TheWest Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR)reports as of 5:00 p.m., on July 9, 2020, there have been 197,081 total confirmatory laboratory results receivedfor COVID-19, with 3,826 total cases and 95 deaths.
In alignment with updated definitions fromthe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the dashboard includes probablecases which are individuals that have symptoms and either serologic (antibody)or epidemiologic (e.g., a link to a confirmed case) evidence of disease, but noconfirmatory test.
CASESPER COUNTY (Case confirmed by lab test/Probable case):Barbour(17/0), Berkeley (499/18), Boone (29/0), Braxton (3/0), Brooke (18/1), Cabell(180/6), Calhoun (4/0), Clay (11/0), Fayette (79/0), Gilmer (13/0), Grant(15/1), Greenbrier (68/0), Hampshire (42/0), Hancock (32/3), Hardy (45/1),Harrison (104/0), Jackson (149/0), Jefferson (247/5), Kanawha (372/12), Lewis (19/1),Lincoln (10/0), Logan (31/0), Marion (93/3), Marshall (54/1), Mason (23/0),McDowell (8/0), Mercer (61/0), Mineral (60/2), Mingo (25/2), Monongalia(405/14), Monroe (14/1), Morgan (19/1), Nicholas (15/1), Ohio (122/0),Pendleton (13/1), Pleasants (5/1), Pocahontas (36/1), Preston (78/16), Putnam(77/1), Raleigh (66/2), Randolph (174/2), Ritchie (2/0), Roane (12/0), Summers(2/0), Taylor (19/1), Tucker (6/0), Tyler (7/0), Upshur (22/1), Wayne (120/1),Webster (1/0), Wetzel (26/0), Wirt (5/0), Wood (154/8), Wyoming (7/0).
As case surveillance continues at thelocal health department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certaincounty may not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individualin question may have crossed the state border to be tested.Such is the case of Mineral, Monroe, and Nicholas counties in this report.
Please visit thedashboard at www.coronavirus.wv.gov for more detailed information.
The West Virginia Department of Health andHuman Resources (DHHR) reports as of 5:00 p.m., on July 10,2020, there have been 201,092 total confirmatorylaboratory results received for COVID-19, with 3,983 totalcases and 95 deaths.
Inalignment with updated definitions from the Centers for Disease Control andPrevention, the dashboard includes probable cases which are individuals that havesymptoms and either serologic (antibody) or epidemiologic (e.g., a link to aconfirmed case) evidence of disease, but no confirmatory test.
CASESPER COUNTY (Case confirmed by lab test/Probable case):Barbour(18/0), Berkeley (504/19), Boone (31/0), Braxton (4/0), Brooke (24/1), Cabell(188/6), Calhoun (4/0), Clay (11/0), Fayette (79/0), Gilmer (13/0), Grant(18/1), Greenbrier (69/0), Hampshire (42/0), Hancock (35/3), Hardy (45/1),Harrison (109/0), Jackson (148/0), Jefferson (248/5), Kanawha (381/12), Lewis (19/1),Lincoln (10/0), Logan (35/0), Marion (95/3), Marshall (57/1), Mason (23/0),McDowell (8/0), Mercer (62/0), Mineral (62/2), Mingo (27/2), Monongalia(454/14), Monroe (14/1), Morgan (19/1), Nicholas (15/1), Ohio (138/0),Pendleton (15/1), Pleasants (4/1), Pocahontas (36/1), Preston (79/16), Putnam(78/1), Raleigh (68/3), Randolph (184/2), Ritchie (2/0), Roane (12/0), Summers(2/0), Taylor (22/1), Tucker (6/0), Tyler (9/0), Upshur (22/1), Wayne (121/1),Webster (1/0), Wetzel (30/0), Wirt (6/0), Wood (159/9), Wyoming (7/0).
Ascase surveillance continues at the local health department level, it may revealthat those tested in a certain county may not be a resident of that county, oreven the state as an individual in question may have crossed the state borderto be tested. Such is the case of Pleasants and Putnamcounties in this report.
Please visit the dashboard at www.coronavirus.wv.gov for more detailed information.
Additional report:
Toincrease COVID-19 testing opportunities, the Governor's Office, the HerbertHenderson Office of Minority Affairs, WV Department of Health and HumanResources, WV National Guard, local health departments,and community partners today provided freeCOVID-19 testing for residents in counties with high minority populations andevidence of COVID-19 transmission.
Todays testing resulted in 2,589 individuals tested: 323in Marshall County; 1,368 in Monongalia County; 407 in Preston County; 51 inWayne County; and 440 in Upshur County. Please note these are consideredpreliminary numbers.
Testingin the same counties will continue tomorrow in these locations.
But he warned that theres a limit to what Houston hospitals can do to respond to the crisis.
We are adding more capacity, but we are absolutely stretched now, and if it keeps going this way, were going to run out of room. Were going to look like New York, McCarthy said, emphasizing the need for Houston residents to stay home and avoid crowds to slow the viruss spread.
One of Houstons largest hospital systems, HCA Healthcare, also has been caring for dozens of COVID-19 patients in its emergency departments. In a statement, HCA spokeswoman Debra Burbridge said hospital officials have taken steps to reduce the impact on patients, including sending staff members who would normally be performing or assisting with elective surgeries which have been suspended under an order by the governor to treat patients with COVID-19.
