A temporary tent was set up at UMass Memorial Hospital in Worcester, Mass., to prepare for an uptick in COVID-19 cases this month. Erin Clark/Boston Globe via Getty Images hide caption
A temporary tent was set up at UMass Memorial Hospital in Worcester, Mass., to prepare for an uptick in COVID-19 cases this month.
More than 2,400 hospitals and related facilities have received their first doses of new drugs that are designed to keep mild to moderately ill COVID-19 patients out of the hospital. But it's not clear how much the drugs will help these patients and whether the medicines will reduce the demand for hospital beds.
The Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency authorization to two monoclonal antibody formulations bamlanivimab, produced by Eli Lilly, and a two-antibody combination developed by Regeneron.
These drugs are supposed to prevent the coronavirus from invading cells. Instead of being a pill or a shot, these drugs are in the form of a liquid that must be infused intravenously a process that takes two hours or more.
"Like everything in today's world during the pandemic, our biggest challenges are around staffing," says Dr. Peter Newcomer, chief clinical officer at University of Wisconsin Health in Madison.
He said his hospital is giving the drug after-hours in an infusion center, so infectious COVID-19 patients don't cross paths with cancer patients and other vulnerable people. A special plea went out for nurses to take on yet another shift, even as the hospital struggles with rising COVID-19 cases.
The hospital can initially handle eight patients a night. Newcomer says they started with three patients Tuesday evening.
"Our advertising to the community went out Monday and Tuesday so we're going to see more tonight, and fill up all those slots real soon," he predicts.
His hospital, together with a second hospital in Madison, got an initial allocation of 112 doses. If everyone who qualifies for this treatment asks for it including people over 65 and those with underlying conditions such as obesity, kidney disease and immunodeficiency the hospital will quickly run out of drugs. So, UW Health set up a system to identify people who would most likely benefit. Officials will randomly pick from that pool of applicants if there isn't enough medicine to go around.
"It's basically a lottery-type system with an allocation that is done as equitably as we can," Newcomer says. The hospital developed this strategy earlier in the year to cope with a shortage of another COVID-19 drug, remdesivir. But the shortages could be far more acute with the monoclonal antibodies since so many more people are potentially eligible for them.
Informed consent for this treatment includes telling patients that it's not clear just how well these drugs actually work. The National Institutes of Health put out treatment guidelines Nov. 18 saying there's simply not enough information to know if the Lilly drug is effective. The guidelines haven't been updated to address Regeneron's drug. Emergency use authorization doesn't assure that a new product is effective, but that its potential benefits are likely to outweigh the risks.
Company studies suggest that doctors have to treat 10 to 20 patients to avoid a single hospitalization. The federal government bought hundreds of thousands of doses of these drugs and is distributing them nationally. That means patients don't have to pay for the drugs, though they may be responsible for the cost of infusion, which can run into many hundreds of dollars, depending on how insurance companies cover the procedure.
It's not clear how well the hospital's investment in staff time will pay off.
"As long as we can continue to provide this treatment, we plan on it," Newcomer says. "It's going to have to be an ongoing evaluation of what we can do from a staffing standpoint."
Hospital administrators hope the drugs are effective enough to help keep patients out of their intensive care units and other hospital beds. That's an increasingly serious issue as the coronavirus pandemic surges in the United States.
In New Mexico, "we're currently entering crisis-level stage with bed capacity," says Dr. David Gonzales, chief medical officer of CHRISTUS St. Vincent's Hospital in Santa Fe.
The hospital is sending eligible patients to its emergency room for treatment there.
"We have a portion of or emergency room that's dedicated to COVID-positive patients," Gonzales explains, so that eases concern about how to limit the risk to other patients coming for emergency care.
CHRISTUS St. Vincent's Hospital infused its first patient Tuesday, using one of the eight initial doses of the drug allotted by the state of New Mexico. After the hour-long infusion, nurses monitor patients for one to six hours to make sure there are no serious side effects. And Gonzales says that monitoring continues once patients leave the hospital, using the hospital's telemedicine services.
The logistics of delivering these drugs varies widely. In Maryland, for instance, the state designated four geographically dispersed sites, including an urgent care center in the Washington, D.C., suburbs and a field hospital set up in the Baltimore Convention Center. The University of California, San Francisco is using an infusion center that's isolated from its usual infusion center to protect patients without COVID-19.
