Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
COVID-19 Overwhelms Border ICUs
Some California hospitals near the Mexican border have received so many COVID-19 patients the past few weeks that they have had to divert some to other facilities. Hospital officials say most of the infected patients are U.S. citizens or legal residents who live in, or recently traveled to, Mexico and came to the U.S. for care. (Heidi de Marco, )
Newsom Warns California Residents To Brace For Surge Of Cases Following Protests: “If you’re not [concerned], you’re not paying attention to the epidemiology, to the virulence of this disease,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said. Newsom added that he’s concerned about the virus’ disproportionate impact on California’s black community, which accounts for nearly 5% of all positive cases but 10% of virus-related deaths. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services agency, said the effects of the protest on the spread of the virus will not be known for weeks. He emphasized the “importance of the freedom and liberty to protest,” but said, “it does create infectious disease concern that we weren’t contending with before.”
Meanwhile, the Public Policy Institute of California released a poll showing that most Californians were wary of reopening too quickly amid the continuing pandemic. The poll found widespread support for current statewide restrictions implemented to curb the spread of the virus. Some even want tougher safeguards, and many remain fearful about contracting COVID-19 and ending up in the hospital. Read more from Aidin Vaziri of the San Francisco Chronicle, and Cindy Carcamo, Soumya Karlamangla and Phil Willon of the Los Angeles Times.
In related news from the Los Angeles Times: How Many People In L.A. Actually Have The Coronavirus? Why Health Officials Still Don’t Know
Newsom Proposes Expanding Program To Coordinate Volunteers Who Want To Help Fight Outbreak: Gov. Gavin Newsom is asking lawmakers to spend an extra $13 million on the volunteer-coordination office — a request that stands out in a state budget that’s facing a $54.3 billion deficit. The pitch builds on California Volunteers, an office that aims to nurture organizations that rely on volunteer service. It received $20 million in one-time funding last year to expand AmeriCorps programming in the state. Newsom wants to reach 10,000 AmeriCorps members — more than double the current number. According to the governor’s office, those volunteers and scores of others who’ve signed up to help are key to California’s immediate COVID-19 response and the state’s long-term recovery. Read more from MacKenzie Hawkins of the Sacramento Bee.
Below, check out the full round-up of California Healthline original stories, state coverage and the best of the rest of the national news for the day.
More News From Across The State
Bay Area News Group:
Coronavirus: Nearly 100 New Cases Of COVID-19 Confirmed In Alameda County
Alameda County health officials added nearly 100 more confirmed cases to their list of coronavirus patients Thursday, while Contra Costa County, San Mateo County and San Francisco all saw a rise by more than 30, health officials said. The health departments from those four areas and Santa Clara County reported their latest statistics regarding COVID-19 before 2 p.m. Thursday. (Hurd, 6/4)
Sacramento Bee:
California Maps Show Rates Of COVID-19 Cases, Deaths, Hospitalizations
COVID-19 continues to spread throughout much of California, but the rate of new cases and deaths varies sharply between many counties. The worst outbreak during the past two weeks was in Imperial County, where cases more than doubled and deaths rose by 60 percent, according to a McClatchy review of state data covering the period between May 19 and June 2. Other counties experiencing relatively high rates of new cases and deaths included Los Angeles, Tulare, Kings, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. (Reese, 6/4)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento County Near 1,500 Cases
California has now been under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home order for 11 full weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic, and while a majority of the state has been permitted to loosen some of those restrictions, huge swaths of the economy remain effectively shut down as the death toll continues to rise. As of Wednesday, the state Department of Public Health reported 4,422 fatalities among nearly than 120,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the highly contagious virus. (McGough, 6/4)
Los Angeles Times:
Jobless Rate Falls To 13.3% In May Amid Coronavirus Slump
The government reported Friday that the unemployment rate dropped to 13.3% last month after soaring to 14.7% in April, an unexpectedly positive turn that suggests the pandemic-induced recession may have hit bottom. Most analysts had expected the rate would keep rising, perhaps as high as 20%. But instead employers also added 2.5 million jobs in May after shedding a record-smashing 20.7 million positions the prior month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Lee, 6/5)
Bay Area News Group:
Coronavirus: Are Kids As Safe As We Thought?
