COVID-19
breaking news & updates
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It's National Influenza Vaccine Week
This week, December 5-9, is National Influenza Vaccination Week (NIVW). NIVW is an annual observance to remind everyone that there’s still time to get vaccinated against the flu. The flu continues to surge across the country, making millions of people sick. Thankfully, the seasonal flu vaccine can help protect you & your community. Flu vaccinations are particularly important for people who are at higher risk of developing serious flu complications and hospitalization, including young children, pregnant people, older adults, and people with certain long-term health conditions, like diabetes or asthma. Find vaccines in your area
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COVID Test Resources
Food Pantries
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Bay Area Restaurants Incentivize Shots, Try To Adapt As COVID-19 And Flu Cases Rise
With cases of COVID-19, influenza and other viruses on the rise, Bay Area restaurants are once again grappling with staffing shortages and coming up with creative ways to encourage workers to get their booster shots. "I think that just about every flu season, something comes through a restaurant or it comes through a place of business and it just gets a lot of people," says Nick Sepulvado, General Manager of Jack Holder's Restaurant in San Jose. Sepulvado said the flu or some other virus spread through his kitchen and wait staff like a wildfire a few weeks before Thanksgiving. Thankfully, he says things have settled down since but he knows the restaurant isn't out of the woods yet. CBS News Read more
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San Jose, Oakland Airports Post-COVID Flights Soared During October, But Flight Activity Still Weaker Than Before Pandemic
San Jose and Oakland airports posted passenger activity numbers in October that topped the one million mark — yet the flight activity at both aviation hubs remains far weaker than before the coronavirus outbreak. For several consecutive months, the South Bay and the East Bay aviation hubs have managed to handle at least one million passengers. Oakland International Airport has been above the million mark for five months in a row, while San Jose International Airport is on a six-month streak for that activity benchmark, according to separate reports from the two airports. San Jose airport handled 1.08 million passengers in October, which was 12.1% higher than the roughly 821,200 passengers that flew through the South Bay travel hub in October 2021, new airport statistics show. Mercury News Read more
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Empty Pews: How COVID Changed The Way The Bay Area Worships
Empty pews. Taking communion at home. Zooming into Shabbat services in pajamas. It’s been nearly three years since COVID-19 shut down the world, but the Bay Area’s places of worship have yet to return to their pre-pandemic normal — and experts wonder if they ever will. More than one in three local residents say they still aren’t going to their spiritual centers as often as they did before COVID struck, according to an exclusive poll by the Bay Area News Group and Joint Venture Silicon Valley. That’s despite the fact that nearly everything has opened back up, vaccines are widespread, and hospitalizations and deaths from the virus have plummeted. Mercury News Read more
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COVID Vaccine/Treatment News
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Pfizer/BioNTech Seek FDA Authorization Of Updated COVID-19 Vaccine For Children Under 5
Pfizer and BioNTech have submitted an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for their updated COVID-19 vaccine to be used as the third shot in the three-dose primary vaccine series for children ages 6 months through 4 years. The vaccine makers announced on Monday that if authorized for emergency use, children in that age group will still receive the original version of the COVID-19 vaccine as their first two doses and then the updated COVID-19 vaccine – formulated to target the coronavirus Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 – as the third dose. CNN Read more
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Myocarditis After COVID Vaccine Low Among Teens And Young Adults, Large Study Finds
The incidence of myocarditis and pericarditis after COVID vaccination is low and most patients make a full recovery, a large international study from Nationwide Children’s Hospital found. Most of the cases occurred in male teens and young adults and usually after the second dose of a primary series of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, according to the study published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. Although a majority of the people recovered quickly, 93% of the cases required hospitalization and 23% of the cases were serious enough to require admission to the intensive care unit. No deaths were observed. NBC News Read more
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The Supply Of COVID Antivirals Is Increasing, But Many Patients Aren’t Using Them
As California gears up for a winter of respiratory illnesses, health officials and providers often reference one encouraging factor — the greater availability of COVID-19 treatments and antivirals like Paxlovid. But many patients aren’t using them.