Once a week, the federal government allocates monoclonal antibodies to states, based on a formula that considers COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. The Department of Health and Human Services maintains a website listing allocations of the drug. It reported having distributed 85,000 doses as of last week. States, in turn, decide how to allocate the drugs within their borders.
The big question now is how much of a clamor there will be for this new and uncertain treatment.
"I expect more of a push for people to get it," says Newcomer at UW Health. "But I also expected people to wear masks regularly as well. My expectations aren't always met."
You can contact NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris at rharris@npr.org.
A Bedford bakery is challenging a fine it received from the Attorney Generals Office for alleged COVID-19 violations.
The mask mandate goes against my inspiration for starting this business to build a face-to-face community space, and I believe people who make the choice to come in and enjoy that environment should have the right to do so, Alexa Firman, owner of Simply Delicious Baking Co., said in a statement.
Simply Delicious Baking Co. was fined $500 for repeatedly failing to ensure employees wore masks, according to a letter from Associate Attorney General Anne M. Edwards.
I opened my bakery coffee shop late last year to bring our community together and provide a comfortable space for people to gather I have many loyal customers who greatly value the freedom they have to gather here who are supporting me, Firman said.
She said her business has taken precautions to keep the space safe, including social distancing, frequent sanitizing and offering curbside takeout.
According to Edwards letter, a health inspector visited the Bedford bakery in July after receiving complaints. The inspector witnessed employees not wearing masks and the owner refused the inspectors direction to make them put on masks.
Firman said Tuesday that she received a warning in July, and there was no real follow-up until the fine was issued last week.
I was a bit surprised to get this letter from the Attorney Generals Office, said Firman, who operates the bakery with backup from her mother.
Both of them were comfortable without the use of masks, she said, adding Simply Delicious has received a lot of support from customers who feel the same way. However, since Gov. Sununu issued the statewide mask mandate on Nov. 19, Firman said she and her mother have both transitioned to wearing masks at the bakery.
Firmans attorney reached out to the Liberty Defense Fund of New Hampshire, a nonprofit organization based in Mont Vernon created in June.
Thomas McLeod, chairman of the Liberty Defense Fund of New Hampshire, said his organization will be providing financial support for Firman as she contests the fine.
McLeod said that Firmans fine for operating in violation of one of the governors emergency orders does not pertain to the new statewide mask mandate.
This was based on the old order in which, number one, we felt were vague and kind of difficult to follow because it is difficult to know what is mandatory and what is just a guideline, McLeod said on Tuesday. They are written as if they are guidelines; that is the first issue.
In the violation letters, Edwards said that despite the terms guideline and guidance, businesses are required to comply with the governors emergency orders, and that violations are taken very seriously.
McLeod said that businesses should have the freedom to take into consideration their own individual circumstances in deciding how to operate.
According to the New Hampshire Secretary of States website, two of the funds incorporators are former state representatives Andrew J. Manuse of Derry and Joseph Hoell Jr. of Dunbarton, who helped organize rallies last spring protesting the governors stay-at-home order.
A hearing for Firman will be scheduled with the Attorney Generals Office, according to McLeod. If the issue is not resolved there, it could move to a court hearing, he said.
Simply Delicious Baking Co. was one of three restaurants fined and two others warned for violations last week. This week, Grumpys Bar and Grill in Plaistow was fined a $1,500 civil penalty for various violations. White Mountain Tavern in Lincoln faces a fine of $1,000. Loudon Village Country Store was fined $2,000.
This story will be updated.
Another Mainer has died as health officials on Wednesday reported 230 new coronavirus cases across the state.
Wednesdays report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 11,027. Of those, 9,916 have been confirmed positive, while 1,111 were classified as probable cases, the Maine CDC reported.
The agency revised Tuesdays cumulative total to 10,797, down from 10,799, meaning there was a net increase of 228 over the previous days report, state data show. As the Maine CDC continues to investigate previously reported cases, some are determined to have not been the coronavirus, or coronavirus cases not involving Mainers. Those are removed from the states cumulative total. The Bangor Daily News reports on the number of new cases reported to the Maine CDC in the previous 24 hours, rather than the increase of daily cumulative cases.
