Latest California Healthline Stories
Daily Edition for Friday, September 4, 2020
Californians Warned To Take COVID Precautions At The Beach: As Southern California gets hit with another heat wave bringing triple-digit temps inland in coming days, the coastline is expected to be especially crowded through the Labor Day weekend. State Parks South Coast District Superintendent Kevin Pearsall said there’s no anticipated beach closures or parking lot restrictions for the State Parks system’s beaches, which includes the popular Leo Carrillo north of Malibu, Bolsa Chica State Beach, Crystal Cove and Doheny State Beach. People must wear masks if entering a park building that is open, Pearsall said. Read more from the Orange County Register and the Los Angeles Times.
Daily Edition for Thursday, September 3, 2020
Walk-Up COVID Testing Wins Raves: Access to free and convenient coronavirus testing at transportation hubs in the Bay Area and beyond may be the key to slowing high infection rates among low-income Latinos, data released Wednesday from a three-week UCSF testing initiative show. Researchers offered free, walk-up testing in August at the plaza at 24th and Mission streets in San Francisco to gauge the effectiveness of testing in a transit hub. The initiative was successful and should be replicated elsewhere, researchers said. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Daily Edition for Wednesday, September 2, 2020
New COVID-19 Reporting System Coming In October: California will create a new COVID-19 data reporting system that will better handle large numbers of coronavirus cases than the state’s current system, which malfunctioned in July. The state has signed a six-month, renewable $15.3 million contract with Optum Insight to build the system. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times.
Daily Edition for Tuesday, September 1, 2020
Lawmakers Pass Flurry Of Health-Related Bills: California lawmakers on Monday wrapped up a legislative session largely defined by the pandemic as they approved new COVID-19 sick leave for food workers, added sweeping labor protections for laid-off hotel staff and made it easier for essential employees to file for workers’ compensation. The bills now head to Gov. Gavin Newsom. Read more from the Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle and the Associated Press.
Daily Edition for Monday, August 31, 2020
Color-coded COVID System Starts Today: Gov. Gavin Newsom's new color-coded reopening system for California counties, which he unveiled Friday, begins today. Under the new ranking system, counties fall into four color-coded categories — purple, red, orange and yellow — depending on the number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents and the percentage of tests that come back positive, Newsom said. For example, in purple-tiered counties, where COVID is deemed most widespread, restaurants will only be allowed to operate outside. Restaurants in red-tier counties can operate at 25% capacity indoors. Read more from the Sacramento Bee, KCRA, SFGate, Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle.
Daily Edition for Friday, August 28, 2020
In Unprecedented Move, Nearly All Republican State Senators In Quarantine: Nearly every Republican in the California Senate was forced to stay away from the Capitol on Thursday as they quarantined after coming into close contact with a fellow senator who later tested positive for the coronavirus. The extraordinary move, during legislators’ pivotal final week in session, came a day after Sen. Brian Jones, R-Santee, tweeted that he had been infected with the virus. Read more from Dustin Gardiner of the San Francisco Chronicle and Melody Gutierrez and Taryn Luna of the Los Angeles Times.
Daily Edition for Thursday, August 27, 2020
California Will Continue Testing Despite CDC Guidance, Newsom Says: New guidance on coronavirus testing and travel issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention drew strong pushback from California officials Wednesday. The CDC now says people without symptoms do not need to be tested, even if they were in contact with an infected person. “I don’t agree with the new CDC guidance. Period. Full stop,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday. “We will not be influenced by that change.” Read more from Colleen Shalby and Phil Willon of the Los Angeles Times, Daniel Wu of the Bay Area News Group, Catherine Ho of the San Francisco Chronicle and Martin Espinoza of the (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat.
Daily Edition for Wednesday, August 26, 2020
Evacuees Face Arduous Task Of Returning Home: Favorable weather helped firefighters battling three epic Northern California wildfires, but tens of thousands of people still under evacuation orders were left wondering: When can we go home? Some North Bay evacuees were allowed to return home Tuesday, but firefighters had no clear answer for nearly 80,000 residents forced last week to leave their homes in the Santa Cruz Mountains. “Please be patient with us, we’re doing the best we can with the resources we have,” said Ian Larkin, chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s CZU unit in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties. “We’re in this for the long haul.” Read more from John Woolfolk, Ethan Baron and Annie Sciacca of the Bay Area News Group.
Daily Edition for Tuesday, August 25, 2020
More Counties Off Watchlist As Governor Reports COVID Progress: Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday said California is seeing a modest downward trend in confirmed coronavirus cases: "Progress is being made." Daily cases fell below 5,000 to 4,946 after averaging 7,622 over the last two weeks, The Mercury News reports. Hospitalizations have also eased. As five counties come off the monitoring list, state officials are expected to announce guidelines for reopening some businesses by the end of the week. The Los Angeles Times and Deadline have more information.
Daily Edition for Monday, August 24, 2020
Dual Crises Stress California's Health Workers: Exhausted doctors and health care personnel treat respiratory hospitalizations and displaced people caused by the state's three raging wildfires -- and they're doing so during already-strained conditions from the pandemic. News outlets offer up a variety of stories that describe the difficult working conditions, and their impact on care: