MinnPost provides updates on coronavirus in Minnesota Sunday through Friday. The information is published following a press phone call with members of the Walz administration or after the release of daily COVID-19 figures by the Minnesota Department of Health.
Here are the latest updates from August 28:
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Four more Minnesotans have died of COVID-19, the Minnesota Department of Health said Friday, for a total of 1,810.
Of the people whose deaths were announced Friday, three were in their 80s and one was in their 70s. Two of the 4 deaths announced Friday were among residents of long-term care facilities. Of the 1,810 COVID-19 deaths reported in Minnesota, 1,333 have been among residents of long-term care.
The current death toll only includes Minnesotans with lab-confirmed positive COVID-19 tests.
MDH also said Friday there have been 73,240 total confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Minnesota. The number of confirmed cases is up 850 from Thursdays count and is based on 16,319 new tests. You can find the seven-day positive case average here.
If you read Thursdays coronavirus update, you may remember that the case count was high because MDH added in tests from a provider that neglected to report on time.
Data fluke notwithstanding, officials are worried about recently increased case counts.
Many cases reported recently come from social gatherings a big wedding, big funerals, off-campus house parties and the like. The number of cases associated with Sturgis attendees is now at 46, and some secondary infections have been reported, some related to a wedding. Two Sturgis cases have been hospitalized, including one in the ICU.
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Since the start of the outbreak, 6,357 Minnesotans have been hospitalized and 301 are currently in the hospital, 137 in intensive care. You can find more information about Minnesotas current ICU usage and capacity here.
Of the 73,240 confirmed positive cases in Minnesota, 65,204 are believed to have recovered.
More information on cases can be found here.
Minnesota has signed up for a FEMA-administered program that will bring an extra $300 a week to people on unemployment.
The $300 per week payments will be retroactive to Aug. 1. The CARES Act supplemental benefits program, which provided an extra $600 per week, expired at the end of July.
The Star Tribune reports Minnesotans on unemployment could start seeing the extra payments by the end of next week or the following week, and DEED estimates the funds could be available for between five and eight weeks.
As we reported yesterday, the number of people on unemployment has declined faster than at any time since the pandemic in recent weeks, but is still very high.
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As college students go back to campus, coronavirus cases at colleges and universities are on the rise.
MDH said there were 254 COVID-19 cases among people associated with colleges or universities in Minnesota the week of Aug. 17, when students at some schools went back to campus.
Of those cases, 206 were students, 39 were staff. Thirty were living on campus.
Of 90 who were on campus while infectious, 62 were students and 24 were staff.
Fifty-one colleges in Minnesota had at least one reported case of COVID-19 in the last week, and seven schools had five or more cases.
MDH Infectious Disease Director Kris Ehresmann reiterated the importance of limiting spread; With nearly 200 colleges and universities in the state of Minnesota, theres a lot of potential new cases, she said.
This week, the CDC alarmed many public health officials by changing its testing guidelines and saying that asymptomatic contacts of COVID-19 cases no longer need be tested.
Ehresmann said the state is not changing its guidelines. She said testing close contacts of COVID-19 cases, even if they are asymptomatic, is critical for catching cases earlier.
Every case was once a contact, Ehresmann said.
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She also reminded Minnesotans that if they are contacts of known COVID-19 cases they should quarantine for 14 days even if they test negative. Because the incubation period for the novel coronavirus is 14 days, someone could test negative on day seven and still develop an infection inside that 14-day window.
Ehresmann acknowledged that 14-day quarantines can be a big burden on Minnesotans and their families, but said it is critical that residents follow guidance in order to slow the spread and keep places like schools open and communities safe.
Public health and safety officials will increase checks on bars and restaurants starting Friday to ensure they are following executive orders on safe operation during COVID-19, Ehresmanns said.
State agencies have received complaints from both customers and owners and operators of bars and restaurants about noncompliance with executive orders.
Ehresmann said most establishments are following guidelines, but its hard for them to compete or explain to customers why they are following the guidelines when other establishments arent. When bars and restaurants dont follow the guidelines, it has resulted in COVID-19 outbreaks.
Walz addressed the crackdown in a press conference Friday afternoon.
Some of these businesses, and its a small number of them, if they choose not to follow the best health guidance, they put all of the businesses at risk, they put all of our health at risk, Walz said.
He said that while the state is hovering at a positivity rate between 4.8 percent and 5 percent, We need to keep the lid on this.
In this environment, Walz said he had the choice to either tighten restrictions on bars and restaurants levels of openness or push for better adherence to health requirements.