New cases were reported in Androscoggin (23), Aroostook (10), Cumberland (37), Franklin (3), Hancock (8), Kennebec (17), Knox (4), Lincoln (3), Oxford (3), Penobscot (37), Piscataquis (1), Sagadahoc (3), Somerset (14), Waldo (6), Washington (6) and York (48) counties, state data show. Information about where an additional seven cases were reported wasnt immediately available.
The seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 217.4, up from 207.6 a day ago, up from 191.9 a week ago and up from 40.1 a month ago.
A Somerset County resident has succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 190.
Its the 10th straight day when the Maine CDC has reported new deaths. Since Nov. 16, there have been 25 new deaths reported, including 12 alone on Tuesday. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60.
Wednesdays report marks the sixth time in the past 10 days with more than 200 new cases. It comes as Gov. Janet Mills on Tuesday extended her civil state of emergency for the ninth time as the monthlong surge in virus transmission shows no signs of abating. That order now expires Dec. 23, unless it is extended again.
Health officials have warned Mainers that forceful and widespread community transmission is being seen throughout the state. Every county is seeing high community transmission, which the Maine CDC defines as a case rate of 16 or more cases per 10,000 people.
There are two criteria for establishing community transmission: at least 10 confirmed cases and that at least 25 percent of those are not connected to either known cases or travel.
So far, 678 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Information about those currently hospitalized wasnt immediately available.
Meanwhile, 360 more people have recovered from the coronavirus, bringing total recoveries to 8,592. That means there are 2,245 active confirmed and probable cases in the state, which is down from 2,378 on Tuesday.
A majority of the cases 6,569 have been in Mainers under age 50, while more cases have been reported in women than men, according to the Maine CDC.
As of Tuesday, there have been 836,208 negative test results out of 849,533 overall. Just over 1.5 percent of all tests have come back positive, the most recently available Maine CDC data show.
The coronavirus has hit hardest in Cumberland County, where 3,684 cases have been reported and where the bulk of virus deaths 71 have been concentrated. Other cases have been reported in Androscoggin (1,433), Aroostook (116), Franklin (204), Hancock (223), Kennebec (736), Knox (203), Lincoln (149), Oxford (317), Penobscot (756), Piscataquis (40), Sagadahoc (143), Somerset (425), Waldo (222), Washington (187) and York (2,180) counties. Information about where an additional nine cases were reported wasnt immediately available.
As of Wednesday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 12,598,660 people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as caused 259,796 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
How bad is the pandemic?
New York successfully slowed the virus spread since becoming the global epicenter for Covid-19 in March and April. After hitting lows over the summer, the number of new coronavirus cases has begun to creep up in recent weeks amid enhanced testing in hot spot zip codes. New York has been reporting more than 5,000 new cases daily in recent days.
After implementing a statewide shutdown in the spring, Cuomo reopened the state through a regional, phased approach. His strategy now includes face covering requirements, travel quarantine rules, restaurant curfews and restrictions on gatherings.
Cuomo is also utilizing a micro-cluster strategy, an approach where the state responds to outbreaks in specific neighborhoods. That has meant new restrictions including some limits on in-person learning and high-risk, nonessential businesses additional testing, contact tracing and compliance enforcement on communities and ZIP codes where Covid-19 is surging.
Gareth Rhodes, the deputy superintendent and special counsel at the state Department of Financial Services and a member of the governors Covid-19 task force, said the micro-cluster strategy has been effective in controlling the viral spread in hot spot areas and helped prevent another statewide shutdown.
When theres evidence that there is broad-based community spread happening and the trend is going in the wrong direction, thats when we implement the cluster, Rhodes said. It serves as a wake-up call to communities that, unless additional actions are taken by the community, there will be further restrictions coming.
The state has ramped up its testing and contact tracing efforts to better understand how and where Covid-19 is being transmitted. Rich Azzopardi, a senior advisor to Cuomo, said the big difference between March and April and now is we just know so much more about how the virus spreads.
Its like the fog of war has lifted and you can now see the field, he said.
Despite focusing on a micro-cluster approach, Cuomo has yet to take the possibility of another statewide shutdown off the table.
