Tony and Lisa both grew up in Superior, Arizona, according to the funeral pamphlet obtained by CNN. They met in high school, where both were very active -- participating in marching band and running track. Afterward, Tony enlisted in the Navy, serving six years total, and Lisa attended Mesa Community College. In 1999, they tied the knot, and eventually gave birth to daughter Brisa, now 17.
The two were actively involved in Brisa's life -- most notably through her swim team at Chandler High School in Chandler, Arizona. Tony served as president of the team's booster club, and Lisa helped out behind-the-scenes, said Rachel Tribby, vice president of the booster club.
"(Tony) worked harder than everybody," Tribby told CNN. "(If) the event started at 5 p.m., he would be there at 5 a.m."
She gave an example of how he'd always go the extra mile.
Last year, the swim team hosted a huge invitational, with lots of officials and coaches. As the host team, Chandler High had to take care of them. And though they were trying to keep costs down, Tony still went all out.
He brought a smoker, and he and the team's coach spent all night smoking a pork butt for the team and their guests. If that wasn't enough, he also brought mac and cheese and seven types of horchata, Tribby said.
"I wish we had a video," she said, recalling how the coach's spare office was filled with shredded pork. "He had workers in the gym, his family working at home and any kitchens he could find. It was fantastic. And crazy."
It's that level of care and service that made the two so beloved.
"It's just great to see how Tony and Lisa had touched so many people, and now that same community is mutually wrapping their arms around Brisa," Tribby said.
Tony, 56, and Lisa, 53, were both diagnosed with Covid-19 in November. They died on the evening of December 2 and the morning of December 3, respectively.
Their funeral service was held on Friday, Tribby said.
The deaths of Tony and Lisa follow what was already a heartbreaking year for the team, whlich lost their head coach to Covid-19 earlier this year.
Brisa, a senior on the team, has plans to follow her father's footsteps and enlist in the military, Tribby said.
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The deaths involved an Anchorage man in his 70s, a Fairbanks man in his 80s and a Wasilla man in his 70s, the state health department said. Additionally, the state adjusted its data to reflect that a northern Kenai Peninsula Borough resident whose death was previously reported was actually from Wasilla, the department said.
In total, 157 Alaskans and one nonresident with COVID-19 have died since the pandemic began here in March, according to the Department of Health and Social Services. Alaskas overall death rate per capita is one of the lowest in the country, but state officials say its difficult to compare Alaska to other states because of its vast geography and vulnerable health care system.
After weeks of surging daily case counts, Alaska as of Friday ranked fifth in the country for average daily cases per capita over the past week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rising case numbers have translated into increasing hospitalizations and deaths.
State health officials continue to ask Alaskans to avoid indoor gatherings with non-household members, and have said that most Alaskans who contract the virus get it from a friend, family member or co-worker.
By Friday, 128 people with COVID-19 were hospitalized in Alaska and another 10 people in hospitals were suspected to be infected with the virus, according to preliminary data. Seventeen people with COVID-19 were on ventilators. There were 37 ICU beds available statewide out of 130 staffed beds, and about 15.6% of the adult patients hospitalized around the state had tested positive for COVID-19.
Between the end of November and the first few days of December, COVID-19 cases continued to increase statewide, but the growth rate did slow over the past three weeks, state health officials wrote in a weekly report. They cautioned that new cases have overwhelmed the health departments ability to report them and that recent case counts underestimate the true number of new COVID-19 infections statewide.
Community transmission statewide is still high, both in urban and rural communities, with almost every region in the state seeing a recent increase. The Matanuska-Susitna Borough saw cases more than double between Nov. 20 and Dec. 5 while the Kenai Peninsula Borough had extremely high rates of transmission in that timeframe as well, health officials wrote.
In Anchorage, case counts started to plateau this week but remained much higher than health officials would like, Janet Johnston, epidemiologist with the Anchorage Health Department, told reporters during a Friday briefing. Using a modeling tool, Johnston demonstrated that a 10-person gathering in Anchorage has a 37% chance of one person being infected with COVID-19.
One of the reasons were so worried about case counts is that each case is a person who may experience both short- and long-term effects of COVID, and a person who may need care from the Anchorage health care system, Johnston said.
COVID-19 hospitalizations at the citys three hospitals have remained high in recent weeks, Johnston said, and as of Thursday there were only five intensive care unit beds available in Anchorage. Even if cases level off, Johnston said she expects to continue seeing more deaths from the virus, given that they can occur weeks after someone initially tests positive.
Of the 613 new cases reported by the state Friday among Alaska residents, there were 232 in Anchorage, 32 in Eagle River, four in Chugiak and one in Girdwood; 69 in Fairbanks and 16 in North Pole; 66 in Wasilla, six in Palmer, three in Willow and one in Sutton-Alpine; 27 in Kodiak; 20 in Bethel; 18 in Soldotna, 12 in Kenai, four in Nikiski, three in Seward, three in Sterling and two in Homer; seven in Juneau and one in Douglas; seven in Utqiagvik; five in Delta Junction and one in Tok; five in Unalaska; two in Chevak; one in Haines; and one in Ketchikan.
Among communities smaller than 1,000 people not named to protect privacy, there were 35 resident cases in the Kusilvak Census Area; six in the northern Kenai Peninsula Borough; six in the Bethel Census Area; five in the Valdez-Cordova Census Area; three in the Kodiak Island Borough; three in the North Slope Borough; two in the Fairbanks North Star Borough; two in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area; and two in the Mat-Su Borough.
The state reported eight cases among nonresidents: two in Fairbanks, one in Anchorage, one in Unalaska and four classified as unknown.
The statewide test positivity rate was 6.5%, based on a seven-day rolling average. Rates over 5% can indicate inadequate broad testing, as well as increased community transmission.
