After such a volatile month of cases and deaths of COVID-19, the West Piedmont Health District has a rather quiet report this morning. There are 14 new cases and one new hospitalization -- but no new deaths. Henry County has 9 of those cases, Franklin County 3 and Martinsville and Patrick County 1 each. The new hospitalization is in Martinsville. But this has been a really bad month in the district. Since Aug. 1 two people have died every three days, as cases continued to surge and the death rate has increased from 13 dead on Aug.1 to 34 dead as of today. Meanwhile, the Henry County Jail has taken steps to curtail an outbreak among the inmates. Sheriff Lane Perry wouldn't say exactly how many, but he said "several" had been infected and that the outbreak was limited to two cells (which could mean more than 20 men). We also offer two personal perspectives again today on how students are learning from home and the problems there-in during the pandemic. A My Word by a teacher is insightful into how this has affected her work. Colleges and universities continue to be at the forefront of the case growth America. The University of Alabama has been hit particularly hard. The number of cases of the coronavirus worldwide have surpassed 25 million, which is, for perspective, more than the populations of Virginia and North Carolina combined. Deaths in the U.S. today could surpass 6 million.The Virginia Department of Health reportsthis morning there have been 119,747 cases and 2,569 deaths statewide -- only 1 new death since Saturday. Some 9,555 people have been hospitalized. Henry County has had 844 cases, with 91 hospitalizations and 16 deaths. Martinsville has had 326 cases, with 49 hospitalizations and 6 deaths. Patrick County has had 224 cases including 46 hospitalizations and 11 deaths. Franklin County has had 212 cases, 11 hospitalizations and 1 death. Danville has reported 604 cases, and Pittsylvania County has had 768.Johns Hopkins University's real-time mapshowed 25,039826,930 cases worldwide and 843,243 deaths. In the U.S. there are 5,962,057. There have been182,785 deaths in the U.S. because of COVID-19.
(183) updates to this series since Updated 6 hrs ago
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) Its only been a week and a half since college students returned to the University of South Dakota, but already there have been 212 cases of COVID-19 self-reported among students and employees.
Thats why the town of Vermillion made some changes to their normal operations.
On Thursday, all Vermillion bars and restaurants decided to close earlier than usual at 10 p.m., and those new hours are continuing through this weekend. The reason for this change is COVID-19.
Everyone came together as a group and after kind of seeing the numbers and seeing where kind of a concentrated area was going on, we all collectively got together and made a group decision of going, this is whats best for our community, Chad Grunewaldt said.
Grunewaldt owns the Old Lumber Company Bar and Grill. He says the goal of the temporary hours this weekend is to slow the spread of COVID-19.
It economically affects everyone so the more we can slow the spread and keep people in town, the better it is for our community as a whole, Grunewaldt said.
USD President Sheila Gestring hopes that students wont substitute those hours away from the bar for house parties.
Just take a few minutes, step back, settle down for the weekend, see if we cant slow this spread a little bit. And order some take out and support those businesses for making this sacrifice for the students and for the university, Gestring said.
Nate Welch, the President and CEO of the Vermillion Chamber and Development Company, says it was humbling to see the businesses in the city come together for that decision. He echoes Gestrings sentiments.
If you might not be affected and you feel its okay to go to these house parties or you go to places where theres a lot of people, try to help just hold back on that. Theres plenty of time for all of us to enjoy that once we get through it, but right now is just not the best time, Welch said.
USD also made some temporary changes on campus for this weekend. The Muenster University Center is not permitting indoor dining this weekend, outside visitors are not allowed in the residence halls and the Wellness Center is closed.
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PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) COVID-19 case numbers continue to climb on Sunday, after South Dakota reached new highs in the number of daily and active cases on Saturday.
VERMILLION, S.D. (KELO) Vermillion bars and restaurants are closing at 10 p.m. this weekend.
VERMILLION, S.D. (KELO) Vermillion is taking measures to help slow the spread, with the bars and restaurants of the city all coming together and making the decision to cut down hours this weekend.
Officials blasted the party in the letter, released days after the gathering when only one confirmed COVID-19 case among partygoers had been confirmed.