Everything is based on the numbers, Rhodes said. We monitor the numbers every single day. theres no one metric thats determinative we look at a series of metrics.
Shannon Young
For the first time, Wisconsin reported more than 100 deaths from COVID-19 in one day.
The grim news comes ahead of Thanksgiving, when health experts expect asymptomatic carriers to gather indoorsandspread the coronavirus even further in a state already struggling with strained hospitals and a critically high level of infection.
"If you're planning to spend Thanksgiving with people outside of your household, we urge you to seriously reconsider," Gov. Tony Evers said Tuesday in a news conference. "None of us wants to be the ones who unwittingly spread this virus to somebody we love, or host the next superspreader event we hear about in the news."
The state Department of Health Services on Tuesdayreported 6,202 new cases and 104 deaths, bringing the death toll to 3,115.
The average number of new daily cases over the last seven days was 5,732. It is down from 6,500 last Wednesday, an early indicator to health experts cases might be plateauing at a high level.
"The data from the past week are encouraging that its plateauing. Its much better that we observe that than continuing to go straight uphill," said Ryan Westergaard, DHS chief medical officer. "That being said, the level of transmission and the number of cases is critically high."
At the current level, hospitals are struggling to find enough staff and beds for the influx of patients, and contact tracing efforts have been overwhelmed.
The average daily death toll over the last seven days was 53; two months ago, just as the surge in deaths was beginning in Wisconsin, it was five.
The seven-day averages helpsmooth out anomalies in the data and area better indicator of trends, as reporting of cases and deaths varies by day.
The 104 deaths reported Tuesday follow Sunday, with zero reported deaths, and Monday, with six. The daily reported death toll doesnot represent the number of deaths that occurred on a day, but instead all deaths not previously reported.
Track COVID-19 in Wisconsin: See the latest numbers and trends
How to interpret COVID-19 data:What experts say about positive cases, deaths and hospitalizations
We are far from out of the woods. People need to double down, said DHS Secretary-designee Andrea Palm.
More than 75,000 people who've tested positive for COVID-19 were actively infected with the virus Tuesday, according to state data, meaning they haven't yet recovered or died.
Many more asymptomatic people are spreading the virus unknowingly, Westergaard said.
Most of the transmission of the virus in Wisconsin is from people who do not know they're infected, he said. To flatten the curve, everyone must stay home, he said.
"It's really only going to happen when we really considerably decrease how frequently were interacting," Westergaard said.
Health experts have reminded residents that a negative test a few days before Thanksgiving is not a free pass to interact with vulnerable family members.
The virus can incubate for days before symptoms appear, and transmission is so widespread that residents could beinfected anytime between the negative test and Thanksgiving.
Small, indoor gatherings easily spread the virus and are currently one of the main drivers of transmission in Wisconsin, experts say.
"We enter Thanksgiving very aware of the catastrophic effects that gatherings could have in increased transmission of this disease," saidBen Weston, director of medical services for the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency management.
He cautioned againstputting trust in the phraseI feel fine.
I feel fine means very little in regards to COVID infection, Weston said. Everyone feels fine before they dont.
"And everyone feels fine when theyre at their very most contagious," he added. "Thats a huge part of the reasons why COVID is so dangerous, why the disease has been so hard to control.
More: Nearly 300 Wisconsin nursing home residents died from COVID-19 in four weeks
More: Doctors and scientists beg Wisconsinites to stay home for Thanksgiving
The Wisconsin Supreme Court signaled Tuesday it would not block Dane Countys order limiting gatherings ahead of Thanksgiving.
A conservative legal firm, on behalf of Dane County residents, filed a lawsuit Monday asking the states highest court to block a county order banning indoor gatherings of any size other than those with household members. Under that policy, extended family and loved ones arent able to gather inside for Thanksgiving.
The restrictions also apply to sporting events, group exercises, meetings, trainings, conferences and movies.
The Supreme Court asked the county to respond to the motion for an emergency temporary injunction by Friday, suggesting the court would not block the order before Thanksgiving.
As of Tuesday, there were 1,989 people hospitalized with the virus, including 436 patients in intensive care units, both slight declines from the day prior.
Hospitalizations have dipped from from an all-time high last Tuesday of 2,277.
