Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Lawmaker Pushing Mental Health Reform: It’s ‘More Needed Than Ever’
Gov. Gavin Newsom has asked lawmakers to pare down their legislative wish lists and focus on the state’s coronavirus response. But state Sen. Jim Beall plans to forge ahead with his mental health care proposals, including a measure to create a state mental health parity requirement. (Samantha Young, )
Californians Flock To Beach Even As Leaders Desperately Try To Get Them To Stay At Home: While officials say the public’s adherence to health messaging has shown quantifiable results in “flattening the curve” of new COVID-19 cases, they caution that we are nowhere near the end of this emergency and that we cannot become complacent. Some residents are losing patience, however. Already, small groups of protesters complaining of lockdown fatigue have demanded an end to restrictive health measures, while Ventura and Riverside counties have announced plans to ease stay-at-home restrictions. Read more from Joseph Serna of the Los Angeles Times.
Meanwhile, this weekend, amid the year’s first heat wave, thousands converged on some California beaches to take advantage of the cooler temperatures and to get a break from weeks of isolation at home. There was some debate about the size of the crowds and the degree to which those who went to the beach were able to maintain social distance. But images from places including Huntington Beach also went viral and raised questions about whether allowing the beaches to reopen could set back California’s progress in slowing the spread of coronavirus. Read more from Alex Wigglesworth, Dorany Pineda, Doug Smith and Kevin Baxter of the Los Angeles Times.
Experts Wonder If There’s Something Else At Play Other Than Early Action In Differences Between Bay Area and LA Outbreaks: Lee Riley, an infectious disease expert at UC Berkeley, said there “could be several possibilities” causing the divergence of fates between San Francisco and Los Angeles. “In any given region, if we say that 10% of the population isn’t complying with public health directives, places with more people will see more cases,” he said. The virus may be spread among and by people who may not be able to observe social distancing by virtue of their work, like first responders, health care workers and people involved in essential businesses, like grocery store workers, Riley said. It could then be spreading to family members of these groups, he said. Almost 40% of COVID-19 deaths in Los Angeles County were in institutional settings — in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, county Department of Public Health Department records show. Read more from Shwanika Narayan of the San Francisco Chronicle.
In related news from the Bay Area News Group: How Can The State’s Model Project Possibly Thousands Of Deaths In Bay Area By June?
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
Los Angeles Times:
L.A. County Reports 18 New Coronavirus Deaths, Says Poor People Are Three Times More Likely To Die
Los Angeles County public health officials on Sunday reported 18 additional COVID-19 deaths and 440 new cases of the coronavirus. Long Beach, which has its own health department, reported two new deaths and 10 additional cases, bringing the county’s total to 915 deaths and 19,538 cases. “The most difficult part of the COVID-19 pandemic is losing people to the virus,” Barbara Ferrer, director of the county Department of Public Health, said in a statement. “To all of you who have lost loved ones, we are deeply sorry.” (Wigglesworth, 4/26)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Kaiser Study Finds Coronavirus Seriously Affects People Regardless Of Age
A study of 1,300 Northern California Kaiser patients who tested positive for the coronavirus last month found that nearly a third were hospitalized and almost 1 in 10 ended up in intensive care — and nearly as many young and middle-aged adults were admitted as people age 60 and over, according to results published online Friday. The analysis is among the first large studies of people diagnosed with COVID-19 in the United States, and the first in California. More than 16,200 Kaiser patients across 21 hospitals in Northern California were tested for the coronavirus in March, and about 8% came up positive. (Allday, 4/25)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Coronavirus Cases, Hospitalizations Vary Across California. Here Are The Data
Health officials in California are closely monitoring heaps of data — including the number of people hospitalized by the coronavirus — as they discuss when and how to ease social restrictions. A handful of counties have already started to loosen some rules, opening parks and allowing more outdoor activities, while others are waiting for cases to drop further. A Chronicle review of state data found wide variance in the number of patients with COVID-19. Some counties had few to no people in the hospital due to the disease Thursday, while others reported hundreds of cases. (Palomino, 4/26)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Stanford Hospital System To Cut Pay 20%, Furlough Workers During Coronavirus Pandemic
