Santa Clara County Reports 1,172 New Coronavirus Cases, 7 Deaths

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA — The Santa Clara County Public Health Department reported 1,172 additional coronavirus cases Friday.

The latest report brings the countywide case count to 45,178.

The county reported seven additional coronavirus-related fatalities Friday, bringing its COVID-19 death toll to 526.

There were 426 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Santa Clara County as of Friday, of which 93 were being treated in intensive care units.

Elsewhere around the Bay Area and beyond, Sonoma County will be joining six other Bay Area counties and the city of Berkeley in adopting the state's COVID-19 stay-home order, according to a county spokesperson.

The local order, which will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, adopts the restrictions contained within California's recently announced regional stay-at-home order, said Paul Gullixson, a county spokesperson.

The order states that Sonoma County residents will be directed to stay at home except for work, shopping or other essential activities, including medical appointments, as allowed by the state's regional shelter in place order.

It seems as if almost every year, food bank officials say the demand is greater than ever.

For two area agencies, the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano and the Alameda County Community Food Bank, in 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, that premise has borne out big time.

"Demand has been up 50 to 70 percent from last year," said Michael Altfest, director of community engagement for the Alameda County organization.

"We distributed the most food in October that we have ever distributed in a single month," about 4.95 million pounds.

Kim Castaneda, vice president of development and communications with the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano, reported a similar increase, 65 percent more food given away in 2020 than over the same period in 2019, going to 50 percent more people each month than a year ago.

A group of criminal and social justice advocates raised allegations Thursday that some inmates at San Quentin State Prison are being asked to indemnify the prison and the state's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in the event they contract COVID-19 while in the facility.

The allegations, levied by the advocacy group No Justice Under Capitalism, come from several unnamed inmates at San Quentin who said they were asked to accept a transfer to another prison in the state.

A spokesperson for the CDCR said the agency has asked some San Quentin inmates who are at a higher risk to contract the virus to voluntarily move to housing deemed safer than the facility's main dorm and open cell housing.

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There have been 1,500,724 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 20,690 coronavirus-related deaths in California as of Friday afternoon according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The United States had 15,758,661 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 294,056 coronavirus-related fatalities as of Friday afternoon.

There have been 70,025,535 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1,590,323 deaths reported globally as of Friday afternoon.

— Bay City News contributed to this report