NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) The Tennessee Department of Health hasconfirmed additional cases and deaths related to COVID-19 across the state on Saturday, August 15.
The total COVID-19 case count for Tennessee is now 131, 747 as of August 15, 2020 including 1,345 deaths, 5,813 hospitalizations and 92,100 recovered. [Percent positive for today is 7.76%.] pic.twitter.com/z1JEI3JgTc
Earlier Saturday, Metro Public Health Department officialsreported24,036 cases of COVID-19 in Davidson County.
During his bi-weekly news conference Thursday, Mayor John Cooper announced bars and limited-service restaurants in Nashville and Davidson County can reopen Monday with a maximum of 25 customers.
East Nashville House Party Investigation
Two men have been charged for their alleged roles in hosting an East Nashville house party attended by hundreds of people earlier this month. Videos circulated on social media showing the party on Fern Avenue held the night of Aug. 1, billed as The Fashion House, where hundreds of attendees appeared crammed together, with no masks in sight.
On Friday, the dentist arrested for his role in the party has entered a guilty plea, his attorney said.
On July 28, Governor Bill Leeannounced the State of Tennessees recommendations to reopen schools for the 2020-2021 school year.The governors plan for re-opening schoolsis getting criticized by some state leaders.
Last week, the Williamson County School district started the year with one of its campuses closed when it was scheduled to have students learning in-person.
Putnam County Schools released an update on August 7 regarding the first week of school during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Director of Schools Corby King, one student at Cookeville High School this week tested positive for COVID-19 and was in close contact with other students. Those students have been reportedly contacted and have been placed on a 14-day quarantine.
Coffee County Schools has moved to a hybrid schedule due to anincreasein active COVID-19 cases. The school board also announced mask requirements for all employees, students, and visitors starting on August 12.
On Monday, Rutherford County Schools announced two employees at Christiana Middle School tested positive for COVID-19, and the school would transition to all distance-learning starting the first day of school, August 13 through August 21.
In Davidson County, Metro Nashville Public School leaders discussed the challenges of making the safest plans for students and teachers during a board meeting on August 11. Metro will have virtual-learning through at least Labor Day.
Also on Tuesday, the Department of Education released anew online dashboardto help track a schools status on offering in-person learning, virtual learning, or a hybrid.
High School Sports
Gov. Lee announced Executive Order No. 55 would include Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association member schools in an exception to contact sports restrictions.He officially signed the order on July 31.
A day after Lees announcement, school leaders in Davidson sent out a letter to all schools in the countyasking to cancel all sports and extracurricular activities until after Labor Day.
On August 10, Cheatham County Central High School announced the football team had two confirmed COVID-19 cases. CCCHS has stopped football practices for now, and are scheduled to resume August 19.
College Sports
On Tuesday, the Big 10 and the Pac-12 became the first two Power Five conferences to postpone fall sports.
Later on Tuesday, both the SEC and ACC released statements announcing, as of now, their plans to stay on course with their current plans for the season.
Stay with News 2 for continuing coverage of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The North Dakota Department of Health Saturday morning has confirmed 123 new cases of COVID-19 in the state during testing August 14, bringing the total positives since testing began to 8,444.
The number of currently active COVID-19 cases in the state stands at 1,162 as of August 14.
Of the new cases, 18 were in Burleigh County and 5 were in Morton County. Both counties accounted for 18 percent of the new cases.
Williams County had 2, Stark County had 2 and Ward County had 9.
A total of 121 people have died so far in North Dakota as a result of COVID-19.
Of those, 101 are directly attributable to COVID-19 according to official death records. Another 6 deaths are where COVID-19 is not the primary cause of death. Eight death records are pending.
The health department reports 7,161 people are considered recovered from the 8,444 positive cases, an increase of 95 people from August 13.
This means there are actually 1,162 active COVID-19 cases in the state as of August 14.
Burleigh County has 271 active cases as of August 14, the most in the state and more than double the number of active cases in Cass County (90). Morton County has 114 active cases.
Burleigh and Morton counties together account for 33 percent of all active COVID-19 cases as of August 13.
Stark County has 128, Ward County has 52 and Williams County has 48 active cases.