Not only did the number of people in attendance exceed the state limit on the number of people at a gathering, but attendees were not wearing masks or adhering to physical distancing guidelines, Michele C. Murray, dean of students, said in the letter.
The letter vowed that the students responsible for the party would be held accountable.
Hosting and attending a gathering of this size, in close quarters, with no masks, is highly irresponsible and violates our most important Holy Cross values of commitment and service to others, she said.
According to Bird, 20 other Holy Cross students linked to the party or in direct contact with partygoers have since contracted the virus. As of Friday, there were 5,803 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Worcester, according to the citys website. At least two other Worcester colleges have reported coronavirus cases in the past 30 days: four each at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Clark University.
In the wake of COVID-positive student cases at Holy Cross, the City has been working collaboratively with the College to identify those who have tested positive as well as those who need to be quarantined, city manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. said in an e-mailed statement to the Globe Sunday. The City intends to meet with College officials as soon as possible to discuss strategies to prevent the spread of the coronavirus on and off-campus.
A college spokesman did not provide details about the party, but said students have been reminded of their responsibilities to each other and to the greater community.
Any student who attended the party has been instructed to get tested and to quarantine themselves for 14 days. Any student who hosts a party will be held accountable under our student conduct policy, the spokesman, John Hill, said in an e-mail.
Hill did not provide information on how many students were told to isolate as a result of the party.
Holy Cross is a Jesuit liberal arts college founded in 1843 with just over 3,000 students , according to the schools website.
College officials spoke more strongly in their letter days after the event, warning students that such behavior jeopardized their presence on campus.
Put simply: We will not be able to welcome back the entire campus community, or even a larger cohort than we have this fall, if students cannot demonstrate the self-discipline, mutual respect, and care for others by following requirements to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The letter, also signed by the colleges director of health services and associate dean of students, said Holy Cross was terribly disappointed by the events of the past weekend. The students who took part in this event should be equally disappointed, officials said.
We can do better. We must do better, they said.
Lucas Phillips can be reached at lucas.phillips@globe.com.
Couples whose nuptials were put on hold by COVID-19 are turning to a fresh trend in the bridal industry: micro weddings. (July 29) AP Domestic
Images of packed beaches, lakes and bars have made the rounds on traditional and social media for much of the summer, drawing scorn from those concerned about the coronavirus spreading among those crowds.
Less prominent but also troubling are the growing instances of case clusters arising from smaller gatherings.
Contact tracing yields information about the sources of infections as the USA, by far the world leader in total COVID-19 cases and deaths, grapples with how to keep its population safe while propping up a flagging economy. More than 182,000 Americans have been killed by the disease.
The hasty reopening of businesses across much of the nation after the spring shutdown was largely blamed for a summer surge in infections, but social functions of various sizes among relatives, friends and co-workers may have been a contributing factor as well.
Public health experts soundthe alarm as the Labor Day weekend approaches.
People dont think of it in the same way as the (President) Trump rally in Tulsa, a bunch of people on the beach or in the bars, but these small events add up to a lot. Its just invisible,said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine at the University of California-San Francisco who specializes in infectious diseases.
Theres no generally accepted definition of whats a small gathering it may range from five to 30 people and the majority of these activities take place behind closed doors. That makes it difficult to garner hard data about them.
Double trouble: Coronavirus Watch: Evacuating from Hurricane Laura amid COVID-19
In late July, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said contact tracing revealed 44% of those testing positive for the virus in the state reported attending a family activity and 23% a house party, but the size of the events was not specified.
Students gather in a parking lot at a school in Austin, Texas, on April 5, 2020.(Photo: Jay Janner, Austin American-Statesman via USA TODAY Network)
Plenty of anecdotal evidence supports the notion that getting together with people outside the immediate household, even in fairly limited numbers, can lead to a rash of infections. Chin-Hong said several of the COVID-19 patients he treated believe they caught the virus at barbecues.
Weddings have been more troublesome, including a100-guest event in San Francisco in early July that resulted in at least 10 people contracting the virus, among them the bride and groom.
Smaller events, such asfamily, office and graduation parties, have yielded COVID-19 cases as well.
In Alabama, eight of 11 relatives who went to a lake house together in July tested positive for the coronavirus.
In the Washington, D.C., area, the host of abackyard dinner in June for about 25 came down with COVID-19, as did some of her guests.
