Travelers walk with their luggage at Beijing Capital International Airport, on Dec. 27TINGSHU WANG/Reuters

China’s relaxation of COVID-19 rules for international arrivals has raised hopes that its multi-billion dollar travel business will soon flourish again but countries longing for the return of Chinese tourists will likely face more of a wait.

China’s National Health Commission announced on Monday that inbound travelers would no longer have to go into quarantine from Jan. 8. There are no official restrictions on Chinese people going abroad but the new rule will make it much easier for them to return home.

China was the world’s largest outbound tourism market before COVID shut down global travel, with its overseas visitors spending $127.5 billion on travel in 2019.

Airlines are drawing up plans to expand their services but ordinary Chinese and travel agencies suggest that a return to anything like normal will take some time.

“It’s great they announced it so I can seriously make my plans,” said Beijing exporter Tom Guo, 43.

But he said he would likely wait until the late spring or even the summer before venturing abroad again, most likely to the United States to visit a sister.

US carrier United Airlines Holdings Inc said it was evaluating the market demand and operating environment to determine when to resume additional flights to mainland China.

The airline currently operates four times a week between San Francisco and Shanghai.

German airline Lufthansa was examining whether to change its flight schedule to China following the changes.

“This will contribute to the recovery of international air traffic between Mainland China and Europe,” a spokesperson said.

TUI expects a positive impact on its currently limited flights to China, a spokesperson said.

Duty free retailer Dufry expects the changes to have a “positive effect at the airports that the Chinese use and where we have a presence,” a spokesperson said.

Guo said he definitely would not be going anywhere before the Lunar New Year holiday in late January.

Many others have taken heart from this week’s news about an imminent relaxation of the rules to begin making plans.

Data from travel platform Ctrip showed that within half an hour of the announcement, searches for popular cross-border destinations had increased 10-fold. The Qunar platform said it saw a seven-fold increase in international flight searches within 15 minutes.

Japan, Thailand and South Korea were among the top destinations searched on both platforms.

But an immediate surge in international travel is not widely expected.

The government, which has since 2020 discouraged international travel given the dangers of COVID, said in its Monday announcement about borders reopening that outbound travel would be restored “in an orderly manner.” It did not elaborate.

Flight tracking app VariFlight said its expected a robust rebound in flights to and from mainland China by the Labor Day holiday in May, but not before.

According to VariFlight data, international flights to and from China are at 8% of pre-pandemic levels.

Liu Simin, an official with the tourism arm of the China Society for Futures Studies, a research institute based in Beijing, said international travel won’t recover to pre-pandemic levels until 2024.

Weighing on many people’s travel plans is the wave of COVID-19 infections now sweeping China, Liu said.

Some countries, including Japan and India have announced travelers from China will have to show a negative COVID test on arrival.

Another problem for many people is money.

“It takes time for people to gain confidence after so many of them lost jobs or made less money during the pandemic,” Liu said.

In a consumer study released this month, before the announcement of the easing of travel restrictions, consultancy Oliver Wyman found more than half of Chinese people surveyed would wait from several months to a year before resuming international travel once borders re-open.

Some airlines were making plans even before Monday’s announcement. Korean Air said it would increase flights between South Korea and China from nine a week to 15 in January.

But for now, foreign visitor arrivals will be limited to resident, work, business, student and family reunification visas. No plan for the resumption of tourist visas has been announced.

One of the fastest bouncebacks is expected to be in international business travel.

“The recent announcement … clears the way for resumption of normal business travel, a top advocacy priority for the American business community in China over the past two years,” said AmCham China Chairman Colm Rafferty.

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The unprecedented surge of COVID-19 that has slammed the Bay Area in recent weeks may finally be on the downswing, according to both city and state data.

While some of the apparent plateau may be the result of delayed reporting, many experts believe case numbers really are starting to level off here, as they have in some other parts of the country.

“City cases plateaued,” Dr. Bob Wachter, the chair of the department of medicine at UCSF, wrote on Twitter on Monday.

His UCSF colleague Dr. Peter Chin-Hong competed. “While some may call it an early victory call and wait for a few more data points over the next few days, it does appear real,” Chin-Hong, who is an expert in infectious diseases, told SFGATE.

dr George Rutherford, also at UCSF, isn’t ready to officially call it the peak, but did say the timeline matches models that have been predicting California cases will peak in mid-January.

“You’d expect it to peak earlier in San Francisco than in other places in California,” Rutherford told SFGATE. “After all, we were where the first case was identified in the US”

Rutherford said the hospitalization peak usually lags about one to one and a half weeks behind the peak in cases. However, while the number of people testing positive in the hospital has continued to climb in both state and city data, UCSF hospital cases have been flat for a week.

“At UCSF, we have been holding steady with COVID hospitalizations since Jan. 11 with no major increases,” Chin-Hong said.

Some experts have warned that hospitalization data exaggerates the severity of the current wave, as it includes both those who were hospitalized for COVID-19 and those who were hospitalized for other issues and then tested positive for COVID-19, but might have only mild or no symptoms

dr Jeanne Noble, the head of COVID response for UCSF’s emergency department, told SFGATE last week that after reviewing the charts of every COVID-positive patient at UCSF hospitals on Jan. 4, she determined 70% of COVID-19 cases were “incidental positives, “Patients who tested positive after being admitted to the hospital for reasons such as such as a hip fracture or a bowel obstruction.