Dr. Kusum Mathews, an assistant professor of critical care and emergency medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, said hospitals can take steps to reduce the risks of overcrowded ERs, including some of those described by Memorial Hermann and HCA officials.
Treating patients sickened by the virus has outstripped every stretch of our imagination, Mathews said. We have had to put beds in hallways, double up patient rooms just to allow for offloading the emergency department to get more patients in.
While Houstons top hospital executives have repeatedly said they can add hundreds of new intensive care beds to meet the demand, at least for the next couple of weeks, the number of patients being treated in emergency rooms demonstrates the difficulty of executing those plans in the midst of a rapidly growing crisis, officials say.
Those things are not like a switch-key type of activity, said Porsa, the Harris Health System CEO, noting that his hospitals have had to send patients to hospitals outside of Houston to make room. The bottleneck to do that is really staffing. As you can imagine, ICU nurses are not a dime a dozen. They are very hard to come by, and it takes time to actually be able to do that.
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The logjam of patients being treated in ERs has also led to delayed emergency response times across the city, according to Houston Fire Department officials.
When hospitals get overloaded, they ask regional authorities to divert ambulances elsewhere. For example, Memorial Hermanns northeast hospital was on diversion status just 2 percent of the time during an eight-day period in late June and early July last year; it was on diversion status 58 percent of the time during the same time period this year. At Houstons busiest public hospital, Ben Taub, the number jumped to 81 percent from 58 percent.
The problem, said Houston Fire Department Assistant Chief Matt White, is that when every hospital is maxed out, ambulance crews have no choice but to take patients to emergency departments that are too busy to quickly receive them. And by law, hospitals must screen and stabilize any patient who arrives.
When everyone is on diversion, White said, nobody is on diversion.
Earlier coronavirus outbreaks inundated emergency rooms in New York City and Detroit, but lockdown orders in those cities led to fewer car accidents and a reduction in violent crime, freeing more space in ERs for COVID patients.
With most Texas businesses still open and no mandatory stay-at-home order, hospitals in Houston and other COVID-19 hot spots face the added challenge of making room for COVID patients while still dealing with a steady flow of patients seeking care for other medical emergencies.
And across the country, people with chronic health problems who delayed seeking care earlier in the pandemic are now showing up for treatment, taking up beds, said Dr. Marc Eckstein, medical director of the Los Angeles Fire Department and a professor of emergency medicine at Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.
Despite these challenges, McCarthy, the Memorial Hermann executive, said its essential that people continue to come to the hospital for medical emergencies. He pointed to an NBC News and ProPublica report this week that showed a growing number of people are dying suddenly at home, before emergency responders can reach them.
If a patient believes they have a serious medical issue, they still need to come to the emergency department, McCarthy said. We will make the capacity to take care of them. Delaying care for time-sensitive emergencies is time we dont get back. If they wait to call for help when they are having a heart attack, it will be worse than if they come in early."
Mike Hixenbaugh is a national investigativereporter for NBC News, based in Houston.
Charles Ornstein, ProPublica
Charles Ornstein is a deputy managing editor at ProPublica.
If theres one thing we want to know about COVID-19, its probably this: Whats my risk of getting it?
Researchers have identified certain things that make some people more vulnerable than others. Men are at greater risk than women. Older people are at greater risk than younger people. Those with chronic health problems like Type 2 diabetes, obesity and serious heart conditions are faring worse than those without them. Black and Latino Americans are at greater risk than Asian Americans and whites.
Now theres evidence that blood type could be a risk factor too.
A handful of studies have suggested that people with some blood types are more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19, while those with other blood types are less likely to require that level of care. The most recent evidence was published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Heres a look at what scientists have learned about blood type and its role in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Eight. Yours is determined in part by the presence (or absence) of A and B antigens on your red blood cells. If you have only A antigens, your blood type is A. If you have only B antigens, your blood type is B. If you have both, your blood type is AB, and if you have neither, your blood type is O.
In addition, red blood cells may have a protein called Rh factor. If you have it, youre Rh positive; if not, youre Rh negative.
The combination of A and B antigens and the Rh factor produces the eight major blood types: A-positive, A-negative, B-positive, B-negative, AB-positive, AB-negative, O-positive and O-negative.
Researchers analyzed genetic data from more than 1,600 patients hospitalized with severe cases of COVID-19 in Italy and Spain and compared them with about 2,200 others who didnt have the disease. After making adjustments to account for the effects of age and sex on COVID-19 risk, the researchers found striking differences in blood types of the sick patients compared with the controls.
In this population, having Type A blood was associated with a 45% increased risk of having severe COVID-19. On the other hand, having Type O blood was associated with a 35% reduced risk of the disease. Those relationships held up whether the Italian and Spanish patients were analyzed separately or together.
No other blood groups were associated with a greater or lesser risk of the disease. In addition, blood type did not seem to be linked to the risk of needing to be put on a mechanical ventilator.
The study design did not allow researchers to make any determination about whether blood type was associated with the risk of coronavirus infection, or, if infected, the risk of becoming severely ill.
The hope is that these and other findings yet to come will point the way to a more thorough understanding of the biology of COVID-19, Dr. Francis Collins, a geneticist and director of the National Institutes of Health, wrote on his blog. They also suggest that a genetic test and a persons blood type might provide useful tools for identifying those who may be at greater risk of serious illness.
At least two other groups have looked for links between blood type and COVID-19 risk and found similar results.
