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The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint
• Thursday, april 21, 2022
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COVID-19 UPDATES HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES AGENCY PUBLIC HEAL TH SERVICES
LIMITED ORDER OF THE HEALTH OFFICER (Effective June 15, 2021) On June 15, 2021, the Blueprint for a Safer Economy will be rescinded. Persons and entities may still be subject to Cal OSHA and California Department of Public Health guidelines and standards with limited public health restrictions, including face coverings, school based guidance, and guidance for mega events. The California Public Health Officer has issued an order to be effective June 15, 2021, and available here: https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/ CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/Order-ofthe-State-Public-Health-Officer-BeyondBlueprint.aspx. The California Public Health Officer has also issued updated face covering guidance effective June 15, 2021, and available here: https://www. cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/ COVID-19/guidance-for-face-coverings. aspx#June15guidance. In San Diego County, persons who have been diagnosed with COVID-19, or who are likely to have COVID-19, will be subject to the Order of the Health Officer titled: “Isolation of All Persons with or Likely to have COVID-19,” or as subsequently amended. Persons who have a close contact with a person who either has COVID19, or is likely to have COVID-19, will be subject to the Order of the Health Officer titled: “Quarantine of Persons Exposed to COVID-19,” or as subsequently amended. Both orders are available at: https://www. sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/hhsa/ programs/phs/community_epidemiology/ dc/2019-nCoV/health-order.html. Subsequent Health Officer Orders related to the COVID-19 pandemic may be issued in San Diego County as conditions warrant. Pursuant to California Health and Safety Code sections 101040, 120175, and 120175.5 (b), the Health Officer of the County of San Diego (Health Officer) ORDERS AS FOLLOWS: • Effective June 15, 2021, the Order of the Health Officer and Emergency Regulations,
dated May 6, 2021, and any other Health Officer orders related to COVID-19 shall expire, with the exception of the following: a.“Isolation of All Persons with or Likely to have COVID-19,” dated December 24, 2020. b.“Quarantine of Persons Exposed to COVID-19,” dated April 5, 2021. c. Any quarantine or isolation order issued to an individual that is currently in effect. 2. Pursuant to Health and Safety Code section 120175.5 (b), all governmental entities in the county shall continue to take necessary measures within the governmental entity’s control to ensure compliance with State and local laws, regulations, and orders related to the control of COVID-19. IT IS SO ORDERED: Date: June 14, 2021 WILMA J. WOOTEN, M.D., M.P.H. Public Health Officer County of San Diego ___________________________________ EXPIRATION OF EMERGENCY REGULATIONS As Director of Emergency Services for the County of San Diego, I am authorized to promulgate regulations for the protection of life and property pursuant to Government Code Section 8634 and San Diego County Code section 31.103. The Health Officer Order and Emergency Regulations, dated May 6, 2021, shall expire as a regulation for the protection of life and property, on June 15, 2021. Date: June 14, 2021 HELEN ROBBINS-MEYER Chief Administrative Officer Director of Emergency Services County of San Diego
CDC Extends Travel Mask Requirement To May 3 As COVID Rises By Zeke Miller and David Koenig Associated Press
“In order to assess the potential impact the rise of cases has on severe disease, including hospitalizations and deaths, and health care system capacity, the CDC order will remain in place at this time,” the agency said in a statement. When the Transportation Security Administration, which enforces the rule for planes, buses, trains and transit hubs, extended the requirement last month, it said the CDC had been hoping to roll out a more flexible masking strategy that would have replaced the
Voice & Viewpoint Newswire
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searing report released by the Black Coalition Against COVID details the immense toll the Covid19 pandemic has taken — and continues to take — on Black communities, and calls for continued vigilance and action to prevent further losses even as the rest of the nation is eager to move on. The report’s authors — physicians and public health and policy experts — note with alarm that even as case rates began to fall sharply across the country earlier this year, the Covid-19 hospitalization rate for Black people was higher than it had been at any time during the pandemic for any racial or ethnic group.
“The juxtaposition — that for some, the pandemic is over, yet the hospitalization rate for Black people is higher than it’s ever been — is stark.” –Marcella Nunez-Smith
For the week ending Jan. 8, 2022, the hospitalization rate for Black Americans was 64 per 100,000 — more than twice the overall rate. Rates for all Americans have since fallen, though they remain much higher for Black people. “The juxtaposition — that for some, the pandemic is over, yet the hospitalization rate for Black people is higher than it’s ever been — is stark,” said Marcella Nunez-Smith, an associate dean and professor of internal medicine, public health, and management at Yale University who chaired President Biden’s Covid-19 Health Equity Task Force. The report details the massive disparities experienced by Black Americans. These include: • Older Black Americans (between 65-74) were five times more likely to die than white Americans.