MDHs coronavirus website: https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/index.html
Hotline, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.: 651-201-3920
And they come in a statistical joint last place with the British on whether their country has handled the pandemic well, the poll finds.
In the United States, fewer than two in 10 people (18%) said the country is more united now.
That's a full 21 percentage points below the next lowest-ranking countries, Germany and France, where just under four in 10 (39%) respondents expressed that opinion. Denmark had the highest percentage saying their country was more united now, with more than seven in 10 (72%) giving that answer.
As with so many questions these hyper-partisan days, there's a gigantic gap between Republican and Democratic views of whether the Trump administration has handled the pandemic well.
Three quarters (76%) of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said the government has done a good job. Only one quarter (25%) of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents agree.
The findings come from a Pew Research Center survey of 14 advanced economies in North America, Europe and Asia. The Washington, DC-based think tank interviewed 14,276 adults by telephone from June 10 to August 3.
A clear majority of people across the 14 countries said their own nation had handled Covid-19 well: 73% agreed, while 27% disagreed.
But in the United Kingdom and the United States, the figures were much lower: 46% and 47% respectively. They're the only two countries where a minority of people said the government had done well. In every other country polled, most people said their government had done well, from Japan with 55% up to Denmark with 95%.
The United States is not the only country where support for the government's coronavirus response broke along partisan lines -- the Pew survey detected the same pattern in the UK and in Spain.
Those results show it's not a matter of whether you're on the left or the right of the political spectrum that predicts whether you think your government has done well. The US and UK have right-leaning governments, while Spain has a left-leaning one. In each country, people with the same political bent as the government tend to say it's done well in the crisis.
John Curtice, one of Britain's leading polling experts, said that phenomenon is well understood by social scientists.
"Generally speaking, it doesn't matter what you're asking: the government in power is more likely to be seen well by people who voted for it than people who didn't," said Curtice, a professor at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.
But he pointed out that the findings do make it possible to compare how well each government is doing among its own supporters.
In Spain and the United States, about three-quarters of government supporters say their country has handled the coronavirus well -- but in the UK, the figure is just over half.
Pew Research Center research associate Kat Devlin pointed out that not all countries polled had a political divide over views of the government response, "especially in countries with high levels of overall satisfaction with how their nation has dealt with the COVID-19 outbreak."
"In Denmark, currently led by the center-left Social Democrats, and in Australia, whose leader Scott Morrison belongs to the center-right Liberal Party of Australia, at least nine-in-ten adults on both the political left and political right believe their country has done well against the coronavirus," Devlin, one of the report authors, told CNN by email.
Economic confidence is also linked to the belief the government is doing well. In all 14 countries in the survey, people who said the current economic situation is good were more likely to say the government was doing a good job on coronavirus.
Again, the US is the most extreme example of the trend: There's a 44-point gap between those who say the current economic situation is bad but the government is handling the crisis well (34%) and those who say the economic situation is good and the government is handling the crisis well (78%).
One possibly surprising area where the United States falls smack in the middle of the pack is on the question of whether more international cooperation would have reduced the number of coronavirus cases in their country. Across the whole 14-country survey, 59% of people said it would, while 36% said it would not. In the United States, 58% said more cooperation between countries would have helped and 37% said it would not.
Among other findings in the survey, women in every country are more likely than men to say their lives have changed because of the crisis, with a gap as high as 15 points in the United States, France and Sweden.
And perhaps most surprising of all, in Sweden -- which famously put almost no restrictions in place to stop the spread of the virus -- more than seven out of 10 people (71%) said their lives had changed a great deal as a result of the outbreak. That's the second highest percentage of any country in the survey, behind South Korea (81%), which put sweeping restrictions in place.
The Pew Research Center conducted nationally representative telephone surveys of adults in the United States, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the UK, Australia, Japan and South Korea.
The study was conducted only in countries where nationally representative telephone surveys are feasible.
"Due to the coronavirus outbreak, face-to-face interviewing is not currently possible in many parts of the world that we have previously included in our research," report co-author Devlin said. "We have surveyed in 12 of these nations virtually every year since 2016, and they represent some of the world's largest economies and traditional allies of the US."
A worker disinfects the inside of a bus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Transit agencies are taking new steps to reduce the risks for riders during the pandemic. Michael Tewelde/Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images hide caption
A worker disinfects the inside of a bus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Transit agencies are taking new steps to reduce the risks for riders during the pandemic.
Each week, we answer "frequently asked questions" about life during the coronavirus crisis. If you have a question you'd like us to consider for a future post, email us at goatsandsoda@npr.org with the subject line: "Weekly Coronavirus Questions."