And in Houston, seven members of a family that went out for a Fathers Day meal developed COVID-19.
Education issues: Chaos reigns in some schools with in-person learning. Many kidslearnat home
Small gatherings are a concern because theres so many of them. They may account for a much greater proportion of the cases than we think right now, said Dr. George Rutherford, a colleague of Chin-Hongs at UCSF and the principal investigator for Californias contact tracing program.
Rutherford emphasized the need for those planning to attend or host functions on Labor Day weekend to practice social distancing and wear masks as much as possible, but hes even more wary of what may be in store after Thanksgiving.
Extended families traditionally convene on that holiday, often after traveling from far away, and sit around for long stretches, be it eating or watching NFL games on TV. The dinners are almost always held indoors, wherelimited ventilation makes it easier to contract the virus.
Everybodys going to be there with their belts undone and the top button off their pants, snoring and laying without masks onwatching football in some tiny little den, Rutherford said. Its not a pretty picture. There could be a lot of transmission. And Christmas is going to be exactly the same. Its unfortunate, but this is not the year for family gatherings.
Given human nature, its nearly impossible to prevent them.
Thanksgiving dinners, usually a time of family rejoicing and reunions, could be the source of COVID-19 infections this year.(Photo: Getty Images / skynesher)
Matt Lambert, an emergency room physician based in Washington, D.C., said he would advise against any gatherings bigger than 25 people, small enough for the hosts to inquire about symptoms before the event.
Those seeking to congregate for special occasions could take extreme measures, like a couple Lambert heard of who held their wedding at a zoo, where the staff enforced distancing regulations.
Even then, its hard to keep people apart.
Loading up: Americans buyMace, RVs, bulk foods as COVID-19 pandemic drags on
Were not made that way, Lambert said. You get extended loved ones together, especially at a wedding, and theres going to be some hugging going on.
Lambert said he has treated patients who contracted the virus at a dinner with only eight participants, although he noted the party was held indoors and guests sat close to each other.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization posted guidelines for gatherings, and Chin-Hong said relatively safe barbecues can be held ifthe hosts and guests take precautions.
He pointed out that, besides mask usage, the main determinants of risk when people assemble are the size of the group, the type and duration of the activity, where its held (indoors or outdoors), whether alcohol is served, whether there is shouting or singing and how well participants know each other.
Chin-Hong suggested inviting no more than two or three groups, each from a single household, and having them stay in their own pods,at least 6 feet apart from the other participants. The event should be outdoors, hand sanitizer should be readily available, and either a host wearing a mask should serve the food, or the members of each pod could serve themselves while maintaining distance from the rest. Anybody using the bathroom should wear a mask.
Its fine to have a barbecue if you do it in a modest way and think about these risk aspects of keeping the pods apart from each other, Chin-Hong said. Im not against barbecues at all, but you can make it safer by not having a big event. Dont try to have a class reunion barbecue right now.
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Since classes started on August 19, 1,200 students at the University of Alabama have tested positive for the virus, the university system's website showed Saturday. Classes at the University of Dayton will continue online for at least two weeks after the school reported 116 case on Thursday and then another 148 on Friday, according to the university's website.
Providence College in Rhode Island has implemented policies to prevent the virus' spread, but 17 students have been placed on "interim suspension" for violating those measures, meaning they will not be allowed on campus or in classes until they attend a hearing, college spokesperson Steven Maurano told CNN Saturday.
"I am deeply disappointed by the selfish behavior of these students who defiantly chose to ignore our COVID-19 Code of Conduct," Fr. Kenneth R. Sicard, O.P., the college's president, said in a statement. "While I find no joy in having to endorse such strong sanctions, I know they are necessary if we are going to have a successful fall semester."
California surpasses 700,000 cases
California, which has more coronavirus cases than any other state, surpassed 700,000 cases on Saturday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The state has reported 12,894 deaths from the virus.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced this week that the state will implement a slower, more cautious approach to allowing businesses and activities to resume, after quick reopenings in the spring led to a dramatic rise in infections and deaths.
"We're going to be more stubborn this time, and have a mandatory wait time between moves," Newsom said Friday. "We didn't do that last time."
