OLYMPIA Gov. Jay Inslee Tuesday announced a statewide mandate requiring facial coverings in public to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, as cases again begin to rise in Washington.
And for Yakima County which has nearly as many COVID-19 cases as the state of Oregon and where health care workers are struggling with the surge Inslee ordered even more stringent requirements to make sure people cover their faces while at businesses.
The new orders, set to take effect Friday, come after King County last month put in place its own requirements to wear facial coverings.
In a news conference where he was joined by state Health Secretary John Wiesman and the presidents of Costco and the union UFCW 21, Inslee called the new orders imperative as economic activity increases.
I think this is the way we need to look at this, said the governor. We just cannot wish this virus to go away. We have to use tools that are available to us that we know, that work.
The statewide mandate to be formally issued by Wiesman requires people over the age of 5 to wear face coverings generally while they are in any indoor or outdoor public space.
Masks will not be required outdoors when people can stay more than 6 feet apart from each other, while indoors at home with others, or while alone in a vehicle.
While children under 5 are exempt, the order recommends kids between the ages of 3 and 5 wear facial coverings.
Also exempt from the governors order: people who cannot wear a mask for medical reasons, or who are deaf or hard of hearing, specifically when they are communicating with another person.
And the order will recognize times when people can remove their masks, such as when they are eating at a restaurant, or engaged in a recreational activity either alone or with members of their household.
Violations of the statewide order are a misdemeanor, Inslee said, but we dont want to have enforcement of this.
Mandates for facial coverings have caused concern among some Black men about racial profiling by law enforcement or as being seen as a threat for covering their faces. But Inslee urged residents to also weigh the risks of contracting the virus, which has disproportionately hit people of color.
And given the ability to save somebody you love, or even a stranger that youll never meet, we hope that on the scale of things to think about, that that will be tipping the scales towards safety of everybody else around you, he said.
For Yakima County, the governor announced an emergency proclamation that will specifically bar businesses from operating, or allowing customers to enter any business, unless customers cover their faces.
Businesses in Yakima County could face sanctions or the loss of their business licenses if they dont comply with the new order, Inslee said.
Tuesdays announcement was made as health officials try to get a handle on the increasing spread of the virus in the county of about 255,000 people.
Yakima County through the end of Monday had reported 6,435 cases of COVID-19, according to the state Department of Health. The county remains in the first and most restrictive phase of the states four-part reopening plan.
State health officials confirmed 516 new coronavirus infections in Washington on Tuesday, as well as eight additional deaths.
The update brings the statestotals to 29,386 cases and 1,284 deaths, meaning about 4.4% of people diagnosedin Washington have died, according to the state Department of Healths (DOH)data dashboard. The data is as of 11:59 p.m. Monday.
Inslee had earlier in the pandemic stayed away from issuing a facial-covering requirement. But on Tuesday, he said the outbreak in Yakima County and an increasing body of research on facial coverings swayed him.
In the news conference, Wiesman, the Health Department secretary, cited a review in the Lancet, a peer-reviewed medical journal.
Published earlier this month, the review of about 172 observational studies over how factors like physical distancing, face masks, and eye protection affect the spread of the new and other coronaviruses.
Analysis of 10 studies found that masks reduced the risk of transmission of coronaviruses from about 17% to 3%, according to a news release about the study, which did note limitations on the certainty of the evidence.
Solutions should be found for making face masks available to the generalpublic. However, people must be clear that wearing a mask is not an alternativeto physical distancing, eye protection or basic measures such as hand hygiene,but might add an extra layer of protection, said Dr. Derek Chu, aco-author of the analysis and an assistant professor at McMaster University, in thenews release.
Dr.Jared Baeten, the vice dean of the UWs School of Public Health, called Tuesdaysannouncement a good policy decision.
Masks take us a long way to prevent infection in other people and ourselves and to everybody coming together to defeat coronavirus, said Baeten, who is also an infectious-disease physician.
The message from some scientists and public health experts about masks and face coverings has changed and evolved during the course of the pandemic, which Baeten acknowledged might be confusing or frustrating to people.
Threemonths ago, we were all worried there werent enough masks in the country tokeep our frontline workers safe and our hospitals open, Baeten said, referringto medical-grade masks. At that time, there wasnt a mandatory push formasking, in large part, to make sure we didnt have a run on masks that wouldhave made all of us less safe.
