Los Angeles Daily News: Life After COVID Just Won’t Be The Same In California
Life after the Spanish flu pandemic that killed tens of millions in the late teens and early ‘20s of the last century was never quite the same as before. Some public health measures, like mass vaccinations, became normalized. New health and cleanliness standards were imposed on restaurants and other businesses. So it would be grossly unrealistic to expect no changes as the COVID-19 pandemic that has plagued the last two year shifts gradually to an endemic ailment that we deal with regularly and not with crash programs and emergency tactics. (Elias, 2/21)

Sacramento Bee: Interactive Map Shows Omicron Cases In Sacramento By ZIP Code 
COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are slowly dropping in Sacramento County, after hitting a peak in early January, according to the county’s COVID dashboard. The interactive map below shows 30 days of case data, last updated Feb. 16, highlighting the height of the omicron surge in the Sacramento area. (Truong, 2/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: This Map Shows How San Francisco Neighborhoods Experienced The Omicron Wave Differently
As the omicron wave began to pick up in San Francisco in late December, it appeared the pandemic’s tendency to concentrate in poorer areas of San Francisco had inverted. The Marina had become the epicenter of the outbreak, and other largely white, affluent neighborhoods had seen sharp upticks to their case rates, while lower-income neighborhoods with many residents of color were seeing relatively few new cases. (Nielson, 2/21)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Will COVID-19 Long-Haulers Push Outpatient Medical System To Breaking Point?
Carolina Nieto of Escondido and Julio Lara of Valley Center became the newest patients at the Sharp HealthCare COVID-19 Recovery Program Friday, meeting with rehabilitation specialists about lingering symptoms that they have suffered since 2021. Nieto, 63, arrived still pulling an oxygen tank more than one year after the virus put her in the hospital for 15 days. She continues to struggle with multiple COVID-19 symptoms, including short-term memory and exhaustion when she tries to walk more than a few steps at a time. (Sisson, 2/21)

CalMatters: Many Californians Can’t Return To Normal As COVID Grip Loosens
Throughout California, people like Garza-Silva and Liber who have health conditions, such as heart disease, autoimmune disorders and diabetes, are forced to re-evaluate their risks. Every day, they ask themselves whether buying groceries, going to work, eating at a restaurant or visiting the post office is worth the risk of contracting a virus that could leave them hospitalized — or worse. For people at higher risk, the pandemic has meant walking a fine line for two years. “I’m always balancing out the fear of missing out with the fear of going out,” Liber said. (Ibarra, 2/22)

Bay Area News Group: Contra Costa Businesses Drop Vaccination Checks, But Some Restaurants Hang On To Mask Rules
Darryl Wong, a manager at downtown’s Burma 2, has had one less worry since Contra Costa County last week stopped requiring restaurants and gyms to check indoor customers for proof that they’re fully vaccinated against COVID-19. With the mandate now lifted, Wong doesn’t have to deal with disgruntled patrons who resent showing their CDC cards or can’t get in because they didn’t get the jab. But at the same time, he acknowledges, the order helped protect his staff and prevent virus outbreaks. (Mukherjee, 2/19)

Bay Area News Group: We Asked Dr. Sara Cody Why Santa Clara County Is Keeping Its Mask Rule
While millions of vaccinated people across the Bay Area can now leave their masks behind, those in Santa Clara County must continue to don theirs in most public settings. And that’s no doubt got many of them ticked off again at the county’s top health officer, Dr. Sara Cody. But Cody, whose hard stance has drawn both praise and scorn, isn’t budging, even after county Supervisor Cindy Chavez cracked the county’s typically united front against COVID-19 by publicly questioning an earlier public health mandate. (Greschler, 2/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: Even As Mask Mandates End, UCSF’s Bob Wachter Says He'll Wear One Until COVID Numbers Reach This Milestone
Even as COVID-19 rates fall and pandemic restrictions lift in the Bay Area, Dr. Bob Wachter, UCSF’s Chair of Medicine, said Saturday he’s still not ready to ditch his mask. Wachter explained his rationale in a thread on Twitter, citing San Francisco Department of Public Health data that shows the city reporting 282 positive cases a day, or 32 cases for every 100,000 people. (Swan, 2/19)

Ventura County Star: Hawaii Is Only Remaining State With Indoor Mask Mandate
Forty-nine states have announced plans to drop their indoor mask mandates as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations steadily decline across the country. The only holdout remains Hawaii. The island state has taken strong precautions against the coronavirus from the beginning of the pandemic and is still requiring out-of-state American travelers to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test to avoid a mandatory quarantine. (Bacon, Ortiz, and Tebor, 2/21)

Los Angeles Times: Greater L.A. Homeless Count Resumes After Pandemic Hiatus 
After a yearlong hiatus during the pandemic, thousands of volunteers will fan out across Los Angeles County this week to conduct the annual count of the region’s homeless population. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority canceled the event last year and then delayed it last month because of COVID-19 surges spawned by the Delta and Omicron variants of the coronavirus. (Vives, 2/21)