As schools prepare to reopen their doors, researchers are racing to understand the mysterious ways the novel coronavirus affects children. Being back in school will offer a big boost to children’s mental health, experts say. But what about risks to their physical health, as millions of youngsters share classrooms, bathrooms and playgrounds? Recent evidence of an unusual complication affecting children is driving new concerns. (Lee and Krieger, 6/5)
Bay Area News Group:
Santa Clara County Slow To Expand Contact Tracing
Nine days after Santa Clara County officials announced they had hired only 50 contact tracers, the number has nearly doubled, with 96 on the job as of Thursday. The hirings represent progress, but the Santa Clara County Public Health Department is nowhere close to having the workforce of 700 contact tracers it had anticipated to hire by the last week of May. “It’s turned out to be a lot harder than I expected,” county CEO Jeff Smith said last week. (Crowley, 6/5)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Domestic Violence Shelters In SF, Elsewhere See Rise In Calls, Severity Of Violence
One result of shelter-in-place orders during the coronavirus pandemic is to confine some household members with others who abuse them. By most indications, domestic violence has become more frequent and more violent. Police chiefs nationwide reported increases of 10% to 30% in domestic assaults in the first two weeks after a national emergency was declared in March, according to a USA Today survey. On April 6, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres implored governments worldwide to address the “horrifying global surge in domestic violence.” (Egelko, 6/5)
Bay Area News Group:
Oakland: Newspaper Sues County Over Coronavirus Records
Citing violations of the state’s Public Records Act, the Bay Area News Group has sued Alameda County, seeking information about coronavirus cases and deaths at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. The Bay Area News Group, which publishes The Mercury News and the East Bay Times, filed requests with the county health department in April asking for basic data about confirmed COVID-19 cases and death among the staff and patients at long-term health care facilities, or nursing homes. But the county denied the request, without citing any exemptions under the law, according to the lawsuit filed in Alameda County Superior Court. (Ruggiero, 6/4)
CalMatters:
COVID Workers' Comp Claims In California Pass 5,000
Californians stricken with COVID-19 took the first step in filing more than 5,000 workers’ compensation claims from January through May, according to state data released to CalMatters. More than 1,000 of those claims were denied, most of them before Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a May 6 executive order extending protections for essential workers infected on the job on or after March 19, the day California’s lockdown order went into effect. The order presumes that essential workers — including nurses, first responders, farmworkers and grocery workers who contracted COVID-19 — were infected on the job, and puts the burden on employers to prove otherwise. (Ostrov, 6/4)
Bay Area News Group:
Tracy: Safeway Sued By Widow Of Worker Who Died From COVID
A widow is suing her late husband’s employer, Safeway, for wrongful death after he contracted COVID-19 at one of its warehouse distribution centers and died. Pedro Zuniga, 52, was a longtime employee of the produce division of Safeway’s Distribution Center in Tracy, a large warehouse that employs 1,700 workers and distributes food for Safeway throughout the Bay Area and beyond. At least 3% of them, or 51 employees, contracted the coronavirus following an outbreak at the warehouse in April, according to Safeway statements at the time. (Ruggiero, 6/4)
San Francisco Chronicle:
These Bay Area CVS, Walgreens Temporarily Shut - Here’s Where To Fill Your Prescriptions Nearby
As protests and demonstrations following the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota police custody continue in the Bay Area, many CVS and Walgreens locations remain shuttered after some stores were vandalized and looted. About 21% of pharmacies in the Bay Area, including a mix of chain stores and mom-and-pop stores, are closed, as indicated by the clientele of Yext, a New York-based software company that manages a business’s location-related information. (Hwang and Narayan, 6/4)
Fresno Bee:
Fresno Leader Says He Won’t Be Bullied Into Wearing Masks
The Fresno City Council mandated council members Thursday to wear masks while entering and walking around inside City Hall — a policy the rest of the building’s occupants are already held to during the coronavirus pandemic. The policy was proposed by Councilmember Miguel Arias, and was opposed only by Councilmember Garry Bredefeld, who claimed the policy was an effort to bully him into donning a mask. (Miller, 6/4)
Fresno Bee:
Fresno, Tulare Counties Now Exceed 2,000 COVID-19 Cases Each
