COVID-19
breaking news & updates
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“Together, with science leading the charge, we have taken another important step forward in our nation’s fight against the virus that causes COVID-19. We know millions of parents are eager to get their children vaccinated and with this decision, we now have recommended that about 28 million children receive a COVID-19 vaccine."
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky
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COVID Test Resources
Food Pantries
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Eden Health District Mourns The Passing of Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan
Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan died yesterday after being struck by a motorist. "Supervisor Chan was a tremendous champion for the most vulnerable in our community. Her leadership on health care, human services, and education was instrumental in establishing many of the most important safety net programs in Alameda County. She was smart, focused, and dedicated and will be remembered as an extremely effective and influential elected official who improved so many lives," Eden Health District CEO Mark Friedman said. Read more
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Excitement Builds In Bay Area On First Day Of COVID Vaccines For Young Children
A day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention heartily recommended the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for use in children ages 5 through 11, parents around the Bay Area began lining up for shots. Santa Clara County was among the first in the region to offer vaccinations to younger children on Wednesday at county-run sites. It will also begin offering first doses at mobile clinics near schools on Thursday. Some Bay Area counties waited for approval by scientific advisers of a Western states group to come through - which it did late Wednesday morning. In Alameda County, for example, officials said community clinics should be able to administer the doses for younger children - which are one-third the amount of those for adults - by mid-November.
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Alameda County Food Bank Sees Staggering Need Ahead Of The Holidays
In the days before COVID, one in five Alameda County residents had trouble putting food on the table. Now it is up to one in four. "Before the pandemic, we distributed about 28 million meals. This year we are going to do 48 million. And heading into the holidays we know these coming months are going to be among the busiest we have experienced as an organization in years," said Michael Altfest, Alameda County Community Food Bank spokesman. KTVU Read more
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S.F. Public Employees Return To City Hall, But Civic Center Stays Quiet
On the first day that all San Francisco city employees were required to come back to the office after more than a year of doing their jobs from home, a steady but small stream of people trickled off BART on Monday morning and walked into their Civic Center offices. The drizzly, breezy morning around City Hall seemed calm, quiet and nothing special. But, in reality, it was a significant day for San Francisco: Not only did all city employees have to return to work for at least two days a week, but they also had to be vaccinated against COVID-19. As of Monday, San Francisco could boast one of the highest inoculation rates of major cities with a similar mandate: About 98% of the city’s workforce was vaccinated, with less than 1,000 unprotected against COVID-19. That high vaccination rate made some employees like Damien Lacy, who has already been coming into the office part time, much more comfortable working in person. SF Chronicle
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"The Lost Season": Follow College Recruiting Journey Of Bay Area Athletes Amid COVID-19 Pandemic
ABC Owned Television Station ABC7 (KGO-TV) has launched a new docuseries "The Lost Season," which chronicles the college recruiting journey of three Bay Area high school seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Shot over 11 months, the series follows football player Joe Tongamoa of Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, soccer player Marcie Chan of Aragon High School in San Mateo, and basketball player Tejaun Hale of Oakland Tech in Oakland. The series captures their personal stories of trying to earn a college scholarship while navigating the obstacles created by the pandemic, all the while trying to keep themselves and their families healthy. ABC7 Read more
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CoCo Health Officials Tell Supes Cases Still Decreasing
COVID-19 cases in Contra Costa County continued to decrease this past month, Contra Costa County health services director Anna Roth told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. “Our case rates have continued to go down this last month,” Roth said. “We’re now at 7.9 cases per 100,000 (residents); that’s compared to 13.2 cases per 100,000 a month ago, so that’s a 40% decrease.” The highest case rates in the county are now among 5-to-12-year-olds and 30-to-39-year-olds, Roth said. KPIX5 Read more
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These Five San Jose Zip Codes Are Impacted The Most By COVID-19, City Says
According to the City of San Jose, approximately 25,000 undocumented immigrants live throughout San Jose and tend to work on the frontlines in high-risk jobs. As a result of the pandemic, the city is reporting that five ZIP codes, mainly on the city’s eastside, have been impacted the most by COVID-19. ZIP codes most impacted by COVID-19 include: 95122, 95116, 95127, 95121 and 95111. The city says these ZIP codes contain large immigrant populations. KRON4 Read more
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Pediatric Vaccines May Come To The Rescue Just As Infections In U.S. Start To Rise
Just as new coronavirus infections are starting to tick up in the U.S., help may be on the way. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, signed off on the vaccines later Tuesday, so they could be available at some pharmacies and pediatricians' offices as early as Wednesday. The timing couldn't be better considering the pace of new virus cases in the U.S. has risen 5.4% in the last week, a worrying sign suggesting the delta variant-driven wave hasn't ended. USA Today
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Vaccine Or Test: Biden Advances Sweeping New Mandates For Private Sector
