Alaskas coronavirus cases are at an all-time high, as evidenced by several red-flag indicators.
Now local and state officials, including Gov. Mike Dunleavy, say theyre watching closely to see what COVID-19 does next, especially when it comes to people getting sick enough to need hospitalization.
On Monday, Alaska reported 194 new resident cases, setting a new daily record. The last time the state saw that many cases in a day was in late July, a spike blamed partly on reporting delays. Monday marked the 12th day in a row new daily case tallies exceeded 100 the longest such streak since the start of the pandemic.
But that summertime peak of cases in July leveled out, Anchorage Health Department epidemiologist Janet Johnston said in an interview Monday.
Thats not whats happening now.
Last week, it felt like we were going the way we were in July, and the curves were pretty parallel, Johnston said. But now were continuing to go up. And it seems that a lot of the problem is that people have relaxed their vigilance about things like wearing masks and keeping distance at a time when were moving inside."
Fifteen of Mondays new cases were reported in North Pole, the town southeast of Fairbanks with more than 200 confirmed cases since March, where the citys mayor quarantined at home on the upper level of his house by afternoon.
Mayor Mike Welsh said his wife tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday. She isolated on the floor below.
Welsh said he just got off the phone with Dr. Anne Zink, the states chief medical officer, who is sending a team up here tomorrow to deal with rapidly rising cases in his region. His most pressing concern at the moment: ensuring North Poles main polling location was deep-cleaned ahead of Tuesdays local elections.
I think were all just stumbling through this, he said.
Cases are rising most quickly in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Northwest Alaska, but theres community spread throughout the state, officials say.
In Anchorage, continued high case counts have delayed the reopening of schools for in-person learning and led to prolonged capacity restrictions at bars and restaurants. Around the state, rising cases have triggered school closures and village lockdowns.
This week, Alaska hit an all-time high for the 14-day average COVID-19 case rate with more than 16 cases per 100,000 as of Monday, state officials warned. That translates to widespread community transmission with many undetected cases and frequent, discrete outbreaks.
The states test positivity rate as of Monday also passed 4% for the first time since the pandemic began in March. Public health officials have said that if that number goes above 5%, that can indicate high community transmission and not enough testing.
Were concerned that theres a lot of virus in the state right now, the states chief medical officer, Dr. Anne Zink, said in an interview last week. This is not the place I would like to be entering fall and winter to be totally truthful.
Positivity rate
Municipal officials in Anchorage last week described regular clusters of cases in assisted living centers where some of the states most vulnerable may be infected by staff who pick up the virus outside work. This week, Johnston stressed that it is changing community behavior and the changing season not these larger outbreaks that are driving the spread.
Whats mentioned most frequently (in contact tracer reports) is activities with families and friends, she said.
The days are getting shorter, its getting cooler, and theres more mixing inside, she added. And it feels to me that thats what the big driver is.
Fairbanks has the states highest case rates at 25.5 per 100,000 and the highest test positivity at 10%, local health-care providers say.
A Fairbanks school that phased in a group of 40 high-needs students for in-person learning in mid-September closed for all but online classes Monday after five people at Ladd Elementary tested positive for COVID-19 in the last two weeks, according to Yumi McCulloch, spokeswoman for Fairbanks North Star Borough School District.
State models, which briefly predicted declining case counts going into the fall, now forecast an increase to levels of infection higher than weve seen to date as the month goes on.
But there are other indicators that show Alaska compares favorably with many other places when it comes to how sick were getting with this virus, perhaps because there are more younger people here. So far, officials say, its people in their 20s and 30s who are driving up the new case tallies. Generally, they tend to weather the virus with fewer complications than older people or those with underlying medical conditions.
And so far, Alaskas death rate is still the lowest in the nation, according to Centers for Disease Control data. The number of people sick enough with COVID-19 to need hospitalization hasnt moved much for weeks and actually dropped slightly in recent days.
