Rise in panic buying at local stores as Washington tightens COVID-19 restrictions KOMO News
Governor Tom Wolf and Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine today released a weekly status update detailing the states mitigation efforts based on the COVID-19 Early Warning Monitoring System Dashboard, highlighting a seven-day case increase of 26,215 cases, statewide percent positivity of 9.6%, and a concerning 59 counties with substantial transmission status.
The update includes the following:
The dashboard is designed to provide early warning signs of factors that affect the states mitigation efforts. The data available on the early warning monitoring dashboard includes week-over-week case differences, incidence rates, test percent-positivity, and rates of hospitalizations, ventilations and emergency room visits tied to COVID-19. This weeks update compares the period of November 6 November 12 to the previous seven days, October 30 November 5.
The significant increase in cases and percent positivity across much of the state is cause for concern, Gov. Wolf said. We need all Pennsylvanians to take a stand and answer the call to protect one another. We need Pennsylvanians to be united in wearing a mask, practicing social distancing, washing our hands and avoiding gatherings. It is only by working together that Pennsylvanians can prevent the spread of the virus.
As of Thursday, November 12, the state has seen a seven-day case increase of 26,215 cases; the previous seven-day increase was 16,646 cases, indicating 9,569 more new cases across the state over the past week compared to the previous week.
The statewide percent-positivity went up to 9.6% from 6.8% last week. Every county in the state has a concerning percent positivity above five percent except the following counties: Forest (1.8%); Cameron (2.1%); Union (3.2%), Wayne (3.7%) and Susquehanna (4.6).
This weeks data, in terms of case increase, percent positivity and other factors is concerning, Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said. We know COVID-19 does not discriminate. It is affecting all Pennsylvanians, no matter your race, ethnicity, age, socioeconomic status or whether you live a rural, suburban or urban area. We need all Pennsylvanians to take the steps they can take to protect one another.
As of Fridays data, Adams, Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Bedford, Berks, Blair, Bradford, Bucks, Butler, Cambria, Carbon, Centre, Chester, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Columbia, Crawford, Cumberland, Dauphin, Delaware, Elk, Erie, Franklin, Fulton, Greene, Huntingdon, Indiana, Jefferson, Juniata, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lawrence, Lebanon, Lehigh, Luzerne, Lycoming, McKean, Mercer, Mifflin, Monroe, Montgomery, Montour, Northampton, Northumberland, Perry, Philadelphia, Potter, Schuylkill, Snyder, Somerset, Tioga, Union, Venango, Washington, Westmoreland, Wyoming and York counties were in the substantial level of community transmission. The departments of Education and Health will speak with school district representatives in these counties to discuss the implications of this level of transmission.
For the week ending November 12, three counties were in the low level of transmission, five counties in the moderate level, with 59 with substantial transmission:
The Department of Health is providing weekly data on the number of statewide cases of COVID-19 among 5 to 18-year-olds.
Throughout the pandemic, there have been 19,805 total cases of COVID-19 among 5 to 18-year-olds. Of that total, 3,198 occurred between November 6 November 12. For the week of October 30 November 5, there were 2,077 cases of COVID-19 among 5 to 18-year-olds.
Cases by demographic group is available on the DOH website.
The Department of Health is providing weekly data on the number of individuals who responded to case investigators that they spent time at business establishments (restaurants, bars, gym/fitness centers, salon/barbershops) and at mass gatherings 14 days prior to the onset of COVID-19 symptoms.
Of the 20,985 confirmed cases reported between November 1 and November 7, 16 percent (3,327) provided an answer to the question as to whether they spent time at a business establishment.
Of those who did provide an answer, 16 percent, or 535, answered yes, they visited a business establishment 14 days prior to onset of symptoms:
Of the 20,985 confirmed cases, 16 percent (3,335) answered the question as to whether they attended a mass gathering or other large event. Of the 16 percent, 18.4 percent (615) answered yes to whether they attended a mass gathering or other large event 14 days prior to onset of symptoms.
Compared to data reported on November 9, this weeks data saw a decrease for people who reported going to a restaurant (53 percent vs. 55 percent last week), going to a gym/fitness center (11 percent vs. 12 percent last week), going to a salon/barbershop (7 percent vs. 8 percent last week), and going to a bar (12.5 percent vs. 13 percent last week). Numbers remained the same for those going to some other business (26 percent vs. 26 percent last week. The number of those who attended a mass gathering or other large event decreased slightly to 18.4 percent from 19 percent last week.
The numbers above highlight business settings and mass gatherings as possible sites for transmission. With less than half of those asked about what types of businesses they visited or if they attended a mass gathering responding to the question, the department is reminding Pennsylvanians that it is essential that people answer the phone when case investigators call and to provide full and complete information to these clinical professionals.
Also today, the Department of Health updated its travel recommendations, originally announced on July 2, adding Virginia to the list of states recommended for domestic travelers returning from to quarantine for 14 days upon return to Pennsylvania. In addition, the state added two neighboring states (Delaware and Maryland) to a list of bordering states in which non-essential travel is highly discouraged.
It is important that people understand that this recommendation is in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania. A concerning number of recent cases have been linked to travel, and if people are going to travel, we need them to take steps to protect themselves, their loved ones and their community, and that involves quarantining.
Gov. Wolf continues to prioritize the health and safety of all Pennsylvanians through the COVID-19 pandemic. Pennsylvanians should continue to take actions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, regardless of in what county they live. This includes wearing a mask or face covering anytime they are in public. COVID-19 has been shown to spread easily in the air and contagious carriers can be asymptomatic.
WINK NEWS
More restrictions are coming across the United States, as coronavirus cases surge.
People in Chicago are asked to stay at home. Philadelphia banned indoor gatherings. California reinstated broad restrictions, and Iowa mandated masks.
This comes as Florida reports more than 4,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases Monday. Over the weekend, Sunday saw the state reach its highest reported case count since July 25, with more than 10,000 cases.
Long lines were at CenturyLink Stadiums COVID-19 test site to begin the week, continuing the trend we have seen. The test site had a technical glitch, which caused the lines.
But we learned that a negative test result is not enough to rely on if you want to see your family at Thanksgiving. Doctors are saying a negative test does not mean you dont have COVID-19.
