San Francisco Chronicle: Coronavirus Infections Spike Among San Francisco General Hospital Workers 
Coronavirus infections among health care workers at San Francisco General Hospital are increasing at a rapid rate, raising concerns about workplace conditions and testing procedures. Hospital administrators are reacting by stepping up safety protocols. (Moench, 7/9)

Fresno Bee: COVID-19 Outbreak Reported At Foster Farms, Livingston 
An outbreak of coronavirus has been confirmed at Foster Farms’ Livingston complex — the second Merced County outbreak connected to the Valley poultry company. The Merced County Department of Health on June 29 confirmed 13 individuals tested positive. (Lauten-Scrivner, 7/9)

Fresno Bee: Fresno County New Coronavirus Cases Rise By 346 Infections 
Fresno County added 346 new positive cases of coronavirus on Thursday, increasing its total to 7,281 cases reported since the pandemic began. Three new deaths were also reported, bringing the county’s total number of deaths to 87. Hospitalizations from the highly contagious virus rose sharply this week, up almost 30 from Tuesday to Wednesday. On Thursday, hospitalizations rose by five, bringing the total number of people hospitalized since the pandemic began to 431. (Rodriguez, 7/9)

The Desert Sun: Riverside County Reports 1,377 New COVID-19 Cases, 18 Deaths Thursday
Riverside County health officials reported 1,377 new cases of COVID-19 and 18 additional virus-related deaths on Thursday. The number denotes a significant jump and is the county's largest single-day tally since the pandemic began. There are now 23,334 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county, and 533 of those have been fatal. (Henry, 7/9)

Sacramento Bee: Placer County Added To California’s Coronavirus Watch List 
Officials on Thursday night urged restaurants to prepare to temporarily end indoor dining in Placer County after it was officially added to a state “watch list” of counties with a rising number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. A county on the monitoring list for three consecutive days is automatically required by the state to stop serving meals indoors at restaurants for at least three weeks. Placer County was added to the list Thursday. (Ahumada, 7/9)

The Desert Sun: San Bernardino County Reports 828 New Coronavirus Cases, 11 New Deaths Thursday
San Bernardino County reported 828 new coronavirus cases and 11 additional deaths Thursday, a day after the county announced it had to cancel hundreds of COVID-19 tests that had already been scheduled due to a shortage of testing supplies caused by supply chain disruptions. The county, home to more than 2 million people, is also not booking any new appointments. While county officials say they don’t know when the issue will be resolved, they hope to reopen the portal over the weekend to allow appointments to be booked starting Monday. (Henry, 7/9)

The Desert Sun: COVID: Palm Springs Area Cities Step Up Mask Enforcement
Stroll through downtown Palm Springs these days and you might encounter a police officer using a loudspeaker to remind people to put on a mask — or thank them for already wearing one. Drivers who head east along Highway 111 will see electronic warning signs encouraging them to cover their faces; Cathedral City warns of $500 fines. If they reach Indio, they may find businesses that have signs advising "No shirt, no shoes, no face coverings, no service." (Atagi, 7/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Supervisor Walton Test Negative For Coronavirus 
San Francisco Mayor London Breed tested negative for the coronavirus, according to results she received Thursday. The mayor was tested Wednesday after being exposed to an infected person at a recent public event. Despite the negative result, Breed intends to make no public appearances for the next 10 days as a precautionary measure advised by city health officials. Breed will be tested again next week, “since we know it can take a while between being exposed and testing positive,” she tweeted Thursday. (Fracassa, 7/9)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento District Releases Plans To Reopen Schools 
Sacramento City Unified School District released a draft of the precautions and recommendations for the fall as they plan to reopen schools. The 44-page draft laid out precautions students and staff must take, which include daily student monitoring for symptoms and temperature screenings on campus. (Morrar, 7/9)

