Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Pandemic Hampers Reopening of Joint Replacement Gold Mine
The COVID-19 pandemic brought knee and hip replacements to a virtual halt because they aren’t usually considered emergency procedures. But they are profitable, and hospital systems are now counting on the surgeries to help restore their financial health. (Bernard J. Wolfson, )
California Surpasses 10,000 COVID Deaths: The death toll from the coronavirus in California surpassed 10,000 people on Thursday, a mark that underscores how a state that was once hailed as a pandemic success story is now struggling to slow outbreaks. As of Friday morning, California had at least 541,494 confirmed cases and 10,028 deaths. Adding to the problem, the virus is now severely affecting rural and agricultural areas. “The epidemic is moving from urban Latino populations to rural Latino populations,” said Dr. George Rutherford, epidemiologist and infectious-diseases expert at UC San Francisco. Read more from Sean Greene, Rong-Gong Lin II, Colleen Shalby, Iris Lee and Alex Wigglesworth of the Los Angeles Times.
California Spent $12M On A COVID Facility — But Only 9 Patients Came: Doctors arrived at Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento in mid-April and were told to prepare for 30 to 60 coronavirus patients to arrive within days. Ultimately, just nine patients arrived over 10 weeks. The cost to care for them was a staggering $12 million. Read more from Kathleen Ronayne of the Associated Press.
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
Fresno Bee:
COVID-19 Updates: Dr. Fauci Warns Of Trouble In Central Valley
California reported 202 new deaths from the coronavirus on Wednesday, the second-most of any day since the start of the pandemic. The state set a record last Friday with 219 COVID-19 fatalities reported. This development at the overall state level happened as the number of deaths in the central San Joaquin Valley topped 500. (Tehee, 8/6)
San Jose Mercury News:
Coronavirus: Bay Area's Progress On Watch List, County-By-County
It’s been close to a month since Gov. Gavin Newsom announced additional restrictions for counties on the state’s COVID-19 monitoring list. In that time, the list has grown to encompass every county in the Bay Area and over 90% of the state’s population. Is there anywhere in the Bay Area close to escaping the dreaded list? We’re tracking the metrics county-by-county below, using data compiled by this news organization. Currently, hospitalizations are trending in the right direction in most of the region, but there isn’t one county that meets the per-capita case threshold necessary to come off the list, according to our calculations. (Blair Rowan and Webeck, 8/6)
Sacramento Bee:
Coronavirus: Sacramento Reaches 100 Total COVID-19 Deaths
One hundred residents of the city of Sacramento have now died of the coronavirus, a grim milestone that comes as pandemic deaths continue to accumulate across California amid a surge in COVID-19 activity that’s continued since June. The number ticked over to triple digits on the Sacramento County public health department data dashboard, which was updated Thursday morning to bring the countywide total to 155 confirmed COVID-19 deaths all-time. The highly contagious respiratory disease began impacting the region in early March. (McGough, 8/6)
Fresno Bee:
Fresno County Adds 353 New Cases Of Coronavirus
Fresno County reported another 353 cases of the coronavirus reported on Thursday. But the numbers may be higher as the state continues to have some electronic reporting problems, according to the state Department of Health. That brings Fresno County’s total to 16,625 positive cases and 157 deaths. The fatal cases remained unchanged since Tuesday. (Miller, 8/6)
Sacramento Bee:
Coronavirus: 51% Of Sacramento County Deaths Are At Least 80
A little more than half of Sacramento County’s coronavirus deaths have been residents in their 80s or older, despite that demographic making up less than 4% of its population and a similarly small percentage of its recorded COVID-19 case total, county health officials reported this week. Sacramento County as of Thursday had confirmed 155 fatalities from the coronavirus among more than 10,500 all-time, lab-positive cases. People 80 years old or older account for just 385 of those cases, 3.7% of the county’s overall total, but have nearly 51% of the confirmed death toll at 79 fatalities. (McGough, 8/6)