As of Monday, there were 37 COVID-19 patients hospitalized statewide, 11 of them in ICU beds in Anchorage where the states sickest patients tend to end up, according to data from the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association.
Generally, hospitalization numbers for coronavirus patients have stayed consistent for the last 30 to 60 days, according to association president and CEO Jared Kosin.
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Health care administrators worried this summer, when similarly surging case counts led to fears of a crisis at the states hospitals as COVID-19 patients crowded limited ICU space.
That never happened, Kosin said. But it can one or two weeks for someone who contracts the virus to end up needing hospital care, so its hard to say what the current spike in cases will bring.
Community spread is always concerning, he said. Were holding up and were intact and able to manage whats coming but it is a lagging indicator and no one knows what tomorrow will bring.
A spokesman for Dunleavy on Monday afternoon emailed a statement in response to questions from Anchorage Daily News about whether rising case counts might provoke any changes to current mandates that include testing or quarantine for most travelers and a mask requirement in state buildings but not statewide. The governor has said that generally he wants communities to dictate their own COVID-19 policies.
Now Dunleavy and state health officials are closely monitoring the number of cases and are in daily contact with hospital officials about Alaskas hospital capacity, the statement said. While the number of positive cases is climbing, that was anticipated by the Governor and Alaskas public health experts. It is also important to recognize that for every 100 hospital beds that are occupied, only 2 to 4 beds are being used by a patient with COVID-19.
The governor is monitoring the counts and evaluating existing protocols and will make changes to the states approach to managing COVID-19 if warranted, the statement said.
Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz last week said he wanted to step up enforcement of pandemic precautions and asked businesses to do the right thing in order to avoid more restrictions. Berkowitz said he was looking at options to bring cases down to allow for in-person school but wanted to make sure they were effective and had community acceptance.
Wear the damn mask, if I can quote Chris Wallace, Berkowitz said.
Municipal health officials last week also expressed concern that the citys hospitals could run out of ICU beds by late this month or early November if the ongoing case increases translates to more seriously ill people.
Cases are rising in Europe and other U.S. states especially in the Midwest, Zink said. Surges in other places are followed by similar surges in Alaska.
The other number thats rising is the r0 or r-naught rate that indicates how contagious COVID-19 is right now, according to Tom Hennessy, an infectious disease epidemiologist and affiliate faculty member at the University of Alaska Anchorage. That raises concerns because of the higher risks of infection as Alaskans who spent the long days of summer outside are forced inside as flu season puts more pressure on clinics and hospitals.
Whereas we were kind of in a standoff for about two months, weve now tipped over into a higher risk transmission, both from the standpoint of increased numbers of active cases and increased risk of transmission from those cases to other people, Hennessy said in an interview last week. And thats a very worrisome setting, given everything else weve just talked about people moving indoors, cold and flu season, the potential amplification of that effect. Thats all very concerning and points toward a fall outbreak that could be very dangerous for Alaska.
Johnston said that cutting down the number of cases in Anchorage will continue to be made more challenging by the arrival of cooler weather and shorter days, which make socializing outside more difficult, and demands more creativity.
The best thing people can do is to wear a mask and keep six feet of distance any time theyre around someone not in their immediate household, she said. Weve been at this a while, and we have to find ways to protect ourselves and protect our sanity."
Reporters Morgan Krakow and Emily Goodykoontz contributed to this story.
With the president hospitalized, his doctors evading basic questions and an election 29 days away, chaos reigned after Trump tested positive for the virus thats killed more than 200,000 Americans. Now, after a four-day stay at Walter Reed medical center, the president said he will return to the White House. But more questions than answers remain.
Unlike a normal residence, the White House has its own medical unit, offering full-time care and facilities for emergency surgery, including the ability to administer supplemental oxygen which he previously received at the White House and even a crash cart for resuscitation.
