Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
‘It Hurts Our Soul’: Nursing Home Workers Struggle With Thankless Position
Poorly rated long-term care facilities stand out in the COVID-19 crisis — but even the best are affected. (Anna Almendrala, )
San Francisco Quick To Fight COVID-19, Slow To Help Homeless
San Francisco Mayor London Breed won nationwide praise for taking drastic early measures against COVID-19. But her hesitation over how to care for the homeless came back to bite her. (Brian Krans, )
California Releases COVID-19 Nursing Home Data, But List Is Plagued By Omissions And Undercounts: For the first time, California Department of Public Health officials have divulged the names of nursing homes across the state with COVID-19 outbreaks and the number of cases at each facility. But list, which officials have promised to update regularly, does not show how many people have died at each facility. It is also plagued by apparent omissions and undercounts. For weeks, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has been publishing names of group living facilities with COVID-19 cases, without specifying how many people have tested positive at each place. Some of those homes do not appear on the state list. The state list also does not include data from California’s 7,461 residential care facilities.
“Immediate testing of all residents and staff must be required, as well as 100% daily reporting on infection rates from all skilled nursing facilities in the state. Raincoats and rags turned into isolation gowns and face masks are not adequate stand-ins for medical grade PPE, or a serious testing regimen,” said April Verrett, of SEIU, in response to the numbers.
Read more from Jack Dolan, Anita Chabria and Brittny Mejia of the Los Angeles Times; Ron Kroichick of the San Francisco Chronicle; Jason Pohl of the Sacramento Bee; and Yesenia Amaro of the Fresno Bee.
In related news from Politico: Trump Administration Will Require Nursing Homes To Report Covid-19 Cases
San Francisco’s Attempts To Protect Homeless Population A Tangled Lesson In Logistics, Money: Homeless people and their advocates for weeks have called for San Francisco to lease enough hotel rooms to take in the vast majority of the city’s 8,000-strong homeless population to check the spread of the coronavirus. But the people who make that happen say it’s dizzyingly more complicated than just booking rooms and writing checks. The city has proceeded at a methodical pace since mid-March, lining up roughly 2,500 spots in 16 hotels for homeless people and first responders. Since a large outbreak was discovered in a popular shelter, the city finished thinning out its 2,000-plus shelter beds by about half to widen the spaces around residents, and accelerated its program so that it has now moved about 900 homeless people into hotels. It’s a logistical puzzle that no one in city government has ever put together before. Read more from Kevin Fagan and John King of the San Francisco Chronicle.
In related news:
San Francisco Chronicle: Homeless Tents Sprout In Haight-Ashbury During Coronavirus Shelter In Place
CalMatters: Newsom: Cities Blocking Hotels For Homeless Will Be ‘Judged’ By History
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
San Francisco Chronicle:
Test And Trace: How The Bay Area Will Emerge From Coronavirus Sheltering
Your phone rings. The caller says she’s from the Department of Public Health. You’ve been exposed to someone who has the coronavirus, she says. She asks whether you’ve had any symptoms, and if you have any health problems like diabetes or heart disease that might put you at risk of serious illness. Then she says, you’ll need to quarantine yourself for 14 days. (Said and Allday, 4/18)
San Francisco Chronicle:
California Has Lagged On Coronavirus Testing. That’s Starting To Change
After months of backlogs and shortages, there are signs that access to coronavirus testing in California is improving for many people with symptoms — a dramatic change from just a few weeks ago when countless sick patients were denied tests, even in emergency rooms. Testing sites are springing up across the state. And large university labs and hospitals, while still constrained by shortages of testing supplies, are steadily expanding capacity. (Ho, Dizikes and Palomino, 4/19)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Mass Coronavirus Testing Plan For 2 Different Worlds: Bolinas And A Section Of SF’s Mission District
A Finnish venture capitalist in Bolinas and a Latina community organizer in the Mission District have at least one thing in common: the goal to test as many people in their neighborhoods as possible for the coronavirus. In Bolinas, a majority-white coastal enclave in Marin County, Jyri Engeström helped organize the community and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to test everyone in town — at least 1,000 people and about 150 first responders — this week. In a four-by-four-block area of the Mission, the Latino heart of San Francisco, Tracy Gallardo will talk to residents in food bank lines and public housing to find at least 5,000 participants for similar mass testing starting next weekend. (Moench, 4/19)
Los Angeles Times:
This Marin County Town Offering Coronavirus Testing To Every Resident
