Eden Health District COVID-19 Bulletin
|
|
"This phase is one where science – public health, not politics, must be the guide."
Gov. Gavin Newsom, April 14, 2020
|
|
Alameda County:
884
Contra Costa County:
600
California:
25,808
U.S.:
610,744
|
|
Alameda County:
23
Contra Costa County:
12
California:
790
U.S.:
26,119
|
|
|
|
The Eden Health District is 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.
|
|
|
 |
East Bay Times, April 15, 2020
The Alameda County District Attorney’s office has opened an investigation into a Hayward nursing home where an increasing number of patients, 13 as of Wednesday, have died from coronavirus. District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said her office has been investigating the Gateway Rehabilitation and Care Center, where 67 people, 41 patients and 26 staff, have contracted the virus so far.
|
Twitter, April 15, 2020
Operation Safer Ground is Alameda County's program developed in coordination with the State of California’s
Project Roomkey
to procure hotel rooms for persons experiencing homelessness during the pandemic. On Wednesday,
a team (in photo) organized by
Alameda County Health Care for the Homeless
and including members of the nonprofit
Building Futures
assisted 12 individuals move into hotel rooms. The
|
individuals are either over the age of 65 or medically fragile.
“I am so relieved that we were able to work with the Alameda Health Care Agency and Health Care for the Homeless to refer 12 San Leandro Warming Shelter clients into Operation Safer Ground," stated Liz Varela, Executive Director of Building Futures. "Wednesday night was the last night of the warming shelter for the season and we were worried about where some of the most fragile of our San Leandro unsheltered residents would go to be safe.”
|
The Hayward Chamber of Commerce has begun to distribute posters to "essential businesses" in the city that proclaim they are "Open for Business" during the crisis.
Minuteman Press
in downtown Hayward donated 200 posters for the campaign.
|
|
|
|
East Bay Times, April 16, 2020
A day after Gov. Gavin Newsom declared Tuesday the state’s deadliest reporting day yet in COVID-19 pandemic, the Bay Area reported the most deaths in a single day. On Wednesday, the region’s death toll grew by 23, a 15% increase, to 171. Newsom said the state’s number of deaths from the virus grew by 63, to 821, but
according to data compiled by this news organization
, there were 101 newly reported fatalities Wednesday, bringing the state’s total to 878. These numbers come with an asterisk, however. Many counties, including Santa Clara and Alameda, reported two days worth of data Wednesday after technical difficulties prevented them on Tuesday. Still, averaged over two days, the 23 casualties between Tuesday and Wednesday would represent the two deadliest days in the Bay Area thus far.
SF Chronicle, April 15, 2020
Top health officials in the Bay Area and nearby counties are working on plans to relax shelter-in-place orders next month for 7 million people stretching from Napa to Monterey, but the new order would probably apply only to outdoor activities. The plan, being hashed out by the Association of Bay Area Health Officers, an organization of county and city health directors, is to loosen restrictions on May 4 on lower-risk activities in 13 jurisdictions, including San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose.
East Bay Times, April 15, 2020
Twelve more inmates have tested positive for COVID-19 in Alameda County’s jail, bringing the total to 27 inmates As of Wednesday, 12 of those 27 who tested positive at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin have recovered. In addition, at least two jail staff members also tested positive. Alameda County may have the highest number of inmates who have tested positive in the immediate Bay Area.
SF Chronicle, April 15, 2020
San Francisco unveiled a public health outreach plan Wednesday meant to help the city quickly test and identify people newly infected with the coronavirus, and to track down anyone they may have had contact with who could also become ill. The program is meant to augment the city’s contact tracing efforts, which are a long-standing tool of public health to battle infectious disease outbreaks.
|
|
|
|
|
Politico, April 15, 2020
Undocumented immigrants in California will be able to draw on a $125 million benefit fund during the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday. While unauthorized immigrants comprise about a tenth of California’s workforce, Newsom noted that they are generally ineligible for economic lifelines like unemployment insurance or the $2 trillion federal relief fund. That’s despite the fact that many immigrants work in essential industries like health care and agriculture, Newsom said.
