With the coronavirus spreading, farms try to keep workers like these in Greenfield, Calif. safe through physical distancing and other measures but advocates for laborers say protections are often not adequate. Brent Stirton/Getty Images hide caption
With the coronavirus spreading, farms try to keep workers like these in Greenfield, Calif. safe through physical distancing and other measures but advocates for laborers say protections are often not adequate.
It's a busy time for the tomato-producing farms in eastern Tennessee. Farms have staffed up with hundreds of workers, most of whom are Latino. Some live locally. Others are migrant workers who travel from farm to farm, chasing the summer growing seasons. Still others come from Mexico or Central America on temporary agricultural visas to work at certain farms.
But, this year, the season is taking place under a cloud of coronavirus worries that, for these agricultural workers, hit close to home.
"Almost every part of the process for picking tomatoes needs to be considered in light of COVID-19," says Ken Silver, an associate professor of environmental health at East Tennessee State University, who studies migrant worker health on Tennessee tomato farms.
After all, the workers live in close quarters, sleeping in bunk beds, and sharing bathrooms and kitchens. They ride crowded buses to fields and often work in groups. And even though farm employees are deemed essential workers, they often don't have health insurance or paid sick leave.
Farms have already reported outbreaks among hundreds of workers in states that include California, Washington, Florida and Michigan. And yet, the federal government has not established any enforceable rules either to protect farmworkers from the coronavirus or to instruct employers what to do when their workers get sick. While migrant worker advocacy groups say this allows farms to take advantage of their workers and increase their risk of exposure to the coronavirus, farms say they're doing what they can to protect workers with the limited resources they have, while also getting their crops harvested.
The situation certainly isn't clear-cut, says Alexis Guild, director of health policy and programs at the advocacy group, Farmworker Justice.
"I do think some employers are putting in necessary protections," Guild says. But she has heard of workers who, after testing positive for COVID-19, were still required to work or were sent back to their countries an economic threat that creates a strong incentive for workers not to report mild symptoms. "I think it's hard to generalize. It really varies employer by employer."
Leaving it up to the farms
In June, 10 temporary workers out of about 80 at the Jones & Church Farms in Unicoi County, Tenn., tested positive for the coronavirus. Another farm in that county had 38 workers test positive around the same time.
"This was the scariest thing that could happen," says Renea Jones Rogers, the farm's food safety director.
Nationally, there have been at least 3,600 cases of farmworkers testing positive for COVID-19, according to media reports gathered by the National Center for Farmworker Health.
Add to this that farm employers and workers alike acknowledge that even the most basic interventions to stop transmission social distancing and mask-wearing often aren't feasible, especially in the hot temperatures.
Farm laborers arrive for their shift in Greenfield, California, April 28, 2020. Traveling to the fields in crowded buses is one risk among others that workers often face daily. Brent Stirton/Getty Images hide caption
Saul, 52, is a temporary farmworker who has traveled from Mexico to Virginia every year since 1996 to harvest tobacco. In a WhatsApp message interview, he said masks are uncomfortable on the job because he is working outdoors, writing in Spanish, "En el trabajo es incmodo porque trabajamos al intemperie." (Kaiser Health News is not publishing Saul's last name so that he won't be identified by his employer.)
Saul said he does worry about the coronavirus, but because he lives at his job on the farm, he feels safe.
When he arrived in the U.S. in April, the farm provided him with information about the pandemic, masks and hand sanitizer, he said. Nobody takes his temperature, but he works in a crew of eight, lives with only three other workers and nobody on the farm has yet been diagnosed with COVID-19.
In Tennessee, the Jones & Church Farms put its own worker safety protocols in place at the beginning of the season. These included increasing sanitation, taking daily temperature readings and keeping workers in groups so they live and work with the same people.
After the 10 workers tested positive for COVID-19, the farm kept them all in the same housing unit and away from the other workers but those who were asymptomatic also kept working in the fields, though they were able to stay away from others on the job, says Jones Rogers.
In June, 10 of about 80 temporary workers at Jones & Church Farms in Unicoi County, Tenn., tested positive for COVID-19. Nationally, at least 3,600 positive cases have been reported among farmworkers. Victoria Knight/ KHN hide caption
While the Department of Labor has not offered enforceable federal safety standards for COVID-19, it did collaborate with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to publish a set of voluntary, agriculture-specific guidelines. Those were released in June, just days after Jones & Church became aware of the farm's outbreak.
