COVID-19
breaking news & updates
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Eden Area Annual Community Toy Drive Underway
Help put a smile on a child's face this holiday season! Unwrapped toy donations benefiting local children are being collected until Wednesday, Dec. 22. Donation drop-off sites:
San Lorenzo
15903 Hesperian Blvd.
Monday - Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
377 Paseo Grande
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday
Oakland
1221 Oak Street, 5th floor
Monday - Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
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COVID Test Resources
Food Pantries
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Coronavirus Cases Down 55 Percent Recently In Alameda County: CDC
Coronavirus cases continue to climb nationally as many parts of the country enter respiratory virus season. The country is expected to surpass the grim milestone of 800,000 coronavirus-related deaths in the coming days. Nationally, nearly 118,000 cases were reported daily as of Dec. 10, compared with about 86,300 daily cases around the beginning of the month, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Alameda County had a "moderate" level of coronavirus transmission as of Dec. 13, according to the CDC. There were 28.8 new cases per 100,000 residents between Dec. 6-12. Castro Valley Patch Read more
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State Grants Mask Rule Exceptions For Some Bay Area Counties
California is now requiring everyone from toddlers on up to wear face masks in all indoor public settings regardless of vaccination against COVID-19, but the state is cutting breaks in some cases to at a few Bay Area counties for those who have had the shots. In San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties, which already had local orders in place that allowed masks to come off indoors in certain controlled settings with a small, stable group of fully vaccinated people like workspaces and gyms, those local rules remain in place. “This refinement acknowledges the hard work of the people of San Francisco throughout the pandemic, including the ways in which we have maintained reasonable protections heading into the holiday season,” San Francisco’s Department of Public Health said in a statement late Tuesday. Alameda County Department of Public Health public information manager Neetu Balram added that county residents “will not experience any differences in policy.” East Bay Times Read more
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COVID Clinic Commits To Re-Opening Downtown Oakland Vaccination And Testing Site, Pursues Expansion To Additional Locations
Following the closure last week of the COVID Clinic in downtown Oakland at Frank Ogawa Plaza, City of Oakland leadership met with the founder and CEO of COVID Clinic to resolve operational challenges at that site. The City and the non-profit COVID Clinic have renewed their partnership founded on their mutual commitment to ensure that COVID testing and vaccinations reach our most vulnerable communities and continue during this critical time of the pandemic. “Amid the season of holiday travel and gatherings, coupled with the emergence of the Omicron variant here in the East Bay, it is critical that Oaklanders have easy access to COVID vaccines, boosters, and rapid testing,” said Oakland City Administrator Ed Reiskin. City of Oakland Read more
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BART Reports Over 90% Of Workers Fully Vaccinated Ahead Of Deadline
More than 90 percent of BART workers have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 ahead of Monday’s deadline, with some 300 employees remaining unvaccinated, according to data provided by the transit agency. As of Friday, 91 percent of the agency’s board members, train drivers, station agents, police officers and other employees have proved their full vaccination status. KPIX5 Read more
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Chase Center Announces Updated Venue Entry Requirements
The Golden State Warriors and Chase Center announced updated details today regarding the venue’s entry requirements for fans ages 2 through 11, in accordance with the revised guidance issued by the California Department of Public Health. Fans ages 2 through 11 will need to provide either proof of full vaccination or a negative result from a COVID-19 test administered within 24 hours for an antigen test, or 48 hours for a PCR/molecular test, in advance of the event start time. The updated policy is effective immediately, and will be enforced starting with Chase Center’s next event, this Friday, December 17 for the Metallica concert. NBA.com Read more
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Canines Trained By Local Non- Profit To Sniff Out COVID From Old Socks
Early Alert Canines in Concord is part of a pilot program where dogs use their sense of scent to sniff out COVID. The dogs aren’t sniffing for the virus itself. Instead, their sense of smell picks up the chemical changes bodies produce when fighting COVID. KTVU Read more
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COVID Didn’t Increase Poverty In The Bay Area, New Report Says
Despite the massive hit the economy took during the COVID-19 crisis, a new study suggests the pandemic didn’t push huge numbers of Bay Area residents into financial trouble — a surprising finding that experts say highlights the success of emergency cash assistance programs. Mercury News Read more
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A Year Into Vaccination Effort, COVID-19 Remains A Menace
A year ago Tuesday, nurses received the first shots of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, offering a glimmer of hope amid the country’s deadliest winter outbreak of the pandemic that immunity and a return to normal were within reach in the coming year. Six in 10 Americans and two out of three Californians have since had the shots, and although they no doubt saved countless lives and eased fears among the vaccinated, the ever-mutating SARS-CoV-2 virus remains very much with us, with normal fading like a desert mirage. “It’s the same type of life, I definitely don’t go out as much,” said Nick Vanstrum, who is vaccinated but wore a blue face mask while doing pullups at an outdoor gym in Oakland. “I’ve learned how to be happy without partying as much.” East Bay Times
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Pfizer Confirms Its COVID Pill Can Stave Off Severe Cases And Will Likely Work Against Omicron