Sacramento Bee/San Luis Obispo Tribune:
Atascadero State Hospital Patients Test Positive For COVID
Internal communications and official figures from Atascadero State Hospital reveal that at least four patients and a total of 21 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19. The Tribune obtained internal case and testing figures — which were current as of Tuesday — after the Department of State Hospitals and San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department both declined to release the precise numbers of infected persons to the public, per their respective policies. (Fountain, 8/6)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Judge Orders Bakersfield Immigration Holding Facility To Test All Detainees Weekly
A federal judge ordered immigration officials Thursday to test all detainees for the coronavirus at a Bakersfield facility where COVID-19 has broken out and to report the test results quickly, saying the government’s inaction is endangering inmates, staff and the public. The evidence suggests that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has shown “deliberate indifference to the risk of an outbreak” at the Mesa Verde Detention Center and has “lost the right to be trusted” that it will take safety measures without a court order, said U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of San Francisco. (Egelko, 8/6)
LA Daily News:
First LAPD Officer To Die After Getting The Coronavirus Was ‘One Of The Good Ones,’ Chief Says
Officer Valentin Martinez, who died last month after contracting COVID-19, was eulogized Thursday, Aug. 6, by the Los Angeles Police Department’s chief, who said he was known as “one of the good ones,” a cop who treated even those he arrested with respect and dignity. In a socially distanced ceremony, the American flag-draped coffin bearing Martinez, 45, rested just in front of a panorama depicting events from U.S. history at Liberty Hall in the middle of Forest Lawn Memorial Park’s sprawling property in the Hollywood Hills. (Cain, 8/6)
CalMatters:
Rural California Schools Prepare For In-Person Teaching
Students lined up in front of six tables spaced 20 feet apart across Bishop Union High School’s sprawling front lawn. School employees processed their registration packets, braving triple-digit heat on a sunny Tuesday afternoon. (Cano, 8/6)
Fresno Bee:
Coronavirus: Cal Poly SLO Students, Staff Test Positive
A total of 19 students, staff or faculty at Cal Poly have tested positive for COVID-19 since March, according to the San Luis Obispo university’s coronavirus information website. Of those, 14 are students and five are employees, according to the university’s media relations director, Matt Lazier. (Shuman, 8/6)
Los Angeles Times:
How COVID-19 Distance Learning Weakens Special Education
Olivia Tan is regressing. She’s lost much of her curiosity, is unwilling to explore her home or flip through books as much as she used to — and her father feels helpless. The 6-year-old is deaf, blind in one eye and has cognitive delays, heart issues and other physical difficulties that are part of CHARGE syndrome, a disorder caused by a gene mutation. At her Bay Area elementary school, she had a one-on-one aide. At home she has three siblings and two parents trying desperately to offer some semblance of education. (Kohli, 8/7)
Sacramento Bee:
California Tribal Casinos Stay Open As Coronavirus Spikes
The announcement came with great fanfare – and caution: Cache Creek Casino Resort in the Yolo County town of Brooks was open for business. Months earlier, in March, the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation and tribes across California closed their gaming floors as part of an unprecedented statewide shutdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus. It was the first time the casino resort closed in more than 30 years. Cache Creek was the first casino in Northern California to close, casino officials noted, ahead of California and Yolo County’s health mandates. (Smith, 8/6)
Sacramento Bee:
Roseville Water Park Remains Open, Despite Newsom’s Order
