At home, Burrage is reminded of the life they shared. If her daughter got back from her job at Best Buy, she would always wait until they could eat dinner together. They swapped stories of their days, and watched their favorite shows, like Dancing with the Stars. Burrage wishes she could make lasagna as well as her daughters recipe.
The West VirginiaDepartment of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of December24, 2020, there have been 1,422,569 total confirmatory laboratory results received for COVID-19,with 77,239 total cases and 1,228* deaths.
*Please note that adeath previously reported of an 87-year old female from Gilmer County has beendeemed non-COVID related and has been removed from the total death count.
DHHR has confirmed the deaths of an 80-year old male fromJefferson County, an 83-year old female from Fayette County, a 68-year old malefrom Kanawha County, a 90-year old female from Hancock County, a 73-year oldfemale from Pocahontas County, an 87-year old female from Fayette County, a 56-yearold male from Ohio County, a 77-year old female from Pocahontas County, a 73-yearold male from Monongalia County, an 81-year old female from Summers County, a 46-yearold female from Kanawha County, a 77-year old female from Pocahontas County, a 92-yearold female from Brooke County, a 79-year old female from Pocahontas County, a 63-yearold male from Brooke County, a 90-year old female from Brooke County, a 66-yearold male from Wyoming County, an 89-year old male from Wood County, a 65-yearold male from Fayette County, an 80-year old female from Hancock County, a 94-yearold female from Greenbrier County, an 88-year old female from MonongaliaCounty, a 95-year old male from Hancock County, a 90-year old male from SummersCounty, an 80-year old female from Randolph County, an 81-year old male fromHancock County, an 89-year old female from Hancock County, an 85-year old malefrom Kanawha County, a 79-year old male from Taylor County, a 62-year oldfemale from Hancock County, a 90-year old female from Putnam County, an 84-yearold female from Greenbrier County, a 93-year old female from Ohio County, and a75-year old female from Kanawha County.
This is an incredibly difficult time for thefamilies and friends of these West Virginians, especially during the holidayseason, said Bill J. Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary. We offer our sympathiesto each and every person connected to these individuals.
CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (657),Berkeley (5,557), Boone (975), Braxton (252), Brooke (1,251), Cabell (4,770),Calhoun (118), Clay (241), Doddridge (219), Fayette (1,581), Gilmer (334),Grant (697), Greenbrier (1,256), Hampshire (891), Hancock (1,650), Hardy (689),Harrison (2,614), Jackson (1,055), Jefferson (2,150), Kanawha (8,074), Lewis(447), Lincoln (695), Logan (1,496), Marion (1,571), Marshall (1,829), Mason(934), McDowell (875), Mercer (2,410), Mineral (2,033), Mingo (1,305),Monongalia (4,915), Monroe (588), Morgan (570), Nicholas (587), Ohio (2,320),Pendleton (253), Pleasants (330), Pocahontas (333), Preston (1,450), Putnam(2,768), Raleigh (2,454), Randolph (1,035), Ritchie (304), Roane (270), Summers(376), Taylor (622), Tucker (291), Tyler (306), Upshur (773), Wayne (1,582),Webster (125), Wetzel (633), Wirt (193), Wood (4,462), Wyoming (1,073).
Delays may beexperienced with the reporting of information from the local health departmentto DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the local health department level,it may reveal that those tested in a certain county may not be a resident ofthat county, or even the state as an individual in question may have crossedthe state border to be tested.
Thetotal number of vaccines received and administered is shown on the DashboardOverview page and is included on the daily dashboard update. Pleasevisit the dashboard located at www.coronavirus.wv.govfor more information.
Free COVID-19testing is available daily to all West Virginia residents. Pleasevisithttps://dhhr.wv.gov/COVID-19/pages/testing.aspx to view thetesting site map and location list.
Pleasenote that the COVID-19 dashboard update for Christmas Day, December 25, 2020, willbe published at 12:00 p.m. instead of 10:00 a.m.
A protester holds up an eviction-related sign in Washington, D.C. The coronavirus rescue package just passed in Congress sets aside $25 billion for rental assistance and extends a CDC order aimed at preventing evictions. Jacquelyn Martin/AP hide caption
A protester holds up an eviction-related sign in Washington, D.C. The coronavirus rescue package just passed in Congress sets aside $25 billion for rental assistance and extends a CDC order aimed at preventing evictions.
For months, the warning was clear from economists, housing advocates and public health experts: Without more help from Congress, millions of Americans could be evicted, in the dead of winter, in the middle of a raging pandemic.
"I can't construct a darker scenario," Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi told NPR in November. "It's absolutely critical that lawmakers step up."
Now lawmakers finally have. So long as it can get past some last-minute opposition from President Trump, the compromise rescue bill extends a federal eviction moratorium, sets aside $25 billion for rental assistance and extends unemployment benefits that were about to expire for 12 million people.
