Los Angeles Times: 9 In 10 Californians Live In Areas With High COVID-19 Levels 
Nearly 9 in 10 Californians now live in counties with a high COVID-19 community level, in which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends universal masking in indoor public spaces. The new developments underscore the increasing concerns about super-infectious subvariants of Omicron that have fueled a summer coronavirus wave. (Lin II and Money, 7/17)

Bay Area News Group: California COVID Hospitalizations Have Quadrupled. Who Is Getting Really Sick?
COVID hospitalizations are rising again after more than two months of persistently high case rates in the Bay Area and California. But the doctors who treat these patients are seeing consistent indications that for most, the disease is less severe than in earlier surges of the deadly virus that has killed more than a million Americans. (Rowan, 7/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: People Are Getting COVID Again And Again... And Again. Is This The New Normal?
As the Bay Area’s latest COVID surge threatens to be the biggest yet and the coronavirus continues to spin off new, immune-evasive variants, are repeated infections a part of living with COVID? Increasingly, experts fear, the answer is yes. (Echeverria, 7/17)

Capitol Weekly: 'Long COVID' Still A Mystery As California Fights Pandemic
More than two years after California imposed the nation’s first lockdown to stop the spread of COVID-19, the deadly disease persists, fueled now by the highly infectious subvariants and clouded by fears that the malady will stick around awhile — a long while. Despite the persistent threats and a death toll of about 92,000 and 10.3 million infections,  many COVID precautions — remarkably — have been removed. As of early July, the number of those testing positive was about 17% and climbing, putting it on track to being the second-highest positivity rate of the entire pandemic. About half of those were infected by BA.5, Omicron and other subvariants. (Aalcides, 7/15)

inewsource: San Diego County Surge Has Experts Concerned About Long COVID
San Diego County has been moved into the high-risk level for COVID-19 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as confirmed case numbers have continued to increase over the last few weeks, which has experts worried about the risk for severe outcomes as a result of infection.  ... As case numbers continue to rise and reinfection becomes a growing worry, experts are concerned about the potential for increased risk of long COVID since so little is known about what causes it and how to treat it. (Dawson, 7/18)

Voice Of San Diego: Deadline To Remove Unpermitted Outdoor Dining Has Passed, But They’re Still Standing 
The city of San Diego told business owners who wanted to keep the outdoor dining spaces they built during the COVID-19 pandemic they’d need to apply for a permit by Wednesday, but that deadline came and went and few businesses did so. Most dining structures, though, are still up. (Elmer, 7/15)

Los Angeles Times: UC Irvine And Other Schools Reinstate Indoor Mask Mandates Amid Rising COVID-19 Wave
The University of California Irvine on Monday will require all students and staff to wear masks while inside campus buildings, following the lead of other colleges that have chosen to strengthen safety measures in recent weeks as COVID-19 cases continue to rise. UCI’s universal masking policy will apply to everyone on campus regardless of vaccination status , according to a statement from the university. The decision was announced after Orange County on Friday moved into the “high” level of community transmission set by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. (Newberry, 7/17)

KQED: 'We're Ringing The Alarm': Efforts Rise To Ensure Monkeypox Spread Is Taken Seriously
As of July 15, there were at least 86 confirmed cases of Monkeypox in San Francisco. The virus moves through close physical contact, and rates of infection are highest among men who have sex with other men. But as the virus spreads, many have been critical of the federal response to the virus, decrying a lack of vaccines. The city ran out of monkeypox vaccines last week. But San Francisco health officials announced Friday that they'll soon get 4,163 vaccines over the next week. Still, that's far short of the 35,000 doses the city requested of the federal government. (McDede and Sarah, 7/16)

The Bakersfield Californian: Kern Public Health Announces Additional Cases Of Monkeypox 
Two more cases of monkeypox have been identified in Kern County, according to a Kern Public Health news release. (7/15)

