COVID-19
breaking news & updates
|
|
|
COVID Test Resources
Food Pantries
|
|
|
Bay Area Welcomes 2022 As COVID-19 Cases Continue To Surge
The new year is already starting to look a lot like 2021 on the pandemic front as the Omicron variant drives up infections and hospitalizations. The pandemic continues to hit many of us with new challenges but there may be reason for optimism as 2022 matures. “There are a lot of unknowns, but I feel like at some point the pandemic will end. After all, all pandemics do end,” said UCSF Infectious Disease Expert Dr. Peter Chin-Hong. But Chin-Hong added that it’s not all good news, at least not in the immediate short-term following holiday exposures from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day. “I think these next two weeks are going to be critical for disruptions in our everyday life, because people are going to be sick in the workforce,” he said. NBC Bay Area Read more
|
|
|
State Schools Superintendent Distributes At-Home COVID Tests In Castro Valley
With many students heading back to school this week, the State of California is ramping up efforts to get them tested for COVID in order to attend class in-person safely. State Schools Superintendent Tony Thurmond was in Castro Valley on Friday morning where he distributed free, at home, rapid COVID-19 antigen test kits to families. The drive-through event was held at Canyon Middle School where Thurmond held a news conference. "As winter break comes to a close and COVID-19 cases continue to rise, the California Department of Education (CDE) is doing all we can to keep our schools safe," Thurmond said. "To this end, we are urging every eligible person to get the COVID-19 vaccine and booster. In addition, the CDE is joining with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) to increase access to COVID-19 testing for our students as they return to school." KTVU Read more
|
|
|
Case Rates For Bay Area Kids Are Soaring As Omicron Spreads
Here’s What Pediatricians Are Seeing
COVID-19 is surging among children across the country, leading to a spike of hospitalizations in the Northeast, thanks largely to the highly infectious Omicron variant. “I cannot imagine how California is going to be spared,” said Dr. Roshni Mathew, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Stanford Children’s Health. The state and the Bay Area are seeing a rise in children’s infections, though not hospitalizations. Mathew emphasized that even if hospitalizations do increase, it won’t necessarily mean that cases are suddenly more severe. SF Chronicle Read more
|
|
|
23 Oakland Police Officers Test Positive For COVID
Twenty-three Oakland police officers tested positive for COVID-19, the department confirmed on Thursday. A spokesperson said the officers are all following the City of Oakland's COVID protocol. They added the department has reassigned officers to ensure there is no impact to public safety. The department acknowledged the spike in cases they are experiencing is not unlike what other departments across the country are seeing. COVID cases are currently surging in the U.S. from the extremely contagious Omicron variant. Locally, health experts compared the Bay Area case data to a ‘vertical wall’ as cases quadrupled this week. KTVU Read more
|
|
|
Here’s When The Omicron Surge In The Bay Area Could Peak, And What The Downslope Might Look Like
If there’s a bright side to the jaw-dropping spike in coronavirus cases reported recently in California and the Bay Area, it’s that this Omicron-fueled surge may pass much faster than any previous wave of infections, though at what cost remains to be seen. Parts of the state that reported the earliest upswings, including San Francisco , could peak in just a couple of weeks, infectious di sease experts said. The Bay Area could generally be seeing the tail end of this surge by early February. Previous waves have lasted two to three months, from the first upticks to a leveling off. Health officials warned that it’s too early to say for sure whether this surge will end faster than any other. SF Chronicle Read more
|
|
The Marina’s Coronavirus Case Rate Has Surged Above Every Other S.F. Neighborhood
For most of San Francisco’s pandemic lifespan, coronavirus has most deeply impacted the city’s most vulnerable neighborhoods — poorer communities with higher numbers of essential workers, and the most Black and Latino people. But December’s Omicron surge has turned this trend on its head, infecting whiter, relatively young and more affluent neighborhoods at far higher rates. The Chronicle analyzed data from the San Francisco Department of Public Health to look at how different neighborhoods’ case rates compared over the pandemic, up to Dec. 24, the most recent day with robust data available. As of that day, the Marina, Hayes Valley and Russian Hill neighborhoods had the highest case rates of any neighborhood in the city. SF Chronicle Read more
|
|
|
J&J’s Booster Shot Provides Strong Protection Against Severe Disease From Omicron, A Study Says
A Johnson & Johnson booster shot provided strong protection against the Omicron variant, greatly reducing the risk of hospitalization, according to a clinical trial in South Africa. The study, which compared more than 69,000 boosted health care workers with a corresponding group of unvaccinated South Africans, found that two shots of the vaccine reduced the risk of hospitalization from Omicron by about 85 percent. In comparison, another study in South Africa found that two shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine reduced the risk of hospitalization by about 70 percent. NY Times Read more
|
|
|
Disabled Community "Left Behind" In Vaccine Rollout One Year Later
Hundreds to thousands of calls come in to the Disability Information and Access Line (DIAL) each week from disabled people across the country with questions about COVID-19, vaccinations, testing spots and more. As one of the first call centers to focus specifically on the needs of disabled people, the federally funded hotline continues to pick up speed, filling a service previously unmet, according to the line's director Sara Clark. The more people know about it, she says, the more calls they're fielding.
