Please see the complete weekly update on the EBGTZ website and highlights below. Click here to download the PDF version.
This Friday! TheEast Bay HIV Strategic Planning workshop will be held on Friday, September 11, 10-11:30 am. Help us determine the strategic and funding priorities for Ending the HIV Epidemic.
Starting in October, these HIV+COVID-19 updates will move to a bi-weekly schedule.
The East Bay experienced dark orange skies due to wildfire smoke blowing in from the Bear Fire near Chico. On Wednesday morning, parts of the East Bay were protected by a marine layer of cleaner air, but once that breaks we may experience poorer air quality. To check your local air quality rating, visit AirNow.
East Bay COVID-19 updates
COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the East Bay have started to slowly trend downward. Current estimated transmission rates are 0.91 in Alameda County, 0.87 in Contra Costa County, and 0.83 in Solano County, compared to 0.87 statewide. Our goal is to keep the transmission rate less than 1 so that cases continue to decrease.
Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano Counties remain in the purple tier for widespread COVID-19 in California’s Blueprint to Safer Reopening for having more than 7 new cases per 100,000 people per day, but not for test positivity rates. All 3 counties have positivity rates below 8%. The state updates the tiers weekly using data from the previous week.
Being in the purple tier means that most non-essential indoor operations must remain closed. Each county can move into the next lower tier when it consistently has fewer than 7 new cases per day per 100,000 residents and a test positivity rate below 8%. CA also plans to add a health equity indicator that has not yet been announced.
Alameda County:
7.8 new cases of COVID-19 per day per 100,000 residents.
Upcoming COVID-19 community testing events in Oakland
The Resilient Fruitvale Task Force is hosting two days of free mass testing September 12-13 for people living in the 94601 zip code as part of the Sanando Juntos campaign. Please check this website for updates on the schedule based on air quality safety. Testing will take place 9-5 pm in the La Clínica de La Raza parking lot at 35th Avenue and E. 12th Street. People are encouraged to register here but will not be turned away if they don’t register. If you are interested in volunteering, please sign up here.
New studies and vaccine updates
1 in 5 Californians knows someone who died of COVID-19; Black, Latinx and low-income Californians are disproportionately impacted: In a bilingual survey conducted in August by the California Health Care Foundation with 1,209 representative people interviewed, 28% of Black residents, 29% of Latinx residents, and 26% of low-income people reported that they know someone who died of COVID-19 while 10% of White Californians did. Black, Latinx, Asian and “liberal” respondents were more likely to support stricter shelter-in-place rules if they allowed workplaces and schools to reopen sooner or prevented more deaths.
On Tuesday 9/8, nine drug companies pledged to “stand with science” and not release a coronavirus vaccine until it met rigorous safety and efficacy standards. The companies banded together in an effort to reassure the public that they would not bow to pressure to prematurely rush out a vaccine.
In an outbreak on an Argentinean cruise ship where passengers and staff were given masks, 81% of infected people never developed symptoms, compared to 18% of unmasked passengers who became infected on a Diamond Princess cruise ship. In two recent outbreaks at an Oregon seafood processing plant and an Arkansas chicken plant where all workers were issued and required to wear masks, more than 500 people became infected but 95% never developed symptoms and the remaining 5% had only mild-to-moderate symptoms.
Job Opportunity: Wellpath is seeking a 0.2 FTE Physician to care for patients living with HIV at Santa Rita jail. Learn more here.
Webinar: The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has changed in-person family planning services. Join a webinar led by UCSF’s Dr. Michael Policar focused on these changes and the Medi-Cal/Family PACT policy for telephonic-only remote visits. The webinar Providing Family PACT Services During COVID-19: Understanding Benefit Changes will take place on Thursday, Sept. 17, 12-1:30 PST.
Virtual celebration: On September 7th, the Oakland LGBTQ Center celebrated their 3rd anniversary and new clinic naming ceremony. Check out all that Oakland LGBTQ center has to offer via their website.
Newsletter: California Department of Public Health - Office of AIDS’ September 2020 newsletter OAVoice is here.
You are always welcome to go to the EBGTZ website for detailed updates (usually posted Wednesday evenings). Please follow and share our Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts.
We hope to see you on Friday. 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
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