Linda Cornell, unit secretary at one of Stanford Hospital’s nursing stations, has been dubbed the group’s “traffic controller” because of the expert way she monitors the phones, paperwork and patients’ needs simultaneously. But even Cornell, who is near her 40th anniversary on the job, has never seen anything quite like this. “People are shocked,” Cornell said in a phone interview Sunday. “It’s like: ‘Why are they doing this?’ It doesn’t seem right.” At perhaps the worst possible time, the Stanford hospital system is cutting pay and staff as the medical field around the country deals with the coronavirus pandemic and the mounting fears and stresses of their employees. (Simmons, 4/26)
Los Angeles Times:
10 Photos Of Coronavirus Battle At Scripps Mercy Hospital
Hospitals closest to the U.S.-Mexico border are reporting increased numbers of COVID-19 patients as the pandemic continues to strain medical resources throughout Baja California. The increased patient volume at Scripps Mercy Hospital Chula Vista reached an inflection point on Thursday, when the facility was forced to begin transferring COVID patients to its sister facility in San Diego for the first time since the pandemic started. Dr. Juan Tovar, an emergency medicine specialist and operations executive at Scripps Chula Vista, said the overall success of San Diego County’s widespread social distancing campaign — one that has shut down beaches, kept all K-12 students home from school and shuttered all businesses deemed nonessential — has slowed the surge of patients enough that hospitals, backed up by those that are less heavily hit further north, have so far been able to keep pace with demand. (Sisson, 4/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
SF Mayor London Breed Says Extension Of Shelter-In-Place Order ‘Very Likely’
San Francisco Mayor London Breed said Friday that it was “very likely” city officials would extend the order for residents to shelter in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. The order is set to expire May 3, meaning an extension is likely to come next week. Counties across the Bay Area have so far worked largely in tandem — handing down similar health orders and shelter-in-place mandates to help curb the spread of the coronavirus regionally. (Fracassa, 4/24)
San Francisco Chronicle:
As Coronavirus Curve Flattens, Some California Counties Consider Reopening
The coronavirus curve is flat, the hospitals have plenty of beds, and in one week, the Bay Area’s shelter-in-place orders are due to expire — so understandably, millions of residents are asking when they can go back to some kind of normal life outside their homes. It’s going to be a while longer. (Allday and Koseff, 4/26)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Hundreds In SF’s Mission District Volunteer For Coronavirus Testing In Key UCSF Study
A four-day blitz of coronavirus testing in San Francisco’s Mission District was halfway complete Sunday evening, with about 1,650 residents this weekend agreeing to be poked, prodded and perhaps dealt some unsettling news in the name of science. In the first-of-its kind study, researchers at UCSF hope to ultimately test as many as 5,700 residents to see how many in a sample of the community are infected by or may have recovered from the coronavirus, and to learn how it spreads. The goal is to add to a body of potentially lifesaving information from a neighborhood hit harder by the coronavirus than anywhere else in the city. (Cassidy, 4/26)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento County Wants CA Lawmakers Tested For Coronavirus
California lawmakers should be tested for coronavirus before they return to Sacramento regardless of whether they are showing symptoms of COVID-19, according to guidance from the county’s health department. Assembly Rules Committee Chairman Ken Cooley disclosed the request from the health department Thursday during a Democratic Caucus meeting, according to notes from the meeting that were shared among lawmakers and others who do business in the building. The health department also wants lawmakers to have one key staff member tested for the virus before lawmakers resume their legislative session on May 4. (Wiley, 4/24)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Coronavirus Prompts Some Residents To Leave Bay Area
Piece by piece, Kristin Demoro put the artifacts into the box... Her family had been in the Bay Area since the 1800s, by virtue of a Spanish sea captain who brought cocoa beans to San Francisco. For Demoro, living in the Bay Area meant being connected to her lineage, and her father, who died unexpectedly in 1993. She’d always felt it was her duty to stay. But now even she had to leave. (Vainshtein, 4/26)
Sacramento Bee:
Will Coronavirus Pandemic Prompt CA Nursing Home Reform?
