COVID-19
breaking news & updates
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COVID Test Resources
Food Pantries
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Alameda County Emergency Rental Assistance Program Applications Being Accepted
If you’re an Alameda County renter who has fallen behind on rent or utilities payments due to the COVID-19 pandemic, you may qualify for assistance. The Emergency Rental Assistance Program will help income-eligible households pay up to 15 months of rent and utilities, both for past due and future payments. Homeowners at risk of foreclosure can also get assistance. Alameda County Secure Housing Read more
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Tree Planting Memorial to Honor COVID Victims and Survivors
A Tree Planting Memorial to honor those who lost their lives to COVID-19 and those who fought and survived is being held at Kindred Hospital San Francisco Bay Area (front yard), located at 2800 Benedict Drive in San Leandro, on Wednesday, September 15, from 3-4 p.m.
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Berkeley To Require Proof Of Vaccination At Indoor Restaurants, Bars, Gyms And More
Anyone who wants to eat a meal, order a beer, take a yoga class or watch a big concert indoors in Berkeley will soon have to show proof they have been vaccinated against COVID-19. City officials announced late Wednesday that Berkeley is joining San Francisco in issuing a health order requiring that patrons of many indoor businesses show proof of vaccination. Berkeleyside Read more
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Teacher, Staff COVID Vaccination Rates At Bay Area School Districts
NBC Bay Area reached out to more than 100 school districts across the Bay Area asking the following questions:
- What is the current vaccination rate among teachers and staff at your school district?
- How many teachers and staff members are currently unvaccinated?
- How many district and school staff members have chosen not to verify their vaccination status?
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Bay Area Parents Fume As Schools Send Healthy Kids Home After COVID Exposure
Parents who spent the spring battling public school boards in a state that trailed the country in returning kids to classrooms fear California is falling back on its promise to keep them there this fall. And despite the shortcomings of distance learning, which the state canceled over the summer, they say there’s no clear fallback for kids who have to quarantine at home. California Department of Public Health school guidance calls for a 10-day quarantine of unvaccinated “close contacts” of a person who tests positive for COVID-19 if they were within 6 feet for at least 15 minutes over a 24-hour period. The unvaccinated include kids younger than 12 who are too young for the shots.
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ICU Beds In San Joaquin Valley Dwindle; CDPH Implements Surge Protocols
The California Department of Public Health announced Friday that the San Joaquin Valley region is entering hospital surge protocols as the number of available ICU beds has dwindled due to COVID-19 cases. CDPH said the order was triggered after the region’s availability of staffed adult ICU beds dropped below 10% for three consecutive days. It is the first region in the state to enter surge protocols following a public health order issued last month. Counties impacted by the order include Calaveras, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, San Benito, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tulare and Tuolumne. KPIX5 Read more
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The Bay Area Experts Who Are Building COVID-19’s Evolutionary Tree Of Life
As new generations of the COVID-19 virus multiply across the globe, a team of UC Santa Cruz computational experts is bringing order to chaos. Combining the astounding power of new software and gene sequencing, they are building the world’s largest and most comprehensive “tree of life” to track the evolutionary trajectory of the virus. Serving as a public health alarm system, each freshly sprouted branch of UCSC’s “tree” reveals the path and pattern of dangerous contagion. Mercury News Read more
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S.F. Giants Concession Workers Vote To Strike Over Pandemic Safety Concerns
Concession workers at Oracle Park voted Saturday to strike in response to concerns over safety during the coronavirus pandemic, health care and hazard pay, union officials announced Saturday evening. The strike vote - in which 96.7% of food service workers voted in favor - authorizes union members to walk out and strike at any point, according to Unite Here Local 2, the hospitality workers’ union representing hundreds of workers at the Giants’ ballpark. SF Chronicle Read more
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The Share Of U.S. Adults Willing To Get Vaccinated Ticks Up, A New Poll Finds
The share of adults saying "no" to getting the COVID-19 vaccine dropped 5 percentage points in a month, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll conducted after the Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to Pfizer's vaccine. The survey, which was in the field from Aug. 26-31, found 19% of U.S. adults now say they do not intend to be vaccinated. That's down from 24% in a Marist poll from the end of July. The number of Americans who say they have gotten or will get a COVID vaccine is up to 79%, a 5-point improvement in a month. NPR Read more
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Study Of Breakthrough Infections Looks At Impact Of Vaccines On Long-Term COVID
A new study of breakthrough COVID-19 infections finds that vaccines not only reduce the risk of severe disease and hospitalization, but can lower the odds of having long-term COVID-19 symptoms too. “We found that the odds of having symptoms for 28 days or more after post-vaccination infection were approximately halved by having two vaccine doses. This result suggests that the risk of long COVID is reduced in individuals who have received double vaccination, when additionally considering the already documented reduced risk of infection overall,” researchers wrote in the study published last Wednesday. Mercury News Read more
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Should You Get A Booster Given Global Vaccine Shortages?
