Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Colleges and Universities Plan for Normal-ish Campus Life in the Fall
Universities need full dorms and dining halls to make back some of the estimated $183 billion in losses they’ve suffered over a year of remote education. The hope is widespread vaccination will keep covid chaos to a minimum. (Mark Kreidler, )
Indoor Events Will Be Allowed Next Week In Some Counties: Beginning April 15, California will allow indoor live performances and events in counties outside the state's most-restrictive reopening tier, and the number of people allowed will increase if all attendees are tested or can provide a proof of vaccination. The events include conferences or seated live performances, including professional sports. Read more from CapRadio and AP.
‘Double Mutant’ Variant Strikes Bay Area: The Bay Area has yet another coronavirus variant to contend with. The Stanford Clinical Virology Lab has identified and confirmed one case of an emerging variant that originated in India, Stanford Health Care said Sunday. The variant is being dubbed the “double mutant” because it carries two mutations in the virus that helps it latch itself onto cells. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
More News From Across The State
San Diego Union-Tribune:
County Surpasses 1 Million Mark For People Receiving At Least One COVID-19 Vaccine Shot
The number of San Diego County residents who have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine passed 1 million Sunday as dozens of clinics across the region continue to ramp up their vaccination efforts. “This is a milestone that is cause for celebration,” county Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said Sunday. “San Diego has moved very rapidly.” (Garrick, 4/4)
Orange County Register:
In These Four Orange County ZIP Codes Everybody 16 And Older Is Already Eligible For A COVID-19 Shot
People ages 16 and older who live in four ZIP codes of Santa Ana, Anaheim and Garden Grove can get a COVID-19 vaccine now – an expanded age guideline that won’t apply in much of California until April 15. Actually, teens and adults from the four predominantly minority, working-class neighborhoods – in Santa Ana’s 92701 and 92703 ZIP codes, Anaheim’s 92805 and Garden Grove’s 92844 – have been eligible to get a shot since Friday, March 26. But few seemed to know about it. The county did not disseminate the new information and some city officials, as well as the head of Latino Health Access, said they were caught off guard and are only now working to get the word out to the nearly 222,000 people who live in those neighborhoods. (Kopetman, 4/2)
Sacramento Bee:
COVID Vaccine In CA: Pace, Supply Both Ramping Up
California and the U.S. continue to gain momentum in the effort to mass vaccinate against COVID-19, ticking past significant milestones on almost a daily basis. The nation’s most populous state is likely just a few days away from having one-third of its population either partially or fully protected via vaccination. On Thursday, the same day it opened eligibility to all ages 50 and older, the Golden State surpassed 30% of its 40 million residents having received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to the California Department of Public Health. (McGough, 4/2)
Bay Area News Group:
Costco Opens Up Single-Shot Johnson & Johnson COVID Vaccine Appointments Across The Bay Area
Costco on Friday opened up appointments for Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine at nearly two dozen stores across the Bay Area, substantially expanding the superstore chain’s vaccination offerings in the region. Appointments are available to anyone who meets California’s eligibility requirements, including people who are 50 or older, those ages 16-49 with high-risk health conditions or disabilities, people experiencing homelessness and workers in healthcare, food and agriculture, education, public transit and emergency services. (Angst, 4/2)
Bay Area News Group:
The Fate Of The Oakland Coliseum Vaccine Site Is In Limbo
Local officials are pleading with the federal government to keep using the Oakland Coliseum parking lot as a COVID-19 community vaccination site for several more weeks. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is slated to pull out April 11, having declared that its “eight-week mission” to vaccinate people at the Coliseum is accomplished. But while the city of Los Angeles will take over the FEMA-run vaccination site at Cal State Los Angeles, local officials here are trying to figure out who could operate the Coliseum site, according to letters obtained by this news organization. (Sciacca and Kelliher, 4/2)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Line Around The Block For COVID Vaccinations In East Oakland
An effort to ensure the COVID vaccine is equitably shot into arms made its way Saturday to East Oakland, where a line to get vaccinated outside the Brookins AME Church stretched down 73rd Avenue, around the corner and halfway down Arthur Street. Political, community and labor leaders said the turnout was testament to the need for community clinics. “The line has gotten longer every day; it’s growing as word gets out,” said the Rev. JoeDavid Sales, pastor of the church. “The demand is here.” (Cabanatuan, 4/4)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Health Care Providers Work To Ensure Everyone Gets Second COVID-19 Shot
The news about COVID-19 vaccines has only been getting better in Kern County: every week there are more doses, more places to get vaccinated and more locations accepting everyone. Now the effort is shifting gears: making sure that everyone can get a vaccine and get it most effectively. For the two most widely available vaccines — Pfizer and Moderna — that means getting two doses the way the drug manufacturers intend. (Gallegos, 4/3)
Bay Area News Group:
COVID: How Vaccine Gets From The Manufacturer To Your Arm
Still waiting for your coronavirus shot? Let’s just say the country’s vaccine pipeline has been suffering a few clogs. Yes, we’re all frustrated. And that includes Desi Kotis, chief pharmacy executive at UCSF Health. She has been helping lead UCSF Health’s vaccine distribution program and insists they are just itching to get a shot into everyone’s arm if it wasn’t for the three ugliest words in the vaccine world these days: lack of supply. “There’s no rhyme or reason to how vaccine is being allocated from week to week,” she said. “Everything is sporadic and random.” (DeRuy, 4/4)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Will Californians Get COVID Vaccine Passports?