They say this is not new. Weve known that there are chances of false negatives and false positives since testing started. But its something to keep in mind if you plan on getting a test before you go see family for Thanksgiving. A negative test does not mean you are safe from spreading the virus to those you love.
Celebrating Thanksgiving with food and family. Thats a given for most people any other year. But this Thanksgiving is filled with tough decisions about how to celebrate safely.
Well go home, said Linda Hirakis, visiting from Ohio. Well quarantine for 14 days, but we will do Thanksgiving just by ourselves, the two of us.
Small group, maybe like seven people, said Skyler Mendez in Cape Coral. Thats it, just close family.
Our kids are going to join us, one from New Jersey, one for Maine, said John Clark, visiting from Maine.
Professor Bindu Mayi, an infectious disease expert at Nova Southeastern, said a negative test result does not mean someone doesnt have COVID-19. Sampling errors, the type of test and timing can all play a role in accuracy. If youre infected shortly before your test, it may not show up.
Once the virus gets into the body, it has to make more copies of itself, and thats how it comes to a level that can be detected by a diagnostic test, so theres a window of time for that, Mayi said. Just because youre negative doesnt necessarily mean that you are negative.
John and Louise Clark visiting from Maine say they dont just plan to rely on their tests before gathering with family. Theyll take an extra step too.
We will definitely quarantine before Thanksgiving for sure, Louise said.
Quarantining is what Mayi says is the best way to make sure you can safely celebrate with your loved ones.
With less than two weeks away from Thanksgiving, the 14-day quarantine period before Thanksgiving has already started. If you decide to quarantine, Mayi says you have to make sure everyone in your household is also quarantining for the best outcome.
The only real way that you can be a sure that you dont have the virus that you can transmit to a grandparent who is high risk or a parent who is high risk or a sibling who is high risk is if you just quarantine, Mayi said.
Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Applied Bioinformatics Laboratory and Stanford University have created the COVID-19 Risk Assessment Planning Tool, which is updated daily and shows the risk level of attending an event, given the event size and location.
Heres what you need to know:Gov. Gavin Newsom of California last month. He announced increased statewide restrictions on Monday.Credit...Pool photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez
Californias governor announced Monday that the state is pulling the emergency brake on its reopening and reinstating broad restrictions, while Iowas governor reversed course and announced a mask mandate.
The announcements came as the United States reported its 11 millionth confirmed case on Sunday, with one million new cases over the past week alone. The country is averaging 150,000 new cases a day and will probably reach 250,000 total deaths sometime this week.
Daily case reports are rising in 48 states, and with little action from the Trump administration, governors and mayors across the country are taking new steps to try to halt the spread. On Monday, a sweeping stay-at-home advisory went into effect in Chicago and Philadelphia announced strict new rules starting Friday, banning indoor gatherings and closing indoor dining at restaurants.
In Iowa, where new daily cases and hospitalizations have roughly doubled in two weeks, the Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, announced in a news conference on Monday evening that Iowans will be required to wear masks when indoors and unable to social distance starting Tuesday, along with other new restrictions.
Until recently, Governor Reynolds had flouted the guidance of infectious disease experts, who say that universal masking and social distancing are essential to limiting the viruss spread. In late September, as the virus was already surging in Iowa, she relaxed the states quarantine guidance. She recently issued a limited mask mandate, but the White House Coronavirus Task Force privately issued her a report, obtained by an ABC News affiliate, that called for stronger actions because of the states unyielding COVID spread.
The governor also ordered restaurants and bars to close at 10 p.m., and indoor gatherings, including weddings and funerals, to be limited to 15 people, while outdoor events will be capped at 30 people. If Iowans dont buy into this, we lose, Ms. Reynolds said. The measures are set through Dec. 10, though the governor said she would revisit them in a week.
In California, which had been credited with getting the virus under control for a time, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said the states daily case numbers had doubled in the last 10 days, the fastest increase the state had seen since the beginning of the pandemic. The state reached one million known cases on Nov. 12, and the next day issued travel advisories.
The increases, he said, cross age and racial or ethnic groups and appear throughout the state.
Most of Californias larger counties were moved back into the most restrictive reopening tier by the governor, meaning that indoor dining and some other businesses would have to shut down again. He said the state was also studying curfew options.
Mr. Newsom added that emergency health care facilities the state set up near the beginning of the pandemic were being prepared. One facility will open in the next week or so in Imperial County, a border county that was hit hard over the summer, he said.
State leaders including Mr. Newsom have told residents not to gather with people from outside their households, and to resist visiting relatives over the holidays.
Much of the recent rise in cases, state officials say, appears to have grown from at-home parties or family gatherings.
But in what is likely to be remembered as one of the governors more damaging moments in the pandemic, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Mr. Newsom attended an outdoor dinner for one of his political advisers at the French Laundry, a Napa Valley restaurant, with guests from several households.
The gathering did not technically violate the states rules, because there is no formal limit on the number of households at each outdoor restaurant table, but as critics noted, the governors attendance undermined the spirit of restrictions.
Mr. Newsom apologized on Monday, saying that he should have turned around and left when he realized there were more guests at the party than he expected.
Other states have taken tough actions. New Mexico is under a two-week lockdown and North Dakota, after holding out for weeks, has imposed a mask mandate.
New Jersey has announced limits on gatherings, effective Tuesday. The New Jersey Supreme Court issued an order on Monday suspending criminal and civil jury trials, along with in-person grand jury sessions, which can be switched to a virtual format.
In Washington State, new restrictions include a limit of 30 people for weddings and, as of Monday, a ban on indoor receptions. One county, Grant, reported Monday at least 17 cases related to a wedding that was attended by over 300 people.
transcript
transcript
We all agreed that we want to get the economy back on track. We need our workers to be back on the job by getting the virus under control. Were going into a very dark winter. Things are going to get much tougher before they get easier. That requires sparing no effort to fight Covid so that we can open our businesses safely, resume our lives and put this pandemic behind us. Its going to be difficult, but it can be done. When we build back better well do so with higher wages, including a $15 minimum wage nationwide, better benefits, stronger collective bargaining rights that you can raise a family. Thats how we build back the middle class better than ever. Thats how we make sure workers are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. More people may die if we dont coordinate. Look, as my chief of staff Ron Klain would say who handled Ebola the vaccine is important. Its of little use until youre vaccinated. So how do we get the vaccine? How do we get over 300 million Americans vaccinated? Whats the game plan? Its a huge, huge, huge undertaking to get it done, prioritize those greatest in need, working our way through it and also cooperate with the World Health Organization and the rest of the world in dealing with this.