Here's What Ethicists Say
This spring, Ashima Yadava watched from the United States as the delta variant tore through India, killing tens of thousands. “It was chaos,” she says. “I don’t know a single family back home who has not lost somebody. It’s a really terrible thing.” Months later, the crisis has somewhat eased, but only one in 10 Indians are fully vaccinated. The same goes for Thailand, Zimbabwe and Georgia. In Egypt, Vietnam, Nigeria and many other countries, the figure is even smaller. SF Chronicle Read more
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COVID Vaccination Rates Have Slumped In Some Parts Of The World, And Experts Are Worried
When coronavirus vaccines were developed, trialed and authorized for emergency use in record time, millions of people eagerly awaited the protection and peace of mind they afforded. But around nine months after vaccination rollouts began in the West there has been a slowdown in some national and state-wide immunization drives across the U.S. and Europe. CNBC Read more
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Why A COVID-19 Vaccine For Children Is Taking So Long
The logistical dance required to make doses safe for children is among the challenges confronting researchers evaluating the vaccines in the youngsters. Also complicating the trials, researchers said, federal health regulators demanded that more children be enrolled in the studies than originally planned. Enrolling children takes much longer than for adults because it requires parents’ consent, and some young volunteers don’t work out because they recoil at needles. Wall Street Journal Read more
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Study of 6.2 Million Patients Reveals No Serious Health Effects Linked To mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines
Federal and Kaiser Permanente researchers combing the health records of 6.2 million patients found no serious health effects that could be linked to the 2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. The study published September 2 in JAMA reports the first comprehensive findings of the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD), which studies patient records for 12 million people in 5 Kaiser Permanente service regions along with HealthPartners in Minneapolis, the Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin, and Denver Health. SciTechDaily Read more
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State/National/International News |
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How Did A Kansas Grandmother Just Become The First U.S. COVID Death?
Peaches Foster’s mother, Lovell “Cookie” Brown, died in a hospital on Jan. 9, 2020, in the middle of America, 7,200 miles from Wuhan, China, and weeks before the world understood that a mysterious respiratory virus was circling the globe and threatening humanity. But on September 1, when a clerk slid her mother’s amended death certificate through the opening in the window at the vital statistics office in Topeka, Kansas, Foster finally learned what she had long suspected: “It’s COVID. I knew it,” she said, then burst into tears. That’s how she discovered her mother is now listed as the first known person in the United States to die with COVID-19. Three months ago, Brown’s doctor quietly added “COVID 19 PNEUMONIA” as one of the causes of her death, not only amending her death record but also effectively rewriting the timeline of when the pandemic reached the United States. Mercury News Read more
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Idaho Hospitals Nearly Buckling In Relentless COVID Surge
The intensive care rooms at St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center are full, each a blinking jungle of tubes, wires and mechanical breathing machines. The patients nestled inside are a lot alike: All unvaccinated, mostly middle-aged or younger, paralyzed and sedated, reliant on life support and locked in a silent struggle against COVID-19. AP Read more
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Hospitalizations For Children Sharply Increase As Delta Surges, C.D.C. Studies Find
Pediatric hospitalizations for COVID-19 have soared over the summer as the highly contagious Delta variant spread across the country, according to two new studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From late June to mid-August, hospitalization rates in the United States for children and teenagers increased nearly fivefold, although they remain slightly below January’s peak, one new study found.
