COVID-19
breaking news & updates
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“As the pandemic continues to impact the country, science has shown that vaccination continues to be the safest and most effective way to prevent COVID-19, including the most serious consequences of the disease, such as hospitalization and death. The available data suggest waning immunity in some populations who are fully vaccinated. The availability of these authorized boosters is important for continued protection against COVID-19 disease.”
Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock, M.D.
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COVID Test Resources
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What The White House's Vaccination Plan For Younger Kids Means For The Bay Area
For Wendy Matheny, a San Bruno mother of two, authorization for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds - which is expected within the next few weeks - can’t come soon enough. “As soon as the vaccines are ready we are going to be in line,” Matheny said. Matheny and her husband are among the millions of parents around the country weighing whether to vaccinate their elementary school kids - who’d be the youngest group yet to get the shot - once vaccines are available. That day looks to be coming soon: a key Food and Drug Administration committee is slated to review the matter Tuesday, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will likely follow suit and recommend the shots the first week of November. SF Chronicle Read more
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Bay Area Largely Sits Out Protests Over Vaccine Mandates For Students
As hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Sacramento on Monday and parents across the country held their kids out of schools to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates for students, the politically active Bay Area appeared to be sitting this one out. The political action at the state Capitol followed school district decisions across the state in recent weeks to require students to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Oct. 1 announcement that all students would have to get the vaccine once federal officials fully approve it for their age group. SF Chronicle Read more
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In-N-Out Won’t Follow Vaccine Rules, So San Francisco Shuts The Doors To Indoor Diners
Want a Double-Double in San Francisco? You’ll have to order takeout. The San Francisco Department of Public Health has closed indoor dining at the city’s only In-N-Out location - on Jefferson Street at Fisherman’s Wharf - because the company’s employees have been failing to consistently check for proof of vaccination. In August, the city adopted a policy that limits indoor dining to vaccinated customers. “We refuse to become the vaccination police for any government,” KRON4 quoted In-N-Out Chief Legal & Business Officer Arnie Wensinger as saying in a statement. “We fiercely disagree with any government dictate that forces a private company to discriminate against customers who choose to patronize their business.” Mercury News Read more
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96% Of San Francisco City Employees Are Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19
More than 96% of San Francisco city workers are now fully vaccinated, according to Mayor London Breed. That means 1,418 employees are not vaccinated yet. According to Mayor Breed, employees who aren’t vaccinated on Nov. 1 will be suspended without being paid following a "due process hearing they can be separated from the City." KRON4 Read more
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More Muni Operators Are Vaccinated, But Riders Should Brace For "Unexpected Gaps In Service"
With two weeks left before the city’s employee mandate goes into effect, more frontline workers at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency have rushed to get vaccinated. But the transit agency is still bracing for “unexpected gaps” in Muni service starting Halloween weekend if it has to fire the more than 100 transit operators who’ve yet to comply with San Francisco’s order. As of Tuesday, 70 of the transportation agency’s 1,470 transit operators remain unvaccinated, and another 48 operators have yet to report their vaccination status, SFMTA Director Jeffrey Tumlin told the agency’s Board of Directors. SF Chronicle Read more
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New COVID-19 Cases In Napa County Down To 7 On Tuesday
With coronavirus infection rates slowing locally in recent weeks, Napa County reported seven new cases Tuesday afternoon, a rare single-digit figure. The small number of new positive tests - the first daily counts under double figures since July 13 - is a departure from the double-digit daily totals that have become commonplace since June, when an upswing of infections driven by a faster-spreading Delta variant of the virus raised Napa County’s caseload as high as 324 a week in mid-August.
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Sonoma County Could Soon Loosen Mask Requirements For Small, Fully Vaccinated Indoor Settings
Sonoma County could soon join a handful of other Bay Area counties in allowing fully vaccinated residents to forego a mask in some settings, the county's public health officer said Tuesday. Dr. Sundari Mase told the county's Board of Supervisors that the county is considering tweaking its indoor mask requirements for small settings in which the host or organizer can verify all attendees' full vaccination status.
