Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Don’t Count on Lower Premiums Despite Pandemic-Driven Boon for Insurers
Early in the pandemic, insurers expected the costs of treating COVID-19 would vastly increase medical spending. Instead, non-COVID care has plummeted and insurers have pocketed the result. Still, few industry observers are predicting broad-based premium cuts in 2021, though some health plans have proposed lowering their rates. (Bernard J. Wolfson, )
San Francisco Opens Overflow Facility For Non-COVID Patients: Predicting a “major surge” in critical coronavirus cases in the coming weeks, San Francisco officials said Thursday they will shift non-COVID-19 patients to a new inpatient facility in the Presidio if it becomes necessary to clear hospital beds for virus patients. The temporary medical center will be set up in a pair of warehouses behind the Palace of Fine Arts on Gorgas Avenue and will treat up to 93 patients, county officials said. Read more from Tatiana Sanchez of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Sacramento County Expands Testing Sites: As coronavirus infections and deaths continue to climb, Sacramento County officials on Thursday announced they have come up with enough testing materials to add new test sites in four communities – Folsom, North Highlands, Rancho Cordova and Galt. The sites will open next week and will operate by online appointments for Sacramento County residents, regardless of legal status. Each site will be open one day a week. Read more from Tony Bizjak of the Sacramento Bee.
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
Sacramento Bee:
Serious COVID-19 Cases Surge In Millennials, Young Adults
Kris Obligar was lying in a hospital intensive care bed, terrified and crying. She couldn’t breathe, and her condition was deteriorating fast. Just hours after the 27-year-old Sacramentan had managed to walk haltingly into the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center on Morse Avenue in early July, doctors were telling her they possibly needed to perform an emergency tracheotomy on her – cutting a hole in her throat. “I thought ... I might die,” the Sacramento speech therapist said. “My mind and body went into panic mode.” (Morrar and Bizjak, 7/30)
Politico:
California Local Leaders Take Harder Line On Pandemic Order Violations
California cities and counties are cracking down on violators of Covid-19 orders, even as the governor has advocated a less “punitive” approach. Contra Costa County became one of the latest jurisdictions to resort to fines this week, with supervisors on Tuesday passing an urgency ordinance that imposes penalties between $100 and $500 on individuals and up to $1,000 on businesses. (Colliver, 7/29)
Sacramento Bee:
CA Falls Behind In Effort To Buy 10,000 COVID-19 Ventilators
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s drive to obtain 10,000 ventilators to help California hospitals treat COVID-19 patients has fallen well behind schedule as coronavirus infections continue to surge. The state Department of General Services has received 188 ventilators out of 8,000 promised by Ashli Healthcare Inc. of Bakersfield, the state’s main supplier, department spokeswoman Monica Hassan said this week. (Kasler and Sabalow, 7/31)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Imperial County Was A Warning For California. Will Its Shutdown Be A Model?