Her data suggests that in January 2022, fewer people are being admitted to hospitals because of severe COVID illness than in the winter of 2021. That conclusion is supported by data showing that, in San Francisco, fewer COVID-19 patients have required admission to intensive care units.

“The 2022 hospitalization peak and curve will look very different in 2022 compared to 2021 — significantly lower use of mechanical ventilation, shorter hospital stays, a higher proportion of people admitted with COVID (incidentally — these are folks who were screened positive for infection when they were admitted with something else) rather than because of COVID,” Chin-Hong said. “The lower rate of severe illness is part omicron related, but certainly and substantially helped by the high vaccination rate — very different from one year ago when they were just beginning to be rolled out.”

This trend can also be seen elsewhere in the Bay Area. At the start of the month, Marin County recorded a spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations. But of the 19 people hospitalized in the county, at least 42% were incidental cases, including five patients in a psychiatric ward who had no symptoms of the virus. That number rose to 48% this week.

On Jan 11, SF Health Director Dr Grant Colfax said while hospitalizations had been increasing in the city, the “numbers are not climbing nearly at the level that they would have if we didn’t have such great coverage with vaccines.” In San Francisco, 85% of the eligible population (residents 5 and over) is fully vaccinated.

“We are optimistic that because of our city’s high vaccination and booster rates, we will get through this omicron surge without running out of those all-important intensive care unit beds,” Colfax said.

Wastewater samples may also provide a clue that the omicron surge has peaked. Santa Clara County is seeing a decline in the amount of virus found in such samples, as are San Francisco and some parts of Marin County.

“Across the Bay Area, the epidemiology has mostly been shared,” Marin County health officer Dr. Matt Willis said. “As a region, we’ve traveled together through most stages of the pandemic; we’ve moved together on the timing and scale of waves we’ve experienced. So when Santa Clara is seeing evidence of a plateau, that can be reassuring for the Bay Area as a whole, but it’s too early to tell.”

Rutherford cautioned that even if we have hit the peak, the virus will continue to be present in the community for several weeks.

“Half the cases will occur in the downslope. There are a lot more cases to come,” he said.

Last week, Colfax said the peak is in sight and he expects the city to turn the corner soon, but he emphasized that people should still get vaccinated if they haven’t already.

“If you are up to date on your vaccinations, it is extremely unlikely you would be hospitalized due to COVID,” Colfax said.

The post The omicron surge in San Francisco could also be peaking appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

San Francisco continues to set new COVID-19 case records, and the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19 has now surpassed the summer’s delta-variant-driven wave. However, it’s increasingly clear those hospitalization figures are a poor metric for understanding how many patients are seriously ill with the disease.

These cases of “incidental COVID” — patients who are in the hospital for other reasons and happen to test positive for COVID-19 — have always existed, and many public health departments still count these cases as “COVID hospitalizations.” But as the omicron variant has spread through the Bay Area like wildfire, often causing asymptomatic or mild illness, some experts are arguing that there’s far too big a gap between official hospitalization numbers and the true burden of the virus.

dr Jeanne Noble, the head of UCSF’s emergency room COVID-19 response, told SFGATE that 70% of COVID-19-positive patients at UCSF were there for reasons other than COVID-19. Despite that, the hospital has been including those patients when it sends reports to the state about COVID-19 hospitalizations. The state then sends that data to the counties, supposedly to inform them about how at-risk their communities are from the disease.

“The crisis from the Omicron peak is not generated by serious COVID illness in regions with highly vaxxed populations,” Noble wrote in an email to SFGATE. “The crisis we are suffering in the Bay Area is largely driven by disruptive COVID policies that encourage asymptomatic testing and subsequent quarantines. … The vast majority of COVID-plus patients I take care of need no medical care and are quickly discharged home with reassurance. “

Hospitalizations across the city are increasing, as you can see in the first chart below. But the second chart — which shows hospitalizations and intensive care unit hospitalizations — supports the claim that hospitalizations are being over-counted.

Deaths from COVID-19 tend to lag 21 days behind hospitalizations. As you can see in the graphs above, there’s just a one to three day lag time between hospitalizations and ICU hospitalizations, meaning those trends can be seen much earlier.

Marin County Health Officer Dr. Matt Wills recently told SFGATE that he believes the ICU count is a reliable metric of how many people are currently sick with COVID-19. When he looked for incidental positives in the official case counts last week, he found that patients in a psychiatric ward, pregnant women in obstetric units and an individual undergoing orthopedic surgery had all been included in official case counts, despite not needing significant medical care related to the virus. At the time, just one of the 19 patients listed under COVID-19 hospitalizations required intensive care. “That ratio has never been so small,” Wills said.