John Henneberger, who heads up Texas Housers, a housing nonprofit, says $25 billion is just a down payment to prevent an eviction train wreck. "But we have a little breathing room, and we should be very grateful for that."
Christina Rosales, the group's deputy director, says that tenants can qualify for up to 15 months of rental assistance and that this will cover months of unpaid back rent. "It will provide relief to millions of people who have been struggling to pay rent," she says.
The bill will also extend an order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that's aimed at preventing evictions. Rosales says that the so-called CDC eviction ban isn't an outright ban and that too many tenants are getting evicted in spite of it. But she says the order does protect many others, so extending it is crucial.
How to apply for help and who should qualify
The rental assistance money will be distributed by states and cities. Renters will apply for the help, and the money will be sent directly to their landlords. If a landlord doesn't cooperate, the tenant can access the funds directly.
Renters looking for assistance can call 211 or go to the website www.211.org, says Andrew Aurand, vice president for research at the National Low Income Housing Coalition. It's a confidential referral and information help line. "They could tell you which organizations to go to or how to apply for emergency rental assistance in your area." He says information should be available on state and city websites as well.
Landlords may also have a powerful incentive to work with tenants instead of evicting them. Lawyers with housing groups say that given the language in the bill, assistance is available only if the tenant is still in the property. So a landlord wouldn't be able to recoup lost rent if the landlord had already evicted the tenant.
To get the money to the people who need it most, the bill requires renters' incomes to be below 80% of median income; that is calculated based on recent income during the coronavirus pandemic. So someone who made more money last year but lost his or her job this year can qualify.
All of this is good news to people who've fallen behind on rent.
Ana Braxton of Seattle owes $10,000 in back rent after losing her job as a hair stylist during the pandemic. She says news of rental assistance on the way is letting the family feel OK buying her two kids a few modest presents for Christmas. "We're still gonna be afloat," she says. Ana Braxton hide caption
Ana Braxton of Seattle owes $10,000 in back rent after losing her job as a hair stylist during the pandemic. She says news of rental assistance on the way is letting the family feel OK buying her two kids a few modest presents for Christmas. "We're still gonna be afloat," she says.
"It's definitely a relief for me," says Ana Braxton, who lives in Seattle and lost her job as a hair stylist after COVID-19 hit. Her husband also had his hours cut back, and she says they owe about $10,000 in back rent.
"I mean obviously the timing is significant just because it is Christmas this week," Braxton says. "Just being able to be like, 'OK, we can still get certain things for Christmas. We can still do this, and we're still gonna be OK.' " Now, she says, she and her husband will be able to buy their kids a few modest presents. "We're still gonna be afloat."
Landlords need to stay afloat too. And landlord groups have been asking for rental assistance since the outbreak began. They argue that it's not fair to have eviction moratoriums and not provide a way for them to get paid for the back rent.
So Greg Brown of the National Apartment Association is happy to see the $25 billion in rental assistance in the bill. "The Congress has appropriated an enormous sum of money to help people stay in their homes and help the people that provide those homes," he says.
"Even though it's at the eleventh hour. And we certainly would prefer it wasn't," Brown says. "It came together and a lot of people are going to be helped, which is a huge deal."
Speaking of the eleventh hour, the bill has of course hit another last-minute snag. The president has attacked it. The bill passed with a veto-proof majority in Congress. But for now it's still sitting on the president's desk.
The other 100 million tests were to be sent to the states, each of which would decide how to allocate them.
We hope you will use them in ways to further open up your states by protecting vulnerable people, President Trump wrote in a letter to governors in September.
For example, we all want our children to be physically back in school, so we are encouraged that many States are considering prioritizing these tests to support in-person education by testing teachers, aides and administrators, particularly those at high risk.
New York has received about 4 million BinaxNOW tests, Montag said.
In addition to schools, the state has distributed the tests to local health departments, health care providers, pharmacies, nursing homes and assisted living facilities, she said, but declined to specify the number of tests that have been allocated to each of those groups.
Since mid-November, New York has distributed 363,000 of the tests to schools, she said.
Many other states also are sending some of their BinaxNOW tests to schools. But some are using the tests only for students and staff who have symptoms of Covid-19.
South Carolina, for example, is using the tests only for students and staff who develop symptoms while theyre at school. The state noted online that the tests are most accurate when, and are intended for, use for symptomatic individuals.
Those are the sounds Katie Ryan-Anderson remembers hearing as she walked through the dark inpatient wing of Jamestown Regional Medical Center on a particularly haunting November morning. Behind closed doors, patients sick with COVID-19 lay in their rooms alone isolated from those still uninfected.
Its a small town, so theres a good chance the people in there are people you know," said Ryan-Anderson, the hospital's marketing manager. "It was just a sad time."
A month later, the same corridor has got its pre-pandemic rhythm back. Sunlight shines through open doorways as a TV playing an old sitcom hums from a patient's room.