It’s likely to become President Joe Biden’s most hotly contested COVID policy yet: a sweeping nationwide safety standard for the American workplace that demands large businesses require their employees to either get the vaccine or test regularly. The temporary emergency rule would apply to every U.S. private business that employs 100 workers or more - from grocery clerks to meatpacking plant employees 0 impacting some 80 million Americans. ABC News Read more
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Unvaccinated? Don’t Count On Leaving Your Family Death Benefits
These days, workers who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19 may face financial repercussions, from higher health insurance premiums to loss of their jobs. Now, the financial fallout might follow workers beyond the grave. If they die of covid and weren’t vaccinated, their families may not get death benefits they would otherwise have received. New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority no longer pays a $500,000 death benefit to the families of subway, bus and commuter rail workers who die of COVID if the workers were unvaccinated at the time of death. Kaiser Health News
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"There Was No Plan": Throwing Spaghetti At The Wall To Overcome COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy
One or two donuts, a car, $1 million, $25, Super Bowl tickets, french fries. There’s a remarkable range of incentives and other methods devised to overcome COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. While some of these ideas have stuck like spaghetti thrown against a wall, it’s not clear which are most effective. Even when researchers have demonstrated the success of certain strategies, they haven’t been widely adopted. The White House announced Monday that 70% of adults across the country are now fully vaccinated, and 80% have gotten at least one shot. But progress is slow, as daily vaccination rates remain low compared with the peak in April. STAT Read more
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Everyone’s Making Up Their Own Post-Booster Rules
For months, the CDC has been updating its hefty page on what people can do once they’re fully vaccinated (which, by the way, is still defined as two weeks after the second Pfizer or Moderna dose, or two weeks after the one-and-done Johnson & Johnson). But no such instruction manual exists for the pre-to-post-boost transition, which some 120 million Americans will be eligible to make in the next few months. So people are are now charting their own post-booster paths, freelancing in the advisory vacuum the government has left behind. The Atlantic Read more
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Vaccine Misinformation Poised To Spike As COVID Shots For Kids Roll Out
Dr. Natasha Burgert is well aware of the concerns parents have about the COVID-19 vaccines. The Kansas pediatrician, who is a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, said she’s already been counseling some parents about their fears. And she worries that they are entering a particularly sensitive time - one that anti-vaccination activists could exploit. “If the anti-vaccine industry starts doing what we anticipate, with those very graphic and emotionally charged videos, and bringing out their supposed experts, I think it’s going to affect a new group of parents,” she said. NBC News Read more
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State/National/International News |
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The New Faces Of COVID Deaths
The Most Recent Group Of 100,000 Deaths Is Very Different From The First, Showing How The Disease Has Shifted. And Most Were Preventable.
Younger, Southern, rural and white. Those are increasingly the kinds of people who are dying of COVID-19, as the demographics of those hit hardest by the coronavirus have shifted since the pandemic first hit the United States. The country’s most recent, devastating COVID wave, fueled by the highly contagious Delta variant, showed the strength of the virus even in the face of mounting vaccinations, with more than 100,000 deaths reported in the past three months. Many of those deaths were reported in places - and in populations - that had been largely spared the worst effects of the disease until now. NBC News Read more
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The Big Question This Thanksgiving: Are You Vaccinated?
For the first time in two years, Tim Wyatt is hosting a Thanksgiving feast at his home in Birmingham, Ala. Along with the traditional turkey, Mr. Wyatt will spend days preparing his slow-roasted pork shoulder with Alabama white sauce. His wife, Nancy Wyatt, will cook all of her enticing side dishes, like sour cream mini-muffins and sweet potato casserole with sage butter. Everyone from their extended family is invited. But Mr. Wyatt has made a request: If you want to come by and eat his signature fall-off-the-bone pork, you have to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. NY Times Read more
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A Potentially Faster-Spreading Delta Variant, AY.4.2, Has Been Spotted In 8 States
A potentially faster-spreading "sub-lineage" of the coronavirus Delta variant named AY.4.2 has been spotted by labs in at least 8 states, and health authorities in the United Kingdom say they are investigating a growing share of cases from this strain of the virus. Labs in California, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Washington state, plus the District of Columbia, have so far spotted at least one case of AY.4.2. While it may spread somewhat faster, health authorities have not found evidence of more severe illness caused by the variant, and they say current vaccines remain effective against it. CBS News Read more
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China Locks 30,000 Visitors Inside Shanghai Disneyland After One Guest Got COVID-19
More than 30,000 visitors to the Shanghai Disneyland theme park were kept within the park’s gates on Sunday and forced to undergo COVID-19 testing after a customer tested positive for the virus, a move that underscores China’s eradication efforts. With fireworks exploding above them as they awaited nasal swabs, the Disney visitors became the latest Chinese residents to experience life under a “zero tolerance” policy for the virus enforced by their country’s government. Leaders there have taken stringent measures to contain pockets of the coronavirus in the country, despite criticism from business groups and a close to 80% vaccination rate. “I never thought that the longest queue in Disneyland would be for a nucleic acid test,” one visitor said on social media.