The remote Bay Area town of Bolinas is among the first communities in the world to attempt to test all of its residents for the novel coronavirus. Bolinas, population 1,600, will offer free tests Monday through Thursday to residents 4 years and older up, according to a statement from UC San Francisco, whose staffers will administer the tests. (Newberry, 4/19)
Los Angeles Times:
Coronavirus: San Francisco's London Breed Takes Hits, Wins Praise
Mayor London Breed ran into a friend a few weeks ago at the grocery store. As she recounted on an online forum, he rushed to hug her.“Noooo!” she shrieked, moving back. He told her he had never been sick in his life. She countered that he could be an asymptomatic carrier of the coronavirus. “The thing that is making me lose it is people who are not staying away from each other outside,” she said, laughing. “I feel like this is payback for all the problems I gave my grandmother.” (Dolan, 4/20)
San Francisco Chronicle:
New Computer Program Tells Hospitals Exactly When They’ll Be Overwhelmed By Coronavirus
Two computer programs that can predict whether, and when, doctors and hospitals will be flooded with COVID-19 patients have been created at Stanford University. The programs, designed in weeks by computer engineers, use demographic information to predict when a given county will see surges in infected persons and when a given hospital will run out of hospital beds and supplies. (Rubenstein, 4/17)
San Francisco Chronicle:
‘All Systems Shutting Down’: Bay Area Coronavirus Patient Details Horrors Of Infection
The first thing Stacy Allegro wants you to know: COVID-19 is definitely not just a really bad flu. The Novato resident, 58, had a horrible fever for nine straight days — and that’s before she was admitted to the hospital, and the real physical punishment began. (Hartlaub, 4/18)
San Francisco Chronicle:
New Face Mask Rules For Bay Area: When Do I Have To Wear One?
Though California has not yet mandated that everyone wear face coverings in public, Gov. Gavin Newsom said his administration is considering a requirement as they contemplate how to reopen the state. “We are leaning in that direction, and we are very encouraged by the work that’s being done at the local level all throughout the state of California,” he said during a news conference on April 17. (Vaziri, 4/17)
San Francisco Chronicle:
In Coronavirus Pandemic’s Limbo, The Only Thing Certain Is More Uncertainty
On Friday, it was the question of masks. San Francisco and other Bay Area counties announced new recommendations for wearing face coverings in public, a step meant to move us toward more freedom of movement, a step on the long road back to normal. (Morgan, 4/19)
Los Angeles Times:
Coronavirus: Healthcare Workers Confront Their Own Mortality
As the coronavirus tore through California in March, Dr. Amit Gohil bought his family a new board game: Pandemic. A pulmonary critical care doctor at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, Gohil has asthma and diabetes, risk factors for COVID-19, and has been treating infected patients for weeks. At age 43, he is acutely aware his life could be cut short. He hoped the game, with its heroes of scientists and researchers, could be a way to help his children feel a sense of control over the virus, a story they all know could end badly. (Feldman, Chabria and Karlamangla, 4/20)
Bay Area News Group:
Coronavirus: More Than 48,000 Already Infected In Santa Clara County, Stanford Study Finds
In a startling finding, new Stanford research reveals between 48,000 and 81,000 people in Santa Clara County alone may already have been infected by the coronavirus by early April — that’s 50 to 85 times more than the number of official cases at that date. The estimate comes from a first-in-the-nation community study of newly available antibody tests that suggest how widespread the invisible — and perhaps benign — companion has been in the Bay Area’s hardest-hit county. Not only do the numbers show how the U.S.’s severe shortage of testing led to a profound undercount of COVID-19 cases, they indicate the virus is far less deadly than believed. (Krieger, 4/17)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Esalen Institute, A Big Sur Icon, Faces Existential Question During Coronavirus Crisis
For nearly 60 years, the Esalen Institute has looked out from Big Sur’s famous bluffs over the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean — a front-row view of the edge of the world. “You feel it the moment you step in,” says Janet Stone, a San Francisco yoga instructor who leads workshops at Esalen. “It’s like you’ve gone through some invisible doors into a different portal.” (Thomas, 4/19)
Los Angeles Times:
Coronavirus Costs L.A. Schools A $200-Million Financial Hit
The Los Angeles Unified School District is confronting an estimated $200 million in emergency coronavirus costs — after swiftly moving to provide computers for all students and food for their families — but it’s not clear from where crucial additional funding might ultimately come, Supt. Austin Beutner told The Times. The mounting expenses will not immediately push the district’s $7.87-billion general fund into insolvency, but the unbudgeted spending probably violates state law requiring school systems to maintain a three-year balanced budget. (Blume, 4/20)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Coronavirus Shutdown Of Hiking, Biking, Boating Near 100% On Peninsula
