COVID-19
breaking news & updates
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"By the end of July, we’ll have over 600 million doses - enough to vaccinate every single American."
President Joe Biden at Tuesday's CNN Town Hall
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Biden Says Vaccine Will Be Available To All Americans By the End Of July
President Joe Biden on Tuesday gave himself a firm deadline on vaccine availability, stating during a CNN Town Hall that vaccines will be available to all Americans by the end of July of this year. Forbes Read more
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COVID-19 Vaccination Center Opens at Alameda County Fairgrounds
The Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton has been designated a COVID-19 vaccination site by Alameda County Public Health Department, and eligible residents can now schedule appointments through their health care provider to receive a vaccine.
Provided by Sutter Health, Stanford Health Care-ValleyCare and ACPHD, the vaccination center unveiled in central Pleasanton on Tuesday allows local residents who qualify via age or employment to sign up to receive either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine based on availability. Pleasanton Weekly Read more
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California’s New Mass-Vaccination Sites Are Live
Why Is it Still So Hard To Get a Shot?
New mass-vaccination sites at the Oakland Coliseum and Cal State Los Angeles began delivering shots to thousands of people on Tuesday in a step that state and local officials said would help protect residents in neighborhoods hard hit by the coronavirus. With supplies still tightly limited, some Bay Area vaccination sites have had to suspend operations. People desperate for the potentially life-saving shots are still struggling to book appointments. And Latinx Californians, who have borne a disproportionate share of illness and death over the past year, have received a far smaller share of vaccines than other racial and ethnic groups. Mercury News Read more
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Vaccines Go Mobile to Keep Seniors From Slipping Through the Cracks
A mobile “strike team” is bringing vaccines to some of Northern California’s most vulnerable residents along with a message: This is how you avoid dying from COVID-19. The team of county nurses and nonprofit workers is targeting Contra Costa County residents who are eligible for COVID vaccines but have been left out: residents of small assisted-living facilities that haven’t yet been visited by CVS or Walgreens, and occasionally people who live in low-income senior housing.
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Scientists Explore Ways to Tweak COVID-19 Shots if Coronavirus Variants Get Worse
The makers of COVID-19 vaccines are figuring out how to tweak their recipes against worrisome virus mutations - and regulators are looking to flu as a blueprint if and when the shots need an update. “It’s not really something you can sort of flip a switch, do overnight,” cautioned Richard Webby, who directs a World Health Organization flu center from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. LA Times Read more
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Take Whatever COVID Vaccine You Can Get - All of Them Stop Death and Hospitalization
Almost every day, we get the same questions from family, friends, and strangers who happen to find our e-mails: Which COVID-19 vaccine should I get? Should I wait to get the “best” vaccine? Johnson & Johnson has followed Moderna and Pfizer with an application to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization of its vaccine. Novavax and AstraZeneca might not be far behind. Not surprisingly, people are concerned about getting the “wrong” vaccine when they hear that some are 66% effective while others reduce infections by 95%. USA Today Read more
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Anti-Immigrant Vitriol Complicates Vaccine Rollout in Southern States
In eastern Tennessee, doctors have seen firsthand how a hard-line immigration policy can affect the health and well-being of a community. In 2018, federal agents raided a meatpacking plant in Morristown, a manufacturing hub in the Tennessee Valley, and detained nearly 100 workers they suspected of being in the country illegally. In the weeks that followed, scores of immigrant families who had found work in the meat-processing plants dotting broader Hamblen County scrambled to find sanctuary in churches - and scrupulously avoided seeking medical care.
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In One U.S. City, Coronavirus Vaccines for Everyone 18 and Over
Most countries are still only vaccinating the elderly and healthcare workers, but one U.S. town hit hard by the coronavirus is already offering doses to everyone age 18 and over. Central Falls - with a population of 20,000 people in Rhode Island - is home to a large Hispanic population, many of whom are undocumented migrants. The city is one of the most densely populated places in the United States and is one of the areas in Rhode Island worst affected by the pandemic. Raw Story Read more
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Coronavirus Vaccine Shipments Face "Widespread Delays" Because of Winter Storm
The winter storm battering much of the United States has dealt a blow to the coronavirus vaccination drive, delaying shipments because of poor road conditions and forcing the closure of hundreds of vaccination sites nationwide. Hazardous weather is slowing deliveries out of a FedEx facility in Memphis, Tenn., and a UPS facility in Louisville, Ky., that are distribution hubs for the Southeast. SF Gate
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San Francisco Partners With Sutter Health at Bayview Mass-Vaccination Site
Officials in San Francisco on Tuesday announced a partnership with Sutter Health to operate the newly opened high-volume COVID vaccination site at the SF Market in the Bayview. The site, the third high-volume vaccination center in San Francisco along with sites at City College of San Francisco and the Moscone Center, opened Monday at the SF Market in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood at 901 Rankin Street.
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To Get Their Lives Back, Teens Volunteer for Vaccine Trials
To get out of ninth-grade science period one recent Friday, the King twins had an excuse that is so very 2021. Alexandra and Isabelle, 14, had to miss class - including a test - because they were participating in an actual science experiment: a clinical trial of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine to evaluate whether the shot is effective and safe in children ages 12 through 17.