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White House Rolls Out Plan To Vaccinate Kids Ages 5 to 11 Against COVID
The Biden administration on Wednesday announced its plan for vaccinating children ages 5 to 11 ahead of the FDA’s anticipated emergency use authorization of the Pfizer vaccine for kids in that age range. The administration has procured enough vaccine for 28 million children of that age group, which will be given by more than 25,000 pediatric and primary care providers, the White House said. The Department of Health and Human Services is also teaming up with the Children’s Hospital Association to set up at least 100 vaccination clinics to administer the shots. NBC News Read more
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Pfizer Vaccine Is 93% Effective In Preventing Hospitalization Among Adolescents
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is 93% effective in preventing hospitalization due to COVID-19 among children ages 12 to 18, according to a study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vaccine effectiveness differed only slightly within that age group, with 91% effectiveness for children age 12 to 15 and 94% effectiveness for those age 16 to 18. The study included 464 patients - 179 hospitalized with COVID-19 and 285 hospitalized for other reasons - across 19 pediatric hospitals in 16 states between June and September 2021, a time period when the Delta variant was dominant. The majority of patients had at least one underlying condition (72%) and attended in-person school (68%), and most patients were from southern states, as COVID-19 transmission was high in that region during this timeframe. Mercury News Read more
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Tiny Pacific Island Nations Top The World For The Highest Rates of Vaccination
Some of the world’s most isolated and smallest nations, by both population and land mass, have achieved some of the highest rates of vaccination against the coronavirus. The Pacific island nation of Palau, an archipelago of hundreds of islands with a population of around 17,600 people that sits due east of the Philippines, has now vaccinated 92 percent of its population, according to government data. That equates to 99 percent of those eligible, a spokeswoman from the Pacific office of the Red Cross said, placing Palau ahead of any other country in the world. NY Times Read more
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COVID-19 Numbers Are Getting Better. But Where They Go From Here Will Depend On Vaccinations, Fauci Says
The rates of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are improving; an optimistic sign for the future of the pandemic. But with so many Americans still unvaccinated, the numbers could still go back up, Dr. Anthony Fauci said. "If we don't do very well in that regard, there's always the danger that there will be enough circulating virus that you can have a stalling of the diminishing of the number of cases and when that happens, as we've seen in the past with other waves that we've been through, there's the danger of resurgence," said Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden. CNN Read more
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What Sways Homeless People To Get COVID-19 Shots? It Could Be Other Homeless People
It was a familiar voice that coaxed Kimberly Conti to step out, barefoot, from the back of the hulking former bookmobile parked in an industrial corner of Lincoln Heights. “Hey, what’s up?” It was Zack Gustine, who used to park his RV on this same block. “Have you gotten vaccinated already?” he asked her. “Do you want to?” Conti shrugged. “I don’t really care,” she said. “That’s how I was too,” Gustine replied. But just a few hours earlier, the 42-year-old had gotten the Johnson & Johnson shot to protect himself against COVID-19. And now he was a “peer ambassador,” talking to others about the vaccine. LA Times Read more
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What To Know About The COVID-19 Treatment Molnupiravir
The world could soon be armed with another tool to fight the coronavirus pandemic: a twice-daily pill that has been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization and death among people infected with the coronavirus. The drug, molnupiravir, offers another tool alongside vaccines for countries to manage the coronavirus pandemic. Merck has submitted data to the Food and Drug Administration following the success of its trial - which was ended early because of its positive results - seeking emergency use authorization for molnupiravir. Washington Post Read more
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Why COVID Boosters Weren’t Tweaked To Better Match Variants
More COVID-19 booster shots may be on the way - but when it’s your turn, you’ll get an extra dose of the original vaccine, not one updated to better match the extra-contagious Delta variant. And that has some experts wondering if the booster campaign is a bit of a missed opportunity to target Delta and its likely descendants.
“Don’t we want to match the new strains that are most likely to circulate as closely as possible?” Dr. Cody Meissner of Tufts Medical Center, an adviser to the Food and Drug Administration, challenged Pfizer scientists recently. AP Read more
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State/National/International News |
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California Continues Masking Requirements in K-12 Settings
California Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly and California Department of Public Health Director and State Public Health Officer Dr. Tomás Aragón yesterday reaffirmed the state's approach to preventing COVID-19 in schools and protecting students' health - continuing the state's successful masking requirements in K-12 settings. "Now is not the time to let our guard down - especially as the winter months approach. Ongoing vigilance is critical to protect against COVID-19. This is particularly important for schools, where many children are not vaccinated. Although infection rates are decreasing, more than 25 counties continue to experience high transmission, as classified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hospital capacity remains impacted in some regions, and approximately 80 Californians continue to die daily, on average." they said. California Department of Public Health Read more
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Hawaii’s Governor Welcomes Travelers As COVID Counts Drop
Hawaii’s COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations have declined to the point where the islands are ready to welcome travelers once again, the governor said Tuesday. Gov. David Ige said vacationers and business travelers are welcome to return to the islands starting Nov. 1. His announcement comes nearly two months after he asked travelers on Aug. 23 to avoid Hawaii because case counts were surging with the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant and hospitals were becoming overwhelmed. The state didn’t impose any new travel quarantine restrictions, and Ige’s plea was a mere request. Even so, it prompted thousands of travelers to cancel plans to visit Hawaii. AP Read more