According to state health department numbers (which have been revised several times for specific dates), the statewide active cases first peaked on May 21 at 672 active cases, then began falling until they hit a low of 213 on June 22.
After that, the statewide active cases have once again been trending upward.
According to the numbers, 84 percent of those who have tested positive for COVID-19 in North Dakota to date have recovered from the virus.
The number of people reported recovered from COVID-19 on August 14 (95) is lower than the number of new COVID-19 cases reported that day (123).
65 people are currently hospitalized due to COVID-19 as of August 14, a decrease of 10 from August 13. A total of 457 hospitalizations have been reported since data tracking began.
COVID-19 cases have been reported in all 53 of North Dakotas counties.
Cass County (3,117 cases) and Grand Forks County (775 cases) account for 46 percent of all positive North Dakota COVID-19 cases to date. Cass County alone accounts for 38 percent of all positive cases.
Burleigh County (1,344 cases) and Morton County (440 cases) together account for 21 percent of all positive COVID-19 cases to date.
Stark County is fifth with 375 cases.
Williams County has 301, Ward County has 263, Mountrail County has 151 and Stutsman County has 130 cases.
Other county numbers are availablehere.
A total of 178,145 unique individual tests have been conducted to date, with 169,701 coming back negative for COVID-19, or roughly a 4 percent cumulative positive rate.
While COVID-19 is seen as a virus that mostly impacts older people, in North Dakota, 58 percent of those testing positive for the virus are under 40.
Those in the 20 to 29 year age range have the most positive cases among those tested to date.
The health department is releasing test results daily around 11:00 a.m. The results cover all testing performed the previous day.
You can read more on the daily statistics as well as other COVID-19 information and resources at the North Dakota Department of Health websitehere.
There is a new death from COVID-19 in Patrick County. This fact was included in the morning's update from the Virginia Department of Health. No details have been released by the West Piedmont Health District. That's five deaths now in the county, one of the last in Virginia to have a positive test for the coronavirus. The county has had 176 cases now. Blue Ridge Therapy Connection, a senior-care facility at Stuart, had the recent large outbreak that sparked the rise of cases in the county. Across the district Saturday there were 19 new cases and one new hospitalization -- that also in Patrick County. Twelve of those new cases were in Henry County. U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith spoke to leaders in Martinsville on Friday, and he talked about the idea of the U.S. Postal Service and how it might be used in the 2020 election because so many want to avoid polling places because of the pandemic. He said President Trump's comments made him cringe. Meanwhile, health experts say in new guidance from the CDC for pediatricians that children make up more than 7% of all coronavirus cases in the U.S., and the rate of child cases has been "steadily increasing" since March. Back-to-school discussions continue in many states, most recently in Michigan.The Virginia Department of Health reportsthis morning there have been 105,750 cases and 2,381 deaths statewide -- an increase of 11. Some 8,701 people have been hospitalized. Henry County has had 672 cases, with 73 hospitalizations and 9 deaths. Martinsville has had 240 cases, with 38 hospitalizations and 3 deaths. Patrick County has had 176 cases including 36 hospitalizations and 5 deaths. Franklin County has had 182 cases, 8 hospitalizations and 1 death. Danville has reported 451 cases, and Pittsylvania County has had 560.Johns Hopkins University's real-time mapshowed 21,250,743 cases worldwide and 766,648 deaths. In the U.S. there are 5,314,814. There have been168,462 deaths in the U.S. because of COVID-19.
(176) updates to this series since Updated 9 hrs ago
The U.S. earlier this week recorded the most COVID-19 deaths in a single day since mid-May nearly 1,500.
Meanwhile, coronavirus cases in Illinois surpassed 200,000. In the Tri-County Area, the number of confirmed cases is rising and three deaths were reported this week.
"Our numbers are increasing and we need to do a lot more," Monica Hendrickson, administrator of the Peoria City/County Health Department, said Thursday during her weekly COVID-19 roundup on Facebook. "Overall weve seen an increase from one week of 480 new cases from our Tri-County."
While the Tri-County is seeing an average increase of about 69 new cases each day, hospitals remain well below capacity, with occupancy in non-ICU beds at about 4.3%, and ICU beds at about 11%, Hendrickson said.
