Category Archives: Covid 19

Contra Costa County, Contra Costa Health Services - Hazardous Materials Programs, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Solano County CA

Contra Costa County reporting coronavirus cases by city – Solano County has yet to do so

By Roger Straw, April 5 2020
[UPDATE: On Monday April 6, Solano County released new information showing cases by cities, but detailing only the three largest cities in Solano.  Smaller cities like Benicia are still in the dark.  See COVID-19 in Solano County – 15 new cases over the weekend, curve continues up, partial city listings, fewer tests.  – R.S.]

On Sunday, April 5, the Antioch Herald published information clearly showing a city-by-city listing of positive COVID-19 cases in Contra Costa County.

Contra Costa Health Services: Data reported to CCHS as of 4/5/2020 at 11:30 a.m. Data is manually compiled from CalREDIE and hospitalization data is collected via phone survey. All data points could be a snapshot at different times. We are continually working on improving the data collection.

This information comes from the Contra Costa Health Department’s coronavirus Dashboard – see coronavirus.cchealth.org/dashboard.  The listing also notes City population and Cases per 100,000.  (Note that the Dashboard was slow to barely functional at the time of this writing.  I’m guessing this is due to high traffic volume.)

SOLANO COUNTY REFUSAL

Solano County officials have been approached on multiple occasions with requests for more detailed information as to the whereabouts of cases in our county.  On advice of County Council Bernadette Curry, the Solano Health Department has refused to release a city-based listing.  Curry claims that releasing city specific data would violate the County’s obligations under HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that was passed by Congress in 1996.

Note that Contra Costa is disclosing the number of cases in several cities smaller than Benicia.

On March 27, we reported that Orange County CA is also releasing a city-based listing of cases.

We hope the Solano County Counsel will reconsider and permit the Health Department to be more transparent.  Residents and businesses deserve to know more about the facts and trends in our home towns.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, Coronavirus, Covid 19

Highlights from Gov. Newsom’s presser – Testing and more

Around the Capitol, by Scott Lay, The Nooner for April 5, 2020 (excerpt)

COVID-19 NUMBERS ON APRIL 5:

  • California cases: 13,962 confirmed (+11.2% from yesterday)
  • California fatalities:  321 confirmed (+14.6% from yesterday)

NOTES FROM GOV. NEWSOM’S PRESSER:

“California is getting some recognition for all that we are doing, but we can do better.” — Gov. Gavin Newsom

TESTING: Yesterday’s press conference by Governor Gavin Newsom was an update on what the state is doing to increase testing and the return of results therefrom in California. Governor Newsom said that 126,700 tests have been conducted, which Newsom said “sounds low to me.” The backlog in results has been reduced and stands at 13,000, down from 59,100. Some results were taking up to 10 days, with 5-7 day waits common. Obviously, this created both uncertainty for those tested, but also took up healthcare resources as ERs had to decide whether to admit those with flu-like symptoms or send them home awaiting tests.

The tone from Governor Newsom was noticeable and echoed that heard from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Newsom said “It is on me” and “We can do better” whenever a shortcoming was mentioned. Of course, fingers easily could have been pointed elsewhere, but it was a strikingly different tone from elsewhere.

Here are a few bullets from my notes, but of course you can watch the governor’s presser on either on Facebook or Twitter:

  • There is a new partnership with UC Davis and UC San Diego to create 5-7 “hubs” to work with new vendors to increase test result processing. Through the partnership, there will be better data collection of the virus’s breadth around the state and helkp marshal resources accordingly.
  • Stanford University has developed a serology (blood) test pending FDA approval expected imminently that will be able to test for antibodies to COVID-19. This can quickly assess whether someone has already had COVID-19 and measure “herd immunity.” That’s a phenomenon when sufficient people within a defined population have developed antibodies to slow or even stop a contagion. This also is significant in determining when to reopen workplaces/society and the like and ensuring that the US doesn’t have a “second wave” as being experienced in Singapore and South Korea right now.
  • Abbott Laboratories is prepared for 75 on-site testing locations geographically spread throughout California that can return COVID-19 results within 5-15 minutes. This is the “second test” President Trump took the other day.
  • There is a new state website developed with Salesforce to invite vendors to identify deliverable supplies by type and timeline: covid19supplies.ca.gov

The governor also announced a new workgroup to make recommendations on the issues relating to testing, which is led by Dr. Charity Dean, Assistant Director of the California Department of Public Health and Dr. Paul Markovich, President and CEO of Blue Shield of California.

Benicia CA, Coronavirus, Covid 19

Benicia parking lots closed – people were not social distancing

City of Benicia Closes Parking Lots Due to Improper Gathering During Shelter

NBC Bay Area, April 5, 2020

UNA_SEGUNDA_OPORTUNIDAD.jpgSeveral City parking lots in Benicia are closed to the public due to activity violating the novel coronavirus social distancing order, officials said Friday.

The city announced the closure of parking lots at Matthew Turner Shipyard (12th Street) Park and Alvarez Ninth Street Park, as well as parking at the foot of First Street for the beach and pier.

“The Police Department has received and verified complaints of people parking in these locations and not staying to themselves, but rather walking between cars, window to window interactions, etc.,” the city said in an announcement. “As a result, these parking lots will be blocked to vehicle traffic with the exception of a few boat parking spaces at the Ninth Street parking lot.”

Coronavirus, Covid 19, Social Distancing

Local poets and authors on social distancing – “Going the Distance” (003)

Going the Distance

Local writers offer strength, hope, and solidarity in a time of social distancing

Appearing in the print edition of the Benicia Herald, April 5, 2020

Orchestra

White ivory fingers tap dry rhythms
trumpets blare sour notes
out of tune cellos squeal
violins and violas whine
flute-stops fill with spit,
no sound escapes, hands stuffed
in French horns, blare discord
triangles without hammers,
bells lacking clappers,
pianos with covers shut
gather dust, keys silent,
harps with broken strings,
stretched beyond endurance
we long for harmony,
a return to a daily symphony,
we wait for a conductor
who knows the score.

Louise Moises

The Last Banana

Today I bought the last banana at Raley’s, somebody left it, not on the wire hanging rack, but above it, undersize as it was, on the small display shelf, a token offering of benevolence perhaps in the “Shelter in place” chaos that currently infects our planet. I don’t understand the communist state whose occupants must eat bats, living upside down in infected caves or doorways, is this the measure of superlative governance? Are these Chinese-FDA regulated and inspected bats? Range-free? Gluten-free? No MSG? Or are they the scrub of edibles, Coronavirus-infected, overlooked for millennia by the non-existence of an imposter Donald Trump-equivalent, closing down the Chinese EPA (if it ever existed) or are they Tariff-complicated, proving something to somebody in the aftermath of who delayed public disclosure the most, or the longest for whose political expedience? Who will win the Tariff Wars  or lose the most innocent, hapless residents in deaths to this first pandemic of this generation? Bananas and bats and Banana Republics, the countries continue, shelter in place.

Peter Bray

The Question

I look askance, paste on a smile;
Heart produces a flutter.
My brain flits to a different place,
one I had never known before.
Questions cluster around the heart…next?
I ask.
Not today. Tomorrow?
The uncertainty creeps deeper and I only have passed one walker.

Jan Radesky

Send your poems or short prose to Mary Susan Gast for possible inclusion in this column as we support one another during the coronavirus pandemic.  Email to msgast45 at gmail dot com.