City News Service: COVID Hospitalizations Fall To 213 In LA County 
The number of COVID-positive hospital patients in Los Angeles County has fallen by 28 people to 213, according to the latest state figures out today. Of those patients, 29 were in intensive care, down from 34 on Saturday. Hospital numbers have remained relatively low in the county, despite steadily rising COVID infection rates caused by the infectious BA.2 subvariant of COVID-19. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Thursday that the county is averaging more than 1,000 new COVID cases per day, up from an average of 878 the previous week. (4/17)

Los Angeles Times: Despite Coronavirus Uptick, There's Hope L.A. County Can Avoid Another Surge 
Despite a recent rise in coronavirus cases, Los Angeles County’s public health director said this week she remained hopeful the region could avoid another major spike by taking sensible precautions. The number of newly reported coronavirus cases in L.A. County has risen by 42% over the last two weeks, from an average of 725 a day to 1,030, according to a Times data analysis. On a per capita basis, L.A. County is now averaging about 71 cases a week for every 100,000 residents; transmission went from being moderate to substantial two weeks ago, when the rate climbed above 50. (Money and Lin II, 4/16)

Sacramento Bee: California Churches Celebrate Easter After 2 Pandemic Years
After nearly 25 months marred by four waves of infection and an accompanying yo-yo of health protocols, Sunday marks the first Easter since 2019, and one of the first of any major religious observances, to be celebrated largely free of the specter of the coronavirus. The pandemic is not over, but COVID-19 numbers are near all-time lows. And neither state nor local health orders in the Sacramento region set any limitations that would significantly hamper Easter and Passover celebrations. (McGough and Yoon-Hendricks, 4/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: COVID Death Rates Globally Seen Dropping To 2-Year Low Point, But There’s A Caveat
As the world climbs its way out of two years of coronavirus pain, one measure offering hope is that the global rate of COVID deaths appears to be at a level not seen since the early pandemic days of March 2020, the COVID-19 data monitoring site Our World in Data indicates. Although based on available official death tallies that are widely seen as undercounts, the overall trendline nonetheless shows that the number of people losing their lives to COVID is heading in a positive direction — “something to celebrate,” in the words of Dr. Eric Topol, head of Scripps Research Translational Institute, who recently tweeted Our World in Data’s chart showing the steep drop-off in global deaths since February. (Hwang, 4/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Officials Adopt New Message On Covid-19 Behaviors: It’s Your Call 
In the latest phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, federal and local officials are telling people to decide for themselves how best to protect against the virus. Health officials are leaving it up to people to assess if they need booster shots, whether to wear a mask and how long to isolate after a positive test. Businesses, schools and other entities are scaling back specific guidelines as they prepare for a return to normal. (Hopkins, 4/17)

The New York Times: Is Covid More Dangerous Than Driving? How Scientists Are Parsing Covid Risks. 
Scientists are thinking anew about how to discuss Covid risks. Some have studied when people could unmask indoors if the goal was not only to keep hospitals from being overrun but also to protect immunocompromised people. Others are working on tools to compare infection risks to the dangers of a wide range of activities, finding, for instance, that an average unvaccinated person 65 and older is roughly as likely to die from an Omicron infection as someone is to die from using heroin for a year-and-a-half. (Mueller, 4/17)

Fortune: Are Pets Spreading COVID? It's Less Likely With Omicron, Study Finds
Only 10% of household pets whose owners had Omicron came down with the virus and none were symptomatic, making them unlikely candidates to mutate and spread a more dangerous version of COVID, according to a new study released this week by Spanish researchers. ... Other studies have found that other COVID variants like Alpha and Delta were more easily transmitted to household pets, that infected pets were more likely to show symptoms, and that higher viral loads were detected in the pets, according to the study. (Prater, 4/16)

Modesto Bee: Modesto To Discuss Sales Tax Measure and Pandemic Relief At Budget Workshops
Modesto is holding workshops Tuesday through Thursday for its 2022-23 budget year, which starts July 1. The workshops will include presentations about a potential sales tax measure for the November ballot, as well as the federal pandemic relief funding the city has and is receiving from the American Rescue Plan Act. (4/18)

The New York Times: Americans Over 60 Should Get Second Booster, Official Says 
Americans over 60 should get a second booster shot of a coronavirus vaccine, Dr. Ashish K. Jha, the new White House Covid-19 response coordinator, said on Sunday, citing “pretty compelling” new data from Israel indicating that a fourth shot significantly reduced infections and deaths among older people there. Dr. Jha’s comments, on “Fox News Sunday,” came after the Food and Drug Administration on March 29 authorized second booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines for everyone 50 and older. (Lamb, 4/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: When Are COVID Experts Getting Their Second Booster Shots? Here’s What 6 From The Bay Area Said
The FDA and CDC in late March allowed three groups of people to get a second booster shot against COVID-19 if it’s been at least four months since their first booster: people 50 and older, those 12 and older who are moderately or severely immunocompromised, and those who got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as their initial shot and booster. For most Americans, who got two mRNA shots as their primary vaccine series and then a booster, this would be their fourth shot. For people who are immunocompromised who got three shots as their primary series and then a booster, it would be their fifth shot. (Ho, 4/16)