New rules and funding for Illinois businesses
Gov. JB Pritzkers emergency rule enforcing mask wearing and social distancing would require businesses, schools and day care facilities to make efforts to ensure that patrons and employees wear face masks and practice social distancing.
Non-compliant businesses will first get a written warning before other punitive measures are instituted, including fines ranging from $75 to $2,500.
"We are working to understand what this means and what the implications are," Hendrickson said.
A number of Peoria-area businesses are getting grants through a program Pritzker touted during a tour of the state this week. The Business Interruption Grants program will distribute $46 million to 2,655 small businesses in 78 counties in Illinois.
The program is designed to help businesses that were overlooked by the federal PPP program. In the Tri-County Area, a number of eateries, salons and gyms received $10,000 or $20,000 grants.
Illness linked to COVID-19 affecting Illinois children
At least 24 children in Illinois have been diagnosed with a severe illness linked to COVID-19. A new federal report placed Illinois among the top seven states in the country for the number of cases, according to a Chicago Tribune article by Lisa Schencker.
Nationwide, 570 cases had been reported to the CDC as of July 29.
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome generally appears two to four weeks after the onset of COVID-19 in a child or adolescent, presenting with rash, fever, red eyes, swollen hands and feet, vomiting and abdominal pain.
According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, no children have died from the illness. It is disproportionately affecting minority populations.
Though children can get very sick and can require intensive care, they typically recover well, said Dr. Frank Belmonte, a physician at Advocate Childrens Hospital in Chicago who has treated about a dozen children with the syndrome.
Back-to-school plans
With teachers in Florida crafting their wills, according to a Florida Times-Union article by Emily Bloch, teachers in Peoria won an important battle this week.
Just before midnight on Monday, the board of Peoria Public Schools reversed an earlier decision to provide a hybrid plan for both in-school and remote learning amid a growing concern for teacher safety.
"It became apparent that the only way the hybrid plan was going to work was with flawless execution," said Board President Doug Shaw. "And human beings being human beings, flawless execution is too much to ask."
Only remote classes will be held in Peoria Public Schools, a decision which prompted administrators to give teachers a few more days to prepare for the start of the school year. School will be starting Aug. 24.
"This adjustment will allow all Peoria Public Schools stakeholders to be ready for Distance Learning to ensure our students will receive the best educational experience this school year," said Peoria Public Schools Superintendent Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat in a message sent to families.
Coronavirus news across the U.S.
A couple good things are happening around the nation.
The number of new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are decreasing in California, a state that has been particularly hard hit. And new jobless claims dropped to 963,000, the lowest in months, though that number would have been considered high before the pandemic.
But difficulties still remain. A bipartisan deal for a new coronavirus stimulus package has stalled, and the director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning about the next few months. Americans should continue to wear masks, socially distance and wash their hands to prevent an avalanche of illness, said Robert Redfield, director of the CDC.
"I'm not asking some of America to do it. We all have to do it," Redfield told WebMD. "Or this could be the worst fall from a public health perspective that we have ever had."
Information from USA TODAY, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, the Florida Times-Union and WebMD was used to compile this report.
Leslie Renken can be reached at 270-8503 or lrenken@pjstar.com. Follow her on Twitter.com/LeslieRenken, and subscribe to her on Facebook.com/leslie.renken.
A White House task force report warns that the coronavirus spread in Georgia is "widespread and expanding" and "strongly recommends" a statewide mask mandate, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which obtained the report.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp was to sign a new order Saturday that would allow local governments to mandate masks, but only on their publicly-owned property, not at private businesses.
"My new Executive Order will protect property rights for all hardworking Georgians," Kemp tweeted Friday.
Although Georgia remains without a statewide mask mandate, the governor on Saturday said residents are urged to wear face coverings and take other precautions.
Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
"To keep moving in the right direction, we are urging all Georgians to wear a mask, practice social distancing, wash their hands, and follow guidance" from the Georgia Department of Public Health, Kemp tweeted.
Let our news meet your inbox. The news and stories that matters, delivered weekday mornings.
The Aug. 9 task force report also urged leaders in Georgia to close down bars, night clubs and gyms in high-risk counties to help stop the viral spread, the Journal-Constitution reported.
The number of coronavirus cases in Georgia shot up to nearly 235,200 on Saturday, making it the fifth-highest after California, Florida, Texas and New York.
