Bay Area

Doctors at Roots Community Health Center Provide Straight Forward Information on COVID Risks for Oakland Families

So far in Alameda County, there were 99,681 recorded COVID-19 cases, more than 2,500 more cases than last week, and 1,291 COVID deaths.

Published

5 years ago

August 13, 2021

Isabelle Price

Roots Community Health Center offers free testing.

Roots Community Health Center is presenting weekly health briefings

The Roots Community Health Center, located at 9925 International Blvd. in Oakland, is hosting an online weekly People’s Health Briefing on Facebook, offering straight-forward information about what parents, families, teachers and school staff need to know to stay safe as the Delta variant surges to extreme levels in East and West Oakland.

Presenting the health briefing this week, “A Parent’s Guide to School Reopening, were Dr. Noha Aboelata, MD, founder and CEO of the health center, and Dr. Aisha Mays, MD, the center’s director of adolescent and school-based services. The briefing is available online at www.facebook.com/rootsempowers/videos/719407845555581

Roots serves some of the people most vulnerable to catching COVID-19.

So far in Alameda County, there were 99,681 recorded COVID-19 cases, more than 2,500 more cases than last week, and 1,291 COVID deaths.

Overall, the county is doing well with vaccinations: 85.7% of those who are 12 and up have received at least one dose of the vaccine; and 72.4% are fully vaccinated, though rates vary in different neighborhoods.

However, children under 12, who are ineligible for vaccination, make up 15% of the total population.

Alameda County hospitalizations continue to rise. There are now 208 individuals in hospitals, compared to 179 last week.

Dr. Mays discussed the danger of COVID-19 for children. As of August 5, 4.3 million children in the U.S. have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began, she said. While many children have milder symptoms or no symptoms, some have gotten very sick and some have died, including infants under the age of one and children and youth with health conditions such as heart disease, asthma, sickle cell anemia and diabetes. Only 30% of children eligible to receive the vaccine have been vaccinated in the U.S.

Some parents are still trying to decide whether to send their children to in-person or distance learning, said Dr. Aboelata. “We know that no matter what we do we are going to be sacrificing something. This is about laying out the risks of each of our choices.”

With in-person schooling, parents worry their children might catch COVID, whether they might become seriously ill or might spread the infection it to someone in the home or family.

Distance learning risks include the danger of parents or caregivers losing income, increased screen time for children and doing poorly academically, as well as socially and emotionally.

A group of physicians and community leaders recently got together to express their concerns and make recommendation to the superintendent and school board of the Oakland Unified School District. See these recommendations in the Oakland Post, “Medical Professionals Call on Oakland School Leaders to Increase COVID-19 Protections.”

One central issue is whether students are vaccinated. Of course, everyone under 12 years old is unvaccinated, and no vaccine will be likely available for them later this year, according to Dr. Aboelata.

Young people who catch COVID generally do better than adults though that is not always the case.

Young people are also present the danger of infecting others. In California, 590,000 senior citizens live with school-age children. “This is more likely to be the case in households of color and can exacerbate the disparities that are already a reality of this pandemic,” she said.

Already, African Americans in Alameda County are dying at about double the rate of other residents and since April, African Americans account for the highest number of new COVID-19 cases. “This is a disparity that continues to widen,” she said.

To understand exactly how the pandemic is unfolding and to respond to it, officials must have routine testing or surveillance at each school, “which is not being implemented at any of the (district’s) school sites, ” said Aboelata.

Since there is no school site data, the best way to look at the risks is to examine community case rates. “If community transmission is high, then students and staff are more likely to come to school while infectious,” she said.

The county average of positivity case rates is 5%. There are four Oakland zip codes with extremely high positivity rates of between 9% and 12%: 94607 in West Oakland, and 94605, 94621 and 94603 in East Oakland. “94603 is the highest with a 12% positivity rate,” she said.

“We’d like to see a positivity rate of under 5% to be safe for in-person activities, “ she said. “(But) these decisions are being made on a county-wide and city-wide basis,” and ignore the great variation in case rates in different parts of the city that impact the number of cases that are potentially brought into a school.

If officials know the vaccination status of teachers and staff, the school can require an N95 mask and routine testing for unvaccinated teachers and staff in order to protect unvaccinated students, she said.

Vaccination rates in Oakland are extremely variable depending on the neighborhood but are generally 3 percentage points behind the county. About 69% of the people who are eligible are fully vaccinated in Oakland, but in some census tracts, rates are as low as 38%.

And then there is the issue of physical distancing. “We understand that it is not a requirement for OUSD to have distancing, but it is important to have the maximum distancing possible,” she said. “Distancing is most important to prevent droplet transmission. If schools “are trying to get too many people into an enclosed space … we become much more concerned about aerosol transmission, which is the main way that COVID-19 is spread,” she said.

If too many people are packed into a room, that could overwhelm the ventilation strategy, including the use of windows, doors and commercial air purifiers.