The first inkling that blood type might have something to do with disease risk came in March from researchers in China, who compared 2,173 COVID-19 patients in three hospitals in Wuhan and Shenzhen to more than 27,000 normal people. They found that people with Type A blood had a 21% greater risk of the disease than their counterparts with other blood types, and that people with Type O blood had a 33% lower risk.
The following month, a team from Columbia University examined 1,559 people in the New York City area who were tested to see whether they were infected with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. They found that having Type A blood was associated with a 34% greater chance of testing positive, while having Type O blood was associated with a 20% lower chance of testing positive. In addition, people with Type AB blood were 44% less likely to test positive, although only 21 of the 682 people who tested positive for the coronavirus had AB blood.
The Columbia researchers noted that their findings about the risks associated with Type A and Type O blood were consistent with the results from China, even though the distribution of blood types was significantly different in the populations of New York, Wuhan and Shenzhen.
Both of these reports were posted to the MedRxiv website, where researchers share preliminary data before it has been subjected to peer review.
Thats not clear. Perhaps different combinations of A and B antigens change the immune systems production of infection-fighting antibodies or have some other unknown biologic effect, the authors of the New England Journal of Medicine study wrote.
Another possibility is that the genes associated with blood type also affect the ACE2 receptor on human cells, which the coronavirus seeks out and latches onto, they wrote.
Your doctor may have it on file if its been tested in the past.
If not, you can test it at home with a kit that includes an Eldoncard. The kit will require you to prick your finger to obtain a small blood sample, then mix it with antibodies to the A and B antigens that come on the card. If your red blood cells contain A or B antigens, they will react with the antibodies and clump up on the card.
If you only see a reaction to A antibodies, your blood type is A. Ditto for the B antibodies. If you see a reaction to both, your blood type is AB, and if theres no reaction, your blood type is O.
An additional circle on the card contains antibodies to the protein called Rh factor. A reaction there indicates you are Rh-positive; if nothing happens, youre Rh-negative.
If that sounds like too much trouble, you can donate blood. If go to the Red Cross, theyll send you a donor card that indicates your blood type.
Everyone should be as careful as possible all the time, regardless of blood type. (That goes for those with Type O blood too.)
If youve been outside or came in contact with high-touch surfaces, wash your hands for at least 20 seconds. Wear a mask if you leave home and maintain at least six feet of distance between yourself and others who are not members of your household. Try not to touch your face so the virus cant sneak into your body through your eyes, nose or mouth. And be sure to clean doorknobs, faucets, phones and other frequently touched surfaces every day.
For more tips on staying safe, follow this advice from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
TheWest Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR)reports as of 10:00 a.m., on July 10, 2020, there have been 199,383 totalconfirmatory laboratory results receivedfor COVID-19, with 3,882 total cases and 95 deaths.
In alignment with updated definitions fromthe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the dashboard includes probablecases which are individuals that have symptoms and either serologic (antibody)or epidemiologic (e.g., a link to a confirmed case) evidence of disease, but noconfirmatory test.
CASESPER COUNTY (Case confirmed by lab test/Probable case):Barbour(18/0), Berkeley (502/18), Boone (30/0), Braxton (4/0), Brooke (18/1), Cabell(184/6), Calhoun (4/0), Clay (11/0), Fayette (79/0), Gilmer (13/0), Grant(17/1), Greenbrier (69/0), Hampshire (42/0), Hancock (32/3), Hardy (45/1),Harrison (108/0), Jackson (148/0), Jefferson (247/5), Kanawha (377/12), Lewis(19/1), Lincoln (10/0), Logan (33/0), Marion (95/3), Marshall (54/1), Mason(23/0), McDowell (7/0), Mercer (61/0), Mineral (60/2), Mingo (25/2), Monongalia(416/14), Monroe (14/1), Morgan (19/1), Nicholas (15/1), Ohio (125/0),Pendleton (13/1), Pleasants (5/1), Pocahontas (36/1), Preston (78/16), Putnam(80/1), Raleigh (68/3), Randolph (175/2), Ritchie (2/0), Roane (12/0), Summers(2/0), Taylor (20/1), Tucker (6/0), Tyler (9/0), Upshur (22/1), Wayne (121/1),Webster (1/0), Wetzel (28/0), Wirt (6/0), Wood (157/9), Wyoming (7/0).
As case surveillance continues at thelocal health department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certaincounty may not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individualin question may have crossed the state border to be tested.Such is the case of Jackson and McDowell counties in this report.
Please visit thedashboard at www.coronavirus.wv.gov for more detailed information.
Positive cases have emerged up at 12 Sarasota-Manatee Publix stores within the past 14 days. See a list of the stores affected.
This content is being provided for free as a public service to our readers during the coronavirus outbreak. Sign up for our daily or breaking newsletters to stay informed. If local news is important to you, consider becoming a digital subscriber to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.***
Employees have tested positive for COVID-19 at 12 Publix stores in Sarasota-Manatee within the past two weeks.
Publix spokeswoman Maria Brous confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 at 15 Publix stores in Sarasota and Manatee counties. Cases at 12 of those 15 stores have happened within the past 14 days.
Of those 12 stores, four are in Sarasota, one is on Longboat Key, one is in Nokomis, two are in Bradenton, one is in Parrish and three are in Venice, including the store in the West Villages.
