[Editor: Many of the scenes in this KPIX video are from Benicia High School, and BHS is highlighted in the title, but Benicia is never mentioned! A little strange…. – R.S.]KPIXTV CBS Bay Area, April 20, 2020
Bay Area high school seniors still hope to have some sort of graduation ceremony even though large gatherings are banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Juliette Goodrich tells us some are considering virtual commencement ceremonies.
[If you haven’t already OD’d on coronavirus news, you might appreciate this excellent documentary. It’s worth taking about an hour of your stay-at-home time to watch…. Thanks to my sister Joan in Michigan, safe and snug up in the north country, riding out the COVID storm and a few April snowstorms! – R.S.]
California coronavirus map: 35,802 cases, 1,316 deaths, by county. The Mercury News
Cases spiked Tuesday for a second straight day and California reported the third-most deaths in a single 24-hour period since the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The state has seen its largest increase in cases the past two days, adding nearly 2,000 on Tuesday alone to bring its total to 35,802. Patients in acute hospital beds, as well as intensive care units, rose by about 3% to 3,365 and 1,241, respectively. Statewide, the case count has grown by nearly 15% since the week began.
Those numbers would seem to indicate California has not yet turned the corner in its fight against the virus.
One widely cited model predicted the state passed its peak late last week. But there have been five days on which the state has reported more fatalities than the model projected on its deadliest day, and two since the projected peak. Researchers revised their projections Tuesday to show the state’s final death occurring May 12, with a final death toll of 1,743 (with a confidence interval from 1,340 to 2,701) — about 400 more than its total as of Tuesday.
But a lack of widespread testing has made it difficult to gauge what stage the outbreak is in. Labs in the state conducted their 300,000th test Monday, the most recent day for which data was available, but that still amounts to less than 1% of the state’s total population. Gov. Gavin Newsom set a goal of performing 25,000 tests per day, but on Tuesday, he admitted that wouldn’t be enough.
Another variable was thrown into the equation Tuesday. Officials in Santa Clara County discovered new deaths from from COVID-19 as far back as Feb. 6, a whole month before what was believed to be the first coronavirus fatality in the county and weeks before what had been thought to be the first death in the nation on Feb. 29 in the state of Washington.
“To have at least three people right around the beginning of February and late January already have the infection and two of them pass away means the virus has been around for a while,” County Executive Jeff Smith said. “It’s a much more dangerous virus than we initially recognized because we had limited testing.”
Residents in several California counties will now be required to cover their faces in most public settings, or risk possible fines or misdemeanor charges.
KRON4 News, by Alexa Mae Asperin, Sara Stinson, Apr 22, 2020
LAFAYETTE, Calif. (KRON) – Six Bay Area counties on Wednesday will begin enforcement of face coverings in essential businesses and on public transit, all in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Counties that begin enforcement today are:
Alameda
Contra Costa
Marin
San Francisco
San Mateo
Sonoma County began enforcement of its face covering requirement last Friday.
Santa Clara County officials have yet to require face coverings but instead “strongly urges” its residents to cover up.
Solano County is also recommending face coverings but not requiring them as of Wednesday.
Face coverings will be required inside grocery stores and while waiting in line to get inside, too.
You must wear a face covering when you work at an essential business as well, like the grocery store or pharmacy, or when you are visiting a healthcare provider or facility.
Face coverings are also required when waiting in line for public transportation or riding it.
Businesses in the county are not recommended to serve customers who do not follow the order.
You do not need a mask if you are working in an office alone, or in the car alone, or at your home.
The order does not require children 12 and under to wear a mask and children ages 2 and under should not wear them at all for risk of suffocation.
While exercising outside, you are encouraged to have 6 feet of distance between others.
It’s a good idea to carry a face covering with you so you can easily put it on if you can’t keep distance from others.
You can cover your face with a cloth, bandana, or even a t-shirt, but leave the medical-grade masks for healthcare workers.
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