Subscribe!
Your Coronavirus Update – Today – July 17, 2020
Photo: Dr. Fauci, 2015, Science Magazine, suiting up to treat an Ebola patient
NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL
Governor Brian Kemp bans Georgia cities and counties from mandating masks and face coverings
Hackers associated with Russian intelligence services are trying to steal information from researchers involved in coronavirus vaccine development
Johnson & Johnson are in talks with Japan, and the Gates Foundation to lock in deals on COVID-19 vaccine
U.S. plans to restrict Mexico, Canada border crossings until late August
400 million people re-enter lockdown in India.
In Arizona, all of the morgues are full, so the state is bringing in refrigerated trucks.
At least 56 Florida hospitals have reached capacity. Hospitals in Miami-Dade County have run out of ICU beds
Just 22 of more than 600 nursing homes in New York have submitted needed safety plans to allow limited visits, according to the state Department of Health.
ViacomCBS says staffers won’t return to offices until 2021
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that 21% of Twitter chatter about COVID19 was toxic.
Universal Health Services and Bayada Home Health Care signed a definitive agreement to form a strategic partnership over expected demand for home-based care.
Tokyo declares coronavirus red alert – says situation is “rather severe”
A Jewish day camp in Texas closes following a COVID19 outbreak
Israel will limit class size and keep older students home in 2nd attempt to reopen schools
Best Buy – Kohls – Target have all joined the national call for customers to wear a mask or face covering to come into their stores across the US – see full list
Colorado, Texas, Atlanta (not state of Georgia) & Arkansas have issued mask wearing mandates, joining 36 other states.
Officials in Portland, Maine said that health organizations will launch 18 “swab and send” testing sites to help make coronavirus testing more accessible to residents.
The amount the U.S. would need to spend in order to fix the nation’s Covid-19 testing system is $75 billion, according to a report released by The Rockefeller Foundation.
Estimated in an analysis for the Peterson Institute for International Economics: The ‘expiration of benefits would reduce GDP by 2.5 percent on average in the second half of 2020, costing an average of 2 million jobs over the next year and raising the unemployment rate by up to 1.2 percentage points. — Jason Furman, economic policy professor at Harvard
New Hampshire’s guidelines for reopening schools “do very little to keep students and staff safe” from the coronavirus, said the president of the state’s largest teachers’. The state is leaving it up to each school district to decide whether to fully return to the classroom, continue with remote learning or develop hybrid models that combine elements of both.
Johns Hopkins researchers say the U.S. needs to add a minimum of 100,000 contract tracers.
Massachusetts and New York have reported success with tracing
Quest Labs said they want patients and healthcare providers to know that we will not be in a position to reduce our turnaround times as long as cases of COVID-19 continue to increase dramatically across much of the United States. This is not just a Quest issue. The surge in COVID-19 cases affects the laboratory industry as a whole.
Alabama will require people to wear face masks “when interacting within 6 feet” of people from separate households.
Jim Cramer, Mad Money, on economic difficulty of business: “There is only one serious, barely foolproof method to bridge us to a successful vaccine, and that’s stimulus from the federal government – the first was only supposed to last until the end of July. And it did. And then we botched the reopenings.
Former Fall River Mayor Correia’s trial will now be held in 2021.
United Health almost doubles 2nd quarter profits in COVID19 crisis
1 in 3 children in Florida who were symptomatic tested positive for COVID19
On Monday, the Lancet will publish results from a Phase 1 study of a vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, the journal told Reuters. That follows early-stage data from Pfizer and BioNTech, uploaded to a preprint server earlier this month, and Phase 1 results from Moderna, published in the New England Journal of Medicine this week.
An old idea for treating inflammation in the lungs has resurfaced: low-dose radiation therapy. The idea originally emerged after scientists found data suggesting that small amounts of radiation could combat pneumonia, and now at least a dozen trials worldwide are testing whether low doses of radiation could help reduce inflammation in the lungs of those with Covid-19. Read more from STAT’s Juliet Isselbacher.
These companies now have a mandatory mask wearing policy for all stores throughout the US:
A T & T – American Eagle – Apple – BJs – Best Buy – Costco – CVS – Dollar Tree – Family Dollar – HEB – Kohls – Krogers – Quarate Retail – Sams Clubs – Starbucks – Target – Trader Joe’s – Verizon – Walmart – Whole Foods
RHODE ISLAND & VICINITY
RI Data
Deaths: 1; 3 Day Average People Hospitalized: 63
Middletown saw the biggest boost locally, a 25% increase over the past 12 days.
The RI Legislature will put together a 15-member study commission to study minimum wage and minimum care hours for nursing homes in RI. The move to pay $15/hour and provide 4.1 hours of direct care was not approved, with the study commission. The Senate moved to approve, but the House did not.
School district reopening plans in RI are due to the RI Dept. of Education today. Mask-wearing is expected to be required for high school students and working in small pods of students may be required for elementary and middle schools.
South Kingstown parking fines for illegal parking near beaches has gone from $25 t $100
RI added 27,000 jobs last month
Age in RI: The average age of people in the state with the coronavirus continues to drop, concerning state health officials. The average fell from 47.5 years old the week of June 14 to 39.2 years old the week of June 21, according to RIDOH statistics. For the week of July 5, the average age fell to a low of 37.9 years.
The first day of restricted parking at 2 RI beaches: filled to capacity before 11:30am at Misquamicut and 10:30 at Scarborough.
Care.com, the Governor’s choice for childcare assistance for RI families, and the nation’s largest online marketplace for babysitters and other caregivers, will pay $1 million in civil penalties and restitution to settle accusations over misrepresented background checks and auto-renewed subscriptions without getting consumers’ consent.
RI unemployment now at 12.5%
RI Nursing Homes are now officially complaining that long waits in testing results for staff are dangerous. Several staff have gone to work while positive, according to the RI Healthcare Association and they worked for several days in the homes. Nursing home staff work while waiting for tests (otherwise no nurse could work as they are tested every week). There are news reports that some staff who were positive had been working for days.
The Ocean Race in Newport postponed one year to October of 2021
The Narragansett Council, Boy Scouts of America hosted a Gratitude Parade for hospital workers at Rhode Island Hospital and Kent Hospital on Monday July 13 to recognize the dedication, bravery and compassionate care of essential workers.
R.I. Foundation awards $1.7M in grants to 31 nonprofits to support behavioral health
_____
To freedom…
Releasing an eagle after it was treated and recovered from its injuries..at the Northwoods Wildlife Centre