The rise in new cases has declined slightly over the past two weeks, but the state has seen an uptick in coronavirus deaths, according to an NBC News tally. Nearly 4,700 people in Georgia have been killed by the virus, according to state data.
Against this backdrop, the state reopened many of its schools for in-person learning. In Cherokee County, where students returned to school last week, there are now at least 110 confirmed coronavirus cases, resulting in over 1,600 students and staff in quarantine.
Georgia reported its youngest coronavirus fatality, a 7-year-old boy, as schools were reopening last week. On Saturday, a 15-year-old became the second-youngest person reported to have died from COVID-19 in the state. Both boys had no underlying health conditions, according to the state Department of Public Health.
Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics
More schools around the country are expected to reopen for in-person learning, while the national count of coronavirus cases has surpassed 5.3 million, with nearly 170,000 deaths.
In New York City, the nation's largest school district plans to reopen with a nurse in every school building.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday that the state recorded its lowest number of coronavirus hospitalizations since March 17. Hospitalizations have dropped to 523 in the state, Cuomo said.
New York confirmed 734 new coronavirus cases Friday, bringing its statewide total to 424,901, and reported just five new deaths.
Nicole Acevedo is a reporter for NBC News Digital. She reports, writes and produces stories for NBC Latino and NBCNews.com.
Should you get re-tested for the Covid-19 coronavirus after you have recovered from Covid-19? Well, ... [+] the CDC has some new guidance, sort of. (Photo by Robin Utrecht/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Oh no they didnt.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) didnt exactly say whether or how long you may remain immune to the Covid-19 coronavirus after recovering from an infection. But a new addition to the CDCs When to Quarantine web site did say something interesting:
People who have tested positive for COVID-19 do not need to quarantine or get tested again for up to 3 months as long as they do not develop symptoms again.
Hmm. Why wouldnt you need to quarantine or get tested again? Isnt re-infection with the virus a possibility? Or could you have that magical word that begins with the letter I and rhymes with the phrase hot dog eating community? In other words, is the CDC now suggesting that you may have immunity to the virus for up to three months after getting infected? Well, thats certainly one way of interpreting the statement. For example, here is a tweet response to this updated CDC guidance:
So looks like you dont have to go through that wonderful cotton-swab-way-up-your-nose experience for the three months after youve recovered from Covid-19, right? Maybe. Possibly. Perhaps. Read a little bit further on the CDC website, like one sentence further, and youll see the following:
People who develop symptoms again within 3 months of their first bout of COVID-19 may need to be tested again if there is no other cause identified for their symptoms.
So you may have immunity for up to three months, unless, of course, you dont have immunity for that long. Seems like that statement has the certainty of saying, I love you until, of course, someone else better comes along, right? Maybe, perhaps. Possibly. Well, not exactly.
Even though those on social media seemed to take the relatively new statements on the CDCs website (apparently these statement were added on August 3) as a statement about immunity, an August 14 CDC media release suggested otherwise. This release was entitled, Updated Isolation Guidance Does Not Imply Immunity to COVID-19. Here is what the release said: On August 3, 2020, CDC updated its isolation guidance based on the latest science about COVID-19 showing that people can continue to test positive for up to 3 months after diagnosis and not be infectious to others. The media release continued by saying, Contrary to media reporting today, this science does not imply a person is immune to reinfection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in the 3 months following infection.
So what does the updated guidance really mean? The CDC release added that The latest data simply suggests that retesting someone in the 3 months following initial infection is not necessary unless that person is exhibiting the symptoms of COVID-19 and the symptoms cannot be associated with another illness.
Looks like then the CDC didnt really make a statement about immunity to the Covid-19 coronavirus. This makes sense given the current state of the science. The answer to the big question of whether and how long you may develop immunity against the virus has been like taking a selfie while riding a roller coaster on a vibrating pillow: its still a moving target and unclear. As I have covered before for Forbes, scientists still dont know for sure how immunity against Covid-19 coronavirus may work. Are you immune after you recover from an infection? If so, how long may immunity last? Does everyone develop this kind of immunity? Will everyone have the same degree and duration of immunity? What does this mean for vaccine development? How many people are really wearing pants while on Zoom? So many questions are still unanswered.