A month ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom called on Imperial County to do something he hadn’t asked any other part of the state to do: halt the reopening of its economy and move backward. The county in the far southeast corner of California, along the Arizona and Mexico borders, was experiencing the worst surge of coronavirus cases in the state. Some local leaders said its challenges were an anomaly, exacerbated by border travel and widespread poverty. (Gardiner, 7/31)
Los Angeles Times:
Coronavirus Deaths Among L.A. County Food Processing Workers Bring Dire Plea From Health Officials
With coronavirus deaths now surpassing 9,000 across California, health officials in Los Angeles County are investigating a deadly outbreak at a food processing plant in Commerce and issued another urgent plea for businesses and employees to report COVID-19 cases. The county is examining the deaths of two employees at Mission Foods Corp. in Commerce. (Shalby, Miller and Lin II, 7/31)
Fresno Bee:
Total Coronavirus Cases Top 14,000 In Fresno County
The number of confirmed and suspected coronavirus patients being treated in hospitals has dipped over the past week, according to the state Department of Public Health. But severely ill patients with COVID-19 continue to occupy about 47% of the licensed intensive-care unit beds in hospitals across the county. Hospitalized COVID-19 patients across all levels inhabit about one out of four beds that are licensed for acute medical and intensive-care needs. (Sheehan, 7/30)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Nine Employees At Sunnyvale Costco Test Positive For The Coronavirus
Thirty-one Costco employees in Santa Clara County have gotten coronavirus infections over the past two weeks, according to county officials: 13 in Sunnyvale, 8 in San Jose (at the Senter Road location), six in Gilroy and four in Mountain View. The county’s Public Health Department is working with Costco to investigate the outbreaks. The county said that preliminary results “indicate that Costco is complying with social distancing and other protocols.” The cases were likely caused by “community transmission and most likely not internal transmission among employees,” officials said. (Echeverria, 7/30)
Los Angeles Times:
COVID-19 Outbreak At USC Fraternity Row; At Least 40 Infected
USC is dealing with an outbreak of the coronavirus spread across the university’s Greek row. The school has detected around 40 positive COVID-19 cases involving individuals living on 28th Street, where many fraternity groups associated with the university are based, said Dr. Sarah Van Orman, USC’s chief student health officer. (Sheridan, 7/30)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Marin County Hiker Assaulted After Asking Jogger To Put On Mask
When a man hiking a Marin County trail this week asked an approaching jogger to put on a face covering, the jogger shoved him to the ground and kept running, officials said. Rangers responded to a reported physical altercation around 10 a.m. Wednesday on the Gertrude Ord Trail near Phoenix Lake in Ross, said Jeanne Mariani-Belding, spokeswoman for the Marin Municipal Water District. (Bauman, 7/30)
San Francisco Chronicle:
A New Strain Of The Coronavirus Is Dominant Now. Is It More Contagious?
A mutant strain of the coronavirus that some researchers believe is more infectious is rampaging across the globe and has moved into the Bay Area, but there are conflicting views about how this tiny deviant is impacting people. The mutated virus, known as the G strain, appears in some studies to be more contagious — up to six times more transmissible — than the original strain of the coronavirus that emerged last year from Wuhan, China, and it is now believed to make up 70% of the infections worldwide. (Fimrite, 7/30)
San Francisco Chronicle:
California And Zuckerberg Lab Team Up To Map Coronavirus Genome, One Of The Largest Efforts To Discover How It Spreads
Health officials and scientists believe genome sequencing of the coronavirus could hold great promise. The technique today helps trace where infections began, and perhaps one day it could help shape the way doctors treat COVID-19 patients. A new initiative between California and the San Francisco research institution funded by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s philanthropic organization could bring them one step closer. (Ho, 7/30)
CalMatters:
Californians Are Dropping Private Insurance To Get Mental Health Treatment
There’s an open secret among those who care for people with serious mental illnesses. Judy Bracken first heard it a few years ago from a hospital social worker: If Bracken wanted her adult son, who has schizoaffective disorder, to receive long-term mental health treatment, she should get him off her private insurance, UnitedHealthcare, and onto the public system for low-income people in Contra Costa County. (Wiener, 7/31)
Fresno Bee:
Can Undocumented Workers Get Unemployment In CA Amid COVID-19?