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Freezing Temperatures A Cause For Concern Among Homeless Advocates
With temperatures expected to plummet this week into subfreezing conditions — about 10 degrees lower than what’s usually expected for late February — homeless advocates expressed concern as they scramble to prepare shelters. Overnight temperatures could dip into the mid-20s on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, said Jeff Lorber, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. The weather service has issued a Freeze Watch across the North Bay for Tuesday through Friday overnight and morning. (2/21)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento Has 37 Portable Toilets For 10,000 Homeless People — And They Could Be Removed
Sherry Aday camps by herself in a small green tent on the sidewalk along X Street in midtown, Sacramento. A city restroom sits just a just feet away from her tent, but it’s fenced off with gray metal chains and padlocks. When she has to go, she ventures across busy W and X streets to use at restrooms at Southside Park, sometimes in the middle of the night. When she’s not feeling up to the journey, she pees in a bucket. To get water, she has to walk over a block and then carry it — a difficult task with her chronic pain. (Clift, 2/21)

Ventura County Star: Eco-Tip: Feeding The Hungry Can Help The Environment, Too
The recent expansion of curbside recycling to include discarded food is not the only way California is diverting this waste from landfills.  The state recycling law, Senate Bill 1383, also requires at least 20% of the edible waste to be salvaged for the hungry. Though the legislation’s primary goal is environmental – cutting climate-changing methane gas emissions from rotting food and recycling the waste as compost  the law also has the social objective of recovering discarded food to feed people in need. (Goldstein, 2/20)

Bay Area News Group: Hayward Micro-Apartments For Homeless Residents Being Built
Construction has started on Hayward’s first affordable micro-apartments, being built to help house homeless residents and those in danger of being on the street. The 125 300-square-foot apartments are being built by the nonprofit Abode Services of Fremont, whose mission is to end homelessness. The city put up $6 million from its inclusionary housing trust fund and its housing authority to help cover some of the cost of the $45 million apartment project. (Cabral, 2/20)

Bay Area News Group: Can Vacant Bay Area Office Buildings House Homeless Residents?
After more than 50 years of hosting cubicles and pencil-pushers, an East Bay office building will be transformed this year to fill a crucial need: It will become housing for dozens of homeless residents. (Kendall, 2/22)

Napa Valley Register: Napa City Council Hears Update On Shutdown Of The Bowl Homeless Encampment
Of about 30 former residents of The Bowl, one third entered shelter, one third ended up at other Napa encampments and another third found housing with a family member or friend. (Booth, 2/21)

KQED: Why Black Women Are More Likely To Face Eviction 
Evictions do not affect everyone equally. Millions of renters in this country have struggled to make rent after losing income during the pandemic. And Black renters, particularly Black women, are more likely to be evicted than white renters. Jean Kendrick and her son were evicted during the early days of the pandemic. We follow their journey to find affordable housing, while examining the factors driving the racial disparities in eviction rates – including generations of racist housing policies and predatory home lending practices. (Solomon and Baldassari, 2/21)

Capitol Weekly: Single-Payer Dies Ignominiously, But What's Next?
For at least the immediate future, single-payer health care in California seems dead. It died on Jan. 31, when its author withdrew legislation creating it from the Assembly floor, citing insufficient votes. But there are rumblings. And since nothing ever seems to die in the Capitol, the question now being asked is: After being sidelined in the Legislature, will single-payer make a comeback in California?Probably, say both backers and opponents. (McFadden, 2/21)

The Pajaronian: Watsonville Hospital Sale Nears Completion
The local nonprofit created to purchase and run Watsonville Community Hospital has won its bid to buy the hospital’s operations, a move that canceled a planned auction and advanced the matter to a sale hearing on Wednesday. According to documents filed with the Northern District U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Jose, no other qualified bidder stated their interest in making the purchase by the deadline last week, moving Pajaro Valley Healthcare District Project (PVHD) a hair’s width from reaching its goal. According to former Santa Cruz County Health Officer Mimi Hall—who has been at the forefront of the group’s formation, the court will review PVHD’s purchase proposal, along with the nonprofit’s financial ability to acquire and operate the hospital. (Guild, 2/21)

Los Angeles Daily News: ‘Please Take Me Home’: The Heartbreaking Rubric Of Dementia And COVID
“Why am I here? Where am I? Please take me home. ¿Por qué estoy aquí? ¿Dónde estoy? Por favor, llévame a mi casa.” Frequent — almost daily cries that Ashley Lopez, 28, hears from her room. Lopez, a caregiver for her grandmother, who has heard this on repeat for nearly four years, calls back in Spanish, a reply nearly verbatim, “Grandma, you live here now. If you leave, who will take care of me?” (Lee 2/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: ‘I’ve Seen A Lot Of Death, And It’s Made Me Hungry For Life’: Chaplains Have Been At The Center Of Grief And Misery During The Pandemic
Hospitals such as UCSF have seen their ICUs swell with COVID patients throughout the pandemic, at times threatening to overwhelm the capacity for care or the human limits of what doctors, nurses and staff can handle. And during that time, chaplains, who offer spiritual guidance to patients, have been at the center of the grief and misery — consoling heartbroken families, patients on the verge of death and exhausted, anguished hospital staff. Chaplains have also had to find ways to minister to themselves. Some studies have found that chaplains in hospitals faced a higher risk of burnout than those in other settings. (DiFeliciantonio, 2/19)

