Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Black Women Turn to Midwives to Avoid COVID and ‘Feel Cared For’
Midwifery was a tradition among slaves from Africa, but in more recent decades, pregnant Black women have generally shunned the approach. Now, home births and midwives are making a comeback in the Black community. (Rachel Scheier, )
Exactly How Bad Are This Year’s Wildfires? LA Times Crunches The Numbers: Although fire season is a perennial challenge in California, the scale and destruction of fires in recent years feel worse than anything many can remember. To see whether that’s true, the Los Angeles Times analyzed decades of data tracking California wildfires and the destruction they’ve wrought. The analysis found that wildfires and their compounding effects have intensified in recent years — and there’s little sign things will improve. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
Acrid Smoke Has Reached East Coast, Europe: Smoke from the wildfires ravaging California has drifted across the U.S., reaching parts of the East Coast and Europe, officials said. “Satellite images this morning show smoke aloft moving over much of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic,” the National Weather Service’s Baltimore-Washington office tweeted Tuesday. Read more from the Fresno Bee and USA Today.
Below, check out the roundup of California Healthline’s coverage and the best of the rest of the news.
More News From Across The State
AP:
Seeping Under Doors, Bad Air From West's Fires Won't Ease Up
Dangerously dirty air spewing from the West Coast wildfires is seeping into homes and businesses, sneaking into cars through air conditioning vents and preventing people already shut away by the coronavirus pandemic from enjoying a walk or trip to the park. People in Oregon, Washington state and California have been struggling for a week or longer under some of the most unhealthy air on the planet. The acrid yellow-green smog may linger for days or weeks, scientists and forecasters said. (Cline and Flaccus, 9/16)
Los Angeles Times:
Your Questions About Air Quality Answered
Experts recommend that you stay indoors and keep doors and windows closed. If you have one, run an air conditioner that recirculates indoor air and has a clean filter. Air purifiers can also help. You can make a DIY air filter out of a box fan, an air filter and duct tape (just be careful with it). Avoid strenuous physical activity, especially outdoors. People with lung conditions such as asthma, as well as the elderly and children, should take extra precautions. Here are the answers to Times readers’ questions. (Tseng, Roy and Ballinger, 9/15)
The Wall Street Journal:
How To Protect Yourself From Wildfire Smoke
There are steps to protect against the smoke and the pandemic, according to health and environmental experts. Here’s what they say about the smoke’s dangers and steps to protect against them in the midst of the pandemic. (McCabe, 9/16)
National Geographic:
How Breathing In Wildfire Smoke Affects The Body
When a healthy person breathes in air tinged with smoke from the fires, they may feel a sting in their eyes, and when they cough, they may have trouble recovering their breath. But what happens to that same individual when they breathe smoky air for extended periods every year is still unclear. “People were once exposed once or twice in a lifetime,” says Keith Bein, an atmospheric scientist at the University of California, Davis. “Now it’s happening every summer and for longer.” (Gibbens and McKeever, 9/15)
Bay Area News Group:
Bay Area Air: Does Improving Air Quality Mean It’s OK To Go Outside?
If you’ve sealed yourself inside your house over the past week because of the Bay Area’s unhealthy, smoke-filled air, you’re in for a respite this week. An offshore weather system moved in earlier than expected early Tuesday morning, diluting the smoke from wildfires raging throughout California and bringing in cleaner air for much of the Bay Area. (Ross, 9/15)
LA Daily News:
El Dorado Fire Officials Preach Evacuations As Flames Approach Angelus Oaks
Firefighters battling the four-headed enemy of dry brush, high temperatures, steep terrain and scarce resources continued their all-out effort Tuesday, Sept. 15, to stop the El Dorado fire’s crawl toward the San Bernardino County Mountains community of Angelus Oaks. (Rokos and De Atley, 9/15)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Kern County Employees To Be Rewarded For COVID-19 Tests With Paid Time Off
In an effort to meet new state coronavirus benchmarks required to reopen the economy, Kern County Supervisors approved a plan on Tuesday that rewards county employees for getting COVID-19 tests. (Morgen, 9/15)
Fresno Bee:
Fresno County Could Be Close To Resuming Indoor Restaurant Dining, Worship Services
A marked improvement in Fresno County’s coronavirus trends is putting the county on the cusp of being able to ease up on some of the business restrictions under the state’s “Blueprint for a Safer Economy.” (Sheehan, 9/15)
LA Daily News:
Sun Valley Church Appeals Judge’s Order Banning Indoor Services
Grace Community Church is appealing a judge’s order banning the Sun Valley house of worship from holding indoor church services during the coronavirus. The appeal was filed Monday, Sept. 14, in Los Angeles Superior Court, four days after Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff issued a preliminary injunction, finding that allowing worshipping inside the church created an “immediate threat to public health and safety due to the COVID-19 pandemic.” (9/15)
Bay Area News Group:
Coronavirus: Berkeley Could Become Latest To Issue Fines For Health Order Violations