“We have a concerning low rate of outpatient COVID-19 treatments, especially for vulnerable populations,” Dr. Rohan Radhakrishna, chief equity officer at the California Department of Public Health, told doctors in an online event in November. “We want to remind the provider community that therapeutics are in ample supply and that most adults have qualifying conditions.” CalMatters Read more
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Pfizer Partners With Clear Creek Bio To Develop Oral COVID-19 Drug
Pfizer and Clear Creek Bio on Tuesday announced a collaboration to identify a potential drug candidate and develop a new class of oral treatment against COVID-19, as Pfizer seeks to expand its anti-infective pipeline. Charlotte Allerton, Pfizer's chief scientific officer, said COVID-19 has "the potential to remain a global health concern for years to come". Pfizer already has a COVID antiviral pill, Paxlovid. Reuters Read more
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State/National/International News
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L.A. County Facing A Full-Blown Coronavirus Surge As Cases Spike 75%, Deaths Rise
Los Angeles County appears in the midst of another full-blown coronavirus surge, with cases rising by 75% over the last week. The spike — which partially captures but likely does not fully reflect exposures over the Thanksgiving holiday — is prompting increasingly urgent calls for residents to get up to date on their vaccines and consider taking other preventative steps to stymie viral transmission and severe illness. Also on the rise is the number of coronavirus-positive patients being cared for in hospitals, sparking concerns about renewed stress on the region’s healthcare system and raising the specter of an indoor public mask mandate if the trends continue, possibly within weeks. LA Times Read more
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California Senior Citizens Are Hit Hard As COVID-19 Surges This Winter
There has been a troubling spike in coronavirus-positive hospital admissions among seniors in California, rising to levels not seen since the summer Omicron surge. Hospitalizations have roughly tripled for Californians of most age groups since the autumn low. But the jump in seniors in need of hospital care has been particularly dramatic. Officials in Los Angeles County have said increases in hospitalizations could lead to an indoor mask order, possibly in early January. Still, there is optimism that any winter surge will not be as bad as those of the last two years. Rising hospitalization rates are a reason health officials are urging people, especially seniors, to get the updated COVID-19 booster shot and, if they test positive and are eligible, to access therapeutic drugs that likely will reduce the severity of any illness. LA Times Read more
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Black COVID Patients Were Delayed Treatment Because Of One Medical Device. Why Are Doctors Still Using It?
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, East Bay Dr. Stephanie Brown began noticing a startling trend. Many of her Black patients were getting worse, even while their oxygen measurements said the opposite. Like her fellow emergency-room physicians, Brown was relying on pulse oximeters, the standard tool for measuring a patient’s blood oxygen level, to assess a critical cut-off point determined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Anything below 95% indicated a severe case of COVID-19 and the need for more intensive treatment, while those at 95% and above typically had milder symptoms. But again and again, the device failed to capture what Brown was seeing. “Patients were sicker than what the pulse oximeter was showing,” recalled Brown, who is also the clinical lead at the Sutter Health Institute for Advancing Health Equity. SF Chronicle Read more
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Deadline For Real ID Extended Until May 2025 Due To Lingering COVID Impact
If you’ve been sweating out that latest deadline for REAL ID required for US air travel, you’re getting another reprieve. The U.S. federal government has yet again delayed nationwide security requirements for driver’s licenses and other identification cards, giving states more time to issue REAL IDs to residents. The identification requirements were expected to kick in this coming spring. But they will be delayed another two years until May 7, 2025. The Department of Homeland Security, which manages the REAL ID program, blamed the latest extension partly on the “lingering impacts” of the COVID-19 pandemic. East Bay Times Read more
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"Zero COVID" Is Roiling China. But Ending The Policy May Cause A Massive Health Disaster
Nearly three years into a pandemic that has killed more than 6.6 million people worldwide, the official death toll in mainland China stands at 5,233 — a stunningly low number for the world’s most populous nation. While most countries long ago stopped trying to eliminate the coronavirus and decided to live with it instead, China has gone to extreme lengths to prevent it from spreading. The government relentlessly tracks its citizens, mandates constant testing, shutters workers inside factories and locks down entire cities under a plan that has come to be known as “zero COVID.” LA Times Read more
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For The Uninsured, COVID Care Has Entered A New Stage Of Crisis