Much of what had already been done at Jones & Church, though, tracked closely with those recommendations, which also suggested that workers be screened every day for COVID-19 symptoms and that those who become sick be given their own space to recover apart from others.
Other suggestions in the CDC and Labor Department directive, geared more toward indoor food-processing factories such as tomato-packing plants, included installing plastic shields if 6 feet of distance isn't possible between workers, putting in hand-washing stations and providing personal protective equipment or cloth face coverings.
Advocates say these guidelines are sound, in theory. Their glaring flaw is that they are voluntary.
"We don't believe that the health and safety of workers should be left to the good will of employers," says Mara Perales Sanchez, communications coordinator for Centro de Los Derechos del Migrante, an advocacy group with offices in both Mexico and the U.S.
A Department of Labor spokesperson offered a different take. "Employers are and will continue to be responsible for providing a workplace free of known health and safety hazards," the spokesperson says, adding that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's preexisting general-safety standards and CDC guidelines are used to determine workplace safety violations. OSHA is an agency within the Labor Department.
Farm industry groups are apprehensive of any increased federal regulation.
"I don't think OSHA would be able to have some sort of mandatory regulation that wouldn't disadvantage some farmers," says Allison Crittenden, director of congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation.
Farms have already put many COVID-19 protections in place, she says, "and if these actions are taking place in a voluntary way, we don't see that we need to have a mandatory requirement."
Difficulties in accessing health care
Migrant farmworkers, despite occupying an essential link in the country's food supply chain, often aren't provided with workplace benefits like health insurance or paid sick leave.
Saul, the Virginia tobacco farmworker, says he didn't believe he has any health insurance. If he gets sick, he would need to tell his farm employer, who would then have to drive him to the doctor. The closest city to the farm is 15 miles away. Who is responsible for these costs the worker or the farm depends on individual circumstances.
Many farms employ mostly Latino workers, and CDC data illustrates that it's much more likely for Hispanic or Latino people to be infected, hospitalized or die from COVID complications than white people. Experts also warn that because the COVID pandemic is disproportionately affecting people of color, it could widen preexisting health disparities.
Fresh Harvest farm laborers harvest romaine lettuce on a machine with heavy plastic dividers that separate workers from each other in Greenfield, California, April 27, 2020. Brent Stirton/Getty Images hide caption
Also, seeking a doctor's care can feel risky for migrant farmworkers. Workers who are undocumented may worry about being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while workers who have green cards may be concerned about the Trump administration's "public charge rule." This controversial rule weighs immigrants' use of public programs, including health care, against their applications for citizenship. However, the federal government has said seeking treatment for COVID-19 wouldn't fall under the rule.
And while contact tracing is important to stop the spread of COVID-19 among farmworkers, many health departments don't have translators on staff who can speak Spanish or Indigenous Central American languages, nor has there been a systematic nationwide tracking of farmworker outbreaks thus far, as has been done with long-term care facilities outbreaks.
So "it's really hard to get a grasp on how many farmworkers specifically are testing positive," says Guild with Farmworker Justice.
That could be an issue for tracing outbreaks, especially as the harvesting season ramps up for certain crops and farms bolster their workforces.
At the end of July, almost 90 additional temporary workers arrived at Jones & Church Farms to help harvest tomatoes through October, says Jones Rogers. Though the 10 workers who had COVID-19 have recovered, she says she's scared that if more get the disease, there won't be enough housing to keep sick workers separate from others or enough healthy workers to harvest the crops.
"Tomatoes don't wait until everyone is feeling good to be harvested," says Jones Rogers.
Reporter Carmen Heredia Rodriguez and Katie Saviano provided Spanish translation assistance for this story.
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
If you want to speed up the flow of outdoor air into a room, you could also take a box fan, place it in a window and blast it outward, Dr. Jimenez said. When any amount of air leaves, that same amount of air returns its a fixed volume. Therefore, the fan should help pull in the same amount of outdoor air.
If you have air-conditioning in your home, no one is saying that you need to give up on it entirely. When its sweltering out, air-conditioning can be essential not only to help you function but also to avoid heatstroke.
