of themselves. As a result, advocates of reform say too many people are left to wander the streets of the Bay Area and beyond — even when they are partially clothed, meandering into traffic and screaming at cars. East Bay Times Read more
|
|
|
Mental Health And The Pandemic: What U.S. Surveys Have Found
The coronavirus pandemic has been associated with worsening mental health among people in the United States and around the world. In the U.S, the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020 caused widespread lockdowns and disruptions in daily life while triggering a short but severe economic recession that resulted in widespread unemployment. Three years later, Americans have largely returned to normal activities, but challenges with mental health remain. At least four-in-ten U.S. adults (41%) have experienced high levels of psychological distress at some point during the pandemic, according to four Pew Research Center surveys conducted between March 2020 and September 2022. Pew Research Center Read more
|
|
|
A Surprising Remedy For Teens In Mental Health Crises
Last spring, Jamie Gorman had a panic attack at the mall. The high school sophomore was with a group of friends at Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J., when she began to feel overwhelmed. Her fingers were tingling. She couldn’t catch her breath. She felt shaky and dizzy. Her teenage friends sprang into action. “They were like, ‘Jamie, sit down.’ ‘Jamie, give me your phone — unlock it,’” Gorman recalled in a recent interview at her high school. “They immediately called my dad so he could talk to me. They found a water bottle for me. They sat with me; they were just there for me.” She said her friends were “very comforting because they were very calm and they were like, okay, we know what to do.” Washington Post Read more
|
|
|
How Parental Support Affects Mental Health Of LGBTQ Youth
For many LGBTQ people, support and affirmation in an environment where they feel safe and seen can make all the difference when it comes to mental health outcomes. Now, new research out of The University of Texas at Austin, shed some more light on the role both positive and negative support from parents and guardians can play on the mental health and well-being of LGBTQ youth. Specifically, it shows that those who had the most support experienced fewer depressive symptoms, while those who had higher levels of depressive symptoms were the recipients of more negative, “psychological control” from their parents. Healthline Read more
|
|
|
Fentanyl Crisis/Drug Trends |
|
"We Are Not Trying To Scare You." In California, Fentanyl Now Behind 1 Out Of Every 5 Youth Deaths
Jan Blom knew little about fentanyl when his 17-year-old son, Linus, went to take a nap in their Los Gatos home in July 2020. By mid-morning, Blom discovered Linus’ lifeless body in bed. The cause of death? A Percocet pill laced with the powerful synthetic opioid that has fueled an unprecedented rise in drug-related deaths across California, and now is targeting its young people. Last year, fentanyl was responsible for an astounding one-fifth of the deaths in the 15-to-24 age group, with a total more than six times the number it killed a mere three years earlier. For most of his life, Linus had been a stellar student and avid high school wrestler who aspired to compete for the national team in his native Finland. But he started taking pills he found online, his father believes, as a way to handle the intense pressure to succeed academically in Silicon Valley. East Bay Times Read more
|
|
|
Teachers Learn How to Administer Narcan Amid Opioid Crisis
As the U.S. continues to contend with an opioid epidemic that has led to surge in accidental deaths among teens — largely due to fentanyl — some teachers are now being educated on the use of Narcan, a drug that reverses opioid overdoses. In January, a 14-year-old died after a suspected opioid overdose in the bathroom of a high school in Arlington, Virginia. Arlington Public Schools immediately took action, with the rare step of requiring all secondary school teachers to learn how to use naloxone, which is sold under the brand name Narcan. Teacher Craig Peppers told CBS News that he and his colleagues want the lifesaving treatment on hand. CBS News Read more
|
|
|
Fury Grows Over Bay Area School Districts That Still Aren’t Ready To Save An Overdosing Student
As state and local officials voice growing concern about the fentanyl crisis — and the U.S. attorney general says the Justice Department is focusing “enormous urgency” on the deadly drug — high schools in nearly a dozen Bay Area districts are still not prepared to save an overdosing student, according to a survey by the Bay Area News Group. The news organization found 36% of the 33 districts that responded said they have yet to train teachers and staff to recognize the signs of fentanyl overdoses. About 27% have not made the lifesaving drug Narcan readily available in schools, even after Bay Area educators and school nurses have used the nasal spray to revive students at least four times this school year. East Bay Times Read more
|
|
|
Why You Should Report Your Rapid Test Results
COVID-19 rapid tests are easy to take — and then toss. So most people never report their results, which leaves health officials with an incomplete picture of how much virus is circulating and where. The convenience of the at-home tests have made PCR tests, which require a doctor’s prescription and a lab to run them, much less popular than they were earlier in the pandemic. PCR test results currently make up the bulk of documented case numbers, so the total is always an undercount. Knowing the true volume of cases helps health authorities direct appropriate resources, including vaccines and treatments, to areas where cases are surging and ensure that there are enough medical personnel to care for sick patients. And it can alert them to increases that could indicate a more virulent or transmissible variant. Time Read more
|
|
- 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.
|
|
|
About Eden Health District |
|
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.
|
|
|
Follow Us on Social Media |
|
|
|
|
|
|
