Coronavirus: Two more nursing home deaths in Alameda County, including elected official

The death toll at a Hayward nursing home with a large coronavirus outbreak increased to 11 Tuesday with the death of a community leader there, and another Alameda County facility recorded its first death, health officials announced.

The death at East Bay Post Acute Care in Castro Valley, where 45 patients and staff are stricken with the virus, was its first. At Hayward’s Gateway Rehabilitation and Care Center, Chabot-Las Positas Community College District Trustee Marshall Mitzman, 73, died.

Also Tuesday, Santa Clara County health officials released data showing that 230 patients and staff have tested positive for the coronavirus at 16 nursing homes in the county since the crisis began. 11 people have died. The county did not name the facilities.

Two residents of an independent living facility in the county have also died and 11 people have tested positive. The county also reported that there were 10 cases spread among six assisted living facilities and one case in a board and care home, which are smaller care homes for up to six people that do not provide medical services. The county did not identify the facilities.

The Gateway outbreak in Hayward has grown to involve 65 patients and staff. Union City Councilman Jaime Patiño’s 84-year-old grandmother Emma Patiño, who was a resident, died Monday. Mitzman’s death was announced Tuesday by Rev. Chuck Horner, senior pastor at Calvary Baptist Church.

Mitzman, who obtained a doctorial degree from Cambridge University, was a business owner and involved in numerous philanthropic efforts in Hayward and the surrounding area. He was first elected to the college district in 2008 and served at least one term as its president, according to a biography on the school’s website. He was an adjunct instructor for both local community colleges and at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Hayward councilman Mark Salinas wrote in a Facebook post that Mitzman was a “steady leader, a thoughtful policy maker, and he always puts students front and center of his work.”

Read More