Now, supplies have improved and health officials better understand how the virus can spread from infected people without symptoms or those who have yet to develop them.
Several people hanging out in a park in Seattles Ravenna neighborhood Tuesday afternoon didnt have strong objections to the new order.
Mary Kachel and Erin Sekulich, who were chatting on a picnic bench, said they thought the statewide mandate was a good idea.
It doesnt seem like much of a stretch than what were already doing, said Sekulich, 45, though she added her mask made her feel like [she] was wearing a political statement when she recently made a trip out to Leavenworth, where the general public wasnt as diligent about covering their faces.
Kachel, 42, said she didnt think the statewide order was the end of the world.
I think the science supports it, Sekulich said.
David Rodriguez, 35, said he approved of the new order and he hoped it would target more rural communities, where outbreaks have recently gotten worse.
I dont feel like were in the clear, Rodriguez said.
He added that he would be worried about the penalty of forgetting a face covering in public.
It depends on how much a citation would be, he said. Im not working now But I think warnings are appropriate.
For some Yakima business owners, it doesnt matter whether they agree with Tuesdays mask directive: Theyll follow it to ensure their business survival. Many businesses in the county wont reopen until the infection rate falls.
Businesses just want to be open, said Melissa DeRosier,the owner of Nouveau Spa and Salon in western Yakima. The salons eight hairdressersare out of work, and DeRosiers federal coronavirus aid is about to expire.Were afraid the whole valley will just be a ghost town. Some clients arentgoing to like it [wearing a mask], but if theyre going to want to get theirhair done, theyre going to have to do it.
The number of Yakima residents wearing masks while shoppinghas nearly doubled from late May, according to a Yakima Health District survey.By mid-June, nearly 65% of residents wore masks while shopping.
That means that nearly 35% of Yakima residents arentcovering their faces in public. Nestor Hernandez, the president of YakimasHispanic Chamber of Commerce, said he sees a divide between how people behavewhen theyre on and off the clock.
A lot of agricultural workers wear the mask at work but assoon as they get off work, its like everything is back to normal, he said.Its hard culturally. Everyones anxious to be out shopping.
A bartender wearing a face mask and gloves checks a patron's ID at Under the Volcano in Houston last month. Texas is one of the states seeing a big uptick in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
A bartender wearing a face mask and gloves checks a patron's ID at Under the Volcano in Houston last month. Texas is one of the states seeing a big uptick in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations.
About 120,000 Americans have now died from the coronavirus.
While the national number of daily deaths has declined in recent weeks, new confirmed cases are on the rise in almost half the country, including spikes in Florida, Texas and Arizona, where the president is headed Tuesday.
"We saved millions of lives, and now it's time to open up," President Trump said definitively Saturday night during his campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla.
Trump's referring to an earlier estimate that found there could be up to 2.2 million deaths if the country did nothing to contain the outbreak. But he spent months downplaying the virus when health experts were imploring more action sooner. And those experts are now warning it's not time to act as if the pandemic is over.
"[T]hat's why I think you're seeing right now increases in a number of states, because everybody's back to a pre-pandemic mindset," Michael Osterholm, director for the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and author of Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs, said on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday. He warned that the coronavirus is like a "forest fire" that is showing no signs of slowing down.
Early on, the pandemic was largely affecting "blue," or Democratic-leaning areas, especially New York, but now most new cases are in the South and redder parts of the country. The Trump administration and some Republican governors have been blaming increased testing for the rise in cases, but in many places cases are increasing more than testing and that certainly doesn't explain away rising hospitalizations in places like Texas.
The campaign of presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden is making competence a core part of its argument against Trump, and it hit him again for it because of other remarks he made Saturday night.
"When you do testing to that extent, you are gonna find more people, you're gonna find more cases," Trump said. "So I said to my people, 'Slow the testing down, please.' They test and they test. We have tests that people don't know what's going on."
The White House says he was being "tongue in cheek," but Trump has repeatedly said testing makes the United States look bad by, in his view, increasing the number of reported cases. A Democratic group has already cut an ad centering on his remarks.
It will be key to watch political reaction on the right if cases and hospitalizations continue to rise in these parts of the country, as things like wearing masks something the president initially encouraged Americans to do have become politicized.
