Eden Health District COVID-19 Bulletin
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“People [perceive] that the risk from people that they know well and feel comfortable with like family members, relatives, friends, is much lower than that from strangers. It’s human to think that … there’s a perception that the threat is less, when actually it’s maybe greater.”
Dr. Sara Cody, Santa Clara County Health Officer, 10/26/20
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San Jose woman creates network linking PPE donors to frontline workers |
Jessica Choi developed GetPPE.org in late March after hearing how her relatives in the medical field couldn’t find PPE as Covid cases surged. “They had to put them in paper bags and write their names on it so they can keep on using them for a week because they were in such short supply,” Choi said.
Jessica Choi, an executive at a Santa Clara education technology company, managed to build the basic website in one weekend. She had no programming experience, so she researched online.
Then a colleague at work helped built the algorithm for the website that connects PPE donors with those who need the equipment. The match is based on geography and areas hardest hit by the coronavirus.
Both donors and recipients are vetted by GetPPE volunteers. So far more than 40,000 volunteers have helped ship essentials like masks, gowns, gloves, and hand sanitizer to more than 540 hospitals, nursing homes, food pantries and schools in every state in the nation.
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Dr. AnnMarie Muramoto received 100 face shields at her dental practice, Kona Ohana Dental, on Hawaii’s Big Island. “We couldn’t find enough. We were getting the 3D printed ones and they were breaking really easily,” Dr. Muramoto said. “They were lifesavers. They really came through for us.”
Donors like Tiffany Herbert in Colorado Springs get a chance to give. She’s sewn more than 3,000 free masks and scrub caps for hospitals and senior living facilities in more than twenty states. Some recipients send photos of themselves wearing the PPE she’s sewn, and she’s posted the pictures on the wall behind her.
“The pictures behind me and the cards that I get from the people I send masks to, I face that when I sew and that keeps me going,” Herbert said. She applauds Choi’s initiative in launching GetPPE.org. “I’m so proud of her and what she’s done,” Herbert said
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Alameda County: 23,312
Contra Costa County: 18,763
Bay Area: 115,825
California: 907,207
U.S.: 8,669,894
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Alameda County: 461
Contra Costa County: 242
Bay Area: 1,751
California: 17,368
U.S.: 225,434
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Press Release, October 23, 2020
On Tuesday, October 27, the County of Alameda and Alameda Health System will launch a new Covid-19 testing site at the Henry J. Kaiser Center (10 10th Street) in Oakland. You do not need a doctor’s note or insurance and you will not be asked about immigration status. Any adult can receive a test on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Essential workers will be prioritized for appointments from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday and Thursdays. Children, two and older, can be tested on Saturdays. Appointments can be made at https://ac.fulgentgenetics.com/
Contra Costa Health Services
Detailed information opn can be found here. |
Mercury News, October 26, 2020
Silicon Valley has contained coronavirus outbreaks more than most of urban California and the U.S., but still reports an average of more than 100 cases a day. So how are they getting sick?
Recent data from Santa Clara County health officials suggests people here are catching the virus at work or in carpools and spreading it to others at home. That may be a bit surprising, Santa Clara County Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody said in an update this past week to county officials, given that scientific literature and reports across the country have highlighted large gatherings — a religious service with singing, a motorcycle rally, a political event — where a single infected “super spreader” passes the virus to many others who aren’t family or close friends.
Not here in the Bay Area’s largest county, where such mass events mostly aren’t allowed. The new data also provided a window into jobs where infections might be more prone to spreading.
A review of 24 worksite clusters involving three or more Covid-19 cases within a two-week period from Aug. 6 to Sept. 30 showed:
- One in four of the clusters examined involved a construction site;
- Food service and restaurants accounted for 21%, as did retail businesses;
- Just one outbreak each, or 4% of the total, was reported among workers at a place of worship and at groceries — one of the most highly trafficked types of workplaces.
SF Chronicle, October 26, 2020
Even as much of San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area starts to reopen, many seniors still feel trapped and unable to go back to anything like normal life. It may be a year or longer before vaccines are widespread and the pandemic is truly over, which means it’s critical for older adults’ mental and physical health that more efforts be made to help them connect with the world outside their homes, advocates say.