Covid-19 virus antibody testing is different from testing for the presence of the virus. (Photo by ... [+] MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images)
Several studies have suggested that immunity may last for at least a few months. In a research letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine in July, a team from the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), led by Otto Yang, MD, a Professor of Medicine, described how they followed the antibody levels over time in a sample of 34 patients who had had mild Covid-19 coronavirus infections. Now 34 people isnt a lot of people unless you want to play charades on Zoom or are waiting in line for the bathroom. Nevertheless, the study did show that recorded blood levels of immunoglobulin G in this sample dropped fairly rapidly after recovery from a mild severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) infection. (You can say IgG instead of immunoglobulin G if you want to say it faster or are running from a tiger.) The average half-life for IgG in the blood was about 36 days, which meant that after about a month blood levels had dropped by roughly half. The research team followed each patient for an average of only 86 days so didnt report if patients still had IgG after three months.
As I have written before, IgG is the important antibody for longer term immunity. To remember this, think G for go as in the song Please Dont Go, by KC and the Sunshine Band. Thus, the UCLA study suggests that the antibody immune response may still be around after three months but may soon thereafter be gone baby gone.
Another piece of evidence is a pre-print article entitled SARS-CoV-2 infection induces robust, neutralizing antibody responses that are stable for at least three months posted on medRxiv. The title of this pre-print kind of gives away the conclusion of the study, sort of like renaming the movie Avengers: Infinity War with the title Large purple guy wears glove with bling and snaps fingers, making half of humanity disappear to set up a very lucrative sequel.
For this second study, a team from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City led by Carlos Cordon-Cardo, MD, PhD, a Professor of Pathology, Molecular and Cell Based Medicine, analyzed data from a database consisting of 19,860 people screened at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City for IgG against the SARS-CoV2. Over 90% of those who had experienced mild-to-moderate Covid-19 had measured IgG in their blood about three months after the infection. Moreover, these antibodies were able to neutralize the SARS-CoV-2 in test tubes. So, like the title of the pre-print said, you may have antibody protection against the virus for at least three months.
Keep in mind though that such a pre-print is not the same as a publication in a reputable scientific journal that has gone through peer-review. In other words, other real scientists havent had a chance to formally review the study, offer feedback, and suggest changes. The study is still in the hey look, this may be interesting phase and not the heres established scientific evidence phase. So take the results from any study posted on medRxiv with a ham, cheese, and egg biscuit full of salt for now.
Another thing to consider is that IgG levels dont exactly fit immunity to a T. The response provided by your immune system to the SARS-Cov2 in part can be a bit like a friends with benefits relationship. It can be quite complex with much more than what initially meets the eye. Your immune system can produce various types of lymphocytes to help with the immune response to an infection. These include B lymphocytes, which can secrete the aforementioned antibodies that are readily measurable by blood tests. However, other components, such as T cells or T lymphocytes, can be at work under the covers, so to speak. T cells have nothing to do with T-shirts but instead are cells that can help neutralize or kill viruses in different ways.
A study published in the journal Nature found T cells in people recovering from Covid-19 and that these T cells seemed to recognize the N-proteins in the SARS-Cov2. So even if antibodies were to disappear from your blood a few months after an infection, T cells could potentially hang around for longer and provide some defense against getting infected again.
The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) web page has some new guidance about Covid-19 ... [+] coronavirus testing and quarantine. (Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Thus, the CDCs current guidance is not surprising. The dearth of more definitive guidance may not feel very satisfying, but in the words of Wilson Phillips, hold on, the science is still emerging. Scientists need more time, resources, and funding to figure things out and gather more evidence. Its been only about six or seven missed haircuts since this completely new virus emerged.
For now, the CDC is trying to give you some respite to actions that could get out of control. In theory, you could keep testing yourself up the wazoo after recovering from an infection. (Figuratively, of course, and not literally. You shouldnt be testing your bottom for the SARS-CoV2.) After all, arent people in the White House getting tested each and every day for the Covid-19 coronavirus? The new CDC recommendation may give your nose a break. It may also keep you from quarantining constantly.