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. said on Monday that more people may die from the coronavirus as a result of President Trumps refusal to begin a transfer of power and allow coordinated planning for the mass distribution of a vaccine early next year.
Trying to increase the pressure on Mr. Trump, who continues to falsely proclaim himself the election winner, Mr. Biden criticized the president as an obstacle to the daunting logistical challenges of delivering vaccines around the country and injecting hundreds of millions of Americans, work that wont begin in earnest until after Mr. Biden is sworn in.
The vaccine is important. But its of no use until youre vaccinated, Mr. Biden said, taking questions from reporters after remarks on the virus and the economy. Its a huge, huge, huge undertaking.
If we have to wait until January 20th to start that planning, it puts us behind, he added. More people may die, if we dont coordinate.
Mr. Bidens grim warning about the potentially deadly consequences of a delayed transition was a striking rebuke to the sitting president at a time when most of the country is suffering through a surge in infections from the worst pandemic in 100 years. The message to Mr. Trump was clear: You have failed, and now its my turn.
Delivering remarks about the economy and the virus after a virtual meeting with business and labor leaders, Mr. Biden offered a grim assessment of the coming months as the epidemic continues its rapid spread, and criticized Mr. Trump for mismanaging the epidemic, which he promised to shut down.
We are going into a very dark winter. Things are going to get much tougher before they get easier, Mr. Biden said. He urged Americans to celebrate Thanksgiving next week in groups of 10 or fewer, wearing masks and after quarantining. He said his own family plans were uncertain.
Mr. Biden called on Congress to pass an economic stimulus package immediately to help workers struggling to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.
For millions of Americans whove lost hours and wages or have lost jobs, we all agreed on our call that we can deliver immediate relief and it need be done quickly, Mr. Biden said.
He added that Congress should come together and pass a Covid relief package along the lines of the $3 trillion bill that House Democrats passed earlier this year.
Mr. Biden said that combating the virus remained the most urgent matter, however, and said that he would set an example for Americans who may be wary of getting vaccinated by accepting it himself. If promising vaccines now in the pipeline continue to prove safe and effective, he said, I would take the vaccine.
Look, the only reason people question the vaccine now is because of Donald Trump, Mr. Biden said. Thats the reason why people are questioning the vaccine, because of all the things he says and doesnt say, is it truthful or not truthful, the exaggerations?
Mr. Biden also said he favors a national mask mandate, and he criticized Mr. Trump and his allies for attacking state and local officials, like Michigans governor, for imposing new restrictions to try to contain the skyrocketing case numbers.
What is the matter with these guys? Mr. Biden said. Its totally irresponsible.
There is nothing macho about not wearing a mask, he added.
The vitriolic reaction came swiftly after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan announced on Sunday evening that she was ordering the shutdown of some businesses and halting in-person learning at high schools and colleges in her state for three weeks to combat a rapid increase in coronavirus cases.
Some came from her usual opponents in the Republican-controlled State Legislature. Leaders of both the Senate and House repeated their complaints that Governor Whitmer, a Democrat, was making decisions on coronavirus restrictions without consulting them.
But when Dr. Scott Atlas, President Trumps coronavirus adviser, wrote on Twitter on Sunday night: The only way this stops is if people rise up. You get what you accept, Ms. Whitmer said the statement left her breathless.
Its just incredibly reckless, considering everything that has happened, Ms. Whitmer told reporters Monday morning, alluding to an alleged right-wing terrorist plot against her. Fourteen people have been charged with planning to kidnap the governor and storm the State Capitol in Lansing over coronavirus shutdown orders.
Three hours after sending his rise up tweet, Dr. Atlas walked it back, insisting that he never was talking at all about violence, but rather about peaceful protest.
Stanford University, which hosts the Hoover Institution, a conservative-leaning think tank where Dr. Atlas is on leave from a fellowship, distanced itself from his comments, saying in a statement that his views are inconsistent with the universitys approach in response to the pandemic, which includes the use of masks, social distancing, testing and surveillance, it said.
The coronavirus has been exploding out of control across the United States in recent weeks, especially in the Great Lakes and Great Plains states. Michigan has recently averaged more than 6,600 new cases a day, five times as many as in early October, and hospitalizations and deaths have been climbing steeply as well.
Experts like Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nations top infectious disease specialist, have warned that another 200,000 Americans could die of Covid-19 by spring if Americans do not more fully embrace public health measures, even if an effective vaccine is widely available soon. But such measures spurred anger and resentment in many places.
Ms. Whitmers first executive orders shutting down the state in April were met with large and raucous protests, which included armed protesters invading the State Capitol. Several men who were photographed in the State Senate gallery, dressed in camouflage and carrying military-style weapons, have since been charged in the kidnapping plot.
The governors action on Sunday prompted Representative Matt Maddock, a Republican state lawmaker from the Detroit suburbs, to take his frequent criticism of Ms. Whitmer a step further, saying he would try to remove her from office.
Today, myself and a growing list of Michigan Legislators have decided that @GovWhitmer has crossed the line and will be calling for #ImpeachWhitmer hearings, he wrote on Twitter on Sunday. The list of violations is long and the call is overdue.
The restrictions the governor announced Sunday include closing indoor dining at restaurants and bars, shuttering casinos and movie theaters and restricting indoor gatherings.
As hard as the first months were, the next few months are going to be even worse, Ms. Whitmer said in her announcement. Were in the worst moment of the pandemic to date. Were at the precipice and we need to take some action.
The drugmaker Moderna announced on Monday that its coronavirus vaccine was 94.5 percent effective, based on an early look at the results from its large, continuing study.
Researchers said the results were better than they had dared to imagine. But the vaccine will not be widely available for months, probably not until spring.
Moderna is the second company to report preliminary data on an apparently successful vaccine that offers hope of reining in a surging pandemic that has infected more than 53 million people worldwide and killed more than 1.2 million. Pfizer, in collaboration with BioNTech, was the first, reporting more than 90 percent effectiveness one week ago.
