Trump’s Weight, Age Will Affect His Recovery from COVID, Says Virus Expert At UC San Diego: President Donald Trump said late Thursday night that he and his wife, Melania, have tested positive for COVID-19 and that they have gone into isolation. The Union-Tribune discussed the news with Dr. Davey Smith, chief of infectious diseases at UC San Diego. Potential problems among elderly victims –Trump is 74 – include pneumonia and blood clotting. Read more from the San Diego Union-Tribune. For more coverage on President Trump, see below.
Churches Still Can’t Hold Indoor Services, Appeals Court Rules: A federal appeals court decided 2 to 1 Thursday to uphold Gov. Gavin Newsom’s coronavirus restrictions on indoor worship during the pandemic. The majority of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel said California’s health orders on churches did not discriminate against religious expression. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
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:
Trump And First Lady Test Positive For The Coronavirus
President Trump said early Friday that he and the first lady had tested positive for the coronavirus. “We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately,” Trump said in a tweet at 12:54 a.m. Eastern time. “We will get through this TOGETHER!” Trump’s positive test came just hours after the White House announced that senior aide Hope Hicks, one of the president’s closest advisors, had tested positive Thursday after several days of traveling with the president. (Stokols, 10/1)
Fresno Bee:
Trump Tweets He Has COVID-19 After Aide Also Tested Positive
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for COVID-19 and will isolate, they said Friday morning, jolting a nation already rocked by the coronavirus pandemic and creating a political earthquake merely one month out from Election Day. The announcement came hours after one of the president’s closest aides, Hope Hicks, also tested positive. (Wilner and Roarty, 10/2)
Los Angeles Times:
Trump COVID-19: Vice President Mike Pence Tests Negative
Vice President Mike Pence tested negative for the coronavirus Friday, his office announced, suggesting he might not have been infected by President Trump, the first lady or others on the White House staff who tested positive. Pence’s negative test alleviates immediate concerns about the presidential line of succession if Trump becomes badly ill and is unable to perform his duties. At 74 and obese, Trump faces increased odds to develop serious symptoms from the coronavirus. (Megerian, 10/2)
Los Angeles Times:
Trump's Age, Sex, Weight Make Severe COVID-19 More Likely
President Trump may be the leader of the free world, but as far as the coronavirus is concerned, he is a 74-year-old male with obesity. Each of those three attributes — his age, sex and weight status — increases his risk of developing a severe case of COVID-19. (Kaplan, 10/2)
AP:
Trump Doctor's Statement On His Coronavirus Infection
President Trump announced early Friday that he and his wife, Melania, had both tested positive for the coronavirus. Following is a text of a statement from Sean Conley, the president’s physician: “I release the following information with the permission of President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump. This evening I received confirmation that both President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus." (10/2)
San Francisco Chronicle:
How Will Trump’s Coronavirus Positive Test Reshape The Presidential Race?
President Trump’s stunning revelation early Friday that he has tested positive for the coronavirus raises a host of questions not only about his health, but about politics and the future of a presidential campaign that has just 32 days to go before election day. Here are some of them: What happens to the remaining debates? Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden are scheduled to return to the debate stage for two more events, Oct. 15 and 29. The first is supposed to be a town hall-style session, where voters would pose questions to the candidates. (Garofoli, 10/2)
Los Angeles Times:
Trump's Coronavirus Infection: What Happens In The Election?
President Trump’s positive coronavirus test presents a formidable new obstacle for a reelection campaign already struggling to overcome the drag of the COVID-19 pandemic and the attendant crippling of much of the U.S. economy. While the ultimate impact of the diagnosis will depend on the president’s health, even a relatively mild case will refocus the nation and the 2020 campaign on the response to the deadly virus, an issue on which Trump has received low marks from voters. (Rainey and Mehta, 10/2)
AP:
Trump COVID-19 Timeline: Activities Before Diagnosis
With just a month to go until the election, President Trump had a busy schedule during the week the coronavirus hit home with him. Trump tweeted early Friday that he and First Lady Melania Trump had tested positive for the coronavirus. (10/2)
LA Daily News:
Trump’s Positive Test Overshadows Social-Media Hints Of Trip To L.A.