But if you are going to spend time in a cooled space with other people, it may be worth understanding a bit more about the cool air you are breathing. Basically, all air-conditioning falls into one of three categories.
The unit cools both indoor and outdoor air.
The unit cools and recirculates only indoor air.
The unit relies entirely on pulling in outdoor air. (These are uncommon outside hospitals and labs.)
Centralized-air systems, such as those common in office buildings, dorms and some large apartment buildings, often fall in category one. Dr. Jimenez and other building scientists involved in coronavirus prevention are currently advising owners of businesses and buildings with category one systems to adjust the ratio to pull in more outdoor air, an enterprise that can be costly. Take a casino in Las Vegas, which is kept cool enough to keep people gambling inside while its 120 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Cooling that hot outdoor air will be more expensive than recirculating the already cool inside air. But given that keeping customers healthy is also a priority, more are willing to revisit their approach, Dr. Jimenez said.
Few of us have the ability to adjust our air-conditioning in this way. Most window units sitting with their rears facing the outdoors, for example, fall into category two. Instead of pulling in outdoor air, they are dumping heat from the room outdoors, said William Bahnfleth, a professor of architectural engineering at Penn States Institutes of Energy and the Environment.
If you live alone, or with people youre sure arent infectious, those units are fine. But if you give in to throwing that birthday dinner for your parents, or if your teenager has been less than strict about staying home, its worth remembering that any virus thats present will be mixed in to the recirculating indoor air, Dr. Jimenez said.
And so, if you have to have people over, it may be preferable to revert to rule one: When in doubt, open the windows. Or better yet, go outside.
So what do you do if youre stuck with a unit that primarily recirculates indoor air and its unrealistic to open the window? This is where filters come in. The right filter is just as effective as pulling in outside air, said Dr. Edward A. Nardell, a professor at Harvard Medical School who has written about the role that air-conditioning plays in spreading airborne diseases.
Executive Order on Fighting the Spread of COVID-19 by Providing Assistance to Renters and Homeowners Whitehouse.gov
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As Covid-19 cases continue to increase in developing countries, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has donated $150 million to the worlds largest vaccine manufacturer, Serum Institute of India, to provide up to 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to poorer nations priced at less than $3 a dose.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has donated $350 million to fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
Gates and his foundation have been the subject of multiple coronavirus-related conspiracy theories including that they intend to use a vaccine to implant tracking devices in billions of people that he and his foundation have denied.
Coronavirus has been spreading rapidly in developing and middle-income countries, including Brazil, India, South Africa, Mexico, Peru, Chile and Colombia, and epidemiologists think their cases numbers are underreported.
The foundation has now given a total of $350 million to speed up the development of treatments, vaccines and public health measures to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
The $150 million donation was made through Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, an organization that negotiates and finances vaccines for low-income and middle-income countries.
The money will allow Serum Institute of India to begin manufacturing vaccines from its partners, biopharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca and Novavax, so they will be readily available if they are approved, the institute said in a statement.
Gavi is co-leading COVAX, an initiative with the World Health Organization and the Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations that aims to deliver 2 billion doses of approved Covid-19 vaccines by the end of 2021.
Too many times weve seen the most vulnerable countries left at the back of the queue when it comes to new treatments, new diagnostics and new vaccines, Gavi CEO Dr. Seth Berkley said in a statement. With COVID-19 vaccines we want things to be different. If only the wealthiest countries in the world are protected, then international trade, commerce and society as a whole will continue to be hit hard as the pandemic continues to rage across the globe. This new collaboration is an important step in our efforts to prevent this from happening, helping to ensure we have additional manufacturing capacity to begin producing doses for every country, not just the wealthy few.
Researchers around the world are developing more than 165 vaccines against the coronavirus, according to a New York Times report, and 28 vaccines are in human trials. Although vaccines normally require years of research and testing before approval, scientists hope to produce a safe and effective vaccine by 2021. The Chinese company CanSino Biologics developed a vaccine that the Chinese military approved on June 25 for a year as a specially needed drug. Serum Institute of India has partnered with AstraZeneca and Novavax. UK-based AstraZeneca has promised to provide more than 2 billion doses of its vaccine worldwide, including 1 billion doses for low-income and middle-income countries, and has already agreed to sell it to the U.S. and Europe if the vaccine developed by University of Oxford researchers is approved. U.S.-based Novavax received $1.6 billion from the federal government to fund late-stage development of its experimental vaccine and announced positive results in its first preliminary trial in humans Tuesday.
