Nineteen new coronavirus cases have been reported in the state, health officials said Monday.
Mondays report brings the cumulative total of coronavirus cases across the state to 4,701. Of those, 4,230 have been confirmed positive, while 471 were classified as probable cases, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
No new deaths were reported on Monday, leaving the statewide death toll at 134. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60.
Here is the latest on the coronavirus and its impact in Maine:
The upending of school last March has led some Maine parents to rethink how they want their children to learn this fall, when schools are generally using a combination of in-person and remote learning. Some parents dont want their children to spend so much time learning on a computer, while others simply found that their children learned better in a different arrangement. Eesha Pendarkhar, BDN
For New Englands vanishing commercial clam harvesters, the coronavirus pandemic represents only the most recent in a string of setbacks that have held down the centuries-old industry. Patrick Whittle, The Associated Press
Maines seafood industry could get a $20 million boost this fall through funds made available under the federal CARES Act. The Associated Press
Operators of Maine music clubs and music industry professionals have formed a grassroots alliance and launched a $500,000 fundraising campaign to help local venues survive the pandemic. The Associated Press
Athletic training staffs around the state have been preparing to do their work amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Beyond taping ankles and attending to physical injuries, their job description will add a significant twist if indeed fall sports are contested monitoring coronavirus-related safety guidelines now being established in an effort to safely play the games. Ernie Clark, BDN
As of Monday afternoon, the coronavirus had sickened 6,292,206 people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as caused 189,095 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
Cough, fever, chills with fall fast on the way, symptoms alone wont be useful in distinguishing Covid-19 from similar-looking cases of the flu. That means routinely testing for both viruses will be crucial even, perhaps, after some patients have already died.
That will at least be true in New York, where officials recently announced a ramp-up in post-mortem testing for the coronavirus as well as the flu. Deaths linked to respiratory illnesses that werent confirmed before a person died are to be followed up with tests for both viruses within 48 hours, according to the new regulation.
These regulations will ensure we have the most accurate death data possible as we continue to manage Covid-19 while preparing for flu season, Dr. Howard Zucker, the states health commissioner, said in a statement last week.
Deceased hospital patients and nursing home residents, as well as bodies in the care of funeral directors or medical examiners, will be among those targeted for follow-up testing. If experts at a local facility cant perform the test themselves, they can ask the state to run the test for them at its public health lab.
Although the results of these tests will be too late to change the course of treatment for the deceased, they can still help health officials track the prevalence of both types of infections, as well as indicate whether to warn close contacts of the deceased that they may need to quarantine.
People need to know who around them was sick, said Dr. Valerie Fitzhugh, a pathologist at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. If someone cant be tested in life, why not test them soon after death?
Putting regulations in place ahead of time will also encourage counties to bolster their testing readiness ahead of autumn and winter, when seasonal viruses like flu and respiratory syncytial virus, or R.S.V., tend to thrive, said Dr. Mary Fowkes, a clinical pathologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. In many parts of the country, coronavirus cases are still ratcheting up every day and will become more difficult to track when similar sicknesses muddle the picture.
I think that is important to prepare for, Dr. Fowkes said.
In the early days of the pandemic, New York, like the rest of the country, struggled to rein in the virus. Many illnesses went untested, including those of several thousand people whose deaths were later reclassified as presumed, but unconfirmed, cases of Covid-19.
A lot has changed since the spring, said Gareth Rhodes, deputy superintendent and special counsel at the New York State Department of Financial Services and a member of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomos virus response team. After a sputtering start to testing in March, New York is now running about 100,000 coronavirus tests a day, with positivity rates hovering around 1 percent or less. While hundreds remain hospitalized throughout the state, daily deaths attributable to Covid-19 have averaged in the single digits since late August.
The new regulations also stipulate that living patients with flulike symptoms or a known exposure to the coronavirus or a flu virus should be tested for both pathogens. That makes it less likely that a case will be missed in the first place.
We track fatalities very closely, Mr. Rhodes said. At this point, he added, New Yorks coronavirus testing regimens in medical settings are pretty consistent. You cant really be a hospital in New York right now without testing, he said.
The regulation doesnt apply to all deaths just those suspected of being linked to a respiratory illness.
That means the new rules on post-mortem testing probably wont change coronavirus case numbers much, if at all. Since the announcement, made last Sunday, the Wadsworth state lab has not yet received a request to process a post-mortem test, Mr. Rhodes said.
Updated September 4, 2020
Still, the regulation may come in handy if, for example, a death were to occur en route to the hospital or shortly after arrival, or if an emergency prompted a temporary lab closure so that tests could not be immediately run. Others might die at home, or elsewhere outside the care of a hospital or nursing home, without easy access to tests.
This is designed to catch anything that fell through the cracks, said Dr. Rosemary She, a pathologist at the University of Southern Californias Keck School of Medicine.
Thorough testing can also affect which bodies are autopsied at medical examiners offices, where resources and staff have been strained, said Dr. Erin Brooks, a pathologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Someone whose cause of death can be confirmed by a positive test for the coronavirus, for instance, might not need to be investigated further.
A number of pathologists noted that while coronavirus testing for sick patients is just about ubiquitous in medical settings in other states, combination testing that includes the flu, including post-mortem testing, is not as common and may need to be considered.
More laboratories will most likely need to invest in tests that can detect multiple types of pathogens at once. One of the tests run at Wadsworth, for instance, is a so-called respiratory panel, made by a company called BioFire, that simultaneously searches for genetic material from more than 20 types of bacteria and viruses, including the coronavirus and multiple types of flu viruses.
Some experts have postulated that proactive measures like continued physical distancing and vigilant mask wearing might soften the blow of this years flu season, as they appear to have done in the southern hemisphere.
But its in our best interest to prepare for the worst, Dr. Fitzhugh said, and hope for the best.
A number of institutions of higher learning are already dealing with dangerous and disruptive coronavirus outbreaks shortly after reopening for in-person classes.
September 7:
According to the school's president, at least 11 cases of Covid-19 have been traced to a University of New Hampshire fraternity party where people did not follow public health guidelines. "This is reckless behavior and the kind of behavior that undermines our planning and will lead to us switching to a fully remote mode," UNH President James Dean said. "The August 29 party is reprehensible and will not be tolerated. As soon as we heard of this party at Theta Chi, we started an investigation with the Interfraternity Council."
September 6:
According to the New York Times, Brazos County, Tex., home to Texas A&M University, recorded 742 new coronavirus cases during the last week of August, the county's worst week so far, as the university reported hundreds of new cases.
East Carolina University has seen at least 846 infections involving students, faculty and staff since mid-August.
Since early July, Washington State University and the University of Idaho, which are about eight miles apart, have recorded more than 300 combined Covid-19 infections.
