Eden Health District COVID-19 Bulletin
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Avoiding a second wave "
comes down to community norms and routines. If everyone is just trying to go back to normal and not face the inconveniences, like mask-wearing and avoiding large gatherings, then the risk for a second wave goes up."
David Rubin, professor of pediatrics at University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine,
6/11/20
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Fighting for Rights Despite the Pandemic
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As executive director for Ombudsman Services of Alameda, Contra Costa, and Solano counties, Nicole Howell is responsible for ensuring that the 13,000 residents of long-term care in her community have access to care and respect free of abuse and neglect.
Her job became harder when, due to shelter-in-place orders, her staff couldn’t visit the people they advocate for. Yet, through these past few months, Ombudsman Services has been able to continue to advocate for clients even without laying eyes on them.
“Ombudsmen have been very aware of emergency preparedness,” noted Howell.
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“We’ve been talking about this for years…. My staff were calling facilities — since they couldn’t go in person — and asking, ‘What is your current infection control plan?’ and about supplies.”
Howell also pointed out that long-term care ombudsman services are federally mandated.
Source:
East Bay Times
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Alameda County:
4,033
Contra Costa County:
1,798
California:
139,863
U.S.:
2,003,930
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Alameda County:
105
Contra Costa County:
43
California:
4,854
U.S.:
113,038
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East Bay Times, June 11, 2020
Alameda County recorded its 4,000th case of the coronavirus Wednesday and added another fatality to its overall death toll. The latest numbers put the county at 4,033 cases and made it the sixth in California to reach the 4,000-case threshold. The others — Los Angeles (65,822), Riverside (9,590), San Diego (8,729), Orange (7,614) and San Bernardino (6,417) counties, are all in Southern California. With 105 fatalities, the county also is one of only two in Northern California with at least 100. Santa Clara County has recorded 146 deaths.
The Latino population, which comprises approximately 22% of the population of Alameda County, has been most profoundly hit, with 47% of the cases (1,888) affecting them. Latinos also make up about one in every four of the county’s 105 COVID-19 deaths. There have been 29 fatalities in both the Latino and white population groups. The county’s population is about half white, while less than a quarter is Latino.
Berkeleyside, Updated June 10, 2020
On July 1, restaurants and bars in Contra Costa County can invite customers inside for dining and drinks. Although the county has not yet officially announced details on this new stage of reopening, the date is posted in a graphic released June 8 by Contra Costa Health Services titled
“Contra Costa County’s Road Ahead for Our Community.”
This revision expands on the June 5
update to Contra County’s health order
,
which allowed restaurants to reopen for outdoor dining, as long as restaurants limited the number of diners to 6 at a table (all of whom should live in the same household), and spaced tables at least six-feet apart.
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KABC 7 News, June 10, 2020
Santa Clara County is ordering hospitals and large healthcare providers to expand COVID-19 testing, saying the brunt of the testing done so far has been done by the county and pop-up private testing sites. A
public health order
issued Wednesday says hospitals and their associated clinics must provide testing to:
- Those who are exhibiting coronavirus symptoms
- Those who have been exposed to a known COVID-19 case
- Frontline and essential workers, such as grocery workers, bus drivers and pharmacy employees
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The Guardian, June 11, 2020
States and cities across the US are continuing to reopen, despite states such as Texas and Arizona reporting an increase of cases since Memorial Day. These re-openings, along with ongoing protests, have raised concerns about a “second wave” of infections. The Guardian interviews three US infectious disease experts.
Brian Resnick, Senior Science Reporter, Vox, June 11, 2020
The dangerousness of this virus, of this pandemic, hasn’t changed. No matter what happens in the news over the next weeks and months, this will still be true. Here is why the pandemic is not going away:
- Opening up the economy exposes more people to the coronavirus.
- We're nowhere near the threshold for herd immunity.
- We don't have to choose between endless lockdowns and mass deaths.
- This virus could lull us into a false sense of security.
- A vaccine can end the pandemic. But not immediately.
Meghan Moravcik Walbert, parenting editor, Lifehacker, June 10, 2020
Plan some "stay-away games" such as an obstacle course. Stay outdoors. Avoid meals and snacks. Keep it short. Remind them why we're staying distanced.
STAT, June 11, 2020
Scientists stress that just because someone has recovered from Covid-19 and produced
antibodies to the coronavirus
does not mean they are protected from contracting it a second time.
No one’s yet proven tha
t
. That, then, leaves open the question: What does immunity look like?
Experts anticipate an initial coronavirus infection will lend people some level of immunity for some amount of time. But they still don’t know what potpourri of antibodies, cells, and other markers in a person’s blood will signify that protection. And determining those “correlates of protection” is crucial both so individuals can know if they are again at risk, and so researchers can understand how well potential vaccines work, how long they last, and how to accelerate their development.
