Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Public Health Officials To Newsom: Lockdown Won’t Work Without Enforcement
California Gov. Gavin Newsom was out front nationally when he ordered nearly all Californians to stay at home to stem the spread of COVID-19. But local officials warn it won’t work without tougher enforcement. (Angela Hart, )
California Lawmakers Struggle To Conduct Business Amid COVID-19 Lockdown
In an interview with California Healthline, the state’s Senate leader, Toni Atkins, makes clear that with social-distancing measures in force it will be difficult to debate and pass complicated budget measures ― but public health, education and public safety will be priorities. (Samantha Young, )
California Doubles Number Of Tests, But Newsom Says It’s Still Not Good Enough: The number of coronavirus tests conducted in California more than doubled, to nearly 67,000, up from 27,000 on Monday, as dozens of new testing sites reported numbers to the state, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday. But California has done far fewer tests than New York, which had conducted nearly 104,000 tests as of Wednesday, according to the Covid Tracking Project, a database of state testing data compiled by journalists at the Atlantic. One explanation is that New York state started testing more people sooner than California because the state requested and received emergency-use authorization from the FDA to start using its own lab-developed test on Feb. 29. Read more from Catherine Ho of the San Francisco Chronicle, and Ana B. Ibarra of CalMatters.
California Officials Alarmed By Grim Possibilities As State’s Cases Double Every 3-4 Days: The number of Californians dying from COVID-19 is doubling every three to four days. That pace is a bit slower than the pace in other world hotspots. In parts of Europe, the number of deaths doubles every two to three days. More than 3,100 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in California and 67 people have died of the respiratory disease. “We are in a grave crisis,” warned Dr. Scott Morrow, San Mateo County’s health officer. “Unless everyone does their part and follows the county’s shelter-in-place order and the governor’s Safer at Home order, we will be facing an Italy-type catastrophe very soon.” Read more from Rong-Gong Lin II of the Los Angeles Times; Phillip Reese of the Sacramento Bee; and Madeline Hocombe of CNN.
More Than A Million Californians Apply For Unemployment Benefits; Newsom Secures Mortgage-Relief Deal With Banks: The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits soared to unprecedented levels last week as new government data put into stark relief the magnitude of the economic pain caused by the coronavirus outbreak. But Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday that four of the nation’s five largest banks have agreed to suspend mortgage payments for 90 days for California homeowners affected by the coronavirus. The mortgage relief doesn’t do enough to keep a roof over Californians as some Democrats would like. Calling attention to the plight of renters in the state, more than three dozen lawmakers sent Newsom a letter Wednesday calling on him to ban evictions statewide until the state of emergency caused by the pandemic ends. Read more from Don Lee of the Los Angeles Times; Laurel Rosenhall of CalMatters; and Kathleen Pender of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Below, check out the full round-up of California Healthline original stories, state coverage and the best of the rest of the national news for the day.
More News From Across The State
San Francisco Chronicle:
Closed California Pacific Med Center In SF Could Add 150 Beds In A Coronavirus Surge
Gov. Gavin Newsom hopes to re-open a California Pacific Medical Center campus in San Francisco as part of a statewide plan to round up hospital beds in anticipation of a surge of coronavirus patients in the coming weeks. The campus in Pacific Heights halted inpatient services a year ago. The state is in talks with Sutter Health, which owns CPMC, “to identify and activate locations for additional hospital beds throughout the state,” including the Pacific campus at 2333 Buchanan St., said a spokeswoman for the health network. (Allday, 3/25)
San Francisco Chronicle:
‘Worst Is Yet To Come:’ SF May Need Additional 1,500 Ventilators, 5,000 Beds To Confront Coronavirus
Mayor London Breed, health Director Dr. Grant Colfax and representatives from public and private hospitals said Wednesday the city may need up to 1,500 more ventilators and 5,000 more hospital beds to confront the surge in COVID-19 cases that is predicted to descend on San Francisco in as little as two weeks. Since the crisis began, public health officials and San Francisco hospitals have been collaborating on a unified plan to address a predicted inundation of new patients brought on by community spread of the new coronavirus. The plan is anchored around two broad imperatives: Reduce the pressure on hospitals, and expand their capacity to handle more cases. (Fracassa, 3/25)
Los Angeles Times:
Coronavirus: California Faces Nurse Shortfall If It Doesn't Act