Gates has advocated for pandemic preparedness for years and gave a TED talk in 2015 that warned of the death toll a worldwide pandemic could create.
28%. That is how many U.S. adults believed a debunked conspiracy theory suggesting Gates planned to use a potential vaccine for Covid-19 to implant microchips in billions of people to monitor their movements, according to a May Yahoo News/YouGov survey.
Up to 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to be made available for low- and middle-income countries as early as 2021 (Press Statement)
Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker (New York Times)
Serum Institute ties up with Bill Gates Foundation, Gavi to speed up Covid-19 vaccine manufacture process (Hindustan Times)
Bill Gates denies conspiracy theories that say he wants to use coronavirus vaccines to implant tracking devices (CNBC)
Novavax Stock Jumps 8.5% After Positive Early Results For Its Coronavirus Vaccine (Forbes)
Full coverage and live updates on the Coronavirus
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread rapidly and extensively to most countries in the world, resulting in considerable mortality in Europe and the United States, as well as in numerous upper-middle-income countries in South America and Asia. Experts predicted millions of COVID-19 deaths in Africa because many countries in the continent rank poorly on the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Index. However, more than 4 months after the first cases in Africa were detected, prevalence and mortality are still low. It remains unclear if Africa is really spared from substantial cases and deaths. However, differences between Africa and the most affected countries in reliable reporting and death registration, lockdown stringency, demography, sociocultural aspects, environmental exposures, genetics, and the immune system could help to explain the experience of COVID-19 in Africa.
Africa faces major health and socioeconomic challenges that should have allowed rapid transmission of COVID-19. These include a weak health system (per capita health expenditure of <$50 in most West African countries compared with >$2500 in Europe and the United States), population crowding, poverty, and unhygienic conditions (1). Population densities are very high in most African capital cities such as Dakar (12,617 persons/km2), Abidjan (11,155 persons/km2), or Lagos (13,909 persons/km2), whereas New York City has 7101 persons/km2. However, although community transmission was reported in many major African cities months ago, the predicted number of cases and deaths has not yet been observed (see the figure). Low case numbers are often attributed to insufficient testing. However, many African countries implemented testing early on, and, based on the Our World in Data database (2), more tests per the number of cases were carried out than in other countries at similar phases of the epidemic (see the figure). Regarding the number of deaths, few functional civil registration services and thus statistics exist on the continent, raising questions about the reliability of mortality data. Potential underreporting of COVID-19associated deaths would not be specific to Africa, but the margin of error could be wider. To date, African countries have not indicated acute health emergencies; however, reliable age-stratified data are needed to fully grasp the COVID-19 situation in Africa to allow appropriate measures to be taken.
Measures such as travel restrictions, curfews, and school closures were implemented early in Africa compared with other continents, often before an African country had detected a case (fig. S1). These early responses might have resulted in fewer imported cases and reduced intracountry transmission, allowing sufficient time to prepare the constrained health systems for diagnosis and to prepare strategies for quarantine, contact tracing, and social distancing on a continent that already has experience in such practices to control epidemics such as Lassa fever and Ebola. Although it is likely that the early lockdown in Africa contributed to the slow spread, containment measures are not fully respected in many countries. Most people work in the informal business sector, such as in traditional markets, making strict lockdown measures impossible to implement. Recently, some African governments have been pressured to relax lockdown measures, for example, to carry out congregational prayers in mosques in Senegal. It remains unknown whether relaxation of containment measures will result in increased cases or if other factors are at play.
The majority of COVID-19associated deaths occur in older people. Africa has a comparatively young population, with a median population age of 19.7 years for the continent versus 38.6 years for the United States. Africa's youthful population is reflected in the structure of age-stratified cases (fig. S2). Based on global age-specific case fatality rates for COVID-19 and the age demographics of Africa, COVID-19 deaths would be expected to be only four times (3), rather than the observed 40 times, lower than in Europe or the United States. However, no aggregated data on age-specific case or death rates are available for the continent. There is substantial intergenerational mixing in Africa, and, with more cases of subclinical infections in the young, it could be a matter of time before expansive numbers of cases and deaths are recorded. Alternatively, a more rapid development of herd immunity among the youthful population might lead to fewer severe cases. Data from antibody tests (serosurveys) should clarify if transmission was more widespread with a high rate of asymptomatic and mild cases in African countries than in other countries.
