Is the Bay Area the corona virus capitol of the country right now?

[CA4Now]

SAN FRANCISCO — Two coronavirus-infected people died in Santa Clara County on Feb. 6 and Feb. 17, the medical examiner revealed Tuesday, making them first documented COVID-19 fatalities in the United States.

Until now, the first fatality was believed to have occurred in Kirkland, Wash., on Feb. 29.

Officials previously had said the first Silicon Valley death was March 9. But the Santa Clara County medical examiner revealed Tuesday that people who died Feb. 6, Feb. 17 and March 6 also died of COVID-19.

“These three individuals died at home during a time when very limited testing was available only through the [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]. Testing criteria set by the CDC at the time restricted testing to only individuals with a known travel history and who sought medical care for specific symptoms,” the county said in a statement. “As the Medical Examiner-Coroner continues to carefully investigate deaths throughout the county, we anticipate additional deaths from COVID-19 will be identified.”

Autopsies reveal first confirmed U.S. coronavirus deaths occurred in California in February:
https://www.latimes.com/california/s...early-february

[DeanoSF]

In terms of how to handle the outbreak and mitigate the healthcare emergency, I'd say the Bay Area is indeed the model for the US, particularly as that relates to how the country should approach "reopening."

[citizensadvocate]

Interesting how the Bay Area had been the epicenter, while it had been the among the first places to push the bring your own bag fad by punishing those who wants a store issued bag regardless of material. Though it also became the first ones to lift it.

I am glad today Newsom have the whole state follow suit.
I don’t vouch for plastic but the idealize of coercing in form of penalties to get the population to reuse is really deadly mistake in the modernized world where we have a big population living one on top of each other. Disposable items were introduced as lessons learned from deadly diseases spread by reused items in the 1960s and 1970s as the world becomes more urbanized.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by citizensadvocate

Interesting how the Bay Area had been the epicenter, while it had been the among the first places to push the bring your own bag fad by punishing those who wants a store issued bag regardless of material.

To quote another poster with whose sentiments I agree:

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

I've gotta hand it to you citizen, you somehow find a way to get plastic bags into every single one of your posts

[CA4Now]

An international team of scientists combined old-fashioned epidemiology with newfangled genetic sleuthing to determine that the Bay Area’s outbreak was spawned by a mix of foreign and domestic arrivals. The findings were published Monday in the journal Science.

In nine Bay Area counties where the coronavirus set down roots early, visitors arriving directly from China were only one of several sources of spread within the community. Strains of the virus that had come by way of Europe were also widely evident. And a cluster of cases that put down roots in Santa Clara County sent out tendrils to neighboring San Mateo County and the more distant Solano County.

But no single source of infection appears to have played a larger role in seeding the region’s coronavirus outbreak than the Grand Princess cruise ship, which sailed from San Francisco to Mexico and Hawaii twice in February and March.

The new study suggests that at least one passenger on the first of those two sailings — a person whose infection originated in Washington state — left behind enough virus to seed the infections of most of the dozens of people who became sick during the second sailing. Those passengers, in turn, carried the virus into San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, Solano and San Joaquin counties...

https://www.latimes.com/science/stor...om-many-places

[CA4Now]

Dr. Grant Colfax, who joined San Francisco Mayor London Breed at the news conference, warned that those being hospitalized are “not only the elderly and the most frail.”

In fact, the average age of COVID-19 patients at San Francisco General Hospital since July 1 has been 41.

“Young people, middle-aged people, older people are all at risk for this disease,” he said.

https://www.latimes.com/california/s...os-coronavirus

[CA4Now]

What a change.

SAN FRANCISCO — Much of San Francisco looked like a ghost town during late April. All but essential services were closed. Few roamed the streets. The mood seemed as grim as the gray skies overhead.

Now life has returned. Restaurants and stores are open. Clad in masks, pedestrians last week clutched bags from stores where they had just shopped. Diners sat at tables outside restaurants and cafes. People strolled along the bay on the Embarcadero, and a huge Ferris wheel opened for business at Golden Gate Park.

After cautiously approaching the pandemic for months, with a go-slow attitude toward reopening, San Francisco has become the first urban center in California to enter the least restrictive tier for reopening.

https://www.latimes.com/california/s...irus-reopening