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Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 397,298
California: 3,500,829
U.S.: 27,786,719
Alameda County
Vaccines Administered: 268,734
Cases: 78,883
Deaths: 1,122
Test Positivity: 5.8%
Hospitalized Patients: 237
ICU Beds Available: 87
Cases are very high but have decreased over the past two weeks (-37%). The number of hospitalized COVID patients and deaths in the Alameda County area have also fallen. The test positivity rate in Alameda County relatively low, suggesting that test capacity is meeting current demand. NY Times
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Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 4,959
California: 47,551
U.S.: 489,221
Contra Costa County
Vaccines Administered: 227,378
Cases: 60,996
Deaths: 626
Test Positivity: 5.9%
Hospitalized Patients: 123
ICU Beds Available: 45
Cases are very high but have decreased over the past two weeks (-38%). The number of hospitalized COVID patients has also fallen in the Contra Costa County area. Deaths have remained at about the same level. The test positivity rate in Contra Costa County is high, suggesting that cases may be undercounted. NY Times
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Coronavirus Cases Fall 90%, Bay Area Counties Move Closer to Reopening
Bay Area Has 6 of 14 Lowest Case Rates in California. Newsom Sees “Light at The End of The Tunnel.”
California continued to show a dramatic decline in the number of COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, and in the Bay Area, several counties were moving closer to making their first progress in months in the state’s reopening tiers - back to a world where indoor dining, movie theaters and other activities are once again allowed. "There’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a news conference Wednesday in Riverside County. Mercury News Read more
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Let The Good Times Roll For Elderly in Special East Bay "Diner"
It’s been almost a year since Alison Christman had a good visit with her 90-year-old mother, back before the coronavirus pandemic and shelter-in-place orders turned everyone’s lives around. But on a recent Wednesday, mother and daughter sat six feet across from each other sipping chocolate milkshakes in a 1950s-style, brightly colored “diner,” laughing as they talked about life and old times.
Created by the owner of the Oakley Assisted Living board-and-care home where Christman’s mother, Isabel Steffan, now lives, the diner is located about a mile away on Buttons Court, inside a house that’s being renovated for assisted living. Its purpose is to give residents a chance to meet with family to enjoy a small meal and some private time.
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East Bay School District Plans to Partially Reopen Some Campuses
Most of Hayward’s 21,000 public school students will remain studying at home until the fall, despite other school districts looking at getting elementary school students back into classrooms within the next few weeks. There’s an exception for some kids in Hayward, however. Students in special education or who are considered housing insecure can start some in-person learning on Feb. 22 if Alameda County meets state guidelines for infection rates. East Bay Times Read more
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Thousands Have Missed COVID-19 Vaccine Appointments; Officials Say it Isn’t Surprising
As many people wait anxiously for their turn to get a COVID-19 vaccine, Santa Clara County health officials say they’re dealing with thousands of no-shows. But county health doctors say that doesn’t mean any doses are going to waste.
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COVID-19 Has Hit Berkeley Economy Hard With 3,000+ Jobs Lost and Biz Tax Revenue Down 13.2%
Since March 17, the pandemic and shelter-in-place orders have transformed the face of Berkeley. Hotels and theaters have been largely closed. Restaurants have pivoted to mostly take-out dining with parklets springing up for the times when outdoor dining has been allowed.
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Failing Grades. Rising Depression. Bay Area Children Are Suffering From Shuttered Schools
Viola Buitoni tried to help her son as he grew increasingly detached, the high school junior’s anger flaring, tears flowing as she begged him to do his schoolwork.
Before the pandemic, her son was thriving at San Francisco’s Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, where he was in the vocal music program and the robotics team.
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UC Berkeley Lifts Dorm Lockdown as Coronavirus Cases Dwindle
UC Berkeley officials lifted a two-week lockdown in the dorms Tuesday after the number of new coronavirus cases began falling among student residents. Contact tracing revealed nearly no new cases of the coronavirus among the 2,000 students living in residence halls since Feb. 1, when the lockdown began, university officials said in an e-mail to the campus community.
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State/National/International News
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Blue Shield Vows to Dramatically Speed Up California Vaccine Distribution With New Plan
Blue Shield of California will create an algorithm to determine where to allocate COVID-19 vaccines statewide with the goal of being able to administer 3 million shots a week by March 1, according to a contract made public Monday that grants the insurance giant far-reaching powers in overseeing the state’s distribution of doses. LA Times Read more
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U.S. COVID-19 Deaths Seen Falling to Lowest Level Since November
The pace of COVID-19 deaths will drop sharply in the next four weeks, according to a new forecast that shows a brutal wave of cases ebbing and the U.S. plodding forward with vaccine distribution. The nation is expected to have about 12,666 deaths in the week ending March 13, according to the University of Massachusetts’ Reich Lab’s Covid-19 Forecast Hub, which issued a four-week forecast Tuesday. The prediction is based on independent models collected in collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Bloomberg Read more
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Family Caregivers, Routinely Left Off Vaccine Lists, Worry What Would Happen "If I Get Sick"
Robin Davidson entered the lobby of Houston Methodist Hospital, where her 89-year-old father, Joe, was being treated for a flare-up of congestive heart failure. Before her stretched a line of people waiting to get COVID-19 vaccines. “It was agonizing to know that I couldn’t get in that line,” said Davidson, 50, who is devoted to her father and usually cares for him full time. “If I get sick, what would happen to him?”
