COVID-19
breaking news & updates
|
|
|
COVID Test Resources
Food Pantries
|
|
|
"Here We Go Again": Exhausted Bay Area Nurses Brace For Omicron’s Arrival
Nearly two grueling years into the pandemic, Bay Area nurses hoped this winter’s COVID-19 uptick would be manageable thanks to rising vaccination rates. Then Omicron showed up this week - not just in the U.S. but on their home turf, in San Francisco. They’re facing news of the risky variant with a mix of dread and determination. “It’s stressful, but I’m not going to let it affect me like COVID did before,” said Kristin Cox, an acute care nurse at UCSF’s Mt. Zion campus, where she and her exhausted colleagues have worked nonstop for most of the pandemic. SF Chronicle Read more
|
|
|
Five Omicron Cases In East Bay Tied To Outbreak That Began With Wisconsin Wedding
Public health officials in Berkeley and Alameda County have detected at least five cases of the highly transmissible Omicron coronavirus variant as part of an outbreak involving 12 total coronavirus cases linked to a wedding held in Wisconsin last weekend. The five confirmed Omicron cases were described as “mildly symptomatic,” officials said in a joint statement Friday. Of the infected individuals - who ranged in age from 18 to 49 - one attended the wedding in Wisconsin on Nov. 27 “upon return from international travel.” One person is a Berkeley resident, and the 11 others are residents of Alameda County whose cities were not disclosed. SF Chronicle Read more
|
|
|
Eight Infected With COVID, 75 Quarantined After Marin County Parents Defy Order To Keep Child Home
Eight children contracted COVID-19 and 75 were quarantined after a family knowingly sent their infected child to a Marin County school after they were told to keep their children home, officials said Friday. The parents, who have not been identified, were notified the week of Nov. 8 by the Marin County Health and Human Services Department that one of their two children had tested positive, said Brett Geithman, superintendent of the Larkspur-Corte Madera School District. Both the siblings are students at Neil Cummins Elementary School in Corte Madera. The parents were specifically told to keep both children home and to notify the school, Geithman said. Instead, they notified no one and sent their children to school for seven more days, and they did not return multiple calls from public health contact tracers, he said. Mercury News Read more
|
|
|
Promising COVID Treatments Could Reach San Francisco Pharmacies In The New Year
New therapies for COVID-19 are making their way to San Francisco pharmacy shelves. Last week, an expert advisory panel for the Food and Drug Administration voted to approve emergency use authorization for an oral antiviral pill from Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics to treat COVID. The vote passed narrowly, 13-10. The FDA typically follows recommendations from advisory panels, but it is not required to do so. In the meantime, medical experts in San Francisco and the Bay Area are getting ready for new treatments to hit stores as early as the New Year. “We do expect supplies to ramp up and you can go to pharmacies to pick these up. It is very exciting and great to have those options around the corner,” San Francisco Health Officer Susan Philip said.
|
|
|
Dickens Christmas Fair Returns With COVID-19 Safety Precautions
The Dickens Christmas Fair is returning this year at the Cow Palace in Daly City. But the event will look different this year as organizers are adding COVID-19 safety precautions for visitors. This event is a one stop where people can park and enjoy some drive up theater. Some believe the timing of this new approach really works. People drove in at the Cow Palace and found it transformed into a drive through Dicken’s London. NBC Bay Area
|
|
Google Again Delays Return To Offices, After Emergence Of Omicron
As businesses struggle to adjust to an evolving COVID pandemic, Mountain View digital advertising giant Google has for the fourth time delayed a mandatory return of its workforce to offices, it said Thursday. Google had planned to bring in workers three days per week under a hybrid model mixing office and remote employment starting Jan. 10, which would have ended the “voluntary work-from-home period,” the company said in an email. Mercury News
|
|
|
U.S. Plans to Fast-Track Revamped COVID-19 Vaccines
The Biden administration is preparing to fast-track authorization of revamped COVID-19 vaccines to combat Omicron as a study from South Africa suggests the fast-spreading variant might cause less severe illness than its predecessors. Federal regulators said Sunday that cases have been identified in 16 states and that the Food and Drug Administration is already in conversations about streamlining authorization for revamped vaccines. Agency officials have met with vaccine makers and are working to set guidelines for the type of data that will be needed to swiftly evaluate the safety and efficacy of changes to current vaccines. Wall Street Journal Read more
|
|
|
Vaccine Demand Grows In The U.S. And So Do Wait Times
Many vaccination clinics and local officials are reporting long lines and delays in booking vaccination appointments recently, the product of expanded eligibility on booster shots and fears of the Omicron variant, experts said. The stresses on the U.S. vaccination program are also worsened by the broader labor shortage that is affecting many sectors, including health care. “What the public needs to keep in mind is that we’ve got a stressed and strained health care delivery system,” said Mitchel Rothholz, the lead for immunization policy at the American Pharmacists Association. NY Times Read more
|
|
|
Omicron Is Supercharging The COVID Vaccine Booster Debate
