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The number of Utahns tested for COVID-19 surpassed 500,000 Saturday as the Department of Health reported 661 more cases and one additional death.
The state now has had a total of 37,623 cases and 274 deaths. The new death was a Davis County man, age 65 to 84, who lived in a long-term care facility.
The state saw a drop in the number of people in intensive care units at 79, down from 97 the day before. The last time there were that few COVID-19 patients in ICUs was July 9.
American Indians and Alaska Natives also had the highest mortality rate Saturday, with 29.1 per 100,000 population, slightly higher than Pacific Islanders and Native Hawaiians at 27.9. The statewide mortality rate was 8.7.
The overall seven-day average in Utah was 615 new cases per day, slightly up from Fridays average of 614. Gov. Gary Herbert has said he wants the states seven-day average to be below 500 new cases per day by Aug. 1.
For the past week, 9.2% of new tests came back positive, which is a slight increase from Fridays average of 9.1%.
Of 37,623 Utahns who have tested positive for COVID-19, 24,390 are considered recovered that is, they have survived for at least three weeks after being diagnosed.
TUPELO Officials in state government say they are increasingly wary of mounting COVID-19 case numbers in Northeast Mississippi.
In the first wave of COVID-19 that spread across the state in the spring, Northeast Mississippi never emerged as a hot spot, even as places like the Jackson-metro area, the Gulf Coast, the Delta and DeSoto County saw high transmission of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
But following the relaxation of closure orders and other measures designed to stem the time of COVID-19, a second wave of the disease continues to deepen in Mississippi, and the northeast region might soon find itself the target of orders the governor has imposed in other regions.
Lee County is on my list to watch, Gov. Tate Reeves said in a press conference last week in response to questions by the Daily Journal. Lee County is one that we are watching and monitoring very closely.
Mississippis Chief Health Office Dr. Thomas Dobbs made similar remarks at Friday afternoons press briefing.
The trajectory is certainly very worrisome, Dobbs said.
Dobbs noted that, until recently, the northeast region has fared relatively well. He fears, however, that an ongoing and widespread failure to abide by recommendations and orders regarding social gatherings will largely sweep COVID-19 throughout the state, even in areas that have previously seen relatively mild case numbers.
Bars have come in for much scrutiny as potential sites for COVID-19 spread among younger adults, but Dobbs said there are plenty of other social outlets for spread, even in the predominantly rural Northeast Mississippi.
Social stuff is killing us, he said. Its going to be a party, its going to be hanging out with friends. Funerals and churches, that sort of thing.
Tupelo Mayor Jason Shelton imposed a masking order in late June. The city of Oxford has done the same, and was in fact a leader in the region with respect to mandatory face coverings.
The Lee County Board of Supervisors has declined to impose a county-wide mask order, but has required that face coverings be worn inside county-owned buildings.
Early last week, Dobbs released a graphic on Twitter highlighting counties with rapid COVID growth.
The Northeast Mississippi counties included on the graphic were Alcorn, Lee, Marshall, Pontotoc, Prentiss and Tishomingo.
That graphic, which included data through July 20, indicated the doubling time of COVID-19 in those cases.
The doubling time in Alcorn was 11.6 days; in Lee, 16.5 days; in Marshall, 16.7 days; in Pontotoc, 17 days; in Prentiss, 10 days; and in Tishomingo, 12.8 days.
As of Sunday, July 19, Lee County had 768 total cases of COVID-19 cumulatively reported since the testing data began to be compiled. As of Saturday, a week later, Lee County had 968 reported cases. That is a one-week increase of 200.
In early July, leadership of North Mississippi Health Services reported that the record high for hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the NMHS system was 57. That number has since been exceeded, and as of Friday, NMHS reported 66 hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
The governor on Friday did list Calhoun County among a roster of new counties he will target with more stringent requirements, including a county-wide mask order.
Thus far, Reeves has consistently resisted calls for a statewide masking order. Instead, he has released orders targeting counties with high levels of COVID-19 spread. In those counties, Reeves has required face coverings and imposed limits on social gatherings that are more strict than elsewhere in the state.
Reeves said that if the trends dont change, Lee County could meet his criteria for a targeted set of restrictions sometime this coming week.
