The end of the pandemic may finally be approaching: With 1.2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered in the San Joaquin Valley, 15 percent of adults have now been fully vaccinated, and another 12 percent have received at least one dose. Meanwhile, all Valley counties have now advanced out …
Read More »It’s Been A Year Since COVID-19 Hit The Valley – Virus Update For Mar. 19
Like in so many places across the U.S., the coronavirus pandemic crept up on the San Joaquin Valley. Some of the region’s first official cases were linked to outbreaks on cruise ships that came into port in March, but as we later learned, the virus was already circulating long beforehand. …
Read More »How COVID-19 Has Complicated The Response To Valley Fever – Virus Update For Mar. 12
Even though COVID-19 has been the dominant public health threat for a year, first with a summer surge, then a winter surge, and now with the rollout of much-anticipated vaccines, other public health problems haven’t just disappeared. One long-standing health concern in the San Joaquin Valley is valley fever, a …
Read More »Central Valley ICU Nurses On The Toll Of Treating COVID-19 Patients
Now that vaccines have become more widely available, it’s easy to forget that ICUs are still full of COVID-19 patients fighting for their lives alongside battle-weary nurses who have been deep in the trenches of this pandemic for nearly a year. To learn more about the toll it has taken, …
Read More »Litigation Continues Around Tulare County Jail’s Pandemic Response – COVID-19 Update For Mar. 5
Slowly and steadily, COVID-19 is loosening its grip on the San Joaquin Valley. New cases are dropping, intensive care units are becoming less impacted, and every day, thousands more people are being vaccinated against the virus. Simultaneously, the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office is facing ongoing litigation surrounding its response to …
Read More »Lessons From Kings County Prison Where COVID-19 ‘Spread Like Wildfire’
When news of the pandemic first reached the men incarcerated at Avenal State Prison in central California, inmate Ed Welker said the prevailing mood was panic. “We were like, ‘Yeah, it’s going to come in here and it’s going to spread like wildfire and we’re all going to get it,’” …
Read More »New COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation Delivers Big Boost To San Joaquin Valley
Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Monday that the San Joaquin Valley will get a major boost to its COVID-19 vaccine allocation. That’s due in part to the region’s food and ag workers, who now are also receiving some priority access to the vaccine. Valley counties will now be receiving thousands …
Read More »COVID-19 Vaccines Not Yet Reaching All Communities Who Need Them – Virus Update For Feb. 19, 2021
Early on in the pandemic, the state of California put an emphasis on equity in its pandemic response, requiring specific levels of testing and outreach in disadvantaged census tracts in order for counties to advance through the state’s reopening blueprint. Now, obstacles to vaccine access have introduced the potential for …
Read More »Severe Weather Delays 15,000 COVID-19 Vaccine Doses En Route To Valley
Shipments of more than 15,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine promised to the San Joaquin Valley have been delayed this week, thanks to severe weather that has snarled shipping and distribution networks in the central and eastern parts of the country. “All of our doses for last week were held …
Read More »In Kings County, One Of Every Nine Residents Has Contracted COVID-19
More than six percent of Californians have now contracted COVID-19 since the pandemic began, but in one San Joaquin Valley county, the case rate is almost twice as high. According to county and state data, 18,110 people in Kings County have contracted COVID-19 since March , a total that’s equivalent …
Read More »With No News On FEMA Clinic, Counties Await More Vaccine Supplies – COVID-19 Update For Feb. 12
When Governor Gavin Newsom stopped in Fresno earlier this week, he was widely anticipated to announce that Fresno would be the site of the state’s newest mass COVID-19 vaccination clinic. The clinic, which he had alluded to earlier in the week, is expected to be run in partnership between the …
Read More »Delays, Confusion And Frustration Undermine Vaccine Rollout – COVID-19 Update For Feb. 5
So far, San Joaquin Valley residents have received nearly 200,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine —a sum that may sound high, but falls far short of the average per capita rate reported elsewhere in California. Plus, for the second week in a row, a low vaccine supply has kept many …
Read More »Valley’s First Farmworkers Get Vaccinated – COVID-19 Update For Jan. 29
In a surprise move this week, Governor Gavin Newsom lifted shelter-in-place orders for our part of the state, even as San Joaquin Valley residents continue to die of COVID-19 by the hundreds each week. The decision came as a surprise to health officials in at least Fresno County, who said …
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