If the president leaves the hospital Monday evening, the situation could become even more opaque. Trump is eager to return to an image of normalcy, but hes still a high-risk patient in the throes of a wildly unpredictable and deadly virus that seldom charts a linear course to recovery. And because its clear that Trump is eager to feign normalcy at any cost with less than a month to go before the election, his return to the White House is not a reliable sign that hes anywhere near being in the clear.
One result of obfuscating the presidents health? The internet is left to eagerly fill in the gaps.
Doctors provided the first update about the status of Trumps health on Saturday, but that event backfired, with White House Physician Dr. Sean Conley later admitting that he omitted information in order to keep the presidents spirits high. Conley also threw the timeline of Trumps diagnosis into question confusion thats only been partially resolved since.
The White Houses coronavirus outbreak is a big opening for opportunists, according to Yonder, an AI company that monitors online conversations and tracks disinformation. In an online info ecosystem the company says is broken, a fresh crisis is rocket fuel for false claims and conspiracies.
From groups suggesting the diagnosis was a hoax for political gain to QAnon supporters suggesting it was all part of a plan to isolate and protect the President from his adversaries in the deep state, social media continues to act as a weaponized rumor mill, Yonder CEO Jonathon Morgan said.
In every case, agenda-driven groups on social media are using another national crisis to their advantage, and obscuring the truth in the process.
On Friday, left-leaning conspiracy theories like #TrumpCovidHoax posited that the president wasnt actually sick with COVID at all, suggesting he might have been malingering to elicit sympathy or avoid facing off with Joe Biden after a disastrous debate performance just days earlier.
Those beliefs are still rampant on social media even as the White Houses COVID-19 outbreak sidelines Trumps own press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and campaign manager Bill Stepien, with the chaos threatening to take Trumps reelection campaign completely off the rails.
Hubris about the basic facts of the virus is undeniably what got the White House into this mess to begin with. Last week, a study by Cornell University found that President Trump is indeed the nexus of misinformation about the pandemic, with mentions of his name driving 38% of the broader COVID-19 misinformation ecosystem.
The biggest surprise was that the president of the United States was the single largest driver of misinformation around Covid, the studys lead author Sarah Evanega said of the results. Thats concerning in that there are real-world dire health implications.
Those dire real-world implications took root over the weekend, as the virus threatened the presidents health seriously enough that his treatment team administered at least three powerful experimental treatments: the monoclonal antibody therapy Regeneron, which is still in clinical trials and not broadly available, the antiviral drug Remdesivir and the steroid Dexamethasone, which is prescribed in severe COVID-19 cases.
Hydroxychloroquine isnt part of his current drug cocktail, but the unproven COVID treatment the president touted and took earlier this year is again making the rounds online among some of the his supporters who are urging doctors to throw it into the mix.
Stella Immanuel, who was central to the Americas Frontline Doctors viral video that pushed false claims about COVID-19 treatments earlier this year, tweeted Friday that Whoever told the president to stop taking HCQ should be punched in the face.
In July, Trump called Immanuel an important voice who had tremendous success treating the virus before claiming that he is not familiar with her moments later.
Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs also tweeted his support for hydroxychloroquine in the presidents treatment, in spite of the fact that the drug has not been shown to effectively fight the virus.
Circles promoting the pervasive pro-Trump conspiracy theory known as QAnon have their own ideas about the presidents condition, even viewing Trumps announcement that he had the virus as a breadcrumb encoding a secret message about Hillary Clinton. On Friday, 17 Republicans refused to support a bipartisan House measure condemning QAnon.
QAnon supporter DeAnna Lorraine Tesoriero, who ran a failed bid for Congress, suggested that Trump actually contracted the virus from a microphone at Tuesdays debate rather than from his open disregard for mask-wearing and social distancing, two measures the CDC and global health experts say effectively reduce transmission.
While misinformation is thriving in the absence of answers about the presidents health, factual medical advice emerged in at least one place amidst the chaos. After initially publishing and then removing facts about airborne transmission of the virus, the CDC added that information back to its website on Monday.
