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Medical experts warn against complacency as new COVID variant appears

Enloe Medical Center Chief Medical Officer Marcia Nelson

Public health experts are urging people to stay vigilant and get vaccination boosters as the new COVID-19 variant BA.2 becomes the dominant strain of coronavirus.

Experts worry that as the new variant spreads, in counties like Butte where vaccination rates and community masking are low, communities will be particularly vulnerable.

Butte County Public Health data reports that as of April 11, the population is 55.8% fully vaccinated, 5.76% partially vaccinated and 38.35% unvaccinated. Yet, statewide, 75% of people 5 and older are fully vaccinated and 9% are partially vaccinated.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, by April 2, BA.2 had become the dominant strain in the United States. However, in Butte County, omicron still appeared in 84.6% of the county’s cases while BA.2 was responsible for 15.4% of cases in March. read more

Final steps underway for pallet shelter site

The city’s court-ordered pallet shelter project is close to completion, and advocates for unhoused people are hopeful but cautious about its chance for success.

The proposed code of conduct and the operating standards for the site are now being finalized. The city, plaintiffs and the judge must agree on these standards in order to finalize insurance and open the site on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, said Jesus Center Executive Director Amber Abney-Bass.

Advocates for the unhoused are cautiously optimistic, but have concerns about how the management style will affect use of the site. One question some have is whether there will be armed security.

Abney-Bass: ‘We want people to feel safe’
The pallet shelter project is now under the leadership of interim City Manager Matt Madden – who has been the chief of Chico Police Department – as well as Public Works Director of Operations and Maintenance Eric Gustafson, according to the city’s administrative office. read more

School leaders in Chico work to reduce “unfinished learning”

photo by Leslie Layton

Principal Mike Allen at Chapman Elementary just before opening bell.

As the pandemic disrupted Chico’s Chapman neighborhood, Chapman Elementary School Principal Mike Allen was one of several local school leaders known to knock on students’ doors and check on them, often with food in hand.

The schools were closed by state mandate with only online learning from March through August 2020, meaning that children missed seven months of in-person education. In October 2020, Chico Unified adopted a hybrid model. In August 2021, campuses fully opened to in-person learning.

Two years later, with his school’s campus reopened, Allen says students are facing great obstacles. Some are missing classes after losing momentum during online classes. Many are struggling with social and economic pressures exacerbated by the pandemic. read more

Recall effort targets four CUSD board members

photo by Leslie Layton

Trustee Matt Tennis, elected in November, has the support of Chico Parents for In-Person Learning that is working to recall the other board members.

Editor’s note: The effort to recall four CUSD board members ended unsuccessfully Oct. 12, when recall organizers failed to turn in the circulated petitions.

“If the school does not enforce the mandates, I pull my kids.”

Parent and Chico State student David Gregory worries about tension in Chico Unified School District (CUSD), as some parents press for removal of masking requirements — and of district leaders.

Gregory has three children who attend Paradise High, Inspire and Paradise Charter Middle School. While he is happy with mitigation at the high schools, he worries about his middle-schooler.

“I try to be optimistic and tell them, ‘We have a vaccine and soon we will go to the amusement parks and you can see your friends,’” he said. “Then, without fail, loud, typically uneducated parents advocate against any sort of measures that may restore normalcy.” read more

Homeless evictions continue in southeast Chico

photo by Karen Laslo

An officer tells a homeless woman at Humboldt and Forest to be out by evening on Feb. 16 as she stares into a small mirror.

Chico Police Department today blocked the media from Boucher Street as officers informed homeless people camping there and at Forest and Humboldt streets that they had to move.

Unhoused people at both sites had been given 72-hour eviction notices that had expired. And as the rain ceased and the sun broke through today, police moved in on the encampments.

At Boucher and Wisconsin streets, community members offered to help campers load tents and possessions into trucks and move them if they had someplace to go. A few people chose to move to beneath the Highway 99 overpass in lower Bidwell Park. But with no shelter space available in the city, many didn’t know what to do.

Although some of the community volunteers were allowed entry to the encampment, police blocked a section of Boucher from the press. Officer Andrew Cooper said it was a “work zone” and because heavy equipment was moving around, they couldn’t let reporters pass. read more

About all of us

ChicoSol’s mission: To provide cross-cultural feature writing and bold investigative reporting in the Chico area of the Northern Sacramento Valley.

ChicoSol is a not-for-profit news organization covering issues overlooked by traditional media that are starved for resources and unable to provide the in-depth coverage investigative reporting produces. We provide a digital platform for stories that span cultural borders, including those related to race, ethnicity, immigration status, language and class, and examine how power and policy affect vulnerable communities.

We follow the stories that often get dropped by print newspapers as we seek those who are accountable and those who can help find ways to address the community’s most vexing problems. In short, we believe that fact-based journalism nourishes democracy, that truth is sunlight. We distribute a new issue each month via newsletter to all who have joined our subscription list. read more