Bay Area COVID-19 Roundup: Officials Greenlight Moderna Vaccine Use Again; Schwarzenegger Says 'Come With Me If You Want To Live!'
CBS San Francisco Staff Report
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- With a surge in coronavirus cases, the information you need to know is coming fast and furious. Here's a roundup of the COVID stories we've published over the last 24 hours.
Former Gov. Schwarzenegger Gets Dose, Says 'Come With Me If You Want To Live!'
LOS ANGELES -- Former California Governor and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger reprised a couple famous lines of dialog before and after receiving a dose of the COVID vaccine Wednesday. The former governor posted video on his Twitter account that showed him receiving the shot at the Dodgers Stadium vaccination site in Los Angeles. He actually touched on a couple of moments from his film career in the brief video. "Put that needle down!" he jokingly said as received the shot, referring to another famous line from the Christmas movie "Jingle All the Way" when he tells Phil Hartman's character, "Put that cookie down, NOW!" After thanking the woman who administered the shot, Schwarzenegger addressed the camera directly and delivered one of his famous bits from "Terminator 2: Judgement Day." Read More
Bay Area Doctors Hopeful For Urgent Action On Pandemic From Biden Administration
SAN FRANCISCO -- Action on the COVID-19 pandemic from President Joe Biden can't come soon enough for Bay Area doctors, as California faces issues with its vaccine rollout and a new threat from a variant of the coronavirus.Hours after his inauguration at the U.S. Capitol, Mr. Biden signed a series of executive orders, including three concerning the pandemic. Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at UCSF, is thrilled. "I think an alignment of science and politics is one huge thing that we are looking forward to, because we should all be speaking the same message. And we often haven't in the last few months," he told KPIX 5 via Zoom on Inauguration Day. Dr. Monica Gandhi, also from UCSF, said it's a breath of fresh air to have the science of the pandemic accepted by the new administration. "It feels like you've been yelling into the wind, and suddenly the wind stopped and you're speaking calmly and it's all being heard," she said. Read More
CDPH Says Moderna Batch Under Scrutiny Safe, 'No Scientific Basis' To Pause Distribution
SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) –--ID-19 vaccine that faced scrutiny over reports of allergic reactions. In a statement Wednesday night, state epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan said providers can resume distribution of doses from lot 41L20A. Pan said a review of the evidence by health experts, regulators, the FDA and CDC, along with the manufacturer "found no scientific basis to continue the pause." CDPH ordered the pause after seven people who received their shots at a vaccination clinic in San Diego County reported adverse reactions. In response, health officials in the Bay Area and across California held back doses from the batch in question, or notified patients who were given the doses. Read More
San Francisco Aims To Vaccinate All Residents By June Despite Current Shortage
SAN FRANCISCO -- Health officials in San Francisco on Wednesday said the city intends to vaccinate virtually every resident in the city by June in spite of vaccine dose supply limitations. According to San Francisco Health Network CEO Roland Pickens, at least 28,501 residents in the city have received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine as of Tuesday. Most of those vaccine recipients are health care workers and nursing home workers and residents, according to Pickens. However, that figure does not include vaccinations administered by Kaiser Permanente or Sutter Health, both of which report aggregated vaccination data to the state rather than per-county figures. Regardless, Pickens said Wednesday during a special hearing of the Board of Supervisors' Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee, an average of roughly 3,000 vaccine doses are being administered in San Francisco daily. The city would have to reach at least 10,000 per day to meet its June target of full vaccination. Read More
SF Supes Hopeful Biden Administration Will Address Chaotic Vaccine Rollout
SAN FRANCISCO -- A quorum of San Francisco Supervisors held an emergency meeting Wednesday to discuss the city's vaccine rollout. They said the effort thus far has been marred by confusion, and a lack of vaccine. They also expressed a lot of optimism. "I know that with the coordination, the ability of the President to invoke the War Powers Act, we will accelerate the increase of vaccinations," said District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí. "And that's why we need to be 100 percent ready." 'Help is on the way' has become a familiar call over the past several weeks, from elected officials and health care professionals alike. "Yeah, one thing that's going to really help is the new administration is going to take responsibility for running things much better," UC Berkeley Dr. John Swartzberg said last Friday. Expectations are high, but like turning the proverbial aircraft carrier, it will be a slow and deliberate task. So what can the administration do right away? Read More
Walnut Creek Approves $1M In Grants For Struggling Restaurants