There were 64 positive test results across campus over an eight-day period at Gettysburg College, a private, liberal arts school. The college is now requiring students to "remain in their dorm room 24 hours a day for a week only leaving to use the bathroom or pick up food and has moved classes online after a rise in COVID-19 cases."
September 2:
The Lexington Health Department has reported 760 positive Covid-19 cases among students at the University of Kentucky. School officials say they are awaiting further data, including more testing of students and efforts to control the virus, before deciding how to proceed.
September 1:
Arizona State University confirmed it now has 803 known cases of Covid-19 among its students and staff. All positive cases are in isolation, according to the school.
All Colorado College classes "are moving to remote delivery for the remainder of Block 1 and most classes will be in remote delivery for the remainder of the Fall Semester," the school announced Tuesday.
Ten University of Central Florida football players, including two projected starters, have declined to opt out of the 2020 season because of concerns around the coronavirus pandemic, coach Josh Heupel said Tuesday
August 31:
On Monday, the University of Iowa reported 326 new Covid-19 infections over the previous three days. A total of 922 students have now reported testing positive for coronavirus.
August 30:
The University of Alabamahas recorded more than 500 new Covid-19 infections this week. As of Sunday morning, the total number of reported cases is now up to 1,368 cases among faculty, staff and students since Aug. 19, the first day of on-campus classes.
The total number of positive Covid-19 cases among Illinois State University students, since fall semester began Aug. 17, has increased to 512 as of Saturday. In addition, nine faculty and staff have self-reported testing positive to Human Resources.
August 26:
A New York Times survey published Wednesday of more than 1,500 American colleges and universities (including every four-year public institution and every private college that competes in NCAA sports), revealed at least 26,000 coronavirus cases of and 64 deaths since the pandemic began.
August 25:
As of Tuesday, six days after the start of classes, the University of Alabama's main campus in Tuscaloosa had recorded 531 total Covid-19 cases. University President Stuart R. Bell called on all students, faculty and staff to work together "at this critical moment."
Nearly 160 University of Missouri students tested positive for the coronavirus, the school announced earlier this week. The 159 students are in isolation and none have required hospitalization.
USC has experienced an alarming increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in students among the campus community. The school announced Monday that over the previous seven days 43 cases had been identified and more than 100 students placed in a 14-day quarantine due to exposures.
August 24
On Sunday, Georgia Institute of Technology reported 51 new cases of the virus, bringing its total number of cases since March to 302. A fraternity at the school was placed under quarantine over the weekend after at least 17 more of its members tested positive for Covid-19.
August 21:
After a spike in Covid-19 positivity rate among students, the University of Alabama announced a moratorium on in-person student events along with restrictions on fraternity and sorority houses. All events will be paused for 14 days.
August 20:
The University of Kansas confirmed 89 positive Covid-19 cases of the coronavirus from their initial mandatory testing results, Chancellor Douglas Girod said on Thursday.
N.C. State announced Thursday that they will move undergraduate classes to online-only for the remainder of the fall semester after seeing a spike in coronavirus cases, as more than 500 students have been forced to quarantine themselves because of their exposure to the virus.
August 19
Drake University has sent home 14 students who disobeyed the schools ban on parties. If we are going to get through the fall semester, it will come down to our decisions and our actions, said Dean of Students Jerry Parker. I want to be crystal clear: we are serious and we will not hesitate to take the necessary actions to mitigate the potential spread of COVID-19.
A total of 175 Iowa State University students have tested positive for Covid-19 during the move-in period. That accounts for a 2.2% positivity rate, according to the university.
A total of 38 individuals at Hope College have tested positive for the coronavirus, including several that have received a positive test since moving onto campus.
Michigan State University
MSU announced Tuesday evening that, effective immediately, undergraduate students who had planned to live in residence halls this fall are being asked to stay home and continue their education remotely. The schools president, Samuel Stanley Jr., said that the current status of the coronavirus pandemic, including recent outbreaks at other universities, caused the change in plans.
The University of Notre Dame:
Tuesday afternoon, Notre Dame announced it had canceled in-person classes for at least two weeks after reporting 80 newly confirmed coronavirus cases earlier in the day, up from 58 total cases the day before.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:
On Monday, the state universitys chancellor and provost called off in-person classes for undergraduates. Within a week of its reopening, UNC reported four coronavirus clusters on the Chapel Hill campus: three in student dormitories, and one in an off-campus fraternity house.
University of Kentucky:
Through Thursday of last week, UK had reported 160 positive Covid-19 cases among students. The number was up to 189 as of Saturday. Yet, that total number is out of 17,285 tests, which translates to a positivity rate of 1.1%. The university currently plans to continue in-person learning, but with increased precautions. It has created nearly 35,000 signs encouraging social distancing and removed almost 10,000 chairs and furniture from classrooms to create added space. Some vending machines are selling hand sanitizer and masks.
East Carolina University:
The school has averaged about 30 new cases per week in August. It reported its first cluster in a dorm Monday evening. Dr. Ron Mitchelson, ECU's interim chancellor, said ECU police and Greenville police were called to two dozen parties over the weekend.
Oklahoma State University:
Earlier this month, OSU conducted mandatory tests on all students before they could move into their residence halls, and 22 students tested positive. An entire sorority house is now under quarantine and isolation after school officials confirmed Saturday that 23 members of Pi Beta Phi tested positive for the coronavirus.
Colorado College
A total of 155 students have been quarantined in Loomis Hall after a student tested positive for Covid-19 over the weekend, officials said Monday. According to the school's website, the college's plan for the start of the fall semester allows only first-year students to attend classes in-person while others participate in distance learning. Sophomores, juniors and seniors will be permitted to return to campus in late September.
Northeast Mississippi Community College:
A week after classes resumed August 3, the school's president, Dr. Ricky G. Ford, said "around 300" students, roughly 10% of the entire student population, were in quarantine due to potential exposure to the virus. In addition, "about 25 to 28" of the college's approximately 300 employees were in quarantine, according to Ford.
Western Kentucky University
WKU isn't scheduled to open until August 24, but the University's online dashboard, which was updated last Friday, is reporting a total of 206 positive COVID-19 cases within its broader campus community, including 175 students. In addition, 31 WKU faculty, staff or on-campus contractors have tested positive for Covid-19 since July 1, with five of those cases coming last week.
"The number of clusters is growing and soon could become out of control," said Barbara Rimer, dean of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "It is time for an off-ramp. We have tried to make this work, but it is not working."
How and when to safely reopen schools remains a hotly debated, and often partisan, issue in the U.S. As opposed to elementary and high schools, most students attending institutions of higher learning are adults with greater personal freedoms, but administrators still face responsibility (and liability) for their welfare. According to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, colleges should consider closing buildings and suspending in-person classes following Covid-19 outbreaks. Doing so comes at a great cost for universities: According to USA Today, experts have warned that "another semester of remote courses could have disastrous effects on student enrollment and college budgets." Some returning college students have reportedly considered deferring enrollment until campuses fully reopen. Some schools are reportedly charging students up to $450 for "Covid-19 fees" intended to cover testing costs, as well as cleaning and other expenses that schools are incurring.
