Latest California Healthline Stories
Daily Edition for Thursday, August 13, 2020
LA’s Rush To Reopen Came With A Price: Los Angeles County’s pandemic response in the early weeks was considered a national model—but then it all went wrong. Los Angeles Times reporters reviewed months of public statements and documents from L.A. officials to understand the factors that set the stage for a resurgence of the coronavirus in June that ultimately killed more than 1,600 people. Read more from Sandhya Kambhampati, Soumya Karlamangla, Jaclyn Cosgrove, Priya Krishnakumar and Maloy Moore of the Los Angeles Times.
Daily Edition for Wednesday, August 12, 2020
Harris Tapped As Biden’s Pick For VP, But Where Does She Stand On Health Care? In the Democratic primary battle, it took months for California Sen. Kamala Harris to clarify her position on health care, even as she criticized her opposition, former vice president Joe Biden, for not going far enough on health care reform. Harris was initially a co-sponsor of Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) “Medicare for All” proposal that much of the health care industry opposes. Here's where Harris stood on health care issues during her own campaign. Read more from Rachel Cohrs of Modern Healthcare.
Daily Edition for Tuesday, August 11, 2020
COVID Cases Rise 150% In California Kids, Teens: Coronavirus cases among children and teenagers are surging in California, up 150% last month, a rate that outpaces COVID-19 cases overall and establishes minors as a small but growing share of the state’s COVID-19 cases. The increase also appears to outpace the number of coronavirus cases among children nationally, which grew 40% in the second half of July. Read more from Laura J. Nelson of the Los Angeles Times and Catherine Ho of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Daily Edition for Monday, August 10, 2020
Public Health Chief Sonia Angell Abruptly Quits: Dr. Sonia Angell announced her resignation Sunday night after less than a year on the job. She gave no reason for the resignation, which takes effect immediately. Gov. Gavin Newsom released a statement thanking Angell “for her service to the state and her work to help steer our public health system during this global pandemic.” Read more from Tony Bravo of the San Francisco Chronicle, Sophia Bollag of the Sacramento Bee and John Myers of the Los Angeles Times.
Daily Edition for Friday, August 7, 2020
California Surpasses 10,000 COVID Deaths: The death toll from the coronavirus in California surpassed 10,000 people on Thursday, a mark that underscores how a state that was once hailed as a pandemic success story is now struggling to slow outbreaks. As of Friday morning, California had at least 541,494 confirmed cases and 10,028 deaths. Adding to the problem, the virus is now severely affecting rural and agricultural areas. “The epidemic is moving from urban Latino populations to rural Latino populations,” said Dr. George Rutherford, epidemiologist and infectious-diseases expert at UC San Francisco. Read more from Sean Greene, Rong-Gong Lin II, Colleen Shalby, Iris Lee and Alex Wigglesworth of the Los Angeles Times.
Daily Edition for Thursday, August 6, 2020
COVID Watchlist Comes To A Screeching Halt: California has stopped removing or adding to a list of counties facing more restrictions on businesses and schools as it tries to resolve a technical problem with the state’s coronavirus testing database, health officials said Wednesday. The state has recorded a highest-in-the-nation 525,000 positive tests, but health officials say the true number is even higher. Read more from Amy Taxin of the Associated Press and Katie Dowd of SFGate.
Daily Edition for Wednesday, August 5, 2020
Decline In COVID Cases May Be A Technical Glitch: A steep decline in California’s coronavirus infection rate announced this week by Gov. Gavin Newson may not be accurate, according to the state’s top public health official who said Tuesday that the state’s data system used to process COVID-19 test results is marred with technical issues. The problems have caused delays in analyzing test results and cast doubt on Newsom’s announcement Monday of a 21.2% decline in the seven-day average rate for positive infections compared with the average from the week before. Read more from Colleen Shalby of the Los Angeles Times and Michael McGough, Tony Bizjak and Sophia Bollag of the Sacramento Bee.
Daily Edition for Tuesday, August 4, 2020
Newsom Unveils Rules For Elementary Schools: Some California elementary schools may be able to reopen for in-person classes this fall under a strict waiver system announced Monday by state officials. But because of the detailed rules, smaller schools — especially private and parochial campuses with more flexibility — will probably be among the most successful at meeting the special guidelines. The highly anticipated guidance follows Gov. Gavin Newsom's mid-July announcement that the state would generally require fully online learning for public and private schools located in counties on the COVID-19 watch list. Read more from Anita Chabria and Nina Agrawal of the Los Angeles Times and Katy Murphy and Jeremy B. White of Politico.
Daily Edition for Monday, August 3, 2020
A Difficult Month Comes To An End: July was a coronavirus disaster in California. The state recorded 8,669 new cases per day on average in July, more than twice the figure for June, according to state data analyzed by The Chronicle. Daily death counts also rose dramatically, from 64 in June to 101 in July. California also marked another ignominious milestone in July: The state became the first in the United States to exceed 500,000 confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday. Read more from Lauren Hernandez of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Daily Edition for Friday, July 31, 2020
San Francisco Opens Overflow Facility For Non-COVID Patients: Predicting a “major surge” in critical coronavirus cases in the coming weeks, San Francisco officials said Thursday they will shift non-COVID-19 patients to a new inpatient facility in the Presidio if it becomes necessary to clear hospital beds for virus patients. The temporary medical center will be set up in a pair of warehouses behind the Palace of Fine Arts on Gorgas Avenue and will treat up to 93 patients, county officials said. Read more from Tatiana Sanchez of the San Francisco Chronicle.