Three more residents in the St. Cloud tri-county area have died from COVID-19 and there are 518 more cases of COVID-19, the Minnesota Department of Health reported this week.
The Minnesota Department of Health reported 11,432 additional cases and 49 more deaths this week. The health departmentreports thenumbers Monday through Friday.
There were 309 additional cases of COVID-19 reported in Stearns County, 125 in Sherburne County and 84 in Benton County.
The deaths of aStearns County resident in their late 80s and two Benton County residents, one in their late 70s and one in their early 90s, were also reported this week.
Here are the area numbers since the COVID-19 pandemic began:
Statewide, there have been 1,527,145 cases and 12,713 deaths reported by the health department. According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, the global count includes almost 535 million cases and more than 6.3 million deaths. In the U.S., there have been almost 85.5 million cases and more than 1 million deaths.
Stearns County leads the way in vaccination rates in the St. Cloud area, with 61.2% of the population 5and older having received at least one vaccine dose, according to the state. In Sherburne County, 58.7% of the same population has received at least one vaccine dose, and inBenton County, 57.7% has.
The St. Cloud area lags behind the statewide vaccination rate.In Minnesota as a whole, 75.2% of the population 5and older hasreceived at least one vaccine dose.
Sarah Kocher is thebusiness reporter for the St. Cloud Times. Reach her at 320-255-8799or skocher@stcloudtimes.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahAKocher.
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Scholars reflect on regulatory gaps in special education for students with disabilities during the pandemic.
Faced with the suspension of in-person behavioral and cognitive therapies, the inaccessibility of virtual learning platforms such as Zoom, and parent burnout, schoolchildren with disabilities and their families have dealt with many challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. As public schools nationwide transitioned to remote learning at the start of the pandemic, less than half of all states published remote learning plans with information about the remote provision of services to students with disabilities. As a result, many states looked to federal special education law for answers.
Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), students with disabilities must receive a free and appropriate public education. In addition, all public-school students receiving special education services under the IDEA must have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). In a previous Saturday Seminar, The Regulatory Review highlighted the successes and shortcomings of the IDEA. This weeks Seminar explores COVID-19s impact on students affected by the IDEA.
All students have struggled to adjust to online and hybrid learning during the pandemic. Students with disabilities, however, face unique barriers not felt by other student populations. These barriers make the IDEAs shortcomings especially prevalent in light of the pandemic.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Security (CARES) Act, signed into law in March 2020, gave the U.S. Secretary of Education the right to appeal Congress for waivers that would relax some of the IDEAs core requirements as schools transitioned to remote learning. In April, however, former Secretary Betsey DeVos issued recommendations declining to seek such flexibility for certain IDEA provisions.
Although DeVoss choice not to waive certain IDEA mandates encouraged parents and advocates of students with disabilities, local education agencies worried about the legal challenges they would face without any leniency to deliver remote special education services as best they could. By the end of the 2019-2020 school year, parents of students with disabilities brought several lawsuits against school districts and state education agencies. The parents argued that their childrens IEPs had been breached by schools not providing adequate accommodations.
Prior to the lawsuits, the Education Department issued nonbinding guidance implying that if a school did not provide education to its general student population due to COVID-19, it could avoid providing services to students with disabilities. According to the guidance, the IDEA does not specifically address a situation in which elementary and secondary schools are closed for an extended period of time. The guidance seemed to promote the idea that all students are served equally if no students are served at all. Educators responded that such directives contradicted the IDEAs promise that all students with disabilities should have access to an adequate education. The Education Department later clarified that schools should not avoid offering virtual education altogether to evade the legal consequences of failing to serve adequately students with disabilities.
Amid the Education Departments contradictory advice and its refusal to grant the IDEA waivers, some disability rights advocates felt that translating IEP supports and other accommodations to an online learning environment would be impossible. Nonetheless, states adopted various measures for educating children with disabilities in remote and hybrid settings.