When Mandy Alderman caught the coronavirus in June for a second time, she hoped her usual primary care physician could prescribe a monoclonal antibody treatment or Paxlovid, the antiviral pill that has been shown to reduce the severity of an infection. But without health insurance, she could not afford a visit. Ms. Alderman, 44, a former medical assistant in Lawrenceville, Ga., found a doctor willing to prescribe a cocktail of other drugs, but not the proven COVID-19 medications she wanted. She took what she could get. She had to lean on her aunt for the $85 it cost to retrieve the drugs from a Publix grocery store pharmacy near her home. NY Times Read more
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Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)/Flu
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RSV Cases May Be Peaking, CDC Says, But Flu Hospitalizations Remain At A Decade High
The spread of RSV appears to be slowing, though COVID cases have risen since Thanksgiving and flu hospitalizations remain at a decade high, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Monday. "This year’s flu season is off to a rough start," Dr. Sandra Fryhofer, board chair of the American Medical Association, said at a CDC press briefing. "Flu is here. It started early, and with COVID and RSV also circulating, it’s a perfect storm for a terrible holiday season." Approximately 78,000 people have been hospitalized with the flu since the start of October. Around 19,500 were newly hospitalized in the week ending Nov. 27, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services — nearly double the number of flu hospitalizations reported the week prior. NBC News Read more
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"Off The Charts": California Hit With Very High Flu Activity, Among Worst In U.S.
California is now reporting very high flu levels, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as the respiratory illness continues to surge nationwide. The CDC uses five overall levels, from minimal to very high, to measure influenza-like illnesses across the U.S. and its territories. On Friday, the agency’s color-coded map showed California and 10 other states, along with New York City, shaded purple, the worst of the three shades in the very high flu level. LA Times Read more
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Flu Hospitalizations Soar As Triple Viral Threat Looms Ahead Of Holidays
Nearly every U.S. state is battling high levels of flu-like illness, public health authorities warned Monday as multiple respiratory viruses threaten to overwhelm the health-care system while people travel for the holidays and gather indoors with friends and family. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials say they’re seeing signs of an early and severe flu season that turned significantly worse during Thanksgiving week, the official start of the holiday season. That ferocious return of influenza is coinciding with the start of a third pandemic winter — with a novel coronavirus that never left. Washington Post Read more
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The Crisis Of Student Mental Health Is Much Vaster Than We Realize
The change was gradual. At first, Riana Alexander was always tired. Then she began missing classes. She had been an honors student at her Arizona high school, just outside Phoenix. But last winter, after the isolation of remote learning, then the overload of a full-on return to school, her grades were slipping. She wasn’t eating a lot. She avoided friends. Her worried mother searched for mental health treatment. Finally, in the spring, a three-day-a-week intensive program for depression helped the teenager steady herself and “want to get better,” Alexander said. Then, as she was finding her way, a girl at her school took her own life. Then a teen elsewhere in the district did the same. Then another. Washington Post Read more
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Employees may need mental health days, but that doesn’t mean they want their employers to know that. Mental health app Wysa surveyed 1,000 American employees about their mental health at work post-COVID-19 shutdowns. While the majority of respondents admitted to struggling with mental health symptoms, most preferred to tell their employers they were physically sick or work through the pain rather than admit they needed a day off for mental health. Fast Company Read more
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Total Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 1,815,760
California: 11,556,860
U.S.: 99,144,530
Alameda County
Check the Dashboards Below for
the Latest Figures
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Total Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 9,409
California: 97,670
U.S.: 1,082,791
Contra Costa County
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the Latest Figures
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Build Your Personal COVID-19 Plan
Make a COVID-19 plan now so you’re prepared. Consider the ways you will protect yourself and how to be prepared if you get sick with COVID-19. Include how you will adjust your plan if the COVID-19 situation changes in your community. Your plan should include:
- What you’re doing to protect yourself and prepare (in case you get COVID)
- What you’ll do if you’re exposed or develop symptoms
- What you’ll do if you test positive
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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 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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