For the past two months, as winter descended on Chile, infectious-disease specialist Claudia Corts worked tirelessly to keep a wave of critically ill Covid-19 patients alive in the hospital where she works. At the same time, she worried about what would happen when the usual wave of influenza patients arrived.
They never came.
From Argentina...
Residents of an assisted living facility in The Villages and a Wildwood nursing home and six tri-county residents are the latest local victims of the COVID-19 virus.
One of the long-term care residents lived at Serenades in The Villages, located at 2450 Parr Drive, while the other was a resident of Cypress Care Center, located at 490 S. Old Wire Road in Wildwood. No other information about the two victims was provided Saturday by the Florida Department of Health.
Serenades Memory Care and Assisted Living is located on Parr Drive in The Villages.
Five of the area residents who died lived in Marion County, while the sixth was a resident of Sumter County. There were identified as:
Thirteen new cases were reported Saturday in The Villages, bringing the total number in the mega-retirement community to 353. Of those, 329 are in the Sumter County portion of the community, 22 are in Lake County and two are in the Marion County section of the sprawling retirement mecca.
Thirty-five new cases also were reported Saturday in communities just outside the confines of Floridas Friendliest Hometown. Those include:
Overall, the tri-county area is reporting 8,180 cases an increase of 244 from Friday to Saturday among 3,872 men, 4,172 women, 47 non-residents and 89 people listed as unknown. There have been 111 deaths and 634 people have been hospitalized.
Sumter County is now reporting 968 cases an increase of 27 among 528 men, 428 women, seven non-residents and five people listed as unknown. There have been 25 deaths and 137 people treated in area hospitals.
Bushnell now has 197 cases 127 of which are at the Sumter Correctional Institution among 103 inmates and 24 staff members. Others have been reported in Lake Panasoffkee (49), Webster (39), Coleman (33), Center Hill (29), Lady Lake portion of the county (24) and Sumterville (15). The federal prison in Coleman also is reporting 372 cases among 297 inmates and 75 staff members.
Lake County continues to lead the local area with 3,988 cases an increase of 98 in a 24-hour period. Those are comprised of 1,863 men, 2,033 women, 31 non-residents and 61 people listed as unknown. There have been 38 deaths and 188 people have been hospitalized.
Clermont continues to pace Lake County with 993 cases an increase of 26 overnight. Others have been identified in Tavares (520, 23 of which are at the Lake County Jail among one inmate, 20 staff members and two contracted nurses), Eustis (339), Groveland (277), Mount Dora (254), Mascotte (144), Minneola (112), Sorrento (106), Montverde (77), Umatilla (74), Grand Island (38), Howey-in-the-Hills (31), Astor (23), Astatula (20), Yalaha (17), Altoona (15), Paisley (13), Okahumpka (11), Ferndale (3) and Mount Plymouth (3).
Marion County now has 3,224 cases an increase of 119 among 1,481 men, 1,711 women, nine non-residents and 23 people listed as unknown. There have been 48 deaths and 309 people requiring some form of hospital care.
The overwhelming majority of Marion County cases 2,376 have been reported in Ocala, which saw an increase of 87 overnight. Others have been reported in Dunnellon (119), Citra (45), Silver Springs (42), Reddick (40), Ocklawaha (40), Weirsdale (22), Anthony (19), Fort McCoy (9), Orange Lake (5), Candler (3), East Lake (3), Lowell (3), Sparr (2) and Morriston (1). A total of 209 cases have been identified among inmates at the Marion County Jail and 149 cases have been reported among inmates and staff members at Lowell Correctional Institution and Marion Correctional Institution.
All told, Florida is reporting 414,511 COVID-19 cases an increase of 12,199 from Friday to Saturday. Of those, 409,585 are residents. There have been 5,894 deaths and 23,730 people have been hospitalized across the Sunshine State. Those numbers show 126 more deaths since Friday and an additional 505 people requiring hospital care.
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(CBS) A new study of COVID-19, based on data from a symptom tracker app, determined that there are six distinct types of the disease involving different clusters of symptoms.
The discovery could potentially open new possibilities for how doctors can better treat individual patients and predict what level of hospital care they would need.
Researchers from Kings College London studied data from approximately 1,600 U.K. and U.S. patients who regularly logged their symptoms in the COVID Symptom Tracker App in March and April.