This weeks Saturday Seminar highlights how COVID-19s effects on in-person classroom instruction have disproportionately impacted students with disabilities.
The Saturday Seminar is a weekly feature that aims to put into written form the kind of content that would be conveyed in a live seminar involving regulatory experts. Each week,The Regulatory Reviewpublishes a brief overview of a selected regulatory topic and then distills recent research and scholarly writing on that topic.
Lisa and Bruce Curry were on the hunt for the "perfect piece." And in the decade or so they'vebeen coming to the Columbus Arts Festival, they've never found it.
But this year, they're hopeful.
"Every time we come, we're like, 'This is goingto be the day, we feel it,'" said Lisa Curry, 56, of Dublin.
She said they're hopeful because of the "huge variety" of artists they'd seen so far during their visit to the festival Saturday morning.
That's because after two years of canceling the arts festival due to COVID-19, vendors from around Ohio and across the country swarmed the Scioto Mile this weekend, showcasing their ceramics, paintings and other kinds of visual arts.
The arts festival saw artists from numerous states, from Texas and Alabama, to California and Arizona.
Chris Goodenbury came to Columbus from Rochester, New York, and set up a booth selling and showcasing his wide-angle photos of abandoned buildings, mostly churches.
Goodenbury, a first-timer at the arts festival, said he heard about it through a friend who was previously a vendor. He applied and got waitlistedbut ended up getting a spot.
"(My friend) says it's one of the best shows in the country to do, so I thought why not give it a shot?" Goodenbury said.
During the pandemic, Goodenbury said he had to go onto unemployment due to art shows and festivals being shut down. However with some around the country coming back last year and now the Columbus festival this year, he's enjoyed seeing everyone again.
"Last year, when shows started coming back, people were just out in droves," he said. "It seemed like everyone was psyched to be back out."
Chris Charles, Goodenbury's friend from Rochester, New York, who had her own booth for prints, said it was her fourth time coming to the Columbusfestival. She first came in 2016 her first major art festival as a full-time artistand then came back in 2018 and 2019. And now, after two years of COVID, she returned to Columbus.
"I'm excited to be back;not just selling and having my business up and running but (also) getting to interact with people is huge," Charles said. "It's so nice to get immediate reactions to my work and just see old customers."
But while many artists came to Columbus from around the country, others only had to drive down the street to the arts festival.
One such artistwas Elijah Kleman, who set up his drawings and paintings as a part of the festival's Emerging Artists program. It is for artists who have little to no art festival experience andalso offers training for selling art and a lower booth fee.
Kleman, 32, of Columbus, had been coming to the arts festival for about a decade since he arrived at Ohio State University for collegebut only as a visitor.
"It's pretty surreal to be here as an actual artist," Kleman said.
After over two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, having the arts festival back feltlike a "return to normalcy," he said.
"I think it's really important to the artist community and in general; you see people from all different backgrounds here," Kleman said. "So I think it's important to the city itself, not just the artists."
Emily Cline, who set up her ceramics tent, Daphnia Ceramics, was in a similar boat.
Cline, who makes her pottery in North Linden, had been coming to the arts festival a few times over the years as an Ohio resident. But now vending there has been a dream come true, especially since opportunities to showcase art have been scarce during the pandemic.
"It's just great to see the vibrancy that we have here in Columbus with the arts community, coming back to life to what it normally is," Cline said.
But for Columbus residents like JoAnna Rogers, 60, the arts festival had a fresh feeling this year, even though she'd been going since the early '90s.
"Seeing people out walking and moving, walking with friends, staying together, getting separated and coming back together, all the experience has been good," Rogers said.
However, at the end of the day, the arts festival being back just means finding "that" piece of art again whether it's Rogers, who hoped to find a nice piece of jewelryor the Currys, looking for a statement piece to hang up on their wall or put in their garden.