“We don’t think about things like how many old people have died of misery in this pandemic,” said Dr. Louise Aronson, a UCSF geriatrician. “We don’t think about the numbers of people just sitting at home weeping, or sitting there doing nothing."
LA Times, October 25, 2020
After cautiously approaching the pandemic for months, with a go-slow attitude toward reopening, San Francisco has become the first urban center in California to enter the least restrictive tier for reopening. Risk of infection, according to the state’s color-coded tiers, is considered minimal, even though San Francisco is the second-densest city in the country after New York.
“We have, at least so far, done everything right,” said Dr. Robert Wachter, professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at UC San Francisco. San Francisco followed the “hammer and dance” approach, made famous by San Francisco author Tomas Pueyo on the website Medium, Wachter said. The city hit the hammer by shutting down early in the pandemic. The dance has been more complicated. The city has reopened slowly, making adjustments when cases rose and backtracking when necessary.
SF Chronicle, October 25, 2020
BART has already reduced its hours and increased wait times between trains. Now the agency, which doesn’t have enough money to cover its budget, is considering more service cuts for February. The worst-case scenarios, which the agency’s leadership is trying to avoid, could include closing select stations and ending weekend trains.
The pandemic nearly emptied BART, leaving only 13% of riders, and exposing who truly depends on public transportation. Those left are largely essential workers and people without cars, who most often are low-income. They continue to be hurt by schedule cuts, although trains are less crowded.
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Wall Street Journal, October 26, 2020
From the corridors of Washington to the cobblestones of Paris, the coronavirus is roaring back and authorities are ramping up restrictions again. This time around, however, everyone is tired.
Hospital staff world-wide are demoralized after seven months of virus-fighting triage. The wartime rhetoric that world leaders initially used to rally support is gone. Family members who willingly sealed themselves off during spring lockdowns are suddenly finding it hard to resist the urge to reunite.
Nature, October 23, 2020
Infections caused by many respiratory viruses, including influenza and some coronaviruses, swell in winter and drop in summer. Researchers say it’s too early in the COVID-19 pandemic to say whether SARS-CoV-2 will become a seasonal virus. But growing evidence suggests that a small seasonal effect will probably contribute to bigger outbreaks in winter, on the basis of what is known about how the virus spreads and how people behave in colder months.
People will be interacting more often indoors in places with poor ventilation, which will increase the risk of transmission, says Mauricio Santillana, a mathematician at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, who models disease spread. But even if there is a small seasonal effect, the main driver of increased spread will be the vast number of people who are still susceptible to infection, says Rachel Baker, an epidemiologist at Princeton University in New Jersey. That means people in places that are going into summer shouldn’t be complacent either, say researchers. “By far the biggest factor that will affect the size of an outbreak will be control measures such as social distancing and mask wearing,” says Baker.
Nature, October 23, 2020
The main hope is that antibody therapies could stop mild COVID-19 from becoming severe. There is less optimism that the treatments will be game-changing for severe COVID-19 cases — when damage is caused by not only the virus, but also the body’s immune response to it.
Still, there are drawbacks. Antibodies are expensive and difficult to make, and they are administered at relatively high doses. Several researchers who spoke to Nature highlighted the 8 grams of antibodies — the highest dosage tested in clinical trials — that Trump received. “It’s an enormous dose,” says virologist Gerald McInerney of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. “Even if it did work, at a dose of 8 grams, it would be incredibly expensive.” Even the lower doses being tested — Regeneron’s lowest is 2.4 grams — would be too high for widespread use as a preventative treatment.
Dr. Eric Topol, Science, October 23, 2020
The family of seven known human coronaviruses are known for their impact on the respiratory tract, not the heart. However, the most recent coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has marked tropism for the heart and can lead to myocarditis (inflammation of the heart), necrosis of its cells, mimicking of a heart attack, arrhythmias, and acute or protracted heart failure (muscle dysfunction).
These complications, which at times are the only features of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) clinical presentation, have occurred even in cases with mild symptoms and in people who did not experience any symptoms. Recent findings of heart involvement in young athletes, including sudden death, have raised concerns about the current limits of our knowledge and potentially high risk and occult prevalence of Covid-19 heart manifestations.
STAT, October 21, 2020
The CDC has expanded how it defines a “close contact” of someone with Covid-19 as it released new evidence showing the coronavirus can be passed during relatively brief interactions.