Fresno County health officials reported 70 new cases of coronavirus disease on Thursday, and Tulare County increased its total by 57 cases, as the number of patients who have tested positive for the virus continues to climb in the central San Joaquin Valley. In a Thursday evening update, Kings County announced that it had 265 new cases – all but 20 connected with state prisons in Avenal or Corcoran. No new deaths were reported there. (Sheehan, 6/4)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Why SF’s New Laws To Force More Mentally Ill, Addicted People Into Treatment Haven’t Been Used Yet
When San Francisco expanded its ability to force people into treatment last year, the idea was to help the sickest of the sick: those who are severely mentally ill, addicted to drugs, and continuously cycling in and out of the city’s hospitals. An additional 50 to 100 people, a small sliver of the city’s most vulnerable, were expected to qualify for court-ordered mental health treatment. But, one year later, not a single person has been considered under the new program, and different public agencies are blaming each other — and the coronavirus pandemic — for the delay. (Thadani, 6/5)
Los Angeles Times:
Troubling Videos Capture L.A. Police Violence Amid Protests
In one video, at least eight Los Angeles police officers surround a woman lying in a Hollywood street as the buzz of a Taser fills the air. People scream from apartment balconies for the officers, who appear to be firing the stun gun at the woman, to stop. In another video, an LAPD vehicle barrels into a crowd of protesters in Pershing Square, nearly driving over one before backing up and speeding away as protesters throw objects at the car. (Queally, Rector and Winton, 6/4)
Los Angeles Times:
Photo Of Long Beach Officer Standing Over Blood With His Baton Spurs Internal Investigation
The Long Beach Police Department has launched an internal investigation after an officer shared photos on his social media, including one showing him standing over blood with his baton, this week amid days of protests held in the city against the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. According to an email sent Thursday by City Manager Tom Modica, the department became aware of a “social media post an officer had on his Facebook page” that included “a baton and blood on the ground.” (Vega and Queally, 6/4)
San Francisco Chronicle:
The Virus Does Not Discriminate, But Our Social Structures Do
More than 10 weeks into the COVID-19 public health order, more than 6,500 San Franciscans still have nowhere to safely shelter in place. Our city has followed one public health policy for those with housing and a separate one for people experiencing homelessness. The virus does not discriminate who it infects. Our social structures, however, do. (Olivia Park, Juliana Morris and Rupa Marya, 6/1)
Los Angeles Times:
How To Make Sure Protests Don't Spread Coronavirus
When thousands of people started crowding city streets across the nation last week to protest the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, where was the outcry about the risk of a new COVID-19 outbreak? Why weren’t the voices that were so quick to condemn the unmasked conservatives who protested pandemic shutdowns and the crowds of unmasked hikers and beachgoers speaking out again? It’s a good question that defies a simple answer. Was it the surprising escalation of protests? The protesters’ cause? Or the fact that it would come off as inexcusably tone-deaf to scold people about proper social distancing when they worry that they or their loved ones may be the next victims of a police shooting? (6/5)
San Francisco Chronicle:
California Is Reopening At Your Risk
The reopening of California and the country is catching on like an infection. Having led the nation in locking down, the Bay Area and the state are now following others into a risky attempt to return to normalcy even as the novel coronavirus keeps spreading. Three weeks ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom allowed the resumption of some retail for curbside pickup and related manufacturing. Two weeks ago, he announced that they could be joined by some offices and shopping malls. On Monday, he cleared the way for in-store retail and religious congregations with some restrictions. (5/31)
San Francisco Chronicle:
What New York, San Francisco Should Learn From Each Other’s Pandemic Response
As a child of both cities, I tend to cringe at the takes comparing San Francisco and New York’s experiences of the pandemic. There’s a tendency to reduce the differences to a single issue: Did a handful of days’ delay double New York’s death toll? Did toxic New York toughness made us feel invincible to an obvious threat? Meanwhile, there have been lots of easy congratulations for the early action the Bay Area took to shelter in place. But there was no version of this pandemic that was going to come to New York gently. Meanwhile, San Francisco still has plenty of work to do. (Cary McClelland, 6/4)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Children Have Not Been Spared By The Coronavirus
