Coronavirus LIVE BLOG: April 23 to May 6

Catch up on our current Coronavirus LIVE BLOG here.

7 p.m. May 6: How is San Jose doing with COVID-19 outreach?

The city of San Jose is asking for feedback on its public outreach amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are committed to providing you with timely, accurate information as we seek to save lives and livelihoods in our response to COVID-19,” a city news release said. “We want to know how you think we are doing from a communications and public outreach standpoint.”

Complete the survey here.

3:30 p.m. May 6: Property tax relief in California

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Wednesday waiving penalties on property taxes paid late for California residences and small businesses through May 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The state now allows residents and business owners to pay property taxes due April 10 and not face the 10% penalty and other fines. In order to qualify for this year-long relief, property owners must prove to county tax collectors they suffered economic hardship or couldn’t make tax payments on time because of the pandemic or ensuing government responses. Additionally, certain businesses also have slightly more than three weeks to file business personal property statements through May 31 to avoid penalties.

“Many people (are) just struggling to make ends meet,” Newsom said in his daily briefing, “and those property tax bills are so large for people — and so challenging in this time — that we wanted to provide this clarity.”

On April 21, Santa Clara County supervisors waived penalties on property taxes paid late and the $20 fee that kicks in after the deadline. Under state law, counties can forego penalties for circumstances beyond taxpayers’ control.

The waivers come after the U.S. Department of Treasury delayed Tax Day from April 15 to July 15. But property taxes, which are used for schools and local governments, can’t be delayed, according to a memo from the California Association of County Treasurers and Tax Collectors.

Read Newsom’s order here.

1:50 p.m. May 6: Gov. Newsom expands workers’ compensation eligibility for Californians

In announcing an executive order Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom moved to expand workers’ compensation eligibility for Californians who contract COVID-19 in the workplace — including health care workers and first responders initially left out of federal relief.

The governor said the relief is meant to ensure people who get sick aren’t forced to go to work and risk spreading the coronavirus disease to others. Workers who get the novel coronavirus are now eligible for benefits that can only be rebutted by employers under strict criteria.

“This is a way of providing support to our critical workers that are essential in our capacity not only to meet the needs of people today, but as we begin to enter into this new phase and start to reopen our economy,” Newsom said in his daily briefing.

On April 16, Newsom granted two weeks of paid sick leave to large-scale food sector workers. Federal coronavirus relief had expanded benefits to smaller businesses, though left out large industries and many essential workers, the governor added.

“Workplace health and safety is public health and safety,” said Victoria Hassid, chief deputy director of the state Department of Industrial Relations. “This benefit applies to all workers, all of those front-line workers that are risking their health and safety to ensure the health and production of all of us.”

If workers test positive or are diagnosed and found to have COVID-19 within 14 days of having reported to work anytime between March 19 and July 5, it’s presumed the employee contracted the virus at work and they can receive medical coverage and other benefits through workers’ comp, Hassid said. Criteria under the order also allow employers to present evidence in the event that a worker doesn’t have COVID-19, or they didn’t get it at work.

Read the full order here. More guidance is expected in the coming days, officials added.

12:40 p.m. May 6: Statewide website to find testing sites, Gov. Newsom says

The state of California launched a new webpage to find a COVID-19 testing site for residents, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in his briefing Wednesday.

The online portal allows Californians to input their ZIP code to find test sites near them and make reservations to get tested. Although Newsom said residents should have a testing site within 30 to 60 minutes from them, he acknowledged “testing deserts” still exist for many Californians.

“Again, we still have an enormous amount of work to do,” Newsom said. “This site will expose that, but in a very transparent way. We’ve been very forthright in our recognition that we need to spread out our testing capacity and also deepen it in certain communities.”

Per the state COVID-19 main website, testing will be prioritized to people hospitalized, symptomatic essential workers, symptomatic seniors and people in high-risk, congregate settings.