Axios: Former FDA Chief Warns U.S. Has "Failed To Contain" Monkeypox
The U.S. has failed to contain the outbreak of monkeypox and is "at the cusp" of seeing the virus become endemic, former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday. ... "I think the window for getting control of this and containing it probably has closed, and if it hasn't closed it's certainly starting to close," Gottlieb said. (Saric, 7/17)

AP: US Officials: States Getting More Monkeypox Vaccine Soon
More than 100,000 monkeypox vaccine doses are being sent to states in the next few days, and several million more are on order in the months ahead, U.S. health officials said Friday. They also acknowledged the vaccine supply hasn’t kept up with the demand seen in New York, California and other places. (Stobbe, 7/16)

The New York Times: Demand For Monkeypox Vaccine Exceeds Supply, C.D.C. Says
As the monkeypox outbreak grows in the United States, demand for the vaccine is outstripping the nation’s supply, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news briefing on Friday. “We don’t yet have all the vaccine that we would like in this moment,” she said. (Anthes, 7/15)

The New York Times: Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Enforcement Of L.G.B.T.Q. Protection
A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Biden administration from enforcing directives that extended civil rights protections to L.G.B.T.Q. students and workers. (Sasani, 7/17)

AP: US Agencies Temporarily Barred From Enforcing LGBTQ Guidance
U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley Jr. in an order on Friday ruled for the 20 state attorneys general who sued last August claiming the Biden administration directives infringe on states’ right to enact laws that, for example, prevent students from participating in sports based on their gender identity or requiring schools and businesses to provide bathrooms and showers to accommodate transgender people. (Gillispie, 7/16)

Los Angeles Times: Nurse-Midwives Struggle To Receive Abortion Training
When Ariela Schnyer was choosing where to get trained as a nurse-midwife, California stood out for an important reason: The state would allow clinicians like her to provide abortions. But three years later, after graduating from her nurse-midwifery program at UC San Francisco, Schnyer is not yet prepared to provide abortions that require hands-on care. After the news broke that Roe vs. Wade had been overturned — a shift that is expected to send more abortion patients to California — Schnyer was trying to find out whether she could get trained in Mexico City. (Reyes, 7/18)

Bloomberg: The Next Generation of Abortion Doctors Train in California
Growing up, Prachi Priyam didn’t know she wanted to help people get abortions. She wasn’t even sure if she believed women should terminate pregnancies. But in her first year of college she met people who needed access to the procedure, and Priyam realized she “didn’t have any idea” the kinds of life experiences that could lead someone to make that decision. Later, working in public health in communities that didn’t have access to sexual education or contraception, “I just knew that I believed that abortion should be an option for any individual,” she said. By medical school, she decided she wanted to be a part of ensuring her patients had that choice.  (Holder, 7/18)

Sacramento Bee: What Will California Do If There’s A Nationwide Abortion Ban? 
What if Congress enacts a federal ban on abortion? It’s no longer an outlandish question. While abortion rights are safe for the moment in California, a widely-anticipated “Red Wave” of Republican success in the November midterm elections, followed by a possible GOP win in the 2024 presidential race, could lead to nationwide prohibition. (Lightman and Holden, 7/18)

Los Angeles Times: Abortion Rallies Center On Santa Monica Planned Parenthood 
Helen Sklar, 69, first demonstrated for abortion access in the 1970s. On Saturday, she found herself agitating for the same right again. “It feels like a huge step backwards,” Sklar said. “Taking to the streets is the strategy that really has to be first and foremost.” (Solis and Wigglesworth, 7/16)

CapRadio: Health Care Costs Keep Rising. A New California Agency Aims To Fix That
In 2017, a rare viral infection hospitalized Bernadette Moordigian for three weeks and paralyzed her for nearly nine months. Although she had health insurance, the hospital sent her an $80,000 bill. She appealed and got financial aid but was still on the hook for $10,000. In 2018, Shelly Tsai, a lawyer with Neighborhood Legal Services Los Angeles, took on a client who opted to give birth at home with a midwife. Insurance wouldn’t foot the $8,000 bill despite it costing three times less than a hospital birth. (Hwang and Ibarra, 7/17)