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The three stores where employees have tested positive, but not within the past 14 days, are the Broadway Promenade store at 1044 N. Tamiami Trail in Sarasota, the Shops at Silver Leaf at 11245 US Highway 301 N in Parrish, and Lockwood Commons at 4240 53rd Ave. E in Bradenton.
Like other essential service providers, we have seen our own associates and their families personally impacted by COVID-19, Brous said. Unfortunately, as public health officials have indicated, we expect to see an increase in cases as the virus spreads in our communities.
In late April, there was just one confirmed positive case at a Publix store in Sarasota-Manatee at the Venice Village Shoppes store at Tamiami Trail and Jacaranda Boulevard in Venice.
The Sarasota-Manatee Publix stores where employees have tested positive for COVID-19 within the past two weeks are:
Sarasota Commons, 935 N. Beneva Road, Sarasota.
Centergate Village, 5804 Bee Ridge Road, Sarasota.
Venice Village Shoppes, 4173 S. Tamiami Trail, Venice.
Twelve Oaks Plaza, 7290 55th Ave. E., Bradenton.
Venice Shopping Center, 535 S. Tamiami Trail, Venice.
Beachway Plaza, 7310 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton.
Parkwood Square, 9005 U.S. Highway 301 N., Parrish.
Publix at Bay Street, 2031 Bay St., Sarasota.
Nokomis Village, 1091 N. Tamiami Trail, Nokomis.
Shoppes of Bay Isles, 525 Bay Isles Parkway, Longboat Key.
Beneva Village Shoppes, 3428 Clark Road, Sarasota.
West Village Marketplace, 12165 Mercado Drive, Venice.
Sarasota County has had 2,548 people test positive for COVID-19. There have been 235 hospitalizations and 100 deaths, according to Florida Department of Health data Friday.
Manatee County has had 4,432 people test positive. It has also had 332 hospitalizations and 138 deaths.
Publix gives 14 days paid leave to any employee who tests positive for COVID-19. Workers who were in close contact with the sick employee are notified, quarantined and also given up to 14 days of paid leave, Brous said.
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While on the job, associates are required to wear face coverings, and theres a heightened disinfection program focusing on frequently touched surfaces like touchpads, door and drawer handles, phones and computers.
Social distancing is also encouraged at Publix. One-way shopping aisles have been put in place, and six-foot distances are marked at registers. Plexiglass has also been installed at checkout counters.
We are proud of how our dedicated associates are taking care of our customers and each other through this unprecedented and challenging time, Brous said. And, we thank our customers for continuing to trust us with providing them with the goods and services they need.
Whole Foods Market has also confirmed that employees at its downtown Sarasota store have tested positive for COVID-19.
The Austin, Texas-based grocery chain did not disclose how many employees have tested positive or when but it did say that there have been confirmed cases.
Anytime there is a presumed or confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis in any Whole Foods store, a set plan is activated involving comprehensive cleaning, contact tracing and a formal notification processes for those working in the stores, according to the company.
The safety of our team members and customers is our top priority, and we are diligently following all guidance from local healthand food safety authorities. Weve been working closely with our store team membersand are supporting the diagnosed team members who are in quarantine, the company said in a statement. Out of an abundance of caution, the store has performed a professional deep cleaning and disinfection, on top of our current enhanced sanitation measures.
Employees placed into quarantine receive up to an additional two weeks of paid time off.
Like Publix, Whole Foods stores also have social distancing and crowd control procedures in place.
There are also required temperature checks and face masks for employees, daily cleanliness procedures and disinfection protocols and plexiglass barriers at checkout.
The number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. is expanding rapidly, particularly in many states in the South and West. While the locations of outbreaks continue to move across the country, surging in some states and falling in others, much of the recent case growth has been occurring in the South and West. As of July 8th, we identified 33 states as hotspots (experiencing recent increases in cases and an increasing positivity rate or positivity rate over 10%), 23 of which were in the South and West. The shifting surge in outbreaks to the South and West will likely exacerbate the disparate effects of COVID-19 for people of color, who already are facing a higher burden of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths as well as a larger economic toll compared to their White counterparts. Hispanic people may be particularly hard hit as outbreaks rise in these areas.
Just over half (51%) of people in the U.S. reside in these 23 Southern and Western hotspot states, but these states are home to seven in ten of all Hispanic individuals (71%) (Figure 1). Moreover, roughly six in ten Asian (59%) and American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) (57%) people live in these states, as do over half (51%) of Black people. Overall, nearly two-thirds of people of color (62%) reside in these states, compared to less than half of White people (43%).
In addition, people of color account for a larger share of the population compared to their share of the total U.S. population in a number of these states. For example, in 9 of the 23 Southern and Western hotspot states, Black people make up a larger share of the population compared to their share of the total U.S. population (12%). These states include Georgia (31%), Louisiana (32%), and Mississippi (38%), where more than three in ten residents are Black. AIAN people also make up a larger share of the population in 9 of these 23 states, including Montana (6%), New Mexico (9%), and Alaska (16%), compared to their share of the total U.S. population (<1%). Similarly, while 18% of the total U.S. population is Hispanic, they make up a higher share of the population in 7 of these 23 states, including roughly a third or more of the population in Arizona (32%), California (39%), Texas (40%), and New Mexico (49%). Asian people also account for a higher share of the population in Nevada (8%), Washington (9%), California (15%), and Hawaii (38%) compared to the U.S. overall (6%).
