COVID-19
breaking news & updates
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"A lockdown is a public health measure of last resort. We have all the tools that can prevent any requirement for a lockdown.”
Dr. Warner Greene, Infectious Disease Specialist, Gladstone Institutes - San Francisco
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Here's When The Bay Area Delta COVID Surge Is Expected To Peak, And How Bad Things Might Get
This fourth wave of the pandemic will probably peak in the Bay Area late this month or early next, quickly drop off in September, and almost certainly not come close to causing the deadly chaos of last winter’s surge. That’s health experts’ best guess, based on local and national models that take into account how the now-dominant Delta variant has raged through other countries and how well vaccines are holding up against it. Some experts predict the peak could arrive in just a couple weeks. SF Chronicle Read more
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Coronavirus Test Options In The Bay Area Have Changed Since Last Surge
Demand for coronavirus tests in the Bay Area, which had dwindled since the beginning of the year, is spiking as cases continue to rise. As more information about the surging Delta variant comes to light, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its testing guidance to include vaccinated people who have been exposed to the virus, even if they don’t show symptoms. That’s because new evidence suggests that vaccinated people can still spread the virus, though they are less likely to get it in the first place. SF Chronicle Read more
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Tourists From Around The World Get COVID Vaccine At SFO
While the United States is still struggling to convince many Americans to get their COVID-19 vaccine, tourists from around the world are flying into SFO to get their shots right inside the airport. Travelers roll up their sleeves to get the one shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine outside the medical clinic at SFO’s International Terminal. A 30-year-old woman from Brazil who flew to SFO to attend U.C. Berkeley Grad School in the fall called it a dream come true, because she was having a hard time getting her shot back home. KRON4 Read more
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What Are Bay Area Residents Doing - And Not Doing - As The Delta Variant Surges?
Beyond the obvious health perils and the economic harm to working families and small businesses, the persistence of COVID-19 has forced us to recalibrate, again and again, how we live our lives from day to day. This has been true since last March, and the convulsive spread of the Delta variant shows that deciding how to navigate the social landscape is as volatile as ever. In the wake of surging infection rates and a new regional edict to wear masks inside, some people are pulling back from activities they had resumed just weeks ago. Others are following the same path as before, but with more vigilance. SF Chronicle Read more
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Most Bay Area Companies Don't Expect Employees Back In The Office Five Days A Week
More than two thirds of Bay Area companies plan to have workers in the office three days a week or less after the pandemic, a shift that could lead to a permanent drop of more than 1 million commuters a day, according to a new poll. A Bay Area Council poll of 205 companies found only 1% plan to be fully remote, 5% plan to require workers in the office one day a week, 22% plan to require two days, 40% plan to require three days, 13% plan to require four days and 19% are returning to a full five days. Before the pandemic, 93% of the companies said workers were in the office four or five days a week.
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Latest COVID Surge Impacting Bay Area Businesses
The surge in COVID-19 cases is causing so called breakthrough cases, which is when someone who is vaccinated contracts the virus. The problem is now starting to impact a number of businesses. Some owners are now shutting their doors after vaccinated workers have been exposed. Bay Area business owners say it’s a total loss especially for small businesses. But the big picture is the highly transmissible Delta variant is in the community. Two San Francisco restaurants are the latest to temporarily close after confirmed COVID cases among staff. The businesses report staff has been fully vaccinated but are coming down with COVID breakthrough cases. KRON4 Read more
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COVID Vaccinations Surging In States Hit Hardest By Latest Wave Of Infections
The United States has seen a steady uptick in the number of individuals getting their first COVID vaccine, driven by those living in states with some of the lowest vaccination rate - the very states hardest hit by the recent surge in infections. Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Oklahoma are now vaccinating people at a pace not seen since April, White House COVID coordinator Jeffrey Zients said.
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FDA Expected To Recommend Boosters For Immunocompromised Americans Within Weeks
Within the next few weeks, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to recommend a plan for immunocompromised Americans to get a COVID-19 booster shot, a senior government official familiar with the agency's planning told ABC News on Thursday. The plan is expected by early September, if not sooner, the government official said. ABC News Read more
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Tough Love And Offers To Drive: How People Are Convincing Holdouts To Get Vaccinated
The U.S. recently reported that 70% of eligible adults had received at least one vaccine dose. So how do we convince that last 30% to pull up their sleeve and get vaccinated? From what virologist Benjamin Neuman has seen, vaccine hesitancy has different causes, some easier to address than others. “The easier group to convince seem to be people who are worried about side effects, or how effective the vaccines are,” said Neuman, who’s head of the biology department at Texas A&M University-Texarkana. “It’s usually just a matter of connecting people to very good information from scientific papers that answer their questions,” he explained. HuffPost Read more
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Netflix Is The Latest Major Company Requiring Workers To Get Vaccinated Amid Covid Surge - See The Full List
Many companies are starting to require that workers get vaccinated against the coronavirus as the spread of the Delta variant fuels a surge in cases nationwide. U.S. Justice Department lawyers said last month that federal law does not stop private companies and federal agencies from requiring workers to get vaccinated. A number of hospital and healthcare systems across the U.S. have already required employees to be vaccinated, which has been met by protests and lawsuits in some cases. Forbes
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Parents And Students Caught In Political Skirmishes Over Mask And Vaccine Mandates
The back-to-school season is turning into a frightening one for parents and children as they find themselves in the middle of political skirmishes over mask and vaccine mandates over mask and vaccine mandates, leaving students' safety determined more by geography and the political whims of governors than the science that should be guiding best practices. CNN Read more
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Fake COVID Vaccination Cards Are On The Rise In The U.S., Europe
