Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
COVID Data Failures Create Pressure for Public Health System Overhaul
Poor information-sharing between hospitals and public health agencies has hurt the response to the pandemic. Some health care systems and IT companies are making inroads, but an overhaul would cost billions. (Harris Meyer, )
Heat Wave Brings Wave Of Worries, Too: Temperatures are likely to hit triple digits in the Bay Area this weekend, a major worry for health officers who foresee crowds of sunbathing, beer-drinking beachgoers spreading more sickness around the region. UCSF epidemiologist Dr. George Rutherford offered a cautionary tale: In Israel, a May heat wave inspired school officials to let kids remove their mask — contributing to the massive resurgence in cases. “People will want to take off their masks when it’s hot,” Rutherford said. “Don’t do it.” Read more from Peter Fimrite, Rachel Swan and Brett Simpson of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Also: Cooling centers to open across Sacramento, Yolo counties as heat wave bears down
In related news: The massive Lake Fire that has burned 11,000 acres near Lake Hughes is slowing, fire officials said. Read the latest updates from Josh Cain and Emily Rasmussen of the Los Angeles Daily News and Joseph Serna of the Los Angeles Times.
Its Computer Glitch Fixed, California Hits 600,000 Cases: California on Thursday became the first state to surpass 600,000 reported coronavirus cases since the beginning of the year. After California’s reporting system broke down July 25, the omission of around 300,000 files from the state’s main database muddied the picture of the virus’s progression in the state. But that problem has now been rectified, state officials say, and the higher numbers of cases reported this week are a result of entering the backlog into the system. Read more from The New York Times and Dominic Fracassa and Brett Simpson of the San Francisco Chronicle.
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
Los Angeles Times:
California's Coronavirus Response Hampered By Resignations
The sudden departure this week of California’s public health officer is intensifying instability in the state’s vital health departments as they struggle with crushing workloads and navigating the worst health crisis in a century, according to interviews with current and former healthcare and government officials. Dr. Sonia Angell stepped down from the California Department of Public Health on Sunday after only 10 months in the job. Her second-in-command, who led the state’s testing task force, left in July. The resignations add to a list of more than a half dozen top health officials who have departed over the last year, raising concerns that the upheaval is threatening the state’s response at a critical time. (Luna and Gutierrez, 8/14)
Capital Public Radio/KXJZ:
Explainer: Why Sacramento Public Health Received Less Federal COVID-19 Aid Than The Sheriff’s Office
Sacramento County received $181 million in federal coronavirus aid but spent most of the funds on the sheriff’s office payroll and benefits, only approving $24 million for public health in recent weeks. It’s taken over three months for the county to greenlight this federal funding for public health during the global pandemic, as Sacramento has seen a surge in coronavirus cases. Meanwhile, the sheriff’s office does not have to worry too much about cost-saving cuts down the line, since it secured $104 million from the federal coronavirus fund early on. (Rodd, 8/13)
Sacramento Bee:
See The Counties On The California Coronavirus Watchlist
As the California Department of Public Health continues to correct the state’s coronavirus data following the data glitch that complicated COVID-19 reporting at the beginning of August, most of the state’s 58 counties are showing elevated transmission of the virus. Per capita case data hasn’t returned to the state’s monitoring list of counties, often called the “watchlist,” but data that is available elsewhere on the state website on Thursday showed 46 counties above the per 100,000 resident caseload required. (Chesler, 8/14)
Napa Valley Register:
Getting Napa Off State COVID-19 List Will Take Big Case Reductions
Napa County must cut its number of COVID-19 cases in half to get off the state’s County Monitoring List and open up more businesses, a task that county officials acknowledge is daunting. The county is on the state list for having more than 100 cases per 100,000 people over 14 days. The most recent rate is 176 cases, though that number is suspect as being low because of issues with the state’s electronic lab reporting system. (Eberling, 8/11)
Napa Valley Register:
Napa County's Hospitals Prepared For Projected Mid-August Coronavirus Surge
Just a week away from Napa County’s projected peak in hospitalizations of coronavirus patients, nearly two-thirds of the county’s surge hospital beds remain unoccupied, data reported Aug, 3 shows. Napa County Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Relucio wrote in an email at the beginning of the month to the principals of private elementary schools that county projections showed Napa hitting its “maximum hospital surge capacity” in coronavirus patients in “mid-August.” The projected surge, Relucio wrote, was a contributing factor in the county’s decision earlier this month to delay potential in-person reopenings for private elementary schools. (Klearman, 8/10)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento Sheriff Refuses To Help State Track COVID-19
Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones is refusing to give COVID-19 testing and case information to an oversight board in charge of monitoring the state’s jails, leaving the public in the dark about how the virus has spread among inmates and staff under his control. Following months of demands from experts, officials and advocates, the Board of State and Community Corrections recently launched an online dashboard tracking COVID-19 in California jails. The website includes data about the number of inmates with active cases, the number of tests conducted, and how many people are hospitalized. (Pohl, 8/14)
Fresno Bee:
