April 15, 2021

California Volunteers, launched by the Governor’s office in 2020 will utilize the My Turn volunteer platform to connect medical professionals and the general public who wish to volunteer, with clinic volunteer directors across the state.

March 25, 2021

March 18, 2021

February 18, 2021

The Public Health Law Center at Mitchell Hamline School of Law and the American Lung Association, California are hosting the webinar Addressing Secondhand Smoke: Tobacco and Cannabis Smoke In Multi-Unit Housing. Sponsored by the California Tobacco Control Program, the webinar is scheduled for Thursday, February 24, from 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. and will address how communities can tackle significant health risks caused by exposure to secondhand tobacco and e-cigarette aerosols, specifically in multi-unit housing.

January 28, 2021

January 28, 2021

In what many considered a surprising move, the Governor lifted the remaining Regional Stay-at-Home Orders (RSAHO) for the Southern California, San Joaquin Valley, and Bay Area regions this week.

The state’s undisclosed projections indicate that ICU bed capacity will increase above the 15 percent threshold set by the RSAHO by February 21, 2021. This is due in part to declining case numbers and an improving 7-day statewide positivity rate tracking at 8 percent.

January 21, 2021

January 7, 2021

The California Social Work Hall of Distinction will be honoring individuals who embody the commitment of the social work profession or practice in October of this year, coinciding with the National Association of Social Workers California Annual Conference.

January 7, 2021

January 7, 2021

The California Department of Public Health issued an immediate hospital surge order on January 5 to compel the transfer of patients from hospitals in crisis and acceptance of those patients by other hospitals with available capacity. Children’s Hospitals are not included in the order.

December 17, 2020

The Office of the California Surgeon General and the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) released their much anticipated draft guide on efforts needed to diminish the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress.

December 10, 2020

Governor Newsom today appointed San Francisco Health Officer Dr. Tomás Aragón to lead the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and serve as the state’s Health Officer. Dr. Aragón is a welcome addition to CPDH, where newly appointed State Epidemiologist and former Alameda County Health Officer Dr. Erica Pan has been holding down the fort during this difficult time. Dr. Aragon replaces former CDPH Director Dr. Sonia Angell, who resigned abruptly this summer.

December 10, 2020

Governor Newsom reported last week that official requests for the initial 327,000 doses of vaccines would be submitted Friday, December 4. It was announced this week that the submission for those vaccine doses were made with anticipated California delivery of December 15.

During a press conference this week, Governor Newsom reiterated that the state continues to plan for a safe and equitable vaccine distribution. The update included the anticipated FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine on December 10 and Moderna around December 17.

November 20, 2020

CSAC’s 126^th Annual Conference was held virtually from November 12-19. The conference offered a variety of workshops, speakers, and policy committee meetings with a strong presence from the Women’s Leadership Forum (WLF).

November 20, 2020

October 22, 2020

Governor Newsom met the September 30 deadline to take action on measures approved by the Legislature and delivered to his desk. To keep counties informed of new laws that impact them, CSAC will be publishing a series of articles to spotlight those laws in each policy area. This week, the Health and Human Services policy area provides information on new laws affecting health, human services, and behavioral health.

The new laws listed below become effective January 1, 2021 unless otherwise noted.

Budget Bill

October 15, 2020

This year, a new law went into effect, SB 234 (Chapter 244, Statutes of 2019), that aims to increase the availability of family child care homes. The sponsor of the legislation, the Child Care Law Center, reached out to CSAC to share resources with counties regarding the implementation of this law.

SB 234 makes various changes regarding licensing and zoning for family child care homes, including several that directly impact county regulations. These include:

September 24, 2020

CSAC is pleased to share that nearly all of the state’s COVID-19 guidance is now available in 13 languages on the state’s www.Covid19.ca.gov website. County Supervisors from around the state strongly advocated for the translation of critical COVID-19 state guidance, and the state estimates that 85 percent of the documents are translated at this time. The state’s goal is to have all COVID-19 guidance translated by the end of this month.

September 17, 2020

This week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced they would not move forward with their proposed Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Rule (MFAR). The federal rule, announced at the end of 2019, was intended to increase Medicaid fiscal transparency but attracted a host of responses from state and local governments voicing concerns, including the state of California and CSAC.  

September 3, 2020

The California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems (CAPH) and the California Health Care Safety New Institute (SNI), published an article highlighting the critical role county Whole Person Care (WPC) pilot programs have had in the COVID-19 response.

August 27, 2020

The California Department of Public Health released new guidance allowing necessary in-person child supervision and limited instruction, targeted support services, and facilitation of distance learning in “pods” of up to 14 children and two adults in all schools. The guidance also provides instruction on returning to work or school following a COVID-19 diagnosis and additional child care guidance.

August 13, 2020

Governor Newsom declined to elaborate today on the resignation of the state’s leading public health official, Dr. Sonia Angell. Dr. Angell submitted her resignation Sunday night, nearly two weeks after the state first revealed a major technical glitch affecting positive COVID-19 case data.

The Governor insisted that the backlog of data in the state’s CalREDIE laboratory reporting system had been processed over the weekend and sent to counties for validation and demographic details before being publicly available within the week.