Santa Cruz 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.

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.

As of Nov. 1, personnel working in acute care facilities, skilled nursing facilities, surgical and maternity centers, and infusion centers are required to wear a face mask at all times regardless of vaccination status.

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.

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.

Experts are recommending that people wait for the newest booster when it becomes available—even though it remains uncertain how well the immunity it induces will match up with the latest coronavirus strains.

About 65 million people globally are estimated to be living with so-called post-COVID-19 condition—a number reported to be increasing in the absence of approved treatments and continuing viral spread.

Santa Cruz County Deputy Health Officer Dr. David Ghilarducci told the Sentinel that four of the county's seven nursing homes were experiencing COVID outbreaks. He added that five deaths across seven facilities in the past two weeks are tentatively tied to COVID.

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.

Three years into the pandemic, strong therapeutics and our immunity from previous infections and vaccines that blunt severe illness have cut the death toll from its peak of about 600 a day in January 2021.

The ending of the states of emergencies will eventually mean out-of-pocket costs for some for COVID-19 tests, vaccines or treatments.

California state leaders seem to be quietly closing the door on the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for school children.

AB 2098 empowered state licensing authorities to punish doctors who deviate from public health messaging about the virus.

The recent upsurge in at-home deaths started in the first year of the pandemic, and the rate has continued to climb, outlasting the lockdowns that might help explain the initial shift.

A wave of respiratory illness that has been afflicting Santa Cruz County since late last year appears to be subsiding, according to local wastewater data.

According to the state's vaccine dashboard, less than a third of eligible Santa Cruz County residents have received the bivalent COVID-19 booster shot.

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.

There has been a troubling spike in coronavirus-positive hospital admissions among seniors in California, rising to levels not seen since the summer omicron surge.