Amid a frantic scramble to open hospitals and increase the number of healthcare workers, California nursing schools are warning state officials that an estimated 10,000 nursing students are in jeopardy of not graduating, meaning they will be unable help evaluate and treat patients amid the coronavirus pandemic. Under state rules, nursing students must spend a substantial part of their clinical education in hospitals, but they are barred from doing so now because of hospital lockdown orders. Unless the state loosens its rules, students set to graduate in coming months will find it impossible to become a licensed nurse. (Gutierrez and Agrawal, 3/25)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Coronavirus Patients Filled Nearly Half The Beds At Kaiser Permanente’s San Jose Hospital, Executive Says
Nearly half of the patients at Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center have or are believed to have COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, a Kaiser executive told a medical association. Dr. Stephen Parodi, a Kaiser executive vice president, said in an interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association last Thursday that the San Jose facility “actually has almost half the hospital filled with either COVID-confirmed or persons under investigation.” (Kawahara, 3/25)
Bay Area News Group:
SJPD Finds Cache Of Masks, Donates Them To Hospitals
One afternoon last week, San Jose Police Department property supervisor Anna Hawkes was awash in news of widespread shortages of masks and other supplies at area hospitals straining to keep up with the spiking number of people needing hospital care for COVID-19. It prompted her to remember that there might be a stashed-away cache of hospital-grade masks somewhere in one of the department’s warehouses, stockpiled after the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic. So she and other staff began hunting for the pallet. (Salonga, 3/25)
San Francisco Chronicle:
SF’s Most Vulnerable Are Packed Into Homeless Shelters With Coronavirus Distancing Discouraged
San Franciscans are supposed to stay 6 feet apart from each other — except in homeless shelters where city officials have deep-sixed any effort at social distancing. Strangely, the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing this week circulated a directive among shelter operators instructing them not to move beds 6 feet apart from each other or to create isolation rooms for people who may have contracted the coronavirus. (Knight, 3/25)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento County Opening 663 Homeless Beds During Coronavirus
Sacramento officials plan to move 663 or more homeless people into local hotels, emergency trailers, shelters and apartments as part of a major California emergency effort to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus among the vulnerable homeless population... Sacramento County health officials, who are leading a collaborative local effort to house the homeless, said they have already begun moving a few people into new housing. The task force includes Sacramento County, City of Sacramento, Sacramento Steps Forward and Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency. (Clift and Bizjak, 3/25)
Sacramento Bee:
Coronavirus: Sacramento County Bans Evictions Starting May 1
Sacramento County Board of Supervisors approved renter protections Wednesday that would prevent landlords from evicting residential tenants who can’t pay rent because they’ve experienced financial hardship due to the coronavirus pandemic. The vote, held during a special meeting Wednesday, comes one day after the board rejected the same version of protections under an emergency ordinance. That emergency ordinance would’ve taken effect immediately, but required a four-fifth vote. (Yoon-Hendricks, 3/25)
Sacramento Bee:
California Not Ready To Increase Unemployment Benefits
If California wants to increase unemployment insurance benefits to help workers cope with the economic fallout from the new coronavirus, the higher payments could be delayed up to a year because the state employment department isn’t prepared for the job. A new report from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office found the information technology systems at California’s Employment Development Department, which adminsters unemployment benefits, are limited in what they can currently do. (Lightman, 3/25)
Bay Area News Group:
Coronavirus: Santa Clara County Adds 84 New COVID-19 Cases
Santa Clara County reported 84 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday in what is the largest single-day spike since the county began recording positive tests. Santa Clara County Public Health Department also reported one additional COVID-19-related death, bringing the countywide death toll to 17. More than half of the deaths have been reported since Saturday. Details of the latest victim’s age or potential underlying health issues were not immediately made available. (Crowley, 3/26)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Six Bay Area Counties Extend Coronavirus School Closures To May 4
Officials in six Bay Area counties announced they will shutter all schools until May 4, extending coronavirus closures for what will be at least a seven-week stretch. The coordinated decision aligns the closure schedule for hundreds of schools and nearly 1 million students in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. The decision follows an announcement by Los Angeles Unified last week to close through May 1 as well. (Tucker, 3/25)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Attorneys Ask Federal Judges For Emergency Release Of California Prison Inmates Amid Coronavirus
