San Francisco Chronicle: Cruise Ship With Coronavirus-Infected Passengers And Crew Docks In San Francisco
A cruise ship that docked in San Francisco on Sunday had multiple passengers and crew members who tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a Princess Cruises statement. The Ruby Princess returned to San Francisco from a 15-day Panama Canal cruise, and the tests were conducted en route, the company said in the statement emailed to The Chronicle. (Stoughtenborough, 3/27)

Los Angeles Times: Guests And Crew Members Test Positive For COVID-19 Aboard Princess Cruise Ship 
Passengers and crew members tested positive for COVID-19 aboard a 15-day Princess Cruise trip to the Panama Canal that returned Sunday to the Port of San Francisco. Those affected aboard the ship the Ruby Princess were either asymptomatic or showed mild symptoms of COVID-19 and were isolated and quarantined, Princess Cruises said in a statement. The cruise line did not say how many guests and crew members tested positive, or at what point in the trip they did so. (Shalby, 3/27)

City News Service: COVID Hospitalizations Tick Upward In LA County 
The number of COVID-positive patients in Los Angeles County hospitals has climbed by 23 people to 373, departing from the recent trend that’s seen the total fall from over 4,800 in mid-January, according to the latest state figures out Saturday, March 26. The number of those patients in intensive care was 56, down by three from Friday’s total. (3/26)

San Francisco Chronicle: Why More People May Get Reinfected With COVID As The BA.2 Sub-Variant Spreads
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic some scientists had hoped that even if much of the world failed to control the coronavirus, at some point nearly everyone would be infected and there would be too few susceptible people left to sustain the spread of disease. But that scenario depended on one key premise that has since proved false: that reinfection with this novel coronavirus would be rare. The omicron surge — which was fueled by lots of COVID cases among those who had already been infected, including many who were also fully vaccinated — may have clinched the demise of that dream. (Allday, 3/26)

Fox News: Long COVID Symptoms May Depend On The Variant A Person Contracted
Different variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, may give rise to different long COVID symptoms, according to a study that will be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2022) in Lisbon next month. Italian researchers suggested that individuals who were infected with the alpha variant of the virus displayed different emotional and neurological symptoms compared to those who were infected with the original form of SARS-CoV-2, an early release from the ECCMID regarding the study. (McGorry, 3/27)

AP: Scientists: COVID-19 May Cause Greater Damage To The Heart
Scientists now believe that COVID-19 patients suffer more than respiratory issues. Several studies have revealed that the virus can also damage the heart. For those with a heart condition, the threat is even greater. A September 2020 study found that the risk of a first heart attack increased by three to eight times in the first week after a COVID-19 infection was diagnosed. The study, published by medical journal The Lancet, followed nearly 87,000 people in Sweden infected over an eight-month period. Their risk of stroke increased up to six times. (O'Donnell, 3/27)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego's Vaccination Rate Inches Upward As New Variant Arrives 
Around the turn of the year, when the Omicron variant sent the number of coronavirus infections soaring, it was not uncommon for the mobile vaccination units run by local nonprofit Champions for Health to administer hundreds of doses per day. But things have slowed down significantly since then, with an event on Fairmount Avenue in San Diego’s City Heights neighborhood giving 42 shots Saturday afternoon. (Sisson, 3/26)

Bay Area News Group: More Boosters Needed For J&J's COVID-19 Vaccine?
Drug giants Pfizer and Moderna – makers of the country’s most widely used vaccines in the fight against COVID-19 – are now seeking approval for a second booster shot as immunity wanes and more contagious variants come ashore. Good news for some. But now many of the nearly 17 million Americans like Brian King who got the Johnson & Johnson jab are wondering, “What about us?” “I understand that we’re a minority share of vaccinated people,” said King of Redwood City, who had the J&J shot and a Moderna booster. “But seeing stories that only discuss the effectiveness of the more common vaccines leaves me with less information than I’d like about such an important public health issue.” (Woolfolk, 3/28)