17%: According to a SimpsonScarborough survey taken last month, only 17% of returning college students expressed a desire to return to take all of their classes in-person.
We're making this important information about the pandemic available without a subscription as a public service. But we depend on reader support to do this work. Please consider joining others in supporting independent journalism in Alaska for just $3.23 a week.
As flu season fast approaches, public health officials have expressed concerns about further stress placed on hospital capacity. And this week, federal health officials told states to prepare for a COVID-19 vaccine to be available as early as November, raising questions about who will be able to get the vaccine and when.
Well continue to answer your questions about the coronavirus on a regular basis. What do you want to know? Tell us in the form at the bottom of this story or go here.
If all goes well, Alaskans could see a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as November, state and federal officials said this week. Initially, only small amounts of the vaccine will likely be available, and will be distributed in three phases.
FILE - This March 16, 2020 file photo shows vials used by pharmacists to prepare syringes used on the first day of a first-stage safety study clinical trial of the potential vaccine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, in Seattle.
While some public health officials have expressed concern about a rushed timeline, Dr. Anne Zink, the states chief epidemiologist, said during a briefing Wednesday that the development of a vaccine for COVID-19 is building on a large body of existing science and data, and that just because theres a certain timeline doesnt mean that its unsafe.
Part of the reason for the relatively speedy timeline is also the great deal of resources, initiative and brainpower that has gone into developing a vaccine, she said.
The vaccine also doesnt have to be absolutely perfect at preventing 100% of infections, she added: It just has to be safe and effective.
Many of our vaccines help to minimize the risk of death and hospitalization, and even that alone has a tremendous impact of the number of people who die of a disease, she said.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released documents last week that described how states should prepare for two coronavirus vaccines. Both vaccines have undergone extensive testing and are in currently in the final rounds of testing, according to the documents.
While the current trials are still determining whether the vaccines are safe and effective, neither vaccine caused serious side effects in their first human studies, and both spurred the creation of antibodies that could attack the coronavirus.
According to the CDC planning documents, the first group eligible to get the vaccines will include health care workers, essential workers (includes food service workers, teachers, librarians and others who interact with the public on a regular basis), and workers and residents of long-term care facilities like nursing homes.
Phase two will be reserved for those the CDC has classified as high risk for severe illness from the virus, which includes adults 65 years and older and those with certain preexisting health conditions.
During the final phase, which most likely wont begin until well into the new year, most other Alaskans would be able to get vaccinated. Two groups that have not yet been included in any of the clinical trials are children and youths (anyone below the age of 18) and pregnant women, which means the initial doses of vaccine that are scheduled to come out in November will not be available to them.
Of course, this timeline is based on the assumption that the final clinical trials go well, Alaska state officials said on a call Wednesday.
The state of Alaska is not currently considering mandating that people receive COVID-19 vaccinations once they are available, said Dr. Zink.
She added that her public health team would not get prioritized for the first phase of vaccinations unless they were directly caring for patients.
State employees dont have some special access to vaccines, she said.
The state has been gearing up for the coming flu season: Alaska has bought enough of the flu vaccine to immunize up to 55% of the population for free, though small administrative costs may be included. When the private-sector supply is factored in, up to two-thirds of Alaskans can get and should get covered this year, health officials say.
Christine Calderon gives a flu shot to Steve Hall of Eagle River at the Alaska Regional Hospital drive-through flu shot clinic in 2014. (Marc Lester / ADN)
Both influenza and COVID-19 are life-threatening respiratory illnesses with overlapping symptoms. Nine people in Alaska died from influenza in 2019, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Services. Hospitals are not required to report the number of patients hospitalized with the flu, but hospital capacity in Alaska has been affected during flu season in the past.
The CDC has said that the timing of when you get the flu shot matters because of waning immunity, meaning that antibodies to influenza slowly decline in your body months after receiving a flu shot.
Later in September through the end of October is the ideal time to get your shot so that it lasts the duration of flu season in Alaska, state health officials have said. No matter when you get it, adults should only get one shot per year.
Only children ranging from 6 months old through 8 years old who have never gotten a flu shot before will need two doses.
I get the flu vaccine every year, and see how it saves lives, Zink said. I plan to do the same with a COVID vaccine based on the data I see so far.
Private-sector doses of the vaccine are already available in pharmacies around the state, and are available for free with insurance.
Because the state has so much of the vaccine this year, all adults in Alaska can get a free vaccine even without insurance through a provider that offers state-supplied vaccines.
You can visit the state health departments website to find a public health center near you thats distributing the flu vaccine.
If you have no symptoms, that test ideally should happen within seven to 14 days after exposure. But if you do have symptoms, you should get tested right away, per state guidelines.
Need to stay updated on coronavirus news in Texas? Our evening roundup will help you stay on top of the day's latest updates. Sign up here.
Athletics officials at Texas universities spent months planning for a fall football season during a pandemic. As conferences deliberated how teams could safely compete in the age of coronavirus, proponents hoped enhanced coronavirus testing for athletes would ease any lingering doubts.
It worked. Within the month, five major Texas football programs are slated to play. In football and other high contact sports like soccer and volleyball, athletes will be tested three times a week, according to directives from the Big 12 Conference and Southeastern Conference.
For teams competing on a Saturday, that might mean a test Sunday, another Wednesday, and a final, rapid-results test Friday, said Kenny Boyd, a Baylor University senior associate athletic director. Non-conference opponents must also adhere to testing protocols that match conference standards.
Conference and school officials say enhanced testing for sports is necessary to protect athletes, support staff and the teams they compete against. Its an impressive regimen, public health experts agree. But that same level of testing is not available to other Texas college students even those living in high-risk settings like dorms.
Universities dont follow the same testing methods and report cases differently, so theres no way to compare outcomes since classes began again.
Texas A&M University reported 327 new positive tests the week ending Aug. 29, down slightly from the 371 it reported a week prior. Between Sept. 1 and Sept. 3, The University of Texas at Austin reported 103 new positive cases, more than doubling in three days the amount it reported for all of August. Baylor also reported 101 new cases during that time frame.
Public health experts say schools need to dramatically ramp up testing in order to catch silent spread fueled by students who are infected but dont have symptoms.
In Texas, that means colleges should be testing everyone as much as the athletes, said Diana Cervantes, an epidemiologist at the University of North Texas Health Science Center.
If you really wanted to find out what's going on you're going to have to do more intense and more frequent, routine testing, Cervantes said. Because right now, all of the schools and universities and public schools, they're really relying on symptomatic screening. They're not doing a lot of testing.