Moreover, within many of these states, COVID-19 has already disproportionately affected people of color. Based on data reported as of July 6, Black people accounted for a higher share of COVID-19 related deaths compared to their share of the population in 13 of these states that were reporting deaths by race/ethnicity. Similarly, Hispanic people made up a larger share of cases compared to their share of the population in 13 states, including in Tennessee and Arkansas, where their share of cases is over three times higher than their share of the population. There are also striking disparities for AIAN and Asian people in some of these states. For example, in Arizona, AIAN people made up 7% of cases and 16% of deaths compared to just 4% of the population and, in Nevada, Asian people made up 14% of deaths compared to 8% of the population.
The large number of people of color living in COVID-19 hotspots coupled with the already disproportionate impact for people of color will likely lead to further growth in disparities as the outbreak shifts to the South and West. Potential growing impacts for the large shares of Hispanic and Asian people living in these areas heighten the importance of providing information and services in linguistically and culturally appropriate ways and addressing potential fears that could make those who have an immigrant family member hesitant to access services. Prior to the pandemic, growing research showed that many immigrant families were increasingly fearful of accessing services, including health care services, due to recent immigration policy changes. Rising cases will likely compound the major challenges AIAN people already are facing due to the pandemic and widen disproportionate impacts for Black individuals, as these groups are at increased risk of experiencing serious illness if they contract the virus due to high rates of underlying health conditions. People of color also are at increased risk of exposure to the virus, face increased barriers to testing and treatment, and are more vulnerable to financial challenges due to the pandemic due to social and economic circumstances.
As discussed in previous work, the disparate impacts of COVID-19 mirror and compound existing racial and ethnic disparities in health and health care that are driven by broader underlying structural and systemic barriers, including racism and discrimination. For example, people of color are more likely to be uninsured, report poorer access to health care, and face increased economic and social challenges compared to their White counterparts. Further, 8 of these 23 hotspot states have not yet implemented the ACA Medicaid expansion to low-income adults, leaving a gap in coverage for poor adults in these states.
Together the findings point to the importance of prioritizing health equity as part of response and relief efforts and directing resources to communities who are at the highest risk and experiencing disproportionate effects. Such efforts include collecting data to monitor the impact across communities; working with trusted community members and leaders and providing information in linguistically and culturally appropriate ways to effectively reach individuals; making testing and care readily accessible within communities to facilitate access to services, including for those who are uninsured; and providing adequate resources and support to help prevent spread of the virus. At the same time, broader efforts to address systemic and structural barriers both within and outside the health care system remain pivotal to addressing the underlying health inequities that have been highlighted and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read the news release.
HIGH SCHOOL & MIDDLE SCHOOL FALL SPORTS AND OTHER ACTIVITIES With the daily number of new COVID-19 cases continuing to climb, Gov. Justice joined West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission (WVSSAC) Executive Director Bernie Dolan during his briefing on Friday to discuss current plans for high school and middle school sports, cheerleading, and marching band activities for the fall season.
No one wants sports and activities to be going on more than Bernie and I do, Gov. Justice said. We absolutely want our kids back in school. But we want to do it in a way that we know is as safe as we can possibly make it for our students, as well as those who are working with our students like our teachers and service personnel.
Bernie and I surely recognize the importance of sports, Gov. Justice continued. They give us so much. They teach us so many life lessons. Theyre important to our communities, they bring us together. But, at the same time, we need to be safe.
In accordance with the Governors announcement Wednesday that the beginning of the school year would be adjusted to Sept. 8, 2020, Dolan announced Friday that the fall sports and activities calendar would also be adjusted.
We are pushing back our practice dates, Dolan said. Instead of starting on August 3rd the date most fall sports practices wouldve started except volleyball were moving the start of all of our practice activities to August 17th.
Dolan announced that, under the current plan, golf would be the first sport to resume competition because its participants are adequately able to socially distance from one another during matches. There is also less practice time required to resume competition for golf. As a result, golf is currently scheduled to tee off its season on Monday, Aug. 24, 2020.
Competitions for volleyball, cheerleading, cross-country, and soccer are currently scheduled to begin on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020.
Football games would be able to start as early as Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020, under the WVSSACs current plan.
Dolan added that competition attendees will have to follow additional safety guidelines, which will vary based on the type of sport and the facility in which it is being played but will likely include social distancing and the wearing of masks, to keep all participants and visitors as safe as possible.
Any additional WVSSAC guidelines will be provided on onlineas soon as they become available.
I tell people, its up to the public to decide whether or not we are going to have athletics come this fall, Dolan said. Because youre the one who will wear the masks.
It sounds like its an easy thing to do for everybody to get on board, Dolan continued. So, if you are the one whos not socially distancing, not wearing a mask, you very well could be the one you are setting an example for somebody not to follow and then that hurts all of our chances of participating.
Click to read more: Statewide Indoor Face Covering Requirement
We all know that we may have to change again, Gov. Justice said. We do not know what this is going to do. There is no playbook here.
But we hope and pray that well be ready to go and weve got to have a plan of what were going to be able to do...if we can, Gov. Justice continued. I want to emphasize if we can. Were going to do it safely. Were going to do it right. Were going to protect our kids in every way.
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An aerial view of floodwaters flowing from the Tittabawassee River into the lower part of downtown Midland, Mich., on May 20. Thousands of residents were ordered to evacuate after two dams collapsed, causing flooding. Gregory Shamus/Getty Images hide caption
An aerial view of floodwaters flowing from the Tittabawassee River into the lower part of downtown Midland, Mich., on May 20. Thousands of residents were ordered to evacuate after two dams collapsed, causing flooding.