The California Legislature is considering extending unemployment benefits to undocumented workers who have lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic. The Legislature on Monday released its “Major Components of Joint Economic Stimulus Plan.” In the plan, the Legislature listed an item to “fill gaps in unemployment Insurance, including extending to undocumented workers, shortfalls resulting from if the federal government does not extend the $600 per week payment, and other holes that remain.” (Amaro, 7/30)
Fresno Bee:
California Latinos Hit Hardest By Coronavirus, Experts Say
As the U.S. experiences increasing cases of COVID-19 and deaths, Latinos continue to contract the virus at disproportionate rates, leading some experts to suspect systemic biases across housing, healthcare, and education are to blame. Public health experts worry racial inequities are making the Latino community more susceptible to getting sick and dying. (Lopez, 7/30)
Fresno Bee:
Central Sierra Churches Help Christian Camps Hit By COVID-19
San Joaquin Valley Christian summer camps are struggling as the coronavirus pandemic continues to punch holes in the economy. The financial strain of COVID-19 has touched Christian camps like Calvin Crest above Oakhurst and Hume Lake Christian Camp near Grant Grove. (Lewis, 7/31)
Sacramento Bee:
Pay People Sick With COVID-19 To Stay Home? L.A. Considers It
Not everyone can afford to take a sick day — much less spend a week or more in quarantine — and that’s a real problem in a pandemic, for them, their family, and their community, according to Los Angeles City Council member David Ryu. He introduced a possible solution Wednesday, a wage-replacement measure meant to slow the virus’ spread, by putting money in the pockets of those who couldn’t otherwise afford to miss work. (Willetts, 7/30)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento Kings Lay Off Employees Due To Coronavirus Crisis
Excitement is building as the Kings prepare to resume the NBA season at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, but at the same time the organization is being forced to make some increasingly difficult decisions at home. The Kings laid off some workers and extended furloughs for others Wednesday amid growing financial losses and event cancellations due to the coronavirus pandemic, league sources told The Sacramento Bee, confirming details first reported by ABC10. (Anderson, 7/30)
San Francisco Chronicle:
COVID-19 And Wildfire Smoke: A Dangerous Combo Coming For Californians
The coronavirus pandemic is already stressful for most Californians. Add the threat of wildfires, and the situation looks even more dire. In recent years, smoke from huge Northern California wildfires has sometimes choked the Bay Area, creating unhealthy air quality. With fire season under way this year, how will smoke affect people who have or are recovering from COVID-19, or those with chronic lung diseases? (Hwang, 7/31)
Fresno Bee:
Tulare Inmates Sue Sherifff Over No COVID-19 Protections
Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux is being sued by a group of jail inmates for allegedly failing to provide basic safeguards, including face masks, to protect against COVID-19. The class-action complaint, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Fresno by the ACLU Foundation of Northern California and the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, seeks to force the sheriff to take immediate action to help prevent the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus in the jail. (Rodriguez, 7/31)
Los Angeles Times:
Fears Grow That Releasing Thousands Of California Prisoners Will Spread COVID-19 Into Communities
Missteps by corrections officials handling releases from state prisons are fueling fears in some California counties that thousands of inmates eligible for early release will spread the coronavirus in their communities. Across the state, county probation officials and others on the front lines of the release of as many as 8,000 inmates by the end of August have complained that prisoners were recently freed with little notice to local authorities and without appropriate transportation or quarantine housing — and in some cases, no clear indication they were virus-free. (Chabria, Winton and Christensen, 7/31)
Los Angeles Times:
Prison Housed COVID-Infected Inmate With Uninfected, He Says
Midway through explaining how an inmate who’d tested positive for COVID-19 had been placed in his unit at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison, Gary Croom paused. “Here,” he told a reporter. “I’m going to give him the phone.”Saddled with guilt, worried he might touch off a resurgence of the disease that swept through the prison on the eastern edge of Riverside County a month ago, Alejandro Cantu took the phone. (Ormseth, 7/30)
Sacramento Bee:
Gov. Newsom Should Enter The State Into ‘Modification Mode’
There has been a palpable change in mood among many Californians in recent days, as Gov. Gavin Newsom has reimposed restrictions on various activities in 31 counties and instituted additional measures statewide to combat rapidly rising COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths. Restaurants post signs in their windows that read: “We’re closed – on orders of Governor Newsom.” Democrats in the California State Legislature grumble about the governor’s imperiousness and lack of transparency. Media reports increasingly mention Newsom’s “chaotic” governing style or his “verbosity.” (Joseph Rodota, 7/25)
Sacramento Bee:
Can Governor Gavin Newsom Reverse Coronavirus Trends?