So, the CDC guidance may be more about practicing moderation than having strict definitive directions to follow to a T. The immune response, the situation, and in turn what you should do may still vary significantly from person-to-person and depend on how severe your infection happened to be. As Buffy sang to Big Bird on Sesame Street, different people, different ways. After all, maybe you dont have to worry so much about getting re-infected in the three months after youve recovered from Covid-19. That is, unless you actually do get re-infected.
Oregons count of coronavirus cases continue to climb with 412 new confirmed and presumptive cases, the Oregon Health Authority announced Saturday. The state has now eclipsed 23,000 total cases.
Where the new cases are by county: Baker (1), Benton (4), Clackamas (38), Clatsop (2), Columbia (3), Crook (1), Curry (2), Deschutes (10), Douglas (1), Hood River (1), Jackson (6), Jefferson (12), Josephine (2), Klamath (2), Lane (6), Lincoln (6), Linn (13), Malheur (25), Marion (75), Morrow (8), Multnomah (79), Polk (6), Umatilla (36), Union (1), Wallowa (1), Wasco (2), Washington (56), Yamhill (13).
New fatality: Oregons 386th COVID-19 death is a 71-year-old man in Jefferson County with underlying health conditions. He tested positive on August 6 and died on August 14, at St. Charles Bend Medical Center.
Whos in the hospital: The state Friday reported 167 Oregonians with confirmed coronavirus infections are currently in the hospital, up 11 from Thursday. Oregon remains well below its capacity, with hundreds of hospital beds and ventilators available. Updated hospitalization data was not released Saturday.
Since it began: Oregon has reported 23,018 confirmed or presumed infections and 386 deaths, among the lowest totals in the nation. To date, 461,861 Oregonians have been tested.
Brad Schmidt of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.
-- K. Rambo
krambo@oregonian.com
@k_rambo_
Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Find developments on the coronavirus pandemic and the plan for recovery in the U.S. and Washington state.
Where cases stand in Washington:
Many people who have recovered from COVID-19 are wondering if they're now immune to the virus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added a new passage to its website that gave those patients hope, but some doctors are urging caution.
The two-sentence blurb, which made national headlines on Friday, provides guidance for when to quarantine after possible COVID exposure.
"People who have tested positive for COVID-19 do not need to quarantine or get tested again for up to 3 months as long as they do not develop symptoms again, the CDC states.
The Food and Drug Administration announced Saturday that the agency has issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for a saliva-based coronavirus test developed by Yale University. The test, funded by the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association, is being touted as a "game changer" by health officials.
The FDA issued the EUA to Yale's School of Public Health for the SalivaDirect COVID-19 diagnostic test, which uses a new method that processes samples of saliva.
FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn, M.D. saidin a release, Providing this type of flexibility for processing saliva samples to test for COVID-19 infection is groundbreaking in terms of efficiency and avoiding shortages of crucial test components like reagents."
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has extended the moratorium on residential, nonprofit, and small business evictions through December 31 in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Mayor Durkan signed the executive order on Friday.
While the moratorium is in place, property owners may not issue termination notices or initiate an eviction action with the courts unless there is an "imminent threat to the health and safety of the community," according to a statement from city officials on Friday.
The spread of coronavirus has started to flatten, according to state health officials, who are attributing the plateau to mask use.
Case counts are plateauing or declining across age groups in King and Yakima counties, according to a new report. Pierce County cases also might be on the decline, according to the state.
However, that doesn't mean that people can let their guards down, according to state Secretary of Health John Wiesman.
Plateauing is not enough to keep this pandemic under control; we must transition to a state of sustained decline in new cases," he said.
The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) on Friday released a report that analyzes the risks of sending students back to school for in-person instruction in the fall versus remote learning.
The report by the Institute for Disease Modeling (IDM) measures the tradeoffs between minimizing COVID-19 related health risks and maximizing educational benefits for students.
Health officials do outline a plan that could put some of the youngest students back in the classroom for a limited amount of time during the week, on a rotating schedule with other students to help limit the spread of the virus.
A study by researchers in South Korea last month suggested that children between the ages of 10 and 19 spread the coronavirus more frequently than adults a widely reported finding that influenced the debate about the risks of reopening schools.