Many colleges in Texas offer diagnostic testing for students, faculty and staff who have symptoms of the virus. But routine testing for those without symptoms or exposure to a positive case is less prevalent, even as the CDC estimates 40% of COVID-19 infections are asymptomatic.
A. David Paltiel, a professor at the Yale School of Public Health, said frequent testing for asymptomatic spread is crucial to controlling college outbreaks. Given the infectiousness of the coronavirus, schools should be testing everyone every three or four days, he said.
By far, the most powerful variable that administrators control is testing frequency, Paltiel said. If you're only springing into action when symptoms emerge its like a fire department that only responds to calls when the house is already known to have been burnt to the ground.
As Texas continues to report thousands of new cases a day, some colleges in states with fewer infections have launched aggressive testing campaigns. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign requires students, faculty and staff to be tested twice a week.
Among Texas schools that have rolled out plans to catch silent spread, officials vary on how much testing to offer, who exactly should be tested and whether that testing should be mandatory.
Baylor University stands out as one of the few Texas institutions to mandate participation in testing. The private Christian university is requiring all students, faculty, staff and vendors to test if selected, warning that failure to comply may result in disciplinary action. Unlike other Texas universities, Baylor also required a negative test from all students and employees before they returned to campus.
UT-Austin, Texas A&M University and Texas Tech University encourage participation in asymptomatic testing but stop short of requiring it. Texas Christian University does not offer routine testing for students without symptoms, according to The Dallas Morning News.
Cervantes worries a voluntary approach could allow outbreaks to go undetected, especially if some students dodge the invitation to test.
If it's optional then people could self-select themselves out of that," Cervantes said. "Let's say I think I had a high-risk exposure and I think that testing positive is going to mean something detrimental to me, maybe I'd decide not to get tested."
Texas Tech is offering walk-up testing on campus for students, faculty and staff, including those without symptoms or exposure to the virus.
In College Station, Texas A&M is randomly selecting students to participate in saliva-based testing throughout the semester. Faculty and staff members are not included, said Shawn Gibbs, dean of A&Ms School of Public Health.
Faculty and Staff are not part of the random testing program as they represent a population that is less likely to be asymptomatic, more likely to seek testing if they develop symptoms, and less likely to participate in riskier behaviors that could expose them to COVID-19, Gibbs said in a statement, adding that the school has made testing freely available to employees who have symptoms or are close contacts to someone who has tested positive.
The public flagship launched the first round of random testing Aug. 21, selecting more than 5,000 students about 7% of its student population. The testing is voluntary for now, but if the school is not satisfied with the response rate, it says the next round will be mandatory.
UT-Austin plans to test 5,000 students, faculty and staff members who do not have symptoms each week. The saliva-based testing is voluntary and directed toward critical populations, such as students in dorms, but anyone is allowed to participate every 14 days, University spokesperson J.B. Bird said. On Sept. 4, the University reported 36 clinical positive results among the 2,770 tests of asymptomatic people it has conducted since the week of Aug. 23.
Bird said UT-Austin has the capacity to increase the number of asymptomatic tests through the semester and will adapt if the data indicate that this would be a better strategy for tracking, tracing and limiting transmission.
With the reduced number of students in Austin, our capacity of up to 5,000 proactive community tests per week offers the chance to survey a significant percentage of the community, Bird said.
The protocol for athletes, school officials say, seems to be successful at preventing clusters of infection, though it remains to be seen whether testing for Texas campuses at large will provide that kind of mitigation. Plans to press forward with major college football in Texas were dealt an early setback Friday after TCU canceled its first football game due to COVID-19.
Paltiel said any plan dependent on random or voluntary testing is not good enough.
Young, asymptomatic individuals are fueling the spread of this pandemic," Paltiel said. "You have to test everyone because you're really looking for those silent spreaders, the kids who feel just fine."
Disclosure: Baylor University, Texas A&M University, Texas Christian University, Texas Tech University, University of Texas at Austin and University of North Texas have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
The Indian government reported 90,802 new cases on Monday, pushing the total number to 4,204,613. The rate of the virus spread in India, the worlds second most populous nation, has increased sharply over the last month. In the first week of August, India was recording only about 55,000 new cases daily. A month later, the daily numbers have spiked to 90,000. Thats currently thehighest confirmed new daily caseloadin the world.
A sign says, "get your flu shot today." So should you or should you wait until later, given the ... [+] Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic? (Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
You may have heard of concerns about a twindemic happening this Fall. This is not referring to an epidemic of twins, which could be either adorable or horrifying if they keep repeating, Come play with us, forever and ever and ever," as they did in the movie The Shining. No, the twins here would be the continuing Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic plus a seasonal influenza epidemic hitting our population simultaneously. Thats why public health experts are urging you to get the flu shot, which makes sense.
Ah, but the question that you may be asking is when. For example, Ellie J. Murray, ScD, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health, posed the following query to the Twittersphere or at least to the people-who-understand-vaccines-and-are-not-anti-vaccination-bots portion of the Twittersphere:
A timely question indeed from Dr. Murray.
First, the easier part of the answer: unless you have a medical reason not to get the flu shot, its a good idea to get vaccinated against influenza each and every year. Medical reasons include being younger than six months of age or having a severe, life-threatening allergy to the vaccine. (If you are younger than six months of age and reading this, wow.) Typically, the seasonal flu virus is not as deadly as the Covid-19 coronavirus or a novel strain of the influenza virus. Nevertheless, it can cause serious harm and even kill, especially if youve got a weaker immune system. Plus, few people will say the word cool after saying, Ive got the flu. Getting the flu is like the exact opposite of eating avocado toast.
In a typical flu season, the common advice is to get the flu shot sometime in mid-to-late-October. Thats because after you get the flu shot, it takes about one to two weeks for your immune system to mount enough of a response for you to have some protection. Then once you have a reasonable level of protection, this protection tends to last on average for six months. Therefore, getting vaccinated in October would get your protected by the time November rolls around and take you into April when the flu virus may still be around.
In a response to Dr. Murray, Nahid Bhadelia, MD, MA, an infectious diseases physician and the medical director of Special Pathogens Unit at Boston University School of Medicine, shared a tweet thread that she had first tweeted back in August:
Now, protection from the flu shot isnt like renting a suit of knights armor or a full body condom. (By the way, dont rent condoms. Buy them new instead.) Its not as if one day youve got protection and the next day its completely gone. Instead, your immune response will wane over time, gradually getting weaker and weaker. Moreover, duration of protection may vary from person to person and year to year.
Using the six month timeline, vaccination now would on average keep you reasonably protected through early March. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in the United States, flu activity usually peaks sometime between December and February but can continue in some seasons into May.On its web site, the CDC has a histogram that shows how often each month has been the peak of the flu season since this has been measured. February has been the most common month for the peak, checking in at 15 times, followed by December at seven times, January and March at six apiece, and then October and November at one apiece.