Is it safe to take public transit?
It's one of those tricky COVID-19 things to navigate ... no pun intended.
On the one hand, data reveals that people are staying away from mass transit in huge numbers compared to before the novel coronavirus. In New York City, for instance, subway ridership is at just 20% of its 5.5 million weekday riders pre-pandemic.
Transit, a mobile app providing real-time public transit data, analyzed 139 transit agencies spanning 68 metro areas and 6 countries and found that demand for public transit has dropped 53% since the onset of the pandemic.
People are understandably worried about the risks of contagion and being trapped in an enclosed space for the duration of a trip.
But ridership is beginning to rebound. Since April, the Transit app data shows, the number of those taking public transit has slowly but steadily increased.
Plus, for many, like essential workers, stopping commuting wasn't a choice, as Stephen Morse, professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Medical Center points out.
"Many of us may have no alternative especially when it comes to essential workers, who, in New York, travel from various boroughs to work," says Morse. "There's no alternative to mass transit."
Unfortunately, few academic studies have systematically looked at the risk of mass transit although case studies from public health authorities in Paris, Austria and Tokyo have been unable to tie any group of outbreaks to rail lines or city public transportation.
Nonetheless, Morse and other public health specialists urge that mass transit be approached with caution.
Morse says that with all public transit buses, subways, trains there is always some risk of infection. After all, you are entering a public space. But he says it's possible to reduce that risk significantly by wearing a multi-layered mask and maintaining good hand hygiene in other words, doing the 20-to-30 second wash before and after.
Robyn Gershon, a clinical professor of epidemiology and public health disaster researcher who has studied the impact of COVID-19 on transit workers, says you can divide the safety of motorized transit options into tiers.
Safest is driving your own car, but of course, not everyone owns or can even afford a car.
Rideshare apps like Uber come next, but they're a little challenging in terms of evaluating risk, Gershon says. It's a good sign when your driver has put up panels that create a barrier between the front and back of the car, wears a mask and keeps the windows open to encourage ventilation and airflow. Such measures help reduce the risk of viral particle exchange between you and your driver.
Buses and subways represent the final and greatest tier of risk. Gershon says buses might pose even more potential risk, because it could be harder for passengers to maintain distance from each other while subways tend to have several cars on a train, offering a greater opportunity to stay 6 feet or more from others.
"I think you can prudently ride the subway if you're reasonably healthy and have no other risk factors," Gershon says. "But also, where are you going? to a bar? To your workplace? This also matters in terms of assessing risk."
Part of the reason Gershon and Morse feel more confident about the subway: Transit agencies around the world are taking impressive efforts to get squeaky clean.
Gershon gives the example of New York's MTA: "They started a very extensive and exhaustive program of deep cleaning those subways have been more clean than, like, forever," she says. "They shut them down every day from 2 to 5 a.m. to clean."
In addition, the New York subway system uses HVAC systems in each individual car, which turn over air quickly and filter out viral particles, Gershon says. That may aid in mitigating some of the risk associated with a respiratory disease.
These protective efforts are going on around the world. In Ethiopia, authorities have begun disinfecting public buses to reinstill confidence in transit. Hong Kong has successfully used a disinfection robot to spray bleach in train waiting areas. In Prague, authorities disinfect 10 to 12 trams a day with a deep cleaning. And Seoul has set up isolation rooms in case transit workers develop symptoms.
Meanwhile, transit agencies are taking other steps besides cleaning and mandating face masks. Some systems are increasing service to reduce overcrowding.
You can read more about steps taken by different transit authorities in this report from the International Association of Public Transport.
Wherever you are, if you're taking public transit, Gershon recommends wearing a mask with at least four layers for example, both a cloth and surgical mask and to avoid touching your cellphone or face once you board. (If you can't keep your hands off your phone, wipe it down with a sterile alcohol wipe and wash your hands with soap and water after disembarking.)
"The first thing to think about is: How are you going to protect your nose, mouth and eyes," Morse says. "The main concern is that you might pick up the virus from your fingers, whether [by touching] a floor, a pole on the subway, something you hold onto or an inanimate object" and then touch your face.
Another point to consider before riding: local rates of transmission.
"You should see: Are cases high or are they coming down?" Gershon says. She urges transit patrons to tailor their behaviors to regional trends.
"Quite frankly, I feel the subways [in New York] now are relatively safe," Gershon says. "It's definitely better than a bar where people are chewing or talking that's probably the riskiest thing right now."