WALNUT CREEK -- Calling the move more of a life preserver than a lifeboat, the Walnut Creek City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a grant program to help keep local restaurants afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic until they can again host on-premises diners. Full-service restaurants can now apply for grants of up to $10,000, and bars and restaurants considered "limited-service" or "fast casual" can receive up to $5,000 to help pay for rent, payroll, improvements and winterization of outdoor dining areas, construction of takeout windows and COVID-19-related indoor improvements. The council had discussed the program's basics in mid-December, but a key change made since then was to fund the program with $1 million from the city's general fund, rather than the $500,000 originally planned. The bigger cash infusion, Assistant City Manager Teri Killgore said, is to help more restaurants, not to give the same number of restaurants each more money. "It's not going to save any one restaurant, but given our good fortune with some year-end savings, it seemed like the responsible thing to do what we could to help our businesses," Killgore said. Read More
L452R COVID-19 Variant Identified in Monterey County
MONTEREY -- Monterey County health officials recently learned that the L452R coronavirus variant of COVID-19 was identified locally following a genomic sequencing investigation by the California Department of Public Health, county officials said this week. The L452R variant, which has also been dubbed the "California variant" for its role in recent outbreaks, is different from the B.1.1.7 variant that was first detected in the United Kingdom. The L452R variant was first found in Denmark last year and has been identified in other states as well. The variant has, to date, been identified in at least 12 counties across the state, including San Francisco and Santa Clara counties. According to the Monterey County Health Department, the L452R variant has also appeared in the state more frequently since November. Read More
President Biden to Issue 17 Executive Actions On COVID, Climate Change, Immigration and More
WASHINGTON -- On his first day in office, President-elect Joe Biden signed 17 executive actions — 15 will be executive orders, some of which will reverse decisions made by his predecessor, President Trump. The executive actions made changes to the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic and try to ease some of the financial strain placed on Americans resulting from the pandemic. But other executive actions directly target and undo Mr. Trump's actions on the environment, immigration, the U.S. census, and regulatory changes. Biden signed the executive actions in the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon, incoming White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday night. <a href="Read More
Other Trending COVID-19 Stories
Mayor London Breed Says San Francisco Public Health Will Run Out Of Doses By Thursday
SAN FRANCISCO -- Mayor London Breed on Tuesday said that the San Francisco Department of Public Health would run out of its current supply of COVID vaccine doses in two days during her update on the city's response to the pandemic. The mayor said that San Francisco is still seeing 333 new cases per day, but the case numbers seem to be increasing at a slower rate, with the reproductive rate at 1.06 but gradually inching down. "Most importantly, more and more people are getting vaccinated every single day, especially our seniors who are the most vulnerable to getting sick and dying from COVID" said Breed. "This should give us all some very real hope. It's going to be a long road, but the road will begin to lighten." Breed went on to outline some of the progress the city has made as far as administering the COVID vaccine to San Francisco residents. Read More
'Rays Of Hope;' COVID Surge Flattening, Rate Of Transmission Declining, Says California Health Secretary Ghaly
SACRAMENTO -- California is beginning to see a flattening in COVID data, including hospitalization rates, positivity rates and the rate of transmission, according to the state's top health officials. During his weekly news conference, Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said both hospitalization rates and ICU rates have decreased over the last two weeks, and noted the state's 7-day testing positivity rate (9.9%) is now lower than the 14-day average positivity rate (11.6%). Since January 5, not only has the 14-day positivity rate itself dropped nearly 9%, but the state also saw an 8.5 % decrease in hospitalizations, currently at 20,262. ICU rates have also dropped 2.8% over the last seven days to 4,693. California reported 23,794 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, also well below the 7-day average of 35,669 cases. Three million Californians have tested positive for the coronavirus - the most of any state - resulting in 33,739 deaths in the state as of Tuesday. Read More
San Mateo Health Officer Urges Patience Amid Rollout - 'Hang In There'
SAN MATEO COUNTY -- The health officer in San Mateo County urged patience among county residents for the COVID-19 vaccine, as local hospitals continue to be strained by the ongoing surge in cases. In a lengthy statement detailing the state of the pandemic on the Peninsula, Health Officer Dr. Scott Morrow said Tuesday case rates and deaths are 10 times higher than they were back in September and October, before the current surge. "Hospitals are bursting at the seams, and they are perilously close to breaking. When the health care system gets to this point, care can be compromised for everyone, irrespective of whether you are worried about COVID or not," Morrow said. As of Tuesday, there have been 32,596 COVID-19 cases in San Mateo County since the start of the pandemic, and 309 people in the county have died. Currently there are 181 people in the county hospitalized with COVID-19, 44 in the ICU. The county has 3 ICU beds available and 88 ICU surge beds. Read More