The genetic characteristics of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and human genetics may be among the reasons for low incidence of severe COVID-19 in Africa. Although the relative contribution from Africa to the SARS-CoV-2 GISAID (Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data) sequence database is small, the isolates found in Africa are representative of the different clades of SARS-CoV-2 found on other continents (fig. S3). Thus, it is unlikely that strains of SARS-CoV-2 in Africa have reduced virulence. Moreover, African-Americans constitute a disproportionate burden of deaths in the United States, so it seems unlikely that the lower mortality from COVID-19 in Africa is due to genetic factors. Nonetheless, the COVID Human Genetic Effort consortium aims to elucidate whether genetics can play a role in the patterns of disease worldwide.
SARS-CoV-2 infection leads to a heterogeneous outcome. About 80% of symptomatic cases are mild to moderate, whereas 20% can develop severe respiratory disease and display high rates of mortality (4). The development of an effective adaptive immune response can limit viral infection, whereas uncontrolled activation of innate immune cells leads to a cytokine storm and hyperinflammation in the lungs, ultimately leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and multiorgan failure (4, 5). Being able to suppress viral infection early or to temper excessive inflammatory responses are likely complementary mechanisms to prevent severe disease.
Most convalescent symptomatic COVID-19 patients develop virus-specific neutralizing antibodies as well as specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses (5). The efficiency and adequacy of these adaptive responses to clear viral infections depends on multiple factors, including past or concurrent infections with other pathogens. For example, antibodies directed to the four human coronaviruses that cause common colds could cross-react and neutralize SARS-CoV-2 in humans (6), and preexisting cross-reactive T cells can be found in individuals that have not been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 (7), suggesting previous exposure to related human coronaviruses could generate immunological cross-reactivity (7).
There are considerable differences in environmental exposures in Africa, compared with Europe or the United States. Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs)such as cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and type 2 diabetesare risk factors for severe COVID-19. These environmentally and behaviorally driven conditions are increasingly recognized in urban centers in Africa, and most COVID-19 deaths in Africa have been in older people with NCDs. However, infectious diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and other respiratory infections or those caused by helminths (parasitic worms) are prevalent in Africa, but there is currently little information on whether, or how, these infections affect COVID-19 disease progression.
The distribution of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases and deaths per 1 million inhabitants per continent reveals surprisingly low rates in Africa (left). This is despite comparable levels of testing per confirmed cases across continents (right). The dotted lines show the number of tests performed per number of detected cases. Data are from European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control COVID-19 situation updates, United Nations World Population Prospects 2019, and Our World in Data (2).
It is increasingly recognized that the immune system is shaped not only by genetics but also by environmental factors, such as exposure to microorganisms and parasites. This educates the immune system to protect against invading pathogens not only specifically but also nonspecifically through, for example, trained immunity, which involves the reprogramming of innate cells that, on secondary encounter with a pathogen, can show a stronger response (8) or virtual memory (9). Virtual memory T cells (TVM cells) expand in response to cytokines such as helminth-induced interleukin-4 (IL-4), rather than through pathogen-specific antigens, leading to enhanced antiviral effector functions (9). Thus, it can be envisaged that TVM cells are more prevalent in people in Africa owing to the higher exposure to such pathogens. This could contribute to the control of SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, as postulated by the hygiene hypothesis, early and chronic exposure to pathogens leading to relentless immune cell activation in harsh environments induces a strong regulatory immune response to counteract excessive inflammation (10).
