COVID-19
breaking news & updates
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Contra Costa County Opens COVID-19 Vaccinations to Residents Outside County and Even Elsewhere in U.S.
Contra Costa County has opened up COVID-19 vaccine availability to everyone age 16 and older, regardless of where they live. County health officials on Monday put out the alert, saying that supplies were plentiful, so vaccines would now be offered to those across the Bay Area, California, and even to those from elsewhere in the U.S. "We've always said that this virus doesn't recognize borders," said County Health Officer Dr.Chris Farnitano. "Now we can say that Contra Costa County no longer cares about borders when it comes to getting people vaccinated against COVID," he added. KTVU Read more
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Oakland Coliseum Vaccination Site to Close on May 23rd After Successfully Administering Half a Million Doses
Alameda County and the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) announced on May 5 that after successfully administering nearly 250,000 doses to Alameda County residents, the Oakland Coliseum mega vaccination site will be closing. Alameda County Health Department Read more
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Davis Street is offering Free Walk-In Moderna Vaccinations
Free Walk-in COVID-19 Moderna vaccines are available for adults 18+ at Davis Street's Primary Care Clinic located at 3081 Teagarden Street in San Leandro. Moderna vaccine walk-ins are available Monday - Friday from 8am - 12pm until May 14, 2021.
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New Concord Vaccination Site a Boost For Latino Neighborhood Hit Hard By Pandemic
Officials hope a new site offering COVID-19 vaccines near a densely populated, largely Latino neighborhood will boost the city’s relatively low vaccination rate. The site opened last Thursday at 1034 Oak Grove Road in Concord. It will operate from noon to 7 p.m. on Tuesdays (walk-in doses available 4:30 to 7 p.m.) and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays (walk-in doses from 12:30 to 3 p.m.). Mercury News Read more
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Despite Dwindling Demand For COVID-19 Vaccines, Bay Area Counties Plan to "Double Down" on New Strategy
As the waves of people rolling up their sleeves to get once coveted COVID-19 vaccine shots continue to recede, Bay Area public health officials are ramping up community-focused inoculation clinics and making mass vaccination sites more convenient by doing away with appointments to reel in the most hesitant. Mercury News Read more
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21 Students at East Bay High School Get COVID After Attending Off-Campus Event
An East Bay high school is grappling with a COVID outbreak that's infected almost 2 dozen students and forced another 100 into quarantine. Twenty-one students at Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek have the virus, John Nickerson, superintendent of Acalanes Union High School District, said.The explosion in cases was tied to an off-campus event, he said. KTVU
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Here's How Close the Bay Area is to Reaching Biden's July 4 Vaccination Goal
President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced a new COVID-19 vaccine goal to deliver at least one dose to 70% of American adults by July 4. Most of the Bay Area has already surpassed that goal, according to county data. Six of the region’s nine counties report more than 70% of their adult population have received at least one vaccine shot. SF Chronicle Read more
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Bay Area Restaurant Hiring Crisis
The Bay Area restaurant industry is facing a staffing shortage during the pandemic that its leaders say is unprecedented. Dishwashers are being asked to cook. Bartenders are busing tables. And on busy nights, left with no other choice, owners are eliminating tables in already reduced-capacity dining rooms because they do not have enough wait staff. Labor was limited even before the pandemic due to the Bay Area’s high cost of living and the industry’s comparatively low wages. Mercury News Read more
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FDA Expected to OK Pfizer Vaccine For Teens Within Week
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for youngsters ages 12 to 15 by next week, according to a federal official and a person familiar with the process, setting up shots for many before the beginning of the next school year. The announcement is set to come a month after the company found that its shot, which is already authorized for those age 16 and older, also provided protection for the younger group. AP Read more
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India is The Home of The World’s Biggest Producer of COVID Vaccines - But It’s Facing a Major Internal Shortage
With India experiencing a devastating second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, questions are being asked about how the country - which is home to the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer - got to this tragic point. India continues to report massive numbers of new infections. On Tuesday, it passed the grim milestone of having reported over 20 million COVID cases and at least 226,188 people have died from the virus, although the reported death toll is believed to be lower than the actual death toll. CNBC Read more