Berkeley could become the latest Bay Area city to issue fines for violations of the COVID-19 public health orders that mandate masks and bar large gatherings. The city council is expected to vote Tuesday evening on the decision to install civil penalties starting at $100 per day, per violation and escalating up to $500 for both residents and businesses. (Webeck, 9/15)
Bay Area News Group:
In Aligning With State COVID-19 Blueprint, Contra Costa Will Allow Some Industries To Reopen
By aligning its health order with the state’s reopening blueprint, Contra Costa County will allow more businesses to open up this week, according to county health officials. (Sciacca, 9/15)
Bay Area News Group:
Coronavirus: How Close Is The Bay Area To Reopening? Here’s What The Real-Time Data Says
California has been locked down in some form for six months now, and many Bay Area counties remain under the most severe restrictions of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new, phased economic reopening plan. In the latest update Tuesday, Sept. 15, four of the nine counties that make up the Bay Area had advanced from the first tier, indicating “widespread” transmission, into the second tier, or “substantial” transmission: San Francisco, Santa Clara, Napa and Marin, which earned Tier 2 status this week. Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Solano and Sonoma counties remain stuck in Tier 1, along with the majority of California’s population. (Webeck, 9/15)
Bay Area News Group:
Coronavirus: Alameda County Crosses 20,000 Cases As Bay Area Approaches 100,000 Total
California’s average number of cases and deaths from COVID-19 ticked up slightly Monday, though both are still near their lowest points in months, according to data compiled by this news organization. Counties around the state reported 4,675 new cases and 73 more deaths from the virus, both of which were more than the past Monday — Labor Day, when many health departments didn’t issue updates — increasing the respective rates to about 3,600 cases and just under 100 deaths per day over the past week. (Webeck, 9/15)
LA Daily News:
Coronavirus State Tracker: 61 New Deaths, Hospitalizations Decrease By 76 In California On Sept. 14
According to the California COVID-19 statewide update between Saturday and Sunday, there were 11 fewer patients needing to be in intensive care units. Of the confirmed and suspected hospitalizations from the virus, there was a decrease of 76 from Sunday. (Snibbe, 9/15)
Fresno Bee:
Fresno County Reports 11 New Deaths From COVID-19.
Fresno County reported 11 new deaths from COVID-19 on Tuesday, in addition to 36 new coronavirus infections. The coronavirus has claimed 348 lives in the county, according to Fresno County health officials. The total number of cases reached 27,232 on Tuesday. (Miller, 9/15)
LA Daily News:
Ferrer: No Link Between LA County School Reopenings, Election
Los Angeles County’s public health director denied on Tuesday, Sept. 15 that plans for reopening school campuses amid the coronavirus pandemic are politically linked to the upcoming election, saying comments she made on a conference call last week were only referencing an early November time frame. (Marcellino, 9/15)
LA Daily News:
Ferrer Faces Tough Coronavirus Questions From LA County Supervisors
Pressed by leaders frustrated with the pace of reopening Los Angeles County’s giant, pandemic-humbled economy, Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer on Tuesday defended her department’s gradual approach. And she stood firm that it will be weeks before restrictions on schools and businesses will ease. (Rosenfeld and Carter, 9/15)
Bay Area News Group:
East Bay Parents, Others Will Rally To Demand Schools Be Opened
Parents, students and others plan a rally at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Park in support of the reopening of schools. The rally, followed by a march on Brentwood Boulevard, is an extension of the Reopen California Schools movement, which started on Facebook to protest Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive mandate on public school openings. (Prieve, 9/15)
Fresno Bee:
Final Salute To Fresno County Sheriff’s Detective Who Died Of Coronavirus
A funeral service was held at Holy Spirit Catholic Church Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, for Fresno County Sheriff’s Detective Jose Mora, who died after battling COVID-19 on Sept. 7. He was 44 and a 20-year veteran of the department. (Walker, 9/15)
LA Daily News:
Facing Sheriff’s Scorn, LA County Leaders Seek To Reduce Jail Population
Efforts to reduce L.A. County’s inmate totals took a step forward on Tuesday, Sept. 15, as the Board of Supervisors voted to create a Jail Population Council. The move met with immediate pushback from Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who said it was his office’s job to control that population — and that it has fallen as low as it can possible go without putting dangerous felons back on the street. (Carter, 9/15)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Dignity Health To Offer Free Drive-Thru Flu Vaccines
Dignity Health Mercy & Memorial Hospitals is offering free flu immunizations to adults at clinics starting next week. The first is set for 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept. 26 at Mercy Hospital Southwest, 551 Shanley Court. The entrance is from Old River Road and Howell Drive. (9/15)
Fresno Bee:
CRMC, Medical Group Reach A Short-Term Deal. What Does That Mean For Long-Term Care?
Community Regional Medical Center and the Central California Faculty Medical Group on Tuesday morning announced both parties have reached a short-term agreement to fill the gap in services as negotiations for a permanent contract continue. (Amaro, 9/15)