COVID-19 vaccines in the proper dosage for children under 5 years old are lined up and ready to be used at UCSF Laurel Heights on Thursday, June 23, 2022 in San Francisco. It was the first day that children under 5 were given vaccines at the hospital.
With the coronavirus that causes COVID, scientists are for the first time in history watching a virus evolve in real time. But there’s one huge question they’ve yet to answer: Will it get stronger or weaker? The CDC has authorized Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for children between the ages of 6 to 17. And a growing number of health startups are offering “coaching” services to help patients battle chronic conditions.
Alameda County will again align with California’s COVID-19 face mask guidance and rescind a local health order requiring masks in most indoor public settings, effective Saturday. Health officials said that with cases declining in the county, the mandate can be lifted. “Conditions have stabilized following the sustained increases in case reports and hospitalizations we saw throughout May,” Dr. Nicholas Moss, the Alameda County health officer said in a statement. “While we expect continued impacts from COVID-19 in the coming weeks and masks remain strongly recommended, it is appropriate to step down from the health officer masking order at this time.” Alameda County advanced from the CDC’s “high” COVID-19 Community Level tier to “moderate” on Thursday. Hospital levels remain elevated in the county, officials said. Individual businesses, venues and hosts may still require employees and customers to wear masks. “Masks work and are still an important tool to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our communities, especially when rates are high,” said Dr. Moss. “We strongly encourage everyone to continue masking to protect themselves and others from COVID.”
Face masks are once again required in all buildings and enclosed public transportation at Yosemite National Park due to high COVID-19 community levels. The National Park Service requires masking regardless of vaccination status in all areas that fall into the high tier, based on metrics by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Biden Administration launched a new initiative on Wednesday to expand the availability of testing options that are more accessible for people who are blind or have low vision. Those who qualify can order two free rapid antigen tests through the USPS website. The accessible tests are prioritized for individuals who do not have a family member or trusted friend who can help them with standard tests and work using Bluetooth technology, offering audio step-by-step instructions and results. Users will have to download an app from Ellume. “We are encouraged by this initiative to provide an option for at-home COVID-19 tests that are more accessible for blind people.” the National Federation of the Blind said on Twitter.
Following a week of citywide events and gatherings, including the Golden State Warriors championship parade, San Francisco is once again reporting the highest number of daily COVID-19 infections of any region in California — by a long shot. The city is averaging about 61 daily cases per 100,000 residents, according to state data analyzed by The Chronicle. marking a 39% increase from a week ago when San Francisco recorded about 44 cases per 100,000. By comparison, Los Angeles County is reporting about 40 cases per 100,000 and San Diego County 33 per 100,000, with the statewide average at 41 per 100,000. The coronavirus test positive rate in San Francisco is 14% — higher than any other point during the pandemic except the winter omicron surge — with Mayor London Breed announcing earlier this week that she was among those who tested positive. There were 120 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the city’s hospitals as of Friday, more than three times the number just a month ago.
Children ages 6 to 17 now have a second option for a COVID-19 vaccine. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday announced it is recommending Moderna shots as an option for school-age kids and teens, the Associated Press reports. This group has been able to get shots made by Pfizer since last year. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration authorized the shots — full-strength doses for children ages 12 to 17 and half-strength for those 6 to 11. The doses are to be given about a month apart.
The coronavirus test positivity rate in California, which tracks the percentage of tests coming back positive for COVID-19, increased to 13% on Friday, according to state data. The rate has steadily increased since mid-March and is now nearly double that reported on June 1. Infectious disease experts say it should be under 5% to control the spread of the virus. California is reporting about 35 new daily coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents, a number that has remained roughly flat since the beginning of the month. The numbers do not include results of widely used home tests that are not reported to officials, nor cases that simply go undetected. There are 3,126 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state, marking a 4.4% increase from the prior daily total. California is reporting about 12 deaths per day due to the virus.
For the first time ever, scientists have the tools and the knowledge to track the evolution of the coronavirus in real-time. Identifying and describing new variants has helped guide public health responses and is now informing the next generation of vaccines and drug therapies. Predicting how that evolution will shape the next iterations of the coronavirus is tricky, but how the virus has mutated over the past two and a half years provides some clues
Nearly 20 million lives were saved by COVID-19 vaccines during their first year, but even more deaths could have been prevented if international targets for the shots had been reached, the Associated Press reports. Researchers at Imperial College London used data from 185 countries to estimate that vaccines prevented 4.2 million COVID-19 deaths in India, 1.9 million in the United States, 1 million in Brazil, 631,000 in France and 507,000 in the United Kingdom. “Catastrophic would be the first word that comes to mind,” said Oliver Watson, who led the modeling study, of the outcome if vaccines hadn’t been available to fight the coronavirus. The findings “quantify just how much worse the pandemic could have been if we did not have these vaccines.” An additional 600,000 deaths would have been prevented if the World Health Organization target of 40% vaccination coverage by the end of 2021 had been met, according to the study published Thursday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Young children infected with the coronavirus are as susceptible to the symptoms of long COVID as adults are, according to research published Wednesday in the journal The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. In a study of 44,000 Danish children under the age of 14 that included 11,000 participants who tested positive for the virus from January 2020 to July 2021, researchers found that about 40% of those diagnosed with COVID-19 reported lingering symptoms two months after infection. The most common symptoms cited were abdominal pain, cough, lack of focus, fatigue, and mood swings. “The data in cases reflect burden to the family, socioeconomic burden, and access to education,” the authors write.
An advocacy group known as Urgency of Normal, made up of an assortment of doctors, public health officials and representatives of parents’ organizations, sent a letter Thursday to White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, urging that the government “revise the CDC’s COVID-19 guidelines with regards to testing, isolation, and vaccine recommendations for children to ensure that public health policies are not doing more harm than good.” The organization has previously argued for a relaxation of masking and testing rules for schoolchildren, but now wants the federal government to scale back its vaccination recommendation for children — including the newly authorized vaccines for infants and toddlers — to a mere statement that that “COVID-19 vaccines are available for children ages 6 months-17 years...and their administration should be a choice to be discussed between the individual and their primary care physician.”
Experts who track school behavior nationwide said fights and other aggressive behavior, including shootings, appear to have increased, according to a report published Thursday by the Associated Press. Educators and psychologists say the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the volatility in schools by causing a surge in student mental health problems, trauma at home, a lack of socializing opportunities, and a shortage of teachers and counselors that reduced adult supervision and guidance. At San Francisco’s Everett Middle School, teacher and union representative Cris Garza, said existing problems “were absolutely greater in severity, intensity and frequency,” after classrooms reopened last year. The omicron winter surge sidelined educators, deepening a staffing crisis at the school where there was already a shortage of security guards and substitutes. “What all kids need, especially kids who experience trauma, is consistency and stability,” said school social worker Bridget Early. “We could not provide that for them the whole year.”
The California Supreme Court has agreed to take up a case that will decide if employers can be held liable if their workers get COVID-19 on the job and spread it at home. The state’s top court on Wednesday granted a request by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to hear a case from Corby Kuciemba, who says she became seriously ill with COVID-19 after her husband was exposed to the virus at his job with Victory Woodworks Inc in San Francisco, Reuters reports. Kuciemba in a 2020 lawsuit accused Victory of negligence and creating a “public nuisance” by failing to adopt safety policies to stop the spread of COVID.
Aidin Vaziri is a staff writer at The San Francisco Chronicle.
Dominic Fracassa is an assistant metro editor overseeing breaking news and criminal justice in San Francisco. He previously covered San Francisco City Hall as a staff writer.