Typically, doctors will look for key symptoms such as cough, fever and loss of the sense of smell to detect COVID-19. The study, which has not been peer-reviewed, says the six different types of COVID-19 can vary by severity and come with their own set of symptoms.
I think its very, very interesting, Dr. Bob Lahita, who is not affiliated with the study, told CBSN anchors Vladimir Duthiers and Anne-Marie Green. Among the patients I see, those who recovered, many of them present different ways: some people with fever and some without fever, and some with nausea and vomiting, some people with diarrhea, etc.
The six clusters of symptoms outlined in the study are:
The first level, flu-like with no fever, is associated with headaches, loss of smell, muscle pains, cough, sore throat and chest pain. Patients at this level have a 1.5% chance of needing breathing support such as oxygen or a ventilator.
The second type, flu-like with fever, includes symptoms like loss of appetite, headache, loss of smell, cough, sore throat, hoarseness and fever. Researchers say about 4.4% of patients at this level needed breathing support.
Patients with the third type, simply described as gastrointestinal, do not have a cough as part of their illness. Instead, they experience headaches, diarrhea, loss of smell, loss of appetite, sore throat and chest pain, and about 3.3% needed breathing support.
Lahita referred to the following three clusters of COVID-19 as the really severe types.
In type four, or severe level one, patients experience fatigue along with headache, loss of smell, cough, fever, hoarseness and chest pain. Patients at this level needed breathing support at a rate of 8.6%.
Type five, severe level two, includes the symptoms of type four along with loss of appetite, sore throat and muscle pain, and is mainly distinguished by confusion.
That means you dont know where you are or where you live, whether you are in or out of the hospital, who your relatives are, Lahita explained. That is very scary. Almost 10% of patients at that level need breathing support.
The most severe type of COVID-19 is referred to as severe level three, abdominal and respiratory, and has all the above symptoms along with abdominal pain, shortness of breath and diarrhea. Nearly 20% of these patients need breathing support.
Those are the severe level threes who wind up on a ventilator, and then it is touch-and-go as to whether they survive the infection entirely, Lahita said.
The U.K. researchers also found that only 16% of patients with type one COVID-19 required hospitalization, compared with nearly half of the patients with type six.
Patients in the severe clusters also tended to be older or with pre-existing conditions and weakened immune systems, compared to those in the first three.
Scientists hope the discovery, once further studied, could help predict what types of care patients with COVID-19 might need, and give doctors the ability to predict which patients would fall into which category.
Im very happy that these six types have been identified and can give us an idea of a prognosis going forward for patients who are afflicted with this virus, Lahita said.
In many states across the U.S., contact tracing paired with rapid testing has been an effective tool to slow the spread of COVID-19. Now, as schools, businesses, and organizations prepare to reopen during the ongoing pandemic, those efforts will need to be amplified to prevent a new wave of infections, said a panel of people who have been working as contact tracers.
The panelists, all three of whom are students in or graduates of the Bouv College of Health Sciences at Northeastern, offered insights working as contract tracers in Massachusetts since April during a July 23 webinar hosted by Bouv on the importance of contact tracing.
Meredith Patterson, a care resource coordinator with the Massachusetts Community Tracing Collaborative who is studying for her masters in public health, suggested that the drop in cases in Massachusetts could in part be attributed to the coordination of resources such as food and medication or housing and mental health services to help people safely quarantine and isolate after they received a positive test result.
Going forward, its something well have to figure out economically and logistically: How do we make sure in every state there is a contact tracing and care resource coordination effort as extensive as the one in Massachusetts? Because weve seen that these efforts have been successful, said Patterson. From a national perspective thats definitely something we have to keep in mind is how do we have equity in response throughout the states?
Magda Pankowska, a recent graduate who studied infectious diseases at Northeastern, said rapid testing and diagnosis will be crucial and that one way of accelerating that process is by finding a way to notify patients of their results virtually. Her colleague, Cassandra Dechaine, said she worries that efforts to reopen could divert resources such as COVID-19 tests away from vulnerable communities.
I think that there are a lot of moving pieces that need to be taken into consideration and monitored really closely as we start to reopen, said Dechaine, a second-year student pursuing a dual degree in law and public health.
