Health

Newsom appoints Butler to replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein California Gov. Gavin Newsom will appoint a woman to fill the seat of the late U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who died Sept. 29. Laphonza Butler will replace Feinstein, the Governor’s Office confirmed Oct. 1.  Butler is currently president of...

San Benito County Public Health officials announced that as of Feb. 5, all OptumServe mobile Covid-19 testing sites that serve local residents will close. The California Department of Public Health, which has funded the testing sites, is closing the facilities due to declining Covid-19...

Don't call it a tripledemic—yet.  Influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and Covid-19 are circulating this fall, but not yet at the rate that worried public health agencies a year ago.  As we approach the time of winter when these diseases usually peak, around December to February,...

Baer named to Dean’s List Alexandria Baer, of Hollister, earned Dean's List distinction for the Fall 2022 semester, one of more than 330 undergraduate students to be recognized. The Dean's List comprises undergraduate students who meet requirements in the Colleges of Arts and Science and Professional...

A non-native Aedes aegypti mosquito—an aggressive species that can spread certain diseases—has been discovered in a residential area of Gilroy, according to the Santa Clara County Vector Control District. A mosquito of the same species was also found recently in a neighborhood of east...

A small group of registered nurses rallied outside Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital Thursday in support of adequate staffing at the Hollister medical facility, which is currently facing a financial emergency.  “(We are) focusing on safe staffing,” said Pedro Silva, an RN at HHMH and member...

Wildfires and climate change are locked in a vicious circle: Fires worsen climate change, and climate change worsens fires. Scientists, including those at the World Resources Institute, have been increasingly sounding the alarm about this feedback loop, warning that fires don’t burn in isolation—they produce...

San Benito County public health officials are warning residents of the danger of handling or getting too close to diseased or dead birds after a number of positive cases of Avian Influenza have been detected here. County Health and Human Services officials said in an...

San Benito County's Department of Public Health is expected to announce this afternoon a countywide "shelter at home" order. The order will extend the countywide school closures and affect most businesses and government functions. A 2pm press conference was scheduled to announce the details of the...

Residents, business owners and other interested parties have until Sept. 6 to submit their input on the proposed expansion of the John Smith Road Landfill, after county officials extended the comment period on the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Report. The San Benito County Board of...