COVID-19

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...

Garlic production temporarily shut down in one building at Christopher Ranch after an employee tested positive for Covid-19 at the end of last week. Executive vice president Ken Christopher confirmed the case, and said Santa Clara County health officials are present at the ranch June...

California will lift its indoor mask requirements Tuesday for unvaccinated people and March 12 for schools and child care facilities, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Feb. 28. The changes will mark the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic began that both unvaccinated people and students will...

Text messages circulating in Santa Clara County are wrongly informing residents that they can register to receive the Covid-19 vaccine based on an “extra” supply of doses, health officials warned. According to Santa Clara County Public Health, some residents have reported that they received text...

With the Bay Area currently showing the highest Covid-19 infection rates in California, health officers are reminding people of the importance of safety precautions such as continued masking indoors and vaccine boosters. The current wave of infections is fueled by the highly contagious Omicron subvariants,...

California public health officials updated the state's guidance for places of worship and cultural ceremonies Monday, removing capacity limits for both indoor and outdoor gatherings.  Since unveiling the tiered Covid-19 reopening system late last August, the state has faced pushback from religious groups and advocates...

Health officers in five Bay Area counties announced Friday that they will implement a new stay-at-home order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, requiring most nonessential businesses to close all indoor and outdoor operations.

It’s been two years since Santa Clara County went into lockdown in response to a then-mostly unknown threat that was destroying lives across the world. The first shelter-in-place order in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which went into effect on March 17, 2020, shut down...

Santa Clara County announced Tuesday that it has acquired the new Novavax Covid-19 vaccine and will begin administering the vaccine at all County Health System vaccination sites on Aug. 2. Unlike the currently available Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that use an mRNA-based approach to developing...

Gilroy has the highest rate of Covid-19 infections of any city in Santa Clara County, according to statistics released by the county’s department of public health.  “The rates in the city of Gilroy are actually higher than elsewhere,” Santa Clara County Public Health Officer Sara...