Early Thursday, President Donald Trump appeared set to visit Los Angeles next week as part of a campaign swing — but that was before he tested positive for coronavirus later that evening, shifting him immediately into isolation at the White House with First Lady Melania Trump, who also tested positive. ... On Thursday, A Trump Make America Great Again Committee sweepstakes e-message foreshadowed a Los Angeles stop. The committee is a joint fundraising effort between the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee. (Carter, 10/2)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Santa Cruz County Lost Almost 1,000 Homes To CZU Fire. Its Housing Crisis Is Now Worse Than Ever
At the top of a cul-de-sac lined with burned homes, Antonia Bradford stood before what was once her cathedral-like house, surrounded by singed redwood trees. Little was recognizable in the rubble but a charred car, a chicken coop, a butterfly-shaped chair and a bathtub. When the CZU Lightning Complex fires ripped through the Santa Cruz Mountains six weeks ago, Bradford, her husband and five children were suddenly homeless — along with thousands of others. Her family stayed in a hotel, then with friends as they scoured for rentals, watching listings disappear and prices rise. (Moench, 10/1)
San Francisco Chronicle:
‘Housing Is Just Not Available’: Butte County Residents Scramble For Shelter In Wake Of North Complex Fire
It’s been two years of nonstop trauma for Amy Black, a bartender and mother who lives in Butte County. In 2018, her home in Paradise was destroyed in the Camp Fire, one of 14,000 dwellings incinerated in that wildfire. Then on Sept. 8, the family homestead in Oroville she had inherited after her father passed away in April went up in flames in the North Complex fires — she had just moved in. Then her bartending job disappeared when the coronavirus forced her saloon to close. (Dineen, 10/1)
LA Daily News:
New Health Equity Metric Will Help Decide L.A. County’s Tier In Pandemic Tracking System
Starting next week, Los Angeles County and others around California will have to prove they’re paying close attention to neighborhoods that have been hit harder than others by the coronavirus pandemic. (Wheeler and Rosenfeld, 10/1)
Sacramento Bee:
Why Yuba, Sutter Counties Are In Purple Tier
Two small, rural counties made a push in the spring to be among the first in California to reopen from the coronavirus shutdown, with local leaders arguing then that the state’s unprecedented response to the pandemic might have been warranted in the state’s urban hubs, but not in their less densely populated region. “In the north state, our communities have met the scientific criteria for re-opening and we’re not going to wait for San Francisco and Los Angeles in order to reopen,” Assemblyman James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, said at the time. (McGough, 10/1)
Fresno Bee:
Merced County Official: Feds Tried To ‘Intimidate’ Staff Into Keeping Foster Farms Open
Staff at Merced County Public Health Department have said U.S. government officials tried to intimidate them into keeping Foster Farms’ Livingston plant open despite a serious outbreak of COVID-19 outbreak, according to a story posted Thursday by CBS News. (Jansen, 10/1)
LA Daily News:
Knott’s Parent Company Sees $1 Billion Revenue Drop And 20 Million Visitor Decline Amid Pandemic
Knott’s Berry Farm’s parent company saw a $1 billion drop in revenue and a decline of nearly 20 million visitors during the six-month-long COVID-19 pandemic that has shuttered nearly half of Cedar Fair’s theme parks. (MacDonald, 10/1)
Bay Area News Group:
Asian Americans Still Being Targeted In COVID-Related Hate Incidents
The disturbing uptick in COVID-related hate incidents directed at Asian Americans — and clashes that have arisen during demonstrations following the police killing of George Floyd — will be keys to a virtual community meeting to be led next week by the Orange County Human Relations Commission. (Walker, 10/2)
Fresno Bee:
Mosquito-Bite Warning: Tulare County Has 2 Human West Nile Cases And More ‘Probable’
Health officials in Tulare County are warning residents to take precautions against mosquitoes after several reported cases of the West Nile Virus. Two of the cases have been confirmed, according to the public health department. Another three cases are listed as probable. (Tehee, 10/1)
Bay Area News Group:
Pandemic Partly Blamed For Return Of Steep Rise In Oakland Killings
With three months still to go in 2020, Oakland has already seen more homicides than in each of the previous three years, an alarming trend police and community advocates are attributing in part to the coronavirus pandemic. (Sciacca, 10/2)
LA Daily News:
LAUSD Teachers Rally For Colleague With Brain Cancer