Testing is also a serious issue. “Per OUSD, all testing is optional or simply recommended,” she said. “This is most problematic when it relates to anyone with symptoms. We believe that testing should absolutely be required for anyone with symptoms that could be COVID-19.”

“If you have symptoms that could be COVID-19, you have no business setting foot on a school campus until you’ve proven that it is not COVID-19. Children who have symptoms that could be COVID-19 if possible, should take a test that shows all possible viruses that are now circulating in the region, not just COVID, she said.

Lastly, “we are concerned about how potential outbreaks will be managed,” she said. “We are concerned that the capacity for contact tracing in the county may not be sufficient for current volume let alone let alone if there’s an outbreak at a school.”

She pointed out that the Berkeley Unified School District has online data available of positive cases by date at every school. This is the kind of transparency that OUSD should consider, she said.

The Oakland Post’s coverage of local news in Alameda County is supported by the Ethnic Media Sustainability Initiative, a program created by California Black Media and Ethnic Media Services to support community newspapers across California.

Isabelle Price

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County Board of Supervisors Seeks Public Input in Spending $324 Million of Federal Funding

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Oakland Post: August 11th – August 17th, 2021

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Activism

At the event, 16 entities signed the EIP pledge, vowing to take steps to increase public contracting opportunities in their spheres for small and historically underutilized businesses. The pledge signees included Hub International, the Port of San Francisco, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, California High-Speed Rail Authority, the Port of Oakland, Robert Graham of Webcor Builders, Holder Construction, the Weitz Company, Sky Blue Builders, Hornblower, Swinerton, Luster National, Talson Solutions, Center for Community Wealth Building, and the Construction Contractors Alliance.

Published

7 days ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Toks Omishakin, secretary of the California State Transportation Agency, was one of the speakers at the event. Photo by Shellee Fisher Photography and Design.

By Calvin Naito, Special to The Post

On June 4, a national nonprofit named the Equity in Infrastructure Project (EIP) – which aims to increase public construction contracting opportunities for small and historically underutilized businesses – held a day-long event in downtown San Francisco to rally supporters and build momentum to its cause.

It was attended by more than 100 individuals from public agencies, private firms, and other organizations committed to increasing contracting opportunities with governmental agencies, thereby creating more competition and lowering public costs.

The EIP event was held the Hyatt Regency San Francisco in conjunction with BuildIT, which aims to increase contracting opportunities for LGBT-owned businesses.

At the event, 16 entities signed the EIP pledge, vowing to take steps to increase public contracting opportunities in their spheres for small and historically underutilized businesses.

The pledge signees included Hub International, the Port of San Francisco, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, California High-Speed Rail Authority, the Port of Oakland, Robert Graham of Webcor Builders, Holder Construction, the Weitz Company, Sky Blue Builders, Hornblower, Swinerton, Luster National, Talson Solutions, Center for Community Wealth Building, and the Construction Contractors Alliance.

Following the workshop, BuildIT hosted a VIP evening reception honoring EIP, whose principals – Phil Washington, John Procari, and Rick Jacobs – accepted the award.

The event also set in motion the coalition’s efforts to implement recommendations from EIP’s “Procurement for Prosperity: A Playbook.”

The Playbook is a practical guide for public agency leaders and procurement and contracting practitioners to grow the capacity of small and first-time contractors, strengthen competition, and deliver better value for taxpayers.

Toks Omishakin, Secretary of the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA), a long-time EIP supporter, also told attendees, “This is about commitment. This has been a life’s work. This is a tailwind moment.”

The event’s presenting sponsor was Hub International, one of the largest insurance brokerages in the nation, which was joined by partners Travelers Insurance and the State Compensation Insurance Fund.

After the pledge-signing ceremony, attendees participated in a workshop in which they examined the policies, practices, and programs needed to meet EIP goals, learned from practitioners, and identified next steps toward utilizing the Playbook.

Ingrid Meriwether, formerly of Merriwether & Williams Insurance Services (MWIS) and current president of Hub International’s Aligned Risk Management, MWIS, described the hard-fought lessons she and her MWIS team have learned over the last three decades administering contractor development programs (CDPs) for the City and County of San Francisco, Alameda County, City of Los Angeles, LA Metro, and other municipalities.

The CDPs help small and local construction firms win public infrastructure contracts with these government agencies. The program provides bonding assistance, contract financing, technical support, training, and other services to underrepresented businesses funded by public agencies who seek greater contracting participation with these firms.

Merriwether said programs like these “break down systemic barriers, create greater fairness, and save taxpayers money by enabling more competition. The contractor development programs have, cumulatively, over two decades, helped contractors access over $1 billion in bonding, supporting over $380 million in awarded contracts, and maintaining a loss ratio 250 times lower than the industry average – while saving participating municipalities more than $27 million in contracting costs as a result of enabling more competition.”

Rick Jacobs, EIP co-founder and co-chair urged attendees make plans to meet again in the near future “to continue building on this work, share progress on organizational commitments, and discuss how we can collectively advance the goals of the EIP pledge.”