While people might get tested more than once, each case reported by the state health department represents only one person.
It is not clear how many of the people who tested positive in Fridays results were showing symptoms. The CDC estimates about a third of people with coronavirus infections are asymptomatic.
[Editors note: This story has been updated to reflect that one of the Wasilla deaths in state numbers Friday was part of a data adjustment related to a previously recorded death.]
Maines largest hospital hit a new high of confirmed COVID-19 inpatients Thursday, capping the busiest week that it and several other major medical centers in the state have had since the pandemic began in Maine nine months ago.
The number of COVID-19 patients admitted at Maine Medical Center in Portland reached 40 Thursday and averaged 36.7 per day for the week ending that day, up from 25.3 the week before. The previous single-day peak was 35, on both April 7 and May 25.
Southern Maine Health Care Medical Center in Biddeford also experienced its heaviest week since the pandemic began, treating an average of 22.7 confirmed COVID-19 inpatients each day for the week ending Thursday, up from 20 the week before and close to zero for much of July and August.
Senior clinicians at the two hospitals parent entity, MaineHealth, have been expressing concern for the past couple of weeks about diminishing capacity, particularly staffing, as the fall surge worsens here and across the United States.
MaineHealth spokesman John Porter said Friday evening that Maine Med currently has 16 COVID-19 patients in its ICU, though he did not know how many ICU beds were occupied and available at the hospital overall. According to newly released figures from the federal Department of Health and Human Services, for the week ending Dec. 7 Maine Med had a nightly average of 92.4 of its 115 ICU beds occupied, 16.1 of them by COVID-19 patients.
Statewide COVID-19 hospitalizations also hit a record of 173 on Wednesday though only 42 of these patients were in intensive care units and stood at 172 Thursday before setting a new record of 182 on Friday. During the spring surge, Maines worst day saw only 60 COVID-19 inpatients. The numbers likely only begin to account for any potential increases driven by Thanksgiving gatherings two weeks ago, as there is most often a delay of two to three weeks between exposure and hospitalization for those acutely affected by the disease.
Two other major hospitals also experienced their heaviest COVID-19 week yet. Augustas MaineGeneral broke its record for the fifth week running with an average of 17.3 patients treated each day for the week ending Thursday, up slightly from 17.1 the previous week. Of 16 intensive care beds, 13 were occupied Thursday, three of them by COVID-19 patients, the hospital reported.
Dr. Steve Diaz, chief medical officer at MaineGeneral, said the hospital does not yet need to activate the surge plan it developed in March and is able to continue providing all services, though it evaluates the situation constantly. We need everyone to take the coronavirus pandemic seriously, Diaz said via email, urging the public to wash hands, socially distance, wear face coverings and stay at home if sick.
Our staff are resilient, and we are proud of the level of care and service they give every day to our patients, but they are under stress, Diaz added. We really need all in our community to do their best to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Northern Light Mercy Hospital in Portland had 14 COVID-19 inpatients on Friday and the daily average for the week ending Thursday was a record-setting 11.1, up sharply from 5.2 the week before. Six of its seven ICU beds were occupied Friday afternoon, five of them by COVID-19 patients, but the hospitals top clinician said it remained in a good position, capacity-wise.
Both Maine Medical and Mercy have been busy these last few weeks, and the surge in COVID patients has added to that, Dr. John Southall, Mercys senior physician executive, said in an interview. But remember that even with 40 at MMC and another 14 here at Mercy, thats still 54 patients out of a total capacity in Portland of over 700 beds.
Cases trended down at Bangors Eastern Maine Medical Center, which had been hard hit in the first part of the fall surge. EMMC had an average of 18.3 COVID-19 inpatients treated each day for the period ending Thursday, down from 24.3 the week before.
Both of Lewistons hospitals plateaued this week after experiencing their heaviest COVID-19 burdens the week before. Central Maine Medical Center had an average of 11.9 COVID-19 inpatients for the week, down slightly from 12.1 the week before and 9.3 the week before that. At St. Marys there were 5.9 per day, down from 6.7 last week and 4.4 the week before that.
The pandemic continues to surge across the country, with nearly all the metrics striking their worst levels since the crisis began in the United States nearly nine months ago. On Thursday alone, states reported more than 223,000 positive tests and 2,923 deaths, nearly as many as in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Hospitalizations hit a record nationally as well, with 107,258 Thursday, according to the New York Times tracker. Despite the deteriorating situation in Maine, the state still has the third lowest prevalence of the disease in the country after Hawaii and Vermont.
Hospitals in Maine say they hope to meet demand by converting swing beds from ordinary medical-surgical duty to intensive care, though they are likely to come up against staffing shortages well before they run out of beds. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention has been dusting off contingency plans for field hospitals to be created at arenas in Portland and Bangor as hospitals continue to see unprecedented numbers of COVID-19 patients.
Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick had an average of 4.3 COVID-19 inpatients each day, unchanged from the week before and matching its busiest week in the spring, while York Hospital continued to see a gradual decrease in pressure, with an average of 2.1 COVID-19 inpatients for the week, down from 2.7 last week and 5.3 the week before, which was the heaviest it had experienced.
York Hospital also reported Friday that a staff outbreak detected last week there had resulted in 17 staff and six patients testing positive for COVID-19. It temporarily closed its Berwick and Kittery offices to ensure it had enough staff. Other services at the 48-bed hospital continue to operate.