Pfizer announced on Tuesday that its COVID pill was found to stave off severe disease in a key clinical trial and that it is likely to work against the highly mutated Omicron variant of the virus. The results underscore the promise of the treatment, which health officials and doctors are counting on, to ease the burden on hospitals as the United States braces for a mounting fourth wave of the pandemic. If the Food and Drug Administration authorizes the drug, which could happen within days, then patients might begin receiving it by the end of the year. Although supply will be limited at first, public health experts are hopeful that the pills might curb the worst outcomes from the disease, no matter the variant. NY Times Read more
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Supreme Court Allows Vaccine Mandate For New York Health Care Workers
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to block New York’s requirement that health care workers be vaccinated against the coronavirus even when they cite religious objections. As is often the court’s practice in rulings on emergency applications, its unsigned order included no reasoning. The court has also rejected challenges to vaccination requirements at Indiana University, for personnel in New York City's school system and for workers at a Massachusetts hospital. The court also rejected a challenge to a federal mandate requiring masks for air travel. NY Times Read more
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We Have Enough COVID Vaccines For Most Of The World -
But Rich Countries Are Stockpiling More Than They Need For Boosters
Two years since SARS-CoV-2 first passed into humans, manufacturers have created enough vaccines to inoculate most of the world against COVID-19. But dozens of low-income countries still face dire shortages because rich nations are building stockpiles with hundreds of millions more doses than they need. Even when booster shots for rich nations are taken into account, there’s ample supply to meet global vaccination goals for the end of 2021, STAT’s analysis of available data shows. The challenge is getting the vaccines to the right places. STAT Read more
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First Members Of Military Are Discharged For Refusing COVID Vaccine
The Air Force has discharged 27 service members for refusing to receive a COVID vaccine, marking the first service members to be involuntarily discharged for balking the rule. A spokesperson for the Air Force said the 27 active duty members discharged received counseling about the vaccines, and when they still refused, commanders made the decision to discharge them for refusing to comply with the Pentagon's vaccine rule, a lawful order. Pentagon data shows approximately 90% of the active duty force is fully vaccinated and about 74% of the total force, including the Reserve and National Guard, is fully vaccinated.
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Google Tells Employees They’ll Lose Pay And Will Eventually Be Fired If They Don’t Follow Vaccination Rules
Google has told its employees that they will lose pay — and will eventually be fired — if they don’t comply with the company’s COVID-19 vaccination policy, according to internal documents viewed by CNBC. A memo circulated by leadership said employees had until Dec. 3 to declare their vaccination status and upload documentation showing proof, or to apply for a medical or religious exemption. The company said after that date it would start contacting employees who hadn’t uploaded their status or were unvaccinated, as well as those whose exemption requests weren’t approved. CNBC Read more
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State/National/International News |
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More Than 50 Million Total Coronavirus Cases Have Been Found In The U.S.
The total number of known coronavirus cases in the United States surpassed 50 million on Monday, according to a New York Times database. Fifty million can be a difficult number to grasp. It is more than the combined populations of Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Ohio. More than the entire population of Spain. Nearly 18 times the number of dollars an American college graduate can expect to earn in a lifetime. And it is almost certainly a substantial undercount of cases, since many infected people have no symptoms or mistake them for those of another illness, and not everyone gets tested — to say nothing of the huge shortage of available tests in the early weeks of the pandemic. NY Times Read more
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Omicron Variant More Resistant To Vaccine But Causes Less Severe COVID, Major South African Study Concludes
Omicron appears to cause less severe illness than earlier variants of the coronavirus but is more resistant to the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine widely used in South Africa, according to a major private study of the variant. The study by Discovery Health, South Africa’s largest health insurer, showed that risk of hospital admissions among adults who developed COVID-19 was 29 percent lower than in the initial pandemic wave that emerged in March 2020. Washington Post Read more
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Omicron Is Spreading "Every Place At Once," Experts Say. What It Could Mean For Holiday Plans
The Omicron variant of COVID-19 is moving faster than surveillance systems can track it and has so unnerved some medical experts they're starting to put the brakes on preparations for their holiday gatherings. "Personally, I'm reevaluating plans for the holidays," Bronwyn MacInnis, director of pathogen genomic surveillance at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University, said on a call with reporters Tuesday. "It's the responsible thing to do and what feels right given the risk." She and a handful of other Massachusetts-based researchers on the call said they've been stunned by the pace by which Omicron has been crowding out other variants and taking over the pandemic. USA Today Read more
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Omicron’s Spread Across Hotel Hall Highlights Transmission Worry
The Omicron variant spread among two fully vaccinated travelers across the hallway of a Hong Kong quarantine hotel, underscoring why the highly mutated coronavirus strain is unnerving health authorities. Closed-circuit television camera footage showed neither person left their room nor had any contact, leaving airborne transmission when respective doors were opened for food collection or COVID testing the most probable mode of spread, researchers at the University of Hong Kong said in a study published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. Bloomberg Read more