For more information on the EIP and to access a copy of the Playbook, go online to https://equityininfrastructure.org/

Calvin Naito is communications manager for Equity in Infrastructure Project.

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Oakland Museum Presents Landmark Retrospective Celebrating Beloved Bay Area Artist Mildred Howard

“Poetics of Memory” coincides with a year of major recognition for Howard. In 2026, she received the California Arts Council’s 50th Anniversary Award, honoring artists whose work has shaped California’s cultural and civic life, as well as the Museum of the African Diaspora’s Artist Impact Award. In 2025, she was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in recognition of her transformative contributions to American cultural life.

Published

7 days ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Mildred Howard. Photo by Christine Cueto for the Oakland Museum of California, 2025.

Special to The Post

The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) opened “Mildred Howard: Poetics of Memory,” the first major museum survey of Bay Area artist Mildred Howard, on June 12.

The exhibition spans five decades of Howard’s influential work, bringing together immersive installations, found-object sculptures, archival materials, and new commissions that explore memory, identity, and power in American life.

Howard was born in San Francisco in 1945 and raised in the East Bay, where she went on to study Afro-Haitian dance, make and sell clothing, and experiment with collage and sculpture.

Her multimedia art practice emerged from these experiences, later becoming associated with West Coast conceptual art, San Francisco funk, and a vibrant community of artists like Oliver Jackson, Betye Saar, and Raymond Saunders. Since the 1970s, she has used found materials and family stories to explore memory—both individual and collective.

At OMCA, visitors enter “Poetics of Memory” through a series of intimate galleries featuring Howard’s early mixed-media pieces and sculptures, along with a large video projection of a number of her public artworks.

Together, they emphasize Howard’s interest in everyday objects as powerful carriers of individual and shared stories. Highlights include collages that remix images of the artist herself; found-object sculptures like The History of the United States with a few Parts Missing (2007) that address omissions in dominant narratives; and public works like “Locks and Keys for Harry Bridges” (2001) that transform urban space into a meditation on access and labor.

This culminates in a richly detailed “studio” environment, where works in progress, archival exhibition flyers, historic photographs of Howard and her community, postcards from fellow artists, and other materials offer insight into her creative process and daily life.

The exhibition then opens into a high-ceilinged, dramatically lit space that brings together Howard’s signature immersive installations. On one end, “Crossings” (1997/2026) – a field of hundreds of ceramic eggs leading to an ornate mirror – suggests cycles of birth, motherhood, and transition, while drawing on the emotional echoes of the Middle Passage. On the other end, “Blackbird in a Red Sky” (a.k.a. “Fall of the Blood House”) (2002) – a red glass shack bordered by a pond – also uses reflection and transparency to draw viewers into the work and prompt consideration of themes of identity and home.

Howard’s newest video installation, “Moving Stills” (2026), repurposes never-before-seen family footage she took as a teenager on a train trip to the American South. Projected onto cascading layers of translucent fabric that stretch across an entire gallery wall, the piece immerses viewers in a layered meditation on memory, migration, and time.

The “Mildred Howard: Poetics of Memory” exhibit will be on display through Oct. 11 at the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland, CA 94612. Museum hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended hours on Fridays to 9 p.m.

This story is sourced from the Oakland Museum of California press office.

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Alameda County

Ferry Fares to Increase July 1 as Ridership Hits Record Highs

The Oakland and Alameda routes will increase from $4.90 to $5.10, the South San Francisco route will go up from $7.40 to $7.60, and the Vallejo route will increase from $9.90 to $10.

Published

7 days ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Courtesy photo.

By Mike Aldax, The Richmond Standard

Starting July 1, the standard adult fare for the San Francisco Bay Ferry route between Richmond and San Francisco will increase to $5.20, up from the current $4.90.

Discounted fares for eligible passengers, including youth, seniors, people with disabilities, and Clipper START users, will rise to $2.60 from the current $2.40. Children under 5 will continue to ride for free.

The Oakland and Alameda routes will increase from $4.90 to $5.10, the South San Francisco route will go up from $7.40 to $7.60, and the Vallejo route will increase from $9.90 to $10.

The adjustments are part of a systemwide fare update approved by the agency’s Board of Directors, which is moving away from a flat 3% annual increase to route-specific pricing for the 2027 and 2028 fiscal years.

This fare update arrives as San Francisco Bay Ferry celebrates a historic May, transporting 301,270 passengers. The record-breaking figure represents an 8% increase over May 2025 and marks the third consecutive month of record-setting ridership.

Furthermore, it is the sixth month in a row that passenger numbers have exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Weekend travel has been a primary driver of this growth, with average weekend ridership seeing a 56% increase compared to pre-pandemic trends.

The agency states that the fare adjustments are necessary to ensure the long-term fiscal sustainability of public ferry services. By shifting to route-specific adjustments, the agency aims to offset rising operating costs while maintaining the high levels of service frequency and reliability.