So far, though, Trump's power of persuasion with his base continues to outweigh the coronavirus's shift toward Red America.
1. Possible progressive surge in elections: Five states hold primaries Tuesday Kentucky, New York, North Carolina, Virginia and Mississippi.
State Rep. Charles Booker, pictured, faces Amy McGrath in Kentucky's Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate. Bryan Woolston/AP hide caption
State Rep. Charles Booker, pictured, faces Amy McGrath in Kentucky's Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate.
In Kentucky, the race between the two Democrats vying for the right to take on Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is coming down to the wire. State Rep. Charles Booker has all the momentum and progressive backing over Amy McGrath, a retired Marine Corps fighter pilot who has all the money and the party endorsement but also lost a congressional race in the 2018 Democratic wave.
Either faces an uphill battle in a general election against McConnell in Kentucky, but a new video from Booker encapsulates a lot of the messages Democrats are trying to push nationally about working class economics, protests and Black Lives Matter.
In New York, pay attention to progressives going after establishment Democrats, especially in the race between longtime Rep. Eliot Engel and Jamaal Bowman, a former Bronx principal who has won the endorsements of Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Missteps from Engel, who last faced a competitive primary 20 years ago, opened the door for Bowman, who has raised $2 million and is surging.
2. Battleground Arizona, Wisconsin: Speaking of elections, Trump heads to Yuma, Ariz., on Tuesday to survey part of the border fence with Mexico before heading to Phoenix. Vice President Pence, meanwhile, will be in Wisconsin. It's no coincidence that they're heading to those places amid the president's slipping poll numbers. Wisconsin and Arizona could very well be tipping-point states this November.
3. Hearing on DOJ independence Wednesday: Like something out of an episode of Showtime's Billions, Attorney General William Barr announced the resignation of Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan last week. Problem: Berman, who has been investigating people close to Trump, said he didn't resign. Barr later said in a statement that Berman had "chosen public spectacle over public service" and asked Trump to intervene and fire him. Trump did, but added, "[T]hat's really up to him [Barr]. I'm not involved."
And now Congress is involved to investigate it all.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., is promising to try and secure Berman's testimony. "The whole thing smacks of corruption and incompetence, which is what we have come to expect from this President and his Attorney General," Nadler said in a statement. Nadler was already slated to hold a meeting Wednesday with two whistleblowers on political interference at the Department of Justice.
4. Votes on police reform on Capitol Hill expected: The Senate will debate, and possibly vote on, police reform. There's a key procedural vote scheduled for Wednesday. On Thursday, the House is expected to pass the Democratic police reform bill mostly along party lines. You wonder how many people are tuning in to politics for the first time and watching the meat grinder of Congress work and what their impressions are do they turn away, thinking politics is futile and not a great way to effect change, or does it make them more likely to vote?
5. Trump's immigration executive order: Following his administration's loss over the DACA program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, at the Supreme Court last week, President Trump is expected to sign an executive order suspending temporary work visas through the end of the year, NPR's Franco Ordoez reports. The suspensions are expected to include visas that affect skilled workers like in the tech industry (H-1B), executives at large corporations (L-1), seasonal workers like hotel and construction workers (H-2B) and research scholars and professors (J-1).
"I said, 'General, there's no way I can make it down that ramp without falling on my ass, general.' "
Trump during his Tulsa rally on Saturday, delivering a defense of his walking down a ramp at West Point. The president noted that he had leather-soled shoes on and didn't want to fall like former President Gerald Ford coming out of the airplane.
Trump went on a long tangent to discuss and, at times, reenact, his gingerly walking down the ramp and questions raised about his using a second hand to drink water. He said he didn't want to get any on his tie. Philip Bump at The Washington Post found Trump spent one out of every eight minutes of his Tulsa speech talking about West Point, or 14 minutes and 53 seconds of a speech that lasted one hour and 43 minutes.
The way British soaps organize time is important, said Christine Geraghty, a professor of film and television studies at the University of Glasgow. They take place on a day-to-day basis. Characters wake up in the morning and go to bed at night. British soaps keep going: you dont always start a new episode at the exact place the last one finished. Cliffhanger endings, she said, tend to be deployed only for major plotlines.