The hospital in the city of 15,000 has 25 beds and not one of them was occupied by a COVID-19 patient on Wednesday, Dec. 23. It's a remarkable turn of events for a facility that cared for 10 patients with the virus as recently as Nov. 13.
North Dakota has seen a favorable month and a half since a worst-in-the-nation outbreak of the virus decimated communities across the state. Active cases and virus-related hospitalizations have fallen sharply, and the arrival of a first wave of COVID-19 vaccines means health care workers and nursing home residents may soon have immunity to the deadly disease.
November's pandemic peak left doctors and nurses at rural hospitals with mental scars and a feeling of exhaustion, but a new sense of hope has brought morale up just in time for the holidays.
Medical lab technician Tammy Hein, right, receives a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at Jamestown Regional Medical Center on Wednesday, Dec. 23. John Steiner / Jamestown Sun
Once we heard about the vaccine coming, I think everybodys attitude kind of brightened a little bit," said Muffy Weisz, who works at the front desk in admissions for the Jamestown hospital.
Weisz was so elated to be the first staff member to get the vaccine on Wednesday that she did a little dance and shared a few hugs with co-workers.
"It was just a happy day," she said.
Nowhere in North Dakota was hit harder by the fall surge in COVID-19 cases than Dickey County. At 32 virus-related deaths, the county in the southeastern part of the state suffered more casualties per capita than anywhere else.
The persistent staff at CHI Oakes Hospital, the county's only medical center, worked tirelessly to save as many lives as possible, said director of nursing Kayla Kale. With the virus so pervasive in the community in late October and early November, some nurses and doctors were sidelined by quarantine and isolation, leaving the staff shorthanded and overwhelmed with high case loads.
It was very hard seeing people struggle to breathe," Kale said. "It was hard knowing there werent beds available and trying to do the best we could. It was heartbreaking, and you didnt think it was going to happen in our little town."
Long shifts in full protective gear left Kale and her colleagues "drained," and for some, the job came with the added emotional tax of watching friends and family fight for their lives against the virus, she said.
Some of our nurses have known these patients since they were little and just seeing the defeat and not knowing the outcome Are they going to live? Are they going to pass away? it was very tough, Kale said. "I know a lot of our nurses would constantly check the obituaries, and you know, we're just sad at all of those who passed away."
In Jamestown, which had a severe outbreak of its own in early November, supervising nurse Jess Skjeret said the workload was a heavy lift. During the worst of the surge, nurses were taking up to seven patients each more than double the normal amount.
And even while the Jamestown hospital managed to avoid COVID-19 infections among staff, all nurses were required to pick up an extra shift and some volunteered to come into the virus unit on their days off.
More than anything, workers from all over the hospital recall the breakneck pace of work on those difficult days in November. Skjeret said she felt exhausted even before her shifts started knowing she would have to run much of the time. She said nurses joked about needing roller skates to get around faster.
Supervising nurse Jess Skjeret speaks in a wing of Jamestown Regional Medical Center that used to serve as a COVID-19 unit. John Steiner / Jamestown Sun
Dr. Steve Inglish, who works in the emergency room, recalls Nov. 22 as the hardest day of his career in medicine. He said "it seemed like we were getting attacked from both sides" with COVID-19 patients walking in the door and arriving in ambulances as other noncoronavirus patients in critical condition demanded the staff's attention.
In the last month, the cadence of the hospitals in Oakes and Jamestown has returned to near normal as the flow of COVID-19 patients subsided.
Inglish said he got to start Wednesday with a cup of coffee instead of suiting up in protective gear and launching into a full day of nonstop care for sick and injured patients.
Still, Jamestown's health care workers aren't lowering their guard against the virus. They note that large family gatherings at Christmas and New Year's celebrations could undo much of the progress the state has made in slowing the spread.
"Were probably thinking that weve passed the worst of it, but theres always that (thought) in the back of our mind, Whens the next (COVID-19 patient) coming? Whens the next surge coming?'" Skjeret said.
For many in rural health care, receiving the COVID-19 vaccine relieves the stress of fearing the virus will put them in the hospital. For others, it's a moment of pure joy. For a few, it doesn't mean much until enough of the population has been vaccinated to establish herd immunity.
Weisz, the Jamestown front desk worker, said receiving her first of two shots gives her peace of mind. She said she has seen the unpredictability of COVID-19 firsthand, and she knows if she gets it, there's no guarantee she would survive.
Inglish points out that the vaccine is "not a cure-all, end-all" because it doesn't necessarily stop the spread of the virus. Rather, it prevents those with immunity from suffering an illness, which means they could still be unknowingly transmitting the virus.