The evidence is in: booster jabs against COVID-19 do provide an extra layer of protection against the illness. But questions still swirl over how much they’ll help and how often they’ll be needed — and the discovery of the Omicron variant has supercharged the debate over their role. Real-world data from Israel and the United Kingdom indicate that a booster dose of one of the widely used mRNA-based vaccines sharply lowers a person’s likelihood of catching SARS-CoV-2 and getting sick. And several months after Israel became the first country in the world to make boosters available to all, its daily case counts remain low. Nature Read more
|
|
|
Moderna Vaccine A Bit Better Against COVID-19 Than Pfizer, Study Finds
In the first head-to-head comparison of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, Moderna edged out its competition with a 21% lower risk of infection and a 41% lower risk of hospitalization over 24 weeks, according to a study recently featured in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). CIDRAP Read more
|
|
|
Biden Administration Sending 9 Million COVID Vaccine Doses To Africa
The Biden administration announced Friday that it is sending 9 million Covid vaccine doses to Africa amid growing concerns about the Omicron variant. The new shipment brings the total U.S. donations to Africa to 100 million vaccines, the White House said. An additional two million vaccines will be sent elsewhere in the world. The shipment is part of President Joe Biden's pledge on Thursday to send more than 200 million vaccines abroad in 100 days. NBC News Read more
|
|
Israel Said To Consider 4th COVID Vaccine Dose For Immunocompromised
Israel is reportedly considering authorizing a fourth COVID booster vaccine dose to immunocompromised citizens. According to a report, health officials will discuss the potential of administering yet another dose of the vaccine to the most at-risk populations with the spread of the new, worrying Omicron variant. Israelis with compromised immune systems - including those undergoing cancer treatments - were the first to receive a third booster dose of the COVID vaccine back in July.
|
|
|
State/National/International News |
|
Stricter International COVID Travel Rules Kick In Today
Testing Within One Day of Departure Now Required For Entry to U.S.
Just when we thought US travel rules were starting to stabilize, along comes Omicron . The dominoes fell quickly after South African health authorities informed the world of their discovery of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in late November. The Biden administration rolled out controversial travel bans on arrivals from eight nations in southern Africa. Travelers found themselves unexpectedly stranded. And now U.S. officials are tightening travel regulations again. Things are changing by the day and even by the hour, but here's what we know about the U.S. travel rules effective as of Monday. CNN Read more
|
|
|
New York City Sets A Sweeping Vaccine Mandate For All Private Employers
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a sweeping coronavirus vaccine mandate for all private employers in New York City on Monday morning to combat the spread of the Omicron variant. Mr. de Blasio said the aggressive measure, which takes effect Dec. 27 and which he described as the first of its kind in the nation, was needed as a “pre-emptive strike” to stall another wave of coronavirus cases and help reduce transmission during the winter months and holiday gatherings. New York Times Read more
|
|
|
Omicron Vs. Delta: Comparing COVID’s Most Worrisome Variants
Since the COVID-19 virus first appeared in December 2019, thousands of variants have emerged - but, until this month, Delta reigned supreme. The arrival of Omicron - with the first U.S. case detected in San Francisco on Wednesday and more in New York, Minnesota and Colorado a day later - is a reminder that Delta isn’t the endgame. How do COVID-19’s two most recent and worrisome variants compare? Mercury News
|
|
|
WHO Says Measures Used Against Delta Should Work For Omicron
Measures used to counter the delta variant should remain the foundation for fighting the coronavirus pandemic, even in the face of the new omicron version of the virus, World Health Organization officials said Friday, while acknowledging that the travel restrictions imposed by some countries may buy time. While about three dozen countries worldwide have reported omicron infections, including India on Thursday, the numbers so far are small outside of South Africa, which is facing a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases and where the new variant may be becoming dominant. Still, much remains unclear about omicron, including whether it is more contagious, as some health authorities suspect, whether it makes people more seriously ill, or whether it can evade vaccine protection. AP
|
|
|
Pro-Trump Counties Now Have Far Higher COVID Death Rates. Misinformation Is To Blame
Since May 2021, people living in counties that voted heavily for Donald Trump during the last presidential election have been nearly three times as likely to die from COVID-19 as those who live in areas that went for now-President Biden. That's according to a new analysis by NPR that examines how political polarization and misinformation are driving a significant share of the deaths in the pandemic. NPR looked at deaths per 100,000 people in roughly 3,000 counties across the U.S. from May 2021, the point at which vaccinations widely became available. People living in counties that went 60% or higher for Trump in November 2020 had 2.7 times the death rates of those that went for Biden. Counties with an even higher share of the vote for Trump saw higher COVID-19 mortality rates. NPR Read more
|
|
|
The Variant Hunters: Inside South Africa’s Effort To Stanch Dangerous Mutations