Previously, the CDC described a close contact as someone who spent 15 minutes or more within six feet of someone who was infectious. Now, the agency says it’s someone who spent a cumulative 15 minutes or more within six feet of someone who was infectious over 24 hours, even if the time isn’t consecutive, according to an agency spokesperson. Close contacts are those who are tracked down during contact tracing and are recommended to quarantine.
Washington Post, October 23, 2020
Over the past several months, researchers in the United States and abroad have examined mouthwashes, oral antiseptics and nasal rinses in controlled laboratory settings to see whether they can effectively inactivate the new coronavirus and other viruses within the same family. In a study published in the Journal of Medical Virology, the scientists wrote that their results suggest mouthwash could potentially decrease the risk of transmission of the novel coronavirus and “provide an additional level of protection.”
Although the findings are “intriguing,” they are “not yet at the point where the average person can use them,” said Hana Akselrod, an infectious-disease physician at George Washington University. “If people were to stop wearing masks and observing social distancing because they think having everyone gargle is going to prevent viral spread — and we don’t yet have evidence that that works — that could be a big mistake, and it would cause more disease and death,” she said.
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US and California Data: Full Range
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East Bay Times, October 26, 2020
The number of cases of Covid-19 in California ballooned over the weekend as Los Angeles County, the nation’s largest county, continued to sort through a significant backlog of tests. In total, there were over 60% more cases reported around the state Saturday and Sunday — a total of 6,159, according to data compiled by this news organization — than the previous weekend, which sent the seven-day average soaring to 4,335 cases per day — an increase of 47% in a week.
Since Thursday, thousands of reported cases in Los Angeles County have been a product of “technical issues with data reporting systems this week,” county health director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said in a release, which led to at least 1,000 backlogged cases, in addition to new ones, reported on each Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
However, data analyzed by this news organization show transmission on the rise in many of the most populated areas of California. In the Bay Area, Alameda and Santa Clara counties each reported at least 37% more cases than last week, while the increase in Contra Costa County was about 26%. An uptick in cases in San Francisco two weeks ago appeared to slow in the past week, as the city reported a modest 4% gain over the past seven days.
LA Daily News, October 25, 2020
The totals reduced by scaled-back weekend record-keeping, Los Angeles County officials reported 830 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday, Oct. 25. Meanwhile, a Sun Valley church ensnared in a legal battle with public health officials over public gatherings held its latest indoor service.
An attorney for the church issued a statement Friday condemning the use of the word “outbreak” to describe the three coronavirus cases —although the county throughout the pandemic has defined an “outbreak” as three or more cases at a single location, and three cases related to the church have been confirmed thus far. The county health order allows church services, but requires they be held outdoors.
Redding Record Searchlight, October 24, 2020
Shasta County health officials announced Saturday that they have convinced the state not to keep the county in its most restrictive Covid-19 purple tier. Instead, the county will return the red tier, where it had been for several weeks, due to "substantial" spread of the virus. A return to the less-restrictive designation allows restaurants, places of worship, movie theaters, fitness centers and museums throughout the county to continue operating indoors with modifications.
Mercury News, October 26, 2020
None of California’s small and large amusement parks closed for seven months by the coronavirus pandemic can reopen right now under the new Covid-19 health and safety guidelines issued as part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy. California issued long-awaited theme park reopening guidelines last week, but the new rules could leave small parks closed for weeks or months and major players like Disney and Universal unable to return until early 2021 or next summer.
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Washington Post, October 26, 2020
Months after it raced in successive waves along the nation’s coasts and through the Sun Belt, the coronavirus is reaching deep into its final frontier — the nation’s most sparsely populated states and counties, where distance from others has long been part of the appeal and this year had appeared to be a buffer against a deadly communicable disease.
In Montana, which boasts just seven people per square mile, active cases have more than doubled since the start of the month, and officials are warning of crisis-level hospitalization rates and strains on rural health care. In Wyoming, which ranks 49th in population density, the National Guard has been deployed to help with contact tracing. Those two states, along with the low-density states of Idaho, North Dakota and South Dakota, now have some of the nation’s highest per capita caseloads. Even Alaska, the least-crowded state, is logging unprecedented increases, including in rural villages.