Dr. Steve Inglish speaks about the COVID-19 pandemic at Jamestown Regional Medical Center on Wednesday, Dec. 23. John Steiner / Jamestown Sun
The doctor said getting his first dose won't affect the precautions he takes, like mask-wearing and social distancing, adding that vaccinated members of the public should continue making efforts to keep the virus in check. Inglish said he's prepared to hunker down for another year as he waits for the country to reach herd immunity. Most health experts say 70-80% of the population must have antibodies for COVID-19 to reach the all-important threshold.
But in Oakes hospital, the shipment of vaccines couldn't have come soon enough. To Kale, the vaccine represents hope that the nightmarish pandemic could have an end in sight.
A syringe and vial of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine sits on a table at Jamestown Regional Medical Center. John Steiner / Jamestown Sun
Ive never been excited for a shot, but yesterday was just amazing, Kale said. "Everyone was just so overjoyed. There were lots of smiles and some happy tears."
Dr. Katie O'Brien, a physician at Oakes, said she was initially on the fence about getting the vaccine so soon, but after reading about the vaccination and seeing firsthand the death COVID-19 can cause, she said she was happy to be at the front of the line for the jab.
"It was a very wonderful Christmas present," O'Brien said.
Nursing director Kayla Kale, right, administers a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to Dr. Katie OBrien at CHI Oakes Hospital in Oakes, N.D. Photo submitted
Dozens of new COVID-19 cases were reported in southern Illinois and statewide Friday.
Illinois officials have announced more than 57-hundred new casesof COVID-19, and 156 new deaths.That brings the state's total to more than 930-thousand cases and nearly 16-thousand deaths.
Williamson County58 new casesTotal Cases: 5107Total Deaths: 99
Franklin County36 new casesTotal Cases: 3264Total Deaths: 39
There will be no COVID-19 updates from Southern 7 Health Department and some others in Southern Illinois the rest of the week (12/24/20 12/27/20) due to the Christmas holiday.
More than one-million Americans got the first of two shot of the vaccines for covid-19.
Nearly 10 million doses are out there and more on the way.Jackson County Health Department currently anticipates that it will be at least late April 2021 before vaccination begins with the general population.
Shortly after lawmakers agreed on sending $600 stimulus checks to many Americans, Facebook users said the COVID-19 relief bill put foreign interests and the arts above the needs of the American people.
"Every American left and right should be calling for a #VETO of this stimulus deal which provides MORE funding to foreign governments and to American arts centers, than to the American people," said a Dec. 21 post.
The post included a picture listing domestic entities and foreign countries appropriated millions if not billions of dollars, juxtaposed with just $600 for the "American people."
Under domestic funding, for instance, it listed the "Kennedy Center $26,400,000."
The post mentioned at least eight foreign countries receiving aid, including Egypt, Sudan, and Ukraine. According to the post, Egypt would get $1.3 billion.
The post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
The post is right that Congress appropriated funds for foreign aid and for American arts centers, and Americans are free to disagree that taxpayer money is allotted in this way. But its wrong to suggest that such funding is in the COVID-19 relief bill.
On Dec. 21, lawmakers in both chambers of Congress passed a $2.3 trillion spending package: a roughly $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill consisting of 12 different bills to fund the government during fiscal year 2021 and a separate, approximately $900 billion bill specifically for COVID-19 relief. Lawmakers also passed several other smaller bills.
Its the $1.4 trillion part of the package that included funding for U.S. policies and priorities within the country and abroad. The Facebook post conflates provisions of the COVID-19 relief bill with provisions in the omnibus spending bill.
COVID-19 relief bill
Its been about nine months since a $2 trillion COVID-19 relief bill was signed into law by President Donald Trump. Some members of Congress were frustrated that legislative leaders released the new bill 5,593 pages long just hours before they were expected to vote on it.
Some people argue that Americans should be getting more than $600 in direct payments, and the Facebook posts echo that sentiment. At the same time, the posts dont mention the other forms of relief that will be available to some Americans, including unemployment assistance.
Overall, the COVID-19 relief bill totals more than $900 billion. Americans who meet specific income criteria are expected to get $600. The relief bill includes about $166 billion for the stimulus checks, according to a breakdown from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:
Heres the groups breakdown of what else is in the bill:
$325 billion in aid to small businesses (includes Paycheck Protection Program)
$120 billion for unemployment assistance ($300 a week for 11 weeks)
$82 billion for education (such as K-12 education grants)
$56 billion for health care (includes funding for states to do COVID-19 testing)
$45 billion for transportation (includes payroll support program for airline workers)
$83 billion for other spending (such as rental assistance, nutrition programs)
$40 billion for other tax cuts (such as the Extend and Expand Employee Retention Tax Credit)
Funding for foreign countries, arts is in other spending bill
The Facebook post says that lawmakers provided aid to at least eight foreign countries in the COVID-19 relief package, including $1.3 billion to Egypt.