Mostly, the postman comes in the morning, and the day ends with a drink in the pub, she said. The rhythms in a soap make it a recognizable world. You might know, as a viewer, that things like that dont quite happen in real life, but you can place it all within the scope of your own experience.
The stories can, of course, be outlandish planes crash on the Yorkshire village where Emmerdale is set with alarming frequency but the landscape, too, is constructed to feel familiar.
It is our world, but it is not our world, said Carole OReilly, a senior lecturer in media and television studies at the University of Salford. It looks and feels recognizable: a heightened version of the world we see.
She picks out the backdrop of Coronation Street based on Salford itself as authentically northern: the architecture of back-to-back terraced housing and cobbled streets, the social life revolving around the pub. But so, too, is the tone of the characters interactions. Direct and to the point, according to Geraghty, or gregarious and outgoing, to OReilly: all of it distinctly (if not uniquely) Mancunian.
But while British soaps set out to reflect the world, they are selective about which elements of the real world are allowed to seep in. Coronation Street has taken on a lot of social issues, Geraghty said. It has dealt with racism, domestic abuse, violence, trans rights. But it doesnt do current events; soaps are filmed too far in advance to deal with real events in real time, and besides, theyre too political.
Israeli Researchers Say Their COVID-19 Vaccine Proves Effective In Hamsters | Health News NoCamels - Israeli Innovation News
Welcome to theFiercePharmapolitical roundup, where each Monday well highlight developments in Washington, D.C., and elsewherethat could affect drug pricing and how drugmakers operate.
About sixmonths into the pandemic and about 130 days until the U.S. presidential election, COVID-19 vaccines are moving ahead at record speeds. Now, a group of analysts predicts at least one vaccine will be approved before November 3.
Jefferies healthcare strategist Jared HolztoldMarketWatch that perhaps multiple vaccines could get FDA authorizationsearly in the fourth quarter and quell fears of a second wave of COVID-19.
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The teamcited severalreasons why an approval, or emergency use authorization, may come before the November election. For one, Trump could push the FDA behind the scenes toissue an approval or emergency authorization. Moderna and AstraZeneca, two vaccine front-runners, have already told the analysts an approval could happen on that timeline, according to the report.
RELATED:FDA official leaves 'Warp Speed' to preserve independent regulatory power: report
Meanwhile, a vaccine approval mightliftthe entire industry,rather thanjust one or two companies,Holz told the publication.Ifthe industrydelivers a successful shot,itdbe seen as saving the day amidthe pandemic, and that would lift sentiment around all of biopharma. With that lift, thered be less political pressure to take on drug pricing.
The analysts at Jefferies arent the only market watcherswho believe vaccines could be approved before the election.In a New York Timesop-edearlier this month, University of Pennsylvania professorsEzekiel Emanuel and Paul Offitwarned about a possible October surprise in the form of a COVID-19 vaccine approval on political grounds.
FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn, though, said his agency wont be pressured to approve a shot for politicalreasons. HetoldThe Guardian that science and datanot politicshas and will always guide our decision-making, including our work related to vaccines.
Several vaccines, including thosefrom Moderna and AstraZeneca, are slated forlate-stagetests this summer, The Wall Street Journal has reported. Worldwide, about 140 COVID-19 vaccines are in development, and 13 are in human testing, according to the World Health Organization.
RELATED:Moderna, AstraZeneca and J&J coronavirus shots rev up for NIH tests beginning in July: WSJ
Meanwhile,on the subject of drugpricing regulations, several companiesscored a winlast weekagainst the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) when aU.S. appeals court found that the bodydoesnt have the authority to compeldrugmakersto include prices in TV ads.
Investors are watching the race to develop a coronavirus vaccine closely for signs of when the U.S. economy can begin to get back on track. Sanofi is one of the drugmakers leading the charge with clinical trials, which are expected to start later this year. Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson joins "Squawk Box" to discuss the latest regarding vaccine developments.
05:50
Tue, Jun 23 20208:04 AM EST
Dr. Anthony Fauci said it's a question of 'when, not if' the United States will have a vaccine for COVID-19.
WASHINGTON The next few weeks are critical to tamping down a disturbing coronavirus surge, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Congress on Tuesday issuing a plea for people to avoid crowds and wear masks just hours before mask-shunning President Donald Trump was set to hold a campaign rally in one hot spot.