California saw a resurgence in cases in June, and Newsom began shutting down much of the economy for a second time. But in recent weeks, the average number of new daily cases has fallen, paving the way for a new reopening plan.
Part of going forward under coronavirus in the state will be a continued eviction moratorium, Newsom announced during a news conference Friday.
The existing moratorium -- accommodating millions of tenants who are at risk of eviction as well as landlords that are not able to pay their mortgages -- was set to expire September 1. Newsom did not provide details of the new agreement, but said he looked "forward to signing it very very shortly."
Louisiana worries about a drop in testing after Hurricane Laura
After part of his state was walloped by Hurricane Laura last week, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards is worried that the storm will lead to a decline in coronavirus testing in the state.
Southwest Louisiana has the highest ratio of positive tests and was hit the hardest by the hurricane, Edwards said at a news conference.
"We have tens of thousands of people from southwest Louisiana who are scattered all over the state taking shelter," Edwards said. "So we don't know exactly what this is going to look like" as far the spread of Covid-19, he added.
The governor said that 6,200 members of the National Guard were in the state assisting with recovery from the hurricane, but he was eager to get them back on the Covid-19 mission.
"Frankly we cannot afford to lose sight of our testing, because it was about three weeks ago that our schools came back. We have had students back on our college campuses," Edwards said. "So, this is a very bad week for us not to be doing robust testing."
Remdesivir extended to all hospitalized patients
This week brought hopeful news to those hospitalized with coronavirus.
The US Food and Drug Administration extended the emergency use authorization for a drug that has been shown to shorten recovery time for all patients hospitalized with coronavirus.
Remdesivir was originally authorized in May only for patients with severe infections who needed help breathing with extra oxygen or mechanical ventilation. But the emergency use now applies to a wider group of patients.
"The data show that this treatment has the potential to help even more hospitalized patients who are suffering from the effects of this devastating virus," FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said in a statement.
Coronavirus continues to impact sporting events
MLB said additional testing and contact tracing will be conducted.
The game was to slated to be played at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
A tennis player scheduled to play in this week's US Open has also tested positive for coronavirus and has withdrawn from the tournament, United States Tennis Association (USTA) announced Sunday.
The USTA revealed the player is asymptomatic and has "advised" the player to self-isolate for at least 10 days, according to a statement. In addition, the USTA has begun conducting contact tracing to determine if anyone else will need to "quarantine for 14 days."
The 2020 US Open is set to begin Monday at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.
CNN's Evan SImko-Bednarski, Hollie Silverman, Rob Frehse, Lauren Mascarenhas, Jon Passantino and Devon Sayers contributed to this report.
The more students who sign up, the more the university, which has also bought 27,000 thermometers and many thousands of masks, hopes it will be able to head off outbreaks.
If we have outbreaks of Covid, we will have to shut down and go digital, said Joyce Schroeder, a professor who heads the molecular and cellular biology department and helps lead the universitys contract tracing effort. They need to understand they want to be here and they can only do that if we dont have full outbreaks.
Melanie Furman, 19, a sophomore, said she was willing to sign on. Im a rule follower, she said, and I dont like getting sick. She said it was hard to predict how people would behave at parties that arent supposed to be happening anyway.
Versions of the app that do not bake in Dr. Masels extra algorithm have been introduced at the University of Alabama and the University of Virginia. Other colleges are exploring related technology developed by the M.I.T. Media Lab, said Ramesh Raskar, an associate professor at the lab.
Weve talked to about 50 colleges and universities, Dr. Raskar said, adding that the M.I.T. technology, called PathCheck, is being pilot tested by at least three schools: Vassar College, Southern Methodist University and Texas Christian University.
Updated Aug. 28, 2020
The latest on how schools are reopening amid the pandemic.
Dr. Raskar said colleges and universities were far ahead of local and state governments in adopting or experimenting with exposure-notification technology and other advanced tactics to fight the coronavirus.
All of them are trying different innovations, different ideas, home-brew solutions, he said.
He also cautioned that many well-intentioned experiments would probably not work. Some colleges are using systems that track and record the movement history of students through the badges that let them enter buildings. But if there is an outbreak, he said, that data might not sufficiently detail how close students were to a sick person, forcing the school to risk having to test too broadly.