The ability to prevent excessive inflammation could be a critical parameter that is associated with COVID-19 outcome. Recent data suggest that inflammatory alveolar macrophages (AMs), which can arise from differentiation of recruited monocytes upon infection, are increased in the lungs of patients with severe COVID-19 (11). It is unclear whether these monocyte-derived AMs are an important source of the cytokine-release syndrome observed during SARS-CoV-2 infection or whether they are involved in the pathogenesis of ARDS. However, monocyte and macrophage inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-6, have been repeatedly observed to be a marker of severe COVID-19, and myeloid cells are thus likely to be associated with the hyperinflammation. Monocytes from African individuals with high exposure to pathogens can be less proinflammatory (12). Thus, their recruitment into the lungs might prevent high cytokine production and therefore lead to better outcomes of COVID-19. Moreover, the airway microbiota, as well as more distal gut microbiota, could play important roles in preventing or potentiating respiratory tract infections and modulating virus-induced inflammation, as has been shown for several respiratory viruses (13). The known variations in microbiota across geographical areas could thus also participate in modulating disease severity and should be studied.
Africa should be part of the roadmap for COVID-19 research. Although there are no available data on the immune responses in African COVID-19 patients, studies show clear differences in the activation, proinflammatory, and memory profiles of the immune cells not only in Africans versus Europeans but also among Africans with high and low exposure to microorganisms and parasites (14) (fig. S4). Does the difference in immunological profiles matter for the outcome of COVID-19 in Africa? This needs further investigation, and the pattern of COVID-19 in urban and rural Africa could be informative.
There are differences in opinion about whether the pattern of SARS-CoV-2 spread is different in Africa compared with that in the United States and Europe. So far, despite a paucity of data, it appears that the virus is spreading differently and potentially with an attenuated outcome in Africa. There has been limited testing of asymptomatic cases or of antibody titers. Therefore, it is unknown whether early interventions were successful in preventing transmission or whether there are differences in susceptibility between populations of different regions. Perhaps the COVID-19 pandemic can emphasize the need for widespread implementation of public health tools, such as high-quality data, accurate diagnostics for track and trace, good communication, and an effective vaccine. Early testing of vaccines in different regions of Africa is essential because the high degree of exposure to pathogens can limit some vaccine responses (15). The first COVID-19 vaccine testing is starting in South Africa (Ox1Cov-19 Vaccine VIDA-Trial), and others are planned. Hopefully, this will stimulate the full participation of Africa in research into the critical factors that hold the key to innovative solutions in the fight against the pandemic.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWines office said Thursday night that the governor tested negative for Covid-19, following an announcement earlier in the day that he had tested positive ahead of a scheduled meeting with President Trump in Cleveland.
The new finding came after a second round of testing Thursday afternoon. A more sensitive test looking for the genetic material of the virus that causes Covid-19 was administered to Mr. DeWine, his wife, Fran DeWine, and staff members. All tested negative, and the tests were run twice, the...
More hospitalizations and more cases of COVID-19 continue be the story in Southwest Virginia. There were 58 new cases today in the West Piedmont Health District, including nine hospitalizations (seven of those in Martinsville and one each in Henry and Patrick counties). The Virginia Department of Health announced this morning that the COVID-19 data numbers contain a significant increase because of a data backlog from earlier in the week. There were 2,015 new cases reported -- more than double the latest daily trend -- although only 18 new deaths. VDH said those figures include information that should have been reported on Wednesday and Thursday of this week as well as the regular numbers for Friday. Henry County reported 30 cases on Friday, Martinsville 17. Patrick County had eight and Franklin County had five. Patrick County School Board is having an emergency meeting this morning after a fourth member of the schools "community" tested positive. There are two other key effects we explore: high unemployment in Martinsville (although slightly declined in Henry and Patrick counties) and the ways churches are collecting without passing the plate at services. Meanwhile, a 7-year-old died in Georgia even as President Trump continues to say kids aren't affected by the virus. Talks about a new stimulus bill appear to be breaking down as the White House and Congressional representatives say they are far apart on structure.The Virginia Department of Health reportsthis morning there have been 97,882 cases and 2,317 deaths statewide. Some 8,281 people have been hospitalized. Henry County has had 573 cases, with 64 hospitalizations and 7 deaths. Martinsville has had 196 cases, with 34 hospitalizations and 3 deaths. Patrick County has had 134 cases including 29 hospitalizations and 4 deaths. Franklin County has had 168 cases, 7 hospitalizations and 1 death. Danville has reported 386 cases, and Pittsylvania County has had 418.Johns Hopkins University's real-time mapshowed 19,135,088 cases worldwide and 715,681 deaths. In the U.S. there are 4,884,985. There have been160,115 deaths in the U.S.