Pranav Baskar is a freelance journalist and U.S. national born in Mumbai.
Another 22 coronavirus cases have been reported in Maine, health officials said Friday as a handful of college campuses where students are returning for the fall semester reported their first positive cases.
There have now been 4,436 cumulative coronavirus cases reported in Maine since the outbreak began here in March, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Thats up from 4,414 on Thursday.
Of those, 3,981 have been confirmed positive, while 455 were classified as probable cases, the Maine CDC reports.
On Friday, Bates College in Lewiston reported that a student had tested positive for the coronavirus, while the University of New England said a commuter student and employee at its Portland campus also tested positive.
In addition, an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maine at Farmington tested positive for COVID-19, making the campus the fourth one within the University of Maine System to have a positive test since students began moving back to campuses for the fall semester.
There are nine active cases across the system, with six at the flagship campus in Orono, one in Farmington, one at the University of Southern Maine, and one at the University of Maine School of Law in Portland. One University of Maine at Fort Kent student tested positive earlier this week, but has since been released from isolation.
The adjunct faculty member in Farmington was tested after returning to Maine from out of state through a primary care provider.
No new deaths were reported Friday, leaving the statewide death toll at 132. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60.
So far, 417 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Of those, 10 people are currently hospitalized, with six in critical care and one on a ventilator.
Meanwhile, 40 more people have recovered from the coronavirus, bringing total recoveries to 3,887. That means there are 417 active and probable cases in the state, which is down from 435 on Thursday.
Heres the latest on the coronavirus and its impact on Maine.
A coronavirus outbreak at the York County Jail that has been linked with an Aug. 7 wedding in the Millinocket area has grown to 54 cases, the county sheriff said Friday. Matthew Stone, BDN
As part of its comprehensive efforts to provide for a return to high school sports competition this season, the Maine Principals Association has recommended numerous new guidelines to help ensure the safety of the athletes, coaches, game personnel, officials and spectators during the COVID-19 pandemic. BDN Sports
Maine is still giving schools in every county the green light to reopen in person, but that green light comes with a caveat in Penobscot and York counties due to recent outbreaks and increasing case numbers. Matthew Stone, BDN
The state has reinstated the eating and lodging license of the Katahdin-region inn that hosted an Aug. 7 wedding reception now connected to at least 123 cases of COVID-19, after briefly suspending it this week following repeat health violations. On Friday, the owner of the Big Moose Inn, Laurie Cormier, acknowledged some of the violations in her first public comments since the outbreak was announced last week. Charles Eichacker, BDN
A man accused of stealing N95 masks intended for emergency responders while working at Bangor City Hall in late March and early April was indicted Thursday by the Penobscot County grand jury on two counts of theft by unauthorized taking. Judy Harrison, BDN
When the wedding guests had their temperatures taken at the door, their readings were normal. Some people who came from out of state brought proof that they had tested negative for the coronavirus. But the guests didnt wear face coverings or stay socially distanced during the Aug. 7 reception inside an inn on Millinocket Lake, and the venues dining areas were packed with 25 to 30 more people than its license allowed. Thats according to a state health inspectors report that contains new details about what happened during the now-infamous gathering that has been linked to 87 cases of COVID-19 and one death in what has quickly become Maines most sprawling outbreak of the disease. Charles Eichacker, BDN
As of Friday evening, the coronavirus has sickened 5,906,615 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 181,579 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would release modified reopening guidelines for counties in the state of California.
On Friday, he made good on that promise, revealing a new framework with four tiers with colors attached to them to indicate severity.
The governor described the new framework as simple, stringent and slow.
Case rates and test positivity rates will be the metrics that will determine movement within the tiers which, in terms of severity run from purple to red to orange to yellow. See chart below.
Those color-coded tiers now determine whether movie theaters in the state may open or must stay closed. Eighty-seven percent of the states population currently lives in purple-coded counties.
San Diego and San Francisco both are rated Substantial risk, which means that they can open indoor theaters with these modifications: 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer.
Related StoryCalifornia Coronavirus Update: Governor Gavin Newsom Reveals Stricter, 'Slower' COVID-19 Reopening Guidelines For Businesses And Schools
As for sports, concerts and amusement parks, Newsom said, Were still maintaining our current states as it relates to those large events, those large sporting events.