CBS News: Omicron Deaths Of Johnson & Johnson Recipients Were Double The Rate Of Other Vaccinated Americans, New Data Show
Recently published figures ... suggest that COVID-19 deaths among Johnson & Johnson recipients may have peaked at more than double the rate of other vaccinated Americans during the Omicron variant wave. For the week of January 8, COVID-associated deaths among Americans who were vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson reached a rate of more than 5 out of every 100,000, according to the CDC's figures. That's higher than the rate among recipients of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, which was around 2 deaths per 100,000 people. (Tin, 3/25)

ABC News: Officials Expected To Offer 2nd Booster Shot For Those Over 50 Years Old 
As soon as Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could authorize COVID-19 booster shots for Americans over 50 years old, two officials familiar with the matter told ABC News, though the fourth shots are likely to be only offered and not formally recommended. The officials stressed that the details are still under discussion and could change in the next few days. (Haslett and Strauss, 3/27)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Vaccines Not Tied To Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes 
Two studies published yesterday in JAMA, one from Sweden and Norway and one from Ontario, find no link between COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy and adverse outcomes. (Van Beusekom, 3/25)

The Hill: Uninsured Americans Now To Be Charged Up To $195 Per COVID Test By Some Providers: Report 
Several testing providers will no longer provide COVID-19 tests for free to uninsured Americans, even if they are symptomatic, saying they will begin to charge between $100 and $195 dollars for PCR tests, ABC News reported. Quest Diagnostics, which is one of the country's largest COVID-19 testing providers, told ABC News that patients will now be billed $125 per PCR test if they are not on Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance. (Breslin, 3/26)

The New York Times: Concerns Rise As A U.S. Reimbursement Fund For Testing And Treating The Uninsured For The Virus Stops Taking Claims.
As the White House pleads with Republicans in Congress for emergency aid to fight the coronavirus, the federal government said that a fund established to reimburse doctors for care for uninsured Covid patients was no longer accepting claims for testing and treatment “due to lack of sufficient funds.” Some U.S. health care providers are informing uninsured people they can no longer be tested for the virus free of charge, and will have to pay for the service. (Barry, 3/28)

USA Today: Supreme Court Sides With Navy On COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement
The Supreme Court on Friday sided with the Biden administration in a battle over COVID-19 vaccine requirements for a group of Navy SEALs and other special forces who sought a religious exemption. Nearly three dozen Naval personnel, including 26 members of the elite Navy SEALs, asserted the Navy's vaccine requirements violated the First Amendment's guarantee that people may practice religion without government interference.  (Fritze, 3/25)

San Francisco Chronicle: There’s One Big COVID Rule Still In Place. Will We Soon See Isolation Guidance Change?
California has rolled back most of its COVID-19 measures since the omicron surge died down, and Bay Area counties have followed suit, removing indoor mask mandates and loosening other precautions like vaccination mandates for indoor dining and gyms. Yet there is still one critical tool for controlling the spread of the virus that remains in place: the five-day isolation for those who test positive for the coronavirus. (Flores, 3/27)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Less Serious 911 Calls Would Get A Nurse, Not An Ambulance Under First-In-The-Region Proposal 
Each year, El Cajon residents dial 911 about 16,000 times. Yet local officials say nearly a third of those calls are not true emergencies, and don’t require the ambulances and fire trucks that repeatedly rush out. “We’ve done the same thing for 40 years: Someone calls 911 and we send everybody,” Steve Swaney, Heartland Fire-Rescue chief, said in an interview. “It’s not sustainable.” (Nelson, 3/27)

Orange County Register: Ponderosa Park Health Center Gives Anaheim Community Better Access To Care
A new center is helping meet the needs of an under-served southeast Anaheim community previously lacking in access to health and wellness services. The St. Jude Neighborhood Health Center in Ponderosa Park is now providing the neighborhood’s children and adults with options for primary medical services in areas such as preventive care, disease management, prenatal care, mental health and vision and dental services. (Ponsi, 3/25)