Category Archives: Coronavirus

Benicia Unified School District, Coronavirus, Covid 19

Benicia Schools notice and video on reopening: ‘Returning to Schools Feedback & Draft Models’

Update on Reopening School Models

Jun 19, 2020 | , 

Dear Benicia Families.

I hope this communication finds all of you safe and well.  In my previous update, I discussed the work we would be undertaking to develop educational models for the fall.  As you can imagine, this is no small task in light of the many uncertainties related to COVID-19.  The Design Team, comprised of teachers, parents, administrators, and a board trustee, has done an outstanding job reflecting deeply on the needs of our students, staff, and parents while also responding to state and local guidance measures specific to COVID-19.

I have included a link to the presentation made at last night’s school board meeting regarding our latest, best thinking for what school could look like in the fall.  The presentation goes into great detail and I sincerely hope you are able to take time to view it, knowing we are doing our level best within the various limitations and constraints all school districts are having to address. (https://youtu.be/GhVzduSHb0E)

We will continue to communicate details throughout the summer as elements of the plans get worked through further, including any parts that may need to be bargained with our employee unions, shifts in the COVID-19 guidance, or how the state budget, that is required to be passed by the end of this month, will affect our planning.

In addition, we will be sending out a survey in the near future that we will need all families to complete in order to gather information to help us solidify plans for the fall.

We deeply appreciate your partnership and patience as we continue to dedicate our efforts to serving our students in the best manner possible.

Sincerely,
Charles F. Young, Ed.D.

Coronavirus, Covid 19, Donald Trump, Trump administration, United States of America

In countries keeping the coronavirus at bay, experts watch U.S. case numbers with alarm

Washington Post, By Rick Noack, June 19, 2020

As coronavirus cases surge in the U.S. South and West, health experts in countries with falling case numbers are watching with a growing sense of alarm and disbelief, with many wondering why virus-stricken U.S. states continue to reopen and why the advice of scientists is often ignored.

“It really does feel like the U.S. has given up,” said Siouxsie Wiles, an infectious-diseases specialist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand — a country that has confirmed only three new cases over the past three weeks and where citizens have now largely returned to their pre-coronavirus routines.

“I can’t imagine what it must be like having to go to work knowing it’s unsafe,” Wiles said of the U.S.-wide economic reopening. “It’s hard to see how this ends. There are just going to be more and more people infected, and more and more deaths. It’s heartbreaking.”

Visitors to the River Walk pass a restaurant that has reopened in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
Visitors to the River Walk pass a restaurant that has reopened in San Antonio. (Eric Gay, File)

China’s actions over the past week stand in stark contrast to those of the United States. In the wake of a new cluster of more than 150 new cases that emerged in Beijing, authorities sealed off neighborhoods, launched a mass testing campaign and imposed travel restrictions.

Meanwhile, President Trump maintains that the United States will not shut down a second time, although a surge in cases has persuaded governors in some states, including Arizona, to back off their opposition to mandatory face coverings in public.

Commentators and experts in Europe, where cases have continued to decline, voiced concerns over the state of the U.S. response. A headline on the website of Germany’s public broadcaster read: “Has the U.S. given up its fight against coronavirus?” Switzerland’s conservative Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper concluded, “U.S. increasingly accepts rising covid-19 numbers.”

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“The only thing one can say with certainty: There’s nothing surprising about this development,” a journalist wrote in the paper, referring to crowded U.S. beaches and pools during Memorial Day weekend in May.

Some European health experts fear that the rising U.S. caseloads are rooted in a White House response that has at times deviated from the conclusions of leading scientists.

“Many scientists appeared to have reached an adequate assessment of the situation early on [in the United States], but this didn’t translate into a political action plan,” said Thomas Gerlinger, a professor of health sciences at the University of Bielefeld in Germany. For instance, it took a long time for the United States to ramp up testing capacity.

Whereas the U.S. response to the crisis has at times appeared disconnected from American scientists’ publicly available findings, U.S. researchers’ conclusions informed the actions of foreign governments.

“A large portion of [Germany’s] measures that proved effective was based on studies by leading U.S. research institutes,” said Karl Lauterbach, a Harvard-educated epidemiologist who is a member of the German parliament for the Social Democrats, who are part of the coalition government. Lauterbach advised the German parliament and the government during the pandemic.

Despite its far older population, Germany has confirmed fewer than 9,000 coronavirus-linked deaths, compared with almost 120,000 in the United States. (Germany has about one-fourth of the United States’ population.)

Lauterbach cited in particular the work of Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard University, whose research with colleagues recently said that forms of social distancing may have to remain in place into 2022. Lipsitch’s work, Lauterbach said, helped him to convince German Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz that the pandemic will be “the new normal” for the time being, and it impacted German officials’ thinking on how long their strategy should be in place.

Regarding the effectiveness of face masks, Lauterbach added, “we almost entirely relied on U.S. studies.” Germany was among the first major European countries to make face masks mandatory on public transport and in supermarkets.

Lipsitch said Thursday that he was not previously aware of the impact of his research on German decision-making, but he added that he has spoken to representatives of several other foreign governments in recent weeks, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and officials or advisers from Canada, New Zealand and South Korea.

Even though Lipsitch cautioned it was impossible for him to say how or if his conversations influenced foreign governments’ thinking, he credited the overall European response as “science-based and a sincere effort to find out what experts in the field believe is a range of possible scenarios and consequences of decisions.”

