COVID-19
breaking news & updates
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February is American Heart Month
Each February, NHLBI (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute) and The Heart Truth® celebrate American Heart Month by motivating Americans to adopt healthy lifestyles to prevent heart disease. Get Your Blood Pressure and Cholesterol Checked
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COVID Test Resources
Food Pantries
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Berkeley To Close All COVID-19 Testing Sites This Month
Berkeley is closing its COVID-19 testing sites in February as California’s State of Emergency is set to expire by the end of the month. The testing site at Harold Way closed Feb. 1 and the city’s second site at San Pablo Park will close Feb. 23. The closures in Berkeley come as testing centers across the state shut their doors, with additional funds drying up and demand for in-person testing declining. Other testing sites in the region closed months ago, such as the Test the People sites in Oakland. Berkeleyside Read more
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Evictions Eclipsed Pre-Pandemic Levels In These Bay Area Counties As Tenant Protections Expired
Janae Randolph waited nervously with her boyfriend outside a wood-paneled courtroom at the Contra Costa County courthouse in Martinez. She scanned the increasingly crowded hallway for somebody official-looking — maybe a public defender, she hoped — who would explain why they’d been summoned after receiving an eviction notice at their Concord apartment. The bailiff motioned Randolph toward the defendant’s chair. Then suddenly, their names were called and a trial started. The couple found themselves seated alone, across from their landlord’s attorney at a separate table. Before them, a black-robed commissioner perched on the judge’s bench began asking pointed questions about their missed rent payments. Randolph’s case is one in a surge of more than 10,000 eviction lawsuits filed across the core five-county Bay Area since the fall of 2021, when state and local pandemic eviction protections started to wind down, according to a Bay Area News Group analysis of court data. Mercury News Read more
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New Work From Home Data Shows Disparities - Bay Area Has Highest Percentage of Remote Workers
As we settle into a new normal, it is undeniable that COVID-19 transformed the way we work and do business. Data from the Census Bureau’s 2021 American Survey indicates that the number of people working from home tripled between 2019 and 2021, from about 6% to 18% of workers, or roughly 9 million to 27.6 million people. Among metro areas, the Bay Area had the highest percentage of remote workers, with about 35% of its workforce primarily working from home. The Census Bureau attributes this to the information and technology sectors that make up a large part of our workforce. “Here at home, I feel like I can just roll out of bed, take a shower, get my coffee and go right to my desk versus having to spend a lot of time commuting”, says Antonia DeMichiel.
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COVID Vaccine/Testing/Treatment News |
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In A First, COVID Vaccine Is Added To Adult Immunization Schedule
For the first time, COVID-19 vaccines have been added to the list of routine immunizations recommended for adults - a further sign the virus is here to stay. The addition is being made to the 2023 Recommended Adult Immunization Schedule, released Thursday by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP), an expert panel that advises the U.S. federal government on vaccination recommendations for all Americans. COVID vaccination has, of course, been recommended ever since the vaccines became available. But its inclusion on the recommended vaccine schedule underscores the fact that COVID-19 is not going away, said Dr. Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, an Atlanta-based physician who serves as an ACIP liaison.
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Most Young People Aren’t Getting Latest COVID-19 Booster, But They’re Not Filling Hospital Beds At Three Large Health Care Systems
As the US mulls over its future COVID-19 vaccination plan, data from three large health care systems indicate that even though a small percentage of people under age 65 have gotten the new COVID-19 booster, people this age are not becoming severely ill and overwhelming hospitals. "Even if they’re not getting boosted, young, healthy people are not getting super sick from this,” said Dr. Mangala Narasimhan, a senior vice president at Northwell Health, the largest health care provider in New York state. “We’re not seeing it. It’s not happening.” Mercury News Read more
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How To Find A Free COVID Test Near You In 2023 (Because It's Getting Harder)
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Why The Odds Are Stacked Against A Promising New COVID Drug
Over the past year, America’s arsenal of COVID treatments has shrunk as new variants of the coronavirus have eroded the potency of drug after drug. Many patients are now left with a single option, Paxlovid. While highly effective, it poses problems for many people who need it because of dangerous interactions with other medications. But a new class of variant-proof treatments could help restock the country’s armory. Scientists on Wednesday reported in The New England Journal of Medicine that a single injection of a so-called interferon drug slashed by half a COVID patient’s odds of being hospitalized. NY Times Read more
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State/National/International News |
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Era of "Free" COVID Vaccines, Test Kits, And Treatments Is Ending. Who Will Pay The Tab Now?
