News of the week Now, as the Bay Area continues to see consistently high case rates, hospitalizations have begun to rise. That’s not good news, but healthcare professionals at the frontlines contrast where we are collectively at in the pandemic with that of 2020 and 2021. The hospitalization increase has been much more gradual this […]
Lookout Santa Cruz Staff
Posted inCOVID Today
COVID Dashboard: New variants, particularly BA.5, pushing a surge; but cases seem to be less serious
News of the week Remember those variants we talked about last week? Well, it looks like they’ll deprive us from our hopeful COVID respite, at least for a little bit. Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 are the main causes of cases in the greater Bay Area and across the county right now, and seem to […]
Posted inCOVID Today
COVID Dashboard: New variants could keep cases high, but updated shots may be on the way
News of the week Another week, another variant, or two. Two Omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5, are the main causes of cases in San Francisco and the greater Bay Area right now. Though cases in Santa Cruz County have remained fairly stagnant — sitting at 2,022 as of Monday’s update compared to last week’s 2,002 […]
Posted inCOVID Today
COVID Dashboard: Bay Area surge appears to be leveling off, but cases still high
News of the week After months of surging COVID-19 cases, the Bay Area might be seeing the first glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Recent data shows that Bay Area cases have stopped rising, though they are still high. Conditions have improved across many surrounding counties, including in Alameda, where County Health […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Roe v. Wade: Santa Cruzans march again, with women of color leading the way
Seeking greater representation than they felt was present at Friday’s courthouse gathering to protest the Supreme Court rolling back abortion rights, organizers brought together a crowd of around 60 to the downtown clock tower Sunday. The group continued to London Nelson Community Center for speeches and meditation before marching to City Hall.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Primary election: With most votes counted, only Measure F hangs in the balance
After the Santa Cruz County Clerk updated the tallies from the June 7 primary election on Tuesday, turnout had surpassed 45%, with the vast majority of the 76,344 votes cast coming via mail.
Posted inCOVID Today
COVID Dashboard: Jabs officially available for children 5 and under
News of the week Parents looking to vaccinate their young children can finally breathe a sigh of relief. This week, children younger than 5 officially became eligible for COVID-19 immunizations after over two years of waiting. It is the final age group to become eligible. Santa Cruz County Deputy Health Officer Dr. Cal Gordon is […]
Posted inLatest News
Outage over; balloons cause power loss, PG&E warns grads and dads
Around 6,400 households and businesses on Santa Cruz’s Westside and elsewhere lost power Friday morning after Pacific Gas & Electric said a metallic balloon entangled in its equipment touched off the outage around 9 a.m. The utility restored power to the vast majority of customers by 12:45 p.m.
Posted inCOVID Today
COVID Dashboard: Cases jump, but positivity rate lower than that of our neighbors
News of the week This week’s COVID report is quite the mixed bag. On one hand, cases rose significantly since last week, with Santa Cruz County reporting 1,705 active cases Monday compared to 1,248 last Monday — an increase of 457 cases. It is worth noting yet again that this number is far from exact. […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
THE VOTE IS IN: 10 questions on what happens next
Full vote counts from Santa Cruz County’s primary election aren’t expected until Friday, but we’ve seen enough of the results to begin looking ahead to next moves in the rail-trail debate and what’s ahead in the county supervisor and state Assembly races.