Fresno Bee: Fresno Schools Set Deadline For Fall Student Enrollment 
Fresno school leaders say parents have until the end of July to decide whether to send their children back to campuses in the fall or enroll them exclusively in online learning courses. Speaking at a news conference Thursday, Fresno Unified Superintendent Bob Nelson said if parents don’t enroll their children for online learning by July 31, they will automatically be enrolled in on-campus classes. (Velez, 7/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: Parties, Beer And Coronavirus: Surge In Cases Among Young People Threatens Colleges’ Reopening Plans 
A recent outbreak of coronavirus cases at UC Berkeley, tied to summer fraternity parties, has highlighted a worrisome trend for colleges and universities: Young people are driving the virus’ recent rampage across the country. The surge carries ominous implications for schools, including UC Berkeley and Stanford, planning to welcome students back to campus in August and September. (Kroichick, 7/10)

Fresno Bee: Census 2020 Outreach In Fresno Impacts Latino Communities 
With the coronavirus pandemic upending efforts to count hard-to-reach populations across California, census advocates say the stakes are high for the mostly poor and Latino residents tucked away in the central San Joaquin Valley. The national census count performed every 10 years determines how much from $1.5 trillion in federal dollars will be allocated to local governments and how many congressional representatives each state will receive. (Lopez, 7/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: Pandemic Puts Homeless Seniors In Greater Jeopardy On Bay Area Streets 
Under the black morning sky, he unfolds himself from Bus Stop 15533 in SoMa. His legs are stiff and swollen from sleeping upright, his hair matted from the seatback. He darts across Mission Street, loud with the hydraulic hiss of street-sweeping trucks, and hides his flattened cardboard in the lower branches of a magnolia. Several of the trees grow in a line near a historic Catholic church, red-bricked and sharp-steepled, similar to the one he attended as a child in Atlixco, southeast of Mexico City. (Johnson, 7/10)

Sacramento Bee: COVID-19 Low-Income Testing Sites Open In Sacramento, Yolo
Sacramento County is partnering with the National Guard to reopen four of five recently closed coronavirus testing centers in lower-income communities next week. Yolo County announced it also will open testing sites for uninsured people for one week. (Bizjak, 7/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: San Quentin Coronavirus Outbreak: Former Inmate, Teens Join Public Officials In Calling For Widespread Release 
Outside the black main gates of San Quentin State Prison, a crowd of more than 50 gathered Thursday to call on Gov. Gavin Newsom to immediately reduce the prison’s population to save lives amid an explosive and deadly coronavirus outbreak inside the North Bay facility. James King, a 54-year-old former prisoner who was released in December and now works for the Oakland-based Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, was joined by family members of prisoners, elected officials, medical experts and a group of young prison reform advocates, as he read a letter he recently received from Thang Tran, a man currently being held at San Quentin. (Simpson, 7/9)

Los Angeles Times: How Californians Are Adapting To Coronavirus Job Losses 
Calling the impact of the coronavirus an economic crisis undersells it. “Crisis” suggests something acute, of finite duration. But for the almost 1 in 5 Californians out of work, and the millions more who’ve lost income and the support systems that allow them to earn it — there is no obvious end in sight. It’s less crisis than new era. (White, 7/10)

Fresno Bee: Merced Corp. Has Largest Federal Relief Loan In Valley 
A Merced-based corporation that owns more than 20 McDonald’s locations got one of the top two largest federal COVID-19 relief loans in the central San Joaquin Valley worth potentially up to $10 million, according to records. ALIA Corp. is a company owned by John Abbate, who runs the business with a number of other relatives. Asked about the loan on Thursday, Abbate directed inquiries to the corporate McDonald’s email address. (Miller, 7/10)

Fresno Bee: Clovis City Council Shows Leadership By Wearing Masks 
The Clovis City Council just showed some strong leadership. Did it come as solid financial management? Outstanding community vision? Amazing transparency in decision making? Actually, something much more basic — choosing life over sickness and death. The council members wore face masks for a photo shoot and Facebook posting to encourage Clovis residents to do the same in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic. (7/10)