In fact, San Francisco is recording fewer COVID-19 ICU admissions than during either of the previous two waves, despite record numbers of people testing positive for the virus every day, both inside the hospitals and out. In the last week, about 145 people in hospitals have tested positive for COVID-19 daily and 25 total people were admitted to the ICU with COVID-19. During the summer delta wave, the city saw 125 COVID-19 hospitalizations at the peak — but nearly 40 people with the virus were landing in intensive care. When hospitalizations last winter were similar to today’s average, COVID-19 ICU admissions hit 39 a day.

UCSF experts have repeatedly told SFGATE that given the astronomically high cases in the city, hospitalization numbers would be significantly higher if this surge were like past waves. Fortunately, it seems that San Francisco’s high vaccination rate (81% of residents are fully vaccinated) and the fact that the omicron variant causes more mild illness than previous strains are blunting the impact on hospitals.

“It’s just less severe,” epidemiologist Dr. George Rutherford said of omicron. “Unless we’re ridiculously wrong, things are different now.”

The post A full month in, this is how San Francisco’s omicron surge is unfolding appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

LIVERMORE (KPIX 5) – A power surge in Livermore early Tuesday fried thousands of appliances and likely caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, as it impacted 521 homes.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said it happened around midnight Monday night into Tuesday morning when a palm frond falling across a high voltage distribution line and a lower voltage transmission line at Elaine Avenue and Holmes Street in Livermore.

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It caused a power surge so powerful it blew the meters off houses and fried electronics.

“I had the TV on and I literally can see the smoke and sparks flying. It was like a big fire, poof, and then it was over. Completedarkness. It was scary,” said Christy Garcia, one of the impacted homeowners.

“Our dishwasher we just bought is like completely destroyed, coffee maker, Xbox, monitors are fried,” Garcia recalled.

Neighbors also said they lost solar panels, pool pumps, hot tubs, TVs, computers and other small electronics, garage door openers, kitchen appliances, HVAC systems, sprinkler controllers – basically anything that was plugged in when the surge hit.

“How do you have that much electricity going through your house at one time to cause that much damage?” Garcia wants to know.

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“We’re extremely busy right now. Non-stop calls,” said Tim Agront, is one of the project managers for Five or Free, a local Livermore electrical company.

Agront told KPIX 5 that they have worked on 36 houses Tuesday and 43 houses Wednesday.

“Cost of repairs that I’ve seen, probably on the high end, would be at least up to $40,000-$50,000 and that’s just in appliances alone,” he says.

PG&E said impacted homeowners can file a claim on their website but told KPIX 5 in a statement that “Although the palm tree was not in PG&Es right of way and we are not responsible for its maintenance, we will review and consider each claim.”

Agront said one way to prevent something like this from damaging electronics in your home is to have a whole house surge protector installed or ensure all electronics are plugged into strip surge protectors before they’re plugged into the wall.

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Claims with PG&E can be filed by calling the utility’s claims department at (415) 973-4548 or online at www.pge.com/claims. Each household can only file one claim per incident, so people need to make sure they check everything in their homes before filing the claim.

The post Livermore Residents Search Solutions From PG&E After Energy Surge Damages Electronics In Over 500 Houses – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Health officials in San Francisco and six other Bay Area counties have announced that they are reinstating a mask mandate for all indoor settings as COVID-19 infections surge.

Monday’s order applies to everyone, regardless of vaccination status, and starts on Tuesday.

California last week recommended that people wear masks indoors, but stopped short of issuing a mandate, following guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control.

Three other California counties have already adopted mandates as COVID rates rise because of the highly contagious delta variant.

The post Masks mandate reinstated in San Francisco Bay Space amid surge | Coronavirus appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SACRAMENTO (AP) — California’s coronavirus death toll has surpassed 80,000, and another 3,000 people are expected to die by the end of the month, even as infections, hospitalizations and ICU cases fall nearly as fast as they did during the rapid-fire Omicron -wave of the pandemic have risen .

The toll hit 80,688 on Friday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

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That’s the highest in the US, but the country’s most populous state has a per capita death rate that’s among the lowest at 38. Texas has just a few hundred fewer deaths than California, but has 10 million fewer residents and therefore a higher per capita rate.

Another 220 deaths in California were reported Thursday, and the state’s forecast models show the death toll will top 83,600 by the end of February. Despite the dismal record, other indicators showed that California has clearly passed the peak of the latest and most contagious wave.

The state’s hospital admissions have fallen by more than 3,300 from a peak of 15,435 two weeks ago, well below the all-time high of nearly 22,000 in January 2021.

There were fewer than 2,300 intensive care patients, 300 fewer cases than 10 days ago and less than half the number in January 2021.

“We’ve definitely peaked and are seeing a downward trend in the numbers, but we’re not over the hill yet,” said Dr. Olivia Kasirye, Sacramento County Health Officer.

Hospitalization rates in the state’s capital region and many other regions remain high, and waves of infection continue in places, including Sacramento County’s two jails. Nearly 5,000 of the California state penitentiary’s 97,000 inmates are infected, along with 2,900 correctional workers.

However, the state’s case rate and positivity rates have fallen from their highs in early January, and models predict the number of those infected will continue to decline across geographies.

The hopeful trends mean Los Angeles is among counties moving toward relaxing mask mandates. New cases in the country’s most populous county on Thursday accounted for about a quarter of the daily record number of cases set a few weeks ago.