CNN, October 26, 2020
The latest surge of Covid-19 infections has pushed the seven-day average of new daily cases to heights not seen since the pandemic began. The seven-day average of new cases hit 68,767 on Sunday, topping the previous peak of 67,293 reported on July 22. The two highest single days of new cases were Friday and Saturday, with more than 83,000 new cases added each day.
Health experts say the resurgence of cases that they had warned would strike in the fall and winter is here, and that it could be the worst the US has seen so far. Surging numbers in the US -- where there have been a total of more than 8.6 million infections and 225,230 people have died -- show the nation is at a "dangerous tipping point," former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CBS News on Sunday. Though cases are surging across the country, Gottlieb said things are going to start looking worse over the next two or three weeks. He said he doesn't foresee the implementation of forceful policy intervention that could curb the spread.
Washington Post, October 25, 2020
The presidential campaign was roiled this weekend by a fresh outbreak of the novel coronavirus at the White House that infected at least five aides or advisers to Vice President Pence, a spread that President Trump’s top staffer acknowledged Sunday he had tried to avoid disclosing to the public. With the election a little over a week away, the new White House outbreak spotlighted the administration’s failure to contain the pandemic as hospitalizations surge across much of the United States and daily new cases hit all-time highs.
The outbreak around Pence, who chairs the White House’s coronavirus task force, undermines the argument Trump has been making to voters that the country is “rounding the turn,” as the president put it at a rally Sunday in New Hampshire. Further complicating Trump’s campaign-trail pitch was an extraordinary admission Sunday from White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that the administration had effectively given up on trying to slow the virus’s spread.
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Mercury News, October 26, 2020
Nearly one in six parents in the U.S. is raising a child alone. Many are caring for more than one: A quarter of the country’s children live with a single parent. Among Black children, it’s nearly one in two.
“Parents were struggling before, and the Bay Area is so expensive to live in, two working parents is necessary,” said Julianne Rositas, manager for a parent advisory program at Family Paths, an Oakland-based nonprofit serving families in five languages. Virtual school is testing the limits of families of all shapes and sizes as they try to juggle the roles of worker, teacher and parent. But few are being tested like single parents who can’t afford not to head to their essential jobs every morning. Many are facing the hardest choice of their lives: prioritize their children’s education and survive without their usual income or choose their jobs to pay the bills.
EdSource, October 26, 2020
As CSU campuses shifted to mostly virtual classes this spring and closed their campuses, many college officials across the state worried that the effects of the coronavirus pandemic would devastate enrollments this fall. But just 2 months into the fall semester, more than half of the 23 campuses in the nation’s largest public university system have seen enrollment gains, bucking a national trend.
The picture isn’t rosy for every university, but among the 12 that saw gains, some have dealt with the coronavirus’s effects and are reporting high enrollments including Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal State Fullerton, CSU Dominguez Hill and Cal State Long Beach.
SF Chronicle, October 23, 2020
More than 10,000 English language learners in San Francisco’s public schools — more than 28% of the district’s students and among about 1.148 million statewide. Figuring out how to serve these students is crucial since language barriers compound the challenges of remote learning.
Covid-19 forced Bay Area schools into remote learning through the spring, and only a handful have returned to in-person classes this fall. Immigrant students face disparities that heighten the challenges of distance learning. They tend to live in crowded homes and may not be able to find a quiet place to attend class or study. Technology may be harder to access for low-income families, and immigrant parents may not know how to use computers. Even with district-issued hot spots, Wi-Fi is spotty and students lose connectivity during live instruction.
English learners, in particular, also lose a vital component of their education.
SF Chronicle, October 23, 2020
While the feared mass exodus out of public schools did not come to pass, families with the financial and logistical wherewithal have banded together to form child care co-ops, oversee online learning or create micro-schools with paid teachers. Other parents have been on their own, with some children increasingly frustrated, depressed and falling further behind their peers. Too often those without a support system are children of color, who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic and distance learning.
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Axios, October 26, 2020
Schools across the country have flip-flopped between in-person and remote learning — and that instability is taking a toll on students' ability to learn and their mental health.
While companies were able to set long timelines for their return, schools — under immense political and social strain — had to rush to figure out how to reopen. The cobbled-together approach has hurt students, parents and teachers alike. "In hindsight, we can say it would have been better to go all-remote," says Jon Hale, a professor of education at the University of Illinois. "But there was so much pressure to open."