Los Angeles Times: Have I Recovered From Coronavirus? That's Not Easy To Answer 
I can’t count how many times I’ve been asked this question in the three months since I came home from the hospital after a near-death experience with COVID-19. I’m grateful for the concern. I don’t know if I would have made it through those 17 days in the hospital, including almost a week on a ventilator, without the thoughts, prayers and other support that I received from family, friends and strangers. But when I answer this question, explaining the state of my lungs, cough, vocal cords and muscle weakness, I sometimes feel I’m disappointing the questioner, who just wanted a simple “yes.” (David Lat, 7/9)

CalMatters: Efforts To Silence Public Health Officials Must Stop
In the middle of a once-in-a-century health crisis and as COVID-19 cases rise sharply across the U.S., public health leaders are under attack. As COVID-19 ravages communities and a coordinated response is desperately needed, dozens of state and local health officials have been harassed, threatened with violence and death. And they have been pressured to rescind or modify public health regulations on the basis of politics, rather than science. Some have been fired. Others have resigned under duress. (Manal J. Aboelata, 7/6)

Fresno Bee: How Did Masks Morph From Protection Into Divisive Symbols? 
Instead of being simple sanitary devices that help minimize the spread of COVID-19, ordinary cloth masks or the absence of such facial coverings have become divisive political symbols and statements of obedience to or defiance of official recommendations in a hyper-partisan election environment. How in the world did such silliness happen? (Andrew Malcolm, 7/7)

CalMatters: Even Those With Disabilities Should Have A Safe Place To Go: A Family’s Crisis
Recently, my family had a scare. We had a fire threaten our property, our home in the mountains of Jamul, an unincorporated town in San Diego County. Contrary to most assumptions, potentially losing our houses on the property was not the actual scare. The scare was that my brother, Joaquin, who experiences severe autism and epilepsy, had no place to go. (Diana Pastora Carson, 7/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: Only Days Into Baseball’s Experiment, It Already Seems Doomed 
Baseball’s attempt to coexist with COVID-19 is less than a week old, and already the season is over. There can’t be a reasonably minded soul who thinks this is going to work. (Bruce Jenkins, 7/7)

Sacramento Bee: As COVID-19 Spikes, CA Test Shortage Hurts Black & Latinos 
The decision by Sacramento County health officials to shut down COVID-19 testing centers in poor communities even as infections are spiking makes two things exceedingly clear. First, it’s further proof that Gov. Gavin Newsom and Sacramento County health officials acted recklessly by rushing to lift coronavirus restrictions before it was safe. Second, it hammers home the fact that – due to systemic racism – poor communities and people of color will suffer the worst consequences of California’s botched reopening. (7/9)

Sacramento Bee: California’s Botched Reopening Will Hurt People Of Color
The decision by Sacramento County health officials to shut down COVID-19 testing centers in poor communities even as infections are spiking makes two things exceedingly clear. First, it’s further proof that Gov. Gavin Newsom and Sacramento County health officials acted recklessly by rushing to lift coronavirus restrictions before it was safe. Second, it hammers home the fact that – due to systemic racism – poor communities and people of color will suffer the worst consequences of California’s botched reopening. (7/9)

CalMatters: I Faced A Challenge One Out Of Every Three People In America Has: Depression And Anxiety 
On Friday, April 10, at 5 p.m., Californians learned I had resigned as Chief Economic and Business Advisor to Gov. Gavin Newsom and chair of the California High Speed Rail Authority. The press release stated I was leaving “to focus on family and personal business.” In corporate speak, this usually means someone got fired. I was not fired, and I approved this press release, even though I hate 5 p.m. Friday press releases. I am sharing additional information because I faced a challenge one of every three people in America has: depression and anxiety. (Lenny Mendonca, 7/7)

San Francisco Chronicle: San Quentin Coronavirus Outbreak Underscores California’s Cruel Treatment Of Prisoners 
Health professionals and civil rights advocates sounded the alarm back in March: People held in local, state and federal lockups were in a perilous position because detention facilities weren’t prepared to handle the coronavirus, they told me. They were right. (Otis R. Taylor Jr., 7/6)