Eden Health District COVID-19 Bulletin
|
|
“There’s this attitude that public health measures are getting in the way of opening up the country. It’s exactly the opposite. In a prudent way, the public health measures are the gateway, the vehicle, the pathway to opening the country. That’s the point that gets lost in this that’s so frustrating.”
|
|
San Francisco students receive laptops from anonymous donor after thieves burglarize school |
St. Thomas the Apostle, a San Francisco parochial school, suffered a devastating theft of 100 computers last summer. Isabella Webb, a 7th grader, recalled how upset she was to hear the news. "It was really sad and I was really mad at who stole the laptops. I wanted to chase after them and get them back!" Isabella shared.
By the time school opened late last month, the emergency fundraising efforts had not been able to replace all the missing computers.
On Monday, during lunch break, ABC News presented the school with its Community Comeback award in acknowledgment of its efforts-but there was a surprise in store. Thanks to an anonymous donation to the Community Youth Center of San Francisco, which CYC combined with assorted community donations, the school also received 50 free replacement laptops.
|
|
Parent Wendy Hong says she was grateful for every person who pitched in, even if it was ten or twenty dollars at a time. "With a bit more generosity and the help of an anonymous donor and the CYC, the surprise went off without a hitch!" she said.
"We do a lot of work in the Richmond District so any time CYC can help provide something like this we all step in and do what we can!" says Ben Mok, community relations manager of the CYC.
7th grader Jason Hong beamed from behind his mask. "I feel really happy and excited we get to try out these new computers!" Jason said. St. Thomas The Apostle's Principal Judith Borelli, echoed, "I feel very blessed for all of our children and thank you, thank you, thank you for doing this for us!"
|
|
|
Alameda County: 20,748
Contra Costa County: 16,238
Bay Area: 99,605
California: 793,407
U.S.: 6,911,844
|
|
Alameda County: 390
Contra Costa County: 204
Bay Area: 1,436
California: 15,207
U.S.: 201,253
|
|
 |
East Bay Times, September 23, 2020
As coronavirus case rates continued falling in most of California, Alameda and San Mateo counties moved to the next level in the state’s phased coronavirus recovery plan Tuesday, clearing the way for restaurants, gyms and other businesses to bring their patrons back inside. The two joined six other Bay Area counties on the state’s second or “red tier” for reopening, thanks to their recent success in reducing new case rates, leaving only Contra Costa and Sonoma counties in the most restrictive purple tier.
But while San Mateo County jumped at the chance to ease restrictions, Alameda County officials said they’d take a more cautious approach to reopening. Like Santa Clara and San Francisco counties — which have been in the red tier for weeks — they said they’d wait to loosen shelter-in-place rules, raising the angst of business owners struggling to survive.
Press Release, September 22, 2020
As with all other re-openings, it will be important for Alameda County to take a measured and phased approach to avoid dramatic increases in disease transmission and re-closures. As we did when the Blueprint for a Safer Economy was first announced, we are carefully examining the potential impact of activities that may be permitted to reopen or expand in the Red Tier.
We are using the next two weeks (through October 6) to ensure our metrics remain stable and we will release a phased plan that balances increased risk of spread of COVID-19 from newly permitted activities alongside appropriate mitigation strategies that can be implemented. At this time, there is no change to permitted or prohibited activities in Alameda County.
KPIX 5 CBS, September 22, 2020
More indoor businesses, including movie theaters, gyms and restaurant dining rooms, may be able to reopen in Contra Costa County as soon as next week, should COVID-19 case trends continue, the county’s health
officer said Tuesday.
Dr. Chris Farnitano said that, as of Tuesday, Contra Costa has met the state’s “red tier” criteria for one week. The county, currently in the “purple tier,” will have to show it meets those standards again on Sept. 29 to join most of the rest of the Bay Area in the less constrained red tier. Farnitano told the supervisors the plan is for the county to allow as much reopening as state red tier specifications allow.
Nail Salons in Contra Costa County May reopen indoors
State officials on Tuesday allowed nail salons — which previously had been considered higher-risk — to reopen across California and resume indoor operations even in counties still falling in the Purple (Widespread) Tier, pending guidance from individual counties. According, Contra Costa County yesterday updated its reopening checklist to allow nail salons to reopen.
SF Chronicle, September 22, 2020
California’s online “Blueprint for a Safer Economy” shows each county’s status and spells out which activities and businesses are allowed under that tier. However, each county may choose to keep tighter restrictions. As a result, the state’s website may not reflect what is actually allowed in each county. The Chronicle reviews what's currently open and closed in the Bay Area.