Pankowska and Dechaine are volunteers for the Academic Public Health Volunteer Corps, a group that was formed in the spring comprising public health students and graduates and aimed at buttressing the capacity of local health departments across the Commonwealth not only to respond to COVID-19, but also address other areas of public health need.
In the four months of working as contact tracers, they said theyve encountered language barriers, challenges in connecting people of different backgrounds with the appropriate resources, and people who have anxiety while awaiting their result because of testing delays.
A big part of communicating results back to people is making sure that were communicating very rapidly, Pankowska said. People shouldnt be waiting a long time between getting tested and getting communications about what the results are and the next steps they should be taking, because it not only makes people feel anxious and stressed out, but also [we want to] ensure that when people do test positive, theyre able to isolate.
Neil Maniar is a professor of the practice in the Bouv College of Health Sciences Bouv College of Health Sciences, and the director of Northeasterns Master of Public Health program. Screenshot by Northeastern University
The panelists said that reaching out to certain communities, such as undocumented immigrants, is another challenge contract tracers and case investigators commonly face. Many of these community members are reluctant to share information about themselves, said Patterson. Diversifying the public health pipeline with people of different races and linguistic abilities could help solve this issue, she said.
When we continue to diversify our workforce and we bring new people with new backgrounds and new identities into our work, populations arent difficult to reach anymore, said Patterson.
The Academic Public Health Volunteer Corps is led by Neil Maniar, a professor of practice and director of Northeasterns Master of Public Health program who facilitated the July 23 discussion as part of the Women Who Inspire at the
Forefront of Healthcare webinar series, which aims to highlight the voices and experiences of women in Bouv who are working on the front lines of the public health crisis.
The next webinar, on July 30, will focus on the impact of the pandemic on people with serious mental illness and on disordered eating. Panelists will discuss strategies to support mental health and well-being during the crisis.
For media inquiries, please contact media@northeastern.edu.
About 47% of US adults have an underlying condition strongly tied to severe COVID-19 illness, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have found.
The model-based study, published today in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, used self-reported data from the 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and the US Census.
Researchers analyzed the data for the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease (CKD), and obesity in residents of 3,142 counties in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. They defined obesity as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 kg/m2 or higher.
They found that prevalence patterns generally followed population distributions, with high numbers in large cities, but that these conditions were more prevalent in rural than in urban areas. Counties with the highest prevalence of these conditions were generally clustered in the Southeast and Appalachia.
Severe COVID-19 disease, requiring hospitalization, intensive care, and mechanical ventilation or leading to death, is most common in people of advanced age and in those who have at least one of the previously mentioned underlying conditions.
A CDC analysis last month of US COVID-19 patient surveillance data from Jan 22 to May 30 showed that those with underlying conditions were hospitalized six times more often, needed intensive care five times more often, and had a death rate 12 times higher than those without these conditions. But the authors of today's reported noted that the earlier study defined obesity as a BMI of 40 kg/m2 or higher and included some conditions with mixed or limited evidence of a tie to poor coronavirus outcomes.
Median estimated county prevalence of any underlying illness was 47.2% (range, 22.0% to 66.2%). Numbers of people with any underlying condition ranged from 4,300 in rural counties to 301,744 in large cities.
Prevalence of obesity was 35.4% (range, 15.2% to 49.9%), while it was 12.8% for diabetes (range, 6.1% to 25.6%), 8.9% for COPD (range, 3.5% to 19.9%), 8.6% for heart disease (range, 3.5% to 15.1%), and 3.4% for CKD, 3.4% (range, 1.8% to 6.2%).
Nationwide, the overall weighted prevalence of adults with chronic underlying conditions was 30.9% for obesity, 11.4% for diabetes, 6.9% for COPD, 6.8% for heart disease, and 3.1% for CKD.
The estimated median prevalence of any underlying condition generally increased with increasing county remoteness, ranging from 39.4% in large metropolitan counties to 48.8% in rural ones.
The authors noted that access to healthcare resources in some rural counties may be poor, adding to the risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes.
"The findings can help local decision-makers identify areas at higher risk for severe COVID-19 illness in their jurisdictions and guide resource allocation and implementation of community mitigation strategies," they wrote. "These findings also emphasize the importance of prevention efforts to reduce the prevalence of these underlying medical conditions and their risk factors such as smoking, unhealthy diet, and lack of physical activity."