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Loneliness Vs. Solitude: Study Finds Early COVID Isolation Was Positive For Many
Isolation during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been a struggle for many people, but new research shows some people flourished when alone during an early round of lockdowns. A study of more than 2,000 teens and adults in the U.K. found that for the most part, everyone had both positive and negative experiences during the country’s first national lockdown because of COVID-19. But researchers learned people found their solitude to have more positive than negative effects on their well-being - particularly older adults who more frequently reported feeling peaceful and less socially alienated than teens. Modesto Bee Read more
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How Is The Pandemic Changing Births In California?
Several months ago, the Chronicle examined how the coronavirus pandemic’s initial lockdown period had driven a nearly historically unprecedented California-wide "baby bust" - a steep decline in births - in the first two months of 2021. Now that we’re nearing the end of the year, it’s time to check back in. Where are California’s birth rates now? Higher than might be expected, as it turns out. Through August, the latest month with data available, 3% fewer births had occurred in California in 2021 than it did over the same period in 2020. But that decrease is due mostly due to the lower birth numbers in January and February; births for other months have so far remained mostly parallel with 2020.
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Total Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 600,162
California: 4,939,393
U.S.: 46,237,198
Alameda County
Total Vaccines Administered: 2,534,065
Total Cases: 118,966
Total Deaths: 1,432
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 1.4%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 11/3): 104
ICU Beds Available (as of 11/3): 99
As of November 3, cases have stayed about the same recently and are still high. The number of hospitalized COVID patients has fallen the Alameda County area. Deaths have remained about the same level. The test positivity rate in Alameda County is relatively low, suggesting that testing capacity is adequate for evaluating COVID spread in the area. NY Times
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Total Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 6,676
California: 72,257
U.S.: 750,153
Contra Costa County
Total Vaccines Administered: 1,811,827
Total Cases: 99,556
Total Deaths: 1,025
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 2.2%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 11/3): 54
ICU Beds Available (as of 11/3): 40
As of November 3, cases have stayed about the same recently and are still high. The numbers of hospitalized COVID patients and deaths in the Contra Costa County area have fallen. The test positivity rate in Contra Costa County is relatively low, suggesting that testing capacity is adequate for evaluating COVID-19 spread in the area. NY Times
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Coronavirus FAQ: Why Do So Many Folks Say To Drink Lots Of Water Before Your vaccine?
Question: I got an email from the pharmacy where I scheduled my shot: "Drink at least 16 ounces of water 1 hour before your appointment to help prevent side effects." I've also heard people say that maybe that's a way to make the vaccine more effective. Is there any truth to that?
Answer: There is no evidence that a tall glass of water will make the vaccine more effective. "Staying hydrated in general is good for your health and organ function, but it does not have any effect on the immune system's response to the vaccine," says Dr. Suellen Hopfer, an assistant professor of health, society and behavior with the University of California/Irvine Program in Public Health. NPR 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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Over the past week, Alameda County has averaged 120 new cases and 2.4 new deaths per day.
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Over the past week, Contra Costa County has averaged 106 new cases and 1.1 new death per day.
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Alameda County, cumulative
as of 11/3/21
Oakland: 37,344
Hayward: 17,180
Fremont: 10,555
Eden MAC: 7,429
San Leandro: 7,353
Livermore: 6,448
Union City: 5,076
Berkeley: 5,045
Castro Valley: 3,714
Newark: 3,514
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Contra Costa County, cumulative
as of 11/3/21
Richmond: 15,020
Antioch: 14,546
Concord: 11,215
Pittsburg: 9,495
San Pablo: 6,569
Brentwood: 6,245
Oakley: 5,275
Walnut Creek: 4,325
Bay Point: 3,786
San Ramon: 3,238
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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 Varsha Chauhan. 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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