According to the CDCs new guidance, which reflects scientific consensus, the virus can linger in the air for minutes to hours and infect people more than six feet away.
To treat his Covid-19, President Trump has started receiving dexamethasone, a common steroid that has been shown to be helpful in people with severe cases of the disease but that doctors warn should not be used early in the course of the illness.
The announcement from Trumps medical team Sunday morning that the president is on dexamethasone is sure to increase speculation about the presidents illness and was at odds with the generally upbeat description of his condition provided by his physicians. His doctors said Trump had not had a fever since Friday morning and did not have any shortness of breath. One even said that, if Trump continues to feel and look as well as he does today, their goal was for him to return to the White House on Monday.
Dexamethasone is generally reserved for patients who have serious disease. The National Institutes of Healths treatment guidelines for Covid-19 say dexamethasone should be used only in hospitalized patients who are on ventilators or who require supplemental oxygen, and specifically recommends against using dexamethasone for the treatment of Covid-19 in patients who do not require supplemental oxygen.
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Trumps doctors confirmed that the president received oxygen for about an hour on Friday after a temporary drop in his oxygen levels something they danced around saying during a Saturday briefing. Sean Conley, the presidents physician, told reporters on Sunday outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where Trump is being treated, that the president also experienced a transient drop in oxygen levels Saturday but said that he wasnt sure if oxygen was given.
Conley said that drop in Trumps oxygen saturation to 93% on Saturday morning prompted the decision to initiate the steroid therapy, believing the potential benefits early on in the course outweighed any downsides.
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Our plan is to continue that for the time being, Brian Garibaldi, another of Trumps doctors, said about the dexamethasone.
Ethan Weiss, a cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, who went to New York to treat critically ill Covid-19 patients during the citys surge, told STAT, Nothing matches up. Weiss said that Trumps medical team had an impossible job, but that you cant say hes fine and hes going home tomorrow and by the way hes getting dexamethasone, which was shown in [a clinical trial] to be helpful in only the sickest patients.
The concern with dexamethasone is that it can suppress the immune systems activity broadly. While that can be helpful in severe illness which is typically caused by the immune system overreacting to the infection, not the virus itself giving the steroid too soon could hinder the immune system from fighting the virus in the first place.
You dont want to give it to a patient too early, Nahid Bhadelia, the medical director of Boston Medical Centers Special Pathogens Unit, told STAT Friday about dexamethasone. Its a blunt instrument, so it may suppress a good immune response as well as a bad one.
In a clinical trial, dexamethasone reduced deaths by a third in patients hospitalized with Covid-19, but the benefit differed depending how sick patients were. In patients not receiving supplemental oxygen, the study showed no benefit and potential harm.
Those patients who were not requiring oxygen actually had a statistical trend toward worse outcomes the dexamethasone was only beneficial in patients who were requiring oxygen, said C. Michael Gibson, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He also noted that the effect for dexamethasone was only seen in patients who had been sick for longer than seven days. Trump started feeling sick Thursday, his doctors have said.
Trump is also in the middle of a five-day course of the intravenous antiviral remdesivir. His doctors said the president could continue receiving the infusions at the White House if he were discharged from Walter Reed.
Overall, Trumps medical team continued to portray Trump in good spirits and relatively good health. But as during a Saturday press briefing, Conley answered questions about certain aspects of Trumps condition vaguely. He was asked several times about potential damage to the presidents lungs and said there are some expected findings without giving additional details.
Conley was also asked why he had avoided saying during the Saturday briefing whether Trump had ever been given supplemental oxygen.
I was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude the team, the president through his course of illness has had, Conley said. I didnt want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction, and in doing so it came off that we were trying to hide something, which wasnt necessarily true.
Damian Garde and Matthew Herper contributed reporting.