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The hardships imposed by COVID-19 are not over yet. Many Vermonters are still struggling to pay existing and past bills, and the state's utilities have gotten together to remind us there are two federal grant programs one for homeowners and one for renters available to help.
But peopleshould apply now, before the money runs out.
The Vermont Emergency Rental Assistance Program (VERAPP) provides federal grant money for qualified renters to help pay their past due and ongoing utility bills and rent. Learn more and apply at https://vtutilityhelp.com, or by calling 833-3727.
The Vermont Homeowner Assistance Program (VT HAP) provides federal grant money for qualified homeowners to help pay up to $30,000 of their past due utility bills, mortgage, and association fees. Learn more and apply at https://vermonthap.vhfa.org/ or by calling 833-221-4208.
More: Vermont is stopping free COVID testing on June 25. Here's what you need to know.
Both programs are tied to income to qualify. In the case of the assistance program for renters, household income must be at or below 80% of the county median.
The program for homeowners includes a pre-screening calculator that will show income limitsbased on the county of residenceand the size of thehousehold. A household of four living in Chittenden County, for example, can qualify with a gross household income of $160,950 annually or less.
In addition to these federal grant programs, peoplecan always take the step of contacting theutility directly to set up a payment plan for past due bills.
Contact Dan DAmbrosio at 802-660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT.This coverage is only possible with support from our readers.
A new UH report discusses the economics of profits and premiums stemming from the federal laws governing COVID-19 PCR testing. Photo Credit: County of Maui.
A new report describes how the federal governments response to the COVID-19 pandemic created a perfect storm in which private laboratories could earn huge profits fromPCRtesting while insurance companies could pass those lab fees on to customers through higher health care premiums.
The report, by a team of researchers that included three economists from the University ofHawaiiat Mnoa, was published June 9in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
The two major components of the federal governments pandemic response the Families First Coronavirus Response and the CARES acts required commercial insurance plans to cover COVID-19 testing costs without any cost-sharing for patients, and did not limit what labs could charge.
In many concentrated insurance markets such asHawaii, insurers have few incentives to negotiate lower prices, said report co-authorTim Halliday, a UH Mnoas economic professor andUHEconomic Research Organizationresearch fellow. They can easily pass these costs onto premiums without losing market share.
The financial consequences of high profit for testing providers are borne by plan sponsors and will likely result in higher insurance premiums other things equal, passing the burden to patients.
Using uniqueHawaiitaxation data on monthly sales, the group analyzed how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the revenue and profitability of independent laboratories. The results showed that private laboratories revenue followed the volume ofPCRtests performed in the state in lockstep. Between May and December 2020, the monthly growth rate of revenue was 8% on average. The researchers estimate that profits perPCRtest were at least $10, but the actual number is likely far greater.
The COVID-19 testing pricing policies are as if designed to channel money from taxpayers, employers and workers to testing facilities and insurance companies, said co-author Ge Bai, health policy and management professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. This study revealed key problems affecting the efficiency of the U.S health care system, namely, rigid government rate-setting, price insensitivity of consumers, and misaligned incentives of insurance companies.
It highlights an opportunity for policymakers to improve the affordability of healthcare services by focusing on addressing these problems.
According to the researchers, examples of issues that contribute to this situation include:
Other team members who contributed to the report:
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Have you thought about Malm, Kivik or Trotten?
Swedish retailer Ikea is known for the distinctive names of its flat-pack home products. The companys Norway branch wants to use the brands experience to help parents browsing the baby-naming department.
Ikea Norway has built a name bank with more than 800 listings available on its website. The names are drawn from ones Ikea has given to its furniture instead of product numbers since 1948.
After all these years, (Ikea) has built up a large catalog to pick from, Ikea Norway said in a statement.
Ikea names its products after Swedish towns, lakes and other geographical features, but also uses names that have traditionally gone to people.
The branch noted that while retailers saw both a shortage of raw materials and challenges with delivery times during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is at least no shortage of children in Norway.
