Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
COVID-Tracking Apps Proliferate, But Will They Really Help?
Public health authorities had hoped digital technology would supplement the work of contact tracers seeking to control the spread of COVID-19. But technical uncertainties and public health failures have dimmed the apps’ potential. (Bernard J. Wolfson, )
California Assembly Delays Return After 5 Test Positive For COVID-19: The California Assembly, already mired in a scheduling mess, announced that lawmakers and staffers would not be coming back to the Capitol next Monday as originally planned because five lawmakers and staffers tested positive for the coronavirus, according to an email obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle. A new return date has not been set. The Legislature broke for an unprecedented emergency recess in March as the coronavirus pandemic took hold and was away from Sacramento until May. After passing the state budget late last month, lawmakers left town again with the plan to return next week to finish the session, which ends Aug. 31. One assemblywoman, Autumn Burke, D-Inglewood, wrote on Twitter on Monday that she tested positive for COVID-19 and will remain in quarantine with her daughter until a doctor instructs her otherwise. Read more from Alexei Koseff of the San Francisco Chronicle and Mackenzie Hawkins of the Sacramento Bee.
Fresno Restaurant Staying Open Despite Worker Testing Positive, Governor’s Order: Pismo’s Coastal Grill and its owner, Dave Fansler, were in the spotlight over the weekend as the Fresno restaurateur decided to keep indoor dining open at Pismo’s and his other restaurant, Westwoods BBQ & Spice Co., despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order last week to close indoor dining in 19 counties with rising coronavirus numbers. One of Fansler’s employees has tested positive for COVID-19. Fansler said his 84 feet of large, garage-style roll-up windows on two sides of the building mean the restaurant should be considered outdoor dining or at least an “open-air” restaurant. But Dr. Rais Vohra, Fresno County’s interim health officer, said Monday that the restaurant is considered indoor dining, despite the windows. “The open windows would not be enough to consider that outdoor dining,” Vohra said. Fansler called that “preposterous.” Read more from Bethany Clough of the Sacramento Bee.
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
Los Angeles Times:
California Coronavirus Cases And Hospitalizations Surge
New coronavirus cases roughly doubled in California over the last month. Hospitalizations have soared 88%, filling some medical centers close to capacity. Now, public health officials are bracing for the grimmest phase of the cycle: a spike in COVID-19 fatalities. (Wigglesworth, Chabria, Baumgaertner and Lin II, 7/7)
Sacramento Bee:
11,500 New Cases, 23 Counties On Watch List
The coronavirus pandemic lost no steam in California over Fourth of July weekend, as hospitalization totals continue to climb and other alarming trends develop throughout various parts of the state. The state has surpassed 271,000 lab-positive cases of COVID-19, increasing that total by a record 11,529 cases in a Monday update. (McGough, 7/6)
Sacramento Bee:
Coronavirus: 5 More Deaths In Sacramento County
Sacramento County public health officials on Monday reported five new deaths from the coronavirus, among the deadliest one-day increases since the pandemic began. The new deaths, which come amid a major surge in new COVID-19 cases and greatly increased hospitalization rates across the county, push Sacramento’s countywide death toll to 74. (McGough, 7/6)
Fresno Bee:
Coronavirus Update: Region Tops 15,000 Cases; What Makes Open-Air Dining? No More Singing
The central San Joaquin Valley has now counted more than 15,000 positive coronavirus cases and 262 related deaths. The six-county region hit the 15K mark over the Fourth of July weekend, after Fresno County reported 259 cases on Saturday. Kings County reported 51 new cases on Saturday and 39 new cases on Sunday. Mariposa was the only other county to update over the weekend and counted three new cases. (Tehee, 7/6)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento California Hospitals See Coronavirus Patient Surge
An alarming surge in coronavirus cases since June in Sacramento is sending a record number of patients to local hospitals and hastening questions many feared: Are hospitals ready? How much can they handle? “It’s intimidating,” Dr. David Witt, national infectious disease leader for Kaiser Permanente, acknowledged last week. Kaiser runs three hospitals in the Sacramento area and is seeing a sudden rise in patients. “How high the (surge) ceiling is, we don’t know yet.” (Anderson and Bizjak, 7/7)
