San Francisco Bay Area COVID Roundup: New Cases May Overwhelm Santa Clara Hospitals; Newsom Child Under Quarantine; Stanford-WSU Game Canceled
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.
San Francisco Braces For Move Into Purple Tier And Wave Of Renewed Restrictions
SAN FRANCISCO -- The San Francisco Health Department says the city is in the middle of a dramatic surge - cases are rising faster than ever. The numbers have quadrupled over the past few days. "SF is in the red tier and not immediately impacted by the order," said SF Public Health Department Director Dr. Grant Colfax. "However, our trajectory could have us in the purple tier as early as Sunday. At that point we will need to abide by the shelter-in-place order." UC San Francisco said its COVID admissions on Thursday were double the average. "Even though we were doing really well, it's only a matter of time before we catch up," said UCSF Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Peter Chin-Hong. "There's been increasing travel the week before Thanksgiving, there were the political celebrations, all these things make it such that our numbers are going up." Read More
Pared-Back Pandemic Feasts Goose Demand for Tiny Turkeys
BERKELEY -- Not only will there be fewer people around Thanksgiving tables this year, COVID-19 has also spurred a demand for downsized turkeys. Smaller birds are almost sold out everywhere as people and businesses adjust to Thanksgiving during a pandemic. "The one consistent thing about the pandemic is that it keeps changing," said Amy Murray, owner and chef of Revival Bar & Kitchen in Berkeley. Since the pandemic began in March, Murray has overhauled her restaurant repeatedly, from take-out only to building a parklet outside to offering Thanksgiving dinner to go. The best seller this year is the half turkeys. "Not everyone wants to cook. Families will be smaller and not everyone will be coming home and traveling this year," Murray said. Read More
Gov. Newsom's Child Quarantined for Possible COVID-19 Exposure
SACRAMENTO -- One of Gov. Gavin Newsom's children may have been exposed to the coronavirus at school and is in quarantine, a spokesman said Friday. The child began a 14-day quarantine "from the date of exposure" after the family was told a classmate at the private school had tested positive for COVID-19, Nathan Click said in an emailed statement. The rest of the governor's family is not quarantining because they weren't directly exposed. "The family has taken the potential exposure seriously and is following all state protocols," Click said. The governor, his wife and all four of their children have tested negative for the virus, Click said. He didn't identify the child who was in quarantine. Read More
California Health Care Experts Plan for Distribution of COVID-19 Vaccine When Available
SAN FRANCISCO -- With COVID-19 cases surging, an extended evening curfew and California counties now mostly all in the purple tier, there is pandemic fatigue but also hope. While Californians continue to socially distance, wear masks and practice good hand-washing hygiene, the focus is shifting to promising reports of progress toward approval of an FDA-approved coronavirus vaccine. "If it happens on Thanksgiving Day, it happens on Thanksgiving Day but we'll be ready to go," remarked Stanford University professor Dr. Yvonne Maldonado. Early Friday, Pfizer applied for emergency approval for its COVID-19 vaccine. A large team of medical officers and compliance experts are now poring over piles of data, not yet made public, which detail the vaccine's safety and effectiveness. Soon, experts in California get to dig in. Read More
Bay Area Residents Brace For Early Shutdown Under New Order
WALNUT CREEK -- With the state's COVID curfew set to take effect at 10 p.m. Saturday evening, on Friday many Bay Area residents were expressing frustrations with pandemic fatigue and skepticism over the governor's plan. The curfew that is different from the stay at home order that was issued by California health officials last spring. This latest order specifically applies to counties in the state's most restrictive purple tier according to California's Blueprint for a Safe Economy website. 41 of the 58 counties in California are currently in the purple tier. That means the curfew applies for about 95 percent of state residents, including all of the Bay Area except for San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo counties that are in the less restrictive red tier. Read More
Testing Demand Grows Before Thanksgiving As Bay Area Health Official Urges No Travel, Gatherings
OAKLAND -- The demand for COVID-19 testing is spiking less than a week away from Thanksgiving. Many people said they want to get tested before hopping on a flight and spending time with family. But one county public health director said that's a bad idea. "I decided to get tested today because I am visiting my family next week for Thanksgiving. And my mom's older, she's a senior citizen. And I just wanted to make sure that I am taking all the precautions I can," said Katrina Cameron. Cameron will be flying down to San Diego next week. She thought about cancelling, but worried rising COVID-19 cases could lead to more travel restrictions later. "And then, I thought 'what if it gets worse and then I don't even have the option to travel?'" Cameron said. Read More
Stanford Game Against WSU Canceled After Players Test Positive For COVID
STANFORD -- The Pac-12 conference canceled Saturday's football game between Stanford and Washington State universities weeks after WSU players tested positive for COVID-19. The Pac-12 announced its decision Friday afternoon, stating that the canceled game would be counted as a "no contest." "This decision was made under the Pac-12's football game cancellation policy due to Washington State not having the minimum number of scholarship players available for the game as a result of a number of positive football student-athlete COVID-19 cases and resulting isolation of additional football student-athletes under contact tracing protocols," a statement from Pac-12 read. Read More