Already, partnerships the state forged with Alphabet-owned Verily’s Project Baseline and federal service provider OptumServe have opened test sites in underserved rural and urban communities, including East San Jose. However, Newsom clarified the new state webpage does not include hospital testing sites.

Daily testing, Newsom added, has increased from 2,000 tests in early April to roughly 30,000 last week. In total, more than 800,000 tests have been conducted, and the state’s roadmap to recovery calls for increased testing as the economy reopens.

11:54 a.m. May 6: Happy Hollow cancels events for seniors, Beer at the Zoo

Already closed until further notice, Happy Hollow Zoo announced it canceled its free safari series for seniors, as well as a beer walk, a city of San Jose news release said Wednesday.

The free Senior Safari series for older adults from May through October was canceled, as was the Beer at the Zoo scheduled for June 19. Refunds for the latter event will be issued. Email [email protected] for questions.

During the closure, Happy Hollow still has staff caring for the animals. Visit the city’s Virtual Recreation Center for a virtual meet and greet with animals at the zoo.

11:05 a.m. May 6: San Jose extends local emergency declaration

During its meeting Tuesday, the San Jose City Council extended its local emergency proclamation because of community spread of COVID-19, as San José Spotlight reported.

The action extends the emergency services director’s March 6 proclamation up to an additional 60 days. As a prerequisite for federal and state assistance amid the pandemic, the proclamation also allows city officials to exercise extraordinary powers, including for police evacuations.

The city’s emergency proclamation must be reviewed by council every 60 days and must end “as soon as conditions warrant,” a staff report said. City officials worry coronavirus cases and deaths will “likely increase” once the shelter-in-place order lifts and expect the emergency to continue until a vaccine is developed, which isn’t projected for a year and a half.

10:45 a.m. May 6: National Nurses Day, contact tracing in Santa Clara County

On National Nurses Day Wednesday, Santa Clara County officials outlined how public health nurses are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and previewed contact tracing for expected case increases as the shelter-in-place order become less restrictive.

County public health nurses were among the first to respond to the outbreak locally, by identifying at-risk populations of recent travelers before officials realized the novel coronavirus was already in the community, with the nation’s first known death in Santa Clara County on Feb. 6.

“The whole world was fighting the same battle,” Public Health Nurse Melissa Schilling said in a county briefing. “As cases started to come in, it became apparent that there wasn’t always travel history at all, and that the virus had community spread. So we transitioned to more of a mitigation phase, where we weren’t able to call everyone everyday.”

More than 80 public health nurses in Santa Clara County now work on provider intake related to issues with COVID-19-positive patients, special investigations in congregate settings where physical distancing may be difficult, specimen collections of nasal swabs and contact tracing to identify people who may have been exposed to the virus from a positive patient.

Contact tracing, county health spokeswoman Evelyn Ho added, is being prioritized to scale capacity with more public agency staff and community partners as COVID-19 cases rise. In California’s roadmap to recovery, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state, in partnership with UC San Francisco and UC Los Angeles, plans to train 20,000 people in two months for contact tracing, with the first training on Wednesday.

“For any easing of the shelter-in-place order to occur, we expect that cases will increase when that happens,” Ho said. “In order to break chains of transmission — to interrupt those chains so that transmission doesn’t become exponential and overrun our health care system and lead to eventual significant amounts of death — we have to have a robust contact tracing and case investigation unit.”

3 p.m. May 5: CA well-positioned after Trump says not to bail out poorly run states, Newsom says

After President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday not to bail out poorly run states amid the COVID-19 pandemic and threatened using sanctuary laws as a bargaining chip for relief, Gov. Gavin Newsom said California is “well-positioned” for federal relief despite recent projected budget deficits.

“Well run States should not be bailing out poorly run States, using CoronaVirus as the excuse!” Trump said on Twitter. “The elimination of Sanctuary Cities, Payroll Taxes, and perhaps Capital Gains Taxes, must be put on the table. Also lawsuit indemnification & business deductions for restaurants & ent.”