Pfizer and Moderna were the first to announce early data on large studies, but 10 other companies are also conducting big Phase 3 trials in a global race to produce a vaccine, including efforts in Britain, China, Russia, India and Australia. More than 50 other candidates are in earlier stages of testing.
Researchers test vaccines by inoculating some study participants and giving others placebos, and then watching the two groups to see how many people get sick. In Modernas study, 95 people contracted Covid: five who were vaccinated, and 90 who received placebo shots of salt water. Statistically, the difference between the two groups was highly significant. And of the 95 cases, 11 were severe all in the placebo group.
Moderna, based in Cambridge, Mass., developed its vaccine in collaboration with researchers from the Vaccine Research Center, part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the infectious disease institute, said in an interview, I had been saying I would be satisfied with a 75 percent effective vaccine. Aspirationally, you would like to see 90, 95 percent, but I wasnt expecting it. I thought wed be good, but 94.5 percent is very impressive.
LONDON For Prime Minister Boris Johnson, this was supposed to be a critical week to reset his government after a tumultuous round of infighting that led to the abrupt ouster of his most influential adviser, Dominic Cummings.
Instead, Mr. Johnson began a 14-day quarantine in his Downing Street residence on Monday after being exposed to a member of Parliament who tested positive for the coronavirus.
The prime minister insisted he was fit as a butchers dog and was merely heeding the rules of Britains test-and-trace program. But Mr. Johnsons enforced isolation will hobble his plan to regain momentum with public appearances and policy announcements after days of corrosive palace intrigue among his closest advisers.
The prime ministers second close call with the virus last April, he was hospitalized with a severe case of Covid-19 deepens the sense of a government that cannot seem to get out of its own way.
Mr. Johnsons exposure to the virus this time came during a meeting with Conservative lawmakers, one of whom, Lee Anderson, later developed symptoms and tested positive. A photo showed the two men standing barely three feet apart neither wearing a mask which raised questions about whether Downing Street practices proper social distancing, even after the outbreak that infected Mr. Johnson in March.
As a recovered patient, Mr. Johnson said his body was bursting with antibodies. He did not broach the risk of re-infection, which, while possible, is rare.
During his self-isolation Mr. Johnson plans to work from his apartment, which is above 11 Downing Street. He will also have access to his office at No. 10 next door without walking through parts of the building where others work.
Mr. Johnson will maintain a full schedule of events, conducted remotely, and hopes to use a video link to take part in Prime Ministers Questions, his weekly grilling by the leader of the opposition in the House of Commons.
Representative Don Young of Alaska, the longest-serving member of the House and its oldest member, said on Monday that he had been hospitalized over the weekend with the coronavirus but had since been discharged, as two other lawmakers also announced they had contracted the virus.
The trio of announcements underscored how, as the virus resurges across the country, it has also continued to affect members of Congress. Several more lawmakers were in quarantine on Monday after interacting with individuals who later tested positive.
There has been much speculation in the media on my current condition, and I want Alaskans to know that their Congressman is alive, feeling better, and on the road to recovery, Mr. Young, 87, said in a statement on Twitter.
Mr. Young, a Republican, had been publicly silent after announcing last week that he had tested positive for the virus, and complained in his statement about speculation in the media that did not respect my privacy. He said he had been admitted to Providence Hospital in Anchorage for treatment and monitoring, without elaborating on the treatment he received or the symptoms he had experienced.
Very frankly, I had not felt this sick in a very long time, he said.
Minutes later, Representative Cheri Bustos of Illinois, the leader of House Democrats campaign arm, announced that she too had tested positive for the virus and was experiencing mild symptoms but still felt well.
And shortly after that, Representative Tim Walberg, Republican of Michigan, announced that he had the virus.
The three are the latest of two dozen or so members of Congress to test positive for the virus since the spring.
Only one other lawmaker, Representative Ben McAdams, Democrat of Utah, 45, has publicly disclosed being hospitalized as a result of contracting the virus.
The N.C.A.A. will consolidate its usually sprawling mens college basketball tournament to a single city in 2021 instead of holding the games at 13 sites across the United States, in hopes of limiting travel during the pandemic.
The N.C.A.A. announced Monday that it was in preliminary talks with local and state government officials to have Indianapolis host the 68-team Division I mens tournament, the centerpiece of what hoops fans affectionately call March Madness.
The mens basketball committee that oversees the tournament determined that a singular location would be more conducive to the safety and well-being of the event.
The tournament is usually spread throughout the country in March and April. The 2020 mens and womens tournaments were among the first major sporting events in the United States to be canceled as the pandemic took hold in March.
The Final Four was already scheduled for April 3-5 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, the city where the N.C.A.A. is headquartered.
The committee is not currently conversing with representatives from other cities, said the N.C.A.A. press officer, David Worlock, but he noted that could change. Officials are not planning to hold the entire tournament at a single, highly restricted site.
We cant operate in a bubble like, for example, the N.B.A. did this year with its postseason, though we will have similar protocols in place to protect the health and safety of those involved, he said.
Discussions concerning the Division I womens basketball tournament are continuing, said Lynn Holzman, the N.C.A.A.s vice president for womens basketball. That tournament generally uses more sites than the mens tournament, with 16 teams hosting first- and second-round games that feed into regional sites and eventually the Final Four, which is scheduled for April 2-4 in San Antonio, Texas.
The pandemic didnt arrive in the far northern Canadian territory of Nunavut until early this month. On Monday, the premier of the vast but sparsely populated Arctic region imposed a two-week shutdown of most businesses, schools and events after the number of confirmed cases reached 26.
The cases are in three communities, but officials said on Monday that they feared the virus might have already spread to other places in the territory.
Think of it as a circuit breaker, a chance to reset, Joe Savikataaq, the premier, said. No one is above the rules here. Lets make this clear, so theres no misunderstanding.
The limited medical resources in the territory mean that patients requiring sophisticated treatments must be flown south. One person infected in the current outbreak was evacuated to a hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba, about 900 miles away. That person has since been released and is recovering.
Contact tracing has yet to establish the source of the first known case in the territory on Nov. 6. Until then, Nunavut had been the only region in Canada left untouched by the pandemic. Canada, a country of 38 million people, has had a total of about 300,000 coronavirus cases and 11,000 deaths, according to a New York Times database.