SF Gate, September 23, 2020
It's widely recognized among San Francisco healthcare professionals that S.F. has had the lowest COVID-19 death rate among all major U.S. cities throughout most of the pandemic. A chart created in September by Dr. Jim Marks, a physician at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, was shared on social media in recent weeks and shows S.F.'s percent of deaths per cases was 0.87% as of Sept. 4, significantly lower than 10 other major cities. San Francisco has kept its number of cases relatively low, with some ups and downs, yet not a major surge that overwhelmed the city's healthcare system and impacted its ability to provide optimal care. The city of nearly 900,000 residents has reported 10,807 cases and 99 deaths as of Sept. 21.
Mercury News, September 23, 2020
Roughly 8,300 businesses have closed in the Bay Area since the start of the pandemic, including about 3,800 of them permanently, battered by the loss of income and a customer base still wary of indoor activities after reopenings in June led to a spike in Covid-19 cases and deaths.
The Bay Area has some of the highest business closure rates in the nation, according to newly released data from Yelp. Roughly one out of every 100 businesses in the San Francisco metropolitan area, which includes Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Marin counties, has permanently closed since March 1, according to the data, which is based on firms listed on Yelp’s platform. That’s about 2,900 businesses. Another 3,300 are temporarily closed.
|
|
|
|
Associated Press, September 23, 2020
A huge international study of a Covid-19 vaccine that aims to work with just one dose is getting underway as top U.S. health officials sought Wednesday to assure a skeptical Congress and public that they can trust any shots the government ultimately approves. Hopes are high that answers about at least one of several candidates being tested in the U.S. could come by year’s end, maybe sooner. “We feel cautiously optimistic that we will be able to have a safe and effective vaccine, although there is never a guarantee of that,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, infectious disease chief at the National Institutes of Health, told a Senate committee.
Washington Post, September 22, 2020
The Food and Drug Administration is expected to spell out a tough new standard for an emergency authorization of a coronavirus vaccine as soon as this week that will make it exceedingly difficult for any vaccine to be cleared before Election Day. The agency is issuing the guidance to boost transparency and public trust as it approaches the momentous decision of whether a prospective vaccine is safe and effective.
Kaiser Health News, September 23, 2020
Front-line health care workers are locked in a heated dispute with many infection control specialists and hospital administrators over how the novel coronavirus is spread ― and therefore, what level of protective gear is appropriate. At issue is the degree to which the virus is airborne ― capable of spreading through tiny aerosol particles lingering in the air ― or primarily transmitted through large, faster-falling droplets from, say, a sneeze or cough. This wonky, seemingly semantic debate has a real-world impact on what sort of protective measures health care companies need to take to protect their patients and workers.
The topic has been deeply divisive within hospitals, largely because the question of whether an illness spreads by droplets or aerosols drives two different sets of protective practices, touching on everything from airflow within hospital wards to patient isolation to choices of protective gear. Enhanced protections would be expensive and disruptive to a number of industries, but particularly to hospitals, which have fought to keep lower-level “droplet” protections in place.
SF Chronicle, September 22, 2020
Babies born to mothers infected with COVID-19 generally do well, according to a new UCSF study that examined infants during their first eight weeks of life. The study found “few adverse outcomes” and no reports of pneumonia or lower respiratory tract infection through the first eight weeks of age for babies born to women with Covid-19, UCSF officials said in a statement on Tuesday.
Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2020
Researchers suspect there are two ways the coronavirus could cause heart inflammation and injure heart muscle. One possibility is that the heart becomes collateral damage in a patient’s intense immune reaction to the virus. The other suspicion is that the virus invades heart tissue, which contains the molecular parts known as ACE2 receptors that the virus uses to enter cells.
Ed Yong, The Atlantic, September 21, 2020
“To say a virus is cardiac or vascular or respiratory simplifies things too much,” says Paul Checchia, a cardiologist at Texas Children’s Hospital. “Anytime a pathogen invades the body, the whole body reacts.” SARS-CoV-2 is no exception.
USA Today, September 21, 2020
So-called Covid-19 long haulers are patients who suffer through symptoms months after their initial diagnosis. Many fear they will never recover. A new treatment program originally intended for geriatric patients has showed promising results for these long-suffering COVID-19 patients. Patients are asked to walk for four minutes, in two two-minute intervals, increasing a minute each day. Before the program, Jenny Berz, age 50, could barely make it to her mailbox. Now she walks 12 minutes a day. The program incorporates breathing exercises and weight training, which could be as simple as lifting an arm over the head for a minute.