But additional data from the research team now calls that conclusion into question; its not clear who was infecting whom. The incident underscores the need to consider the preponderance of evidence, rather than any single study, when making decisions about childrens health or education, scientists said.
Some of the household members who appeared in the initial report to have been infected by older children in fact were exposed to the virus at the same time as the children. All of them may have been infected by contacts they shared.
The disclosure does not negate the overall message of that study, experts said: Children under age 10 do not spread the virus as much as adults do, and the ability to transmit seems to increase with age.
The most important point of the paper is that it clarifies the care with which we need to interpret individual studies, particularly of transmission of a virus where we know the dynamics are complex, said Dr. Alasdair Munro, clinical research fellow in pediatric infectious diseases at University Hospital Southampton in Britain.
The earlier study was not intended to demonstrate transmission from children to adults, only to describe contact tracing efforts in South Korea, said Dr. Young June Choe, assistant professor of social and preventive medicine at Hallym University College of Medicine and an author of both studies.
Most studies of childrens transmissibility have been observational and have not directly followed infected children as they spread the virus. The few studies to have done so are not directly comparable their methods, the policies regarding prevention, and the transmission levels in communities all vary widely.
Many studies have grouped together children of widely varying ages. Yet a 10-year-old is likely to be very different from a 20-year-old in terms of infection risk and transmission, as well as in type and level of social activity, Dr. Munro said.
The first study from South Korea did try to document transmission from children directly, but it grouped them in 10-year ranges. Tracing the contacts of 29 children aged 9 or younger, it found that the children were about half as likely as adults to spread the virus to others, consistent with other research.
But Dr. Choe and his colleagues reported an odd finding in the group of 124 children aged 10 to 19: They appeared significantly more likely than adults to spread the coronavirus. Experts told The Times at the time that the finding was likely to be a fluke.
The group of older children was not the same in both studies, but many appeared in both reports, Dr. Choe said. In the latest study, the researchers found only one undebatable case of transmission among older children, from a 16-year old girl, who had returned from Britain, to her 14-year-old sister.
The remaining 40 infected contacts of the older children could all be explained by a shared exposure.
The children with confirmed infections were isolated in hospitals or community treatment centers, and caregivers who had contact with them were required to wear masks, gloves, a full body suit and goggles. The low rate of transmission from older children observed here may not represent what happens in the real world.
The new report does suggest that older children are at least unlikely to transmit more than adults, said Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at the University of Florida, as had been originally claimed.
Theres no biological explanation for that, she said. It didnt make any sense to me. Over all, Dr. Dean added, Were not seeing a lot of real transmission from children.
But that may be because most studies have been too small to adequately distinguish between age groups, and because children have been kept at home, away from potential exposures.
Even if the risk of transmission from children is lower, they usually have contact with a great number of other people more so than the average adult. When schools reopen, these increased exposures create more opportunities to transmit the virus, which may counterbalance their lower propensity to transmit the virus.
Updated Aug. 14, 2020
The latest highlights as the first students return to U.S. schools.
Dr. Dean and other experts cautioned against interpreting the scientific evidence so far as saying that children under age 10 simply cannot spread the coronavirus.
But its not true to say that they do not transmit, said Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. You hear people say this, and its wrong.
All available evidence so far makes it clear that older children, particularly those closest to adulthood, may spread the virus as much as adults, he added.
Its indisputable that the highest risk of becoming infected and being detected as being infected is in older age groups, Dr. Hanage said. I think you have to be really careful before you decide to open high schools.
Conversations about reopening schools are complicated because so much depends on the level of community transmission and on socioeconomic factors, he and other experts said.
Schools can fuel the influenza viruss spread to a disproportionate degree, compared with restaurants, bars or places of worship. Children may drive those outbreaks, so closing schools during flu outbreaks makes sense, Dr. Hanage said.
But with the coronavirus, Dr. Hanage said, closing schools is not expected to provide more bang for the buck than closing other parts of society. Instead of reopening bars and restaurants along with schools, he said, schools should be prioritized, while bars and restaurants should be closed in order to reduce community transmission and make school reopenings possible.
Some vacation spots, salons and a range of other service providers are asking consumers to waive any legal claim they might have if they're sickened with Covid-19 while at the business.
