COVID-19

With hospitals stretching beyond capacity and the number of people dying from Covid-19 continuing to rise, Santa Clara County officials described a “ray of hope” Dec. 15 when the first shipment of a vaccine arrived. The county received its first 5,850 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech...

By Grace Hase Santa Clara County health officials announced Monday morning that the county has conducted one million Covid-19 tests since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. “Our ability to test has increased tremendously since earlier in the year,” Santa Clara County Covid-19 Testing Officer Dr. Marty Fenstersheib...

With the Covid-19 vaccine making its way through the local population and case rates and hospitalizations declining, Santa Clara County officials expect the state to loosen its public gathering guidelines by next week. And on Feb. 25, Public Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody announced a...

Seven workers of St. Louise Regional Hospital’s emergency department recently tested positive for Covid-19 as the hospital and others throughout the county are operating beyond capacity. According to Santa Clara County Health System spokesperson Joy Alexiou, more than 80 individuals work in the South County...

Safeway is now offering Covid-19 vaccinations without an appointment at the grocery store chain's pharmacies, the company announced Friday. Safeway has more than 90 pharmacies across the Bay Area. Across the country, pharmacies at Safeway and other grocery stores owned by Albertsons Companies have administered...

Cecily Murray may live in Mountain View, but her heart remains firmly entrenched in South Valley. How else to explain her efforts to pay it forward with the Meals for Heroes program? On Jan. 3, Murray took it upon herself to deliver dozens of...

Santa Clara County on Sept. 21 announced a new website—www.sccfreetest.org—that lets residents schedule a Covid-19 test up to a week ahead of time at certain sites. Appointments for the drive-thru testing at the county fairgrounds can be made five days in advance. County health officials...

More agricultural workers in South Santa Clara County are receiving doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, even as supply remains low. This week, the county vaccinated food and agricultural workers on-site at Lusamerica Foods and Kawahara Nursery in Morgan Hill, and will be facilitating a vaccination...

In an effort to regain control of the Covid-19 pandemic, Santa Clara County supervisors Aug. 11 voted unanimously to create a new tool for a group of enforcers by using a combination of warnings and fines rather than criminal penalties.

Some South County businesses have been fined thousands of dollars for alleged violations of the state and local Covid-19 public health guidelines since Black Friday weekend 2020, when enforcement officers stopped offering proprietors a grace period to correct the offenses before issuing penalties. Fines levied...