Smoke From Burning Ship Likely Contained Toxic Chemicals, Health Officials Say: Air sampling recently revealed that the Navy ship that burned in San Diego Bay early this month blanketed nearby communities with smoke containing toxic chemicals. As black smoke poured off the USS Bonhomme Richard, people in portside communities complained of headaches and nausea, and residents as far north as Escondido reported smelling smoke from the blaze. The findings from the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District contradict statements by the Navy that “there’s nothing toxic in there.” Testing found more than a dozen potentially harmful substances, such as benzene, chloromethane and acetonitrile. Read more from Joshua Emerson Smith of the San Diego Union-Tribune.
San Mateo County Still Open, Avoids Watch List: San Mateo County stayed off the state’s watch list Monday, a remarkable twist that has the once-branded county believing it might become a model for California. The only one of nine Bay Area counties that has avoided the watch list based on coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, San Mateo almost feels like a pre-pandemic locale; gyms, salons and malls are open indoors. “There’s so much at stake right now,” Supervisor David Canepa said. Read more from Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Below, check out the roundup of California Healthline’s coverage and the best of the rest of the news.
More News From Across The State
Sacramento Bee:
Newsom Sends Federal Money To Central Valley Amid COVID Spike
Gov. Gavin Newsom is sending three coronavirus strike teams and $52 million in federal money to California’s Central Valley as the region battles a spike in COVID-19 cases. The region is seeing the virus spread particularly among Latinos, essential workers and people who live in group settings like jails and nursing homes. The state will have a “laser-like focus” on stemming spread among those groups, Newsom said. (Bollag, 7/27)
CalMatters:
Newsom Targets Central Valley For $52 Million Coronavirus Aid
As coronavirus cases continue to climb, Gov. Gavin Newsom lasered in today on one of the state’s new hot spots — the Central Valley, an eight-county region where the positivity rate of COVID-19 is well above the state average and hospital beds are filling up. The region, which includes Kern, Kings, Fresno, Merced, Stanislaus, Madera, Tulare and San Joaquin counties, will receive millions of dollars in new funding to aid its response— a move that came as a surprise to at least one of the counties. (Ibarra, 7/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
California Aims To Tamp Down Coronavirus Hot Spots In Hard-Hit Central Valley
California will funnel additional resources into fighting a surging coronavirus outbreak in the Central Valley, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday, including $52 million in new federal aid largely aimed at improving testing in eight counties where the virus is spreading rapidly. Newsom said his administration would also send “strike teams” of public health, social services and business regulation officials to help guide the response in the counties, which are seeing hot spots emerge among essential workers and in the Latino community. (Koseff and Allday, 7/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
California May Offer $600 A Week In Extra Jobless Benefits If Congress Doesn’t Act
If Congress doesn’t act to extend an extra $600 in weekly benefits for unemployed Californians, state legislators say they’re ready to jump in to prevent benefits from plunging during the pandemic. The expanded federal unemployment benefits, which began in April, are set to expire Friday. That will reduce the average jobless payment in California to about $338 a week. (Gardiner, 7/27)
Sacramento Bee:
Democrats Unveil $100 Billion Coronavirus Stimulus Plan
Top California Democrats announced on Monday a $100 billion stimulus plan that would borrow money from the federal government, expand tax credits for low-income Californians and offer help for small businesses in an attempt to prop up the state’s economy as the coronavirus-induced recession drags on. The proposal, previewed with less detail two months ago, relies on a handful of tactics that members say will generate cash for California’s economy while securing services that benefit vulnerable residents. (Wiley, 7/27)
Los Angeles Times:
Coronavirus: Military Medical Teams Arrive At Two L.A. County Hospitals
Medical professionals from the military have arrived in Los Angeles County to reinforce the ranks of two hospitals. The Department of Defense sent the Air Force teams last week to Los Angeles County-USC and Harbor-UCLA medical centers, said Brian Ferguson, a spokesperson for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. The move aims to shore up staff as the hospitals battle the COVID-19 pandemic. (Sheridan, 7/27)
LA Daily News:
LA County Closes Three More Businesses; 2,039 New Cases Reported Countywide
Insisting that compliance with health orders and infection-control measures can slow the spread of the coronavirus, Los Angeles County public health officials said Monday that three more local businesses have been shuttered, due to large-scale outbreaks and failure to comply with operating protocols. Officials reported another 17 coronavirus-related deaths countywide on Monday, July 27, and another 2,039 new cases — all part of the resurgent outbreak that has claimed the lives of law officers, healthcare workers and Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia’s mother, pushed hospitalizations to record levels and intensified inspectors’ efforts to assure businesses are keeping their employees and customers safe. (Carter, 7/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Google Extends Work-From-Home Through June 2021 As Coronavirus Cases Surge
Google will allow most employees to work from home through June 2021 as coronavirus infections surge, keeping one of the biggest workforces in tech and the Bay Area away from the office. CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a memo Monday to employees that most of the Mountain View company’s 200,000 workers can stay home for an additional six months, extending a policy that was previously through the end of 2020, a spokesman confirmed. (Li, 7/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