As both a pediatrician and a mom, I was hugely relieved in the early days of COVID-19 when I saw articles and studies suggesting that the coronavirus seemed to spare children. I work in a large children’s hospital and I was initially afraid of the possible system overwhelm that we have seen in places like Italy and New York. I feared going to work and bringing the virus home to my family. These were the issues at the forefront of my mind. I never imagined COVID-19’s more insidious threat and the consequences that I would see play out for many of the patients I take care of. (Nora Pfaff, 6/5)
Los Angeles Times:
In The COVID-19 Unit, Saying Goodbye To A Mentor Long Distance
My assignment was to photograph a hospital battling COVID-19, and over weeks of visits, I saw a brave and dedicated staff treat patients with energy and compassion. It was impressive but, in a way, not surprising. The staff at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital has worked to overcome the reputation of the facility’s predecessor, the troubled King/Drew Medical Center, a hospital so bad it lost its accreditation and was nicknamed “Killer King.” (Orr, 6/5)
Fresno Bee:
Mask Wearing Good Way To Beat COVID-19, Research Shows
Businesses in Fresno are reopening as California enters Stage 2 of its Resilience Roadmap. However, new cases of COVID-19 in Fresno County continue to accelerate, and so the risks of infection by visiting public spaces are ironically much greater now than when California instituted its shelter-in-place order. Business closures, though, are not the only tool that government officials can employ. (Keith and Heather Putirka, 6/2)
San Jose Mercury News:
MediCal Cuts Would Send More Into Deadly Nursing Homes With COVID-19
I can’t imagine a worse time than the present to feel forced into living in a nursing home. Not while half of all COVID-19 fatalities in California are occurring in eldercare facilities. Not while we are repeatedly traumatized by deeply disturbing stories about the aloneness of nursing home residents in COVID quarantine, even while dying, separated from their loved ones. Not while the cost for such institutionalized care is many-fold higher than the cost for remaining at home. (Dr. Kate Scannell, 6/3)
San Jose Mercury News:
New Bay Area Coronavirus Lockdown Easing Risks Resurgence
The county that led the Bay Area, state and nation in sheltering in place, saving thousands of lives, will effectively reopen Friday. Santa Clara County Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody is giving a green light to in-store shopping, outdoor dining, summer camps, summer schools, public swimming pools, outdoor religious services and manufacturing and warehousing businesses. The decision comes only a week after Cody correctly criticized Gov. Gavin Newsom for taking almost identical action. “The state is opening things at a very brisk clip (and) not waiting to see what the impact is,” she said then. The sudden reversal suggests the move is driven primarily by political pressure. (6/3)
CalMatters:
California Needs To Protect Its Prison Staff, Inmates From COVID-19
As we learn more about COVID-19 daily, it is increasingly clear that impacts are largest for individuals with health risks, the economically disadvantaged and people of color. Prisons concentrate these vulnerabilities in a single institution. And institutions with concentrated vulnerabilities put us all at risk. As scholars of prisons and inequality, we urge our leaders to recognize the importance of centering prisons, and especially prison staff, in the ongoing public health response to COVID-19. (Naomi Sugie, Keramet Reiter and Kristin Turney, 5/30)
San Jose Mercury News:
As Bay Area Reopens, Continue Coronavirus Safety Vigilance
The Bay Area’s success in slowing the spread of the coronavirus reflects residents’ collective, sensible response to public health officers’ shelter-in-place orders. The region should take great pride in setting a national model that has saved thousands of lives. But this is no time for complacency. As businesses start reopening, the need for widespread compliance with, and enforcement of, social distancing requirements has never been greater. COVID-19 has not disappeared. (5/31)
CalMatters:
Executive Order On Workers' Comp For COVID Does More Harm Than Good
California is projecting the largest budget deficit in state history. This is due partially to increased expenses incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, but also from substantially reduced economic activity. As reported by Bloomberg, personal income-tax collections will drop by 26%, sales and use taxes by 27% and corporation taxes by 23%. Meanwhile, unemployment is expected to reach 18 percent this year. In April, it was estimated that the state lost about a third of its economic output, according to a U.S. News & World Report. (Clint Olivier, 5/30)