Health

After weeks of mixed messaging and leaving the decision to counties, the state today said face coverings will be required in many places to stem the spread of coronavirus.

Throughout the pandemic, government officials have struggled to accurately track the thousands of vulnerable seniors and disabled people who contracted COVID-19 in nursing homes.

During the pandemic, “there's likely much more use of substances that we're not capturing,” one expert said. Early signs suggest drops in people connected to care.

Local public health officers haven’t been this important in a century. They’re also being second-guessed, harassed and threatened by residents angry about pandemic precautions.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said that some statistics show reasons for optimism, but the pandemic will linger for some time and people should proceed with caution.

Lee este artículo en español. Long before the coronavirus began sickening Kingston Healthcare Center’s residents and staff, state and federal officials knew the Bakersfield nursing home had serious problems. During multiple visits last year, state inspectors identified 85 violations at the home, including failure to provide dental care to a resident with rotten teeth, allowing pressure […]

Blue Flame Medical alleges the collapse of its $609 million mask deal with California has trashed the reputations of its politically-connected founders and led to cancellation of numerous other contracts. 

The pandemic has layered a health crisis on top of a housing crisis on top of a class divide. A clear pattern has emerged as the coronavirus spares some California neighborhoods and strikes others: The virus takes a heavier toll in neighborhoods where people pack into overcrowded homes, according to a CalMatters analysis of neighborhood-level […]

Until the pandemic struck, every day for the last 10 years, Isidoro Flores Contreras stood at the edge of the Sand City Costco parking lot, just a few feet from a set of McDonald’s arches, selling $15 flower bouquets.  No matter the weather, he slowly walked back and forth along the sidewalk, a hitch in […]

When coronavirus began spreading in California, public health officials told people who fell ill to isolate themselves in their homes for two weeks. But many California families simply can’t do that. Forced by the high cost of living, parents squeeze into rooms with their children, cousins sleep on couches, grandparents convert living rooms into bedrooms […]