About 3,200 people infected remained in the Los Angeles County hospital Thursday, but the number has fallen and Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said the winter surge will be considered over if it falls below 2,500 for seven days in a row.

CONTINUE READING: Omicron survey results are delaying but not ending Bay Area businesses’ return plans

Once that threshold is met, Los Angeles County will end mask requirements for large outdoor events such as concerts and sporting events, as well as for outdoor spaces in schools and childcare facilities.

The indoor mask requirements will remain in effect until the county has two consecutive weeks at or below a “moderate” rate of 50 new cases per 100,000 residents and no reports of a new, troubling variant circulate, Ferrer said. The fall rate is now almost three times above the threshold.

“Post surge doesn’t mean the pandemic is over, or that transmission is low, or that there won’t be unpredictable waves of surges in the future,” Ferrer warned.

California’s statewide mask mandate expires on February 15, although local governments can still maintain their own mandates.

California’s confirmed number of coronavirus cases has now surpassed 8 million, but the 37,000 new cases reported Thursday are dramatically below the seven-day average of nearly 120,000 in early January.

The state’s models predict hospital admissions will fall by two-thirds to about 4,200 in another month, while intensive care unit cases will fall to less than 500, a fifth of what they are now.

The Omicron variant spreads even more easily than other strains of coronavirus and more easily infects those who have been vaccinated or previously infected with earlier versions of the virus.

However, early studies show that omicron is less likely to cause serious illness than the previous Delta variant, and vaccination and booster shots still offer strong protection against serious illness, hospitalization, and death.

Officials said unvaccinated Californians are 30 times more likely to die than people who got their booster shots; nearly 15 times more likely to be hospitalized; and are 7.5 times more likely to contract COVID-19.

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© Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, transcribed or redistributed.

The post California Tops 80,000 COVID-19 Deaths As Instances Tumble From Omicron Surge – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

The latest number of confirmed cases in the U.S. can be found at the CDC’s 2019 Novel Coronavirus in the U.S. page. (The CDC updates the webpage on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.)

Join anchor Kristen Sze for ABC7’s daily, interactive newscast about the coronavirus outbreak in the Bay Area and around the world. You can check here to stream the show Monday-Friday at 3 p.m.

Jan. 11, 2022

10:30 a.m.
San Francisco issues new testing guidelines for health care providers
New San Francisco guidelines require all large health care facilities to provide access to COVID-19 testing for people with symptoms and people who have been a close contact within 24 hours of a request from a member patient. Under the new order, the largest health systems will now be required to produce documentation twice a week to the SF Department of Public Health with proof of meeting patient testing needs in a timely manner.

The city also announced more support for SFUSD, including providing more masks for students and teachers, and adding to the District supply of rapid antigen tests to support educators who are in quarantine being able to test back into the classroom.

An average of 1,386 San Francisco residents a day are testing positive for COVID-19 at testing sites, which is more than four times that of last winter’s peak at 373 cases per day.

5 a.m.
Hayward Unified returns to remote learning
Today the Hayward Unified School District is going back to remote learning for one week. More than 500 students have tested positive for COVID and there are fewer teachers available, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Making the switch to online learning means the district risks losing $2.5 million a day in funding. Students received Chromebooks yesterday. The district has set up learning hubs for students who need access to virtual learning from a school facility.

Jan. 10, 2022

5 p.m.
Sonoma Co. to temporarily ban large indoor, outdoor gatherings

Sonoma County health officials issued a temporary restriction Monday banning large gatherings as omicron variant spikes in the community. Large gatherings of more than 50 people indoors, or more than 100 people outdoors (where social distancing is not feasible), are prohibited for the duration of the order. The order will take effect at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 12 until Feb. 11.

The county also issued an appeal to residents to stay home as much as possible for the next 30 days and limit interactions with those outside of their immediate household.

5 a.m.
West Contra Costa Co. Unified schools closed today
Schools in West Contra Costa Unified will be closed today because of the spike in omicron cases. When classes resume tomorrow all staff will be required to wear a medical grade KN-95 mask. Each person will be provided one new mask every week through the end of the school year. All schools got a deep cleaning on Friday. Students and staff are asked to get a COVID test before returning to class, although this is not a requirement.

Jan. 8, 2022

7a.m.
UC Berkeley to start semester remotely, plans to resume in-person learning Jan. 31

UC Berkeley announced it will begin the semester with most classes being offered remotely.
Some students and staff had expressed concern that Berkeley was the only University of California undergraduate campus not planning to offer virtual learning.
Remote classes will begin January 18, and plans to go full in-person instruction will resume on January 31.
You can read the university’s statement here.

5a.m.
Vallejo City Hall Closed until Feb. 28

Vallejo City Hall will be closed to the public until at least March because of a spike in COVID cases.
City Council, Board, and Commission meetings will still happen in-person for now.
City Council will consider switching to completely virtual meetings in its next session on Tuesday.
If you need to reach a certain department, it’s taking virtual appointment meetings Mondays through Thursdays.
Drop boxes for bill payments are open.

