Latest California Healthline Stories
Daily Edition for Friday, March 20, 2020
Newsom Orders 40 Million Californians To Stay At Home As State's Outbreak Escalates: Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered all Californians on Thursday to stay home and leave only for essential trips, escalating efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus, which state officials estimate could infect more than half the population if drastic steps are not taken. The order is similar to the shelter-in-place rules that Bay Area residents have been living under since Monday, allowing people to visit the grocery store, seek medical care, walk outside and exercise if they maintain social distance from others. It will force countless businesses in the state deemed nonessential to close their doors temporarily. The order exempts workers in 16 federal critical infrastructure sectors, including food and agriculture, healthcare, transportation, energy, financial services, emergency response and others.
Daily Edition for Thursday, March 19, 2020
As Cases And Death Totals Climb, Newsom Asks Defense Department To Deploy Hospital Ships To Help: Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday evening said the state has asked the Department of Defense to deploy the Navy’s Mercy hospital ship and two mobile hospitals to California to help care for the expected surge in hospitalizations of residents stricken by the novel coronavirus.
Daily Edition for Wednesday, March 18, 2020
'This Is Really About Saving Lives': California's Stringent Measures To Protect State Might Set Example For Other States: The most ambitious experiment in America to stop the spread of the coronavirus — shelter-in-place orders for almost every resident — was underway for seven million people living around the San Francisco Bay on Tuesday. Another two million people were being asked to stay home under similar directives in the Sacramento and Monterey areas on Wednesday. As other parts of the country contemplate similar measures, the shelter-in-place order in the Bay Area is testing the willingness of a go-it-alone society to curb personal behavior for the greater good of the community, especially older people and those vulnerable to severe disease because of medical conditions.
Daily Edition for Tuesday, March 17, 2020
As Cases Climb In California, Bay Area's Nearly 7M Residents Directed To Shelter In Place: Six Bay Area counties announced “shelter in place” orders for all residents on Monday — the strictest measure of its kind yet in the continental United States — directing everyone to stay inside their homes and away from others as much as possible for the next three weeks in a desperate move to curb the rapid spread of coronavirus across the region. The directive was set to begin at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday and involves San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa and Alameda counties — a combined population of more than 6.7 million. It is to stay in place until at least April 7. The three other Bay Area counties — Sonoma, Solano and Napa — did not issue similar mandates. Vital businesses like grocery stores, banks and pharmacies will remain open, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said, and indispensable government services will continue. While bars were slated to close at midnight, restaurants will still fill takeout orders. Read more from Erin Allday of the San Francisco Chronicle, Erica Hellerstein of CalMatters, and Victoria Colliver and Jeremy B. White of Politico. Also see below for more stories about the shutdown.
Daily Edition for Monday, March 16, 2020
‘We Need To Meet This Moment Aggressively’: Newsom Calls On Public To Take Drastic Actions To Help Slow Spread Of Coronavirus: Gov. Gavin Newsom announced new state measures to combat the coronavirus Sunday, urging that bars close and restaurants reduce capacity, and setting in motion plans to help protect the most vulnerable: senior citizens, anyone with a chronic illness and the homeless. Newsom asked all Californians 65 and older to isolate themselves at home, as well as anyone with chronic health conditions. To keep the virus from spreading through the state’s surging homeless population, Newsom said teams are focused on getting people out of encampments.
Daily Edition for Friday, March 13, 2020
Newsom Expands State’s Power To Address Coronavirus Outbreak As Confirmed Cases Nears 200: Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Thursday that readied the state to potentially commandeer hotels or medical facilities to quarantine patients and allowed city councils and other local and state government bodies to move their public meetings to teleconferencing. It also aimed to ease some impacts of the outbreak by waiving a requirement that applicants for unemployment wait a week before receiving benefits and giving people up to 60 additional days to file their state tax returns if the virus prevents them from doing so in a timely manner.
Daily Edition for Thursday, March 12, 2020
Newsom Recommends Events With More Than 250 People Be Postponed Or Canceled As State Tries To Slow Spread: Californians should cancel or postpone events with more than 250 people, while smaller gatherings should space people at least 6 feet apart to avoid spreading coronavirus, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and top health officials announced Wednesday night. Officials recommend organizers further limit gatherings of people for whom the virus presents a greater risk, including the elderly and chronically ill, to no more than 10 people. Newsom said Californians must cancel non-essential events like concerts to reduce strain on the health care system and save lives.
Daily Edition for Wednesday, March 11, 2020
The ‘Cat Is Out Of The Bag’: California Shifts Focus From Containment To Slowing Down Spread: Coronavirus cases have blown up across Northern California in the past week, and counties increasingly are refocusing from aggressive containment of the disease to acceptance that it’s in the community and their limited resources are better spent on slowing down its spread. Effective immediately, people in Sacramento County should not quarantine themselves if they've been exposed to the COVID-19. Instead, they should go into isolation only if they begin to show symptoms of the respiratory virus, the county's health department says.
Daily Edition for Tuesday, March 10, 2020
LA Has First Community-Spread Cases As County’s Coronavirus Count Climbs to 19: L.A. County Public Health Department Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said one of the two new cases in her agency’s jurisdiction is that of a person who had a known travel history to Japan. The source of exposure of the second person is unknown. Separately, Long Beach, which has its own health department, reported its first cases of coronavirus-infected patients — two men and one woman. “This is our first case of community transmission in L.A. County and we will continue to see more cases of COVID-19,” Ferrer said. “We continue to urge everyone to do their part: Stay home if you are sick and keep your children home if they are sick; plan for the possibility of school and business closures.” Read more from Colleen Shalby of the Los Angeles Times and David Rosenfield of The Beach Reporter.
Daily Edition for Monday, March 9, 2020
As Cruise Passengers Prepare To Disembark, Newsom Warns California Should Be Braced For Uptick In Cases: California should expect the number of coronavirus cases to keep rising statewide, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday as the state prepared to receive a cruise ship bearing some passengers and crew with the disease. He made the remarks in Oakland on Sunday, where a cruise ship carrying at least 21 infected people is scheduled to dock sometime Monday. The Democratic governor detailed a protocol for evacuating, treating and quarantining the thousands of passengers on board, and warned the state does not have the capacity to handle many more cruise ship outbreaks like this one. Newsom also said he would meet with school superintendents from across the state on Monday to try to “ratchet up our guidance” to them about possible school closures.