The Biden administration announced Wednesday, April 13, that it is extending the nationwide mask requirement for airplanes and public transit for 15 days as it monitors an uptick in COVID19 cases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was extending the order, which was set to expire on April 18, until May 3 to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant that is now responsible for the vast majority of cases in the U.S.
COVID-19 Pandemic Isn’t Over for Black Americans, Report Warns
Photo: Mika Baumeister
nationwide requirement. The mask mandate is the most visible vestige of government restrictions to control the pandemic, and possibly the most controversial. A surge of abusive and sometimes violent incidents on airplanes has been attributed mostly to disputes over mask-wearing. The mask requirement for travelers was the target of months of lobbying from the airlines, who sought to kill it. Republicans in Congress also fought to kill the mandate. “It is very difficult to understand why masks are still required on airplanes, but not needed in crowded bars and restaurants; in packed sports arenas; in schools full
of children; or at large indoor political gatherings,” Nicholas Calio, the CEO of industry trade group Airlines for America, said Wednesday in a letter to the heads of the CDC and the Health and Human Services Department. There has been a slight increase in cases in recent weeks, with daily confirmed cases nationwide rising from about 25,000 per day to more than 30,000. More than 85% of those cases are the highly contagious BA.2 strain. Those figures could be an undercount since many people now test positive on at-home tests that are not reported to public health agencies. Severe illnesses and deaths tend to lag infections by several weeks. The CDC is
awaiting indications of whether the increase in cases correlates to a rise in adverse outcomes before announcing a less restrictive mask policy for travel. A poll in mid-March by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that Americans are evenly divided over keeping the mask rule for transportation. The poll found that 51% wanted the mandate to expire and 48% said it should remain in place - in effect, a tie, given the poll’s margin of error. Vaccinated people and those with chronic health conditions favored keeping the rule, but by smaller margins.
Photo: Mustafa Omar
• Between April 2020 and June 2021, 1 in 310 Black children lost a parent or caregiver compared to 1 in 738 white children. • Learning time lost by students who were Black or in other racial or ethnic groups was estimated to be one year, compared to four to eight months for white students. • Black Americans were twice as likely as white Americans to experience food insecurity. • Black Americans are more likely to experience pandemic-related anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders compared with white Americans. The report states clearly that these worse outcomes were not due to any biological factors or genetic predisposition, but were a “predictable result of structural and social realities” such as Black Americans being overrepresented in essential-worker jobs, including practical and vocational nursing; being more likely to live in densely populated urban areas; and having pre existing medical conditions such as hypertension and diabetes due to differential access to health care. In addition, the report says, many Black Americans faced barriers to testing and vaccination in the beginning of the pandemic, and also faced discrimination when seeking Covid-19 care. “The harsh realities of Covid-19 were superimposed upon generational systems of disadvantage,” said the report. “What this report makes clear is why there was such a disproportionate impact in the Black community,” Reed Tuckson, a former commissioner of public health in Washington, D.C., who is now a co-founder of the Black Coalition Against COVID, told STAT. “The predicates that caused these disparities have long been Airlines imposed their own mask mandates in 2020, when the Trump administration declined to take action. Unions representing flight attendants, which once backed mask rules, now decline to take a position because their members are divided over the issue. It is unclear whether eliminating the rule would make people more or less likely to travel on planes or subways. Ed Bastian, the CEO of Delta Air Lines, said that some people might start flying if they don’t have to wear a mask, and others might stop flying if other passengers are unmasked. He called both
present in the lives of Black folk. These are cycles that we have to break.” Of concern to Tuckson and others are disparities related to the pandemic that continue. These include the high hospitalization rate for Black Americans, low uptake of Covid vaccine boosters, and the lack of inclusion of Black Americans in clinical trials of treatments, and in patient registries for long Covid. The report shows that disparities can be erased with targeted action. The Black Coalition Against COVID was among groups led by Black physicians and political and church leaders that worked to limit disparities in Covid-19 vaccination rates through education and access efforts. In May 2021, vaccination rates for first and second doses were 10% and 12% lower than those for white Americans; by January 2022, that gap had been largely erased. Tuckson said much of this work can and will be done by the Black community itself, but will require far more funding than has been so far made available. “We are going to roll up our sleeves, but we need resources that have been painfully inadequate and hard to come by,” he said. Even as the report authors warn that the pandemic is far from over for Black Americans, they say that once it does end, the work on ending the health care disparities highlighted so clearly by the pandemic must continue. “We cannot unlearn the lessons we have learned these past two years,” said NunezSmith. “I have a visceral reaction every time someone says we have to get back to normal because normal is what got us here. We need to get back to a new normal.” Source: BlackDoctor.org
groups “fringe,” and he predicted that many people will continue to wear masks even if the rule is dropped.
SAN DIEGO COUNTY
COVID-19 STATUS TOTAL CONFIRMED CASES
753,939
REPORTED TESTS
10,624,089 HOSPITALIZED
29,995
ICU
2,114 SOURCE: County of San Diego as of 4/13/22
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