Bay Area News Group: Oakland Schools Will Drop Indoor Mask Requirement
A month after California lifted its school mask mandate, the Oakland Unified School District has announced it will stop requiring students to wear face coverings indoors too. In a memo sent to school families Friday, the district’s COVID Safety Team said the masks can come off Monday inside schools and other campus facilities, although it “strongly” recommended that students and staff continue to wear them. (Sciacca, 4/15)

Bay Area News Group: Are COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates Losing Their Luster?
After COVID-19 vaccines became widely available last year, federal, state and local leaders were tripping over themselves to show their tough-on-the-virus bona fides by mandating the shots for the workplace, the classroom, the bar and the ballgame. Now, vaccine passports are being put on the shelf and many mandates dialed back, with delayed implementation and softened penalties. For a variety of reasons – practical, medical, political – there’s less appetite now for forcing the reluctant to get the jabs, especially now with case rates so low. (Woolfolk, 4/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: Success Of Gavin Newsom’s Plan To Tackle Severe Mental Illness Could Hinge On California’s Housing Efforts
Right now, calling the police is the only option many people have to try to get help for someone struggling with severe mental illness. As a result, many land in emergency rooms and jails and don’t get the care they need, Eggman said. A proposal from Gov. Gavin Newsom that Eggman is shepherding through the Legislature would create a new avenue to help them. The plan would create a system called Care Court that would allow for family, community members, probation officers and others to refer people for services if they have schizophrenia or another mental illness. People could also be brought into the system if they are suspected of a crime or about to be released from an involuntary hold at a psychiatric facility. (Bollag, 4/17)

ABC7 San Francisco: 5,000 Stanford Nurses And Families Could Lose Health Insurance If They Go On Planned Strike
After months of failed contract negotiations, 5,000 nurses across Stanford Health Care said they're going on strike starting April 25. Colleen Borges is one of those nurses, and the president of CRONA- the nurses' union. She says, among other things, she and her colleagues are asking for increased wages and increased staffing numbers. (Johns, 4/17)

The Bakersfield Californian: Reported Cases Of STDs In Kern County Dropped In 2020, But Decrease Could Be Misleading 
Reports of sexually transmitted diseases in Kern County declined sharply in 2020, but experts attribute the drop to underreporting caused by the coronavirus pandemic. In newly released data, the Kern County Public Health Services Department showed the county continued to struggle with STD spread, even with steep declines in reports of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis. Kern County is reporting just under 600 incidences of chlamydia per 100,000 residents in 2020 compared with national and state averages just under 500. (Morgen, 4/17)

Berkeleyside: 'Explosive' Growth Of Non-Toxic Fern On Lake Anza Closes Area To Swimmers
The usually expansive blue surface of Lake Anza in Tilden Regional Park has been blanketed by a squishy, non-toxic fern that resembles an algae bloom, keeping the lake closed to swimmers. If you haven’t visited Lake Anza before, you might mistake the Azolla fern coating the water for a large, grassy field surrounding a small pond. But closer inspection reveals that the small-leaved fern (which looks unlike a typical fern) is gently bobbing right above the lake surface. (Yelimeli, 4/15)

Mosaic: Teen Mental Health: Cost, Stigma And Time Hamper Care
For Nhi Huynh, a University of Berkeley freshman, high school was marked by the constant pressure of trying to manage her life in an academically competitive environment. She was taking college level courses and leading several clubs — and in spring of her junior year campuses closed and cut her off from academic and social support. “I was really burnt out at the end of senior year, and I wasn’t taking care of myself well and my relationships suffered because of it,” Huynh said. (Nguyen, 4/15)

Bay Area News Group: His Neighbors Tried To Save Him. But The System Was Too Broken
Kenyon Graham was a regular, if unsettling, presence in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood, where he often wandered the streets undressed and shouting at no one. He had spent years bouncing between jail, ineffective mental health programs and homelessness. Last spring, four of his neighbors decided they were going to change that. They spent hours learning about the county’s mental health system, placing phone calls and sending emails, collecting stacks of records from Graham’s court cases, attending his virtual hearings and making statements to a judge. They gathered 80 signatures on a petition titled “Keep Kenyon Graham and 43rd Street neighbors safe.” They convened an emergency meeting with representatives from City Council, the county board of supervisors, the police department, the district attorney’s office and the county’s mental health system – seemingly everyone who would have power to give 40-year-old Graham the type of intensive, long-term care he needed. (Kendall, 4/17)

