Latest California Healthline Stories
Daily Edition for Monday, April 13, 2020
California’s Peak Could Come As Earlier As Wednesday, But Other Models Project It Won’t Happen Until May: If the country’s most popular coronavirus model proves accurate, on Wednesday California’s death count will hit 66 and then decline from there going forward. But that’s just one projection, and it differs substantially from the forecast developed by California’s disease modeling team, which predicts a peak in mid- or late May, and a slow falling off through June. The disparate predictions can breed confusion and frustration among the tens of millions of Californians who are eager to put the outbreak behind them and emerge from their weeks of isolation. But disease models, for all that they’re useful in making policy decisions and preparing for disaster, are not meant to predict the future, public health and infectious disease experts say. Read more from Erin Allday of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Daily Edition for Friday, April 10, 2020
Newsom Says First Daily Decrease In ICU Hospitalizations Is Encouraging, But Warns Not To Read Too Much Into One Data Point: The rate of all virus hospitalizations has slowed this week. Those in the ICU need the highest level of care, and so it was particularly encouraging that the number of patients in those rooms actually dropped 1.9% on Wednesday to 1,132. “One data point is not a trend. … I caution anybody to read too much into that,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said. “But nonetheless, it is encouraging. It reinforces the incredible work all of you are doing.” After weeks of social distancing, the virus has been spreading at a slower pace than anticipated, though state officials are sticking with their forecast that the peak of the disease in the state will occur in mid-May. California has more than 19,100 confirmed COVID-19 cases and has recorded at least 507 deaths, according to statistics compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Read more from Adam Beam of The Associated Press and Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group.
Daily Edition for Thursday, April 9, 2020
Local California Officials Caught Off Guard By Newsom’s Decision To Send Ventilators To Other States: Riverside County officials said the state recently denied their request for an additional 500 ventilators, even though the county expects demand for the breathing machines at county hospitals and medical centers to exceed the supply in less than three weeks. Santa Clara County, another area hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, is offering a $1,000 bounty for each device it receives and has ordered companies with the devices to report their inventory to the county. “I understand and respect what the governor is doing. But are we going to be able to get the assistance that we’re going to need in a week or two weeks out?” Riverside County Supervisor Kevin Jeffries said Wednesday. “I think we were all a little surprised. We’re all trying to prepare so we’re not like New York.”
Daily Edition for Wednesday, April 8, 2020
'We Decided Enough’s Enough': California Secures 200M Masks A Month At Cost Of $1B: Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that California has secured a monthly supply of 200 million N95 respiratory and surgical masks to help protect healthcare workers and other essential personnel at the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state. “We decided enough’s enough. Let’s use the power, the purchasing power of the state of California, as a nation-state,” Newsom said. “We did just that. And in the next few weeks, we’re going to see supplies, at that level, into the state of California and potentially the opportunity to export some of those supplies to states in need.” The masks are among the most coveted supplies needed in hospitals and medical facilities that are treating people infected with the coronavirus amid a nationwide shortage of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers. They will come from a consortium of suppliers, including a California nonprofit, a California manufacturer with suppliers in Asia and from a company sterilizing used masks, according to Nathan Click, the governor’s spokesman. Read more from Phil Willon of the Los Angeles Times and Carla Marinucci of Politico.
Daily Edition for Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Newsom Confident State Has Enough Ventilators, ICU Beds And Health Workers To Meet Expected Surge: Gov. Gavin Newsom is so confident in the state’s preparedness that he announced California was donating 500 ventilators to the Strategic National Stockpile to deploy in states that need them more, like New York, which has already received ventilators from Oregon, Washington and from China. “We feel confident in our capacity to meet our needs as we support the needs of others,” Newsom said, adding that the ventilators are being “lent” and could be recalled if necessary down the road. The generosity comes in the weeks after California — and other states — launched massive efforts to stockpile medical supplies and personal protective equipment to prepare before a surge of coronavirus patients overwhelmed the Golden State’s hospitals. Read more from Maggie Angst and Emily DeRuy of the Bay Area News Group.