Beth Shwarecki, health reporter, Lifehacker, September 22, 2020
Health reporter Beth Skwarecki discusses how to pick an appropriate mask for exercising. She first observes: "Masks are also only part of a strategy to prevent COVID transmission. They are not a magical force field. No mask is perfect. That said, even masked, I would never exercise in a small indoor space with a lot of other people shouting or breathing heavily, like a cycling studio."
|
|
|
|
|
Mercury News, September 22, 2020
California is testing for Covid-19 at nearly its highest rate of the pandemic, while the portion of those tests to come back positive fell to its lowest point yet Monday — signs of “real progress” in the state’s battle with the virus, Gov. Newsom said Monday.
With labs conducting an average of nearly 125,000 tests per day over the past week — including more over the past three days than any other three-day stretch — just 2.8% of those returned positive results, the lowest statewide positivity rate of the pandemic and the first time it has fallen below 3%. For 70% of the tests in the state, results come back within 24 hours and another “significant” portion have them within 48 hours, Newsom said.
LA Times, September 22, 2020
On multiple days last week, L.A. County reported more than 1,000 new cases of the coronavirus, an uptick from the week prior. There isn’t yet enough data to draw clear conclusions, but the “troubling trend” echoes what happened earlier this year, said L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. Since it can take up to two weeks to show symptoms after becoming infected, these cases could be ones that were contracted during the Labor Day holiday, she said. But other than the timing, there is no indication that gatherings over the long weekend are the cause. Even the surges that came after Memorial Day and the Fourth of July were linked to other factors as well, including protests and a rapid reopening of businesses that ultimately had to be rolled back.
Sacramento Bee, September 23, 2020
If you thought it was impossible to reach a human being about your California unemployment insurance claim in the last six months, you were nearly right, according to a recent report released by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration. No more than one in 1,000 callers per day have reached someone at the number the Employment Development Department has told people to call for help with their claims, leaving callers “without a statistically significant chance of being served,” according to a new report from a team of government executives Newsom appointed to address problems at the department.
The report followed complaints from California lawmakers and jobless residents have raised for months since the coronavirus outbreak drove the state’s economy to standstill and put millions on unemployment. Last month, Employment Development Director Sharon Hilliard told lawmakers that people contacting the department to ask about claims were waiting four to six weeks to have their calls returned. The department has a backlog of some 1.6 million unemployment claims that require some sort of verification. It estimates it won’t resolve them all until January.
Sacramento Bee, September 22, 2020
A poll of Sacramento city residents has found that 93% support the government requiring people to wear masks in public to reduce the spread of coronavirus, an increase from a similar poll two months earlier. Nearly 30% of residents say they or someone in their household has had Covid-19 symptoms since January. However, only 2% went on to get tests that confirmed they indeed did have the virus, a statistic that suggests the city has a ways to go in figuring out how many people have been infected.
The worst part of the virus? Simply not knowing when the pandemic and its social, economic and emotional upheaval will end, 70% of survey respondents say.
LA Times, September 22, 2020
It’s the beginning of the end for L.A. County’s Project Roomkey, the $100 million-plus program to repurpose hotels and motels emptied by the coronavirus as safe havens for homeless people. After peaking at just over 4,300 guests — about 30% of its ambitious goal — the project will shed several hundred beds monthly until it closes down early next year, said Heidi Marston, executive director of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
The program is being squeezed by uncertain funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which pays about 75% of its cost, raising the possibility of a sudden cutoff that would force the county to abruptly shut down hotels, Marston said in an interview. Marston said LAHSA intends to transition the 4,000 people still living in hotels into other housing so they will not be forced to return to the street.
CalMatters, September 21, 2020
The pandemic has illuminated many disparities among California children—from wi-fi connectivity to having parents available to help with online learning during the day. Some of the state’s most vulnerable kids have seen their parents and grandparents get sick and die from the infection, especially in Black and Latino communities.
“California prides itself on being a progressive state, a model for other states,” said Ted Lempert, president of the nonprofit advocacy group Children Now. “And when it comes to kids, it’s just not.”