New levels of closures were ordered as the weekend arrived at parks on the Peninsula, with 15 county parks, 13 open space preserves, four state parks and three boat ramps shut down to help stop the spread of COVID-19. In San Mateo County, health officials also ordered that travel be restricted to within 5 miles of a residence. Just a handful of city-operated parks were left open for recreational access over the weekend. (Stienstra, 4/19)
San Francisco Chronicle:
At Safeway’s Huge Tracy Warehouse, 51 Workers Have Coronavirus And One Is Dead
At least 51 workers at Safeway’s distribution center in Tracy have tested positive for the coronavirus, and one worker has died of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. The infection affects 3% of the grocer’s 1,700-person staff at the facility, Safeway said. The center, a huge distribution hub measuring 2.2 million square feet that sits roughly 50 miles east of San Francisco, services all Safeway stores from Bakersfield to the Oregon border and parts of Nevada. (Narayan, 4/19)
KPBS:
City Heights’ La Maestra Health Clinic Adapts During COVID-19 Pandemic
inewsource visited the City Heights clinic on a recent Wednesday to see how its healthcare workers were meeting the challenges of serving patients amid the coronavirus pandemic. When patients arrive for appointments at the clinic, they are directed to specific entrances where they are screened for COVID-19 symptoms.In a separate building that used to be used to assist human trafficking victims, clinic workers have created what they call the “Cold and Cough Clinic.” (Meyers, 4/19)
San Francisco Chronicle:
UC Berkeley’s Coronavirus Dilemma: What Will Fall Semester Look Like?
As UC Berkeley lurches into the final four weeks of a spring semester upended by the coronavirus pandemic, another quandary looms on the not-so-distant horizon: fall semester. School officials have not yet made a decision about the fall, but students and faculty are bracing for online instruction extending into the new academic year. That would allow for social distancing but raise a variety of other issues. (Kroichick, 4/19)
Bay Area News Group:
Coronavirus Has Left Bay Area Mental Health Services In Crisis
As doctors and nurses around the Bay Area scramble to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, David Mineta is trying to navigate a less-publicized emergency caused by the global pandemic — a burgeoning mental health crisis. Patients have stopped coming in for their appointments because of the state-wide shelter-in-place order, said Mineta, president and CEO of Momentum for Mental Health, a Santa Clara County nonprofit that provides mental health care for low-income residents. And that means they aren’t getting the help they need during this trying time. It also means Momentum’s revenues are way down, and the organization may have to start implementing furloughs soon. (Kendall, 4/19)
Fresno Bee:
Fresno, CA Police, Officials On Citing Coronavirus Violations
Fresno authorities have the power to cite people violating social-distancing rules, but that hasn’t happened so far. A few days after Mayor Lee Brand announced an extension of the city’s shelter-in-place order last week because of the coronavirus pandemic – including that police or code enforcement could be used to penalize residents and businesses violating the order – Fresno police put out a clarifying statement that officers aren’t stopping people on the streets. (George, 4/18)
Los Angeles Times:
L.A. Judges Deny Early Release To Some Young Offenders
Dorian Martinez was sure her son was coming home. The 17-year-old had been held in a La Verne juvenile camp for three months for a probation violation, the latest in a string of them stemming from a years-old drug possession charge, she said. But with county and state officials trying to lower jail populations to reduce the risk of a coronavirus outbreak, her son seemed like the perfect candidate to be let out early. (Queally, 4/20)
Fresno Bee:
Chino CA Prison Inmate Dies Of Coronavirus, CDCR Says
An inmate at the California Institution for Men in Chino has died from complications of coronavirus, prison officials announced Sunday, the first fatality reported among the 115 prisoners who have tested positive for the virus so far. Corrections officials announced the death Sunday afternoon, saying the inmate died at a hospital away from the prison, an institution that has had 59 positive test results among inmates for COVID-19, the most of any of the state’s 35 prisons. (Stanton and Rowland, 4/19)
Fresno Bee:
Incoming Fresno County Jail Inmate Positive With COVID-19
A man booked into Fresno County Jail previously had tested positive for coronavirus, the Sheriff’s Office confirmed, with the department only learning about the test result after the suspect entered a jail holding area. Fresno police took the suspect to the jail for booking Friday, and the man passed the routine pre-screening process, which included having his temperature taken, checking his vitals and evaluating him for any symptoms of illness, according to a statement issued Sunday. (Calix, 4/19)