Los Angeles Times:
Doctors Reopened A Shuttered Hospital To Fight Coronavirus
The wave started in early March. The novel coronavirus was spreading across Los Angeles County, and local hospitals were unprepared. Public health officials feared the worst. The news from Italy and New York — the mass graves and morgue trucks — was clear. They needed more beds. (Curwen, 7/6)
Fresno Bee:
Madera County Joins California List For COVID-19 Closures
Almost 500 more confirmed coronavirus infections were reported Monday afternoon in Fresno County. In another significant development, Madera County was added to a state monitoring list. (Sheehan, 7/6)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento County COVID-19 Test Shortage Forces Closures
In a major setback, Sacramento County health officials said Monday they will shut five coronavirus testing sites this week in under-served communities due to a growing shortage of testing materials. County health chief Dr. Peter Beilenson said the last of the five centers, one in Natomas, will be open on Tuesday, then all five will shut down indefinitely. “It’s a big hit,” Beilenson said. “UC Davis, which does the tests for us, doesn’t have the materials. There’s a shortage nationally.” (Bizjak, 7/6)
Los Angeles Times:
Reopening L.A. Economy Improved Mental Health, But Coronavirus Fears Persist, Survey Finds
More Los Angeles County residents are leaving their homes and venturing back into public life as the economy reopens, prompting a reduction in psychological distress but heightening anxiety that reopening is occurring too quickly and could cause serious new coronavirus outbreaks, according to a new survey. (Lin II and Shalby, 7/7)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Is It Safe To Get Back On The Bus? Ask Bay Area Public Transit Agencies
Bay Area public transit services are seeing a slow rise in ridership as the local economy reopens and people cautiously return to trains, buses and ferries amid the coronavirus pandemic. While the sluggish numbers are not encouraging, the beleaguered transportation agencies are seeing reasons to be optimistic and responding with a comprehensive set of safety protocols in the hope of luring commuters back. (Vaziri, 7/7)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Napa County May Be Next In Line To Close Restaurants, Bars
With the coronavirus case count climbing, officials in Napa expect the county will be forced to take a step back in reopening, shutting down indoor dining, wineries, tasting rooms and other activities. Napa city officials announced Monday the likelihood of closures, saying that the state has flagged the county that its coronavirus rate has exceeded the threshold of 100 positive cases per 100,000 people. On Saturday, the rate was 137.9. (Tucker, 7/6)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Pressure Rises For Newsom To Release More People From San Quentin, Other Prisons
As the coronavirus rages through California’s crowded state prisons, threatening those inside and straining community hospitals, pressure is building on Gov. Gavin Newsom to avert a wider public-health crisis by drastically cutting prison populations — including at San Quentin in Marin County, now home to one of the country’s biggest COVID-19 outbreaks. Since last week, two federal judges who monitor California’s prison complex, Kimberly J. Mueller of Sacramento and Jon S. Tigar of Oakland, have signaled that they are losing patience with the state’s handling of the pandemic. Both judges said in recent court filings that they may reconvene a special three-judge panel that has the power to order releases of incarcerated people. (Fagone and Cassidy, 7/6)
San Francisco Chronicle:
California Legislators Call On Newsom To Stop Transferring Prisoners To ICE
Dozens of state legislators on Monday urged Gov. Gavin Newsom to halt the transfer of immigrants in local and state custody to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as officials face an alarming number of COVID-19 infections in these facilities. In a letter spearheaded by Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Alameda, more than 40 state Assembly members and senators called on Newsom to sign an executive order that would stop the transfer of immigrant inmates. They cited severe health risks and a high likelihood of transmission inside ICE facilities, where hundreds of detainees share small common areas and sleep in bunks just feet away from one another. (Sanchez, 7/6)