LA Times, September 22, 2020
Dr. Quynh Kieu has a three-part theory to explain why Little Saigon has been relatively successful in stemming the COVID-19 pandemic. One factor is a months-long project to test 1,900 people for free in the sprawling Vietnamese American community that spans the cities of Westminster and Garden Grove, as well as parts of Fountain Valley and Santa Ana. It’s believed to be among the first ethnic-specific testing effort in the nation.
A second factor is luck. And a third, said the Fountain Valley pediatrician, is a host of ingrained cultural habits: respect for authorities, reverence for elders and a belief in the importance of the collective welfare.
|
|
|
|
Washington Post, September 22, 2020
Progress in slowing the march of the novel coronavirus has stalled in much of the United States, and the pathogen is spreading at dangerous rates in many states as autumn arrives and colder weather, traditionally congenial to viruses, begins to settle across the nation, public health data shows.
Organizations that track the virus, including The Washington Post, have logged recent increases in case numbers and test positivity rates, worrisome trends as the United States on Tuesday surpassed the grim milestone of 200,000 deaths.
Hospitalizations and deaths remain lower nationally than at their midsummer peak, but those numbers always lag several weeks behind trends in new infections. Twenty-seven states and Puerto Rico have shown an increase in the seven-day average of new confirmed cases since the final week of August, according to The Post’s analysis of public health data. Minnesota, Montana, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Utah set record highs Monday for seven-day averages.
The Hill, September 22, 2020
Twenty thousand flags were placed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on Monday in remembrance of the over 200,000 American lives lost due to complications related to Covid-19. The memorial in front of the Washington Monument was installed by a group of friends in the District area who raised money in an online fundraiser to honor the lives lost from the pandemic, which surpassed 200,000 Tuesday, NBC News reported.
Reuters, September 23, 2020
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Tuesday declared a new public health emergency and extended a face mask mandate into November to fight a coronavirus flareup in his state, as the number of people who have died across the United States since the pandemic began passed 200,000.
In-person social gatherings have led to cases in Wisconsin skyrocketing among people aged 18 to 24, Evers said, as he pleaded with students who returned to colleges for the fall semester to stay out of bars and wear masks. “We are seeing an alarming increase in cases across our state, especially on campus,” the governor said in a statement announcing his decision. Wisconsin has experienced one of the highest percentage increases of coronavirus cases nationwide over the past two weeks, and has the second-highest rate of positive coronavirus tests in the nation at 17%, according to a Reuters tally.
Kaiser Health News, September 23, 2020
Native American tribes are no strangers to fire. Working with flames to burn away undergrowth and bring nutrients and biodiversity back to lands is an ingrained part of their heritage. But epidemics are also a familiar scourge. With the devastation that pathogens like smallpox and measles brought to Native populations following the arrival of Europeans, tribes are especially wary of Covid-19’s impact.
“When thinking about the potential of Covid-19 repeating history and wiping out entire communities and tribes, there is concern,” said Vernon Stearns, who as the fuels manager for the Spokane Tribe in eastern Washington is responsible for organizing controlled burns.
Some tribes have abandoned traditional fire suppression techniques, watching large swaths of land burn in order to protect a more fragile and essential resource: their people.
“I’ve seen how [the virus] has affected families close to me. I know the grief,” said Don Jones, fire chief of the Yakama Nation reservation in central Washington, where there have been at least 28 Covid-19 deaths. “I’m not going to send sick people out to fight the fire. I’m not going to say, ‘Come on, guys, toughen up, go out there.’ Life takes precedence over that.”
NY Times, September 22, 2020
New York City’s Health Department warned Tuesday evening that Covid-19 was spreading at increasing levels in several neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens, a worrisome indicator after a couple of months of declining or flat transmission. City health officials said that they were especially concerned about a clear uptick in transmission among some of the city’s Hasidic communities, which were devastated by Covid-19 in the spring but had seen few cases in the summer.
NPR, September 23, 2020
Since Google and Apple launched their platform in late May, the U.S. has recorded more than 4.5 million additional cases of Covid-19. These smartphone systems have sent out alerts on only a few hundred of them across the 11 states that are using them. Eight of the states are using the Google/Apple Bluetooth platform. Three others have released apps that use GPS tracking similar to the system used in China. Beijing has used cellphone tracking to lock down anyone who might have been exposed and to cut off transmission of the disease.
But there have been greater privacy concerns about the GPS-based apps and far fewer downloads. The Google/Apple system is only available to government health departments. Each state must choose to opt in and then build or buy its own app.
