Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans Wednesday to procure more personal protective equipment, including N-95 and surgical masks from manufacturer BYD. Newsom shared that the state goes through a staggering 46 million masks each month.
The state has also topped New York with the most Covid-19 cases in the nation, but health officials and Newsom said it was bound to happen as California’s population is larger. The governor said California is the size of 21 states.
San Francisco officials announced more testing sites, including plans to launch two traveling mobile testing sites to locations reporting case increases.
Here’s the current situation around the Bay Area.
Source: John Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center COVID-19 global tracking tool as of Wednesday at 6:53 p.m.
Drug companies Pfizer and BioNTech announced an agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense for up to 600 million doses of a vaccine candidate for Covid-19.
The initial order calls for 100 million doses for $1.95 billion, but the U.S. can acquire up to 500 million additional doses, a press release from Pfizer said.
Both Pfizer and BioTech remain on schedule to begin Phase 2b/3 trials later this month and seek regulatory review of the trial vaccine by as early as October.
The drug makers anticipate manufacturing 100 million doses by the end of the year and potentially 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021.
Source: John Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center COVID-19 global tracking tool as of Friday at 6:32 p.m.
Gov. Gavin Newsom held his Wednesday briefing with a backdrop of N95 masks stockpiled in a Sacramento warehouse. There, he announced the state contract with BYD North America to produce 120 million N95 masks and 300 million surgical masks.
Newsom said the state is burning through 46 million masks each month, which creates a need to continually stockpile masks and other PPE for hospital staff.
Newsom said:
“Securing a reliable supply chain of PPE allows us to distribute millions of protective masks to our essential workforce while preserving millions more in our state’s stockpile for future use.”
To date, the state has distributed 86.4 million N-95 masks and 297 million surgical masks to workers in hospitals, emergency responders, nursing home workers, farm and factory workers.
Meanwhile, the state has surpassed New York in terms of total number of confirmed cases. However, residents in California outnumber New York by about 20 million.
Open SFBay Bay Area coronavirus dashboard in new window.Source: Alameda County Public Health Department as of Wednesday with data reported through Tuesday.
The county added 39 new Covid-19 cases since Tuesday, marking one of the lowest single-day gains in several weeks.
As of last reporting provided by health officials Monday, 171 Covid-19 patients are hospitalized, with 51 patients being treated in intensive care unit. The case rate per 100,000 residents is at 572.
The Alameda County’s Sheriff’s Office reported that 103 inmates have so far tested positive for Covid-19 as of Tuesday. Of those, 91 indivduals are asymptomatic and 12 are presenting symptoms.
Forty-four jail staff members have also tested for positive for the virus — 34 have so far recovered.
Source: Contra Costa Health Services as of Wednesday at 11:30 a.m.
The county has surpassed 100 deaths while adding 129 new cases over the last 24 hours. On the previous day, the county added 319 new cases.
Health officials report that has 93 people hospitalized for Covid-19 illness. As of Monday, the county reported three additional deaths — two from the general population and one was a long-term care facility patient.
Source: Marin Health and Human Services as of Wednesday.
*Marin County began reporting San Quentin State Prison cases separately, but for the purposes of tracking actual infections and potential impact on hospitalization rates, we’ve included inmate cases with the county’s cumulative total. However, staff member infections are being included in the individual’s county of residence reporting.
Marin County added 62 new cases and one new death within the last 24 hours, bringing its total cumulative case count to nearly 2,400, excluding San Quentin State Prison data.
The county’s Public Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis gave the Marin County Board of Supervisors a Covid-19 update on Tuesday.
San Quentin State Prison
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reported Wednesday that the prison currently has 857 inmates with active cases of Covid-19.
A total of 2,092 inmates have so far tested positive for the virus — 244 staff members have also contracted the virus. Fourteen San Quentin inmates have died as a result of Covid-19 illness.
Source: Department of Health and Human Services as of Wednesday at 1:30 p.m.
Napa County added 24 new cases over the last 24 hours and another two deaths since Monday. The average test positivity rate between July 12 to July 18 is 3.2 percent.
Napa County continues to record more than 100 new cases per week.
Source: San Francisco Department of Public Health with data reported through Tuesday.
Mayor London Breed and Director of Public Health Dr. Grant Colfax Wednesday announced that additional testing sites will be established in The City.
The Embarcadero CityTestSF site for essential workers, such as first responders and city disaster workers, will add 400 appointment slots, Breed said in a press conference.
Additionally, Breed said two more mobile pop-up testing sites will each be able to conduct 250 tests per day. The mobile sites will be deployed to neighborhoods disportionately affected by the Covd-19 pandemic.
Officials also said they are working on another CityTestSF site in the southeastern portion of The City. The mayor expects the site to open sometime in August and will begin administering approximately 500 tests per day.
Source: San Mateo County Health Department with data reported through Tuesday.
At the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, Louise Rogers, chief of San Mateo County Health, said that there were two factors that could put the county on the state’s monitoring list.
One risk factor is the case rate per 100,000 residents, which is currently at 105.7 on a 14-day rolling average. The state wants this health indicator to be below 100.
Rogers also noted the hospitalization rate as a factor and explained that the number of hospitalized Covid-19 patients has fluctuated.
Rogers said she has discussed current data with state officials and plans to evaluate the data with “sensitivity to underlying core issues and local concerns.”
San Mateo County is the only Bay Area county not on the state’s monitoring list, but Rogers expects that to soon change.
If placed on the state’s list for more than three days, the county would need to close gyms and fitness centers, indoor places of worship and cultural ceremonies, non-essential offices, nail salons, hair salons, barbershops and malls.
Supervisors Tuesday also voted to extend the county’s eviction moratorium from July 28 to August 31. The temporary moratorium protects renters impacted by Covid-19.
Source: Santa Clara County Public Health as of Wednesday.
In the last 24 hours, the county added 230 new cases and two additional deaths. A total of 169 Covid-19 patients were last reported as being hospitalized.
People between the ages of 20 to 40 make up nearly 55 percent of the county’s Covid-19 cases.
Source: Solano Public Health as of Friday at 4:30 p.m. The county does not report data on Saturdays and Sundays.
Source: County of Sonoma with data as of Tuesday at 9:15 p.m.
Source: John Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center COVID-19 global tracking tool as of Wednesday at 6:53 p.m.
Open SFBay Worldwide coronavirus tracker.Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.
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