|
|
|
Our Relationship With COVID Vaccines Is Just Getting Started
Walter Barker has, since the fall of 2020, had five doses of COVID-19 vaccine. He’s already starting to ponder when he might need a sixth. Barker, a 38-year-old office worker in New York, received his first two doses a year ago, as part of an AstraZeneca vaccine trial. But the shots, which haven’t been authorized by the FDA, couldn’t get him into some venues. Sick of having to test every time he went to a Yankees game, Barker nabbed a pair of Moderna injections in the spring. Then, when the government urged booster, he figured he’d “rather be safe than sorry,” especially because of his Type 2 diabetes—a risk factor for severe COVID. That was vaccine No. 5. Plus, he told me, he’d also caught the actual virus between his AstraZeneca and Moderna shots. The Atlantic Read more
|
|
|
2022 Will Be The "Year Of Vaccination," Says Director Of Vaccine Institute
If 2021 was the year of vaccine development, 2022 will be a year marked by vaccinations and booster shots, according to a leading expert. “2022 will be the year of vaccination — either primary for people who haven’t been vaccinated, or booster vaccinations for those of us who have,” said Jerome Kim, director general of the International Vaccine Institute, an independent non-profit devoted to research on vaccines for poor countries. CNBC Read more
|
|
|
Can Mental Health Experts Help Improve Vaccine Hesitancy?
Given that uptake of vaccines is low among young adults — and young adulthood is the age of onset for many mental health problems, mental health experts are uniquely suited to help overcome resistance to COVID-19 vaccination. This is the message of an opinion column that appeared in September in JAMA PsychiatryTrusted Source. The authors, Dr. Noel T, Brewer and Dr. Neetu Abad, of the column note: “Mental health professionals and teams are trained to use empathy, reflective listening, and cooperative goal setting to help patients address challenges. […] Engaging new approaches for increasing adult vaccination is a national priority.” Medical News Today Read more
|
|
Federal Judge Blocks Biden’s COVID Vaccine Mandate For Head Start Program
President Biden cannot require teachers in the Head Start early-education program to be vaccinated against COVID-19, a Louisiana federal judge ruled Saturday, handing a victory to 24 states that had sued the federal government. U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty wrote that the Biden administration unlawfully bypassed Congress when ordering that workers in Head Start programs be vaccinated by Jan. 31 and that students 2 years or older be masked when indoors or when in close contact with others outdoors. Head Start is a federally funded program that promotes education for children under the age of 6 who are from low-income families.
|
|
|
State/National/International News |
|
The COVID-19 Case Surge Is Altering Daily Life Across The U.S.
Things Will Likely Get Worse, Experts Warn
The U.S. is ringing in the new year amid a COVID-19 surge that experts warn is exploding at unprecedented speed and could alter daily life for many Americans during the first month of 2022. "Omicron is truly everywhere," Dr. Megan Ranney, a professor of emergency medicine at Brown University's School of Public Health, told CNN on Friday night. "What I am so worried about over the next month or so is that our economy is going to shut down, not because of policies from the federal government or from the state governments, but rather because so many of us are ill." The nation broke records at least four times this week for its seven-day average of new daily Covid-19 cases, reporting an all-time high of more than 386,000 new daily infections Friday, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University. The high case count is already causing disruptions in the country. CNN Read more
|
|
|
With Omicron Surging, California Calls For Stricter COVID Isolation For Infected People
With California’s coronavirus surge worsening, the state has issued new recommendations for when people infected with the virus can end their isolation, guidance that is stricter than what was made earlier this week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. California is now recommending that asymptomatic, coronavirus-infected people can exit isolation after the fifth day following a positive test, but only if they get a negative test result. LA Times Read more
|
|
|
A Pediatrician's Advice To Parents Of Kids Under 5 On Omicron, Travel And Daycare
Amid the Omicron surge there is understandable anxiety among parents, particularly those with kids under 5 who can't yet get a COVID vaccine. They're wondering how to navigate life with young children, what this means for travel plans and daycare, and when the vaccine will become available. Dr. Ibukun Kalu is a pediatric infectious disease doctor at Duke University and says her hospital has already seen a rise in children being admitted. "Unfortunately, more of the children that are in the hospital are unvaccinated. However, we have younger children that are not eligible for vaccination also end up in the hospital with COVID," she said. NPR Read more
|
|
|
Studies Suggest Why Omicron Is Less Severe: It Spares The Lungs
A spate of new studies on lab animals and human tissues are providing the first indication of why the Omicron variant causes milder disease than previous versions of the coronavirus. In studies on mice and hamsters, Omicron produced less damaging infections, often limited largely to the upper airway: the nose, throat and windpipe. The variant did much less harm to the lungs, where previous variants would often cause scarring and serious breathing difficulty. NY Times Read more
|
|
|
The coronavirus pandemic has not just resulted in increases in murders and overdoses, but also traffic fatalities. It was a tally that shocked the experts: 38,680 deaths on U.S. roadways last year, the most since 2007, even though pandemic precautions had dramatically reduced driving," the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. "The latest evidence suggests that after decades of safety gains, the pandemic has made U.S. drivers more reckless — more likely to speed, drink or use drugs and leave their seat belts unbuckled." Raw Story Read more
|
|
|
Where You Sit On A Bus Or Train Impacts Risk Of Catching COVID-19
Public transportation is the lifeblood for people living in many major cities around the world. However, where these commuters choose to sit on a crowded bus or train may increase their exposure to particles carrying COVID-19, a recent study warns. Researchers at IBM Research Europe have developed a model showing the differences in ventilation depending on where someone sits on a mass transit vehicle. Thier study focused on the common characteristics of asymptomatic transmission, including air and droplet dynamics, heat transfer, evaporation, humidity, and effects of ventilation systems. KRON4 Read more
|
|
Wastewater Samples Reveal Record Levels Of COVID-19 Across U.S.