From the states new guidelines:
Widespread (purple)Movie theaters: Outdoor only with modificationsFamily entertainment centers: Outdoor only with modifications for activities like kart racing, mini golf, batting cages
Substantial (red)Movie theaters: Indoor with modificationsCapacity must be limited to 25% or 100 people, whichever is lessFamily entertainment centers: Outdoor only with modifications for activities like kart racing, mini golf, batting cages
Moderate (orange)Movie theaters: Indoor with modificationsCapacity must be limited to 50% or 200 people, whichever is lessFamily entertainment centers:Outdoor with modifications for activities like kart racing, mini golf, batting cagesIndoor with modifications for naturally distanced activities, like bowling alleys and climbing wallsCapacity must be limited to 25%
Minimal (yellow)Movie theaters: Indoor with modificationsCapacity must be limited to 50%Family entertainment centers: Outdoor with modifications for activities like kart racing, mini golf, batting cagesIndoor with modifications for naturally distanced activities, like bowling alleys and climbing wallsIndoor with modifications for activities with increased risk of proximity and mixing, like arcade games, ice and roller skating, and indoor playgrounds
The faces flicker across our screens, making a pitch in speech and song to voters who may or may not be listening. To document the national political conventions in this pandemic year, Damon Winter went into ordinary peoples homes in upstate New York and projected images from the live broadcasts across bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, basements wherever the residents typically watch or listen to the news. The photographs he took of these projections capture the strangeness of this years conventions, and how dramatically they differed from the events in a typical year.
Forced by Covid-19 to hold virtual events, the conventions downsized from arena-scale spectacles to meet the way we watch now: on living-room screens and browsers and smartphones, perpetually distracted and multitasking, quickly moved and easily enraged.
In doing so, both parties, to varying degrees, pulled off something that they had tried and failed to do ever since the conventions were first broadcast on the radio in 1924, and on television in 1948. It took nearly 100 years and a global pandemic, but the conventions messages finally matched the medium.
Change was overdue, for the placard-waving and speechifying format had changed little since the first conventions were held in the 1830s. Then, these gatherings were thrilling and consequential, essentially telescoping the entire modern presidential selection process from straw polls to caucuses to primaries to nomination into three or four days of raucous debate and furious backroom dealings. Conventions began with a crowd of candidates vying for the prize, and it usually took multiple ballots and an occasional all-nighter to reach a decision. In 1924, it took the Democrats 103 rounds of voting to settle on a nominee.
This made for irresistible political theater, so radio networks began exhaustive convention coverage. But broadcasting the conventions meant that the gatherings had two, not always compatible purposes: rally the faithful, and sell the candidate to the wider electorate.
When television took over in the 1950s, the conventions shouting, cavernous atmosphere was a mismatch to televisions intimate scale. And after 1970s-era party reforms assured that the nominee would nearly always be known before the convention, their drama disappeared. Modern conventions minted new political stars and produced some memorable television moments, yet they rarely changed minds or decided elections. Conventions are nothing but infomercials, critics grumbled, high on flash and empty of substance.
The 2020 conventions actually were infomercials, but strangely effective ones. They reflected the odd mashup of our current media moment, and more clearly communicated the essence of each party and its nominee than the traditional convention format.
First up came the Democrats. Television celebrities mixed with social media celebrities. Democratic stalwarts blended with disaffected Republicans. Gorgeously shot film clips contrasted with low-fi, gloriously earnest state roll calls. Traditional speeches were rare enough to make the viewer take notice. It was a Facebook-era convention, its pieces tidily packaged to go viral.
Freed from the convention hall, the Democrats staged moments that recalled some of the modern eras most powerful pieces of televised political theater. Michelle Obamas emotional exhortation to act and vote recalled the similarly intimate Checkers speech Richard Nixon delivered in the earliest days of network television, a personal talk that saved his vice presidential spot on the 1952 Republican ticket.
The sparse, quiet audiences before Kamala Harris and Joe Biden had the feel of the rapt group sitting before Ronald Reagan in 1964 as he delivered a televised address in support of Barry Goldwater that turned the actor into a conservative political star. And like the best scripted television, the event was character-driven, telling the story of a son of Scranton named Joe Biden, a good guy wholl protect you from the bad.
Republicans made Donald Trump the good-guy protagonist in this weeks television drama. It was to be expected that a seasoned reality star would pull out all the best hooks of the genre in his partys nominating convention: surprise appearances, plot twists, and the elevation of ordinary folks to celebrity status. No shock, either, that its nightly episodes brimmed with praise for the president.
More surprising was how much the G.O.P. stuck to the classics. Speaker after speaker appeared behind a podium sometimes prerecorded, often without a crowd. The red-meat messaging recalled past G.O.P. convention moments: Herbert Hoover decrying the collectivism of the New Deal in 1936, Nixon vowing to uphold law and order in 1968, Patrick Buchanans fiery exhortation to take back our culture in 1992.