East Bay Times: Popular ’80s Party Drug Gains Respect As PTSD Treatment
Retired Army Sgt. Jonathan Lubecky couldn’t get the year he spent in Iraq out of his head. Loud noises and people wearing backpacks triggered flashbacks, and he regularly woke up from nightmares in a cold sweat. He tried to take his own life five times between 2006 and 2013. Afraid that his next suicide attempt would succeed, Lubecky signed up to take part in a clinical research study investigating whether MDMA, commonly known as Molly or Ecstasy, could help tame the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. (Prillaman, 2/22)

CIDRAP: California Reports H1N2v Flu Case
California has reported a variant H1N2 (H1N2v) flu case in an adult who had direct contact with pigs, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its weekly FluView report. The patient wasn't hospitalized and has recovered. Some respiratory illnesses were reported in some of the patient's contacts, but the CDC said the events occurred during a period of high respiratory illness activity, and no specimens were collected for testing. No ongoing human-to-human transmission of H1N2v has been linked to the case. (2/18)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Children Needing Serious Medical Care Are Denied Entry To U.S., Despite Doctor Recommendations
The line for the free clinic that serves migrant families in Tijuana starts before sunrise. After the clinic opens, its staff, a mix of employees and volunteers, take patients one by one to tables in an outdoor hallway — a mitigating measure in the ongoing pandemic. Patients needing more in-depth exams are taken to one of the clinic’s two private rooms. Pregnant women meet with midwives in another area. (Morrissey, 2/20)

The Bakersfield Californian: 'Our Responsibility Is To Close The Economic Gap': MLK Community Initiative Distributes Food
The MLK Community Initiative and its partners hosted a food distribution event Monday, with a second one planned for Tuesday at the community center across the street from Martin Luther King Jr. Park. The initiative regularly hosts these giveaways to address food insecurity in the community, and help make sure people don’t have to choose between adequately feeding their family and having a tank of gas to get to work, said Ora Frink, executive director of the initiative. (2/21)

CalMatters: Addicted Mom Imprisoned Over Stillbirth Wants Case Reopened 
The 29-year-old woman was rushed to a Central Valley hospital on Dec. 30, 2017. Seven of her nine children had been born high on methamphetamine. This one, her 10th, was coming two weeks early. Doctors detected no fetal heartbeat at 9:30 p.m. At 10:14 p.m., she tested positive for methamphetamine. Eight minutes later, Adora Perez of Hanford delivered a stillborn boy she named Hades, according to medical records shared with CalMatters by a member of Perez’s legal team. (Duara, 2/21)

City News Service: 35,000-Gallon Sewage Spill Closes Newport Bay Waters
A sewage spill in Newport Beach forced the closure Monday of ocean waters from the west end of Newport Bay to 8th Street. The OC Health Care Agency’s Environmental Health Division announced the closure Monday morning, noting that approximately 35,000 to 50,000 gallons of sewage leaked into the area due to a blocked sewer line of a restaurant in Newport Bay. (2/21)

Los Angeles Times: Another Sewage Spill Closes Beach Swimming In Orange County 
Orange County officials have closed a portion of the ocean near the west end of Newport Bay from 8th Street following yet another sewage spill. The Orange County Health Care Agency said Monday that a blocked sewer line at a restaurant in Newport Bay leaked about 35,000 to 50,000 gallons of untreated sewage into nearby waters. (Ramsey, 2/21)

Sacramento Bee: How Online Learning, COVID-19 Set Back Sacramento Students
Jen Phanh was a model student as a sophomore attending Hiram W. Johnson High School. Acing her classes with a 3.8 GPA, she earned a spot in an advanced math class by her second semester. Then the pandemic hit. Her parents pulled her out of school after hearing news reports about attacks and hate crimes against Asians in the Bay Area. A few days later, school shut down completely. Overwhelmed, Phanh’s grades plummeted. (Yoon-Hendricks, 2/20)

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Sonoma County School Superintendents Seek Relief From COVID-19 Impacts
Local superintendents said COVID-related duties are hampering school staff’s capacity to focus on academic and social emotional recovery from the pandemic. (Tornay, 2/21)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Schools Say They're Caught 'Between A Rock And A Hard Place' As Anti-Mask Protests Grow
Some San Diego County school district leaders are pleading for help as they bear the brunt of families’ discontent over the state’s indoor school mask mandate, which at this point has no expiration date. Scores of San Diego County students, many who are not yet teenagers, are protesting the mandate by refusing to wear masks in class. The protests have garnered more attention in the past few days, ever since state officials announced at a press conference last Monday that they are not lifting the state’s indoor school mask mandate yet. (Taketa, 2/21)