Until recently, California paid more in taxes to the federal government than it received back, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported, and just weeks prior had a budget surplus. The novel coronavirus pandemic, however, has caused a projected $35 billion budget deficit that must be sorted by mid-June, when the state Legislature must legally have a balanced budget or not get paid.

Newsom said the state’s record paying off debt and creating a surplus would fit within Trump’s tweet.

“If that’s the case, California will be well-positioned in any subsequent coronavirus relief,” the Democratic governor told reporters. “In fact, I imagine we would be front and center in that consideration, considering the magnitude of those surpluses, considering the management of our budget, and considering the magnitude of this virus and its impact on our general fund.”

While saying the issue of sanctuary laws that limit cooperation with federal immigration laws is a policy difference, Newsom added Trump ally and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani once supported sanctuary policies, corroborated by CNN. California’s sanctuary state law limits has been challenged in court by the Trump administration.

“That’s a separate issue and well-defined in California,” Newsom said. “It’s one of the many lawsuits that we’re engaged in with the administration. So good people can disagree on that.”

California’s fourth and final stage to getting back to “normal” would come once the population can gather and interact freely, which means finding a way to ensure herd immunity or when a vaccine is available, according to Dr. Sonia Angell, director of the California Department of Public Health. Then, concerts, convention centers and sports games with in-person fans in stadiums can open back up.

6:30 p.m. April 27: San Jose police identify man who allegedly vandalized Asian-owned businesses

San Jose police identified a 42-year-old Milpitas man on Monday accused of vandalizing multiple Asian-owned businesses in the South Bay.

Early Wednesday morning, Tai Van Trinh allegedly smashed glass windows and doors of at least five San Jose businesses and three Milpitas businesses, according to a police news release. He is suspected of then fleeing in a black 2004 Toyota Tacoma extended cab pickup truck with a Texas license plate, HZM3285. Police are now seeking the public’s help looking for him.

Based on the preliminary investigation, police said they are not investigating the incidents as hate crimes.

In an email, police Sgt. Enrique Garcia declined to share additional details on the ongoing investigation. The vandalism comes as local officials and law enforcement have decried hate crimes against Asians since the novel coronavirus outbreak, as San José Spotlight reported.

Anyone with information on Trinh’s location is asked to call 911, 311, or contact San Jose police Detective Ryan Wagner of the Burglary Unit at 408-277-4401. To remain anonymous, call the Crime Stoppers Tip Line, 408-947-STOP and dial 7867, or click here. People providing information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect may be eligible for a cash reward from the Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers, police said.

4:15 p.m. April 27: Autopsy report of United States’ first death

The 57-year-old woman identified as the United States’ first known death from the novel coronavirus on Feb. 6 died from a ruptured heart due to COVID-19, according to a Santa Clara County autopsy report published by the San Francisco Chronicle.

A day after Patricia Cabello Dowd died in her home wearing a short-sleeved shirt and pajamas, county Medical Examiner Dr. Susan J. Parson examined her body and sent tissue samples for testing from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which later showed she had COVID-19. County officials received the results last Thursday and determined she died from complications due to the virus.

Along with a reported history of “flu-like” symptoms in the days prior to her death, further testing revealed Dowd had the virus’ RNA in her heart, trachea, lung and intestines. The autopsy report noted that Dowd was healthy, outside of being “mildly obese,” and did not test positive for other substances, like alcohol or drugs. She also tested negative for influenza.

A ruptured left ventricle in the heart — stemming from COVID-19 — proved to be her official cause of death, Parson found. In reviewing the autopsy report, Dr. Judy Melinek, a forensic pathologist, told the Chronicle normal hearts don’t rupture.

“This heart ruptured or tore open because of an infection of the heart muscle caused by the coronavirus,” Melinek reportedly said.

Dowd’s husband, Dean, identified her the day she died, per the autopsy report.

Previously, Santa Clara County officials believed the county’s earliest death in the region from COVID-19 was March 9. Until last week, federal officials thought the nation’s first coronavirus-related death was Feb. 29 in Washington state.

