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: Written by: Tessa Paoli; Published: 15 April 2021

Screen Shot 2021 04 14 at 5.52.45 PM As of today, all adults in Sonoma County are eligible to sign up for the COVID-19 vaccine, but there’s still a lot of hesitancy about whether to get the shot. Sonoma County has successfully vaccinated 36 percent of the adult population, and is surpassing other counties of similar size. But vaccine hesitancy is the next hurdle.

According to one tally, the North Bay, including Sonoma County, has the highest vaccine hesitancy rate in the Bay Area. A Bay Area Council Survey in March found about a quarter of those surveyed say they don’t plan on getting the shot.

Yessenia Zepeda was skeptical before she changed her mind a few weeks ago and got her first shot at the Cesar Chavez Health Fair in Santa Rosa. She lost a family member to the virus.

"With being a mother, I want to definitely take whatever measures or precautions that are out there to keep my little one healthy and myself healthy so I can care after her," Zepeda said.

After the J&J vaccine was paused this week because of a few rare cases of side effects, people have even more questions. For Dr. Jenny Fish, who specializes in family medicine at Sutter Santa Rosa, tackling vaccine hesitancy is all about building trust in communities and listening. Especially in Latinx communities hit hardest by COVID-19.

"It doesn’t really work with us as doctors to just show up in the community and say here, believe us...you know especially in communities of color that have experienced institutionalized racism for years and decades and generations," Fish said.

Even among those who want to get the vaccine, health officials say supply is still insufficient to vaccine everyone. On Wednesday the CDC announced the one-dose J&J vaccine will be paused for at least another week to assess risk.

: Written by: Tessa Paoli; Published: 14 April 2021

injection 5722329 640 Because the new J&J vaccine didn’t arrive in the county until March, so far it only makes up about three percent of those administered. But the single-dose vaccine has been important in getting shots to unsheltered and homebound folks. Now, a few hundreds of doses intended for those hard-to-reach individuals are on hold until there’s more guidance from the state.

"In the homeless population giving the j&j was perfect because it's a one and done. So there's no no question as to whether someone would be able to come back to or make an appointment for getting a second dose," Cheryl Fox, President of Fox home Health, said.

Fox Home Health is a Santa Rosa-based private healthcare provider and is helping administer vaccines. Fox says she hopes the county will be able to resume J&J doses in the next couple of days to make vaccinating *everyone* easier. State health officials say the pause will not change the opening up of eligibility to all adults Thursday.

: Written by: Tessa Paoli; Published: 13 April 2021

After spending six months stuck in the state's most restrictive purple tier, Sonoma joined the majority of the Bay Area in the second least restrictive orange tier last week because of low COVID numbers in the county. Being in the orange tier means COVID spread is moderate and businesses can operate indoors more…gyms and yoga studios can increase capacity to 25 percent, restaurants can fill up inside at 50 percent capacity. And businesses are adjusting to the more relaxed rules.

Stéphane Saint-Louis is the executive chef and owner and Table Culture Provisions, a Petaluma restaurant that started as a popup last August and now is a fully operational. Although Saint-Louis is happy to have the option of ramping up indoor service, his team decided to stay within the restrictions of the red tier and maintain 25 percent capacity inside.

"We just want to be cautious and prioritize the health of our customers and the health of our staff and just by maintaining that 25 percent and operating along those lines," Saint-Louis said.

While the county saw a slight increase in COVID cases last week, officials are hoping to make it into the least restrictive yellow tier in the next couple of weeks, months before Governor Gavin Newsom hopes to fully open back up the economy on June 15, according to State officials

: Written by: Marc Albert; Published: 12 April 2021

Dominic Foppoli

Windsor Mayor Dominic Foppoli is refusing to step down despite sex-crime allegations from half a dozen women, including a fellow city council member.

An increasingly isolated Foppoli is rejecting calls to resign from just about every North Bay political leader after accusations emerged late last week detailing a pattern of sexual abuse stretching back nearly two decades.

The accusations were first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.

A local entrepreneur, Foppoli is Co-owner of Christopher Creek Winery near Healdsburg.

The League of California Cities, where Foppoli held a leadership position expelled him unanimously Thursday after the Chronicle published its first story. The league, in a statement said it was "sickened" by the "shocking allegations."

A sixth woman stepped forward with further allegations detailed in the Press Democrat Monday. Councilwoman Esther Lemus, who also serves as a county prosecutor, accused Foppoli of raping and sodomizing her and performing other acts in two encounters last year. Lemus told the Press Democrat that she believes Foppoli incapacitated her with date-rape drugs. Foppoli, according to the paper, dismissed the allegations as "fabulist tales."

The town council has scheduled a special meeting Wednesday to consider demanding Foppoli step down.

The Sheriff's office has opened an investigation.