Richanne C. Mankey, Defiances president, said the college had been following local and federal health standards. Unfortunately, Dr. Mankey said in a statement, one breach can have significant consequences.
Misery in the Sun Belt has receded, helping to hold down the nations new case growth despite increases in the Midwest and West.
Summer outbreaks sent national case tallies soaring to more than 66,000 a day by late July. Arizona, California and Florida reported new records, then broke them, day after day. In some cities, officials shut down bars again and demanded that residents wear masks.
Florida is now averaging about 2,300 new cases a day, roughly one-fifth of what it was seeing at its worst. In Arizona, where overtaxed hospital capacity was once a concern, intensive care beds are now plentiful, and daily case reports have dropped to about 500 on average, down from more than 3,600. New infections have also plunged in California, Georgia, Louisiana and South Carolina. Mississippi, Texas and Alabama have made significant progress since midsummer as well, though case numbers there remain persistently high.
Thankfully, we did not have a surge in Covid-19, as was predicted, after the Labor Day weekend, Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama, a Republican, said this week as she announced an extension of the states mask order. But my friends, this isnt just luck or coincidence. The fact is, our mask order that we imposed on July 16 is working, and the numbers speak for themselves.
The question ahead is whether regions can hold on to their progress or whether new outbreaks will crop up quickly as limits are lifted and old hot spots surge again.
The nations effort to stop the coronavirus remains a constantly shifting amalgam of state and local rules. And that has meant starkly different realities from state to state, and from county to county.
Is that sneezing or coughing fit a sign of allergies, a cold, the flu or COVID-19? If you also have a fever a temperature above 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher those symptoms probably signal infection and not just allergies acting up. (Wait 30 minutes after eating or drinking to get an accurate measurement.) sestovic/Getty Images hide caption
Is that sneezing or coughing fit a sign of allergies, a cold, the flu or COVID-19? If you also have a fever a temperature above 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher those symptoms probably signal infection and not just allergies acting up. (Wait 30 minutes after eating or drinking to get an accurate measurement.)
You might have hoped the coronavirus pandemic would cancel what we doctors usually think of as "sick season," but as cool weather signals the annual arrival of autumn allergies, colds and flu in the U.S., sick season is still right on schedule.
In my clinic, that means a flurry of visits and calls from patients worried about their runny noses, coughs and sore throats.
Before the emergence of COVID-19, it was already tough for patients to know how seriously to take those common symptoms. Allergies and colds are mostly just a nuisance, but a severe case of the flu can kill.
Now our unprecedented times are about to merge with the highly precedented. The flu routinely kills between 12,000 and 61,000 people in the U.S. each year, and COVID-19 has already killed more than 200,000, just since February.
Those big combined numbers of deaths can be scary, especially if you've skipped or postponed your usual health routines and check-ins with a doctor this year. Now's the time to get back in gear: Here are a few steps to improve your chances of staying healthy, even during sick season.
Establish a relationship with a primary care provider before you get sick
Do this now. Being an established patient can help you more quickly get in to see a doctor or other health care provider when you get sick. Having a clinician who already knows your medical history when you call helps, too the clinician may feel more comfortable making certain treatment recommendations online or over the phone and will know when it's better to have you come in for a physical exam because you have certain risk factors.
Keep your vaccinations up to date
Primary care providers, as well as pharmacists, can help track whatever vaccinations you need and those immunizations are especially important during a pandemic. This fall, as every year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends vaccines against influenza for pretty much everyone older than 6 months, including pregnant women and the elderly. The agency also recommends immunization against pneumococcal pneumonia as part of routine vaccines for children and for healthy people age 65 or older, or sooner for some adults with underlying health problems. These are two respiratory illnesses seen more often in the fall and winter months that can turn nasty.
But other serious, vaccine-preventable illnesses can be circulating in your community too whooping cough and measles, just for starters. Talk to your clinician about which vaccines are appropriate for you and for the kids in your life. There's no benefit to waiting to get this year's flu shot, by the way the CDC says September and October are "good times to get vaccinated."