Still, hospitals remain at ornear capacity, and they continue to facesevere staffing shortages as hundreds of health care workers must quarantine at home after being infected or exposed to the virus in the community.
Hospitals statewide have been about 90-92%full for the last several weeks, John Raymond, president of the Medical College of Wisconsin, said Tuesday in a Milwaukee Press Club event. They run best at 75-85% capacity, he said.
Especially concerning are the near-capacity ICUs across the state.
"Things start to break down when you get up over 85 or 90%" in intensive care units, Raymond said.
It's hard to staff packed ICUs, and very sick patients are difficult to transfer betweenhospitals, Raymond said.
Only a handful of intensive care beds remain availablein some regions of the state.
In northwest Wisconsin a region of 15 counties as defined by the Healthcare Emergency Readiness Coalition just four ICU beds and three intermediate care beds were available Tuesday, according to Wisconsin Hospital Association data.
"As we enter the holiday season, if people ignore the recommendations of our public health officials, it's very likely that we will overwhelm the capacity of our health systems to take care of everybody, whether they have COVID-19 or not," Raymond said.
About 31% of hospital beds in the state are being used by COVID-19 patients, Raymond said.
The average positivity rate was 28.7% Tuesday. The measure looks at first-time positive tests over the last seven days and has been declining for the last two weeks.
Daily case totals reported by the statedo not include rapid antigen tests, which are more prevalent since the University of Wisconsin System opened community rapid testing sites at several campuses in the last three weeks.
Molly Beck and Ricardo Torres contributed to this report.
We want to remember the lives of those who died from COVID-19. Email us at jsmetro@jrn.com with the subject line "COVID-19 remembrance"or fill out this form if youd like to share a loved one's story with the Journal Sentinel.
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Missy and Barry Buchanan sent life-sized cardboard cutouts of themselves to their daughter in California and their son, who also lives in Texas.
"I just remember thinking, 'you know, I want to do something that'll be funny and unexpected,'" Missy Buchanan told CNN.
They usually spend Thanksgiving in either Texas or California and then the entire family -- including their daughter, who lives in Ireland -- gets together for Christmas.
Buchanan said big family gatherings don't feel safe this year, so she and her husband decided to stay home.
"Now that we're not going to go, what can we do to make it fun and not make it a sad time, because there's just so much so much sadness and chaos and uncertainty in the world," she remembered thinking.
She told her kids that a large box is on the way, but didn't give away any details that would have spoiled the surprise.
Mindy Whittington told CNN that her mom is always sending them thoughtful packages and gifts for her 3-year-old son, Noah, so she didn't think much about it.
"We weren't really expecting anything that crazy," Whittington said. "We opened it up together and we just could not stop laughing."
Her husband shot video of the moment that showed Noah jumping up and down, giggling and giving his Ama and Poppi a hug.
"It was just nice to have a moment of lightness and laughter in such an intense year and even just to remember that,hey, this is just a year, we're not all in lockdown for life," Whittington said.
She said Noah talks to the cutout, and likes to have it in his room at night when he's ready to go to sleep.
Matthew Buchanan said his children Quintin, 12, Oliver, who turns 10 next week, and Clara, 6, have enjoyed posing for photos with their grandparents cutouts in different spots around the house and out in the yard with their chickens.
He said he and Oliver "basically fell on the floor laughing" when they opened the box and saw Ama and Poppi's smiling faces. They quickly set up the surprise before his wife came home with Quintin and Clara.
"Everybody was sort of confused and laughing, and it was a funny little scene," he said.
Missy Buchanan said she didn't send one to her daughter in Ireland because she didn't really have storage space for a 6-foot-tall photo of her parents.
She said they haven't been able to see Noah since Christmas and her other grandchildren have only been able to make an outdoor porch visit because of the pandemic.
"They haven't been able to give their grandparents a hug since like March," Matthew said.
Missy Buchanan said that Zoom and other technology has helped everyone stay in touch and the family is planning to say the blessing together on Thanksgiving.
She said she's let her kids handle the Thanksgiving cooking for years, but she's going to fix a whole spread including turkey and dressing, green beans, salad sweet potato casserole and pumpkin and pecan pies.