The Navajo Nation on Monday reinstated a stay-at-home order for the next three weeks after health officials warned of uncontrolled spread of Covid-19 in dozens of communities across the vast reservation.
The move on the countrys largest tribal reservation points to one of the most aggressive efforts anywhere in the United States to fight the coronavirus.
After a devastating outbreak early in the pandemic, Navajo officials made inroads over the summer with vigorous mitigation efforts, only to face a resurgence in cases in recent weeks.
During the time the new order is in effect, residents must shelter in place, all roads in the Navajo Nation are closed to visitors and most government offices will be closed. Essential businesses such as gas stations and grocery stores are allowed to open, but only from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Myron Lizer, the vice president of the Navajo Nation, pleaded with citizens in a Facebook video to avoid driving to towns bordering the reservation, such as Farmington, N.M., and Winslow, Ariz., to reduce transmission risks.
There are those who have been traveling abroad, going to our border towns for shopping and what not, buying hay, food, feed one thing that we can do is limit that, maybe cut it in half, Mr. Lizer said.
The Navajo Department of Health listed at least 34 communities at heightened risk of the virus, including places like Sheepsprings, Chichiltah and Tuba City. Officials said the reservations death toll from the virus stands at 602 after four new deaths were reported on Sunday, while the number of known cases has reached more than 13,300.
Colleen Kelly, a senior digital editor at The Minneapolis Star Tribune, did not mention Covid or the coronavirus in the short video that she posted over the weekend. All she did was leaf slowly through the 16-page Minnesota section of the Sunday paper. Two-thirds of it was filled with obituaries.
To me, it was a stark visual example of the number of people who are dying, Ms. Kelly said in an interview.
These were paid death notices, most commonly submitted by relatives, so not all mention a cause of death, Ms. Kelly said, and when they did include a cause, some were not coronavirus-related. But the same section a year ago would have had six or seven pages of notices, she said, not 10 or more.
Ms. Kelly, who also runs the papers Covid-19 page online, knew that Minnesota had just experienced its deadliest week of the pandemic, with 248 deaths reported.
So many of the notices arrived at the last minute that the paper had to pull news articles out of the section to make room, she said. One of the withheld articles was about a number of Republican state legislators long at odds with their Democratic rivals over how to confront the virus who have recently tested positive.
Ms. Kellys video seemed to resonate online, with viewers posting emojis of broken hearts or tears. It reminded some of a similar video that was posted in Italy in March, bringing home how the disease was scything through the population, especially the elderly.
On Sunday, about 40 protesters marched around the Executive Mansion in Raleigh, calling on Gov. Roy Cooper to use his pardon and clemency powers to free prisoners who are at serious risk of contracting COVID-19.
It would be an unconventional solution, but as demonstrator Daniel Bowes said at the protest, Its the most flexible and direct path to both protect people from COVID in prison, but also to end mass incarceration.
Dramatic steps may be necessary. Prison inmates, with few protections available in their closed environments, are an especially vulnerable population.
Last week, North Carolina authorities reported more than 4,500 cases and 22 deaths within its state prisons. Thats triple the number of cases since July. Nearly 200 new positive cases have been identified so far this month.
And thats just the state prisons. At Butner Correctional Complex, North Carolinas only federal prison, 26 prisoners have died; thats more than at any other federal prison. More than 900 Butner inmates have tested positive.
Two more residents of a Knoxvilleassisted living facility have died and one more staff member has fallen ill after an outbreak of COVID-19 at an assisted living facility.
As of Monday, six residents have died over the course of the outbreak that started in lateOctober, according to Karen Emerson, executive director of Arbor Terrace of Knoxville.
Over the course of the outbreak, more than 30 residents have been ill from the disease. Twenty-one staff members also have been sick, according to Emerson's Monday morning update.
Arbor Terracediscovered its first COVID-19 case Oct. 25, less than a weekafter the facility began allowing visitors into the facility.
More: COVID-19 outbreak at Arbor Terrace of Knoxville assisted living kills four
Emersonsaid the most recent staff member to fall ill was an Arbor Companyregional corporate nurse who hadbeen supporting the Knoxville assisted living community for several weeks.
"We pray for every family who has suffered a loss," she said. "Our Arbor Terrace staff are also grieving. For the past 23 years, we have proudly supported and loved the residents and families of this community, and these losses are devastating to us.
The Arbor Terrace of Knoxville assisted living facility, located in the Cedar Bluff area of Knoxville. Pictured on Friday, November 13, 2020.(Photo: Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel )
Emerson said the facilitybegan quarantining residents in March and conducted daily symptom screening, required protective masks for all residents and staff, enhanced cleaning procedures and instituted regular testing.
It had stopped allowing visitors, but relaxed the policy to allow two pre-registered, scheduled visitors at a time for timed visits on Oct. 19, after Tennessee rolled back nursing home visitor bans on Oct. 1.
Six days later, the first case was discovered.
Despite having a pandemic plan in place and our heightened efforts as the situation has evolved, this is a disease that disproportionately impacts the elderly and those with severe underlying medical conditions, Emerson previously wrote in a statement to Knox News. We are navigating uncharted waters caring for those most at risk and our hearts and prayers go out to everyone who is impacted.
In recent days, Knox County has seen adramatic increase in COVID-19 cases. A record number of Knox County residents, 84,are in the hospital and 131 people who live in Knox County have died of the disease.Since the start of November, 26 people have died of COVID-19.With two weeks of the month remaining, November has already surpassed October's total of 23COVID-19 deaths.
"I can tell you that our numbers are trending in the wrong direction," Knox County Health Department DirectorDr. Martha Buchanan said last week."Our new cases per day are climbing. Our hospitalizations are increasing. And most troubling, so are deaths."
COVID-19 has proven incredibly deadly for America's elderly population.
Around 87,000 COVID-19 deaths in the United States have been reported among residents and employees of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities,according to a New York Times database.
This figure accounts for nearly 40% of the countrys coronavirus deaths, emphasizing how fatal this disease is for older Americans with underlying health conditions.