Wired, June 11, 2020
There’s a difference between people who never develop symptoms and people who just don’t have them yet. And that matters when calculating public health risk.
Nature, June 9, 2020
A massive coronavirus testing campaign in Vietnam has found evidence that infected people who never show any symptoms can pass the virus to others.
Nasal swabbing showed that the 13 infected but asymptomatic study participants had lower levels of viral RNA than infected people who felt ill at some point. But it’s “highly likely” that two of the asymptomatic participants were the source of infection for at least two other people,
the authors say.
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How is the Coronavirus Spreading in California?
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The daily number of new reported coronavirus cases has fallen in the US over the past 14 days. However, in twenty-one states, including California, new cases are rising.
The rise is partially attributable to some states recently ramping up their testing. In California, while the number of daily tests in California over the past 14 days has increased, particularly in the Los Angeles area, the statewide increase in testing has not been significant. On May 27, 52,386 tests were conducted in California. On June 9, 54,553 tests were conducted in the state. Sources:
NY Times
&
IHME
Most of the increase in cases in California, as reported in
The Guardian
, appears "driven by factors tied directly to the loosening of restrictions or overt flouting of public health rules."
Yet for the present, the number of confirmed and suspected Covid-19 hospitalizations in California remain lower than they were earlier in May. And the seven-day average of new coronavirus deaths in California has dropped to 62 from the April 24 peak of 80.
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As reported in today's
Mercury News
, "Experts aren’t quite sure what to make of the trend, but one surprising theory is gaining traction: that the people now getting sick are younger, healthier and less likely to suffer severe illness."
John Swartzberg, clinical professor emeritus of infectious diseases at UC Berkeley, commented that the theory that the infected are tending toward younger, healthier workers is "tenable." But Swartzberg remains concerned that the state is reopening too quickly, telling the Mercury News: “We’re going to pay for that.”
Symptom onset can lag exposure to the virus up to two weeks, though typically it takes four to five days. Hospitalization from worsening symptoms can take two weeks, and deaths tend to come after three weeks.
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LA Times, June 10, 2020
California officials remain confident about the rapid reopening of the economy even as coronavirus deaths and new cases continue to rise, saying they have no plans now to slow the efforts. They said they expected cases to tick upward as businesses reopened but stressed the overall metrics still support the reopening strategy, which took another major step forward on Wednesday.
SF Chronicle, June 10, 2020
Criminal defendants accused of nonviolent crimes will be required to post bail in many California counties later this month after a vote Wednesday by state judicial leaders to repeal a zero-bail order they issued two months ago because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Judicial Council, the policy-making body for California courts, said it will encourage counties to maintain zero-bail policies when necessary to protect inmates and communities from the coronavirus by reducing the jail population.
Sacramento Bee, June 10, 2020
Sacramento, Yolo, Placer and El Dorado counties will permit schools, movie theaters, bars, campsites, casinos, day camps, gyms, museums, zoos, spectator-less sports, hotels and more to reopen Friday, the first day they’re allowed to do so under a new state ordinance. The
politically and population-diverse counties’
unified step forward contrasts with their staggered march through Phase 2 of
Gov. Newsom’s reopening plan
last month.
LA Times, June 10, 2020
The Disneyland Resort, closed since mid-March to help stem the spread of the coronavirus, is preparing to reopen just in time to celebrate the park’s 65th anniversary. The so-called happiest place on Earth is looking to begin a phased reopening in July.
Both Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure will open July 17, pending local and state government approvals. The Downtown Disney shopping district is slated to reopen July 9, with Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa and Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel planning to open July 23.
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Associated Press, June 11, 2020
There is no single reason to explain the surges in cases across the U.S. In some areas, more testing has revealed more cases. In others, local outbreaks are big enough to push statewide tallies higher. But experts think at least some are due to lifting stay-at-home orders, school and business closures, and other restrictions put in place during the spring to stem the virus’s spread.
Vox, June 11, 2020
Coronavirus cases have nearly doubled in Arizona in the past two weeks, and hospitalizations are also on the rise. Part of the recent uptick is in the
Navajo Nation
,
a reservation that reaches into several states, with its largest share of territory in Arizona. For a time, it had the
highest per capita Covid-19 infection rate
in the US, and as of June 9, tribal officials confirmed 6,150 cases of Covid-19 and 285 deaths across the territory. Indigenous people account for
16% of deaths
from Covid-19 in Arizona among cases where ethnicity is known, despite comprising
5.3% of the population.
Wall Street Journal, June 11, 2020
Stocks tumbled Thursday, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average sliding more than 1,000 points, as heightened fears of a second wave of coronavirus infections sent investors out of risky assets. The cautious tone the Federal Reserve struck Wednesday has also been weighing on investors’ minds. The Dow declined 1% Wednesday after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said it could take the labor market years to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
The Guardian, June 10, 2020
For Americans, coronavirus went from being a mysterious affliction that occurred in far-off lands to 1m confirmed cases on US soil within 14 weeks. Now, just six weeks later, the US has broken through the grim milestone of 2 million positive tests for Covid-19, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. The true figure of infection in the US is almost certainly “multiples more” than the 2 million confirmed cases, said Irwin Redlener, Director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, but is obscured by the lack of testing.