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Local "Trusted Messengers" Key To Boosting COVID Vaccinations, Surgeon General Says
In an interview Wednesday with NPR's Morning Edition, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said that while confidence in COVID-19 vaccines has risen, there's more work to do in convincing people, especially in rural communities, to get the shots. And working with "trusted messengers," including doctors and local faith leaders, will be key, he said. "That's actually who people want to hear from - their own health care provider, their family and their friends," Murthy said. NPR Read more
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It’s Not Vaccine Hesitancy, It’s COVID-19 Denialism
Several years ago, two sociologists researched whether Americans were willing to take a novel vaccine during a pandemic. Taking poll data from the midst of the 2009 H1N1 swine-flu outbreak, they broke out hesitancy by race, age, and partisanship, among other factors. Although the H1N1 pandemic was very different from today’s COVID-19 pandemic - not nearly as many people in the United States fell ill, far fewer died, and vaccines were not as widely available as they are now - the results were striking. The researchers found widespread hesitation. The Atlantic Read more
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Your COVID Vaccine Booster Might Be a Patch Or a Pill - Or it Might Come With Your Flu Shot
While the Biden administration has been racing to maximize the number of Americans vaccinated against COVID-19, government researchers have also been working on what form the next generation of vaccines will take. They may be combined with the seasonal flu vaccine, or could come in the form of pills or patches instead of shots. Scientists also envision vaccines that might shield against viruses beyond SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) that could avert future pandemics.
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Giving 2 Doses Of Different COVID-19 Vaccines Could Boost Immune Response
Typically, if you get a COVID-19 vaccine that requires two doses, you should get two of the same vaccine. Two Pfizer shots, or two Moderna shots. Not one then the other.
But in the future that could change, either by necessity or by design. This idea of using two types of vaccines isn't a new concept. It's known as heterologous vaccination, although there's a more colloquial term. "In the U.K. at the moment, we're sort of calling it mix and match," says Helen Fletcher, professor of immunology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. NPR Read more
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Vaccine Resources
Food Pantries
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Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 438,259
California: 3,749,885
U.S.: 32,534,179
Alameda County
Vaccines Administered: 1,538,556
Cases: 87,326
Deaths: 1,538
Test Positivity: 1.1%
Hospitalized Patients: 98
ICU Beds Available: 113
Cases have decreased over the past week but are still high. The numbers of hospitalized COVID patients and deaths in the Alameda County area have remained at about the same level. The test positivity rate in Alameda County is relatively low, suggesting that testing capacity is adequate for evaluating COVID-19 spread in the area. NY Times
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Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 6,310
California: 62,056
U.S.: 578,925
Contra Costa County
Vaccines Administered: 1,120,575
Cases: 68,279
Deaths: 787
Test Positivity: 1.5%
Hospitalized Patients: 42
ICU Beds Available: 52
Cases have decreased over the past week but are still high. The number of hospitalized COVID patients has also fallen in the Contra Costa area. Deaths have increased. 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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State/National/International News |
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1 Million Cases to 75,000: California's Stunning COVID Recovery
After the winter COVID-19 surge ravaged California and pushed intensive care units to their limits, data shows that the state and the Bay Area have made a dramatic and sustained recovery since the beginning of the year. During the weekend of April 24-25, California reported fewer than 1,000 new daily coronavirus cases, the first time the state has dipped below that benchmark since April 19 of last year. Positive test rates - the percentage of total tests that come back positive, which is a key indicator of viral spread - have declined to near pandemic lows in the state. SF Chronicle Read more
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CA's New Mask Mandate Is Tougher Than The CDC's: How They Differ
Californians who are fully vaccinated can officially walk among others without their masks - except at a crowded event, according to California's new face mask guidance. But unvaccinated residents must still wear face coverings while walking around outdoors. The policy differs slightly from the guidance offered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week. Those guidelines said that unvaccinated people can safely walk outside or attend a small gathering outdoors with others who are vaccinated. The CDC added that dining outdoors at a restaurant without a mask while unvaccinated is "less safe." San Leandro Patch Read more
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The U.S. Won’t Reach Herd Immunity This Year
So How Will It Live With COVID?