NPR, September 23, 2020
The venerable Sizzler USA family steakhouse chain has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing a business environment roiled by Covid-19 restrictions – and saying that not enough has been done to help restaurants survive. "Our current financial state is a direct consequence of the pandemic's economic impact," Sizzler President Chris Perkins said, "due to long-term indoor dining closures and landlords' refusal to provide necessary rent abatements."
The company, which first opened 62 years ago, says it wants to keep all of its locations open.
|
|
|
|
|
Mercury News, September 23, 2020
After more than six months of state and county health mandates that kept students out of classrooms, Santa Clara County schools have the green light starting Wednesday to usher in a phased return to real face-to-face lessons.
But the vast majority of school districts across the county are not yet biting at the apple — opting instead to stay the course through the rest of the semester. “Our parents and students need some semblance of structure and consistency during these times,” Cupertino Union School District Superintendent Stacy McAfee-Yao said. “I think that’s a very important part of delivering instruction, and we don’t yet have good reason to disrupt the daily patterns we’ve established. Although we all have a desire to be back in our schools full-time, we can’t do it in a healthy and safe way yet, so we’ll continue to move slow.”
EdSource, September 23, 2020
No group in California reports more suspected cases of child abuse than teachers. And with teachers no longer seeing students in-person every day in most parts of the state, advocates say thousands of cases of child abuse may be going unreported. From April through August, reports of suspected child abuse statewide dropped 28% compared to reports during those same months in 2019, according to data from the California Department of Social Services provided to EdSource.
“Nobody knows for sure if there’s actually more cases of abuse happening, but we do know what teachers and other mandated reporters do not have their eyes on children the way they once did,” said Sheila Boxley, chief executive of the Child Abuse Prevention Center, a child welfare advocacy group based in Sacramento. “And we also know that stress and trauma and systemic racism — all of which are exacerbated right now — put pressure on families and can lead to abuse.”
Mercury News, September 23, 2020
California’s community college system is experiencing a systemwide decline of student enrollment this fall, with some campuses reporting double-digit losses. The fact that fewer students have enrolled for this fall reveals a worrisome decline for the nation’s largest college system — with 116 institutions serving more than 2 million students. While enrollments have been largely flat in recent years, with variations among the colleges, the situation appears to be different this year, with the picture complicated by the coronavirus pandemic, job losses, the transition to mostly online classes and historic wildfires.
LA Times, September 21, 2020
Los Angeles families with school-age children in Boyle Heights, South Los Angeles and Watts struggled with access to computers and adequate internet throughout the spring semester while facing job losses and food insecurity, issues that hampered online learning amid the Covid-19 pandemic, a survey has found.
The survey, a collaboration by researchers from USC and the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, underscores how poverty has exacerbated the toll wrought by the pandemic and how challenging these problems are to overcome. It also suggests that the digital divide is continuing to harm the education of low-income Latino and Black students.
Another key finding showed that more than a third of students didn’t have an appropriate and quiet place at home to study or participate in online learning — a problem that school officials have limited ability to address, unless they bring small groups of high-needs students back to campus, as county guidelines now allow.
KPBS, September 22, 2020
San Diego Unified reported 2,474 fewer students than it expected this year. About two-thirds of that deficit came from kindergarten. While the pandemic is the obvious main culprit, district leaders are trying to get a handle on the specific reasons. “It’s not mandatory for students to attend kindergarten, so we might have some families that are making a choice not to enroll,” said Richard Barrera, school board vice president at San Diego Unified.
|
|
|
|
NPR, September 23, 2020
A new national effort asks K-12 schools to voluntarily — and anonymously — report their confirmed and suspected coronavirus cases, along with the safety strategies they're using. The Covid-19 School Response Dashboard was created with the help of several national education organizations. Right now it shows an average of 230 cases per 100,000 students, and 490 per 100,000 staff members, in the first two weeks of September. The responses come from public, private and charter schools in 47 states, serving roughly 200,000 students both in person and online, as of Tuesday, Sept. 22.
Washington Post, September 23, 2020
Thousands of students and teachers have become sick with covid-19 since schools began opening last month, but so far, public health experts have found little evidence that the disease is spreading inside buildings, and the rates of infection are far below what is found in the surrounding communities.
This early evidence, experts say, suggests that opening school may not be as risky as many have feared and could guide administrators as they charter the rest of what is already an unprecedented school year.