Fresno COVID-19 Stats: Cases Rise, Dip In Hospitalizations
The number of people hospitalized for treatment of serious confirmed COVID-19 infections in Fresno County and across the central San Joaquin Valley has retreated to levels not seen in almost a month. But the volume of coronavirus patients in hospitals remains about double – or more – than in June, when California and its counties were reopening more segments of local businesses from an economic lockdown aimed at preventing transmission of the fast-spreading contagion. (Sheehan, 8/13)
Ventura County Star:
Free Coronavirus Testing Site Opens At Ventura County Fairgrounds
A new COVID-19 test site — free, with no appointment required — opened quietly inside a cavernous exhibition hall at the Ventura County Fairgrounds Thursday morning. The walk-in site, operated by Ventura County's Health Care Agency, is open to all county residents. It is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. The test center is in San Miguel Hall, one of two large Quonset huts facing the beach. Entry is through Gate 2 off Shoreline Drive. (Wenner, 8/13)
Fresno Bee:
Fresno County To Immanuel Schools: No Students In Class
An order to stop in-person instruction at Immanuel Schools was announced by the Fresno County Department of Public Health late Thursday afternoon. Students returned to classrooms at the private, faith-based K-12 school in Reedley earlier that day. All in-person instruction is prohibited until Fresno County gets off the state’s COVID-19 monitoring list for 14 consecutive days, county health officials said. The department said it can’t currently grant waivers for specific schools, per state regulations. (George, 8/13)
Redding Record Searchlight:
Shasta County Students Return To School During Coronavirus Pandemic
Freshman year in high school is a daunting transition for any student as they transfer to new classes on an unfamiliar campus. But as coronavirus cases continue to rise in Shasta County, students are finding themselves beginning under astonishing circumstances trying to make new friends with peers while also social distancing. Aria Del-Rosario Sabet, a ninth-grade student, started her first day of school at Shasta High School on Wednesday feeling first-day nerves. Since this is her first year of high school, thinking about the size of the campus had her feeling apprehensive before she arrived. (Atieh, 8/12)
KBAK:
BCSD Pushes Back First Day Of School To Aug. 24
The Bakersfield City School District has voted to move the first day of school to Monday, Aug. 24. The previous date of Aug. 17 has been changed to the new date due to a delivery delay of 30,000 WiFi hot spots devices, so students can learn online. BCSD ordered the WiFi hot spots to be distributed to students next week. (8/12)
Fresno Bee:
Teachers Unions Wage Coronavirus School Safety Campaign
The coronavirus keeps spreading. People are dying. California is broke. How can schools safely reopen amid such dire circumstances? That’s the message the politically powerful California Teachers Association and labor groups are pushing as Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration attempts a delicate balance between letting some schools physically welcome students back this fall and requiring most to start the academic year online. (Wiley, 8/14)
KBAK:
The Boys And Girls Club Helps Working Parents As The Virtual School Year Begins
The boys and girls club is still teaching the basics – wash your hands, cover your mouth when you cough and give people their space. “It’s just heightened now,” program director Juanita Recenios said. The boys and girls club has been open since schools closed in march and they will continue to help Kern County families as districts across the county begin to go back to school online. Kids have their temperature taken at the door, everyone in the building wears a mask and there are reminders everywhere to stay six feet apart. (Erwin, 8/12)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento State Announces 21 Positive COVID-19 Cases
Twenty-one students, faculty and staff who have been to the Sacramento State campus in the past three weeks have tested positive for COVID-19, university officials said. In a letter to community members Thursday, President Robert S. Nelsen said the reason he shared the information was “not to raise alarm, but to ensure that everyone understands the seriousness of this virus.” (Heeter, 8/13)
Fresno Bee:
Fresno WestCare Facility Reopens After COVID-19 Lockdown
A WestCare residential facility in Fresno on Thursday reopened after a COVID-19 outbreak prompted a quarantine lockdown since July 20, with staff and clients – including three children – sheltering in place, an official confirmed to The Bee. The facility on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard went into “shelter in place” last month after a series of COVID-19 infections among staff and clients. (Amaro, 8/13)
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Camp For Homeless Opens In Guerneville, Offering Refuge To 25 People During Pandemic
Blue-trimmed, gray tents arranged in rows across an asphalt park-and-ride lot in Guerneville are expected by week’s end to offer refuge to 25 homeless people seeking a safe place to wait out the next few months of the coronavirus pandemic. One of what are now five sites around the county where unhoused individuals have been provided opportunities to shelter in place in hotel rooms, trailers and tents, the new COVID Navigation Center opened Tuesday with 16 residents relocated from the Veterans War Memorial building a short distance away. (Callahan, 8/12)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Mental Health Management Has Remained An Issue Throughout Pandemic
Since the start of the pandemic, local behavioral health professionals observed more people reaching out for help, whether they have difficulties with a mental illness or are struggling with adjusting to a new way of life. Amber Smithson, director of business development at Bakersfield Behavioral Healthcare Hospital, said their hospital has begun releasing short videos to help with things such as breathing, stress-free techniques and resilience training. (Wilson, 8/13)
Sacramento Bee:
Family Sues After Mom, 81, Severely Hurt At Sutter Roseville
Alla Naidenko was admitted to Sutter Roseville Medical Center in January to remove kidney stones. A day later, the 81-year-old grandmother lay in intensive care, covered in bruises from severe injuries to her face and head, paralyzed and comatose after being rushed into surgery for a life-threatening brain hemorrhage. ... Her adult son, Yuriy Seretskiy said that, upon waking after sustaining her injuries, his mother told him that “someone or something hit her, but she could not remember.” (Smith and Anderson, 8/14)
Fresno Bee:
Boxer Marc Castro Of Fresno Tests Positive For COVID-19
Marc Castro’s pro boxing debut has been put on hold after he announced Thursday morning he has tested positive for the coronavirus. Castro, 20, was to face Raul Corona (2-3, 0 KOs) in a four-round featherweight bout in Tulsa, Okla. But that is not happening, the Fresno native informed his followers on Twitter. (Galaviz, 8/13)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Alcatraz — At Least The Outdoor Areas — To Reopen Monday After 5-Month Coronavirus Closure
After five months with only fog and wind rustling through the nation’s most famous penitentiary, Alcatraz Island will reopen to visitors Monday. The island’s reopening, which comes as state and local coronavirus restrictions begin to ease, marks one of the last national park sites to welcome back the public since the pandemic began. It also offers a bit of hope for San Francisco’s badly shaken tourist economy. (Alexander, 8/13)
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
3 Sonoma County Jail Inmates Test Positive For Coronavirus
Three Sonoma County Jail inmates are in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, including one who recently appeared in a courtroom for a hearing, officials said Wednesday. Sonoma County Superior Court Executive Officer Arlene Junior said the inmate had appeared in court Aug. 4, prompting a thorough cleaning of the room and notification to staff and judicial officers present at the time. Separately, a courthouse staff member in the criminal division was diagnosed with COVID-19 Monday and is quarantined at home, she said. That person was not working in a public-facing role. (Johnson, 8/12)
Sacramento Bee:
If Athletes Can Get COVID-19 Tests, Why Can’t Health Workers?
For the past five months, healthcare union leaders like me have been sounding the alarm about the appalling lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients. But there’s one thing that’s far harder for caregivers to access than N95 masks — a coronavirus test for themselves. (Sal Rosselli, 8/14)
CalMatters:
Here Are Five Elements To Help Transform California’s Health Care System For All
The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare racial inequities, health inequalities and health injustices for all to see, and challenges the very structure and delivery of our health care system. As president and CEO of California’s largest health foundation, the California Endowment, we have championed universal coverage since our founding nearly 25 years ago. At the same time, we understand that “coverage” is insufficient to improve the health of all Californians. (Robert K. Ross, 8/13)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Editorial: California’s Alarming Coronavirus Information Breakdown
For all the temperature-taking and other symptom checks mounted to make us feel less vulnerable to the novel coronavirus, its capacity to spread among those showing no signs of illness has defied easy detection and containment. A persistent inability to mount consistent mass testing for the virus — the only means of reliably tracking and stopping outbreaks — has therefore enabled its unchecked spread through much of the state and country. (8/10)
Fresno Bee:
Fresno Coronavirus Cases Are High. Is A Lockdown Needed?
It is the question Fresno County public health officials don’t want to contemplate: Will the COVID-19 pandemic prove so difficult to manage that the region has to really be locked down, such as by a curfew that keeps people in their homes on the penalty of citation or arrest? The trend in July was not good. The San Joaquin Valley over the past month has been a coronavirus hot spot, so much so that Gov. Gavin Newsom directed a strike team to Fresno to meet with county public health leaders on how to get a better handle locally on the pandemic. (8/12)
CalMatters:
Schools Cannot Reopen On Their Own; A National Crisis Requires A National Response
What’s most striking about the national response to the COVID-19 crisis is that there isn’t one. On issue after issue, states and local authorities have been left to fend for themselves. For school districts like San Diego Unified, that has meant creating our own health and safety standards to protect our students, staff and community. On Monday, we will announce the results of that work. (Cindy Marten, 8/10)
Los Angeles Times:
Why Children Suffer More Violence Amid COVID-19
We now know that many schools in California and other states won’t reopen for in-person classes this year. While this is judged necessary to slow the spread of the coronavirus, it has frightening implications for the psychological and physical well-being of vulnerable children. (Angelina Jolie, 8/12)
Sacramento Bee:
Why Did Sacramento County Sheriff Get Most Of COVID-19 Funds?
Did Sacramento County just turn the “defund the police” slogan on its head? County officials appear to have given the vast majority of the county’s federal coronavirus emergency funding to the office of Sheriff Scott Jones. (8/11)
Sacramento Bee:
A Scandal: Sacramento County Gives COVID Money To Sheriff
I’ve been a working journalist for more than 30 years and I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed a bigger clown show than the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors meeting this week.It was nothing less than governmental malpractice. The County of Sacramento received $181 million in federal dollars to combat the coronavirus pandemic. And where did $104 million of it go? For salaries and benefits in the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office. (Marcos Breton, 8/12)