An unprecedented number of other smaller hospitals had COVID-19 inpatients this week. In the week ending Thursday, these included Franklin Memorial in Farmington; Sebasticook Valley in Pittsfield; PenBay Medical Center in Rockport; Blue Hill, Rumford and Bridgton hospitals; Stephens Memorial in Norway; Waldo County General in Belfast; Inland Hospital in Waterville; A.R. Gould in Presque Isle; Maine Coast Hospital in Ellsworth; and Mayo Regional in Dover-Foxcroft.
We want to urge the public to continue to mask, continue to socially distance, continue to not have large group settings, Mercys Southall said.
Hospitalizations are a lagging indicator in that they typically occur one to three weeks after a person is exposed to the disease, but unlike other metrics it is not dependent on who and how many people were tested. They can end in three ways: recovery, death, or transfer to another facility.
The Press Herald compiles data directly from the hospitals and hospital networks. The data does not include outpatients or inpatients suspected of having the virus but who were never tested. It includes most of the states hospitals and accounts for the nearly all of the statewide hospitalizations reported each week by the Maine CDC.
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America is now firmly in the grips of what many are calling the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each day, new COVID-19 cases nationwide routinely approach or exceed 200,000, and associated deaths hover around 2,000.
In reality, however, each wave of the pandemic within the United States has been a regional one. The first wave, in March and April, was centered largely in Greater New York and New England, among the locations where the virus first hit U.S. shores. The second wave, which peaked in July, most affected metro areas in the South and West, after many relaxed their social distancing measures just as the virus began to take root in their communities.
My colleague William H. Frey documents that nearly all metro areas (and rural areas, too) are now experiencing increasing COVID-19 cases. That noted, the third wave thus far has hammered the Midwest most of all. And the regions metro areas are suffering an associated economic toll, as indicated in the latest data from our Metro Recovery Index, which tracks the real-time economic conditions in 192 metro areas across the United States.
Until the fall, the pandemics impact in the Midwest had been lower than in other regions. But between September and November, the combined average daily new case rate (per 100,000 population) across Midwestern metro areas rose fivefold, from 14.2 to 71.7.
The Midwest is home to the six metro areas that saw the largest COVID-19 case increases over that period, and 13 of the top 20. Midsized metro areas such as Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Fort Wayne, Ind., and Peoria, Ill., as well as very large metro areas such as Grand Rapids, Mich., Milwaukee, and Minneapolis-St. Paul, registered especially large spikes. Despite accounting for only 18% of the combined population across the 192 metro areas, Midwestern metro areas accounted for 33% of their new COVID-19 cases in November.
Case rates spiked in the three other regions as well, though not nearly to the degree they did in the Midwest. By November, average case rates in Northeast, South, and West metro areas were less than half those of Midwestern metro areas. Nonetheless, rates in each of those regions were higher than at any other point so far during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As COVID-19 cases spiked in the Midwest in November, consumers and businesses in the region pulled back. While we dont yet have official metropolitan data on jobs and unemployment for November, other indicators point to a significant slowdown.
For instance, many of the metro areas in which Novembers average case rates rose the most saw the steepest drops in workplace visits, according to data from Googles Community Mobility Reports. Visits were down in nearly every metro area, but fell by the largest margins in metro areas in Michigan, Iowa, and Minnesota. Midwestern metro areas accounted for many of those registering significant declines in workplace-related travel.
Small businesses in Midwestern metro areas also faced negative impacts from rising caseloads. None of the nations 50 largest metro areas (for which data are available) saw an increase in the percentage of its small businesses that were open in November. Closure rates were highest, however, in Indianapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, and several other Midwestern metro areas. By November, one-third of Detroits small businesses were shuttered compared to January, a decline matched by only the Boston and San Francisco metro areas.
With COVID-19 cases reaching unprecedented levels in Novemberand many more cold months to come in the Midwesta robust economic recovery is not in the near-term forecast. Vaccines will take months to sustainably lower virus levels, and even after that, Americans will be understandably cautious in their travel and spending.
The pandemics toll on metropolitan health and economic activityin blue states (Michigan, Minnesota) and red states (Indiana, Iowa), as well as in large cities (Chicago, Milwaukee) and midsized regions (Cedar Rapids, Sioux Falls, S.D.)provides a stark reminder that places of all sizes and political persuasions need immediate, significant federal assistance to avoid disastrous economic damage, and to safely navigate COVID-19s latest deadly wave.
Coronary heart disease and stroke are the two leading causes of death for Homo sapiens on planet Earth, according to a new report from the World Health Organization. This fact has remained unchanged for the past two decades. But this analysis of global deaths over the past 20 years finds significant shifts in how people die as well as dramatic differences in what leads to death in different regions.
Noncommunicable diseases such as dementia and diabetes are now claiming more lives, while infectious diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis are taking far fewer.
In this year's report, Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia ranked as the seventh-leading cause of death globally. Two decades ago, they ranked as the 20th cause.
Conversely, HIV in the year 2000 was the eighth-leading cause of death and now it's down to No. 19. In fact, the raw number of people dying from HIV and AIDS has been cut in half over the past two decades.
In 2019, a million fewer babies around the world died in their first month of life compared with the year 2000. But rates of lung cancer and pulmonary disease increased over the same time period.
Changes in the causes of death were even more striking at a regional level.
Samira Asma, the assistant director-general for the Data, Analytics and Delivery for Impact Division at the WHO, says the number of deaths from car crashes in Africa jumped 50% over the past 20 years.
"There has been a significant rise in road traffic injuries in the African region since 2000," she says. Last year, 297,000 people were killed in traffic accidents in WHO's Africa region, according to the report. This is 100,000 more than in the year 2000.
In the Americas, including the U.S., people are dying more frequently from suicide and drug overdoses.
"There was a nearly threefold increase in deaths from drug use disorders in the Americas between 2000 and 2019," Asma adds. The Americas was the only region in the world last year where drug use was ranked among the top 20 causes of death with an estimated 86,000 people succumbing to overdoses.