For many months, members of the public have equated a return to “normal life” with the phrase “herd immunity”: that threshold reached when the COVID-19 pandemic would be boxed in by immunization campaigns, find no new hosts and society would return to a 2019-style normal. However, many scientists and experts have also warned for months that the U.S. will not reach this threshold this year, or perhaps even next. That is because of a number of important factors including high levels of vaccine hesitancy in the U.S., and a still globally widespread COVID-19, which is leading to new variants.
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You Might Be Depressed Now, But Don’t Underestimate Your Resilience
The emerging data on mental health during the pandemic suggests a troubling future. Surveys show that Americans have become more depressed and anxious, and experts in a variety of fields have argued that COVID-19 has changed society forever. While the pandemic has undeniably caused extraordinary stress and sadness, research on human resilience suggests that people will recover from the trauma of the pandemic faster than many believe. NY Times Read more
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American Birth And Fertility Rates Plunge To All Time Lows During COVID Pandemic
The U.S. birth rate fell for the sixth year in a row in 2020, the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention reported Wednesday, reaching the lowest point since official records began over 100 years ago, dispelling once and for all speculation that the COVID-19 pandemic could fuel a “baby boom.” Forbes Read more
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Over Half of California Public School Students Remain in Distance Learning
Although 87% of California’s traditional public schools have reopened for some form of in-person instruction, fewer than half of students have returned either full time or part time in a hybrid model. A total of 55% of all public school students, including those in charter schools, were at home, in distance learning, as of April 30. EdSource
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$100 As An Incentive to Get a Shot?
Experiment Suggests It Can Pay Off
What’s the best way to persuade the millions of Americans who are still unvaccinated against Covid-19 to get their shots? Reassuring public service announcements about the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness have proliferated. But increasingly, people are realizing that it will take more than just information to sway the hesitant. Roughly a third of the unvaccinated population said a cash payment would make them more likely to get a shot. NY Times Read more
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Why Some Vaccinated People Won't Go Maskless - Even Outdoors
Texas resident Robert Soto can't wait to visit his favorite karaoke spots in Austin. He says he'll be wearing his mask when he belts out "Amber" by 311 or "The Promise" by When in Rome - his go-to songs every time he grabs the mic at a bar. Soto plans to resume some social activities after he gets his second vaccine shot this month, but will probably still wear a mask and avoid shaking hands for a long while. CNN
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When You’ve Been Fully Vaccinated
If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing many things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic. CDC 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 last seven days, Alameda County officials have reported 1,643 new coronavirus cases, which amounts to 100 cases per 100,000 residents. |
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Over the last seven days, Contra Costa County officials have reported 466 new coronavirus cases, which amounts to 41 cases per 100,000 residents. |
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Alameda County, as of 5/5//21
Oakland: 27,179
Hayward: 13,555
Fremont: 7,932
Eden MAC: 5,912
San Leandro: 5,432
Livermore: 4,235
Union City: 3,987
Berkeley: 3,574
Newark: 2,775
Castro Valley: 2,550
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Contra Costa County, as of 5/5/21
Richmond: 10,270
Antioch: 9,467
Concord: 7,979
Pittsburg: 6,762
San Pablo: 5,203
Brentwood: 3,762
Oakley: 3,163
Walnut Creek: 2,841
Bay Point: 2,748
San Ramon: 2,079
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Mask On!
Protect Yourself While Protecting Others
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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 in the Eden Health District area. These posters are free of charge and intended for businesses, health clinics, schools, churches, public agencies and nonprofit agencies to display in their entrances. The posters are available in English, Spanish and Chinese languages. The public is welcome to download and print or share "Mask On" posters from our website. |
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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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