Jan. 7, 2022

11p.m.
Hayward Unified to remote for 1 week

The Hayward Unified School District voted on Friday go back to remote learning for a week starting Monday.
The debate went on for several hours and the majority of the discussion and public comments focused not so much on whether to go back to distance learning, but if one week was actually too short.
There were several parents and even board members urging the kids be kept out of class for two weeks or even until the start of February.
The school board will revisit the decision and its next meeting and consider an extension for remote learning.

7:30p.m.
Gov. Gavin Newsom sends CA National Guard to help with state’s COVID-19 testing capacity

Governor Gavin Newsom announced Friday he has sent the California National Guard to help communities throughout the state with additional testing sites as COVID-19 cases continue to grow.

In a statement by the governor, “the National Guard plan will deploy more than 200 Cal Guard members across 50 Optum Serve sites around the state, providing interim clinical staff while permanent staff are hired adding capacity for walk-ins, assisting with crowd control and back-filling for staff absences – all in an effort to conduct more tests for more Californians. “

The COVID-19 testing site in Antioch located at 4703 Lone Tree Way, Antioch, CA 94531, started receiving aid from the National Guard on Friday, the governor’s office said.

“On Monday, the site will double the number of testing windows to four and double the number of appointments per day. The site is open Saturday from 11a.m. – 7p.m. Additional sites in Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties will also receive assistance from the National Guard beginning today and through the coming days.”

Additional members of the national guard will be deployed next week in similar capacities.

“California has led the country’s fight against COVID-19, implementing first-in-the-nation public health measures that have helped save tens of thousands of lives,” said Governor Newsom in written statement. “We continue to support communities in their response to COVID by bolstering testing capacity.”

The activation of the CA National Guard is on top of the additional 6,000 testing sites across the state as well as the nearly 10 million tests given to schools since early December, the governor said.

12 p.m.
CA reports more than 100,000 new COVID cases
The state of California released new coronavirus numbers on Friday. See the breakdown below:

103,606 new cases
5,634,357 total cases
292 new deaths
76,341 total deaths
7 day test positivity rate = 21.7%
9,279 hospitalized patients
(up 608)
1,500 icu patients
(up 70)

San Jose City Council set to approve booster mandate
Next week, San Jose’s city council is set to approve an update to its COVID-19 vaccine mandate. If approved, it would require people who visit city-owned facilities like SAP Center, where the Sharks play and the San Jose Convention Center to provide proof that they have received a booster vaccination. The proposal would also require city employees to get a booster, if eligible, or prove that they have received one.

Jan. 6, 2022

Noon
Cal State East Bay going remote for first 2 weeks of spring 2022 semester

Cal State East Bay is the latest CSU to announce it will delay in-person learning.
The university said it will begin the first two weeks of the spring 2022 semester remotely, according to its website.
Class and labs scheduled between Jan. 18 through Jan. 28 will be “delivered via remote modalities,” the school wrote. “We have made the decision to start the Spring semester virtually to greatly reduce population density on our campuses,” said Cal State East Bay President Cathy Sandeen.
The school plans to return to in-person learning on Monday, Jan. 31.
San Francisco State University announced today it has delayed in-person learning until Feb. 14.
You can read the posting by visiting this page.

Cal State East Bay will temporarily begin the first two weeks of Spring 2022 semester with remote instruction. Classes and labs offered between Jan. 18 through Jan. 28 will be online and will return to the planned instructional modality Jan. 31. https://t.co/63kMhPOnDm

— Cal State East Bay (@CalStateEastBay) January 6, 2022

11:35a.m.
San Francisco State University to delay in-person learning until Feb. 14
San Francisco State University announced on Thursday it has delayed in-person learning until Monday, Feb. 14 due to the omicron surge.
“The escalation in positivity rates and increased hospitalizations across the state,” said SF State President Lynn Mahoney, Ph.D. in a written statement on the university’s website.
She also said most campus services will be held remotely until February 7.
However, she wrote the school semester will start as planned on Monday, January 24.
You can read the full statement by visiting this page.

CAMPUS ALERT: SF State President Mahoney announced today that the University is temporarily moving to remote modalities until February 14 due to the current Omicron surge. The semester itself will start as planned on January 24.

Read the full message: https://t.co/Q3itFgejhd pic.twitter.com/84spHkzSYn

— SF State (@SFSU) January 6, 2022

9 a.m.
Oakley will distribute free at-home COVID test kits
Supervisor Diane Burgis’ office and the city of Oakley will distribute free at-home COVID test kits to families. The testing kits will be given out on a first-come-first-served basis at a drive-through event at the Oakley Recreation Center on O’Hara Avenue, the East Bay Times, reports. It will be held from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. or while supplies last. Test kits are limited to two per family. Each kit contains two tests.

Jan. 5, 2022

7 p.m.
West Contra Costa Unified School District cancels classes for Friday and Monday due to omicron surge
The West Contra Costa Unified School District announced it is cancelling classes for Friday, January 7 and Monday, January 10 due to the omicron surge
Dr. Kenneth Chris Hurst, Superintendent of West CoCo unified said on the school’s website on Wednesday all district schools will be closed for students and staff on both days as schools will undergo a deep cleaning on Friday, January 7. You can read the full statement on this page.