How Will COVID Impact Black Friday Sales? Stores 'Significantly Scaling Back,' Expert Says
SAN FRANCISCO -- COVID-19 will have a drastic effect on Black Friday this year, much as it has on everything else. Some of those effects can already be seen in the expanded holiday shopping season, which has been going on since mid-October. Other effects will become more evident over the long Thanksgiving weekend. Once upon a time, Black Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving, marked the beginning of the holiday shopping season. The name is derived from the day retailers see their balance sheets turn from red to black. According to Jie Zhang, Professor of Marketing and Retail Management at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, "the legend was that retailers work their heads off for much of the year, and it's only the beginning of the holiday shopping season, that is, the Friday after Thanksgiving, that they turn black. So they turn red to black, meaning that this is first day they're going to start to making profits. Obviously, it's by no means precise." Read More
New COVID-19 Rules Threaten California's October Job Gains
SACRAMENTO -- California's beleaguered restaurant and hospitality industry rebounded in October, adding 66,000 jobs as the unemployment rate in the nation's most populous state dipped below 10% for the first time since the pandemic upended its economy in March. But the gains are likely to be short-lived as a surge of cases has already prompted new restrictions on businesses, including forcing most restaurants to halt indoor dining during the cold and rainy winter months. Starting Saturday, the state will enforce a 10 p.m. curfew that could further curtail people's leisure spending. "With the renewed lockdowns, these jobs are in peril now," said Michael Bernick, an attorney and former director of California's Employment Development Department. California Labor Secretary Julie Su said the rise in newly reported coronavirus cases is a reminder "how our economy is tied to the ongoing public health crisis." Read More
Stanford Faculty Condemn Hoover Institution Fellow, Trump COVID-19 Advisor Dr. Scott Atlas - 'An Embarrassment To The University'
STANFORD -- Members of Stanford University's faculty senate approved a measure condemning Hoover Institution fellow Dr. Scott Atlas for his work advising President Donald Trump on the COVID-19 pandemic, with one member calling his actions "an embarrassment to the university." According to a university statement, 85% of the senate membership approved the measure, which called Atlas' behavior "anathema to our community, our values and our belief that we should use knowledge for good." Atlas, who was appointed to the Trump administration in August, has made several controversial statements about the coronavirus, including criticizing lockdowns and restrictions in response to the pandemic, downplaying mask use, and claiming that only those who are vulnerable need protection from the virus. Read More
California Health Officials Concerned Over Rise in Severe Gonorrhea Cases
SACRAMENTO -- State health officials warned Friday that doctors are seeing increasing cases of a severe form of gonorrhea across the state, which they blame on patients not seeking treatment during the COVID pandemic. The California Department of Public Health reported on Friday that over the past few months, it's "received reports of a severe form of gonorrhea called disseminated gonococcal infections (DGI), which is an uncommon, but significant complication of untreated gonorrhea." These cases could cause trouble for a health system already being overwhelmed with the COVID-19 pandemic. "As an infectious disease and public health physician, I am very concerned that we are seeing completely preventable complications of sexually transmitted disease (STD) infections that went undiagnosed and untreated, likely due to people not seeking care or getting routine testing during the COVID-19 pandemic," acting State Public Health Officer Dr. Erica Pan said. Read More
'Not Trying To Be Punitive;' Oakland Mayor Schaaf Focusing COVID Curfew Enforcement On Businesses
OAKLAND -- Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said residents and businesses should heed California's stay-at-home order but downplayed concerns about individual enforcement, saying authorities will be mainly focusing on establishments violating the order. Schaaf told CBSN Bay Area Friday that she appreciates the state putting an emphasis on pausing gatherings over the next month, and says the order is not seeking to punish people. "This is a year like none other in that large family gatherings, social occasions, we've got to wait until 2021 for all those fun things. And I know that the state is not trying to be punitive. They are trying to send a clear message. That is certainly how we're taking it," said Schaaf. Read More
COVID Surge: Colfax Warns San Francisco Edging Towards Purple Tier And State-Mandated Curfew
SAN FRANCISCO -- A local health official warned on Friday that the latest spike in COVID-19 cases is edging San Francisco towards the purple tier, where the city could end up by the weekend. San Francisco Public Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax was speaking during the latest update on the city's response to the coronavirus pandemic Friday afternoon. While San Francisco currently remains outside of the area impacted by the state-ordered curfew, that could change if cases continue to rise. "SF is in the red tier and not immediately impacted by the order. However, our trajectory could have us in the purple tier as early as Sunday," explained Colfax. "At that point we will need to abide by the shelter-in-place order." He noted that San Francisco's case numbers had quadrupled over the past few days. Read More