Monterey County COVID-19 Digest

California schools got $23.4 billion in federal pandemic relief money. Low-income schools that got the most may be hardest hit when the funds expire this year.

The monthly rate of antidepressants being dispensed to young people increased about 64% more quickly during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study in the journal Pediatrics.

Vaccines that protect against severe illness, death and lingering long COVID were linked to small increases in neurological, blood, and heart-related conditions in the largest global vaccine safety study to date.

San Francisco is coping with a “doom loop” of declining employment and business activity in its downtown core, but a new study suggests Sacramento may be in worse shape.

Kern County agrees to better protect free speech in a deal with the state Justice Department—inspired by the county’s’ 2020 squashing of COVID contracts to organizations that advocated defunding police.

Despite a few improvements, results show students are still struggling on several fronts.

Political wonks in California, Florida and maybe a few states in between, will be glued to their screens Thursday night to watch Gov. Gavin Newsom and Gov. Ron Desantis square off in a highly-anticipated Blue vs. Red State debate that’s been brewing since the summer.

Parents say flavored medication can help ensure their kids finish a prescription. Far fewer California pharmacies are offering that service as they await new rules from a state regulator.

California and Florida took starkly different approaches to dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Data shows that more Floridians died per capita of COVID than did Californians.

California’s community colleges are seeing enrollment gains for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Older students—those over 50—are some of the first to return.

After years of isolation and virtual classes, young professionals in California’s workforce are reportedly struggling with greater mental health challenges and burnout. If colleges and companies don’t pay more attention, there could be economic consequences.

Despite an influx of money to counter learning loss during the pandemic, English language arts and math test scores remain low.

Companies set the original test dates arbitrarily due to these diagnostic at-home tests being developed rapidly. So, check your boxes before you toss them.

Cases are on the rise, and so are hospitalizations and deaths. So the federal government's release of new, updated COVID boosters feels like good timing.

The Monterey Conference Center in downtown Monterey is seeing a resurgence of business stronger than pre-pandemic levels at the 40,000-square-foot facility.

Nearly a third of K-12 students statewide were chronically absent in 2020-21, more than three times the pre-pandemic rate. Some school officials fear that pattern is becoming the new normal.

Attila Colar went to prison for lying to the government. After California gave him another contract as a provider in a rehabilitation program, a federal jury convicted him of fraud for using the personal information of Bay Area parolees and others to collect government COVID funds.

How bad is California hunger? A lot depends on your access to food aid, which expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic but is being reduced.

The iconic California burger joint known for its crossed palm trees and cups printed with Bible verses banned its employees in five states from wearing masks at work.

Excessive drinking during the pandemic increased alcoholic liver disease deaths so much that the condition killed more Californians than car accidents or breast cancer, a California Healthline analysis has found.

Workers denied pandemic-era jobless benefits are still struggling as they fight a state employment agency on edge about fraud and an appeals system facing a “historic” backlog. What happens next will help decide who pays for a multi-billion-dollar debacle three years in the making.

Monterey County continues to have a COVID-19 community level ranked low for nearly three months, according to the CDC. Community levels are determined by the higher of the new admissions and inpatient beds metrics, based on the current level of new cases per 100,000 population in the past seven days.

The local COVID-19 “community level” remains low, according to the CDC.

Some state-supported COVID-19 testing sites in Monterey County ended operations, leaving other options for testing to absorb the number of those seeking the service.

The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board voted to end the rule in part because it has become harder to enforce. Only people who caught the virus on the job are eligible to keep getting paid, but it is so widespread that it's hard to tell where someone got sick.

Just 67 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds and and 38 percent of 5- to 11-year-olds have had the primary two-shot COVID-19 vaccine series.

Overall undergraduate enrollment for the Cal State system fell once again, to 404,820 students this fall—about 17,500 fewer students than the previous year.

Stanford launches the nation’s first study of an antiviral strategy for long COVID.

The California State University Monterey Bay on-campus COVID-19 testing site will close permanently at 4 p.m. on Friday Nov. 18, according to an email sent out on Oct. 24.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control decided to list COVID-19 among the vaccines it recommends for children, but each state decides whether to adopt those guidelines. It's unclear what California will do.

2020 carbon emissions fell because of the COVID-19 pandemic–but now emissions are on the rise again.

As the number of COVID-19 infection surged during the pandemic, deaths from heart attacks rose sharply as well, with adults ages 25-44 experiencing the most significant increases, according to new research from scientists at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.