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Coronavirus Update Today, April 21, 2020
(Photo, top: India has created disinfectant tunnels for people, bikes, to go through)
NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL
Disney stops paying 100,000 workers, roughly half its workforce, even as it protects executive bonus schemes and a $1.5 billion dividend payment due in July.
US will halt all immigration to U.S.
Brooklyn nursing home marks 55 deaths
Tom Brady was asked to leave a closed park in Florida, where he was exercising, apparently unaware that it had been closed.
Vermont On Friday, Gov. Phil Scott announced plans to reopen some businesses – under restrictions – on Monday. Farmers markets can reopen in limited capacities, starting May 1
WHO chief warns the worst of the coronavirus is still ahead
‘The Batman’ film release pushed back 4 months
Initial reports that Michael Milken has been talking with Amazon about delivering coronavirus test kits to every American.
Neiman Marcus is expected to file for bankruptcy today.
As of Monday, the Navajo Nation, which sprawls across three states, had 1,197 positive cases. It has a per capita infection rate 10 times higher than that of neighboring Arizona and the third-highest infection rate in the country behind those of New York and New Jersey. Forty-four people have died, more than in 14 other states.
Vistaprint is Set to Donate 100,000 Face Shields to Hospitals in Underserved Communities Across the U.S.
Smaller shops in Germany begin to reopen as lockdown eases
South Carolina reopens many businesses effective immediately
‘Vast majority’ of businesses in Tennessee to reopen by May 1
N.J. Gov. Murphy says he plans to announce blueprint to reopen state
Georgia to begin reopening businesses on Friday
Some doctors are reporting that revenue is falling 50% to 90%.
Children aged 12 and under in Spain will next Monday be allowed to leave their homes after five weeks of confinement.
CMS has released guidelines for opening of healthcare facilities for non-emergent, non-Covoid-19 healthcare: https://www.cms.gov/files/document/covid-flexibility-reopen-essential-non-covid-services.pdf
President’s Press Conference
VP had good call with nation’s governors. Hundreds of private labs are available and some governors didn’t know about it – they have been given a list. States need to inventory their ventilators to see if they have what they need.
Gov. Cuomo – said testing is up to the states to do – 300 labs in NY; governor will coordinate. Cuomo coming to White House tomorrow.
Ventilators – we have so many now we can help other countries – helping Mexico soon. No one that needed a ventilator in the US went without. Will also help states stockpile some for their own use.
Overflow hospitals – Lt. Gen. Semonite, Army Corps of Engineers, updated on facility development. 3 Legs: sites, supplies, staff. Needed simple solution for a complicated catastrophe. Be able to power it down to local level. Looked for existing facilities – hotels, dorms, convention centers – covid & non-covid. Over 100 locations. Now have 32 facilities – 8 done – 16,000 beds. 6 pending. Need an agile plan. “This virus gets a vote”. Designed another 52 facilities – governors installed those. Javits Center – 2100 bed spaces with lights, bed, nurse call station, central oxygen systems – about 1,000 used facility. In Detroit: 970 beds in convention center. Chicago: McCormick Place – 3,000 bed spaces. Miami – Convention Center, 450 beds, done 2 weeks earlier. “Life’s are on the line here”. Colorado: 1,243 bed spaces – 6 miles of oxygen pipe. “All about the team”. “This is a noble calling to step up and save lives”. They are now working on longer build out times and some shorter build out times. Work directly with mayor and governor. (Also gave an update on the border walls – #1 Protect the team, protect the force – 4,000 contractors building border walls, no injuries, construction going smooth. 450 miles of wall by Dec. 2020 – 164 miles done as of now – trying to balance with citizens and environment).
Testing – Over 5,000 testing centers all around US. Asked “cottage industry” to ramp up in 2 weeks what would be production of one year. Adm. Giroir reported on team. Started with military planes going to Italy to get swabs in a plant that was closed due to virus. Testing would have taken 80% of PPE. Now beginning to use polyester swabs. Brad Smith, CMS Innovation Center spoke about testing machines, collection supplies, materials to support machine in lab. 30 million swabs being made in northwest US. Another company which is largest QTip maker is changing to swabs. Collection tubes – 40 million a month being made. 17 million lancets for finger pricks. 17 million alcohol swabs. 650,000 infrared thermometers. Extraction kits – 3 million kits per month. 3 million cartridges.
If criteria are met, we have enough testing for every state in the US to go to phase I when they are ready.
Dr. Birx: Boston & Chicago signaled out for the great incidence they are seeing right now. Reviewed Governor’s conference call agenda with labs, lab machines, and the variety.
RHODE ISLAND & VICINITY
Data:
5 new deaths – 155 total deaths
339 new positive cases – 5,090 total positives
31,990 total negative cases
37,080 total tested
272 in hospital, 62 in ICU, 45 on ventilators, 267 hospital discharges
5 new deaths: 1 in 60s, 1 in 80s, 3 in 90s. – all from nursing homes. Stillwater, Golden Crest, Scalabrini, Woonsocket Health Center, Scarlet and Memory Lane
Most of the hospitalized, in the aggregate, have been in their 60s.