NPR, October 26, 2020
People who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, shed virus particles through their poop when they go to the bathroom. Wastewater monitoring provides an early opportunity to catch the virus because it can detect an infection days before respiratory symptoms show up, and even if they never show up at all, in the case of asymptomatic individuals.
Across the country, campus outbreaks have shut down in-person classes, led to campus lockdowns and in some cases sent students home. Communal living and socializing has been a boon to the highly contagious virus, with much of the spread happening in dorms and off-campus housing. Dorm wastewater offers an ideal testing scenario for colleges: People often poop where they live; researchers know exactly who lives in each dorm, which narrows down who could be infected; and testing wastewater is cheaper than regularly testing students, even when followed up by more targeting screening.
Washington Post, October 26, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic, which rocked colleges in March, is threatening to extend these extraordinary restrictions on face-to-face classes into next spring. Results so far suggest the enforced distance could take an increasingly steep toll on students who yearn for personal connections and are fatigued with the videoconferencing routine some mock as “Zoom U.” There are also stubborn inequities between rich and poor in access to Internet service and study space for those stuck at home. Yet faculty and students have grown accustomed to the technology and pace of online learning, and many are figuring out how to maximize class participation and find value in a strange situation.
NY Times, October 26, 2020
As it resurges across the country, the coronavirus is forcing universities large and small to make deep and possibly lasting cuts to close widening budget shortfalls. By one estimate, the pandemic has cost colleges at least $120 billion, with even Harvard University, despite its $41.9 billion endowment, reporting a $10 million deficit that has prompted belt tightening.
Though many colleges imposed stopgap measures such as hiring freezes and early retirements to save money in the spring, the persistence of the economic downturn is taking a devastating financial toll, pushing many to lay off or furlough employees, delay graduate admissions and even cut or consolidate core programs like liberal arts departments.
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Covid-19 survivor leaves rehab after being pronounced brain dead |
Last week, 25-year-old Tionna Hairston from Winston-Salem, NC, did something many thought she would never be able to do: She left rehab after fighting Covid-19.
Hairston and her mother, Stacey Peatross, were both diagnosed in May. As Hairston cared for her mom, her own health took a turn for the worse.
“Strokes. She had a heart attack and had to be revived from that. She had to have an implanted defibrillator placed,” said Dr. James Mclean, the medical director at Novant Health Rehabilitation Hospital.
In June, doctors lost hope after Hairston stopped breathing for 30 minutes. She was pronounced brain dead. “They thought that we should take her off of life support because she had no hope for life. They thought she would be a vegetable. She wouldn’t have any quality of life at all,” Peatross said.
Her family and friends, and even some strangers, held prayer circles in hopes she would get better, and she did.
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After more than a month in rehab, learning how to eat, dress and stand on her own again, she left it on Monday in front of cheering friends, family and doctors. “Thank you guys for being there for me and supporting me,” Hairston told the crowd of family and medical staff.
When she stood up in front of her loved ones and doctors, it brought tears to their eyes.
“To see her rise up out of that chair and take steps when nobody thought she would ever be able to walk again … She said, ‘Mommy, I’m gonna walk,'” her mom said. Hairston is now home, continuing her rehabilitation there.
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The Guardian, October 26, 2020
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has declared “now is the time to open up” as Melbourne’s extended lockdown ends, and the state plans to reopen retail, pubs, restaurants and other businesses. On the day no cases were recorded for the first time in close to 20 weeks, Andrews announced an end to the stay-at-home order starting Tuesday midnight.
“Now is the time to congratulate every single Victorian for staying the course. Now is the time to thank every single Victorian family for being guided by the data, the science and the doctors, not letting our frustration get the better of us but, instead, proving equal to this wicked enemy. Indeed, better than this wicked enemy.”
BBC, October 26, 2020
New measures to combat a surge in coronavirus cases have come into force in Italy with gyms, swimming pools, cinemas and theaters closed. Restaurants, bars and cafes must stop table service at 6:00 p.m. and offer only take-away until midnight. Contact sports are prohibited. However, shops and most businesses will remain open.
The government has warned that the rise in cases was causing a huge strain on the country's health services.