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It might feel like the COVID-19 pandemic has been going on forever. But the disease caused by the novel coronavirus is still relatively new. Questions abound, and information from public officials is at times contradictory or confusing.
As the weeks and months push on, we want to know what questions you might have about COVID-19, and we want to help answer them.
Have a question of your own? Fill out the form at the bottom of this article.
The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, which reports all of the states COVID-19 data, recently changed the way it reports testing data.
Before, the department reported all of the test results it received each day on that day. Now, instead of displaying results based on the day the department received them, it is displaying them based on the day the tests were conducted.
Doing so better portrays when people are getting tested and smooths out day-to-day variability caused by lags in test completion, such as fewer tests being completed on weekends or labs that might have backlogs, according to the department.
Since COVID-19 tests can take a few days to return results, it looks like there were fewer tests conducted recently. But officials at the department say thats because they just dont have the results for the most recent tests yet.
The states health department sends out a recap of the previous weeks COVID-19 data every Wednesday, which helps paint a more specific picture of the pandemic in the 49th state.
In their most recent summary, Alaska health officials wrote that in March, many of the states cases were related to travel. In April and May, fewer Alaskans traveled but as more Alaskans have started to travel since June, more cases are now again tied to travel.
The most recent week saw 61% of Alaskas cases tied to secondary or community transmission. And, the largest increase in cases has been among people in their 20s and 30s.
The spread of COVID-19 among people at social gatherings, community events, churches and bars in addition to the spread of the virus within families has significantly contributed to Alaskas rising case counts, a previous report said.
Anchorage continues to see cases citywide, Anchorage Health Department medical officer Dr. Bruce Chandler said during a briefing on Aug. 21. He said Anchorage had identified infectious cases at a child care facility, an adult care facility, a shelter and an athletic team group residence, as well as cases involving employees at several local businesses.
Im sure there are others that havent come to our attention, Chandler said.
There are thousands of people who are still at a high risk for the virus in Anchorage. Plus, even if people have no symptoms at all, they can be highly infectious to others nearby, he said.
Seven people from Anchorage had died with COVID-19 in the past month, Chandler said Aug. 21 a number that has since risen.
I think some of those people would well be alive if wed done a better job of protecting them from the virus, Chandler said.
Inbound passengers Alex Koehler and Melissa Engelhardt listen to instructions from Marvell Robinson at the COVID-19 testing site in the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on July 17, 2020. (Emily Mesner / ADN)
For context: Alaska has changed its rules for incoming travelers. Since Aug. 11, nonresidents arriving into the state have been required to take a COVID-19 test before departing or pay $250 for a test at the airport.
So far, the state hasnt had to deal with someone refusing to get tested at the airport after arriving without proof of a test, according to Coleman Cutchins, clinical pharmacist and testing coordinator with the state.
But if people do refuse, the airport screeners will ask for their contact information so the state can come up with a plan, he said on an Aug. 20 call with reporters. If a person truly cannot afford a test, the state might find a way for the person to get tested for free and quarantine until they get their results, he said.
False positive test results showing that someone has the illness when they actually dont are not common in coronavirus testing. The test for the virus is highly specific, according to the states health department, meaning it almost never gives a false positive.
However, false negatives, which show that someone doesnt have the virus when they really do, can happen. This might happen if its too early in someones illness to detect COVID-19.
Jesse Guyer, left, and Callie Palmer, right, hike Little O'Malley Peak in Chugach State Park on Aug. 22, 2020. (Emily Mesner / ADN)
The states epidemiologist, Dr. Joe McLaughlin, uses Anchorages trail system, he said during a recent public video call. Navigating the outdoors comes down to personal choice, he said.
If someone tests positive for COVID-19, anyone who was within 6 feet of them for more than fifteen minutes is deemed a close contact, which means walking past someone on the trail doesnt fit that category.
Now, certainly, if the person is breathing hard and were to cough right on you, like give you a direct face shot of a cough, you might get exposed to COVID if theyre infected, McLaughlin said.
When hes out hiking, McLaughlin said, hell step off the trail, turn his head or will even hold his breath if he starts to get too close to someone.
But, if someone is at a higher risk for COVID-19, he said they should take more precautions.