Keep in mind these were the months when flu activity was at its highest. There is continuing flu activity well before and after the season peaks. Thus, when the flu season peaks in February or March, which is quite common, expect flu activity to continue into April and even May. So in most years, trying to stay protected through April aint a bad idea.
So, does this mean that you should wait until mid-to-late October? Not necessarily.
Thats because, spoiler alert, 2020 is not your typical year. The History Channel is cancelling its series Vikings after six seasons. Poland accidentally invaded the Czech Republic in a minor misunderstanding, as Colin Dwyer reported for NPR. And gee what else? Whats different about 2020 compared to previous year? Oh, thats right, theres this thing called the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Even though the flu is not the same thing as Covid-19 (repeat, the flu is not the same as Covid-19), some of their earlier symptoms may be similar. This can make it even more freaking confusing to tell whether you have Covid-19 or the flu or something else. Getting vaccinated against the flu could at least reduce the probability that you have the flu.
Will social distancing and face mask use also lead to a milder flu season? (Photo by Roy ... [+] Rochlin/Getty Images)
Additionally, the flu and Covid-19 make for terrible twins. You dont want to play with either of them, let alone both of them at once. Catching the flu could make you more susceptible to Covid-19 coronavirus badness and vice-versa. Infection from one virus could tax your immune system, making it easier for other invaders to enter and cause more havoc. Your respiratory tract is not like a parking space or a fitting room for respiratory viruses. Just because one type of virus is there, doesnt mean that other types cant jump in as well. You cant say to viruses, er, pardon me, but the Covid-19 coronavirus is reproducing like heck in me, so youll have to wait.
As described in a research letter to JAMA, a team at the Stanford University School of Medicine ( David Kim, MD, PhD, James Quinn, MD, MS, Benjamin Pinsky, MD, PhD, Nigam H. Shah, MBBS, PhD, and Ian Brown, MD, MS) found that 20.7% of respiratory specimens that were positive for SARS-CoV-2 were also positive for at least one other respiratory pathogens. A publication in the Journal of Investigative Medicine: High Impact Case Reports had, guess what, case reports of three patients who were co-infected with both the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) and the influenza virus with one of the patients not surviving.
Moreover, it is difficult to predict what will happen in the coming months with the pandemic and resulting effects on health care services. What would happen if an October surge in SARS-CoV2 cases occurs, overtaxing the health care system and leading to shut downs of businesses? After all, the health care system has already been running like a well-oiled cinder block wrapped in a paper bag filled with potato chips. What if you cant go to or find a place to get vaccinated?
Furthermore, there is no guarantee that enough of the flu vaccine will in stock in October to meet the demand. Assuming that flu vaccines will always be available is a bit like assuming that toilet paper will always be around. And you saw how that went back in March. During this pandemic, supply chains for many products in the U.S. have deserved a C-minus grade for come on or maybe even a D for doggone it, I just want some yeast or why did you send me a fish tank when I wanted watermelon?
If this season were to have flu vaccine shortages, it certainly wouldnt be a first. Just look at what happened in 2003 or during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic:
In fact, just last year, when there was no pandemic to blame, vaccine shortages were a problem as this WTHR 13 news report showed:
Unless you think things this year are somehow being run so much more efficiently and effectively than they have in the past, prepare yourself for possible vaccine delivery delays and shortages. Add the current focus on the Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine as another reason why seasonal flu vaccine production and distribution may have disruptions. Therefore, it may be better to get the vaccine while you can.
So, how about getting the flu vaccine twice: once now and a second time four months later in January? Well, the jury is still out on the effects of doing this. As the CDC website describes, in adults, studies have not shown a benefit from getting more than one dose of vaccine during the same influenza season, even among elderly persons with weakened immune systems. The exception is children getting their first ever flu vaccination. So check to see if you are a child first. Regardless, this may not be a great thing for everyone to try to do because there may not be enough vaccines around.
Theres one other reason to get the flu vaccine now rather than later: herd immunity. If you havent heard of herd immunity, I described it previously for Forbes. Basically, the greater the proportion of the population that has been vaccinated, the harder it is for a virus to find someone to infect. If enough people get vaccinated early before the flu virus has had a chance to spread, it could alter and suppress the spread of the flu virus. Couple this with more social distancing than usual because of the Covid-19 coronavirus, and the flu virus could have a tougher go at it this season. This could make for a more mild flu season in general, which would be good news in a year that hasnt exactly been brimming with good news.
This briefing has ended. Read live coronavirus updates here.
The share of virus tests coming back positive in New York State has stayed below 1 percent for 30 straight days, suggesting that the states aggressive approach to containing its outbreak once the most severe in the country has largely worked.
The states positivity rate, announced on Sunday, remained below 1 percent even as parts of the economy gradually reopened, the number of people being tested continued to trend upward, and other states grappled with sharply rising case counts.
But for all the encouragement offered by the monthlong marker, many New Yorkers remain anxious heading into the fall and winter, when case counts could rise as the nations largest public school district and more businesses are preparing to reopen.
Even Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, in announcing the figure, took the opportunity to urge not celebration but continued restraint, pointing in a statement to New Yorks approach to reopening slower and more controlled than in most other states as well as its statewide mask mandate.
Caution is a virtue, not a vice, Mr. Cuomo said.
New York State is now averaging slightly more than 700 cases a day, according to a New York Times database up a bit from about 600 in late August, but still a fraction of the 9,000 to 10,000 cases a day it was reporting at the peak in April. The number of people in hospitals because of the virus dropped to 410 on Saturday, the lowest figure since March 16.
The governors announcement came in the middle of a holiday weekend that, like others before it, seemed certain to tempt many to gather socially as the summer wanes. Mr. Cuomo warned that the states gains could be imperiled by any backsliding on precautions like mask wearing and social distancing.
Our actions today determine the rate of infection tomorrow, he said. So as the Labor Day weekend continues, I urge everyone to be smart, so we dont see a spike in the weeks ahead.
A recent outbreak at the State University of New York at Oneonta, a public college in Central New York, showed how quickly new clusters can flare up.
After some students held large parties, more than 500 students there tested positive; officials canceled in-person instruction for the semester less than two weeks after it began, closed the schools dormitories and sent students home. On Sunday, Mr. Cuomo said a state rapid testing team sent to the City of Oneonta had found 91 more cases, largely among college-age adults.
At New York University, more than 20 students have been suspended for violating virus-related rules, the school announced on Twitter on Saturday.
India, home to the worlds fastest-growing coronavirus outbreak, has surpassed Brazil to become the country with the second-highest number of cases.
On Monday, India reported 90,802 new infections, breaking its own record from the day before and taking its total to more than 4.2 million, according to a New York Times database. Brazil is now third with more than 4.1 million cases.