The steady movement toward less restricted pandemic life has many Californians eyeing the prospect of dusting off passports they haven’t used in a year. There’s also emerging buzz about another kind of credential that could come into play: vaccine passports. The idea of vaccine passports is embryonic but controversial in the U.S.; New York started the first one last week. It centers on digital credentials that verify proof of coronavirus vaccination. The pass could be similar to boarding passes for airplanes. But it is envisioned more broadly for a variety of settings where admittance might require a precondition of vaccination to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. (Bobrowsky, 4/4)
San Jose Mercury News:
‘Vaccine Passports’ Are Headed To California, But Some Could Be Left Behind
California crossed a major threshold last week: For the first time, state officials moved to adopt a policy that that would give residents who are vaccinated access to different events and activities than those who aren’t. New requirements for a “vaccine passport” — showing proof of vaccination to attend gatherings like weddings, conferences, concerts or theater shows — set California apart from states looking to ban such requirements and raise questions surrounding vaccine access and privilege in a region that has repeatedly failed to protect its most vulnerable populations. (Kelliher and Castaneda, 4/3)
Los Angeles Times:
Will Fourth Wave Of COVID-19 In East Spread To California?
What appears to be a fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has struck Michigan, the New York region and New England, and experts are uncertain whether it will remain contained. ... California, where case numbers have dipped to levels not seen since the end of last spring, is in a much better situation. The state is reporting daily averages of 2,500 to 2,700 cases. (During the worst of the surge in the fall and winter, California was reporting 45,000 cases a day.) Additionally, California has had a coronavirus test positivity rate of 1%-2% over the last week — compared with 16% in Michigan and 9% in New Jersey. (Money, Dolan and Lin II, 4/4)
Los Angeles Times:
California Is Far From ‘Mission Accomplished’ On COVID-19 Fight. Here Is What To Worry About
The fight against COVID-19 has become a race of vaccines versus variants. That’s how many health officials describe the current state of the pandemic, as the circulation of even more infectious coronavirus mutations only heightens the urgency to get the vaccine into as many arms as possible as quickly as possible. There has been some success on that front, and hundreds of thousands of Californians are now rolling up their sleeves every day. (Money and Lin II, 4/2)
Los Angeles Times:
L.A. County Moves Into The Orange Tier Monday. What To Know
Los Angeles County on Monday will relax more restrictions put in place to stop the spread of the coronavirus when it moves into the orange tier, the second-most-lenient of the state’s four-phase reopening blueprint. Still, it’s important for people to continue to take precautions, especially as they start participating in more activities outside their homes, officials said. “Our numbers have improved dramatically, but we cannot let up,” Barbara Ferrer, the county public health director, said in a statement. “While we are making good progress with vaccination efforts, we have about a dozen more weeks before we can expect to reach 80% vaccine coverage for people 16 and older.” (Wigglesworth, 4/3)
Capital & Main:
Los Angeles Faces Familiar Virus Challenges As It Enters Orange Tier
Jose Limas received his first shot of a vaccine earlier in the month, but the former cook at West Hollywood’s iconic Chateau Marmont hotel doesn’t want to wait until he achieves full immunity to go back to work, even though his occupation brings him into tight quarters and cooks had the highest excess mortality rate in the state during the pandemic, according to one study. “The bills don’t stop. They keep going,” Limas explained. Los Angeles County is moving from the red tier into the “orange tier” on Monday, April 5, and plans to increase indoor dining capacity to 50%, and to allow the opening of outdoor bars that do not serve food. Is the county’s loosening of restrictions on restaurants, movie theaters, gyms and museums a good thing? (Goodheart, 3/31)
Los Angeles Times:
Easter Crowds Force Temporary Closure Of Griffith Park
Authorities closed Griffith Park for nearly an hour Sunday afternoon due to holiday crowds. Officials were forced to turn people away, a parks official said. The park reopened at close to 5 p.m. The park was closed once it appeared that parking lots had become 75% full, the official said. (Elmahrek, 4/4)
San Francisco Chronicle:
When Will California Lift Its Mask Mandate? History Says Now Is Not The Time