2:30 p.m. April 27: CDC adds symptoms for COVID-19

In addition to fever, cough and shortness of breath, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added six new symptoms for the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19. New signs include chills, repeated shaking from chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and loss of taste or smell. Symptoms may appear between two days and two weeks after exposure to the virus, according to federal guidance.

If you have trouble breathing, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, new confusion or ability to wake up, or bluish lips or face, the CDC says to seek medical attention immediately. For any other symptoms that are severe or concerning to you, consult a medical provider. Call 911 if you have a medical emergency.

1 p.m. April 27: California beach crowds ‘example of what not to see,’ Gov. Newsom says

Crowds that gathered at Southern California beaches Saturday are an “example of what not to see” amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom said in his briefing Monday.

With a heat wave over the weekend, beachgoers amassed in Ventura and Orange counties, whereas larger San Diego and Los Angeles counties had closed coastal access under public health orders meant to reduce physical distancing and mass gatherings, as the Los Angeles Times documented.

“Those images are an example of what not to see, people, what not to do,” Newsom said, “if we’re going to make the meaningful progress that we’ve made in the last few weeks extend into the next number of weeks.”

For the most part, Newsom added, residents and local governments have complied with public health measures, including San Mateo County beaches. He said the state is just weeks away from making changes to the statewide stay at home order to begin reopening businesses and loosening restrictions, but residents must comply to continue reducing the spread of the virus.

“The only thing that will set us back is our behavior,” Newsom said. “The only thing that will set us back is people stopping to practice physical distancing and appropriate social distancing. That’s the only thing that’s going to slow down our ability to reopen this economy — our ability to adapt and modify this stay at home order.”

11:45 a.m. April 27: Bay Area to extend shelter in place through May

San Francisco Bay Area health officials said in a joint statement Monday they will extend shelter in place orders amid the novel coronavirus pandemic through May.

The order — which was originally made collectively by six Bay Area counties, including Santa Clara, and the city of Berkeley in March and revised April 1 — had been set to expire on May 3, and the new revised end date will be formally issued later this week, affecting approximately 7 million residents in the region.

The new order will include limited easing of specific restrictions for a small number of “lower-risk activities,” officials said in a news release. Additionally, health officers plan to release a set of broad indicators used to track progress in preparedness and response for COVID-19, which better aligns with framework used by the state of California.

“Future easing of restrictions requires that each jurisdiction and various sectors continue to rapidly build critical infrastructure and systems to respond to and control the spread of coronavirus infections and to ensure the health care system’s ability to meet demand,” Bay Area health officials said.

Officials cautioned the pandemic is still in its early stages, adding testing is still limited and vaccine development is just beginning.

“We expect to be responding to COVID-19 in our communities for a long time,” they said. “As effective as our efforts have been, if we move too fast to ease restrictions, the potential of exponential spread could have grave impacts to health and wellness of our residents as well as the economy.”

Details on the next phase and the extended orders will be shared later this week, health officials said. Read San José Spotlight coverage on how local officials are responding to the new regional orders.

11:25 a.m. April 27: County health worker details experience with COVID-19

It only took Ricardo Romero-Morales, a Santa Clara County senior community health planner, minutes from when he left work with a mild cough at work on a Thursday morning in March to getting a fever, fatigue and dry cough — symptoms of COVID-19.

“I never thought it was going to be me, that I was going to go through this myself,” Romero-Morales, 30, said during a county health briefing Monday.

Until that March day, he felt healthy and followed his own public health department’s guidance, though he had been fatigued two days prior. But as symptoms worsened, Romero-Morales notified his roommates and called his doctor, who told him to isolate for two weeks. He made plans with those in his home to bring him food and regularly disinfect surfaces he touched. “I was supposed to be the one taking care of everybody, but it was me who got sick,” he added.

By day five, each time he breathed deeply, he said, “it was almost like a stabbing type of pain.” So he drove himself to the hospital, where he passed out twice. Doctors, however, told him he had a mild case of COVID-19, especially compared to those who have died from it.