The Scandinavian country registered the births of 56,060 babies last year, which is 3,081 more than in 2020.
The increase creates a challenge in finding unique names, Ikea Norway said.
Oncology patients are often vulnerable to the world around them. This world has become even more risky for our patients due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The coronavirus is in the grocery stores, in the streets and even in our hospitals. It is difficult to go anywhere and not have a close call with it.
Its as if a dark cloud is looming over our planet, and we, as health care workers, feel it as well; we are worn down and tired. There are a few nurses who rise to the occasion, continue to bring light in these dark times and maintain a positive attitude while going above and beyond to care for their patients.
Alison Boudreau is one of these nurses who lets her drive for caring for others push her to continue on strong and unwavering. I often hear patients report uneasiness because of the pandemic when deciding to come to the hospital, but this feeling is put to rest when Alison exhibits how much she cares and will help them.
Alison puts families at ease as well by reaching out and updating family members on the status of her patients this means a lot to them. She has traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, to obtain bone marrow transplant education to be able to provide care to a variety of oncology patients. When I think of a nurse who is worthy of this award, I think of Alison. She puts in the time to hone her craft, is always unconditionally caring toward her patients and families and continues to be a beacon of light during these dark times.
She changes the life of each and every one of her patients in a positive way, and this is what it means to be a nurse.
For more news on cancer updates, research and education, dont forget tosubscribe to CUREs newsletters here.
The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, has caused millions of infections worldwide. As time has passed, it has become increasingly clear that COVID-19 is not a cookie-cutter disease.
People vary significantly in their susceptibility to infection, symptoms, and disease severity. Certain risk factors clearly play a role. Could genetics also play a part?
Researchers are examining the role of genetics in peoples reactions to the virus. While far from conclusive, data indicates that some of your genes may influence how SARS-CoV-2 affects your health.
Read on to learn what research has uncovered.
To look for genes that may influence the impact of COVID-19, geneticists scan the DNA of large study groups. This helps them find and identify connections between specific DNA sequences and disease characteristics.
Early genetic studies have uncovered compelling clues that certain genomic variants and blood types may play a role in how people react to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors are proteins found on the surface of certain cells. ACE2 receptors generate other proteins that regulate cell function. ACE2 receptors also allow the SARS-CoV-2 virus to enter your cells.
ACE2 receptors are located in the lungs, blood vessels, kidneys, and other parts of the body. They help regulate blood pressure, wound healing, and inflammation.
Everyone has ACE2 receptors, but their amount and locations vary. Multiple studies, including a 2021 study reported in the European Journal of Medical Research, found a link between ACE2 levels and vulnerability to COVID-19.
The same study also found that people with a specific type of genetic variation in ACE2 are at higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Another finding was a heightened susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection in men compared to women.
Cytokines are proteins released by cells. Cytokines help cells communicate with each other. They also work to regulate inflammation and the bodys immune response to infection.
A cytokine storm is an overreaction of the immune system to infection from an invading host, such as SARS-CoV-2. During a cytokine storm, your cells release too many cytokines. This causes high levels of inflammation and the overactivation of certain immune cells.
The results of a cytokine storm can be severe and include tissue damage, organ failure, and sometimes death.
A review of multiple studies found that several genetic variants in cytokine genes may be related to cytokine storm and disease severity. Studies also found that these variants might be related to COVID-19 complications, including venous thrombosis.
A large study analyzed genes found along a stretch of chromosome 3. The study found compelling information about specific genes and their potential impact on respiratory failure caused by COVID-19.
Researchers identified a gene cluster on chromosome 3 linked to susceptibility to respiratory failure in COVID-19 patients. According to researchers, the gene cluster confirmed that ABO blood type played a role, indicating a higher risk for respiratory failure from COVID-19 for people with type A blood.
The HLA gene helps regulate your bodys immune response. Decades of research have found that people with certain HLA alleles (slight gene mutations, or variations) are prone to various autoimmune, inflammatory, and malignant diseases. Scientists call this phenomenon HLA disease association.