In South East Asia and Africa, hundreds of thousands of children continue to die each year from diarrhea, malaria and complications at birth. Those issues don't make the European region's list of top killers, but for Europeans seven of the leading 20 causes of death are cancers.
This report from WHO includes data through the end of 2019 only, before COVID-19 was even named. So far this year, COVID-19 has killed more than 1.5 million people. Forecasters predict that by the end of this year the pandemic's death toll could rise to 1.9 million. If that happens, COVID-19 would rank as the sixth-deadliest disease in the world.
DODGE CITY -- In the midst of a worsening pandemic, as coronavirus cases climbed, elected leaders in a former frontier town famous for its gunfights faced a choice.
They could pass a mask mandate at the urging of health experts, or reject the measure blasted by some as a violation of their personal freedoms.
The five commissioners of Dodge City, Kansas, a politically red cattle community of some 27,000 people, had resisted such measures all summer and into fall. Like other parts of rural and small-city America, Dodge City had mostly returned to normal after shaking off the pandemics first wave.
But then a second wave hit Dodge City. People started getting sick again.
By the time commissioners passed the mask mandate on Nov. 16, more than 1 out of every 10 county residents had contracted the virus. At least a dozen of them had died.
COVID-19 has spread fast and deadly in Dodge City and other small towns where residents ignored public health guidelines and refused to wear masks. Many people lived as they always had: going to work, shopping and visiting friends without worry.
In communities where mask-wearing has become a political inflection point, the toll of the virus has surpassed even the most terrifying early days seen in America's big cities.
A USA TODAY analysis found that in recent months, the weekly rates of newly reported cases are highest in rural counties and only slightly lower in other non-metropolitan communities.
The trend started on Aug. 7, and within two months, people in rural counties were almost twice as likely to have contracted COVID-19 within the last week compared to people who live in urban areas. Counties with city populations that total 20,000 to 250,000 people like Dodge Citys home of Ford County show a similar gap, reporting 54% more cases in the previous week than metropolitan areas on average.
Since mid-November, the weekly rate of COVID-19 deaths in rural America has been higher than it has ever been in urban counties.
The rural communities were kind of lulled into complacency, feeling they were naturally blessed with open spaces and big sky and that COVID-19s a metropolitan problem, said Dr. Lee Norman, Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. But the chickens have come home to roost.
Dodge City officials knew COVID-19 was serious from the start, said Mayor Joyce Warshaw. But it wasnt until the threat of flu season and the rise in national cases that the city commission felt compelled to pass a mask mandate, she said.
By then, Warshaw had been personally affected, as her daughter had contracted COVID-19. Warshaws aunt also recently died from the virus.
"We just felt like we had to do something so everybody was aware of how important it was for everybody to be responsible for each others health and well-being," she said.
But weeks later, residents openly defy the mandate. And, as of early December, police had done nothing to enforce it.
At Red Beard Coffee on Gunsmoke Street earlier this month, there were no signs reminding people to put on masks. Neither the staff nor most customers wore them.
At Tacos Jalisco on Wyatt Earp Boulevard, signs in English and Spanish alerted customers to the mask protocol, but neither staff nor most customers wore them inside during a recent visit by USA TODAY.
Business owners who try to enforce the mask mandate often face resistance.
At the Ensueno Boutique on 2nd Avenue, owner Andres Lima, 61, said hes been requiring customers and staff to wear masks since the summer, regardless of what the government required. His store has bilingual mask rules posted on the front doors, and store clerk Esthela Cisneros is pregnant.
Its for the safety of the people who work here and for the people who come in, he said, speaking amidst wedding gowns and sparkling quinceaera dresses. Some people say Im not sick, but we tell them, 'thats not the problem. For your safety, you need to wear one.'
As of Dec. 4, local police had issued no tickets for violations of the mask ordinance. The police department had received only a few complaints about people flouting the rule, said Dodge City Police Chief Drew Francis.
Other complaints, he said, have come from opponents of the mandate.
We have taken several complaints from community members speaking directly to officers about their position that this is unconstitutional government overreach and wanting to know if the police department is going to allow itself to be used to oppress the people, Francis said.
Steeped in Wild West lore, Dodge City prides itself on the independent cowboy ethos.
In the 1800s, it served as a destination for cattle headed for the railroad, attracting cowboys, gamblers, buffalo hunters and soldiers. The city became famous for its saloons, outlaws and legendary lawmen like Wyatt Earp. It cemented its place in modern history when it served as the backdrop for the television show Gunsmoke for 20 years.
A steel cutout of cowboy's riding toward the sunset welcomes visitors to Dodge City, Kansas.Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY NETWORK
Dodge City is the most populous town in Ford County and one of the largest cities in western Kansas.
Almost a third of residents are foreign-born, 62% are Hispanic. The median household income is $52,000, about 10% lower than state and national averages, according to recent U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
The community is surrounded by cattle feedlots that supply Dodge Citys two meat packing plants, which employ thousands of people. Along the main street, Wyatt Earp Boulevard, car-parts stores sit alongside heavy-equipment dealerships and fertilizer depots. Large gas stations sell diesel fuel to power the steady stream of trucks delivering cattle to the processing plants and hauling beef products to stores nationwide.
Show captionHide captionWorkers wear protective masks as they walk outside the National Beef meatpacking plant, Tuesday, May 19, 2020, in Dodge City, Kan. Ford County, home to...Workers wear protective masks as they walk outside the National Beef meatpacking plant, Tuesday, May 19, 2020, in Dodge City, Kan. Ford County, home to Dodge City, has the most positive COVID-19 tests per capita in the state in large part due to outbreaks in the county's two meatpacking plants.Charlie Riedel, AP
COVID-19 was first discovered in Kansas in early March and, as the disease picked up steam, Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, ordered a temporary, statewide stay-at-home order. Schools closed. Businesses shuttered. People stayed home.