3 p.m.
CA extends indoor mask mandate
California is extending its indoor mask mandate for at least one more month – through Feb. 15 – state officials said Wednesday.

The state had brought back the mandate last month amid a surge in new COVID-19 infections fueled by the more-contagious omicron variant. Holiday gatherings and related activities are also playing a role in a continuing sharp increase in cases. Here’s the full story.

8:25 a.m.
SJPD taking measures to reduce spread
Local jurisdictions are taking action to try and stop the spread of COVID 19. The San Jose Police Department is reducing services at its main headquarters and it’s temporarily barring any in-person filing of police reports. Fingerprinting will only be available for court orders, bookings, registrations, and warrant requests. San Mateo County is following the lead of Contra Costa County and stopping jury trials for two weeks.

Jan. 4, 2022

5:45 p.m.
Bay Area school district to provide faculty 1 KN95 mask every week through end of school year
The West Contra Costa Unified School District will require all faculty at school sites to wear a KN95 mask while at work starting Jan. 10. The District has ordered enough masks for each employee to have one KN95 mask per week through the end of the school year.

1:15 p.m.
Marin Co. public schools to prohibit indoor gatherings, spectators at indoor sporting events
Marin County public schools plan to prohibit indoor gatherings like assemblies and prohibit spectators, including parents, at indoor sporting events due to the surge of omicron, ABC7 News has learned. Marin County public health officer Dr. Matt Willis says most of the positive cases have been from asymptomatic people, and have more likely to have been involved in indoor sporting activities, attended at least two indoor gatherings over holidays and likely have traveled out of the state.

1 p.m.
Stanford announces new winter sports attendance policies
Stanford athletics announced Tuesday that spectator attendance at all indoor winter events will be temporarily reduced to a limited number of student-athlete families, while outdoor events will require social distancing and mask-wearing for all attendees. The changes come as the university sees rising COVID-19 cases due to the omicron variant.

11:30 a.m.
Hundreds of SF essential workers in quarantine
SF health officials say 186 SFPD members, including 167 sworn officers, 135 SFFD staff, and 85 SFMTA personnel have been exposed to COVID-19 and have entered or are entering quarantine. These departments say they are prioritizing essential operations and establishing emergency contingency plans to minimize disruption to services.

11 a.m.
SF health officials give COVID update
San Francisco health officials provided an update on the surge in omicron cases in the city. An average of 829 SF residents a day are contracting COVID-19 (as of December 27), which is more than double that of last winter’s peak at 373 cases per day. Officials say 81% of SF residents are vaccinated, and 54% have been boosted. San Francisco Department of Public Health sites have expanded to more than 25,000 tests a week across the city, nearly doubling capacity from three weeks ago.

10:30 a.m.
CA releases 1st full update on numbers since Dec. 31
California released its latest coronavirus data on Tuesday, our first full update since Dec 31 so these numbers all look exceptionally high, especially the new cases. The positivity rate sets a new record, but remember you do have more people testing so that contributes to the increase. See a breakdown of the numbers below:

237,084 new cases.
5,428,522 total cases
77 new deaths
75,924 total deaths
7 day test positivity rate = 20.4%
7,914 hospitalized patients
Up 600
1,343 icu patients
Up 14

6:15 a.m.
San Mateo reopens vaccine clinic
San Mateo County is reopening a vaccination clinic at the San Mateo Event Center today. The clinic reopens at noon and closes at 7 p.m. It will be open Tuesdays through Saturdays going forward. You are encouraged to sign up through the state’s MyTurn website for an appointment, but people without appointments will not be turned away. The county is offering first, second, and booster doses.

Jan. 3, 2022

7 a.m.
FDA takes actions to expand Pfizer vaccine use
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration amended the emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine to:

• Expand the use of a single booster dose to include use in individuals 12 through 15 years of age.
• Shorten the time between the completion of primary vaccination of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine and a booster dose to at least five months.
• Allow for a third primary series dose for certain immunocompromised children 5 through 11 years of age.

Jan. 2, 2022

8:45 a.m.
SF Unified to offer rapid testing to students starting today
Starting today, San Francisco Unified will offer mobile rapid testing at the district office. Appointments are required. School sites will also be testing students throughout next week.
The site at Franklin St. will be open from 9a.m. to 4p.m. on Sunday at 555 Franklin Street (parking lot). For more information, you can visit this page.

Jan. 1, 2022

11:25 a.m.
SF Unified to offer rapid testing to students
Many families in the Bay Area are struggling to get their children tested for COVID before they return to school on Monday. COVID testing appointments or rapid tests are hard to find in some areas. Starting tomorrow, San Francisco Unified will offer mobile rapid testing at the district office on Franklin Street. School sites will also be testing students throughout next week.

Dec. 31, 2021

8:15 a.m.
California’s positivity rate rises
California’s 7-day test positivity rate is now up to 12.9 percent. It was in the single digits only on Tuesday.

Dec. 30, 2021

2p.m.
SF Sketchfest postponed due to rise in omicron cases, organizers say

The 2022 SF Sketchfest has been postponed due to the rise in omicron cases, organizers said on Thursday.