President Trump also followed his predecessors in leaning into the advantages of incumbency, his convention rarely straying from monumental government settings. In the nineteenth century, incumbent presidents rarely engaged in campaigning and ran so-called Rose Garden campaigns by sticking to their official White House duties.
Trump went further, bringing the campaigning into the White House itself, culminating in his 70-minute acceptance speech on the South Lawn and a fireworks display blazing Trump on the National Mall.
With few masks in sight, Trump and his party as thoroughly dismissed the ongoing Covid-19 crisis as Herbert Hoover and the G.O.P. sidestepped mention of the Great Depression at their convention in 1932.
Yet the pandemic persists. So do many other things that pulled voter attention away from the conventions and back to real life. Brutality in Kenosha. The South awash in a hurricane and California on fire. The missed rent checks, the lost jobs, the closed schools.
With all these worries, will Americans even remember these images that flickered into our homes over the last two weeks? What else might happen to change our minds or alter our sense of political possibility? We wait and see, as we always have, one eye on the screen, the other on the future.
CLEVELAND, Ohio For the first time Friday, the Cuyahoga County Board of Health disclosed that at least eight suburban school districts have cases of the deadly coronavirus, but refused to identify the districts.
Health Commissioner Terry Allan cited privacy concerns Friday, when asked by cleveland.com for the names of the districts where he reported during a weekly briefing that a total of 19 students and four faculty are infected.
Allan also said his board is monitoring an unspecified number of additional cases, and again withheld the names of the districts.
All of the cases at the eight districts are related to sports activities, he said, adding that the board will continue to keep tabs on transmission among students and school staff as students head back to class this fall.
Last week, county health officials warned that some students were not cooperating with contact-tracing efforts because they didnt want to be barred from participating in extracurriculars and other school activities.
Asked on Friday whether that continues to be a problem, Allan said people generally cooperate with contact-tracers, but some exceptions exist.
The cases affecting students and faculty are among the 10,689 lab-confirmed or probable coronavirus cases reported in suburban Cuyahoga County since the pandemic began.
This week, the board reported 529 new cases, continuing a six-week downward trend from a mid-July weekly high of 919.
Of the 10,689 cases reported so far, 22% are among people between 20 and 29 years old, the age group with the highest number of cases. Forty-six percent of patients are white, 29% are Black, and 3% are Hispanic. People without preexisting conditions comprise 34% of cases to date, while 37% have preexisting cases. (Medical history is unknown for 30% of cases.)
The 32 coronavirus deaths among suburban residents this week more than doubled last weeks total of 14.
The positivity rate of tests conducted by Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth and University Hospitals was 4.3% this week, up from 4% the previous week. Board Medical Director Dr. Heidi Gullet said the board is pleased that rate has remained low in recent weeks, but noted the board is keeping an eye on whether it continues to remain at that level.
About 86% of intensive-care unit beds in Cuyahoga County hospitals are occupied, the highest rate since the pandemic began. But Gullet said only about 10% of those beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients, a percentage that she said has remained relatively steady over time.
A sign marks the entrance to Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.
Twenty-five students and five employees have tested positive for the coronavirus at Liberty University in Lynchburg, a school spokesman said.
On Thursday, when the Richmond Times-Dispatch surveyed the case counts at 41 colleges across the state, Liberty had not made its number of total positive cases public. On Friday, Liberty provided figures to The Times-Dispatch.
According to the spokesman, 16 Liberty students and staff have tested negative, 71 are awaiting the results of a test and 67 are currently in quarantine.
Approximately 8,000 students live on campus, 7,000 commute to campus for class, and there are roughly 5,000 faculty and staff. In-person classes resumed Monday.
Liberty is currently considering publishing updates on its website as many other schools in the state have done.
The spokesman couldn't say if Liberty required students to test negative before returning to campus housing, or if the school is continually testing a small segment of the student population, known as point prevalence testing, as other colleges have done.
At least 588 students, faculty and staff at four-year colleges in Virginia have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began.
ekolenich@timesdispatch.com
(804) 649-6109
Twitter: @EricKolenich
LinkedIn data shows the most in demand jobs right now. Andrew Seaman of LinkedIn weighs in.
A growing number of jobs lost due to the coronavirus pandemic are disappearing forever.
Anew analysis of payroll data published by Gusto found that less than half of furloughed employees have returned to work since March, and often for less money than they were earning pre-crisis.
