Gisselle Reyes/Staff
The Silverado Berkeley Memory Care Community worked with CVS Pharmacy to provide residents and associates with the first dose of Pfizer s COVID-19 vaccine Jan. 20, according to Silverado’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing Jeff Frum. He added that there have been 54 cases of COVID-19 among residents since early December, with 14 of these residents having died due to complications with COVID-19.
Of the cases Berkeleyside has been able to learn about, most of the individuals who have died were Black, male, age 80 or older, or some combination of those factors. Most of them had multiple causes of death listed in addition to COVID-19, such as pneumonia, respiratory failure, cardiac or cardiopulmonary arrest and septic shock, among other conditions.
On Wednesday, Berkeley updated the number of the city’s total COVID-19 fatalities to 22, with the cumulative number of lab-confirmed coronavirus cases at 2,430. More than half of the city’s total positive COVID-19 tests have been reported since early December.
Ever since the city’s first COVID-19 death was reported in April 2020, Berkeleyside has been asking city staff for information about who has succumbed to the disease. The city has repeatedly declined to provide even aggregate data about age, race or gender, citing medical privacy laws.
Berkeley had 68 positive COVID-19 tests in one day but the city won’t explain why
Last week, the city of Berkeley reported a record number of positive COVID-19 tests on a single day since the coronavirus pandemic began. On Jan. 5, 68 people tested positive for COVID-19, according to data Berkeleyside has been tracking daily since last March.
For most of last year, the city rarely reported double-digit daily growth in coronavirus cases. That shifted in November, with dozens of cases reported on multiple days, driven in large part by an enormous outbreak at Golden Gate Fields racetrack that ultimately led to hundreds of COVID-19 infections and at least one death. On Nov. 18, the city reported 62 positive COVID-test results, setting the record for 2020.
After a surge of post-Thanksgiving COVID-19 cases in the Bay Area, Silverado Berkeley Memory Care Community experienced an outbreak among its residents and staff.
The memory care community, which provides assisted living to those who are memory-impaired, identified the first cases of the outbreak in early December. As of press time, 38 residents and 12 associates have tested positive, according to Silverado Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing Jeff Frum.
Frum said two residents have died due to COVID-19-related complications. Two other residents who were “nearing the end of their battle with dementia” before testing positive have also died, Frum added.