In early July, India surpassed Russia to become the country with the third-highest number of cases. By then, the United States was entrenched at No. 1, where it remains today with more than 6.2 million cases.
Crowded cities, lockdown fatigue and a lack of contact tracing have spread Covid-19 to every corner of this country of 1.3 billion people, The Timess Jeffrey Gettleman and Sameer Yasir reported in late August.
India has recorded 71,642 deaths from the virus, the worlds third-highest toll after the United States and Brazil, though India has a relatively low death rate per capita in a youthful nation.
The countrys surge in cases comes as the government continues to ease lockdown measures in an effort to help the economy. On Monday, the subway system in New Delhi, the capital, began a phased reopening after being shut for more than five months.
The pandemic has been economically devastating for India, which not so long ago dreamed of becoming a global powerhouse. Last week, the government reported a 24 percent contraction in the second quarter, the worst among the worlds top economies.
Britain is stunned by a spike in daily cases.
British health officials on Sunday announced a sharp rise in new infections, prompting warnings that they may need to reconsider the aggressive reopening of the country.
The British Public Health agency reported that 2,998 new cases had been confirmed the highest number since late May, during the British outbreaks peak.
Amid criticism that the government had once again lost control of an outbreak that has already killed more than 41,000 in Britain, government officials signaled that they were prepared to crack down.
Well take whatever action is necessary, said Matt Hancock, the health secretary, declaring that we can use, and we will use, local lockdowns if thats whats necessary.
But noting that as is the case in many parts of the world, the newest outbreak is hitting mostly younger people, Mr. Hancock implored them to think of their grandparents and be vigilant.
The first line of defense is that people should follow social distancing, he said.
There have been almost 350,000 coronavirus cases in Britain, which was initially reluctant to acknowledge the threat posed by the outbreak and act decisively to shut down. It suffered some of the worst losses in Europe in April and May, but gradually cases began to decline after the government moved to lock down.
In August, however, cases began rising again.
With schools newly reopened, some British experts are sounding the alarm over the newest infection numbers.
Theyve lost control of the virus, Gabriel Scally, a former National Health Service official, told The Guardian.
Kamala Harris expresses distrust of any vaccine promoted by President Trump.
Senator Kamala Harris of California, the Democratic nominee for vice president, said she would not trust President Trumps assurances that a coronavirus vaccine was safe, and instead would wait for medical experts to confirm the vaccine was reliable before she received an inoculation.
I will not take his word for it, Ms. Harris said of Mr. Trump on the CNN program State of the Union. (An earlier version of this article misidentified the program as Inside Politics.)
He wants us to inject bleach, she added, referring to remarks in April when the president incomprehensibly suggested a dangerous coronavirus treatment.
Ms. Harriss remarks came after federal officials alerted state and major city public health agencies last week to prepare to distribute a vaccine to health care workers and other high-risk groups as soon as late October or early November. Given that no vaccine candidates have completed the kind of large-scale human trials that can prove efficacy and safety, that time frame has heightened concerns that the Trump administration is seeking to rush a vaccine rollout ahead of Election Day, Nov. 3.
For months, Ms. Harris and Joseph R. Biden Jr. have assailed Mr. Trump for his handling of the coronavirus crisis. Ms. Harriss comments on Sunday questioning a potential vaccine, as scientists racing for a vaccine report constant pressure from a White House anxious for good news, are likely to further sow skepticism among Americans considering whether to get the vaccine when it becomes available.
With concern about the politicization of vaccines and treatments on the rise, five drug companies are preparing to issue a statement this week pledging to not release a vaccine unless it meets rigorous standards for effectiveness and safety. The companies Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi are aiming to reassure the public that they will not seek premature approval under political pressure.
Ms. Harris on Sunday also said she and Mr. Biden would set a national standard for mask wearing, stopping short of endorsing a mandate.
This is not about punishment. Its not about Big Brother, Ms. Harris said, adding that wearing a mask is a sacrifice in a time of crisis.
Her comments appeared to be a softening of the position she and Mr. Biden have previously staked out.
Last month, Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris called for Americans to be required to wear masks, telling reporters after receiving a briefing from public health experts that every American should wear a mask while outside for at least the next three months and that all governors should mandate mask wearing.
Mr. Biden in July suggested that if he were president, he would require mask wearing in public, and, asked if he could use federal leverage to mandate that, said he could, and would from an executive standpoint.
As hope builds over possible frequent at-home testing, experts call the idea a long shot.
Over the past few weeks, a Harvard scientist has made headlines for a bold idea to curb the spread of the virus: rolling out antigen tests, a decades-old underdog in testing technology, to tens of millions of Americans for near-daily, at-home use.
These tests are not very good at picking up low-level infections. But they are cheap and convenient, and return results in minutes. Real-time information, argued Dr. Michael Mina, the Harvard scientist, would be far better than the long delays clogging the testing pipeline.
The fast-and-frequent approach to testing has captured the attention of scientists and journalists around the world, and that of top officials at the Department of Health and Human Services.
But more than a dozen experts said that near-ubiquitous antigen testing, while intriguing in theory, may not be effective in practice. In addition to posing huge logistical hurdles, they said, the plan hinges on broad buy-in and compliance from people who have grown increasingly disillusioned with coronavirus testing. The aim also assumes that rapid tests can achieve their intended purpose.
We are open to thinking outside the box and coming up with new ways to handle this pandemic, said Esther Babady, the director of the clinical microbiology service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. But she said antigen tests that could work at home had yet to enter the market.
Also, no rigorous study has shown that fast and frequent testing is better than sensitive but slower in the real world, she said. The data for that is whats missing.
What has been put forth about the approach is largely aspirational, and we need to check it against reality, said Dr. Alexander McAdam, the director of the infectious diseases diagnostic laboratory at Boston Childrens Hospital and an author of a recent report on pandemic testing strategies in The Journal of Clinical Microbiology.
Most of the virus tests to date rely on a laboratory technique called PCR, long considered the gold standard because it can pick up even small amounts of genetic material from germs like the coronavirus.
But sputtering supply chains have compromised efforts to collect, ship and process samples for PCR tests, lengthening turnaround times. And the longer the wait, the less useful the result.
Chinese firms are testing vaccines on their own employees. One executive says its working.
A Chinese pharmaceutical company, which has tested coronavirus vaccines on its own employees, said the workers traveled to countries with large outbreaks without becoming infected.
Zhou Song, the general counsel of the vaccine manufacturer Sinopharm, suggested on Sunday that the vaccines, which are still in the final stages of testing, might be effective in controlling the virus. But it will be months before any final conclusions can be drawn, and the employee data cannot be used to obtain regulatory approvals.