The event was originally slated for Jan. 7 to Jan. 23. Organizers said in a statement online, in part:

“The safety of our artists, staff and audiences is our number our priority. Over the past week, we have had many artists reach out to us to express concern about traveling and performing at a time when the COVID omicron variant is causing increased positive cases and breakthrough infections around the country. We have also had some artists and staff members test positive for COVID.”

The site says a new date will be announced in the coming weeks.

To read the full statement, you can visit this page.

12p.m.
California’s positivity rate is 12.9%, new data shows
The state positivity rate is now at 12.9%, according to the California Department of Public Health which just released new data today.

There are a reportedly 37,673 new cases with a total of 5,135,071 COVID-19 cases.

Here are the latest numbers:
109 new deaths
75,738 total in deaths
5,516 hospitalized patients which has increased by 318
1,194 ICU patients, up 115
64,562,129 individuals have been vaccinated in California

6:30 a.m.
California’s COVID positivity rate now 11.2%

6:30 a.m.
California’s COVID positivity rate now 11.2%
Here in California, the test positivity rate is now in the double digits, at 11.2%. Remember, before Christmas it was around 5%. The week of Thanksgiving, it hovered around 2%.

Dec. 29, 2021

2 p.m.
Sonoma County to reinstate indoor mask mandates
Sonoma County joined other Bay Area counties Wednesday in rescinding exemptions that allowed stable groups of fully vaccinated people to remove their masks indoors in some workplaces, gyms, churches and other public settings. Everyone, regardless of vaccination status, must wear a mask in all indoor public settings according to the updated guideline, set to begin at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021.

11:45 a.m.
San Francisco temporarily tightens vaccine, indoor masking requirements
San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced Wednesday a updated vaccine and indoor masking requirements due to the surge of the omicron variant, effective February 1, 2022.

The changes include:
1) Requiring boosters among workers in healthcare and high-risk settings as well as some additional higher-risk settings not covered by the State requirements
2) A temporary suspension of the indoor universal mask exemption that allowed removal of masks for stable groups of 100% fully vaccinated individuals in certain settings
3) Attendees and staff of indoor megaevents are up-to-date on vaccinations, including boosters if eligible

In addition, San Francisco Department of Public Health plans to align its guidance on the quarantine with the recently announced modifications recommended by the CDC and California Department of Public Health.

10 a.m.
Alameda and Marin counties update indoor masking mandate
Marin County, Alameda County and the city of Berkeley announced that their health officers are rescinding the facemask amendments allowing fully vaccinated people to go unmasked in some limited settings, effective 12:01 am on December 30, 2021. Everyone, regardless of their vaccination status, must mask in all indoor public settings. This change does not impact face masking requirements for school and youth settings.

5:10 a.m.
Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose offers free passes to vaccinated guests
Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose is offering to help families get vaccinated and visit the museum for free. It’s happening this Sunday, January 2, and on the 23. All you have to do is show up on one of those dates, get vaccinated, and the museum will give you a free museum pass. You can use it the day you’re vaccinated or anytime within 6-months.

Dec. 28, 2021

2:45 p.m.
Contra Costa Co. updates indoor masking mandate
Contra Costa County health officials announced a new order requiring masks in all public indoor places without exceptions for certain indoor settings. The order, which goes into effect on Dec. 29, 2021, now requires all people in Contra Costa, regardless of vaccination status, to mask in public indoor settings.

Previously, fully vaccinated public speakers and performers, and fully vaccinated groups of 100 or fewer people were allowed to remove their face coverings under controlled conditions.

10:30 a.m.
Santa Clara Co. updates vaccination requirement for high-risk work settings
Santa Clara Co. health officials issued a health order requiring up-to-date COVID-19 vaccination for workers in certain higher-risk settings in light of the rapid surge in cases due to the omicron variant.

Under the new order, by Jan. 24, 2022, workers must be up-to-date on their vaccination (both fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 if eligible for a booster) in these higher-risk settings:

• Skilled nursing facilities, long-term care facilities, adult day care facilities, and memory care facilities

• Healthcare delivery facilities (such as hospitals, clinics, medical offices, dialysis centers) where patient care is provided, as well as medical first responders

• Jails and other correctional facilities

5:30 a.m.
Contra Costa Co. mandates booster shots for first responders
Contra Costa County has mandated booster shots for first responders and other at-risk workers. The order will take effect on January 10. Workers who don’t get the booster shot will have to test weekly for COVID. The mandate covers law enforcement officers, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel as well as workers in homeless shelters.

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MILPITAS (CBS SF) – The Milpitas Unified School District said Sunday school students can return to virtual learning for at least the coming week as the Omicron variant of COVID-19 continues to hamper the districts in the Bay Area that try to reopen to get the latest updates after the holidays.

The superintendent’s office released a statement stating: “During the week of January 10-14, MUSD school sites will be open for personal learning to meet the needs of our community. For parents / carers who care about the health and safety of their students, you can choose our independent study program, short or long term. “

The statement encouraged families to contact their school principal for more information on self-study.

The statement also states: “After consulting the Santa Clara County Office of Education, we learned that we cannot offer a ‘district-wide quarantine’ as stated in our Friday notice. Community quarantines can be declared by the district health authority.