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Grateful for an Experiment
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In March, when the doctors told Patrick Bright’s wife that he was the sickest patient at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC, she thought the end was near. Desperate doctors gave him an experimental drug consisting of convalescent plasma; three days later, things started looking up, and now he is recovering at home in Clinton, Maryland, after two months in the hospital.
Bright, who works for the Pentagon, says one of the first thing he’ll do when he’s able to is return to the hospital is thank the frontline workers who saved him.
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BBC News, June 11, 2020
The WHO's Africa regional director said the virus was spreading beyond capital cities and that a lack of tests and other supplies was hampering responses. South Africa had more than a quarter of the reported cases and was seeing high numbers of confirmed cases and deaths in Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces. The country has one of the most advanced healthcare systems in Africa, but there are fears that a steep rise in cases could overwhelm it.
ABC News, June 10, 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic continues to sweep through Mexico, which confirmed its first positive case in late February. On June 9, Mexico reported 4,199 more confirmed COVID-19 cases and 596 new deaths—an uptick since last week. To date, Mexico has reported 124,301 confirmed cases and 14,649 deaths, according to federal officials, who have acknowledged that the country's testing rate has been low thereby suggesting the actual number of cases has been higher.
Washington Post, June 10, 2020
While Asia, Europe and the United States are attempting to reopen from long coronavirus lockdowns, cases in Latin America are exploding, with Brazil the hardest hit. Community leaders in some of the country’s worst off neighborhoods are hiring their own ambulances, creating unemployment funds and even building independent databases to track cases and deaths to fight the virus in the face of lack of services from the government.
Bloomberg, June 10, 2020
Germany recorded the fewest new coronavirus cases since the end of February and the infection rate fell back below the key threshold of 1.0.
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Michelle McMurry-Heath, STAT,
June 11, 2020
It’s interesting the negotiating we do with ourselves as we try to process a paradigm-shifting catastrophe. As the scope and lethality of the Covid-19 pandemic became apparent, my internal negotiator tried to balance my desire to be a responsible public health leader with my maternal impulse to worry and protect
.
Spencer Kornhaber, staff writer, The Atlantic, June 10, 2020
Queer gatherings are a rejection of queer isolation: of hiding in the closet, of believing oneself to be alone in one’s identity, of fearing that embracing one’s truth would result in physical harm. In recent decades, it’s often been more out and proud. Either way, what’s resulted for many participants is a way of life in which physical closeness is sacred. The virus is changing all that.
Kaiser Health News, June 11, 2020
Donning cloth masks to protect against the virus, plus helmets, makeshift shields and other gear to guard against rubber bullets, projectiles and tear gas, volunteer medics have organized themselves into a web of first responders to care for people on the streets. They show up early, set up first-aid stations, establish transportation networks and cover their arms, helmets and backpacks with crosses made of red duct tape to signify that they are medics.
Mona Chalabi, illustrator and data journalist, New York Times,
June 11, 2020
Rather than erasing the inequalities that existed in New York City, Covid-19 has shown the way that each of them is intricately linked. Crowding correlates with poverty, which correlates with race, which correlates with certain health conditions lack asthma.
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Alameda County Data and Resources
: 984 n
ew cases have been recorded over the last two weeks. The number of confirmed infections is currently doubling every 40.6 days.
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Contra Costa County Data and Resources
: 423 new cases have been recorded over last 2 weeks. The number of confirmed infections is currently doubling every 26.6 days.
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Top 8 Locations of Cases in Alameda County
, data as of 6/9/20
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Oakland:
1,589
Hayward:
733
Eden MAC:
249
Fremont:
205
San Leandro:
178
Union City:
143
Castro Valley:
129
Newark:
121
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Top 8 Locations of Cases in Contra Costa County
, data as of 6/9/20
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Richmond:
408
Concord:
211
Antioch:
149
San Pablo:
144
Pittsburgh:
124
Bay Point:
98
Pleasant Hill:
71
Brentwood:
70
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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.
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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.
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Your feedback is welcome. Please share the Bulletin.
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The
Eden Health District Board of Directors
are Gordon Galvan, Chair, Mariellen Faria, Vice Chair, Charles Gilcrest, Secretary, Roxann Lewis and Pam Russo. 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.
Each bulletin includes a summary of the top health, Bay Area, California, national and international news on the pandemic plus links to a diverse range of commentary and analysis. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday the bulletin includes an education section.
We welcome your feedback on our bulletin. Please contact editor
Stephen Cassidy
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