Justin Ortiz, a critical care doctor and professor of medicine at the University of Maryland, notes that vaccines are lifesaving in another way this year by helping to reduce cases of flu and pneumonia that would otherwise deplete resources needed to fight the pandemic. "Severe flu can fill up our hospitals," he says. "If another wave of COVID-19 coincides with influenza and pneumonia season, there will be fewer health care resources to treat both."
Got seasonal allergies that flare in the fall? Nip symptoms in the bud with early treatment
While vaccines can help keep some respiratory infections away, they don't prevent ragweed, pollen, dust or mold in the air from triggering symptoms like runny nose, sneezing, itchy or watering eyes, headache and even fatigue. If you know you struggle with airborne allergens this time of year, start your usual medicines before symptoms develop, or at the first sign, to prevent or help stop the inflammation that makes symptoms escalate. Allergies can develop at any age; if your symptoms are new, talk to a health care provider about your best treatment options.
Timing is key, says Dr. Stuart Cohen, chief of primary care for the University of Alabama at Birmingham: "The one thing we're telling our patients is go ahead and start taking their nonsedating antihistamines or use their steroidal nasal sprays if they usually suffer with allergies. They shouldn't wait until their symptoms progress to start using those every day."
It's important to remember that although allergies can cause upper respiratory symptoms and possibly a change in your sense of smell, they don't cause fever, which is common with COVID-19 and the flu.
And, speaking of fever, be ready to check for one
Keep a thermometer in your home, since checking your temperature is a good place to start in distinguishing allergies from an infection if you're feeling unwell. Just remember the definition of a true fever a temperature at or above 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, or 38 degrees Celsius.
Fever is a key symptom that helps clinicians make a diagnosis and decide what level of care you need, so having that information when you first reach out can be important.
Even if you have a slight fever, recognize that your doctor may tell you to simply rest, drink plenty of fluids and "watch and wait" to see how the symptoms develop. Many of the old rules still apply, even in a pandemic: COVID-19, colds and flu are all caused by viruses, not bacteria, so antibiotics won't treat them.
Make online tools work for you
Many medical offices now have links online to help you sign up for a telehealth appointment, even for routine health maintenance. If you have chronic health issues, call or check online with your health care provider soon before the cold and flu season is in full swing. A clinician can review your routine medications and doses, help make sure you have an ample supply at home and may also suggest more ways you can reduce your risk of getting sick, based on your individual history.
Also, familiarize yourself now, before you get sick, with the CDC's Coronavirus Self-Checker or other online support tools from your local health care system, like this one put together by Johns Hopkins Medicine. These resources can help you differentiate among symptoms and provide a way to search for and contact health care providers if you don't already have one who routinely manages your care.
Keep maintaining social distance, wearing a mask and washing your hands
We're likely to see a jump in coronavirus cases as cooler weather pushes us together indoors for longer periods, so don't let down your guard. These now familiar basics of public hygiene will be even more important over the next several months.
And while the cool air alone is enough to cause a runny nose, it can also be a symptom of the common cold, flu or COVID-19 all very contagious respiratory diseases. So although wearing a mask when you have a runny nose may be uncomfortable, doing so will help keep you from spreading whatever you have to people you love and will help protect you from catching another bug. Wearing a mask may be even more important if you have allergies that make you sneeze propulsive sneezes are definitely a way the coronavirus spreads.
When patients ask Ortiz if they can be co-infected with the coronavirus and another virus like the influenza virus, he says "absolutely" and reminds them that though it may feel harder to breathe when you have an upper respiratory illness and wear a mask, covering your nose and mouth this way "won't cause problems with air exchange," even for many people with asthma or COPD. Mask wearers, even those with bad head colds or the flu, can still get plenty of oxygen.