In total, he spent more than three weeks isolated at home before reporting back to the county Emergency Operations Center as a spokesman amid the pandemic. At times Romero-Morales said he had negative thoughts while alone, but he reached out to others, even making new friends online. “I think it’s just remembering that,” he said, hesitating, “that we are in this together, even though we are apart.”

5:30 p.m. April 24: Cupertino second in Santa Clara County to require face coverings

Cupertino began requiring face coverings for people going out for essential activities Friday, the second city in Santa Clara County to do so. On Wednesday, Cupertino City Council voted 4-1 for the emergency order, which covers people working or getting essential goods, effective Friday at noon.

“The wearing of face coverings outside our homes will become increasingly important to everyone’s health and safety as the economy is reopened and people begin to congregate again in public,” City Manager Deborah L. Feng said in a statement. “The use of face coverings, along with proper social distancing and other evidence-based health measures, has been shown to slow the spread of COVID-19.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Milpitas became the first Santa Clara County city to require face coverings — applying to workers and customers at essential businesses — and began enforcement Friday morning. The county, meanwhile, has issued guidance “strongly urging” residents to wear face coverings, whereas six other Bay Area counties have already required face coverings in public.

2:25 p.m. April 24: After Santa Clara County’s first death, California looks for earlier cases

California Public Health Director Dr. Sonia Angell said state officials will work with local coroner’s offices to look for earlier COVID-19 cases, after Santa Clara County identified it had the United States’ first known death from the novel coronavirus.

“As we move forward, we will continue to be very thoughtful about what could have happened in the past, and we’ll continue to work with our local coroners to under more about the progression of COVID-19 in our communities,” Angell said during Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press briefing Friday, responding to a question from NPR’s Leila Fadel.

On Wednesday, the county Medical Examiner-Corner identified three new COVID-19 deaths dating back to Feb. 6, more than three weeks before officials thought the virus first killed someone in the U.S. County officials sent tissue samples to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which confirmed the people had the virus and likely contracted it locally.

Consequently, state officials will match COVID-19 cases with coroner’s reports to ensure deceased are properly identified if they had the virus, Angell said.

“And as that information is forthcoming, you’ll either report it directly or we’ll report it out appropriately,” Newsom told reporters.

1:25 p.m. April 24: Gov. Newsom announces meal program for seniors

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced a partnership with FEMA to provide low-income seniors who are impacted by COVID-19 with meals, three times a day and stimulate the local restaurant industry.

With more than 1.2 million elder Californians living alone and 5.7 million seniors in the state, Newsom said the program, which will operate 7 days a week, has no limit on the number of meals it can provide. To qualify for the program, Newsom said seniors must fall below 600% of the federal poverty guidelines, be exposed or at high risk of exposure to the virus or have a compromised immune system.

“The need to be more aggressive, to be more focused, more supportive of our seniors, has been top of mind,” Newsom said. “And so (we are) working with FEMA on ways to provide nutritious meals to our seniors, to get them delivered, but also to get them prepared.”

The first of its kind program will reopen local restaurants to provide these meals and source produce from local farms and suppliers. He hopes the program will stimulate the local economy by generating local sales taxes and bringing back jobs to some restaurant workers.

“It’s not just about the meals, it’s about a human connection,” Newsom added. “It’s about someone just checking in as they’re delivering those meals and making sure people are okay.”

FEMA and the state will reimburse local governments for the costs of the meals. Local governments will receive $66 a day per meal. Each breakfast meal costs $16, lunch meals cost $17 and dinner costs $28. Local governments will decide on which restaurants are eligible for the program.

Seniors who believe they might be eligible can call 2-1-1 or visit the state’s website here. The program will go into effect immediately.

11:35 a.m. April 24: San Jose libraries to donate PPE to Good Samaritan Hospital

Using 24 3D printers, San Jose Public Library staff created 220 face shields and 75 masks to donate to Good Samaritan Hospital on Friday.