As COVID-19 vaccine mandates proliferate in the U.S. and Europe, so are swindlers selling bogus vaccination certificates. Proof of vaccination is required in parts of the U.S. and Europe to dine indoors, go to museums and attend large sporting events. These rules have created a market for counterfeit certificates for the unvaccinated. In the U.S., fake vaccination cards purportedly issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have appeared for sale on sites such as Amazon, eBay and Etsy. Wall Street Journal
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State/National/International News
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The U.S. Is Now Averaging 100,000 New COVID-19 Infections A Day
The U.S. is now averaging 100,000 new COVID-19 infections a day, returning to a milestone last seen during the winter surge in yet another bleak reminder of how quickly the Delta variant has spread through the country. The U.S. was averaging about 11,000 cases a day in late June. Now the number is 107,143. It took the U.S. about nine months to cross the 100,000 average case number in November before peaking at about 250,000 in early January. Cases bottomed out in June but took about six weeks to go back above 100,000, despite a vaccine that has been given to more than 70% of the adult population. NPR Read more
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The Vaccinated Are Angry - That's Understandable But Unproductive, Health Experts Say
Masks are back, some hospitals are filling up again and there's little question who is causing the latest resurgence of COVID-19 in the USA. Unvaccinated Americans are rapidly becoming sick from the ultra-contagious Delta variant, and they often get extremely ill: More than 97% of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in mid-July were unvaccinated, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's a tragically predictable outcome, leading some politicians and pundits to unload their frustrations on the unvaccinated. USA Today Read more
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L.A. County Reports More Than 4,000 New Coronavirus Cases, Attributed In Part To Increased Testing
Los Angeles County health officials on Saturday reported 4,283 new coronavirus cases, the largest daily number reported in months and which public health officials attributed to the continued high rates of transmission of the Delta variant and significant increases in testing. Although Department of Public Health officials expressed concern for the increasing case numbers, they cautioned that some of it could be attributed to more adults and children headed back to work and school and getting screened for the virus. Los Angeles Times Read more
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For Seniors Especially, COVID Can Be Stealthy
The population over 65, most vulnerable to the virus’s effects, got an early start on COVID vaccination and has the highest rate in the country - more than 80 percent are fully vaccinated. But with infections increasing once more, and hospitalization rising among older adults, a large-scale new study in the Journals of Gerontology provides a timely warning: COVID can look different in older patients. NY Times Read more
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Déjà Vu? Consumers Scramble For COVID Tests In Hard-Hit Areas
As the nation confronts its latest and worsening surge of covid cases, consumers are again facing delays getting tested, many turning to social media to complain. The problem appears mostly in the South and Midwest, where infections driven by the virus’s Delta variant are proliferating the fastest. KHN Read more
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Education Secretary: "We're Clearly At A Fork In The Road" In Opening Schools Safely
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Sunday that the country is at a “fork in the road” when it comes to opening schools amid a resurgent coronavirus wave. “You're either going to help students be in school in-person and be safe, or the decisions you make will hurt students," he said. Politico Read more
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Yes, The Pandemic Is Bad Again
Do you remember when Los Angeles, D.C., and other major cities didn’t have mask mandates? When tech companies had return-to-office dates in September? When the number of new daily coronavirus cases was coming off a month-long run of being at its lowest levels of the pandemic? That was three weeks ago. Since then, the feelings of progress, buoyancy, and even semi-normalcy from the late spring and early summer have dissipated, jarringly.
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Rightwing Radio Host And Anti-Vaxxer Dies Of COVID
A rightwing TV and radio host who was a vociferous critic of Dr. Anthony Fauci and who urged his listeners not to get vaccinated against COVID-19 has died after contracting the virus. Dick Farrel, who had described Fauci as a “power-tripping lying freak” who conspired with “power trip libb loons”, had urged people not to get vaccinated as recently as June.
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Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 488,802
California: 4,047,097
U.S.: 35,775,272
Alameda County
Vaccines Administered: 2,176,192
Cases: 99,484
Deaths: 1,291
Test Positivity: 5.2%
Hospitalized Patients: 242
ICU Beds Available: 104
Cases have increased recently and are very high. The numbers of hospitalized COVID patients and deaths in the Alameda County area have also risen. 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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Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 5,873
California: 64,784
U.S.: 616,864
Contra Costa County
Vaccines Administered: 1,519,890
Cases: 79,814
Deaths: 838
Test Positivity: 7.2%
Hospitalized Patients: 189
ICU Beds Available: 32
Cases have increased recently and are very high. The number of hospitalized COVID patients has also risen in the Contra Costa County area. Deaths 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
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3 Charts Show How Far COVID Delta Variant Has Spread Around The World
The Delta variant, which was first detected in India last October, has been found in more than 130 countries globally, according to the World Health Organization. CNBC
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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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COVID Test Resources
Food Pantries
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Over the last seven days, Alameda County officials have reported 3,632 new coronavirus cases, which amounts to 221 cases per 100,000 residents.
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Over the last seven days, Contra Costa County officials have reported 2,106 new coronavirus cases, which amounts to 186 cases per 100,000 residents.
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Alameda County, as of 8/8/21
Oakland: 31,619
Hayward: 14,938
Fremont: 8,800
Eden MAC: 6,488
San Leandro: 6,234
Livermore: 4,923
Union City: 4,406
Berkeley: 4,108
Newark: 3,003
Castro Valley: 2,962
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Contra Costa County, as of 8/8/21
Richmond: 12,952
Antioch: 11,487
Concord: 9,182
Pittsburg: 7,854
San Pablo: 5,732
Brentwood: 4,615
Oakley: 3,872
Walnut Creek: 3,368
Bay Point: 3,139
San Ramon: 2,483
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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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