Still, the disease spread furiously through Ford County. On March 17, officials announced the first case of COVID-19 in the community. Soon, viral clusters that started in the packing plants led to a rise in cases that, at one point, made Ford County one of the worst hotspots in Kansas.
In Kansas like most of the U.S. the virus has disproportionately harmed non-white and Hispanic families. Statewide, the rate of reported cases is twice as high among Hispanic residents and the rate of deaths is 27% higher. (Kansas does not publish race or ethnicity COVID-19 data at a county level.) Especially in the spring and summer, numerous outbreaks were identified at meat packing plants that hire many Hispanic workers, including the two beef processing plants in Dodge City.
Vehicles drive down Wyatt Earp Boulevard in Dodge City, Kansas.Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY NETWORK
City commissioners began holding their meetings online in April and received regular updates from local health officials. Dodge City leaders promoted good hygiene, social distancing and wearing masks, though they stopped short of a mandate.
The city commission resumed its in-person meetings off and on over the next few months. When they met in person, they sat at tables with more space between the elected officials, who regularly wore masks.
Lets look at wearing a face covering as our statement that we are working to make Dodge City the best place to be, the city wrote on its Facebook page on July 3. Lets lead on this response to overcome this fast-spreading danger to our community.
But many people refused. And when the lockdowns of the spring expired, mobility tracking data shows many rural and small city residents quickly resumed their normal lives.
In June, people in rural communities across the country, on average, visited retail and recreation establishments at rates similar to before the pandemic, according to Google cell phone data. By early July, counties with small cities also were back to normal levels. Urban residents were slower to return, with visits to retail and recreation sites averaging about 15% below pre-pandemic levels.
And the week of Independence Day, 75% of rural residents and 73% of small city residents left home compared to 68% of people in metropolitan areas, according to the analysis.
While Dodge City officials continued to stave off a mask mandate, residents on both sides of the issue were battling each other on a community Facebook page.
I live in a free country, one person wrote in July. I will not wear a mask. Quit being a stupid crybaby liberal.
The arrogance and ignorance is just comical, another person responded. Like I said, no one is asking you to give up a kidney. If you define freedom by wearing a mask, youre the stupid crybaby.
Wearing a mask, Esthela Cisneros works at Ensueno Boutique in downtown Dodge City, Kansas. Her boss, Andres Lima, said he's been requiring both staff and customers to wear masks inside the store for months.Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY NETWORK
The lower infection rates earlier in the year made it easy for officials, particularly those in redcommunities like Dodge City that supported President Trump, to brush aside the advice of doctors, scientists and other health officials. By early August, 77% of 105 counties in Kansas did not have a mask mandate, according to a CDC analysis of data from the Kansas Health Institute.
Reduced case counts over the early summer months created a false sense of security, Norman said.
Its not unique to the rural areas, but the rural areas were less likely to stick with masks, social distancing, limits on restaurant patronage and the like, Norman said.
A recent study by the University of Kansas Institute for Policy and Social Research found a 50% drop in the spread of COVID-19 in Kansas counties that had a mask mandate compared to those without. Last month, the CDC published an updated version of the analysis, reaching the same conclusion: Mandates worked to reduce infection rates and places without them saw faster case growth.
The political battle over masks has frustrated medical professionals in already stretched-thin rural hospitals, who are seeing sick people flooding into ill-equipped facilities. Leaders of metropolitan care centers also are worried as smaller facilities ask to send their patients.
"People are suffering and dying, said Dr. Angela Hewlett, medical director of the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. People are continuing to gather in groups and go out to restaurants and bars. I would ask people to stop politicizing the virus, stop politicizing the masks. This is not a political issue. This is life and death.
Like many others nationwide, Dodge City schools reopened in August, offering both in-person and virtual classes. About 95% of the 7,000-plus students returned for in-person learning, said Dodge City Public Schools spokeswoman Kerri Baker.
The schools implemented numerous safety measures, such as requiring students and staff to wear masks, placing hand sanitizer in high-traffic areas, spreading seats at least six feet apart and disinfecting routinely.
But while face coverings were required at schools, local leaders still hadnt approved a mask mandate, so face coverings were optional in other public areas. That meant more chances for the disease to spread from outside the schools to inside.
And it did.
A picture of Comanche Middle School in Dodge City, Kansas.TREVOR HUGHES, USA TODAY NETWORK
Between Sept. 1 and Dec. 1, more than 370 school district students and staff tested positive for COVID-19, Baker said. The football team cancelled its last game of the season after three players tested positive and six others were in quarantine.
Sabrina Frerichs an elementary school teacher for the district was among the many victims of the second wave to hit Dodge City.
Frerichs awoke in the middle of the night on Oct. 29, freezing cold and with a fever. It came out of nowhere, she said, as had the pain in her stomach that had been bothering her for days.
Within a week of testing positive, Frerichs said, she could barely eat or drink. She grew weaker, and her blood oxygen levels were falling.
The 39-year-old was admitted to the hospital, where she stayed on oxygen for four days. When she came home still exhausted and aching badly she needed to use an oxygen machine.
Frerichs'husband and three daughters also came down with less serious cases of COVID-19. Only Frerichs'14-year-old son has avoided the illness so far.
"I worry about the burden financially this is going to take on my family, she said, adding she has been planning school lessons while recovering at home. Insurance won't cover everything. I worry about the long-term effects on my health."
When it comes to the mask mandate, Frerichs keeps her opinions to herself because of the divisiveness in the community over the issue.