Roseville is poised to begin implementing enforcement against Golfland SunSplash, culminating with daily $500 fines, for violating the state’s coronavirus orders, a city official told The Sacramento Bee. Despite notices from the city, the amusement park has operated daily despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order to close outdoor water parks, among other businesses, due to the pandemic. The park’s operation has been openly advertised on television and social media as well. (Burke, 8/7)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento Residents Stayed At Home Less In July, Data Show
Sacramento metro residents went shopping, drove to work and visited parks much more often as COVID-19 cases and deaths spiked in July than they did in April, according to mobility data from Google. State and local health officials ordered residents to stay home and closed many types of businesses in late March and early April. Residents largely complied, dramatically reducing trips from home, Google data show. (Reese, 8/7)
San Francisco Chronicle:
‘A Harrowing Black Hole Of Information’: Some Nursing Homes Leave Families In The Dark About Coronavirus
Marla Harvey looked closely at her computer screen. Her grandmother, Annie Ballard, looked semi-conscious in her bed at San Miguel Villa, a nursing home in Concord. “Is she sick? Does she have COVID?” Harvey frantically asked the aide who was facilitating the Zoom call between her and her grandmother in late May.She was told no, her 89-year-old grandmother was just tired. (Ravani, 8/6)
Sacramento Bee:
Latino Business Have Less Cash, Fewer PPP Loans In Recession
David Garcia and Cuahutemoc Vargas opened the doors to Kulture, a retail shop, in 2015 with a vision to bring something “new and unique” to midtown Sacramento. They succeeded beyond their expectations, generating enough buzz and revenue to move to a bigger K Street location. Garcia and his wife opened a second shop in Woodland, too. (Bojorquez, 8/7)
Sacramento Bee:
AbbVie Agrees To $24M Settlement In California Fraud Lawsuit
California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara announced that the Department of Insurance reached a $24 million settlement with pharmaceutical giant AbbVie that will require it to change its marketing practices for its immunology drug Humira. Once a blockbuster sales driver for the company, Humira faced stiff competition from similar drugs on the international market. (Anderson, 8/6)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Former SF Medical Examiner’s Employee Sues City Over Jeff Adachi Autopsy Dispute
A former high-ranking official at the San Francisco Medical Examiner’s Office is suing the city for wrongful termination, alleging he was fired after he refused to alter Public Defender Jeff Adachi’s autopsy report on orders from City Administrator Naomi Kelly. Christopher Wirowek, a former operators director for the Medical Examiner’s Office, filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court late last month, claiming he faced retaliation and was eventually terminated after spurning Kelly’s demand to alter the autopsy report shortly before it was released to the public in March 2019. (Fracassa, 8/6)
San Francisco Chronicle:
SF Restaurant Turns To Dome Dining Amid Growing Homelessness On Streets
For struggling San Francisco restaurants, adding outdoor dining means facing a variety of elements on the city’s streets — including a homelessness crisis that’s worsened during the pandemic. In the case of one fine-dining restaurant, it means enclosing diners in transparent geodesic domes on the plaza outside its doors. On Wednesday, Hashiri, a Michelin-starred Japanese restaurant, began seating diners inside these domes — or “garden igloos,” structures covered in clear plastic that are sometimes employed by rooftop bars during winter in New York or Chicago — for a $200-per-person kaiseki and omakase sushi dinner. (Bitker, 8/6)
Sacramento Bee:
Trump Must Act On National COVID-19 Plan For Testing, Tracing
It’s no exaggeration to say that COVID-19 is the most challenging public health crisis of the last 100 years. No outbreak has spread so quickly and affected such a wide range of people — not SARS, not H1N1, not even HIV/AIDS. Yet after seven months of rising cases and at least 147,000 dead Americans, we still have no comprehensive national strategy. This must be immediately rectified. (Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 7/31)
Fresno Bee:
Where Can You Get A Free COVID-19 Test In Fresno?