Mercury News, April 15, 2020
As many Californians cheered Gov. Gavin Newsom’s unveiling of a plan for eventually lifting coronavirus shelter-in-place orders, details of the efforts needed to put those plans in action served as a reminder that it will take a lot of time, and a surge in coronavirus testing. Newsom said he would like to see California double the number of tests for COVID-19 that it is conducted each day by the end of April and to continue a massive expansion of testing through the summer. Experts say that building out a surveillance system for identifying people who have contracted the deadly coronavirus and tracing the contacts they have made will require a massive mobilization of people and resources in every corner of the state.
Associated Press, April 16, 2020
Most beaches and virtually every other destination in California are closed because of the coronavirus outbreak. Though the outlook has improved, Gov. Gavin Newsom has written off the possibility of a typical summer. To begin gradually loosening restrictions in place for about a month, Newsom said there must be widespread COVID-19 testing, which has already proved problematic.
|
|
|
|
New York Times, April 15, 2020
As President Trump pushes to reopen the economy, most of the country is not conducting nearly enough testing to track the path and penetration of the coronavirus in a way that would allow Americans to safely return to work, public health officials and political leaders say. Although capacity has improved in recent weeks, supply shortages remain crippling, and many regions are still restricting tests to people who meet specific criteria. Antibody tests, which reveal whether someone has ever been infected with the coronavirus, are just starting to be rolled out, and most have not been vetted by the Food and Drug Administration.
Associated Press, April 15, 2020
Less than a month ago, Massachusetts reported its first death due to COVID-19. Now the state trails only New York, New Jersey and Michigan for the state with the most deaths from the virus. Overall, nearly 30,000 cases have been confirmed, making Massachusetts a hotspot in the Northeast. About 530 of the deaths occurred in long-term care facilities. “We are in the surge,” Gov. Charlie Baker said Wednesday.
Politico, April 15, 2020
Trump and red state governors for weeks have fairly bragged about how large parts of the farm belt have escaped the ravages of the virus without the enforced shelter-in-place policies common on both coasts. Now cases are erupting, threatening a local population that doesn’t always have easy access to the same health care as more urban areas.
Associated Press, April 16, 2020
The government said 5.2 million more people applied for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the running total to about 22 million out of a U.S. work force of roughly 159 million — easily the worst stretch of U.S. job losses on record.
|
|
|
|
Nonprofit Spotlight: Comida Para Cherryland
|
|
|
|
A pantry run by volunteers, including members of
Congregation Shir Ami
in Castro Valley and
Eden Church
in Hayward
,
Comida Para Cherryland
addresses the food insecurity needs of residents of Cherryland, a portion of unincorporated Alameda County next to Hayward. With COVID-19, Comida is seeing the highest participation by families seeking food assistance in its eight years of operation. On Wednesday, April 8th, Comida served 900 clients in 1 hour.
In support of Comida, the Hayward Rotary has agreed to match community donations dollar for dollar up to $5,000 in donations. To make a tax deductible donation, please visit the Eden Church's website by
clicking here
and select "Comida Para Cherryland" in the drop down menu.
|
|
|
|
|
Japan Times, April 16, 2020
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expanded a state of emergency to cover the whole country on Thursday in an attempt to prevent the further spread of the new coronavirus, a government official said Thursday. The coronavirus infection cases reported in Japan exceed 9,000 with more than new 300 infection cases recorded across the country the same day, including 149 in Tokyo.
CNN, April 16, 2020
Twelve "lessons" are summarized from the four nations, Taiwan, Iceland, South Korea and Germany, that have been most successful in slowing the virus' spread.
Bloomberg, April 15, 2020
Germany wasn’t the first to contain an initial outbreak of Covid-19 with snazzy technology; that honor goes to Taiwan or South Korea. Nor is it the first to relax the current lockdown;
that role
is being played by neighboring Denmark, Austria and the Czech Republic, whereas Germany just extended its school closures to May 3. Germany did, for a while, have one of the world’s lowest fatality rates. But even that number,
currently 2.6%
, has been rising, apparently reverting to the
global mean
. What seems like a deterioration, however, helps explain why Germany is getting so much right. The death rate was low at the start because the country was unusually fast in rolling out widespread testing. As a result, it captured the many infections in the asymptomatic and younger population, while other countries were still mainly testing the old and overtly sick.
