San Francisco Chronicle: Open Or Closed? Bay Area Struggles To Find A Middle Ground That Works 
When Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week that he was shutting down bars and other indoor venues to subdue California’s swelling coronavirus outbreak, much of the Bay Area wondered: “Wait, bars were open?” In most of the region, they actually weren’t. And in the counties where bars had resumed business, they hadn’t been open long enough to determine whether these establishments contributed to increased spread of the disease. (Allday, 7/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: Concern Grows In San Mateo County Over Potential State Shutdown 
While San Mateo County has yet to be placed on California’s coronavirus watch list, beauty salons, houses of worship and other indoor businesses are trying to hang onto a small sense of normalcy, despite a potential countywide shutdown looming. As of Saturday, San Mateo remained the only Bay Area county not on the state’s watch list of places struggling to contain the coronavirus spread. But that could change soon, which would cause the automatic closure of many indoor businesses, as well as distance learning for schools. (Phillips, 7/18)

Los Angeles Times: San Diego County Businesses Defy Second Shutdown Order 
As these businesses and others — from salons to churches — push back against county and state regulations meant to slow the spread of COVID-19, some are questioning whether the county’s education approach to enforcement is working. Although county officials have ordered a handful of businesses to close, they have largely relied on community members and businesses to adhere to a sort of honor system — an honor system some businesses feel is built on faulty regulations that unfairly impact some more than others. (Meiling, Winkley and Diehl, 7/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco Malls Closed With City On Coronavirus Watch List 
Coronavirus-related hospitalizations in the Bay Area continued to mount over the weekend, and San Francisco’s two indoor malls are back in lockdown mode barely one month after being allowed by the city to reopen. The closure of Westfield San Francisco Centre and Stonestown Galleria as of midnight on Sunday night follows the state’s announcement Friday that San Francisco has been placed on California’s watch list of counties failing to keep the virus under control. The malls were allowed to stay open over the weekend, but most shops in them are now restricted to curbside pickup of items ordered online. (King and Dineen, 7/19)

Fresno Bee: Fresno City COVID-19 Policy Applies To County, Some Say 
The Fresno City Council instituted a policy that all employers in the city must notify employees and customers if a worker tests positive for the coronavirus — and advocates say that includes employees of Fresno County. The council adopted the new orders on Thursday with a 5-1 vote, and the emergency order went into effect immediately. (Miller and Rodriguez-Delgado, 7/18)

Fresno Bee: Fresno County Coronavirus Count For July 18: Nearing 10,000 
Fresno County is nearing 10,000 cases of the coronavirus after 389 more positive tests were reported Saturday, according to the county’s Department of Public Health. Fresno County is now at 9,954 total cases of for COVID-19 since the first case was reported on March 7. And as of Friday, there were 7,133 cases that remained active (no new figure was reported Saturday). There were no deaths reported Saturday, keeping Fresno County at 100 coronavirus-related fatalities. (Anteola, 7/18)

Sacramento Bee: El Dorado County Health Officials Report First COVID-19 Death 
Health officials reported El Dorado County’s first death due to complications of the coronavirus on Saturday. In a news release Saturday, the county’s public health officer, Dr. Nancy Williams, said the patient was an elderly man from the Lake Tahoe area of the county. (Moleski, 7/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: Smoke From Fresno County Wildfire Prompts Extension Of Bay Area Air Quality Advisory 
Smoke from a wildfire in Fresno County continued to drift into the Bay Area on Sunday, prompting the extension of an air quality advisory through the weekend. Smoky and hazy skies are likely across the region due to the Mineral Fire burning about 160 miles to the southeast of San Francisco, according to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which extended its air quality advisory through Sunday. (Buchmann, 7/19)

CalMatters: Feds Send Inconclusive Tests To California Nursing Homes 
Six months into the coronavirus pandemic, the federal government this week announced it would send COVID-19 rapid testing kits to the nation’s more than 15,000 skilled nursing facilities, starting as early as next week. But the kits may be of limited use in California because the state’s public health agency currently requires nursing homes to use more sensitive tests than the federal kits offer. (Feder Ostrov, 7/17) 