When the day finally arrives that denizens of the Bay Area can tear off their masks and safely breathe one another’s unfiltered air, it won’t be accompanied by cheers and the tossing of face coverings into the streets. That’s what happened in San Francisco in November 1918 during the influenza pandemic, and the celebrations turned out to be fatally premature. Barely a month later, the city was buried under a fresh wave of illness and death. (Allday, 4/3)
Capital & Main:
USC And UCLA Get Low Grades For Their COVID Responses
The University of Southern California employs more than 26,000 people and is Los Angeles’ largest private employer, while its historical crosstown rival, the University of California, Los Angeles, employs more than 42,000 people and ranks among the county’s largest employers. One year ago the two universities closed their campuses as their respective hospitals geared up for war with the novel coronavirus. Within weeks, learning went from classrooms to online, as administrators expanded pass/fail grading and students and teachers scrambled for Wi-Fi. How did two of Los Angeles’ largest employers handle the COVID-19 crisis? Capital & Main grades the graders. (Ross, 4/1)
San Francisco Chronicle:
As S.F. Students Grapple With Pandemic's Emotional Toll, Mobile Mental Health Team Rushes In
After a year of school closures and isolation, many Bay Area students are suffering. Parents and teachers have reported failing grades and rising depression. Suicide attempts in adolescents are skyrocketing. To meet the emerging crisis, San Francisco is expanding a mobile response team that provides mental health and wellness services to children, including the school district’s students. (Talley, 4/4)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Anxiety, Depression, Isolation: Bay Area Students Struggle Amid Spiking Mental Health Crisis
In the wake of stay-at-home orders that pitched California students into academic and social isolation a year ago, countless students have endured similar mental health struggles. Families have watched as their previously motivated and chatty children became despondent, angry, listless, afraid — and, in some cases, suicidal. The impact for many Bay Area families has been devastating, even life-altering. (Tucker, 4/4)
EdSource:
Local Assessments An Option If Statewide Tests Aren’t Viable During Pandemic, California Officials Signal
California education officials have been told verbally that the state may not need to submit a waiver application to the U.S. Department of Education, thus opening the door for more flexibility this spring when it comes to standardized testing, as school districts continue to navigate reopening plans during the pandemic. As vaccinations have ramped up and cases of Covid-19 have declined across the state, many California schools have started bringing back groups of students for in-person instruction. One part of the reopening puzzle recently has been how and when to administer statewide standardized tests, which in February the U.S. Department of Education said would be required. (Johnson, 4/2)
Politico:
California Teachers’ Latest Demand: Free Child Care
California teachers are ready to go back to the classroom. But the state’s largest union has a new ask: free child care for their own kids. The demand is salt in the wound for parents who struggled with distance learning at home amid intense reopening negotiations that have dragged on for a year. (Mays, 4/4)
Becker's Hospital Review:
Hundreds Of California Nurses Approve Labor Deal
Nearly 800 nurses who work in San Joaquin County's health system in California have approved a contract with the county's board of supervisors, according to union and health system statements. The agreement, which covers nurses who work at San Joaquin General Hospital in French Camp, Calif., and in public health and county jails and clinics, comes after more than two years of bargaining sessions between the county and the California Nurses Association. During 2020 negotiations, nurses went on a two-day strike in March and a five-day strike in October. The nurses canceled a three-day strike that was set to start Feb. 27. (Gooch, 4/2)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Scripps, UCSD Focus On 'Long Haul' COVID-19 Symptoms
Scripps Health is the latest local health provider to tighten its focus on patients whose COVID-19 symptoms linger, joining UC San Diego Health in creating its own clinic to offer holistic services to patients whose coronavirus cases have turned into medical marathons. No one knows quite how many of the 30.3 million Americans so far infected by COV2 are among those often called COVID-19 “long haulers.” One recent estimate from an international research effort called the COVID Symptom study found that roughly one in eight of the more than 4,000 people who responded to its smartphone-based surveys had symptoms for four weeks or more. (Sisson, 4/3)
Los Angeles Times:
Federal Government Considers Two More California Sites To House Unaccompanied Migrant Children