A 2021 review found that people with certain HLA alleles were more vulnerable to COVID-19 and severe illness than the general population.
If you were assigned male at birth, you might be at higher risk for serious illness from COVID-19. While some data points to lifestyle factors more common in men (such as smoking or drinking alcohol), genetic factors are also at play.
Men tend to express higher amounts of ACE2, making them more susceptible to COVID-19. A 2021 study suggests that this alone doesnt account for the difference in response.
The study also highlights genes present in men that might make them more prone to infection and genes present in women that may help them fight off infection.
There are also genes on the X-chromosome that influence your immune response. There are about 55 times as many of these genes on the X-chromosome as on the Y-chromosome.
As men only have one copy of the X-chromosome, variants in genes on this chromosome may have a greater effect on how COVID-19 progresses.
Its also important to remember that genetic traits are sometimes clustered among people with the same nationality, ethnicity, or culture. This can skew study results, especially in places where poor living conditions or poverty are factors.
Still, three 2021 studies (1, 2, 3) state that we cant ignore ethnic differences in COVID-19 susceptibility. Some genes that influence the course of COVID-19, such as HLA alleles, are more prevalent in certain ethnicities.
Another study noted that Black people tend to have more variations in the genes that affect ACE2.
Again, more research is needed before we fully understand the true impact.
COVID-19 is known to present with a wide variety of symptoms. While some symptoms are common, the virus tends to affect people in many different ways. Your genetics may play a role here too.
A 2021 study linked COVID-19 with altered gene expression in specific tissues or cells. This suggests that certain genetic variations may make you more likely to experience certain symptoms.
The study also noted that some of the genes they studied were also linked to ethnicity. This means that some symptoms may be more common in certain ethnic groups.
Researchers and geneticists are sharing their findings on genetics and COVID-19 through the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative.
As more studies take place, the biological pathways that affect your susceptibility or natural immunity to this disease may become more apparent.
This research may help generate new types of drugs that can treat COVID-19. It may also help determine why some people have a severe reaction to infection, and others experience mild to no symptoms.
While exciting and compelling, its important to remember that the research on genetics and COVID-19 is still new. We need more research before we can fully understand the impact of genes on this disease.
Knowing your risk factors can help you make decisions concerning exposure to the virus. Risk factors for COVID-19 and severe symptoms include:
No gene makes you fully immune to COVID-19. No matter what your own risk may be, these measures can help protect you from infection:
A growing body of evidence has linked certain genes and gene mutations to COVID-19 susceptibility. While compelling, this information is still new. We need more research to fully understand how our genes affect our response to the coronavirus.
As this body of science grows, it may better inform us on how to treat or even prevent COVID-19.
The three sizable urban centers in the United States where the coronavirus is spreading fastest right now have something in common: They are major warm-weather tourist destinations.
Miami-Dade County, Fla., Honolulu County, Hawaii, and San Juan, P.R., are all averaging at least 85 new cases a day per 100,000 residents, with test positivity rates above 20 percent, according to a New York Times database. By contrast, the nation as a whole is averaging 34 newly reported cases a day per 100,000 residents, with a positivity rate of 13 percent.
As of Wednesday, new confirmed cases in the United States have been roughly flat at around 110,000 a day on average over the past two weeks, according to a New York Times database, after rising from lower than 30,000 a few months ago. And those are just the reported cases; widespread use of at-home testing means that many positive test results never make it into official tallies, experts say, and many people with mild or no symptoms may never be tested at all.
Much of the U.S. is experiencing summer weather, yet Covid-19 cases are surging, said Dr. Sandra Albrecht, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University. So I wouldnt expect to see this pattern look any different for warm weather destinations.
The only places in the country with higher recent figures than those three urban centers are smaller communities in Puerto Rico or Hawaii and a few isolated rural counties elsewhere.
