Recording. Relative humidity 33 near the walbridge fire. 7 degrees relative humidity, 49 . Now conditions are a bit more favorable in terms of humidity and temperature at the woodward fire. 55 degrees and relative humidity 100 . The wind gusts up to 23 miles an hour and that is not helpful to fire containment. To the Santa Cruz Mountains in the czu lightning complex, 63 degrees there, humidity up to 72 . The wind gusts, not the wind speed thats a computer mistake, 9 miles per hour. As for air quality, the unhealthy air quality in santa cruz and san jose. Green, good to see that, indicating good air quality in fremont, San Francisco and oakland. Yellow in concord, livermore, san rafael, napa, fairfield. Ft. Bragg, ukiah and point arena. Ill have a further look at the weather later and the fire conditions. Dan . The lnu lightning complex is a top priority for cal fire. Its expanded across napa, sonoma, solano, lake and yolo counties to 357,000 acres. The National Guard brought in 280 guards men and women to help fight the fires. The fires remain a challenge especially in areas that havent burned in more than 100 years. Make no mistake theres lot that has to be done on the walbridge fire. Theres no fire history over there. What i can tell you theres a good plan in place. The folks over there are working tirelessly every day. Cal fire says its letting more evacuees go home. Live to abc 7 News ReporterWayne Freedman in healdsburg near where the walbridge fire is burning. Wayne . Reporter good evening, dan. You might call this a day of Small Victories fighting a very big fire. Firefighters had a chance to catch up with it. In the hills this is what passed for firefighting most of the day, hosing down still smolders trees, cutting stumps, and trying to stay ahead of a walbridge fire that has been hard to catch and more difficult to contain for a week. When you hear about a fire line this is a classic small scale example. This cleared here, this area here burned, that over there is where they dont want the fire to go. Firefighters are working above the Russian River communities. Its deep and accessible and hasnt burned since the 1900s so working out where to establish the containment lines can be tricky. Reporter winemakers may need to call on a few tricks in dealing with the 2020 vintage. This has been one of the earliest harvests on record but they still cannot predict the effect of smoke so thick that at times we could not see from one side of the valley to the other. Bill williamson evacuated last week. He spoke to us from crescent city. The shortterm damage might be some of the vineyards have smoke taint. They are the higher elevations. The valley floor probably suffered pretty well. Reporter how about a restaurant in healdsburg donating boxes of burritos to those firefighters. We can eat. Burning a lot of calories doing this work. Reporter worth noting the firefighters are from patterson and turlock. They told me they havent been home for ten days since the fires began. You have to bet a burrito never tasted better. Live near healdsburg, Wayne Freedman, abc 7 news. All right, wayne, thank you. At least 1,000 Solano County families still cant go back to their homes after being evacuated from the fast moving lnu lightning complex. The wildfires claimed hundreds of homes and toepd as eric thomas toured whats left of one of them with a vacaville woman who lived there. Where this ends we have a deck. And those are the chairs to the deck. Reporter desiree gates has lived off and on in the family home in vacaville since she was 15. Where when your room . Upstairs. Reporter so its somewhere in here. Where that rubble is. Reporter her greatgrandmother moved in and so would desirees dad and sister. This was her sisters mini cooper. Now its just scorched junk. The family was forced to evacuate last wednesday when flames crept up over a nearby ridge. The first time i was ever scared of a fire out here. We just grabbed a bag and the dogs and we left. Reporter despite the enormity of her loss she says she hasnt had time to be sad but is focused on rebuilding. It never ceases to amaze how the flames can leave one home totally unscathed yet a few feet away totally destroy another building. For some of the vacaville residents who lost homes these two 16yearolds are putting their all into helping out. Laura and zana began a small effort to gather food, toiletries and clothes for fire victims but at an event sunday hundreds of people dropped by to donate filling this classroom and part of another at vacaville high. And the best part . They did it without parental help. We just wanted to be there for people who have helped us in our hard times, our friends and family. They came by. It was great knowing they were helping and we were helping those people who needed it. Reporter they plan more events and to distribute in the future. An update on the scu affecting the east bay. 665,000 acres have burned and the complex is 25 contained. Officials say the weather has given crews a small reprieve but they still have a long way to go. Its a moment we need to take a big, deep breath and we need to maintain our diligence for our safety, for the safety of the public. People still need to heed those orders and warnings in place. The communities evacuated, its an inconvenience. We are not going to keep those orders or warnings out there any longer than we have to. Check out the latest map. The Evacuation Order zones are shown in red. Thats where people have to leave, they must get out. The evacuation warnings are in yellow, not mandatory but advised. In green, thats where people are allowed to return home. Lets listen in to a live update from cal fire on the czu lightning complex. Were trying to get this News Conference for you. Theyve been doing it every night right about this time giving us the latest information. Were just continuing to monitor that part of the fire and trying to wrap that up to make that safe. Working down the highway 1 corridor were having more and more success with that putting the control line where we need to. Some selfmitigated, as