Pay attention to your symptoms and know the red flags
It's helpful to keep track of any respiratory symptoms you develop as they begin or change, to help distinguish the signs of allergies from an infection. But don't go it alone check with your doctor's office if you're uncertain, to let the office also help you triage symptoms and decide on a plan. And if you have chronic medical problems, especially lung disease, it's important to reach out for care at the first sign of illness.
How do you know if what you're experiencing is an emergency? Some common red flag symptoms that signal you should call 911 include sudden chest pain or pressure; new confusion, a change in consciousness or inability to stay awake; or any signs of a lack of oxygen (such as blue or purple lips or gasping for air).
Bottom line this fall: Don't panic. Do ask for help
Never hesitate to seek help from your primary care provider when it comes to your health worries, no matter how small, because no one is immune to the fear of getting really sick. The medical community has adapted to COVID-19 by building more ways for patients to be informed and get guidance and this should be welcome news, since good communication may save lives and ease us all through the challenging months ahead.
Kristen Kendrick is a board-certified family physician in Washington, D.C., and a health and media fellow at NPR and Georgetown University School of Medicine.
When Jeff Pleiss, associate professor of molecular biology and genetics in the College of Arts and Sciences, began studying RNA biology two decades ago, he could not have known that the kind of high-volume RNA analysis his lab performs on single-cell yeast would have any importance in fighting a pandemic.
Pleiss studies rare RNA species in different, changing environments, elucidating pathways in RNA biology that are critical for gene expression in eukaryotes. To do this, he must take cellular mixes and robustly and carefully separate RNA in order to identify different RNA species. Identifying COVID-19 in humans requires similar separation of RNA.
The Cornell COVID-19 Testing Lab, housed in the College of Veterinary Medicines Animal Health Diagnostic Center, had been handling thousands of clinical samples from animals a day. Beginning in August, it adapted and expanded routine testing for COVID-19.
In a typical day, Pleiss lab examines up to 20,000 specimens at a time. When Cornell was faced with the challenge of developing its own testing system, Pleiss stepped forward to offer his labs experience with RNA processing. They use a robotic process to pool specimens to achieve such a high volume. The Cornell COVID-19 Testing Laboratory (CCTL) acquired similar robots, and the Pleiss lab Ph.D. candidate Zach Dwyer helped to write the scripts for the liquid handlers to prepare sample pools.
CCTL is housed in and led by the College of Veterinary Medicines Animal Health Diagnostic Center (AHDC). The AHDC had been handling thousands of clinical samples from animals a day and now was adapting and expanding their routine testing for COVID-19. As a Level 1 laboratory of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) the center was set up to test 800 to 1,200 samples for animal infectious diseases in one work shift; using robotic liquid handlers with Pleiss input now facilitated the processing of 5,000 to 7,000 tests a day.
Members of the Pleiss lab, which like the AHDC and CCTL use a 96-well format and similar equipment, are looking for ways to further streamline and enhance efficiencies of CCTLs critical work by investigating the possibility of testing larger pools.
The Pleiss lab also has experience using standard, off-the-shelf components for the testing process rather than more expensive commercial kits, which enables them to achieve their high volume of testing in an affordable way. And commercial kits can be subject to global supply limitations, Pleiss said, adding that such kits are like pre-made chocolate chip cookie dough.
Pre-made dough is easy to make into cookies, but package availability may be limited, he said. Sugar and flour and eggs, though, are almost always available, so youll never run out of the components.
With high-volume testing underway at CCTL, Pleiss and his students continue to explore ways that their expertise can support Cornells COVID-19 testing system.
Jeffs lab illustrates how researchers from different fields have mobilized to support Cornell through this pandemic, and how scientists doing foundational, curiosity-driven research can make meaningful contributions to applied problems, said Andrew Bass, the Horace White Professor of Neurobiology and Behavior and senior associate dean in Arts and Sciences.