Library staff worked with local hospitals to design suitable 3D-printed personal protective equipment for health care providers, settling on Prusa face shields and Montana filtration masks, Branch Manager Shauna Porteus said in a blog post Thursday.

The face shield is created from transparency sheets, which are normally used for overhead projectors, and use hole punches to connect the front of the shield to the headband created by a 3D printer, Porteus described. Meanwhile, the printed face masks can be reused after replacing filters made of shop towels.

In all, the shields and masks took library staff 518 hours to complete. Each shield costs an estimated 49 cents to make, while face masks go for about $1.50. Collectively, staff can make 200 shields and 80 masks weekly, Porteus said.

At 2:30 p.m. Friday, Mayor Sam Liccardo and Councilmember Pam Foley are scheduled to join library staff to donate the PPE to San Jose’s Good Samaritan.

11:20 a.m. April 24: Hard-hit long-term care facilities receiving additional support

Long-term care facilities in Santa Clara County are receiving additional guidance in infection control and prevention as facility residents and staff have accounted for close to a third of county deaths from the novel coronavirus.

As of Tuesday, there have been 357 confirmed cases and 31 deaths at facilities across the county. Nursing homes and other long-term care facilities across the U.S. have been particularly hard-hit by COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

Facilities, which are run independently and licensed through the state, include skilled nursing, independent and assisted living. They tend to serve elderly residents, often with chronic medical conditions, who are at greater risk of serious illness or death from the virus.

“We’re very aware that it’s almost impossible that cases would not have appeared in the facilities,” said Elsa Villarino, an assistant public health officer for the county, in a briefing Friday. “But we also know that with good infection control practices, we can minimize the spread of further transmission and the impact into these communities.”

County health officials have taken a number of steps to reduce COVID-19’s spread in facilities, including supplying personal protective equipment and even supplementing county nurses and other employees when facilities have staff shortages, according to Villarino. Facilities also also get prioritizing testing for residents and staff, and health officials conduct contact tracing with confirmed cases to investigate who may have been exposed to COVID-19.

10:35 a.m. April 24: San José Spotlight to host live Q&A with Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody

Santa Clara County Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody will join a live question and answer webinar about the novel coronavirus with San José Spotlight at 4 p.m. Friday.

The interactive event allows residents to submit questions to the county’s top public health official, who helped coordinate some of the nation’s earliest COVID-19 response measures, such as the Bay Area’s shelter in place order. Cody also recently announced the nation’s earliest known death from the virus in Santa Clara County, on Feb. 6, more than three weeks before U.S. officials previously thought.

On Thursday, Cody appeared on the national television network MSNBC with host Rachel Maddow to discuss measures taken locally that appear to have reduced the spread of COVID-19.

“Sara Cody — in Santa Clara County, California — would go on to become the public health official in America who may have saved more lives than any other person in our country,” Maddow said.

RSVP to San José Spotlight’s event here and send questions to [email protected].

2 p.m. April 23: Milpitas to require face coverings Friday

Milpitas became the first Santa Clara County city to require face coverings. The new order takes effect Friday.

On Tuesday, Milpitas City Council unanimously directed city staff to issue a regulation requiring masks at essential businesses such as grocery stores, health care facilities, gas stations, hardware stores and pharmacies, officials said in a news release. However, children 6 years and younger do not have to wear face coverings, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises against masks on children under 2.

While the county doesn’t require them, health officials issued guidance last Friday “strongly urging” residents to wear them in public. Milpitas’ actions come as six other Bay Area counties now require residents to wear face coverings in public, KRON reported.

“By enacting this order, Milpitas is being a leader in our county. Face coverings help protect the most vulnerable in our community,” Councilmember Carmen Montano said in a statement. “We want to flatten the curve and keep our health system from being overwhelmed, and this is the best, safest way to do that.”

With the order, city officials said they will first promote education, but they will issue citations for people who don’t comply with wearing face coverings. Read San José Spotlight’s story on how to make your own face covering.

