Please see the complete weekly update on the EBGTZ website and highlights below. Click here to download the PDF version.
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Alameda County has released a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the Ending the HIV Epidemic $20k 4-month innovation grants due on September 18. Bidders conferences will be held on August 11 and 12. RSVP here. For more information, click here.
Protecting Immigrant Families has updated the Public Charge: What Advocates Need to Know Fact Sheet. People applying for lawful permanent resident (LPR) or “green card” status should be reassured that health, housing and nutrition benefits will not factor into their applications right now with the New York District Court’s injunction. Testing, prevention, or treatment for COVID-19 will NOT be used against immigrants in a public charge test. The California Health and Human Services Agency has also released updated statements on the public charge rule in English and Spanish.
Strategic planning workshop on Friday, September 11th, 10am-11:30am: Save the date for this virtual workshop on the East Bay Getting to Zero and Ending the HIV Epidemic 5-year strategy. Registration and Zoom details will be sent next week and posted on our website.
East Bay Covid-19 updates
We are entering our seventh month of the pandemic. Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano Counties continue to be on the California State Data Monitoring List due to persistently elevated COVID-19 cases, defined as having more than 100 new cases per 100,000 people over 14 days. Case numbers for this week after undercounted due to a statewide electronic lab reporting problem, and numbers will need to be corrected. Hospital data is not impacted. Trends prior to the data glitch suggest a stabilization in July at high case rates after 2 months of increases.
Reopening has paused in the East Bay. Schools may not reopen for in-person learning until the county has been off the Monitoring List for two weeks. The State has issued a waiver process for elementary schools in counties with improved indicators, but it is unclear if any East Bay counties will apply.
The transmission rate (Re) based on hospital data using the LEMMA model is estimated to be 1.02, down from 1.2 in mid-June.
This week Alameda County approved an extension on the county-wide eviction moratorium, a rental assistance program to serve 300 people, a $10 million financial assistance program providing $1,250 stipends for people who have Covid-19 living in the most highly impacted zip codes. On August 6, Health Care Services Agency will launch a newly designed Covid-19 website.
Contra Costa County: 117.7 cases (undercount) per 100,000 people over the past 14 days; last week’s case rate was 130. There is a total of 8,176 reported cases and 131 deaths.
Solano County: 141.8 cases (undercount) per 100,000 people over the past 14 days; last week’s case rate was 159. There is a total of 3,806 reported cases and 38 deaths.
'They Know What A Pandemic Is': HIV Survivors See Similarities To AIDS Epidemic. 4-minute audio recording and article on NPR describes how people living with HIV have used their experience and resilience with the HIV epidemic as a strength during the Covid-19 pandemic.
An NPR/Ipsos poll of 1,115 US adults found broad support for a single, national strategy to address the pandemic and more aggressive measures to contain it. 76% of respondents support enacting state laws to require mask wearing in public at all times and nearly 60% said they would support a nationwide order making it mandatory to shelter at home for two weeks.
Health Officer Dr. Bela Matyas said in the SF Chronicle that 95% of all cases reported in Solano County over the past three weeks were tied to social gatherings, such as birthday parties, weddings and funerals at parks and in homes.
If everyone wears a mask whenever with others, we can control this pandemic and significantly reduce cases and deaths within 6 weeks.
PAETC’s Using Harm Reduction to Address Racial Equity in Healthcare webinar has been rescheduled for Friday, August 28th from 11:30 am – 12:30 pm. The speakers include Monique Tula, Executive Director of the Harm Reduction Coalition and Braunz E. Courtney, Executive Director of HEPPAC. Learn more and register here.
Poster on overcoming barriers to rapid ART: EBGTZ, Alameda Health Consortium and Alameda Health System presented this abstract at AIDS2020. To see the poster and listen to the audio presentation, click here.
Paid professional development opportunity: UCSF’s Preterm Birth Initiative is launching the second cohort of Benioff Community Innovators in October 2020 in Oakland. This Research Justice Workforce Development Program will work with community scholars to research issues related to Black and Brown preterm birth and use those findings to create policy and change that will affect the birth outcomes in Oakland. For more information, click here.
You can always go to the EBGTZ website for the detailed updates (usually posted Wednesday evenings). Please follow and share our Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Thank you for all that you do for our communities!
Sophy and Yamini
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Sophy S. Wong, MD, Director
Yamini Oseguera-Bhatnagar, Program Manager East Bay Getting to Zero ***
Below are highlighted images from this week’s update