But since being diagnosed, Frerichs has continued to battle after-effects of the disease, including tremors in her hands, intermittent tingling in her hands and feet, rapid heart rate, palpitations and shortness of breath.
Even brushing her hair or getting dressed has been exhausting.
I never thought covid did all of this, she posted on Facebook on Nov. 27. Stay healthy and safe please.
The first symptom for Karyn Garcia, a 29-year-old teacher's aide in the school district, wasblinding migraines. She thought it was stress, so she took Tylenol and continued working and caring for her two kids.
Two weeks later exhaustion set in, along with shortness of breath, body aches and fever.A test at the local expo center confirmed she had COVID-19.
Garcia immediately went into quarantine with her children, neither of whom got the virus.
This isn't like just any other virus, she said. The bone-crushing weariness, the up and down fever it just feels different, she said.
"It's scary, to be honest," Garcia said.
While Frerich has a doctor nearby, many rural communities and small towns suffering the most during the current COVID-19 surge don't have hospitals or even medical clinics, forcing people to drive longdistances to get care or discouraging them from even trying.
Hewlett, with the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said tests can be hard to come by in rural areas and the turnaround time for results can take a week. By then, if people arent quarantining, the disease may have spread.
Our social bubbles are bigger than we think, Hewlett said.
Wellhealth is the new organization testing for COVID-19 at the Western State Bank Expo Center, sent to Ford County by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.JUDD WEIL/DODGE CITY DAILY GLOBE
Medical professionals in rural America are exhausted, she said. Theyre working multiple shifts and are worn down from wearing gowns, gloves and N-95 masks for hours on end. Meanwhile, doctors in private practice are helping carry the load by picking up shifts at the hospital, Hewlett said.
Dodge Citys Western Plains Medical Complex has only 10 ICU beds and six ventilators, but officials say they have not been at capacity yet.
Show captionHide captionKansas National Guard member Roy Manns, from Topeka, Kan., writes down results as he runs samples through an Abbott COVID-19 testing machine at a drive-thru...Kansas National Guard member Roy Manns, from Topeka, Kan., writes down results as he runs samples through an Abbott COVID-19 testing machine at a drive-thru testing site Wednesday, May 20, 2020 in Dodge City, Kan. Kansas Army and Air Force medical guard units have tested 100-200 people daily since setting up the testing site nearly a month ago in an attempt to stem the spread of the new coronavirus.Charlie Riedel, AP
Southwest Kansas counties have a total ICU capacity of 22 beds at 18 hospitals for the region's roughly 143,000 residents, state officials report.
On Sept. 1, those hospitals reported 17 ICU patients, including nine hospitalized with COVID-19. By Dec. 7, 18 of the 21 ICU patients were being treated for COVID-19 and only one staffed bed remained open. Another 63 people with COVID-19 filled other in-patient beds.
The state is sending ventilators to hospitals throughout Southwest Kansas because they are seeing so many COVID patients, Norman said. Thanks to that effort, state figures show the region has not yet been close to running out of ventilators this fall.
Some hospitals have run out of beds and are transferring people to Denver or other cities in Kansas, though the state doesnt publicly track those numbers. The ability of those larger hospitals to accept new patients could run out as case numbers rise locally and in surrounding communities that rely on metropolitan facilities for critical care.
I dont know how you can be a COVID-19 denier all the while the hospital in your own community is filling up and case volumes are going up dramatically, Norman said. It doesnt make any intellectual sense. I dont understand it.
On Nov. 16, Dodge City residents filed into city hall, where officials were set to vote on the mask mandate.
Among them was Ford County physician adviser Dr. R.C. Trotter, who in April urged residents to wear masks on a Kansas radio program. This time, he was urging commissioners to take action.
Just one infected person affects everyone around them, he said. And there can be long-term effects from the disease, such as damage to the brain, lungs, heart and circulatory system.
Dr. R.C. Trotter is the Ford County physician's adviser for Ford County, Kans. who is one of three doctors practicing at Family Practice Associates of Western Kansas in Dodge City.JUDD WEIL/DODGE CITY DAILY GLOBE
Its not an invasion of your rights, no more so than you cant drive as fast as you want on the road, and you cant drive without your seatbelt and you cant smoke in this room, he said.
Outside the commissioners room, about a dozen protesters decried the proposed mandate.
Most residents who testified said that the mandate would be an infringement on their rights, that it would be hard to enforce or that children were being psychologically traumatized by having to wear masks.
Casey Fitzgerald told commissioners the pandemic had been overblown.
Ive been in the community for 12 years, served in the military 21 years, still serving, Fitzgerald said. You all know this is the land of the free. So Im asking you to allow everyone here to remain free and make the choice whether to wear a mask or not
Dodge City residents wait outside of Dodge City City Hall to speak before the Dodge City Commission regarding the mask mandate for the city on Nov. 16.JUDD WEIL/DODGE CITY DAILY GLOBE
A few residents encouraged commissioners to follow the advice of medical professionals.
Laura Williams who has multiple sclerosis and has quarantined herself three times after possible exposures to the virus encouraged commissioners to impose the mandate. Nobody wants a mask mandate or a shutdown, she said. But the virus needs to be controlled.
If you dont know somebody who has been tested positive, whos been hospitalized, whos been ill, or, God forbid, died, youre lucky, Williams said.
Dodge City commissioner Joseph Nuci, who was the sole vote against the mandate, agreed that masks, handwashing and other safety measures help slow the disease. But the mandate was a step too far.
"If we do this, then what's next? Nuci said. Not allowing people to travel? Forcing people to wash their hands as soon as they enter a restaurant?"