Daily Edition for Monday, April 6, 2020
A Tale Of Two Cities: While San Francisco Took Swift, Aggressive Action, Los Angeles Hesitated: A look at the coronavirus outbreak in San Francisco and Los Angeles counties, offers additional evidence that early intervention played a key role in slowing the rate of infection in the Bay Area. The rate of infection in both counties started slowly. At one point, Los Angeles County and much smaller San Francisco, which is a contiguous city and county, were neck and neck. Los Angeles reported its first case of COVID-19 on Jan. 26. San Francisco reported its first two cases on March 5. And on March 10, the counties had the same number of cases: 17. But since announcing its shelter-in-place rules on March 16, San Francisco has seen a slower rate of increase than has Los Angeles. Los Angeles’ cases have risen more than 48 times as high, while San Francisco’s have gone up about 10 times higher. Read more from Sarah Ravani of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Daily Edition for Friday, April 3, 2020
As Death Toll In LA Climbs To 78, Officials Warn It Could Be Weeks Before Seeing Signs Virus Is Slowing: Although cases are rising across the state, Los Angeles County — the state’s most populous — has seen a large number of fatalities and new cases. Officials acknowledged the psychological toll of the losses but said it’s essential people keep following social distancing rules and follow health guidelines. “Please don’t lose hope, and please don’t stop following all of the directives that you are following right now to slow the spread of COVID-19,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues its march across California, the number of cases in the state swelled to more than 11,000 on Thursday — with the death toll topping 240. Of those cases, 40% have occurred in L.A. County. Read more from Hannah Fry, John Myers and Paige St. John of the Los Angeles Times.
Daily Edition for Thursday, April 2, 2020
California’s Coronavirus Cases Barrels Toward 10,000; Number Of ICU Patients Quadruples In Six Days: California is closing in on 10,000 confirmed cases with the state’s death total topping 200. Gov. Gavin Newsom focused in particular on the number of patients being treated in ICUs. Newsom opened a news conference Wednesday by stating a single number — “774” — because, he said, the number of people in ICU beds remains his focus, along with the number of people hospitalized in the state for COVID-19 (1855 people, roughly triple the figure from six days ago). “That’s the number I wake up to that I am most focused on as governor of the state California,” Newsom said. “Those numbers represent our most urgent need in terms of keeping people alive and keeping people healthy and safe in the state of California. Newsom and his top health official have talked for more than a week about California’s need for 50,000 more hospital beds, 10,000 more ventilators and tens of millions more masks to battle coronavirus. On Wednesday, they revealed those numbers are just “Phase One.” “If you extrapolate that out… we’ll exceed that Phase One surge capacity of 50,000 (beds) somewhere in the middle part of May,” he said. Read more from the Los Angeles Times, the Sacramento Bee, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Daily Edition for Wednesday, April 1, 2020
Newsom Warns Against Complacency: ‘The Only Regret We Will Have Is If People Cut The Parachute Before We Land’: Some evidence now suggests that California’s early decision to adopt aggressive social distancing policies may be helping to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus compared to other key states. But the governor said it’s still too early for optimism. “We are not out of the woods yet—by no stretch of the imagination,” he said. The number of confirmed cases in the state topped 8,000, with more than 170 deaths. Los Angeles County officials Tuesday confirmed 10 new coronavirus-linked deaths and reported the first such fatality of a health care worker. The number of deaths in the county is at least 54. Other public health officials mirrored Newsom’s caution. “I want to say that: The incredible sacrifice that everyone has made, I believe it is starting to bend the curve. But it’s not enough and it hasn’t been in place long enough, so we need to keep at it, we just need to keep at it,” said Dr. Sara Cody, the Santa Clara County public health officer. Read more from Ben Christopher of CalMatters and Paige St. John, Rong-Gong Lin II, Richard Winton and Howard Blume of the Los Angeles Times.
Daily Edition for Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Newsom Issues Urgent Call For Doctors, Nurses To Enroll In Newly Created California Health Corps: In a bid to dramatically boost the number of health care workers fighting the deadly coronavirus spreading across the Bay Area and beyond, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday announced a plan to temporarily bring both recently retired health care workers and students who are about to graduate as doctors and nurses into the workforce. “We need you,” Newsom repeatedly said, aiming his comments at healthcare workers. “We’ll help you with your relicensing, we’ll help you with the protocol and processes to get you up and running and get you out the door so that you can support the needs of people in California. The urgent need for healthcare workers comes as the death toll from the coronavirus in California rose to 142 and the number of confirmed cases surged to more than 6,800. Read more from Emily DeRuy and Maggie Angst of the Bay Area News Group and Melody Gutierrez of the Los Angeles Times.