Race & Ethnicity data: Most cases are among Latino – 45% (50% of population are Latino). 12% are African American, non-Hispanic (6% of population are African American). Why? Number of factors – one is makeup of critical workforce, those who work in healthcare facilities, food industry, warehouses, manufacturing facilities. 80% of what keeps us healthy happens outside of the medical setting – housing, food, safety, poverty, living conditions
6th correctional officer tests positive at ACI
7 test positive at St. Antoine’s in Woonsocket
Bryant resets graduation to end of August
Incidence: CDC estimates 25% of those infected may have no symptoms. Pentagon officials say it may be as high as 60% to 70% among military personnel.
New Zealand has set a goal of eliminating the virus altogether.
RI Governor’s Press Conference
Praised citizens for their cooperation
Talked about getting people back to work, but “we need to be honest we face some headwinds that other states don’t have”. Says we need to rebuild the economy together over 5 or 6 years. We can rebuild this time because all building blocks are in place. “We need to be brave”. Going back to work, out to eat, getting our hair done without being afraid when the time comes – knowing the state can keep us safe. We’re not going to go from 5 to 50 or 100 overnight – “that’s going to take a long time”. We have to be flexible – “I might change my mind”.
Stay at home order until May 8th. Hope we see a state of decline of rate of infection.
Questions we need to ask when we are ready to open some venues:
1. Has rate of infection continued to decrease?
2. Do we have capacity to quickly identify community spread before a major outbreak occurs?
3. Do we have supports in place for vulnerable populations – and those in quarantine? (older will have to stay at home longer)
4. Does healthcare system have capacity and PPE to handle future surges?
5. Do businesses, schools, child care leaders, faith based groups, and recreational spaces have plans for social distancing?
6. Are we prepared to re-close certain sectors of the economy if it becomes necessary? (this is likely to happen).
How are our plans compared to White House guidelines for states?
White House calls for phased approach to open economy. RI will look at industry by industry, setting by setting, sector by sector.
Downward trajectory in cases. RI supports that.
Testing and contact tracing in place? RI agrees.
Overall, RI agrees with DC approach. Difference is RI will have much more detail, Governor will add. Northeast Coalition collaboration will be good. Particularly important to collaborate with Massachusetts.
Gov. predicts in 4, 6, 9 months from now we’ll meet our goals.
SNAP benefits: Approved 73,000 student families will get more support. $5.70 for each child for each day retroactive to March 16th – about $200 per child so far will be coming to families on existing/new cards. The Governor also announced that the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) recently granted Rhode Island the authority to issue Pandemic-EBT benefits (P-EBT) to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and non-SNAP households with one or more children who have temporarily lost access to free or reduced price meals at school due to COVID-19 school closures. For households receiving SNAP benefits, the additional benefits will be added to their existing EBT cards. Households not currently receiving SNAP benefits will receive a new P-EBT card in the mail with benefits automatically added and a personal identification number (PIN) and setup instructions. More information can be found here.
Quarantine group on Facebook with 3,000 members on it: We must focus on facts, science and data so we don’t have trouble again with outbreaks.
School data shows attendance rates of 90+% – lots engaging, some are struggling, those with special needs are struggling, teachers are reporting work is being done and going better than they thought.
Testing – comes out best on those with symptoms; want to minimize testing people with no symptoms who may be positive; some situations (congregate, nursing homes, homeless shelters…) there is risk of significant cluster of cases and overwhelming of healthcare system…does include testing of everyone.
Pediatric question about emotion/psychological impact on children about being out of school – reinforces use of KIDSLink, TeleHealth. Promoting positive mental health – get outside – it is good for mental health.
Protests – social distancing needs to be kept. Free to express opinions, but if you congregate in groups of 5 or more, we will enforce that.
Why is state still projecting such a high rate – is it to make sure Rhode Islanders comply? Models reflect effectiveness of stay at home order. They change in real time. Actual experience should look a lot better.
Are all testing sites asking for racial and ethnic makeup? In beginning we did not collect the data; our current system incorporates this now.
Over 60s – what does the future look like? – Yes, most at risk. Most aggressive in protecting them. Will need to be creative to protect them.
Serologic, antibody testing – when is enough testing enough? Use FDA approved tests. Each state is getting a visit by a CDC team to develop surveillance testing.
All our testing machines are in use in Rhode Island.
What does RI need from the Federal govt – Ease of filling orders for testing kits. Have 6-7 Abbott machines without kits. Replenish PPP Need help for our hospitals, monetarily.
2,000 tests done per day in RI right now. Total: 37,000
Large employers want all of their employees tested. Should we do it? How do we do it?
Antibody testing – how to begin doing that, too.
RI has 30 day cancellation clauses for the 3 offsite medical hospitals so if we don’t need them we can opt out. To open economy, you have to show you have excess capacity, just in case.
SNAP cards still can’t be used online. Working on it.
A moment of joy…the animals are enjoying our absence…
The Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) says its rangers currently have their hands full to keep African penguins from wandering into the quiet streets during the national lockdown.