“Everyone had a fear there would be explosive outbreaks of transmission in the schools. In colleges, there have been. We have to say that, to date, we have not seen those in the younger kids, and that is a really important observation,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
This does not mean the risk of contracting Covid-19 is zero. Poor and inconsistent reporting in many parts of the country means experts do not yet have a full view of the situation, and most schools have only been open for a matter of weeks. It’s also not yet clear how closely the incidence of Covid in schools is tied to policies inside schools such as mandatory mask-wearing.
USA Today, September 23, 2020
As school districts created their plans for returning to school, a hybrid schedule, which puts students into two groups who rotate attending in-person and virtually, emerged as a popular choice. But as districts go from fully virtual to hybrid schedules, it's also splitting students into two other groups — those who are in-person part-time and those who are always virtual.
And parents and teachers are noticing the differences, prompting questions about equity for kids who are in the latter group — especially in classrooms where teachers are responsible for both in-person and fully virtual students. Those equity questions are being asked at districts around the country.
Kaiser Health News, September 23, 2020
Reopening colleges drove a coronavirus surge of about 3,000 new cases a day in the United States, according to a draft study released Tuesday. The study, done jointly by researchers at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Indiana University, the University of Washington and Davidson College, tracked cellphone data and matched it to reopening schedules at 1,400 schools, along with county infection rates.
The research examines the period from July 15 to Sept. 13. It does not name specific institutions or locations, but researchers found a correlation between schools that attempted in-person instruction and greater disease transmission rates. Just reopening a university added 1.7 new infections per day per 100,000 people in a county, and teaching classes in person was associated with a 2.4 daily case rise, the study found.
Bloomberg, September 23, 2020
Harvard University’s undergraduate enrollment fell almost 20% from last year as the Covid-19 pandemic spurred some students to stay away. The freshman class is about 14% smaller, as more than 200 accepted students notified Harvard that they intend to postpone their attendance to the next academic year. All instruction at Harvard College is remote for the 2020-2021 academic year.
|
|
|
|
Covid survivor released from hospital after he and 9 others contracted virus at backyard BBQ in Fontana |
It was a cheerful farewell that nearly didn't happen. Randy Smith of Apple Valley, California, was one of 10 family members who contracted the novel coronavirus at a backyard barbecue in Fontana -- and was so close to death that his wife was told by doctors to say her goodbyes.
Now Smith is heading home after three months in the hospital. "Thank God," he said. "It was life and death, and I made it out this side."
It's been a long road to get here. Smith had a litany of problems when he was diagnosed in June. "I had collapsed lungs, pneumonia," he recalled. "I had a stroke."
Dr. Nicole Hanrahan, medical director of Encompass Health Rehab hospital of Murrieta, added that Smith also developed "acute respiratory failure, required two chest tubes and the help of a tracheostomy for breathing."
|
|
Smith had to relearn how to walk, talk, and eat. Now, Smith and the rest of his family who survived, four of whom were hospitalized, are imploring others to not follow their path.
"Wearing a mask isn't a joke," said young Riley McGuigan, one of 10 family members who contracted the coronavirus at the barbecue. "People say, 'I'm not gonna wear my mask, it's just OK I'm not gonna get Covid.' It's not a joke. You can die from this. People are dying from it."
|
|
|
|
Associated Press, September 22, 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic has fractured diplomatic relationships across the globe. But as director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong has helped steer Africa’s 54 nations into an alliance praised as responding better than some richer countries, including the United States. “Africa is doing a lot of things right the rest of the world isn’t,” said Gayle Smith, a former administrator with the U.S. Agency for International Development. She’s watched in astonishment as Washington looks inward instead of leading the world. But Africa “is a great story and one that needs to be told.”
NY Times, September 23, 2020
In Iztapalapa, it was clear from the start that the virus would strike hard. Of all the districts in Mexico City, it is the most populous and densely populated, with some two million people packed into 45 square miles of heaving commerce and virtually uninterrupted construction. Mexico City officials, fearful that the federal government was underestimating the epidemic, began calculating the losses on their own.
Within weeks, they acknowledged that deaths in the capital were three times higher than what the public was being told. Now, Mexico has the fourth-highest death toll in the world, with more than 70,000 lives officially lost to the virus. Experts say the real number may be tens of thousands more than that.
In Iztapalapa, the virus left few lives untouched, if not by illness then by economic distress. Starvation haunted people who had never considered themselves poor, and rituals that had bound the community for generations were scrapped. A new reality set in for many: A prolonged economic shutdown was clearly impossible. People could wear masks, and distance as much as possible, but almost no one could afford to stay home. They had to keep working. For the vast majority of people, risking illness or death has simply become the price of survival.