Why we're seeing waivers for a disease
First, know that liability waivers for general injury are nothing new. Think of waivers you might have signed before playing sports or going indoor rock climbing, saying you won't sue if you get hurt.
Waivers for a communicable disease are more novel.
"As businesses are opening up, they're very concerned (that) people are going to contract coronavirus because of something (the business) did, or didn't do."
How much will these waivers really protect businesses?
Before this coronavirus, injury waivers could protect businesses somewhat, if they met certain criteria. With Covid-19, "we're in such uncharted waters ... it may be something unique for the court to interpret," Bell said.
Still, we can start by checking how courts have treated waivers before Covid-19:
Ordinary negligence, or gross negligence?
Liability waivers basically say that if a businesses does something negligent, and the person signing gets hurt, that person can't succeed in a liability suit.
Laws vary by state. But while a court might let a waiver protect a business for ordinary negligence, it generally won't for gross negligence or willful misconduct -- no matter what the waiver says, Bell said.
Bell says this is how ordinary negligence might look for Covid-19: A business disinfects its public spaces, but not as often as a government recommended. Or maybe it didn't enforce customers' social distancing as often as might be reasonable.
Maybe, if other factors are met, a coronavirus waiver would protect that business from a lawsuit, Bell said.
But gross negligence might be a gym boss knowing an employee was sick, but letting him work with clients anyway. A waiver may not protect that gym, regardless of what's on paper, Bell said.
Some states also may consider whether a waiver is generally against public policy -- that is, against the state's interest in the health and safety of its citizens, Bell said.
Is the language clear?
Courts also will weigh how easily understood the waiver is.
"The question is one of fairness: Are they clear and understandable," or "are they 48 pages of single-spaced legalese?" said Elie Honig, a CNN legal analyst and former federal and state prosecutor.
How free was the consumer to reject the service?
Courts generally will consider how realistically free a consumer was to turn down a service if they didn't want to sign a waiver, Honig said. A court might invalidate a waiver for a customer who didn't have much choice.
Compare two theoretical businesses asking consumers to sign waivers: a remote grocery store, or a gym.
The consumer may feel free to reject the gym's waiver, and therefore its services, and perhaps go elsewhere for a gym. That choice may be harder in the grocery scenario, and a court may frown on that, Honig said.
What if Congress passes a Covid-19 liability law?
Recently, Republicans in the US Senate have proposed sweeping, temporary protection against coronavirus liability lawsuits for businesses, schools, health care providers and nonprofits.
The proposal explicitly would not provide liability protections for those who engage in willful misconduct or gross negligence.
If it ever did pass, it might seem to negate the need for businesses to get consumers to sign waivers in the short term. But, "any business is probably still going to ask for waivers," Honig said.
"It's belt and suspenders" for the business, Honig said. "What if the (federal) law gets struck down?"
"I would say (as a business), good, that (federal law) looks like it protects me from negligence. But why not get a waiver, too? There's next to no downside."
Is there a difference between 'I assume all risks' and 'I waive my right to sue'?
The examples listed above say varying things. Some only include language about the consumer assuming all risk; some specifically say they waive their right to sue.
Essentially, both are saying the same thing, Bell and Honig said.
But, again, gross negligence generally would nullify the waiver, regardless of how it is written, Bell says.
An invalid waiver doesn't necessarily mean a winning lawsuit
Just as a waiver doesn't automatically mean a business is going to win in court, gross negligence doesn't necessarily mean a plaintiff is going to win a lawsuit for getting Covid-19, Bell said.
"You have to prove causation -- meaning that the establishment caused me to contract Covid," Bell said.
"That's a very steep mountain to climb, because you have to prove that you got it from there."
Coronavirus lawsuits might be more likely to succeed in cases involving confined environments like nursing homes or cruise ships, where someone might argue they couldn't go anywhere else, and therefore caught the disease nowhere else, Bell said.
What to consider before you sign
Here's what consumers should consider before signing a coronavirus waiver, according to Bell:
Read it carefully. "It should be in the kind of lay language you understand."
Inspect the business, see if they're enforcing public health guidelines, and don't sign if they're not.
"If they're not meeting the new normal you have to say to yourself, 'Am I really comfortable with this? If you're not ... walk out and go somewhere else."
CNN's Phil Mattingly contributed to this report.