She said she and her husband are going to be eating leftovers for a long time.
"I just think we should be in the mindset of just, trying to make the most positive thing that we can out of it because it doesn't do any good just to complain and be miserable and gripe," Buchanan said. "We can still have fun. It's just going to be a different kind of fun. And knowing that it's not going to last forever, and we all will be back together again, hopefully soon."
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) Despite concerns the rise in COVID-19 cases will overwhelm hospitals, the regions two major health systems say they have sufficient capacity to handle any surge.
It comes as the Wolf administration is pointing at modeling from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington that projects the state will run out of ICU beds in December.
In the last four to five weeks, both UPMC and Allegheny Health Network have seen a dramatic uptick in COVID hospitalizations but both systems say this number of patients is far from stressing their capacity.
They have more than enough intensive care unit beds and can convert others should the need arise. Still, the systems say their capacity could be stretched if there is an even more dramatic surge and urge people to follow protocols this holiday week.
If it is unabated, there could be a really dire situation we could confront, but I think theres been such a focus on this that I hope the community really does get that its in their hands, and they really should do this wisely and safely and I think well all get through this together, said Donald Whiting with AHN.
The hospital system and the independent hospitals have been conferring regularly about sharing resources and meeting demand should number continue to climb.
The Wolf administration Monday announced new coronavirus mitigation efforts Monday as modeling projects 22,000 new daily coronavirus cases in the state come December.
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Halloween this year in downtown Austin was a raucous affair. Nightclubs advertised dancing and drink specials. Thousands of people crowded 6th Street, partying shoulder to shoulder, some with masks and some without.
All of this happened as bars in Austin were still under a shutdown order to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Those bars and nightclubs are some of the more than 2,500 so far that have been permitted to reopen by the state on the promise that in the middle of a pandemic, theyd convert themselves into restaurants.
Shuttering Texas nearly 8,000 bars has been one of Gov. Greg Abbotts most drastic safety restrictions. He most recently allowed bars to open in parts of the state where coronavirus hospitalizations are relatively low, with permission from the local officials.
But in areas where bar bans are still being enforced, many of those businesses are still operating like, well, bars. Just weeks after Halloween, with Thanksgiving on the horizon, frustrated health experts and local officials say the loophole is defeating the purpose of the bar ban and could be one reason the state is battling its largest outbreak in months.
The restrictions were put in place for a reason, said Dr. Philip Huang, the director of Dallas Public Health. And if you get around it, if you're trying to cheat, then you're sort of eliminating the reduced transmission that you're trying to achieve.
Public health officials and experts have said since this spring that bars pose unique dangers for spreading COVID-19. The Texas Medical Association notes it is one of the worst ways to spread the virus.
Packed bars, where people are talking very close to each other and they're shouting, or they're yelling and people are touching a lot that's super high risk, said Aliza Norwood, a medical expert at the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin.
If the current trend continues over 8,300 Texans were hospitalized with confirmed coronavirus infections Monday, up by nearly 900 from last week there may be a time in which it is appropriate to shut down bars and restaurants completely, Norwood said.
Austin health officials agree.
We are at a precarious spotright now where cases arerising across the country, cases are rising acrossTexas, said Mark Escott, interim Austin-Travis County health authority, before adding, We really have to find a wayto stabilize things to avoidthat surge.
But Abbott, who has concentrated power within himself to take action on COVID-19, said he has no plans to do so. He did not respond to requests for comment.
The governor has had a tumultuous relationship with bars since the beginning of the pandemic. After shutting down dine-in service March 19, Abbott allowed bars to reopen with capacity limits on May 22. But in late June, as cases and hospitalizations soared in Texas, Abbott ordered the bars to once again close their doors, expressing regret for opening them too quickly in the first place.
That was met with anger and a lawsuit from dozens of Texas bar owners who said that Abbott was unfairly targeting their industry while other businesses were allowed to continue.
Finally, last month Abbott announced bars could reopen, but only if counties allow. In places like Austin, El Paso and Dallas, county judges said no. So in those cities bars are still out of luck unless they become a restaurant.
Since June, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission let bars reclassify as restaurants by offering food and committing that alcohol sales will be less than half of their revenue. Servers would also have to wear masks at all times. Customers, too, when not at their tables, and tables must be 6 feet apart or have dividers to allow for proper social distancing.