(190) updates to this series since Updated 8 hrs ago
The treatment being developed by the Infectious Disease Research Insitute aims to help hospitalized COVID-19 patients before they need a ventilator.
SEATTLE A Seattle nonprofit says early results are positive on a clinical trial for immunotherapy on COVID patients.
Dr. Corey Casper is the CEO of the Infectious Disease Research Institute, which started the trial earlier this year, and says the initial results are "promising."
"The goal is to administer this immune therapy to patients who are not yet needing that intensive support, but are in the hospital and prevent them from having to go on the ventilator. So the main outcomes we're looking at are how quickly they get over their COVID-19 disease, whether we can prevent them from needing this intensive care," said Casper on Thursday, who is also a clinical professor of global health at the University of Washington.
He's also been keeping a close eye on the COVID vaccine trials occuring around the country, and the globe, and say he's more positive today than just a few months ago.
"There are 172 vaccines that are being developed as of right now, probably more we don't even know about. But we think that adding these immune stimulants will be critical," Casper said. "But to my eye, when I look at those early phase results, what I see is that those vaccines allow for immune responses that are about equal to people who have recovered from COVID. Generally when we make a vaccine we'd like to see responses that are much better than people who recovered from the disease."
He says that could mean a vaccine may involve multiple doses.
"I think that there are probably a number of different vaccines that could work, and many of them may require repeat doses of that vaccine," Casper said.
He remains hopeful that there could be a solution by the first quarter of next year, but even so, it will take even longer for broader access.
"We've taken a lot of shots on goal, we've had a lot of misses," he said, "But you know, I'm a big fan of soccer. And, you know, it's like the penalty kick. So you kick a lot of balls in and you know, the goalie blocks a lot of them out, but you just need a couple of good ones to win the game."
The Friday game is the Cardinals' eighth consecutive postponed game.
The postponed series means 10 consecutive games for the Cardinals, and there is no indication at all when they'll next play.
The Cubs-Cardinals game on Sunday was set to be the ESPN showcase.
Due to seven postponed games, the Cardinals were about to start a stretch of 55 games in 52 days. This postponement makes their schedule entirely uncertain.
Players converged on Busch Stadium from either traveling with the team from Milwuakee or joining the team out of the alternate-site camp in Springfield, Mo. The Cardinals added four players from the alternate-site camp Wednesday to the workouts. All of them had previously undergone regular testing and received negative tests before traveling to join the big-league roster.
On Friday, Major League Baseball and the players' union released the updated information on the ongoing testing of players and staff during the regular season. The leagues call this "monitoring testing."
There have been 13,043 test samples collected in the past week, and of that group 13 have tested positive. That includes seven players and six staff members. The Cardinals are the majority of those positive tests.
On four of the last seven days MLB has not had a new positive, and the Cardinals had three consecutive days of that.
As our state deals with the spread of covid-19 in the midst of a global outbreak, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette will publish five things you need to know each week. Well be publishing these round-ups in English, Spanish and Marshallese. You can read our full coverage at nwaonline.com/coronavirus/. Coronavirus coverage pertaining to crucial public health information will be available for all readers.
Arkansas has confirmed 47,028 total cases of covid-19 since the pandemic began, according to data posted in the morning, Aug. 7. State health officials also have reported 515 total deaths and 39,555 recoveries.
State health officials on Aug. 6 encouraged Arkansans to get their flu vaccinations in order to avoid the possibility of getting the flu and covid-19 at the same time and to keep from overwhelming hospitals. Flu vaccinations will be available through the Arkansas Department of Health at drive-through locations and schools next month.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Aug. 5 that K-12 schools would be required to have in-person instruction five days per week. This meant districts like Fayetteville and North Little Rock that had planned on split schedules or fewer days on-campus for students had to change plans.
High school football teams began practicing with helmets Aug. 3. Hutchinson said July 31 that sports teams including football, volleyball and cheerleading, would be allowed to play in the fall.
A report from the White House coronavirus task force, dated Aug. 2, listed Arkansas as having 37 counties that are in the "red zone" based on their number of new cases the previous week and the percentage of tests that were positive. That was up from 32 counties. Hutchinson urged Arkansans to keep wearing masks and stay six feet apart from people outside their households when possible.