Plaintiffs’ attorneys in a decades-old lawsuit against California prisons filed an emergency motion on Wednesday to reduce prisoner populations amid the coronavirus pandemic, in an effort to get ahead of what they say could be a disastrous outbreak. The inmates’ attorneys are asking a federal three-judge panel to release or relocate prisoners especially vulnerable to severe illness from the disease, including those 65 and over, those with lung or heart conditions and those who are immunocompromised. (Cassidy and Fagone, 3/25)
Sacramento Bee:
Attorneys Want Some California Prisoners Released Due To Coronavirus
Lawyers for California prison inmates asked a federal three-judge panel late Wednesday for an emergency order that could force state corrections officials to release thousands of inmates because of the coronavirus pandemic. The motion seeks “emergency relief to prevent unnecessary irreparable injuries and death that are certain to occur if the COVID-19 virus is allowed to take its natural course in the still-overcrowded California prisons,” according to documents filed with the panel, comprising U.S. District Judges Kimberly J. Mueller in Sacramento and Jon Tigar in Oakland and U.S. Circuit Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. (Stanton, 3/25)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento Jails Releasing Hundreds More Inmates Over Coronavirus
Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones’ office says a court has ordered additional inmate releases from its two jails because of the coronavirus pandemic, a move that will lead to 421 more prisoners being set free by Monday. The order from Sacramento Superior Court directs the sheriff to release any inmates who have less than 60 days remaining on their sentences and who are not serving time for domestic violence, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs or any offense that requires registration as a sex offender. (Stanton, 3/25)
Fresno Bee:
Coronavirus Case Reaches A Central San Joaquin Valley Prison
A prison that’s located in the central San Joaquin Valley received its first confirmed case of the coronavirus. An employee at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran tested positive for COVID-19, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) revealed on its website Wednesday. That brings the total number of coronavirus cases among staff in the California prison system to nine. (Anteola, 3/25)
Los Angeles Times:
Coronavirus Testing Needed To ID Infected Who Recovered
Around the world, more than 100,000 former patients have been tagged as “recovered.” But that is likely a tiny fraction of the true total. Now immune to reinfection — at least for a while — many of these recovered people could safely go back to work. They could care for those who are ill or who are at high risk of dying if they become ill. They could donate their antibody-rich blood to be used as medicine for the critically ill. They could be among the first to return to life as we used to know it. (Healy, 3/25)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Laguna Honda Orders Full Lockdown Following 5 Staff Members Sick With Coronavirus
Laguna Honda Hospital, a 750-person facility that serves some of San Francisco’s most vulnerable, will be placed on lockdown Wednesday evening — an aggressive step that officials say is necessary to contain an outbreak in the facility, where five staff members have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. A full lockdown means that residents, the majority of whom are over 65 years old with serious health conditions, will no longer able to re-enter the hospital. They will continue to have access to outdoor areas of the 62-acre campus. (Thadani, 3/25)
Fresno Bee:
COVID-19 Could Delay California Nursing Students’ Graduation
California’s nursing shortage is poised for another setback as nursing students are turned away from the hospitals they need to complete their training amid the coronavirus pandemic. Fresno City College’s Registered Nursing Program graduates more than 100 nurses each semester, but that could change as all but one Fresno-area hospital – Saint Agnes Medical Center – has stopped accepting students for clinical rotations – the hands-on training that must comprise 75% of a nursing student’s training. (Panoo, 3/25)
Sacramento Bee:
UC Davis Med Center Staff Fear Patient Exposure To Coronavirus
When he announced that employees of the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento had tested positive for coronavirus, hospital CEO David Lubarsky cast blame on the outside world as “very likely” responsible. He noted the hospital’s own infection-control regime for nurses, doctors and other medical staff, and said, “We simply can’t be protected outside of work.” Lubarsky said he expected many more infections among his employees in the days to come as the COVID-19 pandemic spreads. (Sabalow, 3/26)
Bay Area News Group:
Longtime Bay Area Pulmonary Specialist Dies From COVID-19
A longtime Bay Area pulmonary physician credited with diagnosing a lung disease known as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) died of the same illness on Tuesday in Paris. Dr. John F. Murray, retired former Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care at San Francisco General Hospital, died at his home at the age of 92. The UC San Francisco School of Medicine, where he served as Professor of Medicine emeritus, on Wednesday confirmed Murray’s death with a remembrance on its website. (Crowley, 3/26)