Thats not part of the COVID-19 relief bill. The omnibus spending bill, under the header "Foreign Military Financing program," says that $1.3 billion is to remain available until Sept. 30, 2022, and should be made available for assistance for Egypt.
It stipulates several conditions for the disbursement of those funds. For instance, $225 million will be withheld until the secretary of state certifies and reports to Congress that the Egyptian government has taken steps to improve the rule of law, democratic institutions, and human rights.
Appropriation bills usually include foreign aid, commonly for military and humanitarian aid, said Steve Ellis, president of the nonpartisan budget watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Our reporting has shown that foreign aid historically represents about 1% of the overall federal budget. Polling has shown that average Americans assume the U.S. spends about 31% of its budget on foreign aid.
The omnibus spending part of the package passed by Congress also calls for $26.4 million to remain available until Sept. 30, 2022 for the John F. Kennedy Centers operation, maintenance, and security. The Facebook post flags that appropriation, but omits that its part of the omnibus spending bill, not part of the COVID-19 relief bill. The "domestic funding" and "foreign countries" funding in the post are part of the omnibus spending bill, not the COVID-19 relief bill.
The total of the "foreign aid" and "domestic funding" mentioned in the Facebook post is not greater than the funding in the COVID-19 relief bill.
No pay raise for Congress
Other Facebook posts also claimed, wrongly, that Congress snuck a pay raise for its members into the new legislation. It did not. The same claim was made about the CARES Act in March.
As weve reported, congressional pay raises are fixed to the Employment Cost Index, which measures changes in wages. Pay increases are automatic unless Congress votes them down, which it has done repeatedly since 2009, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Section 7 of the legislation says: "Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no adjustment shall be made under section 601(a) of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 (2 U.S.C. 4501) (relating to cost of living adjustments for Members of Congress) during fiscal year 2021."
Our ruling
A Facebook post claimed that a COVID-19 relief bill "provides more funding to foreign governments and to American arts centers, than to the American people."
The post conflates provisions of the $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill with provisions of a separate, $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill. Both were part of a broader $2.3 trillion package approved by Congress.
The overall spending bill included funding for American arts centers and foreign aid, but that funding was not included in the COVID-19 relief bill. It was part of the $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill.
The Facebook post contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression.
We rate it Mostly False.
PolitiFact staff writer Bill McCarthy contributed to this report.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan on Saturday said it would temporarily ban non-resident foreign nationals from entering the country as it tightens its borders following the detection of a new, highly infectious variant of the coronavirus.
FILE PHOTO: Shoppers wearing protective face masks walk on the street at Tsukiji outer market, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Tokyo, Japan December 24, 2020. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo
The ban will take effect from Dec. 28 and will run through January, the government said in an emailed statement.
Japanese citizens and foreign residents will be allowed to enter but must show proof of a negative coronavirus test 72 hours before departing for Japan and must quarantine for two weeks after arrival, the statement said.
Japan on Friday reported its first cases of a fast-spreading variant in passengers arriving from Britain. The new variant has also been detected in a man who visited the UK and a family member - the first cases of infected people found outside airport checks - Nippon TV reported on Saturday.
The new strain adds to worries about a surge in cases as Tokyo reported another record rise on Saturday.
Infections of the virus that causes COVID-19 hit a record 949 in the capital just as Japan heads into New Year holidays that normally see people stream from the capital into the provinces.
Serious cases were unchanged from a day earlier at 81.
Tokyo transport hubs were subdued, local media said, a day after Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, under pressure as cases continue to climb, urged the nation to stay home and avoid social mixing.
With New Year celebrations centred around family gatherings and mass visits to temples and shrines, experts have warned public restraint will be essential to prevent infection rates from rising further amid concerns of pandemic fatigue.
Sugas initial political honeymoon after taking his post in September has ended, with his popularity sliding after criticism he was slow to react to rising infections in Tokyo and for attending a group steak dinner in defiance of his own calls for caution.
Reporting by Sam Nussey and Chris Gallagher; Editing by William Mallard and David Holmes
Hospital workers move a patient into the prone (face down) position, which can help increase the lung capacity of some COVID-19 patients. The medical team was photographed Nov. 19 at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles. Jae C. Hong/AP hide caption
Hospital workers move a patient into the prone (face down) position, which can help increase the lung capacity of some COVID-19 patients. The medical team was photographed Nov. 19 at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles.
The massive surge in coronavirus cases has left hospitals in Los Angeles County scrambling to handle the increasing numbers of patients showing up at their doors. Nowhere is that more evident than in hospitals' intensive care units, which are rapidly filling up with the worst COVID-19 cases.
"We have no ICU beds," says Brad Spellberg, chief medical officer of LAC+USC Medical Center, one of the area's largest hospitals. "We are just continually, 24 hours a day, scrambling to move patients around. The flood just continues."
As dire as the situation is, Spellberg says, it's going to get even worse.