Associated Press, October 26, 2020
Colombia reached 1 million confirmed coronavirus cases on Saturday, becoming the second country in Latin America to report that number in less than a week. The nation of 50 million saw cases peak in August and has seen a decline since but still continues to register around 8,000 new infections a day. Argentina hit 1 million confirmed cases on Monday and Peru and Mexico are expected to reach the grim marker in the weeks ahead. Brazil ranks third worldwide in the number of virus cases and passed 1 million infections back in June.
Associated Press, October 26, 2020
As coronavirus infections reached new heights in Iran this month, overwhelming its hospitals and driving up its death toll, the country’s health minister gave a rare speech criticizing his own government’s refusal to enforce basic health measures. “We asked for fines to be collected from anyone who doesn’t wear a mask,” Saeed Namaki said last week, referring to the government’s new mandate for Tehran, the capital. “But go and find out how many people were fined.”
Namaki’s speech, lamenting the country’s “great suffering” and “hospitals full of patients,” clearly laid the blame for the virus’ resurgence at the government’s door — a stark contrast to the usual speeches from officials who point the finger at the public’s defiance of restrictions.
BBC, October 26, 2020
China is once again mass testing an entire city for the coronavirus amid a regional outbreak in Xinjiang province.
Around 4.7m people in Kashgar are being tested, with 138 asymptomatic cases found so far. China has been largely successful in bringing infection rates down, but there continue to be small outbreaks. Xinjiang is home to China's mostly-Muslim Uighur minority which rights groups say is being persecuted by the government in Beijing. Schools in Kashgar have been closed and residents are not allowed to leave the city unless they have a negative test report.
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Nina Vasan and Marisa Leon-Carlyle, Politico, October 26, 2020
Among mental health experts, it is well established that the psychological impact of disasters is typically larger and longer lasting than the medical impact. As high as the numbers of infections and deaths from Covid-19 have already climbed, if the pandemic follows the pattern of previous disasters, the eventual mental toll will be still higher.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that armed with this knowledge, there are steps we can take now to reduce the medical and financial damage of this coming wave of psychological distress.
Chris Arnold, NPR, October 26, 2020
Nellie Riether, a single mom from Ringwood, N.J., faces a stark choice: raid her retirement savings or uproot her kids from home and move in with her sister. "To be honest, it's mortifying and embarrassing at 46 years old to say I'm going to have to move in with my sister," she says. "Emotionally, it's a bit of a failure."
Riether has been out of work since April, when she was furloughed from her job in office building design. She can't pay the rent much longer, and she's worried about her kids, who are 13 and 15. The state jobless benefits she receives don't even cover her rent, let alone her car payment, insurance and food. And she's frustrated that Congress couldn't figure out a compromise months ago to send more help in the middle of a national emergency. "This is beyond politics — this is people's lives," says Riether. "This is my life. This is my family's life. We need a stimulus package."
Jon Henley and Niamh McIntyre, The Guardian, October 26, 2020
Significant numbers of people around the world believe Covid-19 was created deliberately, has killed far fewer people than reported, or is a hoax and does not actually exist, according to a global survey.
The YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project, a survey of about 26,000 people in 25 countries designed in collaboration with the Guardian, found widespread and concerning skepticism about vaccine safety. Among the most widely believed Covid conspiracies is that the death rate of the virus, which according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker has so far killed nearly 1.1 million people worldwide, has been “deliberately and greatly exaggerated”. Nearly 60% of respondents in Nigeria said this was definitely or probably true, along with more than 40% in Greece, South Africa, Poland and Mexico. About 38% of Americans, 36% of Hungarians, 30% of Italians and 28% of Germans felt the same.
Amanda Mull, staff writer, The Atlantic, October 26, 2020
Staying safe requires an accurate, mutually agreed-upon understanding of reality on which to assess threats and base decisions. Since the pandemic arrived in the U.S., however, politicians have sparred over basic safety precautions and aggressive reopenings. The federal government and many of its allies at the state and local levels have actively undermined efforts to get people on the same page. These contradictions have sown confusion, even among those who disagree politically with the leaders encouraging people to flout masking and social distancing.