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A Study Of Veterans Reveals Another Hidden COVID Risk: Lingering Kidney Problems
Since the beginning of the pandemic, doctors have found that people who become very ill with COVID-19 often experience kidney problems, not just the lung impairments that are the hallmark of the illness. Now, a large study suggests that kidney issues can last for months after patients recover from the initial infection, and may lead to a serious lifelong reduction of kidney function in some patients. NY Times Read more
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Breast Milk Of Mothers Vaccinated Against COVID-19 Contains Virus-Fighting Antibodies
Breast milk of mothers who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 contains virus-resistant antibodies. Mothers who have been double-vaccinated pass on 100 times more antibodies to their children than those who have not been jabbed, according to a new study. Newborn babies have weaker immune systems, making it difficult for them to fend off infections and illnesses. They are also often too young to respond properly to certain types of vaccines, experts said. During this vulnerable period, babies rely heavily on their mother’s breast milk, which contains the necessary antibodies to a string of diseases. KRON4 Read more
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Your COVID Game Plan: Are Stadiums Safe?
The college football season is kicking into high gear, the National Football League season starts Sept. 9, and the baseball pennant races are heating up. For the first time since 2019, nearly all stadiums will be fully open to fans. In the so-called Before Times, sitting shoulder to shoulder inside a stadium with tens of thousands of boisterous spectators - after a few hours of pregame tailgating - was a highlight of many fans’ autumn. But with COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths soaring from the delta variant, many fans are wondering if that is a wise idea. Seven health experts provide their opinions. Kaiser Health News Read more
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Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 542,705
California: 4,423,696
U.S.: 40,028,975
Alameda County
Vaccines Administered: 2,271,733
Cases: 110,608
Deaths: 1,317
Test Positivity: 2.4%
Hospitalized Patients: 235
ICU Beds Available: 101
Cases have stayed about the same recently and are still very high. The numbers of hospitalized COVID patients and deaths in the Alameda County area have also 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 spread in the area. NY Times
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Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 6,626
California: 66,492
U.S.: 649,134
Contra Costa County
Vaccines Administered: 1,601,052
Cases: 91,397
Deaths: 889
Test Positivity: 3.8%
Hospitalized Patients: 196
ICU Beds Available: 40
Cases have increased recently and are very high. The numbers of hospitalized COVID patients and deaths in the Contra Costa County area have also risen. The test positivity rate in Contra Costa County is high, suggesting that cases may be undercounted. NY Times
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What Side Effects To Expect From Your COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Shot
With COVID-19 vaccine booster shots already underway in the Bay Area for some groups and the U.S. planning to make them available to everyone starting Sept. 20, doctors, experts and recipients are weighing in on what people can expect when they get a booster - and whether the side effects, which for many people were worse with the second dose than the first, will be similar or milder. SF Chronicle 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 384 new cases and 0.7 new deaths per day.
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Over the past week, Contra Costa County has averaged 489 new cases and 2.9 new deaths per day.
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Alameda County, as of 9/6/21
Oakland: 35,239
Hayward: 16,233
Fremont: 9,706
Eden MAC: 7,072
San Leandro: 6,899
Livermore: 5,775
Union City: 4,788
Berkeley: 4,657
Castro Valley: 3,386
Newark: 3,246
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Contra Costa County, as of 9/6/21
Richmond: 14,2239
Antioch: 13,410
Concord: 10,295
Pittsburg: 8,819
San Pablo: 6,217
Brentwood: 5,640
Oakley: 4,698
Walnut Creek: 3,888
Bay Point: 3,540
San Ramon: 2,888
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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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