Time is running out for free-to-consumer COVID vaccines, at-home test kits, and even some treatments. The White House announced this month that the national public health emergency, first declared in early 2020 in response to the pandemic, is set to expire May 11. When it ends, so will many of the policies designed to combat the virus’s spread.
Take vaccines. Until now, the federal government has been purchasing COVID-19 shots. It recently bought 105 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent booster for about $30.48 a dose, and 66 million doses of Moderna’s version for $26.36 a dose. (These are among the companies that developed the first COVID vaccines sold in the United States.) Kaiser Health News Read more
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"No Light At The Other End": Impending Loss Of Pandemic CalFresh Boosts Could Trigger Hunger Spike
Food banks across California are bracing for a feared spike in hunger amid inflated prices after a pandemic-era boost in food aid ends in April. March is the last month CalFresh recipients will get the additional benefits, as the federal government cuts off the “emergency allotments” that have kept food stamp allowances higher than usual for nearly three years now. The average household on CalFresh will lose about $200 a month, said Becky Silva, government relations director at the California Association of Food Banks. A single-person household, for instance, could drop from $281 a month in food aid to as low as $23 in April. CalMatters Read more
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For Older Americans, the Pandemic Is Not Over
In early December, Aldo Caretti developed a cough and, despite all his precautions, came up positive for COVID on a home test. It took his family a couple of days to persuade Mr. Caretti, never fond of doctors, to go to the emergency room. There, he was sent directly to the intensive care unit. Mr. Caretti had encountered some health setbacks last year, including a mild stroke and a serious bout of shingles, but “he recuperated from all that.” COVID was different. Even on a ventilator, Mr. Caretti struggled to breathe. For older Americans, the pandemic still poses significant dangers. About three-quarters of COVID deaths have occurred in people over 65, with the greatest losses concentrated among those over 75. NY Times Read more
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The Pandemic Missing: The Kids Who Didn’t Go Back To School
She’d be a senior right now, preparing for graduation in a few months, probably leading her school’s modern dance troupe and taking art classes. Instead, Kailani Taylor-Cribb hasn’t taken a single class in what used to be her high school since the height of the coronavirus pandemic. She vanished from Cambridge, Massachusetts’ public school roll in 2021 and has been, from an administrative standpoint, unaccounted for since then. She is among hundreds of thousands of students around the country who disappeared from public schools during the pandemic and didn’t resume their studies elsewhere. Yahoo! Read more
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As The Pandemic Ebbs, An Influential COVID Tracker Shuts Down
In another sign of the changing state of the pandemic, an invaluable source of information about the virus over the last three years is shutting down, NPR has learned.
