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Your Coronavirus Update – Today, Aug. 28, 2020
Photo: The first monument honoring real women in Central Park was unveiled. The Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument, honors suffragists Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL
45% of Americans say they are “shoring up” their savings because of going through this pandemic experience
The Military Officers Association of America is offering assistance to veterans dealing with COVID19 financial issues… see here: https://www.moaa.org/relief-application
CMS is enforcing stricter requirements for testing in Medicare – and Medicaid-certified nursing homes and reporting in hospitals and labs.
CMS has launched a nursing home training program to control COVID19
Masks are now required in Paris. Schools are planning to open and the Tour de France is planned on schedule.
California’s Disneyland is set to open soon.
Vermont has limited its public gatherings to 25.
The United Nations backs testing asymptomatic people.
England and Scotland appeared to run out of coronavirus home testing kits within hours on Monday, amid a backlog in laboratories.
Beginning Sept. 1, CMS will require hospitals to document a positive COVID-19 laboratory test in order to keep the 20% add-on payment they receive for treating Medicare patients with the coronavirus.
The CDC says healthy people who have been exposed to COVID-19 “do not necessarily need a test,” as long as they don’t have symptoms. That’s a reversal from previous advice that clearly recommended testing for all close contacts of infected individuals, regardless of whether they had symptoms.
The jet engine maker Rolls-Royce made a record loss of £5.4bn in the first half of the year, with the collapse in international travel during the pandemic leading to a slump in demand for its engines.
More confusion at the CDC with coronavirus guidance. One day the advice was not to test asymptomatic people. Day later, Dr. Fauci says, no, that’s misleading and runs counter to what scientists say is necessary to control the pandemic.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a warning about a new coronavirus health risk you probably didn’t expect: getting slapped, choked or kicked in the workplace by angry customers. And the best way to avoid it is not to engage. The health agency issued guidance this week for retail and service workers suggesting ways consumer facing companies can limit violence toward workers that may occur when businesses implement policies to stop the spread of the virus. Or in other words, how to protect workers tasked with the unenviable job of asking shoppers to wear masks, keep 6 feet apart or wait their turn before entering a capacity-limited store.
At least 10 possible vaccines are in the final Phase 3 clinical testing stage.
Biotech company Moderna announced that a small study of its potential vaccine shows it’s as safe and apparently effective in older adults as in younger ones. The company had released data on 15 younger adults, showing a100-microgramdose appeared safe and triggered an immune response similar to people who had been infected with the coronavirus. The new data, which has not yet been published or scientifically reviewed, shows similar results among 10 adults between the ages of 56 and 70 and another 10 older than 71.
The city of Berlin will put thousands of police on the streets at the weekend to enforce a ban on demonstrations opposing measures imposed to stem the coronavirus pandemic after marchers at a recent rally failed to wear masks or keep their distance.
Anticoagulation (blood thinners) for patients hospitalized with COVID-19 was associated with lower risk of death or intubation in an observational study from New York City’s pandemic peak.
Women seem to be doing better recovering from coronavirus – bodies produced more so-called T cells, which can kill virus-infected cells and stop the infection from spreading. Men showed much weaker activation of T cells, and that lag was linked to how sick the men became. The older the men, the weaker their T cell responses.
Massachusetts Teachers Association, the largest teachers union in the state, released a statement pushing back on plans for schools to reopen with in-person learning. Without better COVID safeguards in place, it was too dangerous, the organization argued.
Scientists say influenza has almost disappeared in the Southern Hemisphere due to COVID-19 precautions, suggesting the Northern Hemisphere may avoid the double whammy of the coronavirus and flu. (https://www.npr.org/2020/08/26/906333316/coronavirus-safety-precautions-make-influenza-nearly-disappear-in-southern-hemis)
Encore Casino broke up an inside party of over 100 people – limits are 25 people.
Salesforce to lay off 1,000 employees
Dick’s Sporting Goods has seen a big spike in sales – largely workout equipment, supplies.
Smaller hotels will recover faster than larger hotels in coming back to full business.
The main Boston Public Library has reopened
Maine Maple Sunday will take place Oct. 9-11, having been rescheduled.
In New Hampshire, a review of nursing homes that experienced coronavirus outbreaks unexpectedly found no correlation between their ventilation systems and how the virus spread through the facilities,
New Jersey gyms can reopen beginning Sept. 1, after nearly six months of being closed, if they limit capacity to 25%
Even with tens of millions of Americans out of work, single-family home sales jumped by 25% between June and July, and 68% of the single-family homes sold in July spent less than a month on the market, according to housing research firm Zelman & Associates. Read more at:
Construction drones are at times expensive, difficult to operate and hard to maneuver without solid training, but the coronavirus has within a matter of months transformed these unmanned aerial vehicles from emerging tech tools to front-line workers on U.S. construction sites.
Half of Massachusetts office workers are expected to permanently stay home.
A Boston University official on Wednesday warned that students who host or attend parties of more than 25 people this fall will be suspended for the remainder of the semester as the school tries to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on campus.
Nature, Inc. says in many ways, especially compared to other countries, the US is “flying blind” in accurate data on coronavirus – https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02478-z?utm_source=STAT+Newsletters&utm_campaign=04a35670e2-MR_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8cab1d7961-04a35670e2-132813241
RHODE ISLAND & VICINITY
Cumberland and Pawtucket have made a “distance learning” decision, saying there was not sufficient time to do a combination or going back to inside school learning.
Some school districts are planning to move students to schools that can be adapted for building safety
URI spokesperson said about party gatherings – “no parties until there’s a vaccine”.
South Kingstown: The town is warning University of Rhode Island students that off-campus parties that violate state restrictions on large gatherings will not be tolerated. Town Manager Robert Zarnetske has issued an executive order that imposes a $500 fine for anyone who hosts an off-campus party or gathering, WPRI-TV reports. Anyone who attends could face a $250 fine. The ACLU is preparing a response to this.
The RI DMV is starting to schedule the backlog of people waiting for their permit tests – some 24,000.
Trinity’s Christmas Carol will be offered free and virtually this year.
Fall River middle/senior high school students in need of chrome books can get them from a new program by Verizon to support community educational efforts.
Igus Corp. has donated 20,000 face shields/PPE to Providence Public Schools
RI Data – 8-27-2020
Deaths: 3 – 3 day hospitalizations: 83
Note about the data: The high “tests prior day” – 8, 594 this day – reflect the occasional “data dump” of colleges screening large numbers of young people. This means the percent positive – in yesterday’s case, 1.3% – doesn’t apply to a generalized population. RINewsToday has inquired of the RI Dept. of Health if the datasets would now be changed to reflect more accuracy.
Governor’s address Monday at 1pm – and every day after that at 1pm for a 15 minute school update.
Data by city/town
Providence Youth meal service will continue at summer meal sites<https://eatplaylearnpvd.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/EPL-summermeals-2020-flyer-07212020.png> as-is through Monday, August 31. Revised meal service will run from Tuesday, September 1 through Friday, September 11. There will be no service on Monday, September 7 in observance of Labor Day. Multi-day meal distribution will begin on Tuesday, September 1 on Tuesdays and Fridays from 11:00AM to 2:00PM.
The City and Providence Parks Department will be extending operations and staffing at waterparks to September 12. The Providence Parks Finder<https://www.providenceri.gov/providence-parks/park-finder/> can be utilized to find nearby park locations. Recreation Department locations can be found on the <https://www.providenceri.gov/providence-recreation/> Department’s website<https://www.providenceri.gov/providence-recreation/.
Students from Davies Tech have developed a phone app to screen students for COVID19