Even before the coronavirus pandemic hit California, some Sacramento insiders were using a curse word – one defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as “a situation or event that is badly organized, unpleasant, and full of confusion” – to describe Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration. The first half of the word: “S---.” The second half: “show.” (Gil Duran, 7/27)
CalMatters:
How To Control Spread Of Coronavirus Over State And County Lines
Many Americans took advantage of May’s long Memorial Day weekend by venturing out of town for the first time in weeks, to gather with family or visit resorts. A few weeks later, COVID-19 cases began a vertiginous rise. With attractions from Disney World to California wineries reopening, the summer vacation season seems to have fueled another surge. (Katherine Florey, 7/29)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Legislature Must Let Nurse Practitioners Optimize Their Skills, Training
Earlier this summer, in the face of an unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, the California Legislature took decisive action through the fiscal 2020-21 budget process to guarantee that California’s health care delivery system was not abandoned in the face of bleak fiscal projections. We also are grateful that the state budget does not cut funding for our community health centers (CHCs) and maintains support of key workforce investments. Unfortunately, these legislative actions alone are not sufficient to address the lack of access to quality health care due to the provider shortage, a shortage that is only getting worse as COVID-19 conditions force early retirement and stymie medical education and training pathways. (Carmela Castellano-Garcia, 7/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Pediatricians: Congress Must Give Schools The Resources To Open Safely
Now there is a movement for children to return to school because it is also essential for children’s health. Just as health care has augmented safety mechanisms in hospitals and clinics, in order to return to in-person schooling we need adequate safety measures to protect students and staff. That is why we are calling for urgent and cohesive bipartisan advocacy toward the same goal: funding the innovative, effective and safe restructuring of schools. (Dr. Simran Gambhir and Dr. Jennifer Sedler, 7/27)
Fresno Bee:
Buddy Mendes Rushes Fresno COVID-19 Pandemic Meeting
Residents of Fresno, both the city and county, got a good look at many of their elected leaders Tuesday morning during what was termed a “joint workshop” regarding the collective response to COVID-19. What we saw spanned the entire spectrum. Some of them asked insightful questions in pursuit of better city-county cooperation. Some would rather pontificate. Some continue to bury their heads. And one in particular acted like a bully who more than anything wanted the meeting to finish on schedule. (Marek Warszawski, 7/29)
CalMatters:
New Stimulus Package Should Help All Immigrants
It is abundantly clear that immigrant Californians – our friends, families and neighbors – are among those hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. They face higher risk of COVID-19 infection and death because they work on the frontlines in agriculture, grocery stores, restaurants and other industries that help us all get the food we need. Yet, many immigrants are excluded from federal relief, including efforts aimed at preventing hunger and helping families meet basic needs. (Betzabel Estudillo and Gabrielle Tilley, 7/31)
The Bakersfield Californian:
OTHER VOICES: California Needs Congress To Act Now To Protect Medicaid And Medi-Cal
In an effort to address the impact of the dramatic economic downturn in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, President Donald Trump and Congress worked together to enact the bipartisan Families First Act. Through this legislation, policymakers provided a temporary 6.2 percentage point increase to what’s known as the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, which is the share of Medicaid costs that the federal government pays in each state. This is an important first step, but is not sufficient as COVID-19 rages on and wreaks havoc on state economies nationwide. (LaVarne Burton, 7/30)
Sacramento Bee:
California Must Stop Promoting Marijuana And Cannabis In Ads
It’s one thing to decriminalize cannabis, but it’s another to encourage use with marketing and advertising that reaches kids. And that’s the problem: Almost all commercial advertising makes its way to the eyes and ears of children. If we care about public health, we should ban all cannabis ads. (Marvin D. Seppala, 7/30)