Similarly, the states chief medical officer, Dr. Anne Zink, said her kids use the grumpy dog theory, meaning to stay away from people the way youd keep a grumpy dog away from people along trails. They often dive into the woods and go 6 feet off the trail, Zink said.
She also keeps a mask around for crowded trailheads and wears one if she goes blueberry picking by a trail where others might show up.
The coronavirus is most deadly if you are older and male new data reveal the risks Nature.com
The scary thing finally happened: someone caught the coronavirus twice and got sicker the second time around. A 25-year-old man in Nevada got COVID-19 in March, got better in April, and got sick again in May. He had worse symptoms on the second bout, bad enough that he had to be hospitalized.
Three other cases of confirmed reinfection were also reported this week: one in Hong Kong (the first documented case) and two in Europe. These dont necessarily make me any more worried about our vaccine prospects, though, and they dont mean the pandemic will go on forever. We have four documented cases of reinfection. But thats out of the 24 million cases of this disease so far, and rare shit happens. Most experts expected that wed see at least a few.
For months, there have been occasional, anecdotal reports of people testing positive for COVID-19 twice. None of those were proven to be reinfections. For most of those people, the second test probably picked up residual, dead virus that was still floating around in peoples noses and throats after their first infection.
In these reinfection cases, though, researchers actually analyzed the virus from the first time the people got sick and compared it to the virus from the second time they got sick. In each case, the two viruses had slightly different genetic sequences, showing that the second positive tests werent just leftover virus.
Heres the other important thing: in the Hong Kong case, the second infection caused no symptoms at all. That means his immune system probably recognized the virus from the first infection and kept it in check. We dont know why that didnt happen for the man in Nevada. He wasnt tested for antibodies the first time he got sick, so its possible that he just didnt make any. Thats the more encouraging option. The other possibility is that he had antibodies, but they made the infection worse (it happens with other viruses, like dengue).
Case studies only answer one question: can you catch COVID-19 twice? But thats about all they do. Mostly, they raise questions rather than answer them. How common is reinfection? How infectious are people if they get sick a second time? Are people who dont generate many antibodies the first time they contract the virus the only people who can catch it again?
The pandemic feels like its gone on for 1 million years, but in a more real way, the coronavirus has only existed in the human population for about nine months. Scientists have learned so much, so fast, but theres still a long way to go. The human immune system is weird and confusing, and its squaring off against a new, never-before-seen virus. Its going to take time to understand whats happening.
Oh, and the other thing this is a reminder that even if youve already had COVID-19, you still need to be careful.
Heres what else happened this week.
Biogen conference likely led to 20,000 COVID-19 cases in Boston area, researchers say
In February, before we knew the extent of COVID-19 in the US, 175 biotech executives gathered for a conference in Boston. At that meeting, the virus spread from attendee to attendee and the outbreak eventually led to tens of thousands of cases all around the world, according to one analysis. The study shows that even a small gathering can have wide-ranging, devastating ripple effects on the course of the pandemic. (Jonathan Saltzman / The Boston Globe)
Four scenarios on how we might develop immunity to Covid-19
Months into the pandemic, scientists still arent sure what happens to our immune systems after we recover from COVID-19. Most researchers think people will have some protection against the virus, but they still dont know what that protection will look like. Stat News broke down some of the possibilities. (Helen Branswell / Stat News)
FDA authorizes Abbotts fast $5 COVID-19 test
The Food and Drug Administration authorized a $5, 15-minute COVID-19 test that works like a pregnancy test: a nasal swab gets inserted into the bottom of a test card and a colored line appears if the sample is positive for the coronavirus. Its a big step forward, experts say. (Nicole Wetsman / The Verge)
Moderna Says Covid-19 Vaccine Shows Signs of Working in Older Adults
The drug company ran a small study testing their COVID-19 vaccine candidate in people over the age of 56, and it found they produced the same types of immune response that younger people did. This doesnt mean that theyre protected from infection with the coronavirus we still need data from much bigger trials to prove that. But it is a promising sign: older peoples immune systems are weaker than younger peoples, and vaccines sometimes dont work as well for them. (Peter Loftus / The Wall Street Journal)
What if the First Coronavirus Vaccines Arent the Best?