The crush of cases spurred L.A. County health officials to send guidance to the four public hospitals it manages on how to ration emergency care, reports the Los Angeles Times. Instead of trying to save every life, the goal would be to save as many patients as possible. That means those less likely to survive would not get the same kind of care they would usually receive.
That type of triage is just weeks away, Spellberg warns.
"We are the safety net, that is the point. The safety net itself is stressed to the limit," he says.
More than 15,000 residents test positive every day, on average, in Los Angeles County. The average daily deaths from COVID-19 in the county stands at 94, and 281 statewide.
A staggering 6,155 Angelenos are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, and 20% of them are in the ICUs spread across the county's 80 acute-care hospitals.
"We are forecasting that in this current surge between Nov. 1 and Jan. 31 8,700 people in Los Angeles County will die from COVID. That is nearly three times the number of people that died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks," said Dr. Christina Ghaly, director of the county Department of Health Services.
"The worst is yet to come," she warned reporters Wednesday during a conference call.
Spellberg fears Los Angeles is rapidly approaching the situation in New York City last April, where hospitals were overwhelmed with critically ill COVID patients.
What does that look like, on the inside? Spellberg says it's like "battlefield medicine," a frantic race to save lives when there aren't enough staffers to cope: "You've got nurses that are assigned 20 patients when they're only supposed to be assigned five. You've got doctors who haven't managed a ventilator in 20 years suddenly being responsible to manage ventilators."
"If it gets as bad as it did in New York, and if we don't slow this thing down in L.A., that's where we're going," Spellberg says.
'Right now the ICU is crazy'
ICU nurse Jun Jai has been feeling overwhelmed for weeks.
"Right now the ICU is crazy," he says. "It's so much worse than before."
For the past 10 months, Jai has worked with the sickest COVID-19 patients at LAC+USC Medical Center. Recently, it seems like every time he arrives at the hospital for another 12-hour shift, he learns that two or three of his nurse colleagues in the ICU have taken time off.
Jun Jai during a shift in the ICU at Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center. He says now the workload is the worst he's experienced since the pandemic began: "It's nonstop running from morning to the evening. You can see so many nurses have depression." Jun Jai hide caption
Jun Jai during a shift in the ICU at Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center. He says now the workload is the worst he's experienced since the pandemic began: "It's nonstop running from morning to the evening. You can see so many nurses have depression."
"All the nurses [are] burning out," Jai says. He's sympathetic and understands the need for a break, but it can have a domino effect on the workload of the remaining team: "Every day you go, it's nonstop running from morning to the evening. You can see so many nurses have depression."
Burnout isn't the only reason for the staffing crisis. Los Angeles County tracks infections among health care workers and first responders. During the second week of December alone, 2,191 health care workers tested positive for the virus a 25% increase from the previous week.
Like other health care workers who treat COVID-19 patients, Jai has received little virus-testing from his employer. If he wanted a test, he had to go to a free city-run testing site on his days off, though he only managed to find the time for that a few times since the pandemic started.
After health care workers protested about this issue, state health officials released guidelines recommending that acute care hospitals regularly screen employees and new patients for the coronavirus. The weekly testing program was supposed to start Dec. 14.
Jai feels like his mental and physical health aren't his employer's priority.
"You do such a hard job but they don't support you. You feel like they are just using you. That's why so many nurses have left already," Jai says.
Jai immigrated to the U.S. from China in 1999, and he continues to follow Chinese media. He says Chinese media outlets frequently show images and footage of patients hooked up to ventilators but he sees much less of that kind of content in the U.S., and he thinks that is one reason why so many Americans deny or minimize the seriousness of the pandemic. Americans, he says, don't understand what the coronavirus can do.
"The people didn't see the suffering, they didn't see the people who are sick. With a tube in your mouth and connected to the [breathing] machine you can't do anything," he explains.
After immigrating to the U.S., Jai worked in restaurants to improve his English skills and make money while also attending nursing school. Jai has now been an ICU nurse for more than 10 years, and he's proud of his work. But for the first time in his career, he's thinking of quitting.
Before the ICU shift: 'I would pray 'til I cried'
Chanel Rosecrans had just started a new job in February, working the night shift at a hospital in the San Gabriel Valley. She was 27, and while it wasn't her first nursing job, it was her first job in an ICU. Working in critical care had been a career goal. But when the pandemic hit just a few weeks later, she was shocked by the relentless onslaught of seriously ill COVID-19 patients.
"There was no way I could, as one person, replace a full staff of ICU nurses," she says. "We were on a skeleton staff."
She asked that we not name the facility because she wants to return to work there in the future.
Because the coronavirus is so contagious, each patient is kept isolated in their own room. Rosecrans spent her night shifts rushing between rooms, closely monitoring patients on breathing equipment and keeping track of their multiple medications. The patient rooms would get so hot from all the machines, and she had to wear so much PPE that she'd end up dripping in sweat.