The commission has received more than 2,700 applications from bars seeking reclassification, a small number of which have been denied. About 200 are still processing.
Chris Porter, a TABC spokesperson, said that since June, the agency has conducted more than 20,000 inspections of facilities, shutting more than 200 down for 30 days because of infractions.
The vast majority of businesses are taking the states health and safety guidelines seriously and are able to operate in a way that promotes the safety of their customers and employees, Porter said.
But many county officials say bars, operating under the guise of restaurants, are openly flouting guidelines and that with TABC failing to enforce the rules, their hands are tied.
More than 170 of the reclassified bars are in Dallas, a county in a region where the hospitalization rate is nearing 15%. Abbott said counties where the hospitalization rate exceeds 15% must shut down bars and impose stricter occupancy limits on businesses.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins sent a letter earlier this month, citing health officials, asking Abbott to let them take measures to restrict gatherings to stop the spread.
Among his list of demands, he asked Abbott to close any venues functionally serving as bars, and [close] any loopholes permitting bar operations that may have been created by the TABC.
In Austin, where over 260 bars reclassified, more than half of cases earlier this month came from young people age 20 to 39. And during a media call soon after Halloween, Janet Pichette, Austin Public Healths chief epidemiologist, warned that the city was beginning to see an uptick in cases and the impact of Halloweengatherings on our community.
On Thursday, Escott, the Austin-Travis County health official, placed the county in Stage 4 of its public health guidelines, which urges restaurants, including reclassified bars, to voluntarily limit capacity to 50% or 25%.
In Texas worst hit county, El Paso, where the hospitalization rate is 38% and cases have surged for weeks, County Judge Ricardo Samaniego is desperate. His order to temporarily shut down some businesses was rejected by an appeals court. He wants the state to either give him the authority to close bad actors or enforce its own guidelines.
Where were you when bars turned to restaurants and charged food funds so they could have 51% of food sales [while otherwise still acting as bars]? he said in an interview.
Asked whether he would expand local authority to impose safety restrictions, Abbott blamed local officials for not being stringent enough in a press conference last week.
Most enforcement that we see is done by TABC," Abbott said.
Meanwhile, bars that are being shut down by TABC say the enforcement feels inconsistent and unfair. During a recent round of sweeps, eight bars were closed after 1,700 inspections.
Oscar Gamboa, the owner of Bodegas in Amarillo, said its unclear why his bar was shut down but not others that he sees flagrantly violating rules. TABC told him he was shut down for failing to enforce mask mandates, for not serving food and because the business was too crowded, all of which Gamboa disputes.
If the TABC went out every single night, theyd shut everybody down, Gamboa said. He closed his dance floor and paid thousands of dollars to renovate his kitchen.
But Gamboa said nearby bars with gigantic dance floors, no masks on, nobody social distancing, selling Hot Pockets and Lunchables [to comply with TABC guidelines], theyre not closed.
Shawna Odom, the general manager of the Lubbock bar Kong's, also said she feels her bar was closed arbitrarily.
Odom said she received approval from TABC to reclassify in October. A week later, TABC agents wrote them up for not enough people wearing masks, though she claims everyone was seated at their tables, which means they werent required. She received a written warning.
I've literally went in other bars over here, and there's not been a face mask in sight. I was like literally 75% are wearing masks here, Odom said. Odom was later shut down for 30 days over a paperwork issue.
Porter defended his agencys 220 inspectors.
In most cases, agents will attempt to address issues with a verbal or written warning, but in cases where its determined that public health is at risk, the business could face an emergency suspension of its license to sell alcohol, Porter said.
Still, even as health experts urge the public to avoid bars, the industry has tried to downplay any risks. Michael Klein, the head of the Texas Bar and Nightclub Alliance, said that with such a high recovery rate for COVID-19, government officials should allow businesses and customers to decide about opening.
People can vote with their pocketbooks, Klein said, who reluctantly encouraged his thousands of members to reclassify. There's absolutely no reason that our businesses should either be singled out or targeted.
But with more than 1.1 million total cases and 20,500 deaths in Texas alone, public health officials disagree.