Lipsitch said he presented some of his research to a White House group in the early stages of the U.S. outbreak but said the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic did not reflect his conclusions. “I think they have cherry-picked models that at each point looked the most rosy, and fundamentally not engaged with the magnitude of the problem,” he said.

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European researchers dispute that the U.S. government’s reliance on scientists to inform decision-making comes anywhere near the degree to which many European policymakers have relied on researchers.

After consulting U.S. research and German studies, for instance, German leaders agreed to make reopening dependent on case numbers, meaning restrictions snap back or reopening gets put on hold if the case numbers in a given region exceed a certain threshold.

Meanwhile, several U.S. states have reopened despite rising case numbers.

“I don’t understand that logic,” said Reinhard Busse, a health-care management professor at the Technical University of Berlin.

Lauterbach said that even though most Germans disapproved of Trump before the pandemic, even his staunchest critics in Germany were surprised by how even respected U.S. institutions, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, struggled to respond to the crisis.

The CDC, for instance, initially botched the rollout of test kits in the early stages of the outbreak.

“Like many other aspects of our country, the CDC’s ability to function well is being severely handicapped by the interference coming from the White House,” said Harvard epidemiologist Lipsitch. “All of us in public health very much hope that this is not a permanent condition of the CDC.”

Some observers fear the damage will be difficult to reverse. “I’ve always thought of the CDC as a reliable and trusted source of information,” said Wiles, the New Zealand specialist. “Not anymore.”

#Masks4All, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Face coverings, Mandatory face coverings

Coronavirus: Here’s who has to wear a mask in California and when

Exceptions include kids under 2 and those exercising outdoors

Vallejo Times-Herald, by Fiona Kelliher, June 19, 2020

Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a new order Thursday mandating that Californians wear masks in most public settings as the state sees an uptick in new coronavirus cases and businesses reopen.

The mandate calls for Californians to cover up while waiting in lines or indoors in public places, in various work settings and while in healthcare facilities. Here are the details:

You must wear a mask when …

  • You’re inside any public space or waiting in line to enter one
  • You’re in any healthcare setting, like a hospital, pharmacy, medical clinic, laboratory, physician or dental office, veterinary clinic or blood bank
  • You’re waiting for or riding on public transportation or while in a taxi or ride-sharing vehicle
  • You’re interacting with a member of the public at work, or working in any space visited by the public, even if you’re alone inside the workplace
  • You’re working in a setting where food is prepared or packaged for sale or distribution
  • You’re working in — or walking through — common areas like hallways, stairways, elevators, and parking lots
  • You’re in any room or enclosed area where other people, except for members of your own household, are present — and physical distancing is difficult
  • You’re driving or operating any public transportation or paratransit vehicle, taxi, private car service or ride-sharing vehicle and other passengers are present
  • You’re outside in a public space and physical distancing isn’t possible

 You don’t have to wear a mask if …

  • You’re a child under the age of 2
  • You have a medical, mental health, or developmental disability that prevents wearing a mask
  • You’re hard of hearing or communicating with someone hard of hearing who needs to see your face
  • Wearing a face covering would create a risk related to your work — as determined by local, state, or federal regulators or workplace safety guidelines
  • You’re obtaining a service involving the nose or face and need to take off the mask to do so
  • You’re eating at a restaurant, provided you’re at least six feet away from the nearest table
  • You’re swimming, walking, hiking, bicycling, or running outside and able to maintain social distance
  • You’re incarcerated. Prisons and jails will have their own specific guidance on face masks, according to the state
Coronavirus, Covid 19, Economy, Solano County CA, Unemployment

Solano jobless rate in May: a little better than April, much worse than 2019

A combine harvester makes its way through a wheat field in Suisun Valley, Friday, June 19, 2020. Solano County added 200 farm jobs in May, according to the state Employment Development Department. (Robinson Kuntz/Daily Republic)

Unemployment drops in May; 20,000 fewer Solano jobs than 2019

Fairfield Daily Republic, By Todd R. Hansen, June 20, 2020

FAIRFIELD — Solano County is slowly waking up from a hard Covid-19 sleep as unemployment fell from 15.2% in April to 14.2% in May, the Employment Development Department reported Friday.

The number of local jobs climbed to 125,400, a gain of 1,800 over April’s figure, the Labor Market Division of the EDD reported.

However, compared to May 2019, there are 20,200 fewer local jobs, the EDD reported.

One of the more promising figures was that construction added 1,000 jobs since April, now 12,400, though it is down 400 jobs compared to May 2019.

Restaurants also added 1,000 positions, to 8,000. The farm sector added 200 jobs, to 1,500.

The harder reality is being felt in retail, which dropped another 200 jobs to 14,000, the EDD reported.

The civilian labor force in Solano County was reported at 199,800, down from April’s total of 201,500. However, the number of residents employed went up 200 to 171,300, the EDD reported.

The number of residents seeking unemployment benefits in May was 28,400, which is 2,000 fewer than in April.

The state unemployment rate in May was 15.9%, down from 16.2% in April. The rate in May 2019 was 3.6%.

The U.S. unemployment rate was 13%, down from 14.4%. The jobless rate in May 2019 was 3.4%.

Unemployment numbers in Solano County, the state and across the nation saw these improvements as counties across the country began to lift business closures put in place in March to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19.

Those businesses in Solano County that reopen must maintain health, safety, sanitation and social-distancing protocols designed to slow the spread of the virus. Residents must also comply with an order this week from the governor to wear face coverings in public spaces, businesses and offices – both indoors and outdoors – based on criteria established by the state. Continue reading Solano jobless rate in May: a little better than April, much worse than 2019 →

For safe and healthy communities…