Under an emergency use program approved by the Chinese government in July, a broad array of people considered to be at high risk of virus exposure, including border officials, soldiers, medical personnel and employees of state-owned companies, are allowed to receive unapproved coronavirus vaccines outside of official clinical trials. Chinese vaccine makers are also conducting clinical trials according to normal regulatory processes in Brazil and other countries that unlike China have large, active outbreaks.
Mr. Zhou did not say to which countries the Sinopharm employees had traveled, or specify which vaccine they received. The state-owned company has two vaccines in Phase 3 trials.
It is also unclear whether the employees who received the vaccine had mingled with locals on their trips abroad, increasing their chances of exposure, or had been sequestered to their living quarters. If they avoided infection by keeping to themselves, that would not prove the vaccine works.
In an interview with eastday.com, a Shanghai-based news website, Mr. Zhou said that the absence of infections among inoculated employees was a remarkable thing.
He also said that none of the workers had shown any serious adverse reactions, and that if one is optimistic, the vaccines could be launched by the end of the year.
Separately, Sinovac, a Beijing-based company that also has a coronavirus vaccine in the last stage of testing, said that almost all of its employees and their family members around 3,000 people had been vaccinated on a voluntary basis under the emergency use program, The South China Morning Post reported on Sunday. Yin Weidong, the chief executive of Sinovac, said he expected the vaccine to be approved for use as soon as the end of the year.
Since the coronavirus pandemic started, public health officials in the United States have faced harassment and death threats, and some have even been driven from office. Now a university deeply involved in studying the virus has warned hundreds of its researchers to be on the lookout for dangerous packages.
Last Monday, the University of Washington, based in Seattle, sent an email to about 500 of its researchers telling them to be wary of suspicious packages and saying that virus researchers elsewhere had been targeted.
We have received unfortunate reports from our contacts at the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) that threatening mail has been sent to COVID-19 researchers on the east coast of the United States, said the email, which was first reported by BuzzFeed News on Saturday.
The BuzzFeed News article quoted an F.B.I. spokesman saying that the bureau, along with our local law enforcement partners, responded to a suspicious package sent to a few university researchers and that preliminary testing has indicated there is no threat to public safety in connection with this mailing.
A University of Washington spokeswoman, Susan Gregg, provided a copy of the universitys email to The New York Times and said no suspicious packages had been reported so far.
The email warned researchers to be on the lookout for signs of suspicious mail, including an address with misspelled words, no return address, oily stains, discoloration or a strange odor. Any mail that raised concerns, the email said, should be left unopened and reported to the police by calling 911.
Research at the University of Washington includes 16 clinical studies related to the virus and a prominent but sometimes criticized forecasting model. The model estimated last week that Covid-19 would kill about 410,000 people in the United States by the end of the year, more than double the current death toll, drawing skepticism from experts who said predictions about the course of the pandemic months into the future are too uncertain to be useful.
The report of threats to researchers follows earlier signs of the risks faced by public health officials and others involved in the pandemic response. Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of President Trumps virus task force and the nations leading expert on infectious diseases, received additional security in April after threats, and he said the security was also expanded to his daughters. Local and state health officials have also been targeted by those challenging public health measures.
After earlier post-holiday spikes in cases, a warning for Labor Day weekend.
For many Americans, Labor Day is a goodbye to summer before children go back to school and cold weather arrives. But public health experts worry that in the midst of a pandemic, this weekend could result in disaster in the fall.
After the Memorial Day and Fourth of July weekends, cases of Covid-19 surged around the United States after people held family gatherings or congregated in large groups.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the countrys top infectious disease expert, said he wanted people to enjoy Labor Day weekend, but urged precautions.
You dont want to tell people on a holiday weekend that even outdoors is bad they will get completely discouraged, Dr. Fauci said. What we try to say is enjoy outdoors, but you can do it with safe spacing. You can be on a beach, and you dont have to be falling all over each other. You can be six, seven, eight, nine or 10 feet apart. You can go on a hike. You can go on a run. You can go on a picnic with a few people. You dont have to be in a crowd with 30, 40 or 50 people all breathing on each other.
In terms of daily case counts, the United States is in worse shape going into Labor Day weekend than it was for Memorial Day weekend. The nation now averages about 40,000 new confirmed cases per day, up from about 22,000 per day ahead of Memorial Day weekend.
Colleges are struggling to keep students from breaking safety protocols, and many have seen significant outbreaks, as have many college towns. ABC News posted a video on Twitter showing crowds at a sports bar near the University of South Carolina. The university, which disciplined some of its Greek houses last week, has reported more than 1,735 cases since Aug. 1, including 1,461 active cases, according to its Covid-19 dashboard.
Dr. Fauci said that a spike in infections after Labor Day would make it far harder to control the viruss spread in the fall, when cooler temperatures force more people indoors.
Public health experts said it was more challenging to persuade people to curtail their Labor Day weekend plans compared with past holiday weekends, because so many people are feeling pandemic fatigue after six months of restrictions, closures and separation.
People are getting tired of taking these precautions and of having their lives upended, said Eleanor J. Murray, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health. Theyre missing their friends and family, and everyone wishes things were back to normal. Thats totally understandable, but unfortunately we dont get a say, really.
Even so, there are signs that one pandemic precaution mask wearing has gained increasing acceptance over the summer. A Pew Research Center survey found that 85 percent of Americans said they wore masks all or most of the time when in stores or businesses, compared with 65 percent in June.
New York plans more post-mortem tests for the coronavirus and the flu to help increase death data accuracy.
With fall fast approaching, symptoms alone will not be useful in distinguishing the coronavirus from similar-looking cases of the flu. That means routinely testing for both viruses will be crucial even, perhaps, after some patients have died.
In New York, officials recently announced a ramp-up in post-mortem testing for the coronavirus as well as for the flu. Deaths linked to respiratory illnesses that were not confirmed before a person died are to be followed up with tests for both viruses within 48 hours, according to the new regulation.
These regulations will ensure we have the most accurate death data possible as we continue to manage Covid-19 while preparing for flu season, Dr. Howard Zucker, the states health commissioner, said in a statement last week.
Updated September 4, 2020
Deceased hospital patients and nursing home residents, as well as bodies in the care of funeral directors or medical examiners, will be among those targeted for follow-up testing.
These tests can help health officials track the prevalence of both types of infections, as well as indicate whether to warn close contacts of the deceased that they may need to quarantine.
People need to know who around them was sick, said Dr. Valerie Fitzhugh, a pathologist at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. If someone cant be tested in life, why not test them soon after death?
Putting regulations in place ahead of time will also encourage counties to bolster their testing readiness ahead of autumn and winter, when seasonal viruses like flu and respiratory syncytial virus, or R.S.V., tend to thrive, said Dr. Mary Fowkes, a pathologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.
In many parts of the United States, coronavirus cases are still ratcheting up every day and will become more difficult to track when similar sicknesses muddle the picture.
Children, please put on your rain suits.