San Francisco Won’t Cite Catholic Archdiocese After Church Wedding
It appears San Francisco officials won’t take further action against the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco following revelations that Saints Peter and Paul Church in North Beach hosted a wedding in early July, after which at least 10 attendees tested positive for the coronavirus, including the newlywed couple, two guests said. The wedding came just days after City Attorney Dennis Herrera sent the archdiocese a cease-and-desist letter ordering church officials to stop holding large, indoor services, which churches had been conducting in violation of the city’s pandemic health orders. (Fracassa, 7/27)
Sacramento Bee:
Third Sacramento RT Bus Driver Test Positive For COVID-19
The Sacramento Regional Transit District announced Monday that one of its bus drivers has tested positive for COVID-19, the district’s third who has become infected with the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. RT officials said they were alerting July 16 and 17 riders on Jibe Express, Rancho CordoVan and Bus Route 33 of the driver’s diagnosis “out of an abundance of caution,” according to announcement on the district’s web site and its social media accounts. (Ahumada, 7/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
How Safe Are Outdoor Gatherings? Bay Area Struggles To Find The Balance
Is the risk of coronavirus transmission lower outside? Health experts have said yes, but as the virus continues to tear across the Bay Area, officials are asking residents to cut back on public gatherings. Weekend parties at popular outdoor spots like Lake Merritt in Oakland and Dolores Park in San Francisco, in particular, are being blamed for a spike of new COVID-19 cases. And California’s wavering reopening guidelines are likely leading to the confusion among stir-crazy residents. (Vaziri, 7/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Humans Are Notoriously Bad At Assessing Their Risk. In A Pandemic, That’s A Problem
In the first few weeks of the pandemic, the familiar options of everyday life narrowed to almost nothing. The Bay Area largely hunkered down and stayed home while the coronavirus numbers climbed. Decisions had been made for us: School and work were closed, travel and socializing designated unsafe by health officials. The framework for decision-making was limited. But it was also more clear. (Vainshtein, 7/28)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Should I Isolate My Newborn? Move To The Bay Area For College? Stories Of Pandemic Risk, Hard Choices
The coronavirus pandemic has forced countless tough decisions for Bay Area residents. We’ve weighed medical, financial and personal risks against needs and benefits. Experts say these calculations are not always easy under the best of circumstances, and especially difficult in periods of high stress and strong emotion. Here are the stories of four people in the Bay Area and how they approached difficult choices that seemed to have no clear answer. (Vainshtein, 7/28)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Latinos Far More Worried About Coronavirus Than Other Californians, Poll Finds
Well over half of California Latinos are very worried that they or someone in their family will get sick from the coronavirus, about double the rate of other demographic groups in the state, according to a poll released Monday. The Public Policy Institute of California found that 61% of Latino adults surveyed are very worried that they or a relative will come down with the virus, compared with 28% of white people and African Americans and 37% of Asian Americans. (Koseff, 7/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Podcast: An Interview With A San Quentin Death Row Inmate Who's Been Sick With The Coronavirus
Last March, pointing to the fact that many sentenced to death in America have later been found innocent, Gov. Gavin Newsom suspended all executions in California, calling the death penalty unfair and “a failure.” But at the end of May, a series of fatal errors by state and federal officials unleashed the virus in San Quentin, California’s oldest prison, and contagion soon spread from one unit to another, ultimately reaching the cells of Death Row and killing several inhabitants. (7/28)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento Kings: Harrison Barnes On Racism And Coronavirus
In his first interview since joining the team inside the NBA bubble, Kings forward Harrison Barnes spoke out against racial injustice and revealed his wife and mother contracted more serious cases of COVID-19 than he did. (Anderson, 7/27)
Sacramento Bee:
Pandemic Pods Help California Parents In Distance Learning
When Sacramento-area schools were ordered to start the next school year online, Lauren Davis of Folsom knew she had to take action. The experience for her 9-year-old daughter was not optimal when schools abruptly closed campuses in March amid a surge in coronavirus cases. “I know I am not alone when I say that distance learning didn’t work for our family,” said Davis, a single mother. “It was such a challenge.” (Morrar, 7/27)
CalMatters:
California Parents Grapple With Education In A Pandemic
Parents of more than 5.9 million California K-12 children are scrambling to adapt to a new reality without schools to send their children to. Ninety six percent of the state’s total enrollment calls one of the 37 counties currently on the state’s watch list home. Many students still do not have computers and internet essential for connecting online, and research has increasingly shown the inequitable toll distance learning took on disadvantaged students who lacked opportunities to meaningfully engage in learning. (Cano and Hepler, 7/27)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento UC Davis Medical Center 9th On CA Hospitals List
The UC Davis Medical Center dropped to ninth place from sixth in the U.S. News & World Report ranking of California’s best hospitals, but maintained its position as the leading hospital in Sacramento. “Once again this year, UC Davis Medical Center ranked as the No. 1 hospital in Sacramento and among the top 10 in California,” said Charles Casey, a spokesperson for UC Davis Health. “Fluctuations from year to year are not unusual for annual ratings reports, especially with some of the significant methodology changes made by U.S. News in calculating this year’s report.” (Anderson, 7/28)