Local nursing homes have taken some big steps — including prohibiting visitors — in an effort to prevent spread of the COVID-19 virus within their walls, the Times-Standard reports.

The story, reported by Sonia Waraich, details how homes have implemented new sanitation protocols for employees, canceled residents' group activities and shuttered their dining halls in favor of delivering food to residents' rooms. Read the full story here.

Also in the Times-Standard, Shomik Mukherjee reports that one of the county's 50 positive COVID-19 cases to date stemmed from a test taken at Hoopa's K'ima:w Medical Center. According to the report, the center has so far tested 16 other people, with 11 negative results and five tests still pending. Read his full report here.

The Lost Coast Outpost, meanwhile, is reporting that the Hoopa Valley Tribe, which has closed its lands to non-residents, will institute "checkpoints" near its main facilities to contact motorists in an effort to protect tribal members from further infection. Read Freddy Brewster's story here. Also in the Outpost, John Ross Ferrara has a piece about Humboldt's "very own TikTok celebrity" while Andrew Goff caught up with "Humboldt's heroic skytagger," a pilot who skywrote a happy face, peace sign and other stuff in local skies on Wednesday, but failed to ask how such sky tagging could be considered an "essential" outing under the county's shelter-in-place order. Stephanie McGeary, meanwhile, reports on Eureka's efforts to address homelessness and protect the vulnerable population amid the COVID-19 crisis. Check her story out here.

You can pop over the Mad River Union to see videos of a bear and a bobcat in Arcata's Jacoby Creek Forest.