The Bakersfield Californian: Pending Strike Sign Of Hospitals' Staffing Woes 
Bakersfield mother-baby nurse Daian Smith had three days off in a row recently, and she said not one passed without a call from Kern Medical asking her to come in to work. (Cox, 7/16)

San Diego Union-Tribune: El Cajon Advances First-In-The-Region Program To Divert Less Serious 911 Calls To Nurses
El Cajon leaders have advanced a program to divert less serious 911 calls to nurses, making the city one of a handful nationwide to reimagine emergency care in an effort to reduce unnecessary trips to the hospital. (Nelson, 7/19)

CalMatters: Dial 988: California's New Mental Health Crisis Hotline Debuts
People experiencing mental health crises now need to remember just three numbers to dial for help: 988. The new federal number — which debuts in California and across the country this weekend — is billed as an alternative to 911 for people experiencing mental health emergencies. (Weiner, 7/17)

KVPR: Tiny Valley Community Goes Nearly 24 Hours Without Water After Its Only Well Fails
A rural town in Tulare County went about 24 hours without running water after the only working well in the area gave out amid triple-digit heat. East Orosi is a rural community that’s home to about 624 residents, about 99% of whom are Latino. The town’s east water well shut off Tuesday afternoon, and didn’t power back on until 4 a.m. the next day. It went out again six hours later. The water finally came back on Wednesday afternoon. But residents can’t drink it, because the water is polluted with nitrates and other contaminants. (Quintanilla, 7/15)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Zoo, Poultry Farmers Protecting Birds As Avian Flu Arrives 
Some birds at the San Diego Zoo have been moved to new locations and poultry farms are taking precautions with their flocks following an announcement that a highly contagious strain of avian flu has hit California. (Warth, 7/15)

San Francisco Public Press: How California’s Coercive Control Law Could Help Women Manipulated By Partners
After two decades of marriage, Blanca finally hit a breaking point. Watching her husband rip apart the wedding dress she had so painstakingly sewn, then preserved over the years caused something to shift for her. That act was the final rupture in a relationship that had been turbulent from the start, with only short interludes of affection thrown in. The emotional abuse had been going on for years, according to Blanca. She said he constantly denigrated her appearance and Spanish-accented English. He refused to put her and their two sons on the health insurance provided by his job as a mechanic, telling her to buy her own. He rejected her pleas to let her write checks and have access to their joint bank account. He made her pay all the rent on the Bay Area home they shared with his relatives. (Sundaram, 6/27)

San Francisco Public Press: Expanding View Of Domestic Violence Gives Survivors New Tool, But Unsympathetic Judges Remain An Obstacle 
The San Diego County Superior Court judge listened to an impassioned plea from a lawyer seeking a restraining order to protect her client, Kimberly Abutin, who feared for her physical safety. Kimberly’s husband, Albert Abutin, “had a hair-trigger temper, would slam doors,” and often hurled sexist insults at his wife, the lawyer told the court. (Sundaram, 6/29)

San Francisco Public Press: ‘I Was Not Allowed To Have My Own Thoughts’: California Courts Start Penalizing Psychological Domestic Abuse 
It didn’t take long for Emily Caesar to realize that Trevor, the man she had fallen in love with and married, had to have his way on everything — how she dressed, with whom she spoke, how much she ate, where she went. He never let her forget that he was head of the household, Emily told the court. (Sundaram, 6/30)

Marin Independent Journal: San Rafael Defeats Lawsuit Over Homeless Camp
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against San Rafael that alleged the city’s camp for homeless people damaged the health of an occupant. (Rodriguez, 7/17)

Los Angeles Times: Plan To Make Boyle Heights Sears A Homeless Center Criticized
Bill Taormina had 17 minutes to convince the crowd in the auditorium of Boyle Heights Resurrection School to back his plan to turn their shuttered neighborhood Sears into a giant homeless services hub. The “Los Angeles Life Rebuilding Center” that Taormina wants to build would house up to 10,000 homeless people and provide medical and mental health services, job training, immigration help and drug abuse diversion programs. (Campa, 7/18)