With a number of schools in the United States opting for outdoor education over the potentially germier confines of their traditional indoor spaces, some outdoor-oriented companies are starting new product lines or repurposing existing ones to capitalize on how the pandemic has changed the education experience.
Demand for waterproof clothing and related gear has been overwhelming, said Sam Taylor, the chief executive of Oaki, a maker of a rain suit based in the Salt Lake City area. Mr. Taylor said demand for Oaki products had increased 60 percent this year.
Theres been a ton of research thats shown how productive being outside is, Mr. Taylor said. Theres no reason a little moisture or rain should stop that. If anything, that should be a positive if youve got the right gear.
Those searching for weatherproof supplies have also turned to Rite in the Rain, a century-old company based in Tacoma, Wash., that sells waterproof products including notebooks and printer paper.
Fifty percent of Rite in the Rains business comes from the government, mostly the military. But aside from pretty decent business with college bookstores, said Ryan McDonald, the companys director of marketing, it hadnt focused much on students until recently, with an increase in orders from elementary and high schools.
The coronavirus has thrived in Mexicos dense capital, Mexico City, which is home to nine million people, half of them poor. But while more than 11,000 have died, analysts say it could have been worse without the interventions of Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum.
Although she is one of President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obradors most trusted confidants, she has been careful to distance herself from him when possible when it comes to the virus. Mr. Lpez Obrador minimized the pandemic early on, questioning the science behind face masks and doing little testing. Seeking to avert economic pain, he has barely restricted travel.
Under his watch, Mexico has the fourth-highest coronavirus death toll worldwide.
As of Saturday, Mexico had recorded 67,326 coronavirus deaths, according to a Times database. But the health ministry also said that the country had recorded 122,765 more deaths than usual from the time the pandemic started until August, suggesting that its true toll could be much higher than reported.
1. Be responsible. Keep gatherings small, have them outside, wear a face mask when you're not eating or drinking, and stay 6 feet away from anyone outside your household whenever you have your mask off.
2. Ignore all those guidelines and repeat the same mistakes made during Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, which led to surges in new Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths and set the economy back even further.
But this holiday, the stakes are even higher.
"We go into Labor Day with 40,000 new cases a day -- much higher than we were at Memorial Day," said Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute.
"So I'm worried that any new surges will be potentially quite catastrophic."
Why Labor Day behavior is even more critical
Unlike on Memorial Day and Independence Day, Americans now face two major challenges that could either be hurt or helped by their behavior this holiday:
-- Getting students back in school safely and making sure they're able to stay in school. Both depend on how much coronavirus is spreading in the community.
-- The imminent flu season. The coronavirus pandemic coinciding with the flu season this fall could strain or max out hospital capacity -- which could mean reduced care for anyone else who needs to go the hospital.
"Particularly as we go on the other side of Labor Day and enter into the fall ... we don't want to go into that with another surge that we have to turn around again," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
What we learned after Fourth of July celebrations
"By the middle of June, we were pretty much at our nadir in terms of new Covid-19 cases. We are around 20,000 new cases (per day)," said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.
"And then after July Fourth, that's when things really started to rev up and accelerate to the point where we went up to 65,000, 70,000 new cases a day. And now we're back down to 40,000 cases," Hotez said Monday.
"Unfortunately, we're already at a much higher level than we were in the weeks before the July Fourth holiday. So I don't think it'll take much to really bring us back up to 70,000 new cases a day."
Some are letting their guard down
In San Francisco, an event celebrating Burning Man culture had more than 1,000 people packed together at Ocean Beach, Mayor London Breed said.
The gathering was "reckless and selfish," the mayor said, and city officials announced the parking lot at Ocean Beach would be closed.
And a "Sunday Funday" rooftop party was advertised with an image of people standing close together, some without masks. There was no mention of safety precautions in the ad.
Another official sees little chance of vaccine by Election Day
President Donald Trump again on Labor Day talked about possibly having a vaccine before Election Day, a timeline experts have cast doubt on.
And Monday, another federal official said that despite the President's positive statements, there's hardly any chance a vaccine will be available to Americans by November 3.
"I don't know any scientist involved in this effort who thinks we will be getting shots into arms any time before Election Day," said the official, who is familiar with Operation Warp Speed, the federal government's effort to develop coronavirus vaccines.
Several times the President has said a vaccine will come "very soon," and Monday he said it could come before a "special day."
But officials such as Moncef Slaoui, the chief adviser to Operation Warp Speed, and Dr. Larry Corey, who is leading a group set up by the National Institutes of Health to work on coronavirus vaccines, have said the odds of that happening are low.
More people should have worn masks, doctor says
As the United States wraps up the Labor Day weekend, 16 states are seeing the number of coronavirus cases growing by more than 10%.
Experts continue to call on the public to wash their hands, watch their distance and wear their masks.
"Maybe the greatest error in our pandemic response -- and we've had a panoply of errors -- is the failure to get the entire country to wear masks," Dr. Jonathan Reiner, CNN medical analyst and professor of medicine at George Washington University, told CNN's Erica Hill on Monday.
"When you look at countries where the mortality is a fraction of what it is in the United States, the common theme from the very beginning of the pandemic was universal masking," Reiner added.
Reiner said the US response to the coronavirus pandemic has been an "abysmal failure."
"The virus went all over the world," he said. "It didn't just come to the United States, but because of that panoply of errors and our failure to learn from our mistakes, our failure to get the country to social distance and to mask up has kept us in the realm of about 1,000 deaths per day."
The seven-day moving average of deaths compared to the previous week is rising in 15 states but falling in 22.
CNN's Elizabeth Cohen, Lauren Mascarenhas, Steve Almasy, Madeline Holcombe, Sandee LaMotte, James Froio and Micha Palmer contributed to this report.
The International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods (ICMSF) looked at the evidence that coronavirus might be carried on food or its packing and found very little.
"To date, there has not been any evidence that food, food packaging or food handling is a source or important transmission route for SARS-CoV-2 resulting in Covid-19," the organization said in a statement.
"There are no foods that should be considered a risk or warrant consideration as a vector for SARS-CoV-2."
While it is possible that people could eat something contaminated with the virus and become infected that way, it's never been seen to have happened, they said.
However, it is still prudent to emphasize good food hygiene practices, the group said.
While some countries have restricted food imports, tested imported products or asked companies to state their products are coronavirus-free, the ICMSF says none of this is necessary.
"The focus for food businesses should be on protecting food workers, consumers and restaurant patrons from becoming infected by person-to-person SARS-CoV-2 spread," they wrote.
When concerns over food contamination began
The concern over virus transmission via surfaces began in late March after a study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.
But the study did not account for other factors that could help to inactivate the virus, such as sunlight or disinfectants, or look at varying levels of virus, Lloyd-Smith said.
CNN's Sandee LaMotte contributed to this report.