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The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine needs to be stored at minus 70 Celsius. Health care providers will need to store it either in dry ice for shorter stints or in specialized freezers. Leon Neal/Getty Images hide caption
The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine needs to be stored at minus 70 Celsius. Health care providers will need to store it either in dry ice for shorter stints or in specialized freezers.
Two drugmakers, Pfizer and Moderna, have announced promising interim results for their vaccine candidates, raising hopes in the U.S. and abroad that the end of the pandemic may be in sight. But, if and when the vaccines are authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, distributing them presents a daunting challenge.
One big reason? One of the front-runners in the vaccine race the one made by Pfizer needs to be kept extremely cold: minus 70 degrees Celsius, which is colder than winter in Antarctica. Moderna has said that its vaccine needs to be frozen too, but only at minus 20 Celsius, more like a regular freezer.
Since there will be limited vaccine doses at first, immunization managers across the country will need to have plans to distribute any and all vaccine doses that are available. For months, they've been puzzling over the particular challenges presented by the Pfizer vaccine, which requires these ultra-cold conditions.
"I believe it can be done," says Debra Kristensen, a 30-year veteran of vaccine innovation and supply chains at PATH, an international nonprofit focused on public health. "Ebola vaccine, for example, was successfully used in a few African countries and also required this ultra-cold chain storage."
Distributing vaccines in these conditions "is possible, but it's definitely going to be much more expensive and more difficult," she says. Pfizer has tried to calm concerns about the challenges presented by these cold temperatures. It has designed its own packaging to keep doses super cold with dry ice, so that they can be stored for a few weeks without specialized freezers (the packaging has been informally nicknamed "the pizza box").
Moderna's vaccine, Kristensen explains, "can be distributed in more of a standard fashion health workers are used to it, facilities are used to it it's more normal."
Here's some background on why these vaccines need to be kept so cold and how they differ.
Why the deep freeze? Think about M&Ms
To understand why these vaccines need to be frozen, it helps to understand a bit about how they work.
Both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine candidates use a new approach to unlock the body's immune defenses. The approach uses messenger RNA, or mRNA, to turn a patient's cells into factories that make one particular coronavirus protein.
That protein kicks off an immune response as if there was a real coronavirus infection (to be clear, since it's only one virus protein, there's no way the vaccine could actually infect someone or make them sick with COVID-19). Then, if someone who was immunized gets exposed to the coronavirus later on, their body's immune system will be able to fight it off more easily and they're more likely to avoid serious illness.
It's a vaccine technology that's so new, no mRNA vaccines have ever been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Vaccines made from mRNA can be made much faster than older vaccines could, explains Margaret Liu, a vaccine researcher who chairs the board of the International Society for Vaccines and specializes in genetic vaccines. The problem, says Liu, is that mRNA is "really easily destroyed, and that's because there are many, many enzymes that will just break it apart."
Here's an analogy: Think of the vaccine as a chocolate bar that melts easily. Just as there are ways to keep the chocolate from melting into goo, there are things the drugmakers did to protect their COVID-19 vaccines.
The first step, Liu says, was to modify the mRNA nucleosides the "building blocks" of the RNA vaccine. "They've used modified versions because those are more stable," she says. This would be like changing the chocolate recipe so it's not quite so melty.
The next step was to use lipid nanoparticles, which, Liu explains, "is kind of like putting your chocolate inside a candy coating you have an M&M, so the chocolate doesn't melt."
But even with the stabilized building blocks and lipid coating, the mRNA could still fall apart easily, which is why the vaccine is frozen.
"Everything happens more slowly as you lower the temperature," Liu says. "So your chemical reactions the enzymes that break down RNA are going to happen more slowly." It's the same idea as freezing food to keep it from spoiling.
Because the specific formulations are secret, Liu says, it's not clear exactly why these two mRNA vaccines have different temperature requirements.
"It just comes down to what their data is," she says of Moderna's vaccine. "If their data shows that it's more stable at a certain temperature, that's it."
"Stress testing" to tease out these temperatures
It's possible that Pfizer's vaccine could eventually be shown to be stable in somewhat warmer conditions or for longer times out of the freezer.
To figure out a vaccine's temperature requirements, drugmakers do extensive, time-consuming thermostability studies.
That research involves keeping the vaccine "at other temperatures to see how much you can stress the system," explains Liu. She says you would start at ultra-cold temperatures, then try regular freezer temperature, then refrigerator temperature, and finally room temperature.
You might also put the vaccine at fluctuating temperatures "to sort of mimic what would happen if [a vaccine shipment] got left on a loading dock and something went wrong," Liu says.
Then drugmakers have to analyze the vaccine samples that have been put through all that and do tests (usually in mice) to see if the vaccine still works the way it's supposed to.
All of this is measured in real time. "If a vaccine has a two-year shelf life at refrigerator temperatures, then the manufacturer actually needs to put the vaccine at that refrigerated temperature for two years and see if at the end the product is still effective," Kristensen explains. "Given the urgent need for these COVID-19 vaccines, manufacturers will likely begin releasing them with shorter shelf lives and then they'll expand the shelf life durations as they gather more data."
Pfizer spokesperson Jerica Pitts told NPR "there are ongoing studies on this front," but did not answer whether any imminent changes to the temperature requirements might be coming as a result of those studies.
"I doubt that [Pfizer] will be able to move away from the ultra-cold conditions during initial transport and storage," says Kristensen. "But if they can prove that the vaccine can be kept at refrigerated temperatures for some time after being removed from frozen storage, that helps facilitate distribution and administration out to more remote areas and to specific groups of people."
Temperature requirements call for different distribution plans
Right now, Pfizer says its vaccine needs to be kept at minus 70 degrees Celsius and can last in a specialty freezer for up to six months. The specialty shippers can hold up to five "pizza box" trays of vials and be refreshed with dry ice every five days for up to 15 days to keep the vaccine at the right frozen temperature.
Even that presents challenges, though a Pfizer scientist told a CDC advisory council in August that it's not supposed to be opened more than twice a day and needs to be closed within one minute of opening. Once it's thawed, the vaccine can be refrigerated for five days.
Moderna says its vaccine candidate is stable at regular freezer temperature minus 20 degrees Celsius for up to six months, and after thawing it can last in the refrigerator for 30 days. It can also be kept at room temperature for up to 12 hours. This, explains Kristensen, is useful for health care workers in the field, "because now the vaccine doesn't need to go in and out of the refrigerator each time it's administered."