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Some Hospitals Drop COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates To Ease Labor Shortages
Some of the largest U.S. hospital systems have dropped COVID-19 vaccine mandates for staff after a federal judge temporarily halted a Biden administration mandate that healthcare workers get the shots. Hospital operators including HCA Healthcare Inc. and Tenet Healthcare Corp., as well as nonprofits AdventHealth and the Cleveland Clinic, are dropping the mandates. Labor costs in the industry have soared, and hospitals struggled to retain enough nurses, technicians and even janitors to handle higher hospitalizations in recent months as the Delta variant raged. Wall Street Journal Read more
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Cornell University Reports More Than 900 COVID-19 Cases This Week. Many Are Omicron variant Cases In Fully Vaccinated Students
Cornell University reported 903 cases of COVID-19 among students between December 7-13, and a "very high percentage" of them are Omicron variant cases in fully vaccinated individuals, according to university officials. As of result, the school has decided to shut down its Ithaca, New York, campus, where it has about 25,600 students. The university will move final exams for the semester online, cancel all activities and athletics and close the libraries. Ninety-seven percent of people on campus are fully vaccinated, according to the university. CNN Read more
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Back To Campus Under COVID: Students Reflect On An Unusual Semester
Back to normal life — sort of. With COVID-19 vaccines widely available, California colleges welcomed students back for a mix of in-person and online classes this fall. After months of studying virtually from childhood bedrooms and other remote locations, students could once again ask questions of professors face to face and socialize with their peers IRL. The transition didn’t always go smoothly. CalMatters Read more
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How The Pandemic Made The Mental Health Crisis Worse For Teens
As we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, another health crisis is rising quickly behind it. The U.S. Surgeon General issued a public health advisory on the mental health challenges that children and teenagers are facing in the midst of the pandemic. According to the Surgeon General’s report, depressive and anxiety symptoms in youth doubled during the pandemic. Healthline Read more
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Britain Battles Omicron "Tidal Wave," As Infections Double Every Two To Three Days
Britain is facing a "tidal wave" of infections from the new Omicron coronavirus variant, ministers have warned, as they sound the alarm on rapid transmission rates in London and across the country. On Monday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed the country's first death of a person with the variant. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said on Monday that there were 4,713 confirmed cases of Omicron in the UK, and the current number of daily infections is estimated to be around 200,000. CNN Read more
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Tourist Favorite Italy Joins "Very High" Travel Risk List
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added three nations to its highest-risk category for travel on Monday, including tourist favorite Italy. In its weekly update of COVID-19 travel advisories, the CDC also added giant, frigid Greenland and the tiny, tropical East African island nation of Mauritius to its “Level 4: COVID-19 Very High” category. Typically, the CDC places a destination at Level 4 when more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents are registered in the past 28 days. Mercury News
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Total Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 629,428
California: 5,180,640
U.S.: 50,341,524
Alameda County
Total Vaccines Administered: 2,985,225
Total Cases: 124,535
Total Deaths: 1,524
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 1.5%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 12/15): 90
ICU Beds Available (as of 12/15): 87
As of December 15, cases have increased recently and are 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
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Total Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 6,904
California: 75,492
U.S.: 802,014
Contra Costa County
Total Vaccines Administered: 2,100,959
Total Cases: 103,661
Total Deaths: 1,06
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 2.2%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 12/15): 51
ICU Beds Available (as of 12/15): 36
As of December 15, cases have increased recently and are high. The number of hospitalized COVID patients has remained at about the same level 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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Omicron Is A Dress Rehearsal For The Next Pandemic
When scientists discovered the highly mutated Omicron variant of the coronavirus last month, it set off an eerily familiar chain of events. Health experts held somber news conferences that raised more questions than answers. Officials imposed travel bans that very likely came too late. Virus trackers filled in their maps as the variant was reported in country after country. And the rest of us waited, with increasing unease, to learn more about the threat we were facing. NY Times 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 the past week, Alameda County has averaged 135 new cases and 1.1 new deaths per day.
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Over the past week, Contra Costa County has averaged 102 new cases and 1 new death per day.
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Alameda County, cumulative
as of 12/15/21
Oakland: 38,829
Hayward: 17,748
Fremont: 11,271
Eden MAC: 7,704
San Leandro: 7,651
Livermore: 6,845
Berkeley: 5,476
Union City: 5,321
Castro Valley: 3,957
Newark: 3,691
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Contra Costa County, cumulative
as of 12/15/21
Richmond: 15,435
Antioch: 14,962
Concord: 11,604
Pittsburg: 9,756
San Pablo: 6,738
Brentwood: 6,612
Oakley: 5,542
Walnut Creek: 4,619
Bay Point: 3,906
San Ramon: 3,472
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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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