A few months ago, Sizakele Mathe, a community health worker in a sprawling hillside township on the edge of the city of Durban, was notified by a clinic that a neighbor had stopped picking up her medication. It was a warning sign that she had likely stopped taking the antiretroviral tablet that suppresses her H.I.V. infection. That was a threat to her own health - and, in the era of COVID-19, it might have posed a risk to everyone else’s. The clinic dispatched Ms. Mathe to climb a hill, wend her way down a narrow path and try to get the woman back on the pills. Ms. Mathe, as cheerful as she is relentless, is part of a national door-to-door nagging campaign. It’s half of a sophisticated South African effort to stanch the emergence of new variants of the coronavirus, like Omicron, which was identified here and shook the world this past week. NY Times Read more
|
|
|
Prior Infection Is Little Defense Against Virus Variant, Scientists Say
A past coronavirus infection appears to give little immunity to the new Omicron variant rippling across the globe, South African scientists warned on Thursday, potentially tearing away one layer of defense that humanity has won slowly and at immense cost. Just a week after its existence was revealed to the world, the heavily mutated variant, which scientists fear could be the most contagious one yet, is already by far the dominant form of the virus in South Africa and spreading fast, according to officials there. NY Times Read more
|
|
People Who Survive Severe COVID-19 At Higher Risk Of Death In The Following Year
People with long COVID, a condition that happens to some survivors of COVID-19, could have twice the risk of death within the next year than those who experienced mild or moderate infection or were never ill, according to a study published Dec. 1 in the journal Frontiers in Medicine. The findings suggest that severe COVID-19 could significantly damage long-term health and shows the importance of vaccination to prevent severe disease. Healthline
|
|
|
Man In Italy Uses Fake Silicone Arm To Try To Get Vaccine Certificate
A 50-year-old man tried to pass off a silicone arm as his own at a COVID-19 vaccination clinic in northern Italy, in an attempt to get a vaccine certificate without actually getting inoculated. The deception was spotted by a nurse, Filippa Bua, as she was about to administer the vaccine in Biella, Piedmont on Thursday. Bua told CNN she noticed something odd about the arm. "The color of the skin was anomalous, much lighter compared to the hands or the face of the patient," she said. After inspecting the area, she realized that the arm was fake, made of silicone. CNN
|
|
Terrified Of COVID, She Works At Home. He Goes To The Office. What’s A family To Do?
He’s a certified drug and alcohol counselor who opened a sober living house at the peak of last winter’s deadly COVID-19 surge and is on-site at least six days a week. She works for a production company, colonized their kitchen table for her two outsize computer monitors and has stayed largely locked up in their 600-square-foot Mar Vista apartment, where they now dine on TV trays. The pandemic has changed the fabric of life in many households, especially in those where members’ work circumstances are vastly different.
|
|
|
Total Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 619,638
California: 5,109,348
U.S.: 49,092,605
Alameda County
Total Vaccines Administered: 2,865,776
Total Cases: 122,929
Total Deaths: 1,512
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 1.4%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 12/6): 70
ICU Beds Available (as of 12/6): 111
As of December 6, case have stayed about the same recently and are still high. The numbers of hospitalized COVID patients and deaths in the Alameda County area have fallen. 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
|
|
Total Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 6,851
California: 74,802
U.S.: 788,382
Contra Costa County
Total Vaccines Administered: 2,027,225
Total Cases: 102,636
Total Deaths: 1,059
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 2.5%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 12/6): 50
ICU Beds Available (as of 12/6): 41
As of December 6, cases have increased recently and are high. The number of hospitalized COVID patients has remained at about the same level in the Contra Costa area. Deaths have decreased.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
|
|
|
Face Masks And Omicron: Should You Upgrade From Cloth To N95s? Double Mask?
Although Bay Area counties so far have not signaled any changes in their mask policies, the arrival of the Omicron variant has many people wondering whether it’s time to double down on their masking habits - and upgrade their face coverings. Local experts say that regardless of Omicron, the coming weeks are a good time to buy better masks and practice the same public health protocols from last year’s holiday surge. While little data is yet available on whether the newest variant is more infectious than Delta, experts said upgrading your mask strategy is one way to reduce the risk of catching any version of the virus. SF Chronicle 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 131 new cases and 2.7 new deaths per day.
|
|
Over the past week, Contra Costa County has averaged 125 new cases and 1.6 new death per day.
|
|
|
Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Alameda County, cumulative
as of 12/6/21
Oakland: 38,396
Hayward: 17,611
Fremont: 11,086
Eden MAC: 7,644
San Leandro: 7,577
Livermore: 6,729
Berkeley: 5,321
Union City: 5,223
Castro Valley: 3,893
Newark: 3,655
|
|
Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Contra Costa County, cumulative
as of 12/6/21
Richmond: 15,319
Antioch: 14,865
Concord: 11,501
Pittsburg: 9,696
San Pablo: 6,693
Brentwood: 6,525
Oakley: 5,471
Walnut Creek: 4,536
Bay Point: 3,877
San Ramon: 3,412
|
|
|
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 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