Bloomberg, September 23, 2020
The euro area’s economic recovery stalled this month as consumers fretted about a resurgence of the coronavirus and governments reinstated restrictions to control the spread of the disease.
The weakness is a reminder that while the initial rebound from lockdowns proved stronger than anticipated, that’s little guide to the longer term. Activity is still below its pre-crisis levels, full recovery is a long way off, and a number of sectors remain in trouble. The skewed impact of the virus means Europe is seeing a two-speed recovery, with manufacturing growing but services back in contraction.
Popular Science, September 23, 2020
An explosive outbreak of Covid-19 in a Brazilian city may have infected enough people for herd immunity to begin kicking in, preliminary research suggests. Antibody tests indicate that up to two thirds of the population of Manaus may have caught the virus. Scientists argue this could explain the city’s sustained decline in new cases. By contrast, São Paulo—where Brazil’s first case of Covid-19 was confirmed on February 25—experienced a less intense outbreak in the spring. In June, the prevalence of antibodies in blood donors only reached about 13.6 percent.
Reuters, September 23, 2020
Organizers of next year’s delayed Tokyo Olympics will require coronavirus tests of foreign athletes upon their arrival in Japan, but may not mandate a two-week quarantine period. Tokyo organizers also propose to limit travel within Japan for athletes, who would register all domestic travel routes and would be transported to towns hosting national delegations and training sites in dedicated vehicles.
|
|
|
|
Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, September 22, 2020
With autumn on the horizon, when colder weather is likely to drive millions back indoors where the virus can spread more easily and with returning colleges acting as giant disease incubators, the US is poised for another rude awakening. There is simply no chance of containing the contagion when new cases are still running at about 35,000 a day.
Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development who was at the forefront of the US government response to Ebola in 2014, says, “We’re on track to have a quarter-million dead Americans by the end of the year with absolutely no reason it had to happen. It was all preventable. So yes, this is a leadership failure of astounding proportions.”
Olga Khazan, The Atlantic, September 23, 2020
The Covid-19 death toll probably passed 200,000 some time ago. And yet “the photos of body bags have not had the same effect in the pandemic” as after other mass-casualty events such as Hurricane Katrina, says Lori Peek, a sociologist at the University of Colorado Boulder who studies disasters. “Is our national empathy—our care and love and concern for one another—at such a low level that we are not truly feeling, in our bones, in our hearts, and in our souls, the magnitude of the loss?”
It’s hard for anyone to comprehend the sheer horror of mass death. But there’s an additional explanation for this empathy deficit: Part of the reason this majority-white, majority-non-elderly country has been so blasé about Covid-19 deaths is that mostly Black people and old people are dying. Eight out of 10 American Covid-19 deaths have been among people older than 65; the rest of the dead are disproportionately Black. White people’s brains psychologically sort minorities as “out-groups” that stir less empathy. Segregated neighborhoods have also helped insulate white Americans from the horror Black Americans face, because the ambulance sirens and the packed hospital wards are typically far from their own zip codes.
Menachem Fromer, Paul Varghese, and Robert M. Califf, STAT, September 23, 2020
A second tsunami of Covid-19 cases could engulf the country as the weather gets colder and activities move indoors. That surge would also coincide with flu season, making it even harder to follow the symptom trail in uncovering Covid-19 outbreaks.
While diagnostic, or PCR, testing for Covid continues to be important, what the U.S. needs now is to deploy mass screening tests that provide real-time information about the spread of Covid-19, much as we deploy widespread sensors on ocean buoys and space satellites to enable weather forecasting that detects hurricanes days before they hit. While not as sensitive as PCR, antigen tests can be tremendously helpful in surveillance of new outbreaks. Their low cost and ease of use means they can be deployed frequently and for large numbers of people outside the clinic, such as at nursing homes, colleges, and workplaces, to quickly deliver results that prevent nascent outbreaks from spreading.
Andrew Joseph, STAT, September 22, 2020
STAT describes 30 key moments, possible turning points that could steer the pandemic onto a different course or barometers for how the virus is reshaping our lives, from rituals like Halloween and the Super Bowl, to what school could look like, to just how long we might be incorporating precautions into our routines. Throughout the pandemic, what’s maddened U.S. public health experts has been the nation’s inability and unwillingness to take the steps that could reduce illness and death, steps that other countries have used with success.