My only previous visit to Lions Park in west central Fresno was for a feature story about a skateboarder with one leg. Nine years later, I returned. To observe, from a reasonable distance, dozens of people of all ages and skin colors get screened and tested for a highly contagious virus. Of all the potential uses of a public park, there’s one we never had to consider until COVID-19 gate-crashed our lives. (Marek Warszawski, 8/6)
Fresno Bee:
Rep. Jim Costa Says Leaders, Public Must Do More To Stop COVID-19
Six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, and our nation is seeing alarming spread of this deadly virus — with more than 155,942 deaths and rising rates of spread. California continues to feel the impacts, with the San Joaquin Valley especially hard hit and fighting to contain the virus. (Rep. Jim Costa, 8/4)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Pandemic Response Shows Value Of Collaboration Across Sectors
Responding with urgency and innovation, often siloed disciplines and communities are mobilizing to focus on a single global challenge during this pandemic. Previously intractable barriers to collaboration have dissolved in the face of a shared, common goal. The response has been a mission-critical combination of the world’s scientific, technological and medical experts, in collaboration with a diversity of civic and business leaders, combatting the coronavirus together. (Terry Babcock-Lumish and Megan Wheeler, 8/3)
CalMatters:
Legislature Should Remove Restrictions On Nurse Practitioners
Does it make sense to restrict patient access to primary care nurse practitioners during a pandemic? The answer is obvious. Yet that is what the California Legislature will do if Assembly Bill 890 fails to pass. (Matthew S. Schechter, 8/7)
CalMatters:
Rx For Health Care Inequities: More Health Professionals Of Color
When I was a young doctor, an older faculty colleague – like me, an African-American – made a request that I thought was unusual. He asked me to be his personal physician... I asked him why he wanted me to take care of him, and his response stays with me to this day: “Because you’re the only African-American physician here, and if I need a serious, or even life-or-death decision made about my care, I want someone I can trust.” (David M. Carlisle, 8/6)
CalMatters:
California Economy Faces Tough Slog Amid COVID-19 Pandemic
It now seems like ancient history, but only a few months ago, California’s economy was roaring. “By any standard measure, by nearly every recognizable metric, the state of California is not just thriving but, in many instances, leading the country, inventing the future and inspiring the nation,” Gov. Gavin Newsom boasted in February’s state of the state address. ... Just eight days later, Newsom delivered his first webcast report on the coronavirus infection, quickly followed by his March 4 state of emergency declaration and the first of many orders that would shut down much of the state’s economy. (Dan Walters, 8/2)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Congress Must Step Up To Rescue Americans From The Eviction ‘Cliff’
Research by the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project estimates that as many as 23 million U.S renters could be at risk of eviction by the end of September. In California, the analysis estimates that nearly 4 million renters could be at risk, roughly a quarter of all renters in the state. If this is allowed to happen, it will put families at greater risk of losing the place they call home at a time when the public health crisis requires most of us to stay home. And we are rapidly approaching what will be — for good or ill — a defining moment. (Lourdes Castro Ramirez, Emile Haddad, Robbie Hunter and Cynthia Parker, 8/3)
Los Angeles Times:
If Eviction Cliff Hits California, Mass Homelessness Is Next
Things weren’t great before COVID-19, but at least only about 570 families, hungry, broke and on the brink of homelessness, needed help from the volunteers at St. Joseph Center in Los Angeles. Today, that number is about 860.A month from now, it could be in the thousands — or even more. (Erika D. Smith, 8/7)
CalMatters:
More Resources Needed This Fall For School Meals To Feed California’s Children
One question unites every American family right now: whether and how their children will be going back to school this fall. In California, that question is easily answered: at least 90% of students will start the school year with full-time distance learning. “Back to school” may look different this year, but one thing remains the same: kids in California and throughout America are hungry and rely on the nutrition they receive from school meals to learn, grow and reach their full potential. (Kathy Saile and Barbara Friedrich, 8/5)
Sacramento Bee:
Gov. Gavin Newsom Must Protect Statewide Cannabis Delivery
On Thursday in Fresno’s Superior Court, 25 local governments will try to deny millions of Californians their right to buy licensed cannabis through legal delivery. Nevermind that these millions include veterans, people with disabilities, the immunocompromised and the elderly. Nevermind that COVID-19 threatens us each time we leave our homes, or that cannabis delivery is a designated essential service. (Sean Kiernan, 8/6)
Los Angeles Times:
Partying Our Way To More Coronavirus Death And Destruction?
After weeks of bad coronavirus news, Californians glimpsed a sliver of hope this week: The average number of people hospitalized or admitted to the ICU with COVID-19 infections has declined over the last two weeks. Infections might have ebbed significantly as well, but we won’t know for sure until the state fixes a data collection foul-up. (8/6)