With at-home COVID-19 tests in high demand and their efficacy in question, health departments from California to Massachusetts are turning to sewage samples to get a better idea of how much the coronavirus is spreading through communities and what might be in store for health care systems. Experts say wastewater holds the key to better understanding the public health of cities and neighborhoods, especially in underserved areas that do not have equal access to care. Monitoring sewage can also measure other public health concerns, such as obesity, opioids and even polio.
|
|
|
Antarctic Outpost Hit By COVID-19 Outbreak
A Belgian scientific research station in Antarctica is dealing with an outbreak of COVID-19, despite workers being fully vaccinated and based in one of the world's remotest regions. Since 14 December, at least 16 of the 25 workers at the Princess Elisabeth Polar Station have caught the virus. Officials say cases remain mild so far. The situation isn't dramatic," Joseph Cheek, a project manager for the International Polar Foundation, told the BBC. "While it has been an inconvenience to have to quarantine certain members of the staff who caught the virus, it hasn't significantly affected our work at the station overall," Mr Cheek said. BBC Read more
|
|
ICU Teams Report Fatigue And Frustration As They Brace For Omicron Surge
The latest surge in COVID-19 cases is testing the endurance of intensive care workers at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. "You feel like, 'What am I doing here?' " says Dr. Nguyet Nguyen, a pulmonary critical care specialist at the hospital and assistant professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. "I'm working as hard as I can and still all of these people are dying." "We're tired," says Dr. TIffany Osborn, a professor of surgery and emergency medicine. "We see so much needless suffering." Both doctors say unvaccinated people make up the vast majority of COVID-19 patients in the ICU. NPR Read more
|
|
|
Total Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 679,919
California: 5,565,419
U.S.: 55,240,407
Alameda County
Total Vaccines Administered: 3,161,992
Total Cases: 134,392
Total Deaths: 1,545
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 12.2%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 1/3): 159
ICU Beds Available (as of 1/3): 107
As of January 3, cases have increased recently and are extremely high. The number of hospitalized COVID patients has also risen in the Alameda County area. Deaths 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
|
|
Total Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 6,978
California: 76,524
U.S.: 826,120
Contra Costa County
Total Vaccines Administered: 2,213,755
Total Cases: 114,546
Total Deaths: 1,074
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 14.3%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 1/3): 88
ICU Beds Available (as of 1/3): 31
As of January 3, cases have increased recently and are extremely high. The numbers of hospitalized COVID patients and deaths in the Contra Costa County area have remained at about the same level. 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
|
|
|
Six Ways To Overcome Social Isolation During Another COVID Winter
Cases of COVID-19 are rising in many areas of the country. In fact, some experts are predicting a forthcoming surge, which could mean another winter without handshakes and hugs — or, at least, significantly fewer of them. “In some ways people are feeling a little safer going out,” especially if they are vaccinated and boosted, says Ruth Benca, M.D., chair of psychiatry and behavioral medicine at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist. “The problem is, though, that we're still in a pandemic,” she adds. And with the threat of breakthrough infections, menacing variants and vaccine resistance, “a lot of people are just not feeling comfortable rushing out and pretending we're back to normal yet.” AARP Read more
|
|
|
- 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.
|
|
-
A viral test tells you if you have a current infection.
-
An antibody test might tell you if you had a past infection.
|
|
|
Over the past week, Alameda County has averaged 924 new cases and 1.7 new deaths per day.
|
|
Over the past week, Contra Costa County has averaged 671 new cases and 0.3 new death per day.
|
|
|
Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Alameda County, cumulative
as of 1/3/2022
Oakland: 41,644
Hayward: 18,622
Fremont: 12,223
Eden MAC: 8,042
San Leandro: 7,900
Livermore: 7,351
Berkeley: 6,531
Union City: 5,651
Castro Valley: 4,357
Newark: 3,909
|
|
Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Contra Costa County, cumulative
as of 1/3/2022
Richmond: 16,810
Antioch: 16,034
Concord: 12,587
Pittsburg: 10,395
San Pablo: 7,210
Brentwood: 7,280
Oakley: 5,993
Walnut Creek: 5,395
Bay Point: 4,109
San Ramon: 4,201
|
|
|
About Eden Health District |
|
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.
|
|
|
Follow Us on Social Media |
|
|
|
|
|
|