Norwood said the sooner coronavirus is under control, the better off businesses like bars will be.
If less people get sick, there's less likelihood that community spread will rise, less likelihood that hospitals will fill up and then less likelihood that we'll have to shut down bars and restaurants, she said.
Disclosure: Dell, Texas Medical Association and University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
FOX Business Jackie DeAngelis and Barrons Roundtable host Jack Otter weigh in on the job market's recovery with another possible shutdown.
The number of Americans applying for state unemployment benefits rose again last weekas a surge incoronaviruscases across the country threatens to undermine the economy's recovery.
The latest jobless claims figures from the Labor Department, which coverthe week ending Nov. 21, show that 778,000workers sought aid last week, about four times the pre-crisis level. Whileit's well below the peak of nearly 7 million in late March, when states first implemented lockdown measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, it marks the second consecutive week of an increase in claims.
It's a slight uptick from last week's revised figure of 748,000and well above the 730,000 new claims forecast by Refinitiv economists.
"Weekly unemployment insurance claims are moving in the wrong direction with the first back-to-back increases since July," said Robert Frick, corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. "Together with a slower-than-expected drop in continuing claims, we're seeing the effects of rapidly-rising COVID-19 cases across the country."
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Close to 68million Americansroughly 40% of the nation's labor forcehave applied foraid since the coronavirus lockdowns began in mid-March.
The number of people who are continuing to receive unemployment benefits fell to a little more than 6million, a decline of 299,000from the previous week.
While the decline suggests that employers are calling their workers back, it may represent laid-off Americanswho have used up the maximum number of payments available through state unemployment programs (typically about six months)and are now receiving benefitsthrough a separate federal program that extends the aid by 13 weeks. Congress created the extra federal benefits earlier this year with the passage of the CARES Act.
But those key federal jobless aid programs created in March are slated to expire at the end of the year, leaving about 12 million workers with no income on Dec. 26, according to a newstudypublished by the Century Foundation, a nonprofit think tank.
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Up to 4.4 million workers are expected to exhaust their unemployment benefits before Dec. 26, with 3.5 million Americans using up the extended Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensationand 925,000 running out of the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.
Job losses remainelevatedand, as COVID-19 cases surge across the country, prompting state and local governments to implement new lockdown measures, economists are increasingly warning of a bleak winter.
There hasnt been a bigger need for it in a long, long time here, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said last week, his latest appeal to Congress and the White House regarding another stimulus package.
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Each of these segments involves unique activities, such as storing and retrieving luggage, using seat trays while eating, using entertainment systems, standing in the aisle and using the lavatory, the studys authors wrote.
When a plane is on the ground, its air supply can come from a number of places. That air is then mixed and distributed to the cabin. One source is from the airplane auxiliary power unit, or A.P.U., with the planes engine in operation. That process uses fuel and can cause noise and emissions at the airport. Air supply can also come from an airport ground source like the jet-bridge thats known as pre-conditioned air, or P.C.A. That means air is not being circulated at the usual rate. Researchers suggest that airlines should use air from the A.P.U. for improved filtration.
This is important since, during that time, people are exerting themselves resulting in increased respiratory levels for a brief period, raising the potential for infectious aerosols to be exhaled into the cabin, the Harvard study notes.
Researchers also suggest that people bring smaller and fewer bags onboard, which would cut down on their exertion and reduce encounters with other travelers also putting things in the overhead bins.
Over the summer, Michael Schultz, an engineer at Dresden Universitys Institute of Logistics and Aviation in Germany, and Jrg Fuchte, a senior specialist, at the German aerospace company Diehl Aviation found that the amount and type of hand luggage people brought onto the plane as carry-ons affected how long everyone was standing in line and the number of close contacts. They concluded that by reducing hand luggage, the number of close contacts encountered would be reduced by two-thirds.
The deplaning process tends to be smoother than boarding, since people naturally move in order of rows, so travelers dont have as much to worry about. The jetway, however, can be an area of risk if too many people are allowed on without appropriate distancing, several experts said. Travelers should remain distanced from others during this process, they said, and the planes ventilation systems should remain on.
The deplaning process can be enhanced by having passengers remain in their seats until directed to leave by a crew member, the Harvard researchers suggest.