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Washington State University Fires Its Football Coach For Refusing To Be Vaccinated
Washington State University fired its football coach, Nick Rolovich, and four of his assistants for failing to comply with the state’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate, the school announced on Monday. Mr. Rolovich, the state’s highest-paid employee, applied for a religious exemption this month from the mandate, among the strictest in the country. The status of the exemption request was unclear when the firings occurred. “This is a disheartening day for our football program,” the university’s athletic director, Pat Chun, said in a statement. “Our priority has been and will continue to be the health and well-being of the young men on our team.” NY Times Read more
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Vaccines, Masks? Japan Puzzling Over Sudden Virus Success
Almost overnight, Japan has become a stunning, and somewhat mysterious, coronavirus success story. Daily new COVID-19 cases have plummeted from a mid-August peak of nearly 6,000 in Tokyo, with caseloads in the densely populated capital now routinely below 100, an 11-month low. The bars are packed, the trains are crowded, and the mood is celebratory, despite a general bafflement over what, exactly, is behind the sharp drop. Japan, unlike other places in Europe and Asia, has never had anything close to a lockdown, just a series of relatively toothless states of emergency. AP Read more
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COVID, Pregnancy And Loss: Regrets Turn To Advocacy
Sometimes when she’s feeding her infant daughter, Amanda Harrison is overcome with emotion and has to wipe away tears of gratitude. She is lucky to be here, holding her baby. Harrison was 29 weeks pregnant and unvaccinated when she got sick with COVID-19 in August. Her symptoms were mild at first, but she suddenly felt like she couldn’t breathe. Living in Phenix City, Alabama, she was intubated and flown to a hospital in Birmingham, where doctors delivered baby Lake two months early and put Harrison on life support. Kyndal Nipper, who hails from outside Columbus, Georgia, had only a brief bout with COVID-19 but a more tragic outcome. She was weeks away from giving birth in July when she lost her baby, a boy she and her husband planned to name Jack. Mercury News Read more
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OSHA Warns Three States Their COVID-19 Failures May Force It to Take Over Workplace Safety Authority
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an emergency regulation back in June requiring hospitals and other health care settings to enforce COVID-19 safety practices. Now, OSHA is warning three states - Arizona, South Carolina, and Utah - that if they don’t adopt those rules, the federal government will take over workplace safety enforcement. “OSHA has worked in good faith to help these three state plans to come into compliance,” Jim Frederick, OSHA’s acting director, said on a call with reporters on Tuesday. “But their continued refusal is a failure to maintain their state plan commitment to thousands of workers in their states.” Daily Kos Read more
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New Mutation Of Delta Variant Under Close Watch In UK
Officials are keeping a close watch on a new descendant of the Delta variant of COVID that is causing a growing number of infections. Delta is the UK's dominant variant, but latest official data suggests 6% of COVID cases that have been genetically sequenced are of a new type. AY.4.2, which some are calling "Delta Plus", contains mutations that might give the virus survival advantages. Tests are under way to understand how much of a threat it may pose. Experts say it is unlikely to take off in a big way or escape current vaccines. BBC Read more
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The Indian Women Widowed By COVID-19
Taruna Arora lost her husband Rajeev to COVID-19 two days before his 50th birthday. Rajeev contracted the virus in April, during India's devastating second COVID wave. Medical resources were scarce, hospitals overwhelmed, and his family struggled to get him admitted. They finally found a hospital bed in a makeshift facility set up by the government, but two weeks later he died. "Rajeev's death is paralysing. These are the worst days of my life, but I have no time to grieve because my life has taken a 360 degree turn," says Taruna, 46. BBC Read more
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Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 591,110
California: 4,833,257
U.S.: 45,189,652
Alameda County
Vaccines Administered: 2,440,693
Cases: 117,261
Deaths: 1,384
Test Positivity: 1.3%
Hospitalized Patients: 122
ICU Beds Available: 100
Cases have decreased recently but are still high. The number of hospitalized COVID patients has also fallen the Alameda County area. Deaths have increased. The test positivity rate in Alameda County is relatively low, suggesting that testing capacity is adequate for evaluating COVID spread in the area. NY Times
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Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 6,578
California: 71,010
U.S.: 729,885
Contra Costa County
Vaccines Administered: 1,738,820
Cases: 97,991
Deaths: 1,003
Test Positivity: 2.2%
Hospitalized Patients: 61
ICU Beds Available: 33
Cases have decreased recently but are high. The number of hospitalized COVID patients has also fallen in the Contra Costa County 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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What Are The Side Effects Of Booster Shots?
Millions of Americans who originally received the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine series are now eligible for a booster dose of the same brand. And booster shots for Moderna and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) could be here soon. As with the first round of vaccines, some people may experience a few mild to moderate flu-like symptoms after the shot. AARP 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 past week, Alameda County has averaged 107 new cases and 3.4 new deaths per day.
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Over the past week, Contra Costa County has averaged 108 new cases and 5 new death per day.
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Alameda County, as of 10/20/21
Oakland: 37,206
Hayward: 16,971
Fremont: 10,366
Eden MAC: 7,427
San Leandro: 7,278
Livermore: 6,371
Union City: 5,003
Berkeley: 4,952
Castro Valley: 3,651
Newark: 3,479
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Contra Costa County, as of 10/20/21
Richmond: 14,871
Antioch: 14,321
Concord: 11,043
Pittsburg: 9,401
San Pablo: 6,491
Brentwood: 6,101
Oakley: 5,168
Walnut Creek: 4,224
Bay Point: 3,738
San Ramon: 3,167
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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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