While companies like Moderna and Pfizer are racing to collect data on their COVID-19 vaccine candidates by the end of the year, dozens of other companies are moving at a slower pace. Theyre building their vaccines using different types of technology than the ones at the head of the pack, and some researchers think they may have more staying power. The first vaccines may not be the most effective, Ted Ross, the director of the Center for Vaccines and Immunology at the University of Georgia, told The New York Times. (Carl Zimmer / The New York Times)
What happened in Room 10?
Reporter Katie Engelhart investigated the deadly COVID-19 outbreak at the Life Care Center of Kirkland, Washington, the first virus hotspot in the United States. Something clearly went wrong but who was to blame?
Later, the story of the Life Care outbreak would be flattened by the ubiquitous metaphors of pandemic. People would say that COVID-19 hit like a bomb, or an earthquake, or a tidal wave. They would say it spread like wildfire. But inside the facility, it felt more like a spectral haunting. A nurse named Chelsey Earnest said that fighting COVID was like chasing the devil.
(Katie Engelhart / California Sunday)
Were Living The News: Student Journalists Are Owning The College Reopening Story
On college campuses around the country, student journalists are tirelessly documenting reopening plans and COVID-19 outbreaks. It takes a toll. We are scared because not only is this news that were writing about for other people to hear, were also hearing about it ourselves for the first time usually when were writing about it, Brandon Standley, managing editor at UNCs The Daily Tar Heel, told NPR.
(Elissa Nadworny and Lauren Migaki / NPR)
More than numbers
To the more than 24,775,245 people worldwide who have tested positive, may your road to recovery be smooth.
To the families and friends of the 837,908 people who have died worldwide 181,779 of those in the US your loved ones are not forgotten.
Stay safe, everyone.
Editors note: The Salt Lake Tribune is providing free access to critical stories about the coronavirus. Sign up for our Top Stories newsletter, sent to your inbox every weekday morning. To support journalism like this, please donate or become a subscriber.
With 458 new coronavirus cases reported on Saturday, Utahs rate of new cases went up slightly, as the states death toll from the virus remained at 407, the same as Friday.
For the past week, Utah has averaged 366 new positive test results per day, the Utah Department of Health said. Gov. Gary Herbert had said he wanted the state to get below 400 new cases per day by Sept. 1 and with just two days to go, new cases would need to continue to rise to miss that target.
Since public schools began opening on Aug. 13, there have been seven outbreaks in schools, affecting 54 patients with one new outbreak, eight new cases and one new hospitalization reported by the state health department in the past day.
The Uintah School District also announced on Saturday that a second confirmed case of COVID-19 had been confirmed at Discovery Elementary School. But it said contact tracing showed neither person contracted the virus at the school and the TriCounty Health Department had concluded the cases were not related.
Those who were in direct, prolonged contact with the two people have been notified, the school district said. State policy calls for students and staff who have been in close contact to stay home for 14 days.
A quarter of the slightly more than 200 COVID-19 cases reported in the region in Uintah, Duchesne and Daggett counties, and among members of the Ute Indian Tribe have been residents age 25 or younger, the TriCounty Health Department said.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 99 patients infected in 18 school outbreaks, with an average age of 18. Six of those patients have been hospitalized; none have died.
Hospitalizations did not change significantly on Saturday, with 119 Utah patients concurrently admitted, UDOH said. On average, 124 patients have been receiving treatment in Utah hospitals each day for the past week continuing a decline from the peak average of 211 patients hospitalized each day at the end of July.
In total, 3,057 patients have been hospitalized in Utah for COVID-19, up 16 from Friday.
Per population, the virus appears to be spreading the most rapidly in Utah County, where there have been, on average, 16.5 new cases a day per 100,000 people for the past week. Utah County is followed by Salt Lake County, at 13.3 new cases daily per 100,000 people, and then Summit County, where new cases are slowing after an August outbreak at a private party.
The virus also appears to be becoming more prevalent in Davis County, where the average number of new cases has risen from 25 per day to 36 per day over the past week and a half or from seven to 10 new cases daily, per 100,000 people.
Of 51,406 Utahns who have tested positive for COVID-19, 43,342 are considered recovered that is, they have survived for at least three weeks after being diagnosed.