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Moderate (Orange)
- 2.9 Adjusted case rate of new Covid-19 positive cases per day per 100,000 residents
- 1.6% Positivity rate
- 2.7% Health equity metric
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Substantial (Red)
- 3.8 Adjusted case rate of new Covid-19 positive cases per day per 100,000 residents
- 1.9% Positivity rate
- 3.0% Healthy equity metric
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All California counties are assigned to a tier based on its test positivity and adjusted case rate. To move forward, a county must meet the next tier’s criteria for two consecutive weeks. If a county’s metrics worsen for two consecutive weeks, it will be assigned a more restrictive tier. The state updates the tier data every Tuesday. |
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Over the last seven days, Alameda County officials have confirmed 676 new cases, which amounts to 41 cases per 100,000 residents.
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Over the last seven days, Contra Costa County officials have confirmed 537 new cases, which amounts to 47 cases per 100,000 residents. |
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in Alameda County, as of 10/25/20. Alameda County does not publish cases per 100,000 in the last 14 days by city.
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Oakland: 9,021
Hayward: 3,454
Fremont: 1,615
Eden MAC: 1,489
San Leandro: 1,285
Livermore: 1,002
Union City: 898
Berkeley: 749
Newark: 618
Castro Valley: 608
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in Contra Costa County plus (in parentheses) cases per 100,000 in last 14 days, as of 10/26/20
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Richmond: 3,548 (102)
Concord: 2,501 (95)
Antioch: 2,475 (87)
Pittsburgh: 2,098 (153)
San Pablo: 1,606 (210)
Bay Point: 972 (106)
Brentwood: 725 (81)
Walnut Creek: 662 (51)
Oakley: 578 (85)
San Ramon: 415 (40)
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East Bay Resources
The Alameda County Public Health Department has announced that the following activities may restart in the County:
• Indoor family entertainment centers may open activities that are naturally socially distanced, like bowling alleys and climbing walls, up to 25% capacity
• Indoor dining up to 25% capacity or less than 100 people, whichever is less
• Indoor worship services up to 25% capacity or less than 100 people, whichever is less
• Indoor movie theaters up to 25% capacity or less than 100 people per screen, whichever is less
• Expansion of indoor retail and malls up to 50% of capacity and permitting limited food courts
• Expansion of indoor gyms and fitness centers up to 25% of capacity, but indoor pools are not permitted to open
• Expansion of outdoor non-contact fitness classes up to 20 people including the instructor
• Expansion of wedding and funeral services up to 25% of venue capacity or 100 people, whichever is less
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We are proud to partner with the East Bay Community Foundation in publishing this bulletin. Through donations to its Covid-19 Response Fund, the EBCF provides grants to East Bay nonprofit organizations delivering essential services to those most impacted by the economic fallout from the pandemic.
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Working in collaboration with the Alameda County Public Health Department, the Cities of Hayward and San Leandro, and the Castro Valley and Eden Area Municipal Advisory Councils, the District has printed “Mask On” posters for each city and community in the Eden Health District area. The posters are free and intended for businesses, health clinics, schools, churches, public agencies and nonprofit organizations to display in their entrances.
“Wearing masks in public or any gatherings, including events with friends and extended families, is essential for slowing the spread of the virus,” stated Eden Health District Director Pam Russo. “While we are seeing signs of progress in California, Alameda County remains a Covid-19 'hot spot' in the Bay Area. Please wear a mask to protect yourself while protecting others.”
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The public is welcome to download and print or share “Mask On” posters from the District’s website. Posters are available in English, Spanish and Chinese languages.
Posters may also be retrieved during business hours from the lobby of the Eden Health District office building located at 20400 Lake Chabot Road, Castro Valley. Posters for the City of Hayward are also available from the Hayward Chamber of Commerce located at 22561 Main Street, Hayward.
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Public Education Covid-19 Flyers |
Contra Costa County Health Services has recently published highly informative flyers addressing the risks of becoming infected in certain settings and activities. |
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We have posted information on food pantries and food services in the cities of Hayward and San Leandro and unincorporated Alameda County including Castro Valley and San Lorenzo. You can access the information here on our website. Alameda County has also released an interactive map listing food distributions and other social services.
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Your feedback is welcome. Please share the Bulletin. |
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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.
Each bulletin includes a summary of the top health, Bay Area, California, national, education and international news on the pandemic plus links to a diverse range of commentary and analysis. We publish the Bulletin on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, unless the day fall on a public holiday.
We welcome your feedback on our bulletin. Please contact editor Stephen Cassidy.
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