The findings showthat only 37% of workers furloughed in March, and 47% of those laid off in April, returned to their jobs as of July. A quarter of the workers furloughed in March who were re-hired and went back to their jobs had their wages slashed by 10% or more.
Just 14% of workers whoreturned to work are earningthe same amount of money thatthey were previously making.
TRUMP'S $400 UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT LIKELY JUST $300 FOR MOST AMERICANS
Of the millions of workers furloughed between March, when the COVID-19 outbreak triggered an unprecedented shutdown of the nation's economy, and June, 22% have been permanently laid-off.
The Labor Department's July jobs report released at the beginning of August showed thatemployers added 1.8 million jobs last month, sending the unemployment rate down to 10.2%.
While it markedthe third consecutive month of job growth in the millions,the economy has so faradded back less than half --about 42%-- of the 22 million jobs it lost during the pandemic. Permanent losses reached 2.9 million in July, the report showed.
Another 1 million Americans filed for jobless benefits last week, the agency said Thursday, markingthe 22nd time in 23 weeks that the number of workers seeking jobless benefits topped amillion.
TRUMP'S UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT MAY ONLY LAST 3 WEEKS
Workers are also growing pessimistic about their odds of returning to work:Nearly half of Americans whose families experienced a layoffduring thepandemic think thejobloss will be permanent which could mean that roughly 10 million workers need to find a newemployer,according toan Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.
The renewed threat of permanentlayoffs is emerging just a few weeks after the extra $600 a week in employment benefits, part of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act passed in March, expired.
President Trump signed an executive action on Aug.8 partially restoring the federal aid at $300 a week. So far,34 stateshave been approved to offer the benefit. Only five have started to distribute it to laid-off workers.
The boosted aidwill last until the money in the fund runs out, or through Dec. 6, 2020, according to the executive memo. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budgetestimatesthe money will last for about five weeks.
The average state unemployment benefit is about$330 per week. With the federal supplement, Americans can expect to receive about $630in weekly unemployment benefits.
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Covid-19 is teaching everyone in medicine lessons about health care and public health. Mine have been up close, personal, and frightening.
One day I was a healthy 44-year-old doctor, CEO of a health care company, and a triathlete who was prepared to do another triathlon. Then I was a Covid-19 patient a few shallow breaths away from being put on a ventilator. A nurse saved me from that fate.
A journey that made me ponder new questions and opened my eyes to a new sense of purpose and perspective started innocuously enough. The soreness and aches began on a Monday night; a fever followed. I woke up Tuesday morning feeling awful. I got tested and it was official I was one of the thousands of new Covid-19 patients that day.
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By Friday, I was having trouble taking deep breaths. My pulse oximeter showed 95%. Not bad, but not normal for me that would have been 99% to 100%. Over the next two days, things got worse.
Sunday morning, six days after first feeling sick, I walked to the bathroom and felt a new sensation: I was winded and light-headed. My oxygen level was still 97%, but I was breathing much faster. As I sat on the edge of the bathtub, my respiratory rate was 18 breaths per minute (50% higher than usual) and my heart rate was 85 beats per minute (up from my baseline of 50).
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When you come from a family of doctors and lead a company of doctors, getting a second, third, and fourth opinion is easy. Everyone I reached had the same advice: Go to the hospital. Before we left, my wife, Stephanie, called family members, friends, and my colleagues at ChenMed and asked everyone to pray for me. We werent sure how things would turn out, and we needed as many people as possible appealing to a higher power on my behalf.
At the hospital, a CT scan showed Covid-19-related pneumonia in all parts of my lungs. I was given a dose of steroids (dexamethasone) to decrease Covid-19-related inflammation in my lungs, a shot of a blood thinner to prevent blood clots, and was then admitted.
The hospital was fantastic. I knew many of the doctors, including the chief medical officer and the chief of cardiology. They would walk by the window of my room, knock on the glass, then call my cell and reassure me I was in good hands.
Even so, I began feeling despondent. It didnt help that I kept feeling worse and worse. I felt like I was staring into a dark tunnel standing alone and worrying about myself, my wife and children, my parents, and my company. Sure, nurses would come in frequently, but only fully gowned for two minutes or less. Doctors would review my numbers and then call my phone to speak with me. I was alone, and I was lonely.
Nights were the worst. Thats when the fevers were highest and my breathing was most labored. I felt like I was wasting away: covered in sweat, unable to bathe or shower, tied down by a web of wires, lines, and tubes and trying desperately to breathe. I got an inkling of what my heart failure patients experience when they cannot breathe due to fluid buildup in their lungs and feel like they are drowning from the inside out.
