Calls to domestic abuse hotlines have risen locally and nationally during the COVID-19 pandemic and advocates are trying to reach victims in innovative ways, according to prosecutors and Childhelp, a group that helps abused children.

Calls to the Alameda County Family Justice Center, which helps abuse victims locally, have risen from 45 in March to 264 in June, county prosecutors said. Additional calls may have been taken by police, according to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.

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Keith Burbank is currently a fulltime reporter covering Alameda County and Oakland news for Bay City News. He has also worked on the Data Points project for Local News Matters, finding trends and stories about the region through data. In 2019, he was a California Fellow at the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, producing a series about homeless deaths in Santa Clara County. He worked as a swing shift editor for the newswire for several years as well. Outside of journalism, Keith enjoys computer programming, math, economics and music.