Two crises collided this spring in Michigan. The state was already under a coronavirus lockdown when a catastrophic storm hit and a pair of dams failed, flooding the city of Midland.
The local hospital, MidMichigan Medical Center Midland, hired a disaster recovery company to clean up the mess, including a water-logged basement and morgue. More than 100 workers many of them recent immigrants were brought from as far away as Texas and Florida. Bellaliz Gonzalez was one of them.
"There were cracks in the safety protocols," Gonzalez, an asylum-seeker from Venezuela, said in Spanish through an interpreter. "We would start working without masks and then the supervisors would say, 'We're going to go look for masks,' when we were already working inside!"
"It smelled like something rotten, decomposed," she added. "Like something putrid, pungent. It was horrible."
Bellaliz Gonzalez recorded a video where she said many recovery workers had tested positive for the coronavirus and many were feeling sick as they were packed into vans and transported home from Midland, Mich. Bellaliz Gonzalez hide caption
Bellaliz Gonzalez recorded a video where she said many recovery workers had tested positive for the coronavirus and many were feeling sick as they were packed into vans and transported home from Midland, Mich.
Michigan had strict rules in place for essential workers during the pandemic, but Gonzalez and other workers interviewed by NPR said those rules weren't followed. The workers said they were put up in cramped hotel rooms and weren't given enough protective equipment.
Many of the disaster recovery workers who came to Midland did get sick. A cluster of roughly 20 confirmed cases of the coronavirus drew the attention of local health officials. It also shined a light on a multibillion-dollar industry that's growing fast as climate-driven disasters become more frequent and more expensive.
"These workers are essential, but no one behaves like it," said Saket Soni, the founder and director of a nonprofit group called Resilience Force, which advocates for recovery workers.
Like workers in other industries hit hard by the coronavirus, Soni said recovery workers risk getting and spreading the virus not just to each other and to their families but to the communities where they live and work.
"In a sense, they're like the farmworkers and meat packers ... with one difference," Soni said. "This is a workforce on the go ... that spends most of the year traveling from place to place, fixing up towns, cities, homes and buildings. And that's an additional vulnerability."
Soni said the pandemic has revealed longstanding problems in how the disaster recovery industry treats a workforce that cleans up and rebuilds after hurricanes, wildfires and flooding. Many of the workers are asylum-seekers or undocumented immigrants who don't speak much English and are afraid to complain about working conditions.
Gonzalez, who is 54, worked as an environmental engineer in her native Venezuela before fleeing to the U.S. to seek asylum two years ago. She said she got sick with a high fever in Michigan but tested negative for the coronavirus.
Gonzalez said she was appalled at the working conditions. The first day on the job, she said she asked if there were going to be temperature checks and was told there were no thermometers.
"We were treated worse than animals," Gonzalez said. "They didn't care about our well-being and our lives, they didn't care that we are in the middle of a pandemic."
After the outbreak in Michigan, the finger pointing began.
"We had some people from out of state come in to help, and we are grateful for help, but they brought COVID-19 with them," Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in an interview with member station WDET in Detroit last month.
No one knows for sure whether the workers brought the coronavirus to Michigan, or caught it there. But we do know what happened next: The workers left town, taking the virus with them.
"We would have preferred if they would have quarantined here in Michigan, but they traveled home," Whitmer said.
Public health workers there say they weren't able to communicate directly with the recovery workers because no one on the contact-tracing team speaks Spanish.
"You really shouldn't cram four and five people into a hotel room that aren't necessarily family members, or put them in a situation where they're thousands of miles from home where they can be exposed to the virus," said Joel Strasz, a public health officer in Bay County, Mich., where the workers were staying.
"All of those conditions are going to really exacerbate the situation, spread the virus," he said.
The MidMichigan Medical Center thought the cleanup company it hired was taking steps to ensure worker safety, according to Julie Newton, an infection prevention nurse at the hospital.
"I was told that they checked for symptoms and temperatures every day," Newton said. "And if someone had symptoms or temperature, they were sent to be tested and were not allowed to work."
Newton said the workers she saw were wearing masks and gloves, and that she didn't talk to the workers directly because she doesn't speak Spanish, either.
"It didn't occur to me to go through and ask a bunch of questions" about whether workers were wearing masks, or how many people were staying in a hotel room, Newton said. "I just expected that they were making sure that those things were happening."
Servpro is a disaster recovery company with franchises around the country, including the one in Michigan hired by the hospital for the cleanup effort. Neither Servpro nor the local franchise responded to requests for comment.(Editor's note: Servpro is an NPR underwriter.)
Servpro's website says its workers always adhere to "cleaning and decontamination standards set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local authorities."
BTN Services, a Houston-based company that provides cleaning and staffing services, was a subcontractor on the hospital job. CEO Alejandro Fernandez told NPR that there was "a whole bunch of misinformation going around" but declined to elaborate and did not respond to interview requests.
The structure of the industry, with multiple layers of contractors and subcontractors, makes it easier for employers to avoid accountability, said Soni from Resilience Force.
"That's a huge problem," Soni said. "It means no one owns and pays for the standards to be enforced. No one is ultimately accountable."