The researchers called for future studies to include the weighting of the contribution of each underlying illness according to the risk of serious COVID-19 outcomes and identifying and integrating other factors leading to susceptibility to both infection and serious outcomes to better estimate the number of people at increased risk for COVID-19 infection.
Given the increase in the spread of COVID-19 in our community, our infectious disease team is encouraging high-risk patients to take special precautions.
Dr. Christopher Penn, infectious disease physician at LMH Health, reminds us that COVID-19 is a new disease, and as such, theres limited information about the impact of underlying medical conditions and how they might create additional challenges for patients with COVID-19.
The CDC indicates that patients of any age with the following conditions are at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19:
Additionally, people with the following conditions might be at an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19:
If you fall into one of the above categoriesor if you live with someone who doesDr. Penn said its all that much more important to protect yourself from exposure to COVID-19. This means limiting your interactions with other people as much as possible.
Yes. Dr. Penn explained that our hospital and clinics have the most up-to-date COVID-19 precautions in place. These safeguards help protect you, our staff and ultimately the community. As we contact you to schedule or remind you of an appointment, we will ask several screening questions to verify your health status. We will gather as much registration, health history, insurance and payment information in advance as possible, and we will also notify you of changes to our process when you arrive at our campus and entrances.
Not every health need requires an in-person visit. LMH Health offers TeleCare, a service that is available to almost all clinics and appointments. Any existing or new patient can take advantage of this serviceall you need is a smart device such as a tablet, smartphone or laptop. TeleCare can be very effective even outside of a pandemicthink of it as another convenient option for care delivery. Ask your treatment team if a TeleCare visit is an option for you.
Dr. Penn said that the most important thing for all patients to keep in mindespecially those who fall into a high-risk category due to certain conditionsis to avoid any and all delays to necessary emergency care. Delaying your care can create even more significant health issues, and the infection prevention measures in place in our Emergency Department are meant to keep you safe.
If you cant avoid interaction altogether, remember that the virus is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person, specifically:
You can best protect yourself and those around you by following this guidance from the CDC:
Monitor your health daily, and be alert for fever, cough, shortness of breath, or other symptoms of COVID-19. If you think youve been exposed to COVID-19, call your healthcare provider before coming in. If you dont have a provider, you can contact Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health.
You can also keep track of your symptoms, and watch for emergency warning signs. Seek care immediately if you have trouble breathing or experience confusion, chest pain or chest pressure.
For nearly 100 years, our community has relied on LMH Health to provide exceptional, safe care. This has always been our top priority, and it remains true now more than ever. Our purpose is to be A Partner for Lifelong Health, in all times, but especially in these challenging ones.
Who We Are
The COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN) was formed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the US National Institutes of Health to respond to the global pandemic. Using the infectious disease expertise of their existing research networks and global partners, NIAID has directed the networks to utilize their experience and expertise to address the pressing need for vaccines and antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN)
The UCSD Mother-Child-Adolescent Programprovides comprehensive, family centered care of women, children, youth and families. This internationally recognized multidisciplinaryspecialists provides medical care, clinical research trials, patient education, counseling, case management, peer advocacy, and community education. Its team of investigators is highly experienced in vaccine clinical trials with an emphasis on the prevention of respiratory viral diseases.
To Conduct Phase 3 Efficacy Trials to prevent infection and COVID-19 disease. CoVPN will work to develop and conduct studies to ensure rapid and thorough evaluation of United States government-sponsored COVID-19 vaccines and antibodies for the prevention of COVID-19 disease.
The CoVPN expects to open four Phase III vaccine efficacy trials trials that make sure the vaccine works - in 2020, with the potential for additional trials to follow. Each study is anticipated to enroll roughly 30,000 people, and participants will either get the vaccine product or a sterile saltwater injection (placebo). Some trials may be conducted only in the United States, while others will enroll global communities.
The first Phase III vaccine trial will be of the Moderna mRNA vaccine that is planned to begin enrollment in the end of July 2020.
These efficacy trials hope to enroll persons who are at risk for exposure to SARS-CoV-2. This risk could be associated with, but is not limited to:
