COVID-19
breaking news & updates
|
|
|
COVID Test Resources
Food Pantries
|
|
|
Local COVID Cases Rise As Winter Approaches
COVID numbers in San Francisco and in California are going up. This is expected by health experts as we approach the winter months. But is it rising to a level where people should change their plans from doing things like going out to eat? Several people spoke to NBC Bay Area Friday and gave their thoughts. “I’m feeling OK. I’m feeling much more comfortable than what I was last year,” said Oakland resident Shericka Love. “We definitely kind of strategize having a toddler and we’re gonna eat outside, we got takeout, and eat outside,” said Louis Basel of Berkeley. Chair of UCSF Department of Medicine Bob Wachter tweeted Friday that he was not dining indoors until the numbers go down. NBC Bay Area Read more
|
|
|
Is It The Flu, RSV Or COVID? Here’s The Latest "Tripledemic" Advice From Bay Area Experts
|
|
|
NBC Bay Area, Telemundo 48 And Safeway Announce 13th Annual “Nourishing Neighbors” Holiday Food Drive Campaign
NBC Bay Area / KNTV and Telemundo 48 Área de la Bahía / KSTS, and Safeway today announced the 13th Annual Nourishing Neighbors food drive, beginning Saturday, November 19. Nourishing Neighbors benefits Bay Area Food Banks – a collaboration of seven food banks serving 11 Northern California counties. The campaign will take place at 162 Safeway locations throughout the Bay Area through Sunday, December 25. Even before COVID-19, Bay Area food banks were responding to a level of food insecurity in the region that indicated there was already a crisis. The economic crisis created by the pandemic has pushed many families deeper into poverty and caused others to seek food assistance for the very first time. Our local food banks are still seeing as much as an 80% increase over pre-pandemic levels. NBC Bay Area Read more
|
|
|
COVID Vaccine/Treatment News |
|
COVID Vaccine And Booster Shots In U.S. Hit Highest Weekly Level Since January
More than 5.6 million COVID vaccine and booster shots were administered in the past week, the highest seven-day total in the U.S. since January, a Biden administration official said. The new numbers, first shared with NBC News, outpace the previous weekly sums by about 1 million. About 5.1 million of the past week's shots were bivalent boosters, designed to combat the most virulent strains of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. That is the peak since the start of the government's fall vaccination program for updated doses, the official said. NBC News Read more
|
|
|
Moderna Says COVID Booster Better Against Omicron BA.5, Triggers Immune Response Against BQ.1.1
Moderna’s new COVID booster triggered a stronger immune response against Omicron BA.5 and also appears to work against the emerging BQ.1.1 subvariant, according to the company. Moderna, in clinical trial data published Monday, found that the new booster triggered five times more antibodies against Omicron BA.5 than the old vaccines in people with prior COVID infections. The boosters triggered more than six times more antibodies against BA.5 in people without prior infections. The study examined 500 people ages 19 to 89 who received the new booster. It is the first human data Moderna has released on the boosters. CNBC Read more
|
|
|
U.S. Set To Face Third COVID Winter, This Time Without Key Tools And Treatments
The country is heading into its third COVID winter without crucial tools we’ve relied on at previous points in the pandemic, both as governments roll back their responses and as the virus outruns some of our most important medicine-cabinet defenses. Free at-home tests are no longer showing up at people’s doorsteps. States are reporting outbreak data less frequently, and globally, testing and surveillance programs have been curtailed. Support for community vaccine campaigns has dwindled. And next year at some point, the U.S. government will stop paying for COVID vaccines and treatments, which could widen gaps in access as the products move to being covered by insurance. STAT
|
|
|
Omicron BQ Variants Resistant To Antibody Treatments Are Quickly Becoming Dominant In U.S.
Omicron subvariants resistant to key antibody treatments will soon make up a majority of new COVID infections in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Omicron subvariants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 now make up 44% of new COVID cases compared to 32% last week, according to CDC data. These subvariants will likely become dominant in the next week. The once dominant omicron BA.5, meanwhile, is being displaced and now makes up 29% of new infections. CNBC Read more
|
|
|
Is There A Connection Between COVID Booster Side Effects And Body Size?
Most medical experts say that your body size does not matter when it comes to dosage of COVID vaccines - or any vaccine, for that matter - and urged following booster guidelines to make sure you remain protected against the coronavirus. “The vaccines are dosed based on the ‘weight’ of the immune system, not the ‘weight’ of the body, while resulting in as few side effects as possible,” said UCSF infectious disease expert Peter Chin-Hong. “This is the way most vaccines are given, not just COVID shots.”
|
|
|
State/National/International News |
|
U.S. Will Keep COVID Public Health Emergency In Place At Least Until Mid January
The U.S. COVID public health emergency will remain in place past Jan. 11 after the federal government did not notify states or health-care provides on Friday of any intent to lift the declaration. Health and Human Services Secretary Secretary Xavier Becerra has promised to give stakeholders 60 days notice before lifting the emergency declaration so they can prepare for a return to normal operations. In October, HHS extended the public health emergency until Jan. 11. HHS did not provide a 60-day notice on Friday, which was the deadline to alert states and health-care providers if the federal government planned to lift the declaration on Jan. 11, according to a Health and Human Services spokesperson. Since HHS did not provide notification, the emergency will remain in place for at least another 60 days until mid January. CNBC Read more
|
|
|
Getting COVID-19 Multiple Times Is Risky For Your Health
At this point in the pandemic, it’s easy to think of COVID-19 as something closer to the flu than a dangerous disease. But even though the latest Omicron variants do cause less severe symptoms than the original strain of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 is still far from a typical disease — especially if you get it more than once. In a study published in Nature Medicine, researchers report that COVID-19 reinfections could be taking a toll on some important organ systems. That risk applies to both short-term and long-term health effects, says Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, clinical epidemiologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and the study’s senior author. Time Read more
|
|
|
Keeping Your Blood Pressure Below This Number Reduces Risk Of Severe COVID, Study Finds
High blood pressure is a known risk factor for a bout of COVID-19 severe enough to raise the specter of hospitalization and death. In fact, research has shown having high blood pressure doubles the risk of having a severe case of COVID, even if you are fully vaccinated and boosted. But what is considered a high enough blood pressure reading to trigger that risk? To date, scientists haven’t been sure. Now, a new study out of England published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One has answered that question. “We found that in those with diagnosed hypertension, the risk of COVID-19 significantly increased once the high number exceeded 150 mmHg or the low number exceeded 90 mmHg compared to a target blood pressure (120-129/80-89 mmHg),” said lead author Holly Pavey, a doctoral student at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom who is funded by the British Heart Foundation. CNN Read more
|
|
|
DNA Is Providing New Clues To Why COVID-19 Hits People Differently
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the mercurial nature of the coronavirus has been on display. Some people get mild, cold-like illnesses or even have no symptoms when infected, while other people become severely ill and may die from COVID-19. What determines that fate is complicated and somewhat mysterious. Researchers are looking at a wide variety of factors that may play a role — everything from demographics to preexisting conditions to vaccination status and even genetic clues. Science News
|
|
|
Universal Masking Leads To Fewer COVID Cases In Schools, Study Finds
Public schools that kept universal masking requirements in place last year had significantly fewer coronavirus cases than their counterparts that lifted mandates as state policies changed, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that weighs in on the hotly debated pandemic safety measure. The study, which followed schools in the Boston region during the 2021-2022 academic year, found that the end of mask requirements was associated with an additional 45 coronavirus cases per 1,000 students and staff members — or nearly 12,000 cases during a 15-week period from March to June. Washington Post Read more
|
|
|
A Cruise Ship With 800 COVID Cases Docks In Sydney
A cruise ship carrying some 800 people who have tested positive for the coronavirus docked in downtown Sydney on Saturday, triggering memories of a deadly ship-related outbreak in Australia’s largest city in the early, pre-vaccine days of the pandemic.
|
|
China Eases COVID Measures, Trims Quarantine Time By Two Days
China reduced the quarantine time for international travelers by two days, state media said Friday. Instead of making travelers stay at a centralized quarantine facility for seven days upon arrival in the country, the new rules stipulate a five day quarantine, according to state media. That’s followed by three days of home observation, unchanged from prior protocol. CNBC
|
|
|
Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) |
|
Stanford Pediatrician Handling Spike In RSV Cases
The respiratory virus RSV is keeping doctors busy and beds full at Bay Area children’s hospitals. Dr. Alan Schroeder, a critical care physician at Stanford Children’s Health, said their beds are full, but they’ve been able to manage the surge so far by sending less severe patients that don’t need specialty care to regional sites around the Bay Area. It’s a similar story at other Bay Area children’s hospitals that have reported in recent weeks that beds are full. "We are definitely feeling it too," Schroeder said. "It's as busy as we have been in many years." KTVU Read more
|
|
|
RSV Responsible For 1 In 50 Child Deaths Under Age 5,
Study Estimates
A new study estimates that 1 in 50 deaths of otherwise healthy children under age 5 around the world is due to a common virus that’s currently surging in the US: respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. And in high-income countries, 1 in 56 babies who are born on time and are healthy will be hospitalized with RSV in the first year of life, according to the researchers’ estimates. The virus is known to be especially dangerous for premature and medically fragile babies, but it causes a “substantial burden of disease in infants worldwide,” wrote the authors of the study, published Thursday in the journal Lancet Respiratory Medicine. CNN Read more
|
|
|
Total Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 1,793,226
California: 11,412,662
U.S.: 98,005,878
Alameda County
Check the Dashboards Below for
the Latest Figures
|
|
Total Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 9,343
California: 97,106
U.S.: 1,074,487
Contra Costa County
Check the Dashboards Below for
the Latest Figures
|
|
|
How To Stay Healthy This Holiday Travel Season Amid COVID, Flu,
And RSV
It’s hard to believe, but here we are preparing to embark on our third COVID winter, and just like the two COVID winters before it, there are a lot of unknowns ahead. This winter will be unique from the two previous ones in that it will be the first during which there will be almost no pandemic precautions in place, such as mandatory masking on airplanes. And just as we enter the busy holiday travel season, COVID is now circulating alongside other viruses that were more muted the first two years of the pandemic, namely flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which are experiencing a resurgence this fall. AFAR 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.
|
|
|
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 Ed Hernandez. 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 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