Federal authorities are considering the use of two more facilities in California to temporarily house the increasing number of unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the southern border with Mexico. The Long Beach Convention Center could soon be tapped, said a source who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. And federal officials sent a request for the same purpose to use Camp Roberts, a California Army National Guard base inland along the central coast, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed in a briefing Thursday. (Carcamo and Castillo, 4/3)
Marin Independent Journal:
Report: 2020 Had The Lowest Number Of Suicide Deaths On The Golden Gate Bridge In Years
Preliminary death totals for 2020 show the number of people who died by suicide last year in Marin declined significantly over the prior year, according to the county coroner’s office. Chief Deputy Coroner Roger Fielding said the findings in his annual report, due to be published later this month, indicate that 49 people died by suicide last year, compared to 77 in 2019. Fielding said the decline has come despite a rise of close to 100 in the number of deaths investigated by his office, a division of the Marin County Sheriff’s Office. Fielding’s statistics include deaths of both Marin residents and non-Marin residents. His office tracks deaths based on where they occur. (Brenner, 4/5)
Los Angeles Times:
Orange County Water District Works To Clean Polluted Groundwater From Decades Of Manufacturing
Underneath Orange County is a hidden arterial highway that groundwater moves through before eventually finding its way into homes. More than 70% of the water served in Orange County is from groundwater. But some has become contaminated from industrial manufacturing because harmful chemicals that weren’t properly disposed of seeped down into the ground. “Any area with a large amount of industrial activity, especially when it comes to machining, metalworking or military purposes, all of which kind of play a role in Orange County’s history, used a pretty significant amount of chemicals back before their disposal was particularly well-regulated,” Chapman University chemistry professor Christopher Kim said. “Unfortunately, those historical industries and activities have this legacy effect of still causing contamination problems through today.” (Brazil, 4/4)
KQED:
Oakland Guaranteed Income Program Now Says It's Not Exclusively For People Of Color
After initially asking exclusively for applicants of color, organizers of a pilot program to provide a guaranteed income to hundreds of low-income Oaklanders now say all residents who meet the program's criteria are welcome to apply, regardless of race. The Oakland Resilient Families program was announced last week as the latest experiment in a nationwide movement to aid low-income families by providing direct cash payments with no strings attached. Unlike other guaranteed income programs, however, organizers in Oakland asked specifically for residents of color to take part. (Marzorati, 4/2)
AP:
Amid Outcry, States Push Mental Health Training For Police
The officer who Cassandra Quinto-Collins says kneeled on her son’s neck for over four minutes assured her it was standard protocol for sedating a person experiencing a mental breakdown. “I was there watching it the whole time,” Quinto-Collins told The Associated Press. “I just trusted that they knew what they were doing.” Angelo Quinto’s sister had called 911 for help calming him down during an episode of paranoia on Dec. 23. His family says Quinto didn’t resist the Antioch, California, officers — one who pushed his knee on the back of his neck, and another who restrained his legs — and the only noise he made was when he twice cried out, “Please don’t kill me.” (Amiri, 4/4)
San Francisco Chronicle:
No Marijuana Billboards Allowed? California Is Making It Hard On Legal Weed
California — birthplace of the Grateful Dead, Snoop Dogg and the Weedmaps app — is still uptight about marijuana, more than four years after voters legalized it for adult recreational use and 25 years after they OKd medicinal herb. It’s baffling that there is still a stigma attached to cannabis in a state that grows more of it than anywhere else on the planet and whose legal industry employs more people than anywhere in the nation. The industry generated more than $3.7 billion in business last year in California, according to Leafly, a cannabis sales and news site. Yet conflicts remain. Start with billboard advertising. (Garofoli, 4/4)
Fresno Bee:
Clovis 5-Year-Old Takes On Cancer With Smile, Positive Mom
Among the many terrifying moments after learning her 5-year-old somehow got cancer, Shayna Telesmanic was perhaps most nervous when her daughter would discover she was losing her hair. Thick and wavy and naturally highlighted, Caroline Telesmanic’s hair was a combination of light-brown tones complementing the rest of her medium-brown hair.And brushing her hair was an activity Caroline enjoyed, especially when her mom did it. (Anteola, 4/3)