Los Angeles Times:
Amid Coronavirus, California Prisons Medical Officer Ousted
As COVID-19 infections spread rapidly through California’s prisons, authorities on Monday announced the replacement of the state correction system’s top medical officer, and Gov. Gavin Newsom criticized an earlier decision to transfer hundreds of inmates from a Chino facility that had been battling an outbreak. The leadership shakeup occurred as corrections officials reported three more deaths over the July 4 weekend among inmates at San Quentin State Prison, where more than one-third of inmates have tested positive. The death toll is now at six. (Winton and Christensen, 7/6)
Sacramento Bee:
Air Conditioning Keeps Breaking At California Federal Prison
It’s another boiling summer in the San Joaquin Valley, where temperatures often top 100 degrees. And once again, the air conditioning is on the fritz at the Mendota federal prison 35 miles west of Fresno. This time, hundreds of inmates are coping with another threat: A coronavirus outbreak that has them stewing in hot quarters with limited time to shower and no time outdoors. (Irby, 7/7)
CalMatters:
Latino Children Suffer Higher Rates Of COVID-19
Latino children are testing positive at higher rates than other groups of children, accounting for the majority of all California cases among those under 18. Experts say close contact with essential workers and crowded living conditions play a role. (Aguilera, 7/7)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Eradicate AIDS? Coronavirus Stands In The Way
The coronavirus pandemic has hobbled progress in fighting HIV worldwide, including San Francisco’s efforts to quash new infections, with public health resources diverted toward COVID-19 and millions of people struggling to access care, according to reports presented this week at the International AIDS Conference. San Francisco’s “Getting to Zero” initiative, aimed at ending all new infections and deaths from HIV/AIDS, is dependent upon an aggressive public health response that has been dramatically derailed by COVID-19, health care providers and patient advocates said. (Allday, 7/6)
San Francisco Chronicle:
SF, Oakland Hang AIDS Quilt To Commemorate International Conference About The Disease
Activists and local officials unfurled 10 segments of the AIDS Memorial Quilt on Monday morning to hang from San Francisco and Oakland city halls in honor of a major conference the two cities are hosting about the disease. The bright quilt blocks — consisting of 80 individual panels — will hang in San Francisco and Oakland this week during the annual International AIDS Conference, returning to the Bay Area for the first time in 30 years. (Moench, 7/6)
San Francisco Chronicle:
One Family, $1,200 A Month: Coronavirus Pushes Bay Area Working Class Even Deeper Into Poverty
The Concord mother of five and her husband, Sergio Martinez, always knew how to stretch a small paycheck. They’d lived for years on Martinez’s salary as a cook at Sizzler, barely enough to cover rent on a three-bedroom townhouse and put gas in a Chrysler minivan they’d plastered with honor-student bumper stickers. With a little help from the neighborhood church, they paid for soccer cleats, PG&E bills and toddler toys. But when shelter-in-place orders clamped down, Martinez got laid off for two months, then returned to work with his hours cut in half. Like so many Bay Area residents, he and Barajas found themselves in a disorienting situation, with a list of expenses that far outstripped their income. (Swan, 7/7)
Los Angeles Times:
California PPP Loan Recipients: Which Companies Benefited?
Jelly Belly, Kanye West’s Yeezy apparel company and the SETI Institute, which searches for extraterrestrial life, are all California companies that received millions in loans from the federal coronavirus relief program for small businesses, according to data released by the Trump administration Monday. (Dean and Lee, 7/6)
Sacramento Bee:
These Sacramento CA Businesses Received Large PPP Loans
Law firms and lobbyists. Restaurants large and small. Private schools, car dealers, charities and nonprofits. Some of the Sacramento top developers, and two of the city’s professional sports teams. More than 800 Sacramento area companies borrowed money under the federal Paycheck Protection Program, including many of the area’s most prominent firms, according to a list released Monday by the Trump administration. (Kasler, 7/6)