KQED: In 2020, Mutual Aid Was In The Spotlight. How Are Organizers Holding Up In 2022? 
The jarring nature of a global pandemic, paired with an economic downturn that left millions unemployed and unable to pay for basic necessities, left many to turn to mutual aid when local, state and federal governments fell short of providing the kind of support they needed. Many of these efforts received widespread media attention and subsequent financial support throughout 2020. As time went on, though, organizers say that mainstream coverage — and funding — slowly started to fizzle out in many ways. But those involved in mutual aid work haven’t stopped organizing. (Cabrera-Lomelí, 4/15)

Los Angeles Times: Bruce Willis Starts Conversation On Aphasia, Cognitive Loss 
My father has dementia. If I had to guess, I’d say he’s about a quarter of a way through a process that sometimes robs him of his ability to remember my name, or basic details about his life. But he still has a driver’s license and a resolute stubbornness that nothing is wrong. And that’s how it goes when a mind starts to deteriorate. While it’s unclear whether Willis has progressive aphasia, the kind that would grow worse over time, his decision to end a career he clearly loved suggests he does. And although progressive aphasia and dementia are different kinds of brain disease, as is Alzheimer’s, they share in common an ongoing decline that is devastating, unstoppable and often slow enough to make it feel like a never-ending loop of the five stages of grief. (Chabria, 4/17)

AP: FDA Investigating Lucky Charms After Reports Of Illness
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating Lucky Charms cereal after dozens of customers complained of illness after eating it. The FDA said Saturday it has received more than 100 complaints related to Lucky Charms so far this year. (Durbin, 4/16)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento County Adds Homeless Shelter Beds, Water Delivery 
Sacramento County leaders this week sent close to $6 million in federal relief funds toward four homelessness-related projects, ranging from water delivery services for camps to money for shelter operations. County supervisors unanimously approved the funding allocations on Tuesday, drawing from the $300 million share it is receiving through the American Rescue Plan Act. (Riley, 4/16)

Capitol Weekly: Sacramento’s Homeless Measure A Statewide Template?
Three days after a deadly mass shooting downtown, the Sacramento City Council voted 7-2 to place a homeless measure on the November ballot. If voters approve the Emergency Homeless Shelter and Enforcement Act of 2022, could it be a statewide template? We turn to Daniel Conway. He helms the Sacramentans for Safe and Clean Streets and Parks coalition, and is a policy advisor to the Los Angeles Alliance for Human Rights.  The latter brought litigation in federal court two years ago against the city and county of LA “to compel them to address their homeless crisis, systematically, humanely and at scale,” he told Capitol Weekly. (Sandronsky, 4/15)

Bay Area News Group: San Mateo County Says It Will End Homelessness This Year. Can It?
When local city, county and nonprofit leaders turned over their symbolic first shovelfuls of dirt in a vacant lot on a recent sunny morning, they weren’t just kicking off construction of a new homeless shelter. They were taking a step toward an ambitious goal — ending homelessness in San Mateo County in the next eight months. Homelessness has pervaded the Bay Area for years, presenting an epic humanitarian crisis that has proven incredibly difficult to solve, and which has become even more visible during the COVID-19 pandemic. But in San Mateo County, officials say the end is in sight. (Kendall, 4/17)

San Luis Obispo Tribune: How Do People Fall Into Homelessness? 3 Stories Of Hardship In SLO County 
With hundreds of unhoused people trying to get by in San Luis Obispo County, the stories of how they lost their homes and how they get by are as unique as each individual person. Some suffered bouts of trauma and bad luck that forced them onto the streets. Many suffer from mental health or addiction issues that consistently undermine their ability to find a stable home. Others simply cannot afford to live here. (Wilson, 4/18)

Reveal: Handcuffed And Unhoused 
Up and down the West Coast, cities are struggling with homelessness. Here’s a hidden side: arrests. In Portland, Oregon, unhoused people made up at most 2% of the population in recent years, but over the same time, they accounted for nearly half of all arrests. Cities have long turned to police as the answer to make homelessness disappear. But arrests often lead back to the streets – or worse. Reveal looked at six major West Coast cities and found that people living on the streets are consistently more likely to be arrested than their neighbors who live in houses. And places including Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles are grappling with a major court decision. In 2019, the Supreme Court let a ruling stand that says it’s cruel and unusual punishment to arrest people who are sleeping or camping in public places if there is no shelter available for them. In Portland, the city is building what it calls “villages” where people who are unhoused can stay temporarily. But there is pushback from residents who don’t want a shelter in their neighborhood. (Lewis, 4/16)