i said before, and were continuing to monitor that. Davenport is looking really good. Today they were working on reenergizing the electricity back to the community. A lot of work along highway 1 by pg e as well as cal trans to make sure the road is safe to pass. Our line to the south continues to hold. Looks really good. Thats protecting santa cruz and the uc campus. I was there about an hour ago. It looks solid and were comfortable with that. In particular well start seeing the weather change, a northerly push of the wind moving into this weekend so i feel comfortable that will hold and what we also did with the wind blowing on that, a wind test. The lines will hold based on the wind. To us thats a great measure of success because it means that that fire is extinguished and lines are doing what theyre supposed to do. Felton is looking really good. We have good line around threequarters of it and continuing to put line up through the highway 9 corridor behind ben lomond. A lot of crews in. We received a few more hand crews come in and they are working. We put them right to work so were having a lot of success with that and will continue to have success with that. And down just between ben lomond, talking about a burnout operation, just came from that operation right now. Were taking that slow, methodical. The weather conditions, had to delay the operation. As we saw today some fog stuck around a long time, kept the relative humidity up. We had to wait before we started lighting that fire so we have an effective burn and one that we can control readily. Its looking good, burning well, doing exactly what we want it to do. It will take us longer to accomplish the mission because of the weather. Were looking at making that line go just on the back side of felton just below ben lomond and tie into highway 9. So that will give us a good level of protection for the community of felton and then well continue up as we stated up the highway 9 corridor. Bonny doon is looking good. They are mopping up around homes, continuing to find any fire in the ravines and drainages and start to extinguish that, mop that up. There are a lot of hazard trees in there. Weve had a number fall across felton road, specialty crews in to open up the road, cut the trees down and eliminating the hazard trees that could pose a hazard to our personnel or any of the Utility Company folks that are working in that area to start restoring that infrastructure which they are doing as we open up the roadways throughout the fire and the 236 corridor and working with caltrans so we can get deeper into the park and setting up the structure to restore. One matter of note and an unfortunate situation, as i said this morning, highly qualified individuals that are setting up, planning and running the operation. One of our personnel, the commanders that is setting up and running the operation unfortunately last night somebody broke into his Fire Department vehicle and stole his protective equipment. It delayed the operation as well. He was able to get restocked with equipment and continued forward with his mission. A little bit of a delay unfortunately due to that circumstance. The Police Department is working in conjunction with our officials to deal with that issue and moving forward with that. Aircraft, unfortunately, due to the weather today, couldnt really get a lot of hours of flying. Weve been able to max out our aircraft, drop a lot water. Today wasnt as successful, unfortunately, we could not fly due to the weather. As soon as we had the small window of opportunity we did. We were only able to drop about 10,000 gallons of water. Still not bad but in order to support our Ground Troops we couldnt do the maximum effort the past few days. Thats just part of the job, the nature of the job. We have to be able to bounce back, take care of the fire line and start mitigating the circumstance. We believe the weather in the next few days will be better for us and well be able to maximize that effort. Thank you. An update on the czu lightning complex. This is taking place in scotts valley. As you heard really very good news around all the communities, davenport, felton, ben lomond, bonny doon. Everything looking fairly encouraging today. About 80,000 acres and 19 contained. The weather made it a little difficult, as you heard, because of the fog to do a burn operation today. It kept things too moist and they could not fly their aircraft as much as they wanted to because of the weather. A pretty good report out of the czu lightning fire complex today. Its only 19 but encouraging. And you can follow fires statewide with our exclusive wildfire tracker updated with the latest information from cal fire. Check in to see containment information in real time. The fire tracker available at abc7news. Com. I dont agree with what the new cdc guidance, full stop. Its not the policy in the state of california. Its more than federal versus state. Hear what bay area experts have to say about the cdcs new guidelines for coronavirus testing. Symptoms are very similar. As a doctor it will be hard to tell the difference. Think weve had enough . Were about to face a twindemic as cases overlap with fl a live look outside from our mt. Tam camera and a thick layer of smoke still in the distance. You know the situation is serious when you see this thing deployed to fight a fire. Part of cal fires aerial assault against the wildfires has been this boeing 747 specially adapted, of course. It dumped a long streak of red flame retardant over the scu complex. When sky 7 caught up with it this afternoon. Its a payload of nearly 20,000 pounds of retardant or water. The quad jet is the Worlds Largest aerial firefighting aircraft now working hard here in northern california. Smaller aircraft have been making passes over the fire zone like this helicopter. Sky 7 found it siphoning from a lake for another mission over the scu complex. Very impressive to see the equipment they can deploy these days to fight fires. Absolutely. As always as we heard in the czu complex update it depends on the weather whether or not