“In order for us to contain the rise in COVID cases among students and staff, everyone must follow safety protocols for masking, vaccination, or refresher when authorized and available.”

“We have to find ways to live together and live with COVID. We are two years under our belt and have learned a lot, ”said Dr. Sara Cody, Santa Clara County Health Officer. “We have learned that in-person learning is what they need and distance learning does not benefit their mental health, emotional health and academic well-being.”

Other school districts in the Bay Area were motivated to avoid returning to distance learning.

The San Francisco Unified School District says it has distributed more than 50,000 COVID-19 tests in one week and will distribute more in the coming weeks.

“We are committed to keeping schools open as long as it is safe to do, and the Department of Health said that with our safety protocols, schools continue to remain low-risk environments,” said SFUSD spokeswoman Laura Dudnick.

The West Contra Costa Unified School District was able to close the school for two days from Friday by moving the non-teaching days in the academic calendar and will remain closed on Monday.

Tests at the district’s locations will be available again on Monday before schools reopen on Tuesday. WCCUSD hopes this long weekend will not only give them time to thoroughly clean their schools, but also allow students and staff to recover from COVID infections.

Milpitas Unified said families still concerned about sending students to school in their district can now conduct independent study for their children now that there will be no quarantine.

© Copyright 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report

The post Milpitas Faculties Provide On-line Studying Amid Omicron Surge – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

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The post Omicron Surge Not Mirrored in Bay Space Hospitalizations – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Previously, San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, and Alameda counties had allowed people in offices, gyms, and religious meeting rooms such as churches to remove their masks, provided they were all fully vaccinated.

The counties had negotiated with the state to maintain these exemptions after California reintroduced a universal mask mandate earlier this month.

But with data clearly showing that omicron infects vaccinated people in significant numbers, the exceptions are now gone. The new orders of the districts come into force on Thursday at 12:01 p.m.

“When we see numbers like this, it is time to act,” said Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County Health Officer.

Contra Costa County took a similar move on Tuesday to lift the mask exemption. All nine Bay Area counties are now fully aligned with the California indoor mandate.

Fully vaccinated people are at greater risk of contagion than ever before in the pandemic. In California, the number of cases for fully vaccinated people for the week ending December 19 was 13.6 cases per 100,000 and 70.5 cases per 100,000 unvaccinated people. Just a month earlier, the weekly averages were 5.4 per 100,000 for the vaccinated and 38.4 per 100,000 for the unvaccinated.

And the latest rates are before omicron invaded Christmas gatherings and triggered infection rates even higher. In Sonoma County, Dr. Sundari Mase 40% of New Cases where Source of Infection is Known Due to Holiday Gatherings the Cause.

San Francisco reported its highest single-day case count on Tuesday – 805, according to state data and Chronicle analysis, which tends to deviate slightly from the city’s official numbers.

The actual numbers are certainly higher since many people do antigen tests at home and do not report the results.

According to Dr. Ori Tzvieli, Contra Costa County’s public health director, hospitals are still not overwhelmed, but they are getting more calls.

“What worries me is that in two to three weeks there will be even more people with COVID,” he said.

Dr. Karen Relucio, Napa County’s health officer, said hospital admissions so far have been stable and manageable. “We have good capacities. We are not at the highest level we have ever seen,” she said.

Dr. Caesar Djavaherian, co-founder of San Francisco-based care provider Carbon Health, said his company’s clinics typically see 40 to 50 patients a day, but now about double that – and most of that is COVID.

“Clinics are being overrun,” he said. “The wave is real.”

When asked about the mood among health care providers in the Bay Area, he said, “It’s 100% exhaustion.” Not only are health care providers dealing with potential exposures or infections in their own families, but they are also seeing a flood of patients.

Health workers are trained to prioritize patients, but it “wears you down as a provider,” said Djavaherian, adding, “The stress out there, especially for health workers, is incredibly high.”

Experts urged people to take as many precautions as possible – getting vaccinated, freshened up, wearing masks, only gathering in small groups, and doing rapid tests beforehand – though a lack of testing obviously makes it difficult and the tests aren’t foolproof either accurately identify in relation to positive cases.

“At this point where Omicron is soaring, I wouldn’t recommend New Years Eve celebrations unless they’re small,” said Dr. Sara Cody, Santa Clara County Health Officer. “Small, intimate gatherings are the right way to bring this New Year together. It is not the time to go to a big gathering. “

Mase from Sonoma County went even further. She recommended that those who are not vaccinated avoid holiday gatherings and travel. For those vaccinated and unvaccinated who choose to meet, she recommended well-fitting masks for all – and not cloth masks.

Dr. Bob Wachter, chairman of UCSF’s medical division, said on a Twitter thread on Wednesday that things are tough now but significant improvements could be made.

“At the beginning of February we could be in a place where Covid is actually ‘like the flu’ which significantly lowers your risk,” he wrote – although he added that it was by no means safe.

The Chronicle’s authors, Erin Allday and Nami Sumida, contributed to this report.

Kate Galbraith is a contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: kgalbraith@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kategalbraith

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