Some U.S. regions that were hit early by the latest surge, like the Northeast, have been showing signs of improvement lately. But Miami-Dade has gotten steadily worse since early April, with its daily new-case average rising more than tenfold, hospitalizations more than tripling and deaths ticking upward.
The C.D.C. now considers it, along with much of Florida, to be a high-virus-level area where extra precautions are recommended, including wearing masks on public transportation and in indoor public spaces.
Dr. Mary Jo Trepka, who heads the epidemiology department at Florida International University, pointed to several factors that could be driving the surge, including flocks of spring-break tourists, recent big events like the Miami Grand Prix race, and widening public apathy about the pandemic.
I think people are no longer taking precautions as they did before, Dr. Trepka said. People were masking more here in the county, and we are seeing less of that. People are being less careful, because they are tired.
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava dropped all of Miami-Dades pandemic safety mandates in February, around the time the C.D.C. shifted its strategy on measures such as masks and social distancing. At the time, the federal agency said, many such restrictions were no longer needed in most of the country, although counties should calculate their own risk as conditions change.
When the latest surge took hold in April, Ms. Levine Cava urged residents to get vaccinated, wear masks, disinfect surfaces and maintain social distance, but the county has not made any of those measures mandatory.
In a statement on Wednesday, Ms. Levine Cava once again called on residents to take precautions on their own: get vaccinated and boosted, get tested if they show symptoms, and stay home if they feel sick. The best tools to fight the virus are the same ones we know and continue to use, she wrote.
Ms. Levine Cava noted that Miami-Dade was the most vaccinated county in Florida: and those efforts have paid off with fewer hospitalizations than in past surges. But caution was still warranted.
We have not beaten this virus, but we know how to control it, she wrote.
Mayor Rick Blangiardi of Honolulu County has taken a similar approach.
Coronavirus is not going away, he wrote in a statement on Wednesday. I encourage everyone to continue to demonstrate personal responsibility and wear your masks when around others, get tested if you are not feeling well and please make sure to get your booster.
Mr. Blangiardi said his administration was not considering reinstating mask mandates or other restrictions but that it would consider all possible solutions to any situation that warrants a response.
The county, which includes the islands of Oahu, Molokai and Lanai, has experienced a significant surge akin to Miami-Dades since early April, but in Honolulus case there are signs that it may have peaked. New virus cases have declined slightly over the past two weeks to 85 cases a day per 100,000 residents, and the positivity rate stopped climbing in mid-May.
Hawaii had some of the strictest travel restrictions in the country, requiring everyone arriving to the state to complete a 14-day quarantine. In March, it lifted its travel restrictions, allowing travelers from the continental United States to enter without testing and became the last state in the nation to remove its indoor masking requirement.
A month later, the states tourism industry recorded its highest traffic figures since the beginning of the pandemic, with more than 800,000 visitors arriving in the Hawaiian Islands, according to the states Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
Mike McCarthy, the departments director, said in a statement that the tourism sector was showing strong recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. He said he expected a gradual resumption of international travel by Japanese citizens typically a major share of visitors to Hawaii to strengthen the rebound.
In Puerto Rico, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi lifted nearly all pandemic restrictions in March, and new confirmed cases soon started rising. But tourism to the island has bounced back: Though arrivals from cruise ships had not yet reached prepandemic levels, business travel for meetings and conventions was improving, Discover Puerto Rico, the islands official tourism website, said in late April.
Kenira Thompson, president of the coalition of scientists and vice president for research at Ponce Health Sciences University in Puerto Rico, said that older and immunocompromised people there should consider continuing to wear masks in crowded places, and that those who are eligible for booster shots should seek them out.
Dr. Alain Labrique, the director of the Johns Hopkins University Global Health Initiative, said the summer tourism season meant large gatherings and increased contacts between people, a recipe for the easy spread of infection, even if fewer people are experiencing serious illness.
Covid-19 hasnt disappeared as much as our patience for precautions has, he said.
