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 »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 »Vaccine Supply Whiplash, Plus The Latest On COVID In Valley Prisons – Virus Update For Feb. 26
Ever since the COVID-19 vaccine rollout began, every week has brought news of extremes, with success stories followed by supply problems and other hiccups in access and distribution. This week was no different, and included supply disruptions due to winter storms as well as an unexpected boost from the governor. …
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 »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 …
Read More »COVID-19 Is Wreaking Havoc In State Hospitals, Too – Virus Update For Jan. 15
In the months since the pandemic began, COVID-19 has taken a tremendous toll on hospitals, where bedspace is at a minimum and staff are overworked , and prisons, where tight living quarters and mixed enforcement of safety precautions have left incarcerated people vulnerable to soaring infections . But the virus …
Read More »Three Weeks In, Valley’s Vaccine Distribution Falls Short Of Goals—COVID-19 Update For Jan. 8, 2021
A month after COVID-19 infections began to surge following the Thanksgiving holiday, the virus continues to devastate the San Joaquin Valley. Hospitals are reporting more patients with COVID-19 than ever, intensive care units continue to report only a handful of open beds each day, and hundreds of healthcare workers who …
Read More »First Vaccines Arrive As COVID-19 Ravages Valley – Virus Update For Dec. 18
The first batches of the COVID-19 vaccine arrived in the Valley this week , and for many of us, the milestone represents a light at the end of a very long and traumatic tunnel. Healthcare workers with high patient exposure will be the first to receive this initial delivery of …
Read More »Health Officials Warn Of Dwindling ICU Beds, Overcrowded Hospitals: COVID-19 Update For Dec. 11
Five days into a regional stay-at-home order, COVID-19 infections in the San Joaquin Valley are soaring and hospitals are scrambling to make space on floors already crowded with flu patients. On Thursday of this week, the California Department of Public Health estimated that intensive care units in the San Joaquin …
Read More »District By District, Some Valley Students Return To School – COVID-19 Update For Oct. 23
Now that most counties in the San Joaquin Valley have graduated out of the most restrictive “purple” tier of the governor’s reopening blueprint , many schools are preparing to bring students back to campus, and some already have. How are schools phasing in-person instruction back in, what’s the fate of …
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