I prayed for hope but feared the worst. I knew I was getting sicker, and had just heard that remdesivir, a promising antiviral drug, was in short supply. I was enrolled in a study to receive convalescent plasma the liquid portion of blood from someone who had recovered from Covid-19 which is filled with antibodies against the virus but was on the waiting list.
I knew that everyone was working tirelessly to stop my Covid-19 from progressing, but I was losing ground. Without a firm date for treatment, I felt sad and hopeless.
On Tuesday night, my ICU nurse was a 6-foot-tall woman from Jamaica named Helen, though Im pretty sure she had been a drill instructor in another life. If she wanted me to sit on the edge of the bed and I said no, we reached an understanding: I sat on the edge of the bed. Helen started her shift by changing my gown and sheets, then helped me take a chlorhexidine towel bath. Those small acts of kindness felt wonderful.
Despite having trouble breathing, I sometimes fell asleep. Then my breathing would slow and my blood oxygen level would drop to unsafe levels. Helen would open the door to my room and yell, Chris, cmon. Youve got to breathe. Breathe for me. I knew what she was doing: waking me up so I would breathe faster. When I took faster breaths, my blood oxygen would rise and the alarm attached to my pulse oximeter would stop chirping.
If I couldnt breathe on my own, I would be put on a ventilator and, if that happened, my chance of dying would skyrocket. I believe that Helen saved my life that night.
Around 3 a.m. she came into my room again. When I heard her voice, I immediately started to breathe faster. But this time she had a different message: Chris, your plasma has arrived, she told me. Im going to get it.
Are you sure? I asked, since the plasma wasnt supposed to get to the hospital for a few more days.
The blood bank just called, she replied.
All I could say was, Praise God. It was my first glimmer of hope.
I received the plasma as the shift was changing in the morning. I wanted to give Helen a hug or at least shake her hand, but the best I could do in the time of coronavirus was to say an emotional Thank you for getting me through last night as she headed home.
The following morning, my brother, who is a cardiologist, called and said remdesivir had been secured for me and I would get my first dose at 11 a.m. That afternoon, I began feeling better. I was able to sit in the chair next to my bed. I wondered if the plasma and remdesivir were working, or whether my body was finally fighting its way back.
I remained fever-free. When Saturday morning rolled around, my light-headedness had cleared. My breathing felt less labored and I was able to take deeper breaths. My aches were subsiding, and I felt stronger and more alert. I walked around my room without becoming short of breath. I was ready to go home.
As I was wheeled out of the ICU room, I looked around. When I arrived, half of the rooms all reserved for Covid-19 patients were empty. As I left, all of them were full and many of the occupants were on ventilators. I asked to stop for a moment so I could say a prayer for my brothers and sisters with Covid-19.
Stephanie and my oldest son were waiting outside the hospital in a carport reserved for Covid-19 patients. I was overcome with emotion. We hugged and held each other tight. For the first time since entering the ICU, I realized I would still get to be a husband, father, brother, and son, and would continue to lead ChenMed. I was overwhelmed.
As I write this, its been 20 days since I first started feeling sick, and I am still recovering. I still have questions, but they are far different than the ones I thought about when I was in the hospital.
Ive realized how nave I was about what it is like to be a patient. Coming out of medical training, critical care was one of my strongest skills. I conducted countless blood gasses, which means drawing blood from an artery to test for oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, but never had one done to me. Ive heard the constant din of hospital bells and alarms, but never from a hospital bed. Ive poked and prodded patients every few hours never knowing what it felt like. I knew that the jumble of cords and wires attached to my patients made it hard for them to move, and now feel foolish for suggesting that they Try and get some sleep. And I never could have imagined the feeling of being weighed down and immobilized by sensors and intravenous lines and other tubes.
The experience of being in an intensive care unit for Covid-19 is making me ponder a whole new set of issues: How can I be a better husband and father? How do I show appreciation for the amazing care that saved my life? How can I convince others of the severity of Covid-19? How can I help health care workers empathize with the pain and anguish of being hospitalized and alone so we all rise to the challenges caring for the patients we serve? How can I better lead ChenMed? And how does God want me to use what I learned?
Before this experience, I thought I knew a lot about Covid-19. I was wrong. But heres one thing I know for sure: If you havent been taking the risk of this pandemic seriously, you should start now.
When youre an ICU patient with Covid-19, it is like dying in solitary confinement.
Christopher Chen is a cardiologist and CEO of ChenMed, which focuses on providing primary care for seniors.