Fresno Bee: National Guard Responds To Fresno Nursing Home COVID-19 Outbreak 
National Guard reserves are assisting with the coronavirus response at a Fresno skilled nursing facility that faced a staffing shortage. The reserves are working at Twilight Haven in southeast Fresno, said Dr. Rais Vohra, Fresno County’s interim health officer. “It’s very unusual, and I would say extraordinary, for the National Guard to need to come help a medical facility here in our county,” Vohra said Friday afternoon. (Calix, 7/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area Teens, Stuck Inside, Grappling With New Kind Of Fear Of Missing Out 
As the coronavirus pandemic drags on, many of us are struggling with shutdown fatigue. But for teenagers whose families are taking public health orders seriously, the feelings of missing out can be even more intense. “My friends are having sleepovers, ordering food, and going places. I feel left out,” said Amaya Wilson, 13, whose family in Petaluma has kept close to home since March. “It feels unfair. Summer is supposed to be the time when I can be free. But I’ve been stuck inside for I don’t know how long.” (Vaziri, 7/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: Do Bay Area Hospital Workers Have Enough Protective Equipment? Surge Raises Familiar Concerns 
Bay Area health officials are on alert as record-shattering coronavirus numbers raise concerns once more about the lack of personal protective equipment available to keep frontline workers safe. After the initial scramble to find enough equipment in the pandemic’s early days, some hospitals and public health officials across the Bay Area say they now have enough protective gear in place, or plans in place to get it. But replenishing stockpiled supplies could become harder as the outbreak worsens nationally. (Moench, 7/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: Enforcing Bay Area Health Orders: Thousands Of Complaints, Many Warnings, Few Citations 
In the first weeks of the Bay Area’s coronavirus shutdown, callers flooded Santa Clara County’s hotline for reporting rule-breakers, with most complaints focused on businesses flouting the health order and staying open. But as time went by, health orders loosened and tightened. The complaints also evolved, growing to include parties, religious gatherings and more. The county set up an email address to accommodate the public’s concerns. From March to mid-May, the county received 7,000 such grievances. (Ho and Vaziri, 7/19)

Los Angeles Times: California Weighs Steep New Fines To Combat Illegal Cannabis Sellers 
Alarmed that unlicensed cannabis sellers continue to dominate California’s pot market, state lawmakers are moving toward imposing steep new fines on businesses that provide building space, advertising platforms and other aid to illicit operations. Those who provide assistance to illegal pot sellers would face civil fines of up to $30,000 per day under legislation approved unanimously by the state Assembly that is now pending in the Senate. A final vote on the proposal is expected sometime after lawmakers return to Sacramento this month. (McGreevy, 7/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: Essential Workers Make The Least Money, And Are Asked To Risk The Most. How Do We Honor Them? 
There have been many attempts to crunch the numbers and find out who, exactly, we’re talking about when we talk about essential workers. The percentages vary, but the baseline is always the same. Women are more likely than men to be essential workers — and people of color make up far more of the essential workforce than they do the workforce as a whole. It’s no surprise, then, that these workers “of the utmost importance” tend to make less money, too. In California, according to a study by Business.org, essential workers make 14% less than the average worker. (Kost, 7/19)

CalMatters: State’s High Living Costs Make Californians Poor 
There’s no question that the COVID-19 pandemic and the severe recession it spawned are widening California’s economic divide. California already had the nation’s highest rate of functional poverty before this year began, as calculated by the Census Bureau using cost-of-living as well as income data, with nearly 20 percent of the state’s 40 million people impoverished. The Public Policy Institute of California calculates that another fifth of Californians are in “near-poverty.” (Walters, 7/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: UCSF Targets Health Inequity By Leveraging Its Power To Hire, Train And Support Locals 
When the coronavirus pandemic first hit the United States, it was known as the virus that doesn’t discriminate. Among the early people infected were rich and poor, young and old, NBA players and nursing-home residents. “In conversations, COVID-19 was known as ‘the great equalizer’ among infections because anyone could get it,” said Howard Pinderhughes, director of Social and Behavioral Sciences at UCSF. “That narrative was not correct for a number of reasons.” (Panchal, 7/19)

Los Angeles Times: Did Baristas Lose Jobs Over COVID-19 Or Unionization? 
On July 4, the company announced the immediate shutdown of its five locations and laid off 54 employees, just a week after workers announced they planned to become one of the few unionized coffee shops in the U.S. Father-and-son owners Andy and Austin Amento blamed the demise of their business on the economic and health ravages of the coronavirus. In an interview conducted via email, Austin Amento, 31, maintained that the shutdown happened after a rapid loss of profits and a rash of managers quitting made him and his father “worried that we were in line to become the next [coronavirus] hot spot.” The regulars didn’t buy it. (Arellano, 7/19)

Sacramento Bee: Bathroom Closures Cause Problem For Sacramento Homeless 
Finding a toilet became more difficult for Sacramento’s homeless population during the coronavirus pandemic, as gas stations and fast food joints closed their restrooms and public facilities periodically shuttered in an effort to rein in the outbreak. The pandemic compounded existing issues for Sacramento’s homeless population, which has long struggled to access toilets and sinks. (Kerber, 7/20)

Fresno Bee: Fresno County Jail Coronavirus Procedures Called Unsafe 
With more than one in every three inmates at the Fresno County Jail infected with the coronavirus and a number of officers testing positive for COVID-19 also, their family members are demanding for more action to ensure the safety of those at the downtown facility. Those at the jail, according to relatives who’ve spoken to inmates and officers, have described the facility as lacking effective protocol to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. (Anteola, 7/19)