On Nov. 18, Gov. Kelly again ordered a statewide mask mandate. Counties across Kansas were allowed to opt out of it, though, because the Republican-led state legislature granted them the power to do so in their summer session as part of a compromise negotiated with Kelly.
Some, including Ford County, opted out. The three Ford County commissioners, all Republican, walked into their meeting on Nov. 24 and unanimously rejected the mandate.
TheWest Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of December 10, 2020, therehave been 1,265,329 total confirmatorylaboratory results received for COVID-19, with 59,695totalcases and 921 deaths.
DHHR has confirmed the deaths of a 71-year old female fromGreenbrier County, a 75-year old male from Putnam County, a 92-year old femalefrom Greenbrier County, a 90-year old female from Preston County, a 77-year oldmale from Wood County, an 80-year old male from Mineral County, a 77-year oldmale from Mineral County, a 78-year old male from Brooke County, an 86-year oldmale from Wood County, a 75-year old male from Kanawha County, an 80-year oldmale from Kanawha County, a 72-year old female from Boone County, an 83-yearold male from Kanawha County, an 86-year old female from Putnam County, a 42-yearold male from Raleigh County, an 87-year old female from Jackson County, a 64-yearold male from Cabell County, a 70-year old male from Cabell County, a 38-yearold female from Cabell County, and a 59-year old male from Hancock County.
As this pandemiccontinues, it doesnt get any easier to report the deaths of our residents,said Bill J. Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary. Our sincere condolences areextended to these families.
CASESPER COUNTY: Barbour (543), Berkeley (4,224),Boone (767), Braxton (159), Brooke (918), Cabell (3,661), Calhoun (95), Clay(183), Doddridge (154), Fayette (1,303), Gilmer (231), Grant (537), Greenbrier(772), Hampshire (547), Hancock (1,139), Hardy (456), Harrison (1,835), Jackson(842), Jefferson (1,724), Kanawha (6,705), Lewis (301), Lincoln (514), Logan(1,180), Marion (1,141), Marshall (1,600), Mason (721), McDowell (708), Mercer(1,652), Mineral (1,748), Mingo (1,082), Monongalia (3,851), Monroe (444),Morgan (409), Nicholas (463), Ohio (1,901), Pendleton (153), Pleasants (141),Pocahontas (289), Preston (940), Putnam (2,379), Raleigh (1,946), Randolph(852), Ritchie (227), Roane (227), Summers (311), Taylor (454), Tucker (211),Tyler (197), Upshur (591), Wayne (1,259), Webster (99), Wetzel (493), Wirt(152), Wood (3,340), Wyoming (924).
Please note that delaysmay be experienced with the reporting of information from the local healthdepartment to DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the local health departmentlevel, it may reveal that those tested in a certain county may not be aresident of that county, or even the state as an individual in question mayhave crossed the state border to be tested.
Please visit the dashboard located at www.coronavirus.wv.gov for more information.
Free COVID-19 testing daily events scheduled fortoday:
Barbour County
1:00 PM 5:00 PM, Junior Volunteer Fire Department, 331 Row Avenue, Junior, WV
Berkeley County
11:00AM 3:00 PM, Hedgesville High School, 109 Ridge Road N., Hedgesville, WV (pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
1:00 5:00 PM, Shenandoah Community Health, 99 Tavern Road, Martinsburg, WV (pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
4:30PM 8:00 PM, Dorothy McCormack Building, 2000 Foundation Way, Martinsburg, WV(pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
Boone County
Cabell County
Grant County
10:00AM 2:00 PM, Petersburg Elementary School, 333 Rig Street, Petersburg, WV
Hampshire County
Jackson County
9:00AM 1:00 PM, Jackson County Health Department, 504 South Church Street,Ripley, WV
Jefferson County
Kanawha County
11:00AM 3:00 PM, Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, 108 Lee Street, Charleston,WV Use Reynolds Street Entrance (pre-registration:https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
Logan County
Marshall County
Mason County
5:00PM 7:00 PM, Mason County Health Department, Annex Parking Lot, 5thStreet and Viand Street, Point Pleasant, WV (pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
Mingo County
11:00AM 4:00 PM, Kermit Volunteer Fire Department, 49 Main Street, Kermit, WV
Nicholas County
1:00PM 5:00 PM, St. Lukes United Methodist Church, 18001 W. Webster Road,Craigsville, WV
Ohio County
11:00AM 4:00 PM, Valley Grove Volunteer Fire Department, 355 Fire House Lane,Valley Grove, WV (pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
11:00AM 4:00 PM, Warwood Fire Station #9, 1301 Richland Avenue, Wheeling, WV (pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
11:00AM 4:00 PM, Wheeling Island Fire Station #5, 11 North Wabash Street,Wheeling, WV (pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
Pocahontas County
8:00AM 12:00 PM, FRN Food Pantry Building, 503 Third Avenue, Marlinton, WV
Taylor County
Wayne County
10:00AM 2:00 PM, Wayne County Health Department, 217 Kenova Avenue, Wayne, WV
Wood County
11:00AM 2:00 PM, Jackson Recreational Center, 570 Jackson Park Drive, Vienna, WV (pre-registration www.ipsumcovidresults.com)
Wyoming County
11:00AM 3:00 PM, Old Board of Education, 19 Park Street, Pineville, WV
Additional testing will be held on Friday, December 11 in Barbour,Berkeley, Boone, Cabell, Fayette, Grant, Hampshire, Harrison, Jefferson, Logan,Marshall, Mason, Mercer, Mingo, Nicholas, Ohio, Putnam, Taylor, Wayne, andWyoming counties.
There are many ways to obtain free testing in West Virginia. Pleasevisit https://dhhr.wv.gov/COVID-19/pages/testing.aspx for more testing options.