they can fly. So true. The weather is helping a little bit in some ways and not so much in other ways. Our current 24hour temperature change. Notice how much cooler it is all across the area. Significantly cooler than at this time yesterday. Thats helpful, of course. The relative humidity is up and the temperature range right now 50s on the coast, 57 here in San Francisco, low 60s around the bay and 60s and 70s inland. Thats all good news for the fire containment effort. Hazy conditions, low temperatures in the mid to upper 50s. Tomorrow another hazy, smoky day. A little bit warmer than today but not hot tomorrow. Highs will range from mid60s at the coast to mid70s around the bay to mainly upper 80s and low 90s inland. The accuweather sevenday forecast. Two more spare the air days tomorrow and friday cleaner air over the week and a moderate range of summerlike temperatures. Dan, ama . Up next, california makes major changes to coronavirus testing vo my name is cynthia hawkins, the owner of Hawkins House of burgers. My grandparents came here in 1939 and weve been serving this community for over 80 years. My dad always said, take care of your community and they will always take care of you. And they have done so. Through the ups and through the downs. My name may be on this building, but this place belongs to all of us. Inflammation in your eye might be to blame. Ck, looks like a great day for achy, burning eyes overthecounter eye drops typically work by lubricating your eyes and may provide temporary relief. Ha these drops probably wont touch me. Xiidra works differently, targeting inflammation that can cause dry eye disease. What is that . Xiidra, noooo it can provide lasting relief. Xiidra is the only fda approved treatment specifically for the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. One drop in each eye, twice a day. Dont use if youre allergic to xiidra. Common side effects include eye irritation, discomfort or blurred vision when applied to the eye, and unusual taste sensation. Dont touch container tip to your eye or any surface. After using xiidra, wait 15 minutes before reinserting contacts. Got any room in your eye . Talk to an eye doctor about twicedaily xiidra. I prefer you didnt xiidra. Not today, dry eye. Building a better bay area means looking out for our health. The pandemic appears to be subsiding. The number of new cases, about 6,000, is below average. The number of hospitalized patients continues to drop and is down to about 4,300 from the peak of more than 7,000 a month ago. That number is above average. The test positivity rate, the percentage of tests coming back with a positive result, is on the decline. Over 14 days its at 6. 1 . Seven days its down to 5. 8 . Our special correspondent appeared on abc 7s getting answers at 3 00 and explained why its difficult to fast track a vaccine. It wants to go through three phases of trials. The data has to be great and an fda approval. You make sure the vaccine works and making sure that it can be transported and stored properly. Once approved it wil go to essential workers. Californias governor announced big plans today to expand covid Testing Capacity, cut down costs and shorten test turnaround times, a new plan the state is launching to prepare ahead of flu season. Reporter ahead of whats projected to be a busy flu season. Governor gavin newsom a new approach to disrupt the covid testing market. People that develop flu like symptoms are going to understandably and likely request that they get tested not only for flu but for covid19. Reporter in an effort to prepare the state signed a contract with a major Diagnostics Company that will process an additional 150,000 covid tests per day that will more than double the states current Testing Capacity plus drive down test turnaround times. We are demanding test results back within 24 hours, the latest 48 hours. That will be a big cut from the current five to sevenday wit. Current lip the average cost for a covid test is 150 to 200. Under this new partnership the goal is to drive down that price to around 30. The state hopes to have these labs up and running between november and march of next year. Stepnie sierra, abc 7 news. Officials now say that people without symptoms of covid19 no longer need to be tested even if theyve potentially been exposed to the virus. This abrupt change is prompting alarm from Health Experts who believe this could make matters worse. Abc 7 News Reporter chris nguyen has local reaction from san jose. Reporter Public Health officials didnt hold back after learning about the new covid19 testing guidelines from the cdc. When i first heard about this change in guidelines, i actually didnt believe it. Reporter the Nations HealthProtection Agency now says that as long as a person doesnt show symptoms then testing may not be necessary. Health officers, however, are questioning the guidance saying that its important to identify infections in the small window preceding the onset of symptoms while people are still contagious. It seemed entirely bizarre in that it undercuts our very basic tenets of how we control an infectious disease. Reporter this comes amid questions whether politics has leaked into science. White House Coronavirus Task force member dr. Anthony fauci expressed his concerns earlier this afternoon about the interpretation of these new guidelines saying he was undergoing surgery and under general anesthesia at the time these changes were being discussed by the group. County Officials Say they will continue to urge anyone who may have been exposed to get tested as soon as possible. Failing to test is not going to end this pandemic. Failing to test will not make the virus go away. Reporter the governor saying he disagrees with the cdc. Influenced by those that are experts in the field that feel very differently and so with respect to the cdc that is not the policy guideline we will embrace or adopt in the state of california. Reporter according to their own estimates, those infected with the coronavirus may never go on to develop symptoms which is why experts believe proactiv