Denise Plank has cried so much over the past weeks her tears have left her cheeks chafed and raw.Her 84-year-old father, Edward, has a form of blood cancer that may kill him. She might never again hold his hand. She may never give him a hug. She might not even be able to sit in the same room with him. (Sabalow, Pohl and Kasler, 4/26)
CalMatters:
Virtual Medical Visits Are The New Normal During The Coronavirus Pandemic
California's stay-at-home order to slow the coronavirus has significantly accelerated the use of telehealth visits. Some health systems in California report up to 80% of their patient visits are handled by video chat or a phone call. (Ibarra and Aguilera, 4/27)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento County Public Health Lab Faced Years Of Budget Cuts
Sacramento County’s public health program designed to ward off disease outbreaks has seen its funding dwindle for years, even as other departments saw their budgets increase and warnings of a looming pandemic intensified, a review of budget documents, meeting minutes and interviews with current and former officials found. The Great Recession more than a decade ago led to crippling budget cuts throughout local governments. Key nursing positions and other disease detectives were downsized or eliminated outright. But even as the economy rebounded, Sacramento County failed to restore funding for its public health laboratory, which is now being overwhelmed with COVID-19 testing demands. (Pohl and Yoon-Hendricks, 4/27)
Los Angeles Times:
Tech Failures Plague California Unemployment System
For Californians desperate to get unemployment assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic, the last month has been a perfect storm of failures for a state government with a long history of technology problems. Many seeking jobless benefits in recent weeks found phone lines jammed at the state Employment Development Department and had their calls disconnected before they could talk to a live service representative at the agency, which processes unemployment insurance claims. (McGreevy and Christensen, 4/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Tough Times For Oakland As Coronavirus Outbreak Blows Giant Hole In Budget
A just-released report on the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on Oakland’s already shaky city finances predicts a devastating tax shortfall — so big, in fact, that insiders say it will probably lead to drastic service cuts and layoffs of city workers. “The size and scale of these revenue shortfalls is like nothing Oakland has ever before experienced,” city Finance Director Adam Benson wrote in an April 21 report to the City Council. (Matier, 4/26)
Los Angeles Times:
Coronavirus Stalked Inmates, Deputies In Riverside County Jails
For two weeks in early March, Riverside County Sheriff’s Deputy Terrell Young routinely drove inmates, one at a time, from the Cois M. Byrd Detention Facility in Murrieta to a hospital for medical appointments. During those trips he was exposed to several people, including inmates and a nurse, who would later test positive for the coronavirus. (Tchekmedyian and Brown, 4/27)
CalMatters:
Labor Vs. Business Fight Over Coronavirus Costs
Labor and business groups are gearing up for a fight over whether employers — through workers’ compensation — should pay health costs for essential workers infected by COVID-19, with Gov. Gavin Newsom expected to decide the multibillion-dollar debate soon. Union leaders want Newsom to issue an executive order presuming that essential employees who contract coronavirus did so on the job, rather than in the community, making it easier for them to file workers’ compensation claims for COVID-19. Business groups warn that such a move could raise annual costs for employers by as much as $33 billion per year. (Hoeven, 4/27)
Sacramento Bee:
Coronavirus CA Autopsy: Santa Clara Woman Died Of Burst Heart
A Santa Clara County woman now believed to be the first person in the United States killed by the coronavirus died of a ruptured heart caused by her body’s struggle to defeat the virus, her autopsy shows. Patricia Dowd, 57, of San Jose, died at home on Feb. 6 of what seemed like a heart attack while suffering from what seemed like the flu. But The Mercury News reported Thursday that officials now say she had the coronavirus, which they didn’t know at the time. (Debolt and Peele, 4/26)
Bay Area News Group:
Coronavirus: Mass Jail Releases Leave Some Inmates Homeless
As state and local officials struggle to get homeless residents into permanent housing during the coronavirus pandemic, California jails and prisons are trying to reduce crowding by releasing thousands of inmates — some of whom are ending up on the street. Among the mostly non-violent offenders that have been freed at an unprecedented rate in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19 behind bars, Bay Area activists and homeless service providers say some are ending up in shelters, encampments or sleeping in their cars. Those newly freed inmates are now adding to the homeless population as they’re shuffled from one setting where the virus can thrive to another. (Kendall and Salonga, 4/27)
Fresno Bee:
Hanford Meat Packing Workers Infected With Coronavirus
A Hanford-based meat packing plant has confirmed “several” employees have tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) and are being quarantined, a company official said Sunday. Central Valley Meat Company Vice President Mike Casey said in a statement that the workers were identified through the company’s daily pre-screening process. (Rodriguez, 4/26)