Recovery worker Armando Negron stands outside a hospital in Michigan. Negron tested positive for the coronavirus while in Michigan and headed home to Florida, where he landed in the hospital for six days. Armando Negron hide caption
Recovery worker Armando Negron stands outside a hospital in Michigan. Negron tested positive for the coronavirus while in Michigan and headed home to Florida, where he landed in the hospital for six days.
The workers on the hospital job say they asked for the work site's COVID-19 preparedness plan, as required by the state under a series of executive orders signed by the governor. But the workers say they never saw one.
Once workers in Michigan began testing positive for the coronavirus, they say they were put on vans that drove them back to Florida and Texas. Several workers said they asked to be quarantined in Michigan but were told they'd have to pay for their own housing if they stayed.
Bellaliz Gonzalez recorded a video on her phone in Michigan just before the workers packed into vans to go home. "We are all sick, some have tested positive, others have not been tested but have symptoms," she said in the video.
One of the workers who got sick was Armando Negron. He said he worked in the hospital morgue without a mask before testing positive for the coronavirus. He headed home to Florida, where he landed in the hospital for six days. Negron, who was born in Puerto Rico, is 56 and has survived two heart attacks.
"I was coughing so hard for 10 to 15 minutes nonstop, I felt that my chest was going to explode," Negron said in Spanish through an interpreter.
"This virus feels like a fire that gets inside your body. You don't feel good sitting down, standing or lying down. It's debilitating and I feel very tired, I don't feel normal," he said.
Meanwhile, the demand for disaster cleanup continues in spite of the coronavirus. Negron said that half a dozen people he worked with in the morgue went directly from Midland to another job site in the Midwest. Two of them, he said, got sick and have been hospitalized.
In January, as a frightening new virus filled hospital wards in Wuhan, China, Stephanie Giordano, a 25-year-old researcher at the drugmaker Regeneron, in a suburb of New York City, began working on a treatment for the disease.
By March, the deadly coronavirus had hit home. Fearing she would get infected on the train that took her to the lab every day, she moved from her apartment in East Harlem to an Airbnb five minutes from the companys headquarters in Tarrytown, in Westchester County.
Then her mother, a nurses assistant who cared for newborn babies at a Long Island hospital, was reassigned to a Covid-19 ward where she tended to older people struggling to breathe. No drug could help these patients or her, if she were to get sick, too.
I had somebody on the line that I really cared about, Ms. Giordano said recently. And I wanted to see her make it through this.
Ms. Giordano, the youngest member of the companys five-person rapid response team for infectious diseases, helped develop what many consider one of the most promising new treatments for Covid-19, which has now infected more than 12 million people around the world, and killed more than 549,000.
She worked in the lab until 10 many nights and through weekends, screening thousands of antibodies the weapons of the immune system that seek out and destroy viruses in search of the most powerful ones. The result was a cocktail of two antibodies that might not only treat the virus, but prevent it by giving the body the same natural defenses that people infected with it produce on their own.
The Trump administration this week gave a major boost to Regenerons treatment, awarding the company $450 million to manufacture and supply as many as 300,000 doses as treatments or 1.3 million doses to prevent infection. Thats in addition to $160 million in federal money the company had already received to run clinical trials and ramp up manufacturing. After the treatment passed an initial safety study, Regenerons broader trials to evaluate the products efficacy got underway.
Dr. Francis S. Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, recently singled out the treatment as the most likely to pan out soon. If I had to pick one, I think the monoclonal antibody cocktails have a lot going for them, Dr. Collins said at a Senate hearing last week. Theres all kinds of reasons to think this is the kind of virus it should work for.
If the trials are successful, company executives have said the treatment could be available by the end of the summer. The hope is that it could serve as a stopgap until a vaccine arrives by providing temporary protection to people at high risk of getting infected.
Regeneron is making a significant gamble, ramping up manufacturing of the antibody cocktail before clinical trials have even proved that it works. The most lucrative drugs it makes for other diseases have been relocated to a factory in Ireland.
Regeneron is one of several companies pursuing monoclonal antibody treatments. The drug giant Eli Lilly has also begun clinical trials, and others working on antibody treatments include partnerships of Amgen and Adaptive Biotechnologies and also Vir Biotechnology and GlaxoSmithKline.
Its unclear which of these projects if any will succeed. Drug development is notoriously unpredictable: Just last week, Regeneron announced that an older monoclonal antibody drug, the rheumatoid arthritis treatment Kevzara, had failed to help patients critically ill with Covid-19.
Still, scientists and investors alike are closely watching Regeneron, which developed a treatment for Ebola with this same technology. That treatment was tested during the most recent Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which began in 2018 and ended in June. Together with a new Ebola vaccine, the treatment was credited with reducing the deadliness of the outbreak.
Regenerons track record of developing a similar treatment for Ebola doesnt mean they will have a better product, but it does make me relieved that they will not fumble, said Ronny Gal, an analyst for Bernstein, a Wall Street firm.
And Regeneron has taken this all-hands-on-deck approach to Covid-19 in one of the hardest-hit areas of the country. In Westchester County, more than 35,000 people have been infected and more than 1,500 people have died.
Its just a remarkable and unfortunate coincidence, said Dr. Leonard S. Schleifer, Regenerons chief executive.
Ms. Giordano, a research and development associate with a bachelors degree in chemistry from Fordham University, had just transferred to Regenerons viral infectious disease group in January when the researchers noticed a report about a new virus in Wuhan on an international alert system known as ProMED.