Given the demand, if both Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines are authorized around the same time, states will figure out how to use both in different settings.
Christine Finley, the immunization manager in Vermont finalizing that state's distribution plan, says it makes sense to think about distributing Pfizer's vaccine to larger population centers, not just because of its temperature, but because the smallest amount you can order is 975 doses (usually it's more like 100 doses or fewer).
"[If] you have a large university where you're going to be able to reach a larger number of people, that would make sense that you might consider distributing your ultra-cold there," she says. The Moderna will work better, she says, "in areas where it might be more difficult to use up such a large order or they may not have the [cold] storage."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal agency in charge of vaccine distribution and decisions about which groups receive the first shots, has tried to discourage health departments and hospitals from going out and buying expensive freezers to accommodate the Pfizer vaccine. But according to a recent report in Stat, wealthier hospitals are buying up specialized freezers, raising concerns that hospitals with fewer resources or in rural areas will be left behind.
Moderna's announcement may temper those fears, although since Pfizer's vaccine doses will be urgently needed as well, it doesn't mean that ultra-cold storage is no longer an issue.
"I think the best news is that there may be two vaccines that are effective because that means we can reach more people," says Finley. "We still need to show that they're safe and they're effective and we need to build trust with the public so there's still a ways to go, but this is good news."
Despite the excitement and hopes riding on Pfizer and Moderna potentially having the first authorized COVID-19 vaccines, "this really isn't a race," says Liu. "Just by sheer numbers, we probably need multiple, multiple vaccines."
And in the end, she says, "it may be that the second one or the 50th one is actually a better vaccine."
Experts are hopeful that a vaccine for the SARS-CoV-2 virus will become available sooner rather than later.
We've been waiting on one or more COVID-19 vaccines for months, unsure of not only when they would arrive but how effective they would be when they did. Now it appears the two vaccines that will most likely be the first to receive Food and Drug Administration authorization might get here before 2021. Not only that, but clinical trials have demonstrated both are over 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 infections. That means at least nine out of 10 people who receive those vaccines will likely not contract COVID-19, even if they're exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease, after being inoculated.
Last week, US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced it has a vaccine that demonstrated 90% efficacyin tests conducted on 43,538 people in six countries, with no serious safety concerns. Moderna, a US biotech firm, announced this week that its vaccine has been demonstrated to bealmost 95% effective and also relatively safe in a trial that included over 30,000 people. Each vaccine requires an initial dose plus a subsequent "booster" dose several weeks later.
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Both companies plan to apply for emergency authorization from the FDA this month. Pfizer, if authorized, expects to produce up to 50 million vaccine doses in 2020, and 1.3 billion in 2021. Moderna plans to ship 20 million doses in 2020 and another 500 million to 1 billion in 2021, if authorized. With over 330 million people in the US alone,not everyone will be able to get a vaccine at once -- the first doses to reach market will likely go to heath care personnel, followed by essential workers, people with underlying medical conditions and older adults.
Pfizer and Moderna represent only the tip of the iceberg. Currently, there are67 coronavirus vaccinesin various stages of clinical trials, with a handful almost ready to apply for authorization. Most experts believe we'll have several moreready to distribute by early 2021, but it may not be until 2022 that life starts to get back to normal.
Here, we walk you through the leading coronavirus vaccine news and explain where the most promising candidates stand. This article is updated frequently and is intended to be a general overview and not a source of medical advice. If you're seeking more information about coronavirus testing, here's how to find a testing site near you.
An effective coronavirus vaccine might be the only way to bring a stop to preventative measures, like social distancing and face masks.
Several acceleration efforts are currently underway, like theWhite House's Operation Warp Speed, which is meant to cut through regulatory red tape to speed up vaccine development and be ready to distribute vaccines as soon as they receive FDA authorization. So far, the US government haspledged over $10 billionto several vaccine manufacturers to secure a total of 800 million vaccine doses.
Experts say recent surges in coronavirus cases aren't merely the result of the US doing more testing, as a higher percentage of those tested are coming up positive compared to earlier stages of the pandemic.
Vaccines typically take about10 to 15 years to developand approve, through four phases that includehuman trials. But with Operation Warp Speed, approved vaccine projects can submit data to the FDA bit by bit, rather than submitting all the data from a four-phase trial all at once.
Meanwhile, the program is also financially backing efforts to start manufacturing doses while clinical trials are still ongoing. That means if and when those vaccines do get authorized, there will already be a store of doses ready to distribute nationally.
Here's a quick look at some of the frontrunners besides Pfizer and Moderna in the race to find a vaccine for COVID-19, including where the vaccines are being developed, where they are on testing them, and when scientists think they might be ready for widespread distribution, if known.
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Oxford University/AstraZeneca (UK):AstraZeneca began testing on100,000 human volunteers in at least three countries. Lead researcher Dr. Sarah Gilbert had initially said AstraZeneca is aiming for a fall 2020 releaseand, while that may be optimistic at this point after the trial was briefly paused to investigate a participant's illness, it doesn't appear to be significantly delayed.
Sinovac (China): Currently testing its vaccine on about 10,000 human volunteers in China and about 9,000 in Brazil and is set to begin testing on about 1,900 test subjects in Indonesia soon. Honesti Basyir, the president of Bio Farma, Sinovac's Indonesian partner, has said he expects the vaccine to be ready by early 2021.
Sinopharm (China): Currently testing about 15,000 volunteers in the Middle Eastin a trial the state-owned company expects to last three to six months. Early results suggest the drug is safe and at least somewhat effective. Sinopharm recently built a second facility to manufacture the vaccine, doubling its capacity to about 200 million doses per year.
CanSino Biologics (China): Set to begin large-scale human trials this summer, CanSino's vaccine has already been approved for the Chinese military. The vaccine is based on a modified common cold virus, which some experts warn could make it less effective than other vaccine efforts.
Wearing a face mask remains the surest way of preventing transmission of the coronavirus.
We probably won't know until next year, but Fauci has suggested we might requireseveral different vaccinesmade and distributed by different labs to bring an end to the pandemic, in apaper published May 11 in the journal Science. He also has said he foresees different vaccines being given to different patient populations. For example, one vaccine for elderly or other high-risk patients, another for healthy adults and another for children.
Getting one or more vaccines through clinical trials to FDA approval is just the first leg of the journey. The next is convincing people to take it. Sixty-three percent of US adults expressed safety concerns over a coronavirus vaccine, according to aHarris Pollfrom Oct. 19, with 40% of respondents specifically worrying that development has beentoofast. Some people are reportedlyconcerned about possible side effects.
Life in the US will begin to return to normal once we reach what scientists call "herd immunity," which, with regard to the coronavirus, means at least 60% to 70% of the population is immune. So long as enough people take the vaccine to reach that level, it won't matter if a few people object or decline to take the vaccine for other reasons, for example, if they aren't healthy enough to be vaccinated.
Most experts expect a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, by 2021.
Coronaviruses are a large class of viruses andso far there are no vaccinesfor any of them. While there are promising early results, there's no guarantee a vaccine will be ready by 2021. Statistically, only about 6% of vaccine candidates ever make it through to market,according to a Reuters reportfrom April. However, health officials are very optimistic that the Pfizer vaccine and others like it could end the coronavirus pandemic.
Whether or not COVID-19 vaccines are effective at stopping the spread of coronavirus will depend a lot on how our bodies build immunity to the disease. Here's what we know so far about whether or not you can get COVID-19 more than once. Testing is also key to slowing coronavirus' spread -- learn about a device that can produce results in under 90 minutes here. Finally, read about how all of these issues and more weigh in on US President-elect Joseph Biden's plan to fight COVID-19.
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.
Dr. Anthony Fauci warns "it's not going to be a light switch" back to normalcy even when a Covid-19 vaccine becomes available to the public.
In fact, Fauci recommends people still wear masks and practice social distancing even after getting the vaccine, he told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" on Sunday.
On Monday, Moderna announced that preliminary data showed the Covid-19 vaccine it developed in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseasesis more than 94% effective. The news follows a similar announcement from Pfizer and BioNTech on Nov. 9, which showed their Covid-19 vaccine was above 90% effective.
"Obviously, with a 90-plus percent effective vaccine, you could feel much more confident" about not getting the virus, Fauci told Tapper. "But I would recommend to people to not abandon all public health measures just because you have been vaccinated." Thosefundamentalsinclude: universal wearing of masks, maintaining physical distance, avoiding large crowds, doing more outdoor activities and washing hands frequently.
Because "even though, for the general population, it might be 90[%] to 95% effective," said Fauci, "you don't necessarily know, for you, how effective it is." Even at those success rates, about 5% to 10% of people immunized may still get the virus.
"In addition, the protective effect of a vaccine may take at least one month, if not slightly longer," says Dr. David Ho, avirologistworking on developing monoclonal antibody therapies for Covid-19 at Columbia University. (So far, Pfizer said early results showed its two-dose vaccine showed 90% effectiveness seven days after the second dose. Early data on Moderna's two-dose vaccine showed 94.5% efficacy two weeks after the second dose.)
"Therefore, for the foreseeable future, we will need to continue our mitigation measures, including wearing masks," Ho says, noting that precautionary measures will likely last "for much of 2021."
Dr. Bruce Hirsch, an infectious disease specialist at Northwell Health, adds that many people have strong feelings about vaccines and may not take them, which "will impact the general population from being immune to Covid-19 and prolong the threat of the pandemic."
It is worth noting that as the trials for both vaccines progress, efficacy numbers could change, and it is also not yet clear how long any immunity would last.
Fauci, 79, said when it is his turn to get vaccinated, he doesn't plan on abandoning all the public health measures that he has been advocating during the pandemic.
"I could feel more relaxed, in essentially not having the stringency of it that we have right now, but I think abandoning it completely would not be a good idea," Fauci told Tapper.
Fauci predicted to Tapper that most of the country will get vaccinated in the second or third quarter of 2021. But "we are not going to turn [the pandemic] on and off, going from where we are to completely normal. It's going to be a gradual accrual of more normality as the weeks and the months go by, as we get well into 2021," he said.
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Dr. Fauci says to take vitamin D if youre deficient heres how to know
The Monday morning announcement from Cambridge-based Moderna that the COVID-19 vaccine it is developing appears to be 94.5% effective is very good news, according to Dr. Ashish Jha.
Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, appeared on CBS This Morning to provide insight into what the news, which follows a week after Pfizer gave a similar update on their vaccines progress, means as the pandemic continues to rage.
We are entering the hardest time of the pandemic, Jha told the network Monday. I think the next two or three months are going to be awful across the country. But [what] the Pfizer vaccine [and the] Moderna vaccine do is give us hope that in a few months, this will really start turning around. The light at the end of the tunnel just got a little bit brighter.
The doctor stressed that there are still logistical and complicated issues that need to be addressed as the work continues toward a rollout of a vaccine.
Weve got to get tens of millions of vaccines out to states, to pharmacies, doctors offices, he said. That needs a lot of planning. There has not been a lot of that planning out of the federal government right now. Theres been some, but we need a lot more of that.
Jha cautioned that even with the promising news on the vaccines being developed, it will be some time before things return to normal.
Even if we had 10 or 20 million people getting vaccinated over the next few months, until we get to 50, 60 percent of the American population vaccinated and thats at best case scenario April/May I think were still some ways away from something that will be the new normal, he said.
And before it gets better, the country is facing a situation where the virus is going to get meaningfully worse in the coming weeks based on the current trends of new cases and hospitalizations, he said.
The bottom line is that hospitals are at capacity and they are still about to get a flood of new patients, so its going to be an even bigger wave of patients, Jha said. So Im very worried about the next month. We know what we need to do. Everybody needs to wear a mask, we need to avoid any kind of indoor gathering. And then states have to do more on testing.
Jha said every state needs to be following the lead of Michigan, which is instituting limits on indoor activities and other events for three weeks to stem the spread of COVID-19. The order from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer includes moving high school and college classes online, closing indoor service at bars and restaurants, shuttering movie theaters and casinos, and pausing youth sports.
What Michigan is doing is absolutely essential, Jha said.
Its amazing to me that other states are not following, he said. I suspect that this week we are going to see a lot of other states step up and essentially put in very similar policies because were so behind the 8-ball. Weve got to get going.