Teachers over at Los Angeles Unified School District really have good hearts. When Vanda Tovmasyan developed brain cancer last year, a group of teachers donated 200-plus hours of their paid sick leave to her so she could keep her job and her health insurance. (Love, 10/1)
Sacramento Bee:
Placer County CA School District Students Have Coronavirus
Just one week after students in Rocklin Unified School District returned to in-person instruction, three high school students have tested positive for coronavirus. The three students who tested positive for COVID-19 attend Whitney High School, the district said Wednesday. As a result, 15 additional students and one teacher are now in quarantine. (Morrar, 9/30)
Fresno Bee:
Has Distance Learning Improved For Fresno-Area Students? Here’s What The Early Data Shows
Elementary school students in Fresno could start going back to campuses in a few weeks, but that doesn’t mean distance learning is going away. The three largest school districts in Fresno County are transitioning small groups of students to in-person classes, but students won’t be on campuses full-time. Until positive coronavirus cases are more under control, distance learning is here to stay. (Velez, 10/2)
Bay Area News Group:
COVID And College Football: San Jose State Does An End Around Health Officials
Humboldt County Public Health officials say they were not consulted in the unusual decision to relocate San Jose State’s football team to Arcata to prepare for the 2020 season. Health officer Dr. Teresa Frankovich said her office learned about the move from a Humboldt State official on Wednesday, the day the schools announced the arrangement. San Jose State is moving its football operation north to circumvent Santa Clara County’s strict guidelines on contact sports that have been implemented to help slow the spread of COVID-19. (Almond, 10/2)
Los Angeles Times:
At Biden Debate, Trump Still Has No Healthcare Plan
Analyzing the policy positions taken by President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden at Tuesday’s anarchic debate is like critiquing the footwear of the fighters in a steel cage match. The evening wasn’t about policy, it was about force — and more precisely, it was about Trump trying to batter Biden into incoherence with his relentless interruptions, attacks and wild claims. Nevertheless, the two candidates made some points about healthcare early in the evening that are worth resurrecting from the wreckage because they illustrate how much of Trump’s presidency has been about symbolic moves instead of substantive ones. (Jon Healey, 9/30)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Chronicle Recommends: Joe Biden For President
The soul of the nation is on the ballot Nov. 3. At stake is more than the usual choice between two candidates, two parties, two visions of a brighter future for America. This election is a test of whether we still embrace the concept of “American exceptionalism,” that the virtue of our values, our political system and our history remain so distinct, so worthy, so enduring that we are a role model for the world. (10/1)
Fresno Bee:
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett Will Help Conservatives Strip Away Rights
What difference will it make in the law and in people’s lives to replace liberal United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with someone from the opposite end of the political spectrum, Judge Amy Coney Barrett? (Erwin Chemerinsky, 10/2)
Fresno Bee:
Assembly Bill 841 Will Make Schools Safer With Better Ventilation For When Students Return
It has been six months since Gov. Gavin Newsom first issued school-related executive orders as a result of the COVID-19 health emergency. Since that time, we have seen most of our public schools shift successfully to distance learning, while parents and students across the state are anxious for a return to in-person instruction. (Tony Thurmond, 9/24)
San Francisco Chronicle:
The Pandemic Has Made Cities Quieter. That’s Good, Right?
City dwellers are so inured to our urban cacophony that an unusual thing started to happen in late March and early April: We heard birdsong. A lot of it. Even during morning rush hour, the incessant hum of traffic wouldn’t appear, clearing the soundscape for the trill of white-crowned sparrows and other avian vocalists I had never before noticed. The pandemic has made the world quieter. Looking at the seismic reverberations caused by human activity — trains, mining, concerts — a study published in the journal Science in July by 76 scientists from around the world found that we cut our global noise clean in half due to our myriad lockdowns. No one was going to and from Chase Center and Oracle Park, BART became less frequent, a slew of train and bus lines shuttered, and over a dozen streets and counting closed to through traffic. (Sam Goldman, 10/1)