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No New COVID Variants From China Since Zero-COVID Policy Lifted
Fears that China’s lifting of its zero-COVID policy could result in fresh coronavirus variants seem to have not (yet) materialized. A study published in The Lancet on Wednesday found there had been no new COVID-19 variants in the country since it lifted its draconian policy last year, a move which triggered a surge in cases and deaths. Politico Read more
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Norovirus Appears To Be Spreading As Rate Of Positive Tests Spikes
Norovirus appears to be at a seasonal high, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate of norovirus tests coming back positive, averaged over three weeks, exceeded 15% at the end of last week. That’s the highest recorded since late March 2022. Norovirus is sometimes referred to as the stomach flu, but it is not related to the influenza virus. NBC News Read more
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The Untold Story Of COVID’s Impact On California’s Mental Health
The pandemic’s effect on Americans’ mental health was almost axiomatic. From the beginning, the uncertainty about COVID 19’s spread and ever-rising death toll, paired with lockdowns that left tens of millions jobless or facing severe income cutbacks, produced waves of anxiety and depression across the country — at levels four times those reported in 2019. California was not spared, with 2 million jobs lost in the first months of the pandemic and more than 2.7 million overall. (The state has since returned to pre-pandemic job levels, though not all the same jobs were recovered.) Millions of households were thrown into financial or physical emergencies, and almost a quarter of Californians reported experiencing either severe or moderate psychological distress in 2020 alone. Capital & Main Read more
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How One Conversation With Friends Per Day Can Help Your Mental Health
A new study suggests that having one conversation with a friend per day can have a significant effect on a person’s mental health. The study published in Communication Research in January comes three years after COVID-19 spread around the globe. While daily life for many has gotten closer to a pre-pandemic version of normal, those long years of social distancing, remote work, and isolation have taken a dramatic toll on many people’s mental and emotional health. “Small moments of connection are so important for us as part of the human experience,” said Thea Gallagher, PsyD, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU Langone Health. Healthline
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Suicides Rose In 2021 After 2 Years Of Declines, CDC Report Finds
The number of suicides increased in 2021 to the highest levels seen in four years, according to new federal data. The report, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Thursday, looked at how many people died by suicide between 2018 and 2021 as well as breaking down the chart by race and ethnicity. Results showed that 48,183 Americans died by suicide in 2021 with a rate of 14.1 suicides per 100,000 people. ABC News Read more
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Older People Are Often Invisible In Mental Health Settings. Here Are Some Tips To Get Care
There’s a dark joke that the best time to start shoplifting is when you move into older age, Anya Johnston said, because no one pays attention to you. Johnston doesn’t actually shoplift, but they do feel “increasingly invisible anywhere I go” — especially in medical settings. Johnston, a Tri Cities-area resident who is 65, said they were diagnosed in their 50s with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, after being told for years that they were experiencing depression. Despite pleading with doctors, Johnston said they found it hard to get attention and care for their mental health concerns, since they exist in multiple margins of society: They’re older and trans. “I certainly didn’t feel heard, not at all believed,” Johnston said. Seattle Times Read more
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Fentanyl Crisis/Drug Trends |
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Fentanyl-Fueled Overdose Deaths Are Spiking In These Bay Area ZIP Codes
In San Francisco, it’s well documented that the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods are experiencing the brunt of the opioid epidemic. But state data shows other Bay Area counties have their own hotspots. Most of the nine counties had a few ZIP codes with a fatal opioid overdose rate several times the county figure, according to the California Overdose Surveillance Dashboard’s 2021 data, the latest year with finalized numbers. County health officials across the region say fentanyl continues to drive fatal overdoses, including in ZIP codes where they haven’t seen such deaths in previous years. For example, the 94612 ZIP code, which includes the Uptown and Lakeside neighborhoods in Oakland, had one of the highest lethal opioid overdose rates in Alameda County, at 8.2 per 10,000 residents. SF Chronicle Read more
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The Biden Administration Quietly Eliminated A Barrier To Medication For Opioid Addiction
In his State of the Union address last Tuesday, President Biden highlighted a recent policy change aimed at increasing access to a medication for opioid use disorder. "Together, we passed a law making it easier for doctors to prescribe effective treatments for opioid addiction," he said. He was referring to a provision wrapped into the omnibus funding bill, which Biden signed into law in December. It eliminated a requirement that medical providers obtain special waivers to prescribe buprenorphine, a painkiller that also reduces opioid cravings and withdrawal symptoms. NBC News
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Total Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 1,900,690
California: 12,031,907
U.S.: 102,862,020
Alameda County
Check the Dashboards Below for
the Latest Figures
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Total Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 9,719
California: 100,300
U.S.: 1,114,476
Contra Costa County
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the Latest Figures
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What Your Heart Rate Says About Your Health
You probably already know several key numbers about your health: your weight, your blood pressure, your cholesterol and blood glucose levels, and possibly even your waist circumstance. But there’s another one that you should add to your list: your heart rate. "If it’s too low, or too high, it can indicate heart problems,” says Michael LaMonte, research professor of epidemiology and environmental health at the University of Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions and spokesperson for the American Heart Association. AARP
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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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About Eden Health District |
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The Eden Health District Board of Directors are Chair Pam Russo, Vice Chair Ed Hernandez, Secretary/Treasurer Roxann Lewis, Mariellen Faria and Surlene Grant. 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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