|
Mirror, April 16, 2020
99-year-old Captain Tom Moore, who turns 100 at the end of the month, initially planned to raise £1,000 for the NHS by walking 100 lengths of his garden before his birthday. His story, and his positivity, remember things will get better he says, has gone right around the world. As a result he has now raised a staggering £13million for the NHS. The Second World War veteran
completed his 100th length
live on television, complete with an honor guard from the 1st Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment.
|
|
|
|
STAT, April 15, 2020
Speaking calmly and at a normal volume produces liquid droplets so small they can remain suspended in the air long enough to enter the airways of other people, potentially exposing them to viruses including the one that causes Covid-19, according to a new study led by scientists at the National Institutes of Health. “Aerosols from infected persons may therefore pose an inhalation threat even at considerable distances and in enclosed spaces, particularly if there is poor ventilation,” Harvard University biologist Matthew Meselson wrote in a
commentary
accompanying the paper.
LA Times, April 15, 2020
For younger and middle-aged adults in particular, carrying excess weight may significantly boost the likelihood of becoming severely ill with COVID-19. In one of two new studies released this week, COVID-19 patients who were younger than 60 and had a BMI between 30 and 34 were twice as likely as their non-obese peers to be admitted to the hospital for acute care instead of being sent home from the ER. They were also 1.8 times more likely to require critical care in a hospital’s intensive care unit.
Bloomberg, April 16, 2020
Some people experience Covid-19 as nothing more than a mild cold, and others exhibit no symptoms at all. Then there are the thousands who sicken and, often, die. Scientists are working hard to understand the underlying reasons for such huge discrepancies in symptoms and outcomes. No one knows the answer yet. One theory: It is locked deep in our genetic makeup.
Raw Story, April 16, 2020
Coronavirus testing in the United States is moving into a new phase as scientists begin looking into people’s blood for signs they’ve been infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. This technique is called serological testing.
SF Chronicle, April 16, 2020
|
|
|
|
Donate PPE To Area Hospitals
|
Hospitals throughout the East Bay are experiencing
a shortage of medical supplies. They are seeking donations of new Protective Personal Equipment (masks, gowns and other products). For more information visit:
|
|
|
Alert: COVID-19 Related Scams and Frauds Widespread
|
|
Scammers are using the pandemic as a means to obtain confidential and personal information from California seniors. Any unsolicited phone call or visit from someone claiming to work for or with Medicare and seeking your Medicare or social security number is a red alert that the person is engaged in a fraud.
In one widespread scheme, the
Los Angeles Times reports
, fraudsters call Medicare beneficiaries at home, knock on their doors or approach them in the parking lots of grocery stores and pharmacies, then offer them home-test kits for COVID-19 or packages of hand sanitizer, masks and other protective equipment.
What they’re after, explains Timothy DeFrancesca, a special agent with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Inspector General, is personal information such as Medicare numbers, which they can use to bill the federal government for procedures that aren’t performed and costly equipment that isn’t needed. The scammers aren’t constrained by ripping off only Medicare, DeFrancesca adds; armed with this information, “they could use it for any sort of financial fraud scheme.”
Another common scheme,
CNN reports
, involve phone calls from a person claiming to be a hospital or
health care official. The caller states that a relative is in the hospital with coronavirus. The caller then insists upon obtaining the call recipient's credit card information to pay the hospital bill.
Finally, there has been a surge in individuals and companies advertising and selling products claimed to be a cure or treatment for the coronavirus. Currently, no
consumer or over-the-counter health products have been found to treat or prevent the virus.
Recently, the
Federal Trade Commission announced
it has sent
sent
10 letters
warning companies, both in the United States and abroad, to cease making unsubstantiated claims that their products can treat or prevent coronavirus disease. The companies receiving warning letters sell everything from a bundle of supplements called an “ANTI-VIRUS KIT” to “Sonic Silicone Face Brushes” and intravenous (IV) “therapies” with high doses of Vitamin C. While some letters challenge products sold online, others challenge purported treatments offered in clinics or even at a consumer’s home.
|
|
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.
Please share our bulletin with your contacts. If you would like to submit feedback or stories on the local response to the pandemic, please contact bulletin editor Stephen Cassidy at
stephen.cassidy@ethd.org
. And if you are operating a local food bank and would like your organization profiled in our nonprofit spotlight, please contact us.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