1:30 p.m. April 23: 22,000 Californians sign up to volunteer in first day

In the first day of launching a website for Californians to volunteer to help others amid the pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday 22,000 people signed on to help others in need.

Since announcing the Californians for All volunteer website Tuesday, Newsom said the first cohort is doing phone calls to neighbors struggling with social isolation. Others are volunteering with food deliveries.

“Whether it’s volunteering at a food bank to feed older Californians, blood drives or supporting local nonprofits, there’s no shortage of opportunities for Californians to step up and meet the moment,” Newsom had said in a statement Tuesday.

To volunteer, visit the Californians for All website.

1 p.m. April 23: California sees ‘deadliest day,’ Gov. Newsom says

California saw 115 deaths from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the state’s largest increase to date, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday. The death toll in the state rose 8.5%, while people who tested positive for the virus increased 5.6%.

“Yesterday was the deadliest day for this virus in this state,” he said in a daily briefing. “One hundred and fifteen human beings lost their lives, families torn apart.”

Still, the governor said the state saw continued decreases in hospitalization and intensive care cases, including for patients under investigation for COVID-19, all positive indicators in the pandemic response. However, given the new cases and deaths, Newsom cautioned people to continue practicing public health measures such as staying at home, wearing face coverings and physical distancing.

In Santa Clara County Thursday, though, health officials reported one new death and an additional 28 cases — far fewer increases compared to previous days.

The state’s 115 new deaths, Newsom added, are “a reminder we’re not out of the woods yet.”

12:40 p.m. April 23: California debt relief for student loans, garnished federal checks

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced two debt relief measures in California for student loans and federal coronavirus relief paychecks that have been garnished by collectors.

Twenty-one of the state’s 24 largest student loan service providers have agreed to a 90-day forbearance on student loan debt, which affects more than 1.1 million Californians, Newsom said Thursday. In partnership with other states led by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker in reaching the agreement, Newsom added the student loan relief doesn’t impact credit ratings, nor does it impose fines or fees. The relief also outlines new payment plans for student loan debt.

In addition, Newsom signed an executive order denying debt collectors from garnishing Congress’ coronavirus relief bill that distributed one-time $1,200 checks, unless people owe child or spousal support, or have monetary responsibility to victims or victims accounts. The order also works retroactively, so collectors who garnished checks must repay people.

“Now is not the time to garnish those emergency contribution checks,” the governor said.

11:15 a.m. April 23: Report: Stanford turns down coronavirus relief funding

Stanford University reportedly rescinded its application for $7.38 million as part of Congress’ $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill. This comes as well-endowed private colleges and universities have drawn criticism for planning to take federal aid amid the pandemic.

On Wednesday, the Mercury News reported Stanford, with a $27.7 billion endowment, declined federal aid set to be distributed by the Department of Education. The university said it has taken a significant financial hit, but other smaller schools are in greater need.

Santa Clara University will take its $3.54 million, according to the Mercury, after the private university’s $1 billion endowment has shrunk since June. With half of the federal dollars required to go directly to students, the university said it would direct half of aid for student grants. University of San Francisco also indicated it would accept at least half of its allocated $7.29 million for students, while Mills College and Saint Mary’s College were listed for funding.

In a tweet, Harvard University said it wouldn’t accept its $8.66 million because it didn’t request congressional funds and aid should go to struggling institutions. This came a day after President Donald Trump said Harvard shouldn’t take aid, incorrectly adding the university took it from small businesses, which comes from a different part of congressional relief, CNN found.

Education Secretary Betsy Devos said in a statement Wednesday Congress was legally required to distribute funds to all colleges and universities. But she called on institutions that don’t serve primarily low-income students to reject aid.

Local public universities and community colleges have also been allocated coronavirus relief, such as San Jose State’s $28.78 million and De Anza Community College’s $7.24 million.

Catch up on our past coronavirus coverage:

• Coronavirus LIVE BLOG: April 9 to April 22
• Coronavirus LIVE BLOG: March 26 to April 8
• Coronavirus LIVE BLOG: March 11 to March 25