Since relatives weren't allowed to visit, Rosecrans spent a lot of time on the phone with family members. Often she had to explain that there were no other medications left to try, and nothing else the medical team could do, to keep their loved one alive. She had always wanted to work in the ICU, and she expected, as part of that, to see patients die, but the sheer number and pace of the coronavirus deaths shocked her.
"It just felt like ticking time bombs," Rosecrans says. "I didn't want to have to just sit and wait for all these people to pass away, but it felt like all these people were just doomed. It was just really hard to accept. I don't think I ever really did accept it."
Before her shift, she would sit in her parked car, outside the hospital, and wrestle with feelings of dread.
"Before work, I would pray 'til I cried," she says. "Begging God [to] please not let me lose a patient tonight. I can't take it."
After more than eight months in the ICU, Rosecrans quit in October. It just seemed impossible to balance work and life. She wasn't eating enough, and on her days off all she had time for was catching up on sleep. Caring for COVID-19 patients had left her physically and emotionally exhausted.
She wonders if she contributed to the staffing problem by leaving.
"I feel horrible that I'm not there fighting that fight with what's left of my colleagues. But everyone has their limits," she says.
A call for new ways to support nurses and prevent burnout
In her new job, Rosecrans is a surgical nurse for a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills. But staffing agencies still contact her, trying to persuade her to come back to intensive-care work, even for short-term gigs. As coronavirus cases have surged, the calls have come more frequently and they're not just asking her to travel to understaffed hospitals in other states. Now the demand is local, too, and they want her to fill in at local hospitals.
But Rosecrans continues to say no, even when the money sounds enticing. "I don't see what the point of going right back would be because I feel like they're going to be operating in that crisis mode."
Other ICU nurses have quit, but the strain of the pandemic isn't just affecting critical care, according to Megan Brunson, the immediate past president of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses.
"There's not a nurse no matter what their specialty, whether ICU or not who is not having COVID in their face every single day," says Brunson, who works with COVID-19 patients in a Dallas hospital.
Brunson says nurses need more support, and that includes more discussion and acknowledgement of the unique emotional burdens of nursing, particularly for those who are witnessing, firsthand, frequent deaths from a new and unpredictable disease.
"When you have whole families coming into an ICU, [and you see that happen] many times, that's morally very distressing," Brunson says. "You're taking care of the mom, the dad and the adult children all in the same ICU," Brunson says.
Brunson says paying attention to something as seemingly simple as scheduling can have a big effect on a nurse's ability to recharge. Supervisors should look at how often each individual nurse is working the usual 12-hour shift and take into account their sleep routines.
"Working Monday, Wednesday, Friday, on a day shift, that might be completely fine. But on a night shift that could be detrimental to their sleep, working every other day," she explains. "I think even just having the conversation acknowledges the strain, versus this panic mode of getting the nurses in the door to cover the shifts."
Brunson says hospitals might try doing longer "debriefs." It's an idea borrowed from the military, another institution that grapples with employee burnout and retention because of the dangerous and stressful nature of the work. During debriefs, which could be in person or virtual, nurses would be encouraged to discuss the challenges of their jobs, and share their concerns or suggestions on what could be improved, with a guarantee that the feedback would be shared with managers.
But it's incumbent on the hospital to make it a priority, Brunson says.
"Nurses have to be given the place and the time to do it, otherwise they go home into this silo with their thoughts and feelings. And I don't think that it's offered as much as it should be," she says.
Shorter huddles at the beginning and end of shifts with the entire interdisciplinary health team of doctors, nurses and therapists is another opportunity to insert recognition, Brunson says.
"That's not necessarily the large hourlong heart-to-heart, but that is a place for nurses to feel valued. And also to bring up concerns in a bigger forum, you know, with respiratory therapy, with physicians, because we're all in this together, in collaboration," she says. "That recognition is so powerful."
This story comes from NPR's health reporting partnership with KPCC and Kaiser Health News.
Dr. Peter Salk was one of the first children to receive his dad's polio in 1953. Here's what he thinks could happen with the COVID-19 vaccines. USA TODAY
USA TODAY is keeping track of the news surrounding COVID-19 as a pair of vaccines join the U.S. fight against a virus that has killed more than330,000Americans since the first reported fatality in February. Keep refreshing this page for the latest updates on vaccine distribution, including who is getting the shots and where, as well as other COVID-19 news from across the USA TODAY Network. Sign up forourCoronavirus Watch newsletterfor updates directly toyour inbox,join ourFacebook grouporscroll throughour in-depth answersto reader questionsfor everything you need to know about the coronavirus.
In the headlines:
Countries throughout the European Union have received theirfirst shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech. Authorities plan toadminister the first shots to the most vulnerable people in a coordinated Sunday effort. Butofficials in Hungarydisregarded the campaign and started administeringvaccines on Saturday.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a video posted on Facebook and Twitter thatthe number of Californians hospitalized because of the coronavirus could double in 30 days if current trends continue.