Tens of thousands of middle-aged sons and daughters caring for older relatives with serious ailments but too young to qualify for a vaccine themselves are similarly terrified of becoming ill and wondering when they can get protected against the coronavirus. Kaiser Health News Read more
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Where is California’s School Reopening Plan?
It's the question on everyone’s minds: When will Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers announce a school reopening deal? Though Newsom said he hoped to unveil a plan last week, Friday came and went without any mention of an agreement - or of the issues on which the governor and legislators disagree, though negotiations were rumored to be intense and difficult.
But the state on Friday did release, for the first time amid the pandemic, maps that reveal which of California’s schools have physically reopened - and the divide is stark. Most private schools appear to offer some form of in-person learning, while the majority of public schools remain in remote learning. Similarly, hundreds of small, rural or inland elementary schools have reopened, while many of the state’s largest urban districts are physically closed. CalMatters Read more
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When the Pandemic is Over, How Should We Process the Memories of What Happened?
You are living amid the first global mass trauma event for several decades. It's arguably the first of its kind since World War Two, and likely the first of such severity in your lifetime. At the time of writing, more than two million lives have been lost, and the number continues to rise by tens of thousands every day. The global economy, complex webs of international relations, individual mental health, the pitter-patter of everyday life: nothing has been spared in the viral storm. BBC Read more
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On Social Media, Vaccine Misinformation Mixes With Extreme Faith
In an insular world on the social media app TikTok, young Christians act out biblically inspired scenes in which they are forced to take a vaccine for the coronavirus, only to end up splattered in fake blood and on the brink of death. The melodramatic videos are an attempt to represent how the introduction of coronavirus vaccines could herald the biblical End Time. Along with hundreds of thousands of other vaccine-questioning posts by social media users all over the world, they’re demonstrating the ways in which health misinformation is targeting Christians, some reaching sizable audiences. Washington Post Read more
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Up to 90 Volunteers in UK to Take Part in Pioneering COVID Infection Trial
The world’s first coronavirus human challenge study will begin in the UK in a matter of weeks, following approval from the country’s clinical trials ethics body, the business department said. Approval has been given for an initial trial that will involve up to 90 carefully screened, healthy, adult volunteers aged between 18 and 30. They will be exposed to the coronavirus in a safe, controlled environment. It is hoped further trials will follow. The Guardian Read more
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As The Pandemic Ushered in Isolation and Financial Hardship, Overdose Deaths Reached New Heights
Among the unrelenting death statistics flowing from the CDC last month, one grim non-COVID-19 statistic stood out: 81,003 deaths. That’s the number of people who died from drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending last June: a 20% increase and the highest number of fatal overdoses ever recorded in the U.S. in a single year. STAT Read more
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Seattle Woman, 90, Walks 6 Miles Through Snow For COVID-19 Vaccine
A rare winter storm that dumped a foot of snow on Seattle couldn't keep a 90-year-old woman from her first appointment for the coronavirus vaccine. The Seattle Times reports that Fran Goldman walked six miles round trip to get her shot. ABC7 Read more
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Where Did The Flu Go? Homebound Kids Shape a Mild Season
This past summer, public health officials sounded warnings about the dangers of an impending flu epidemic on top of the coronavirus pandemic. Yet this year's flu season has been exceptionally mild.
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Have You Tested Positive for COVID-19?
People who test positive for COVID-19 but aren't sick enough to need hospitalization are still required to isolate at home. CDC 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 last seven days, Alameda County officials have reported 1,774 new coronavirus cases, which amounts to 108 cases per 100,000 residents.
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Over the last seven days, Contra Costa County officials have reported 1,249 new coronavirus cases, which amounts to 110 cases per 100,000 residents.
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Alameda County, as of 2/17/21
Oakland: 24,520
Hayward: 12,380
Fremont: 6,921
Eden MAC: 5,385
San Leandro: 4,857
Livermore: 3,939
Union City: 3,633
Berkeley: 3,131
Newark: 2,545
Castro Valley: 2,272
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Contra Costa County, as of 2/17/21
Richmond: 9,310
Antioch: 8,439
Concord: 7,203
Pittsburg: 6,036
San Pablo: 4,779
Brentwood: 3,279
Oakley: 2,738
Bay Point: 2,523
Walnut Creek: 2,501
San Ramon: 1,809
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Mask On!
Protect Yourself While Protecting Others
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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 in the Eden Health District area. These posters are free of charge and intended for businesses, health clinics, schools, churches, public agencies and nonprofit agencies to display in their entrances. The posters are available in English, Spanish and Chinese languages.
The public is welcome to download and print or share "Mask On" posters from our website.
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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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