Dr. James Hamblin, The Atlantic, September 23, 2020
The most successful vaccines that we have, such as those against measles, are about 97 percent effective—meaning almost everyone develops fully protective, long-lasting immunity. Not every vaccine is so reliable. Technically, all that a vaccine does is stimulate our immune systems. From there, it’s up to our bodies to develop and maintain immunity—without inadvertently attacking our own cells in the process. But though vaccines are only partly effective at protecting a single person, they can still be extremely effective collectively.
|
|
|
|
|
Red (Substantial)
- 3.5 Adjusted case rate of new Covid-19 positive cases per day per 100,000 residents
- 2.5% Positivity rate
|
|
|
|
Widespread (Purple)
- 6.5 Adjusted case rate of new Covid-19 positive cases per day per 100,000 residents
- 4.0% Positivity rate
|
|
|
|
All California counties are assigned to a tier based on its test positivity and adjusted case rate. To move forward, a county must meet the next tier’s criteria for two consecutive weeks. If a county’s metrics worsen for two consecutive weeks, it will be assigned a more restrictive tier. For Contra Costa County to move down to the red tier, daily new cases (per 100k) must be between 4-7 and positive tests must be between 5-8% for another consecutive week. The state updates the tier data every Tuesday. |
|
Over the last seven days, Alameda County officials have confirmed 651 new cases, which amounts to 40 cases per 100,000 residents.
|
|
Over the last seven days, Contra Costa County officials have confirmed 667 new cases, which amounts to 59 cases per 100,000 residents. |
|
|
Top 8 Locations of Cases in Alameda County, as of 9/22/20. Alameda County does not publish cases per 100,000 in the last 14 days by city.
|
Oakland: 8,201
Hayward: 2,998
Fremont: 1,399
Eden MAC: 1,300
San Leandro: 1,123
Livermore: 865
Union City: 746
Castro Valley: 525
|
|
Top 8 Locations of Cases in Contra Costa County plus (in parentheses) cases per 100,000 in last 14 days, as of 9/22/20
|
Richmond: 3,141 (233)
Antioch: 2,177 (162)
Concord: 2,144 (130)
Pittsburgh: 1,812 (187)
San Pablo: 1,406 (366)
Bay Point: 857 (349)
Brentwood: 587 (64)
Walnut Creek: 573 (45)
|
|
|
|
|
We are proud to partner with the East Bay Community Foundation in publishing this bulletin. Through donations to its Covid-19 Response Fund, the EBCF provides grants to East Bay nonprofit organizations delivering essential services to those most impacted by the economic fallout from the pandemic.
|
|
Working in collaboration with the Alameda County Public Health Department, the Cities of Hayward and San Leandro, and the Castro Valley and Eden Area Municipal Advisory Councils, the District has printed “Mask On” posters for each city and community in the Eden Health District area. The posters are free and intended for businesses, health clinics, schools, churches, public agencies and nonprofit organizations to display in their entrances.
“Wearing masks in public or any gatherings, including events with friends and extended families, is essential for slowing the spread of the virus,” stated Eden Health District Director Pam Russo. “While we are seeing signs of progress in California, Alameda County remains a Covid-19 'hot spot' in the Bay Area. Please wear a mask to protect yourself while protecting others.”
|
The public is welcome to download and print or share “Mask On” posters from the District’s website. Posters are available in English, Spanish and Chinese languages.
Posters may also be retrieved during business hours from the lobby of the Eden Health District office building located at 20400 Lake Chabot Road, Castro Valley. Posters for the City of Hayward are also available from the Hayward Chamber of Commerce located at 22561 Main Street, Hayward.
|
|
|
Public Education Covid-19 Flyers |
Contra Costa County Health Services has recently published highly informative flyers addressing the risks of becoming infected in certain settings and activities. |
|
|
|
|
|
We have posted information on food pantries and food services in the cities of Hayward and San Leandro and unincorporated Alameda County including Castro Valley and San Lorenzo. You can access the information here on our website. Alameda County has also released an interactive map listing food distributions and other social services.
|
|
|
Your feedback is welcome. Please share the Bulletin. |
|
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.
Each bulletin includes a summary of the top health, Bay Area, California, national, education and international news on the pandemic plus links to a diverse range of commentary and analysis. We publish the Bulletin on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, unless the day fall on a public holiday.
We welcome your feedback on our bulletin. Please contact editor Stephen Cassidy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