Christos Kyratsous, the companys vice president of research for infectious diseases, said his team ordered a synthetic genome of the virus from an outside company, but while they waited for it to arrive, the number of infections simply exploded. While Dr. Kyratsouss team closely watches any new viruses, the way it spread across Wuhan convinced us that this was something worth spending our resources and our time on.
Regeneron has built its business on what Dr. Schleifer, one of the companys founders, calls its magical mice animals that have been genetically engineered to have human immune systems. The mice are infected with harmless viruses that trigger the animals to produce human antibodies. Those antibodies can then be screened for the ones that work best, and then mass-produced in stainless steel vats known as bioreactors.
The technology drove one of the companys biggest blockbusters, the eczema drug Dupixent, as well as the treatment for Ebola.
Dr. Schleifer said he realized the company would need to turn its full attention to developing a treatment in late January, when a news program showed construction vehicles breaking ground on a vast hospital in Wuhan.
They said they were going to build a hospital in five days, he recalled. I said to myself, Holy cow, OK, this doesnt happen just for the fun of it.
In early February, Regeneron expanded a collaboration with the federal government to begin working on the coronavirus treatment. It also started ramping up manufacturing of the antibodies.
Usually, you dont scale it up until youve got something thats proven, Dr. Schleifer said. We knew that the ordinary course of business could not work here. We knew that we needed to get as much capacity as possible.
Dr. Schleifer said the company decided to move its existing products to its plant in Ireland to ensure that the antibody treatment would be made in the United States and available to treat Americans. The pandemic has already led some countries, such as India, to limit exports of drugs that might treat Covid-19, and the United States has snapped up the global supply of another treatment, remdesivir.
There was scary stuff going on in the world about, you know, countries closing borders, he said. We wanted to manufacture as much as we could as close to where the processes were being developed.
The company started its work by collecting as many coronavirus antibodies as possible, both through infecting its magic mice, and from the donated blood of coronavirus survivors.
Those antibodies were handed off to Ms. Giordanos team, which identified the ones that fought off the virus most powerfully.
Ms. Giordanos role was to help develop a phony coronavirus to test against the companys antibody candidates one that, though not harmful, would stand in for the real thing. It was like three years of work in I want to say maybe like a month and a half, she said.
By the end of February, she was clocking 90 hours a week. In March, as the coronavirus arrived in Westchester, she moved to the Airbnb apartment in White Plains the owners gave her a significant discount when she explained what she was working on.
As her mother began caring for Covid-19 patients, the two exchanged photos of each other in their protective gear.
You guys are heros!!!!!!! Ms. Giordano texted in April to her mother, who had sent photos of herself and her co-workers in protective gowns, gloves, face shields and masks. Love ur double glove technique.
Ms. Giordano said that thinking about her mother and her colleagues being at risk of infection kept her going during the grueling days. Because otherwise I think I would have broken down and cried a lot.
As the cases in Westchester County mounted and the state locked down, officials at Regeneron scrambled to keep their labs open without putting employees in danger.
We were truly petrified that we would have this cure that we knew we had to develop, but all of our scientists would get sick and we wouldnt be able to do it, Dr. Schleifer said.
Like many other businesses, the company sent nonessential workers home including Dr. Schleifer, who did conference calls and television appearances from a bedroom in his home. They redirected some cars used by sales representatives to workers who would otherwise rely on public transportation. They staggered researchers shifts so fewer people were in the labs at once.
In late April, the company set up a drive-through testing site in its parking lot, and now requires all employees to get tested at least once every two weeks.
Ms. Giordano and her colleagues, working long hours, took turns grocery shopping at Whole Foods, taking orders for the group. She recalled getting home late one night, eating a bag of defrosted broccoli and carrots for dinner, then collapsing.
In April, the scientists selected their lead candidates for the two-antibody cocktail that would eventually enter clinical trials.
Ms. Giordano turned 25. The group celebrated with a chocolate cake covered in sprinkles. She cut her own bangs. She downloaded the new album by the Strokes, and played it on tiny speakers next to her lab station. (Lana Del Rey was in heavier rotation earlier in the pandemic, she said, because I needed something melodramatic and just kind of soothing in the background.)
Ms. Giordano was listed as an author on two articles in the journal Science describing how Regenerons researchers had selected the antibody cocktail, including their reasoning that, by using two antibodies, they could help prevent resistance to the treatment.
So proud of you!!! her mother wrote in a text.
Now, like everyone else, Ms. Giordano is waiting to see if the antibody treatment will succeed in clinical trials.
While antibody treatments have shown promise in the past, the real question is how well will they work for Covid? said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University. And thats something thats really hard to say, because weve only known about this virus for seven months.
The clinical trials will test how well the antibodies work for three groups: people who are hospitalized, those who are mildly ill and those who have been exposed to someone with the virus. The product will be given as an infusion for people who are sick, and as a lower-dose injection when it is used for prevention. The preliminary results are expected by late summer.
The most intense phase of Ms. Giordanos work on the treatment is now over, and her work schedule has mainly returned to normal. She moved to a new apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and, as the outbreak ebbed in New York, her mother went back to caring for babies.
She knows the treatment may not ultimately work. Its so scary, she said. But she tries to focus on the science, not her fears.
We did our best, and we tried everything that we could to make something that works, she said. And I think thats enough for now.