We are working in parallel with CCTL, staying out of their way while looking for ways to optimize what theyre doing, Pleiss said. The goal is to getthroughput higher and costs even lower, all withoutsacrificing sensitivity.
Kate Blackwood is a writer for the College of Arts and Sciences.
At Walter Reed, doctors put Mr. Trump on remdesivir, an antiviral drug that has hastened the recovery of some coronavirus patients, and gave him a second dose on Saturday. In another statement, issued after 9 p.m., Dr. Conley said Mr. Trump remains fever-free and off supplemental oxygen with a saturation level of 96 percent to 98 percent. While not yet out of the woods, the team remains cautiously optimistic, he said.
The outbreak infected a third Republican senator on Saturday as Ron Johnson of Wisconsin reported testing positive as did former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who helped prepare Mr. Trump for his campaign debate on Tuesday. Nicholas F. Luna, the director of Oval Office operations, also tested positive, an administration official said Saturday night. In the course of barely 48 hours, the president, his wife, his campaign manager, his party chairwoman, his senior adviser, his assistant, his former counselor, his debate coach and three Republican senators all tested positive for the virus, along with at least three White House reporters.
The White House medical unit was investigating Mr. Trumps announcement of his nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court last weekend as a likely source of the viruss spread. More than a half-dozen people who attended the event on Sept. 26 or were with the president on Air Force One flying to a campaign rally in Pennsylvania later in the evening have now tested positive.
Two of the three senators who have now tested positive for the virus, Mike Lee of Utah and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, were at the Barrett announcement and serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee that will consider her nomination, further complicating a confirmation drive that was already testing speed limits and a razor-thin majority to get done before the election, as Mr. Trump has insisted.
Mr. Johnson, the third senator now infected, was not at the event because he was quarantining from a previous exposure to someone with the virus. He emerged from 14 days of quarantine after testing negative and returned to Washington on Tuesday, his office said, but attended lunch with other Senate Republicans that put him in the same room with Mr. Lee and Mr. Tillis. He was tested again on Friday and it came back positive.
If all three Republicans were unable to vote, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader from Kentucky, would not have enough support to force through confirmation of Judge Barrett because two moderate Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have already indicated that they oppose installing a new justice before the election.
Even as Mr. McConnell said on Saturday that the full chamber would not meet this coming week as planned, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, issued a statement saying the panel would proceed with plans to meet on Oct. 12 to begin considering Judge Barretts nomination.
CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) The Chicopee Police Department announced on Monday that a fourth police officer has tested positive for COVID-19.
According to the Public Information Officer Danusia Liszka, the officer worked closely with the other three officers that tested positive last week.
All other officers that have come in contact to these four have been tested and no other positive test results have appeared as of Monday.
The Chicopee Police Department continues to work with the Chicopee Health Department to prevent further spreading of the virus.
HAMILTON COUNTY, Tenn. (WDEF)- Governor Bill Lee and Mayor Jim Coppinger may have lifted covid-19 restrictions, but the mask mandate is still in place in Hamilton County.
Thats caused some confusion for both business owners and their customers.
Restaurants like The Local have taken covid precautions pretty serious for several months.
We havent opened our lobby back up for dine-in even though a lot of places have said Manager Caroline Coppock.
Coppock noticed the juice bar has received mixed receptions from patrons after restrictions were lifted statewide.
We were used to a lot of people following the mandate which is great and then were also used to customers who dont said Coppock.
Manager of Mean Mug Nicholas Knable says the coffee shop is looking for ways to accommodate people who will not wear masks, We allow them to order but we take it out to them. We dont really let them come in.
News 12 caught up with Erin Meeks before walking into Mean Mug.
Shes hopes Mayor Jim Coppinger extends the mandate again, I dont feel like were at a point where lifting restrictions make sense. Having mask on really does help stop the spread.
Knable says some customers have dont wear mask for legitimate reasons, Im told its just medical reasons.
Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger will discuss the status of the mask mandate during a briefing on October 6th.