Every week, the Times Free Press will publish five essential things to know about the coronavirus pandemic in the Chattanooga region. For more updated case count numbers and other data related to Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama, visit timesfreepress.com/virus.
Five things to know about COVID-19 in the Chattanooga region for the week ending Dec. 11.
1. Hospitalizations across region near capacity, showing the strain on local health systems: Providers in Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia pushed to the brink.
Why it matters: In the past week ICU beds in the city of Athens in McMinn County, Tennessee, hit 100% occupancy and the city of Cleveland in Bradley County reached 99% occupancy. Similarly, the 10-county North Georgia Health District reported being at 97% capacity. Under normal circumstances, staff can be called in to help care for an influx of patients, but that is more of a challenge as staffing shortages due to the COVID-19 surge plague most of the nation.
Read more about the worrying hospitalization statistics in Tennessee and how the same trend is playing out in Georgia.
2. Dizzying Hamilton County Schools developments leave schedule for spring semester uncertain: Schools go fully online this coming week as COVID-19 cases continue to climb.
Why it matters: On Thursday, Hamilton County Schools announced students would go to online-only school next week as the number of active cases in the county remains high. The quick shift also resulted in the suspension of winter sports until January. What the changes mean for the spring semester, starting Jan. 6, remains unknown. The school system reported this week that nearly 8,000 more students plan to return to the classroom after trying virtual learning in the fall.
Read more about the online-only announcement, what the suspension of winter sports means for their seasons and the logistical challenges schools could face with more in-person students in the spring.
3. COVID-19 vaccines set to arrive in Tennessee after months of uncertainty: Vaccine likely to receive emergency use authorization in Washington D.C. soon.
Why it matters: Arrival of the vaccine in Tennessee in the coming days is a welcome development. But public health experts know that injecting two doses of vaccine into the bodies of 4.8 million Tennesseans how many people it is estimated need to be vaccinated in order to ultimately control COVID-19 will not be easy. Health leaders face not only logistical challenges but high levels of skepticism in communities.
Read more about how state leaders plan to navigate complicated logistics, unexpected challenges and inevitable supply shortages.
4. Hamilton County reports 12 new COVID-19 deaths, marking the deadliest day for the virus in Chattanooga: Opening days of December nearly break record death total for an entire month.
Why it matters: Hamilton County is beginning to see the effects of Thanksgiving gatherings as cases rise, hospitalization totals are breaking records and deaths are spiking. On Tuesday, the Hamilton County Health Department reported 12 new coronavirus deaths, the deadliest day for the virus to date. There are few indications that this trend will slow as case totals and positivity rates of new tests remain at record highs.
Read more about what the spike in deaths could mean for the virus during the winter months.
5. From acrylic shields to plastic bubbles, how Santa is staying safe in the Chattanooga area: Christmas season brings new challenges to old traditions.
Why it matters: With Christmas two weeks away, area families are trying to make the season special but having to navigate a dangerous reality with cases at an all-time high and many of the seasonal staples unavailable. But in Collegedale, Santa still found a festive way to meet children situated in a giant plastic snow globe. Similarly, staff at Rock City are working to ensure safety in their winter wonderland.
Read more about the changes to local holiday traditions in the age of COVID-19.
What are your experiences with the coronavirus? Are you or someone you love affected by it? What questions do you have? We would like to hear from you, so please contact efite@timesfreepress.com or wmassey@timesfreepress.com.
More than 300 test positive for COVID-19 in Rockland County The Journal News / Lohud.com
I just told them to tell my babies I love them a lot because, again, I didnt know if I was going to wake up, Diana Estrada-Arauza said.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. Diana Estrada-Arauza has had both COVID-19 and a baby during the pandemic -- both at the same time.
Estrada-Arauza explained what it was like when she found out she was COVID positive while seven months pregnant.
It was scary, Estrada-Arauza admitted. Because Im a nurse myself, so I kind of heard stories and seen people with COVID.
She was admitted to UC Davis on Sept. 6 and then was transferred to the intensive care unit (ICU) in a matter of hours. Ten days later, the hospital staff told her she would need to be put on a ventilator.
I asked if I could call my family just to give them an update, she recalled. And when I did, I told them that they tried their best, but the next step was the intubation.
Estrada-Arauza teared up as she remembered the moment, thinking of her 9-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter she still had at home.
I just told them to tell my babies I love them a lot because, again, I didnt know if I was going to wake up, she said.
Estrada-Arauza recalled how much it meant as a nurse at UC Davis held her hand as they put her on the ventilator.
She gave me comfort, Estrada-Arauza said. It was probably one of the weakest moments I had because I didnt know what was going to happen. She was very supportive and I looked into her eyes and I held her hand very tight.
Shortly after Estrada-Arauza was intubated, the babys heart rate dropped.
They had the whole team come down to the ICU and transfer me to the nearest OR, Estrada-Arauza explained.
Baby Sergio was born on Sept. 16, two months earlier than planned, but COVID free. After a short time in intensive care, he was able to go home, even before his mother.
Fortunately, Estrada-Arauza was able to beat the virus and was taken off the ventilator. Still, the battle wasnt over.
When I came home I was in a wheelchair, and using a walker, and I also had oxygen, she said. Because just from getting off my couch to go to the restroom or somewhere, I couldnt breathe.
Now, she has a message for everyone.
I want people to know its real, Estrada-Arauza implored. If it doesnt affect you, it might affect a friend, a family member or eventually it might in some way intertwine and affect you.
Now, mother and baby are home, together with her whole family, in time for the holidays.
Hes very special, he is a fighter, Estrada-Arauza said, holding Sergio, as tears ran down her cheeks. He fought so hard to be here as well. Hes my miracle baby.
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