South Korea, previously a success story in handling the coronavirus pandemic, is grappling with a severe uptick in cases during Christmas week:1,241 on Christmas Day alone. That's the largest daily increase the nation has ever seen.
The Duke women's basketball team is ending its 2020-21 season after just four games because ofconcerns about the coronavirus pandemic, the school announced Friday evening.
CNN reports that cases ofthe new strain of the coronavirus originating in the United Kingdom wereannouncedin France and Spain on Christmas Day.
Today's numbers:The U.S. has more than 18.7million confirmed coronavirus cases and 330,000 deaths,according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: More than 79 million cases and 1.7million deaths.
Here's a closer look at today's top stories:
For many, the promise of a vaccine offers hope and relief. But Josie Passes, a member of the Crow Tribe inMontana,is wary of its long-term consequences.
Though tribal communitieshave beendisproportionately ravaged by COVID-19 nationwide, Passes is not alone in her reluctance. As tribes begin to receive and distribute COVID-19 vaccines, many tribal members hesitate to get immunized.
Some people fear Indigenous populations will be used as "guinea pigs," whileothers are reluctant to trust the Indian Health Service.Some feel invincible, as tribes have survived devastating diseases such assmallpoxand violent massacres. Many would prefer to wait and observe the effects of the vaccine as more people receiveit.
Experts say this skepticismis warranted. Tribes have experienced disinvestment, incompetence and brutality at the hands of the federal government. The consequences of this neglect transcend generations and manifest today as systemic inequalities, many of which were further exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.Read more here.
Nora Mabie, Great Falls Tribune
ABlackdoctor who died of COVID-19after weeks of battling the virus said she was mistreated and delayed proper care at an Indianahospital because of her race. Dr. Susan Moore, 52, died Dec. 20 following multiple hospitalizations for complications from COVID-19, first at IU Health North and later at Ascencion-St. Vincent in Carmel, Indiana.
Her frustrations with the care provided at IU Health werechronicled onFacebook in multiple updates.The first came Dec. 4 when she said delays in her treatment and diagnosis were motivated by the color of her skin.
Citing patient privacy, an IU Health spokesperson declined to speak specifically to the casebut shared a written statement on behalf of IU Health North:
As an organization committed to equity and reducing racial disparities in health care, we take accusations of discrimination very seriously and investigate every allegation," the statement reads. "Treatment options are often agreed upon and reviewed by medical experts from a variety of specialties, and we stand by the commitment and expertise of our caregivers and the quality of care delivered to our patients every day.
Justin L. Mack and Holly V. Hays, Indianapolis Star
The COVID-19 crisishas devastated movie theater owners of all sizes, but small independent owners are feeling it more profoundly. Nationwide, a handful already have gone dark permanently and 70% of small- to midsize movie theaters are at risk of shutting down without federal aid, according to the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO).
Many are scrambling to survive with private screenings and popcorn specials, among other strategies. Their loss would be a big blow to Americas cultural life. They represent a major source of independently produced, more serious art films. And in an age dominated by sleek multiplexes, their grand old, marquee-adorned theaters often provide the only entertainment in Americas small and rural towns.
Fortunately, salvation appears on the horizon. A little-noticed provision of the $900 billion COVID relief bill passed by Congress this week would provide $15 billion to struggling small movie theaters, live entertainment and performing arts venuesand museums. A last-minute lobbying campaign by NATO added movie theaters and $5 billion to theoretically cover their financial needs.
Paul Davidson
Dr. Peter Salk vaguely remembers the day he was vaccinated against polio in 1953. His father, Dr. Jonas Salk, made history by creating the polio vaccine at the University of Pittsburgh and inoculatedhis family as soon as he felt itwas safe and effective.
Cases of polio peaked in the early 1950s, but it arrivedevery summer disabling an average of more than 35,000 people each year for decades, sometimes causing paralysis and death,according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Public officials closed swimming pools, movie theaters, amusement parks and other pastimesthat naturally came with summer vacation.
Jonas Salks vaccine helped wipepolio from most of the world, something that many people hope willhappen with the coronavirus vaccine. However, Salk warns eradicating polio from the United States was a long and difficult journey, and he doesnt expect eliminating COVID-19 will be any easier.
Its going to be a long road, just even getting enough vaccines out to people around the world ... this virus does not respect borders,said Salk, a doctor and a part-time professor of infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh, where his father developed the polio vaccine. It travels by airplane everywhere in the world and unless this virus can be contained everywhere, its going to continue to spread and be a problem.
Adrianna Rodriguez
Contributing: The Associated Press
Autoplay
Show Thumbnails
Show Captions
Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/12/26/covid-news-new-strain-france-spain-california-crisis-global-cases/4044787001/