Fauci and other top health officials also said they have not been asked to slow down virus testing, in contrast to Trumps claim last weekend that he had ordered fewer tests be performed because they were uncovering too many infections. Trump said earlier Tuesday that he wasn't kidding when he made that remark.
We will be doing more testing, Fauci, infectious disease chief at the National Institutes of Health, pledged to a House committee conducting oversight of the Trump administration's response to the pandemic.
The leading public health officials spent more than five hours testifying before the committee at a fraught moment, with coronavirus cases rising in about half the states and political polarization competing for attention with public health recommendations.
Fauci told lawmakers he understands the pent-up desire to get back to normal as the U.S. begins emerging from months of stay-at-home orders and business shutdowns. But that has to be a gradual step-by-step process and not throwing caution to the wind, he said.
Plan A, dont go in a crowd. Plan B, if you do, make sure you wear a mask, Fauci said.
Troubling surges worsened Tuesday in several states, with Arizona, Texas and Nevada setting single-day records for new coronavirus cases, and some governors saying theyll consider reinstating restrictions or delaying plans to ease up in order to help slow the spread of the virus.
Arizona, where Trump was headed for a rally at a Phoenix megachurch, reported a new daily record of nearly 3,600 additional coronavirus infections Tuesday. Arizona emerged as a COVID-19 hot spot after Republican Gov. Doug Ducey lifted his stay-home orders in mid-May. Last week he allowed cities and counties to require masks in public places and many have done so.
Texas surpassed 5,000 new cases for a single day for the first time just days after it eclipsed 4,000 new cases for the first time as Americas largest pediatric hospital began taking adult patients to free up bed space in Houston. The infection rate in Texas has doubled since late May. And Nevada surpassed a record one-day increase for the fourth time in the past eight days. Other states also were experiencing worrisome surges, including Louisiana, Utah and South Carolina.
Last week, Vice President Mike Pence published an opinion article in The Wall Street Journal saying the administration's efforts have strengthened the nation's ability to counter the virus and should be a cause for celebration.
Another worrisome trend: an increase in infections among young adults. Fauci said while COVID-19 tends to be less severe in younger people, some of them do get very sick and even die. And younger people also may be more likely to show no symptoms yet still spread the virus.
If people say, Im young, Im healthy, who cares you should care, not only for yourself but for the impact you might have on sickening someone more vulnerable, Fauci said.
About 2.3 million Americans have been infected and some 120,000 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Republican Rep. David McKinley of West Virginia asked if Fauci regretted that the American public wasnt urged sooner to wear face masks, and then interrupted before the visibly annoyed scientist finished answering.
Fauci said he didnt regret the change in recommendations. Early in the pandemic there was a paucity of equipment for health workers who put themselves daily in harms way and we did not want to divert those scarce supplies, he said.
Scientists eventually recommended the general public use cloth masks, after they better understood that people with no symptoms could be spreading the virus even though they don't offer as much protection as the sophisticated masks reserved for health workers and aren't a substitute for staying 6 feet away from other people.
Trump, meanwhile, doubled down on testing claims that have public health experts appalled, tweeting Tuesday:
Cases are going up in the U.S. because we are testing far more than any other country, and ever expanding. With smaller testing we would show fewer cases!
Less testing in fact means more infections going undetected. The U.S. was slow in ramping up and currently is testing about 500,000 people a day. Many experts say to control the spread of the virus, it should be testing 900,000 or more.
Brett Giroir, a Health and Human Services assistant secretary, told lawmakers Tuesday the next step is testing patient samples in large batches to stretch limited supplies, which would expand U.S. screening between fivefold and tenfold.
Instead of testing each person individually, health workers would pool samples from 50, 100 or more people from the same office or school, for example. A negative result would clear everyone, while a positive would require each person to be individually re-tested.
And Dr. Robert Redfield, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, added that its now required for workers in nursing homes hard-hit by the virus to be tested weekly.
As for the anxiously awaited vaccine, Fauci said he believes it will be when and not if it arrives, and hes cautiously optimistic that some vaccine could be available at the end of the year.
More than a dozen vaccine candidates are in various stages of testing around the globe, and the U.S. next month is poised to begin the largest study in 30,000 people to get the needed proof that one really works. Meanwhile, countries, including the U.S. under a program called Operation Warp Speed, have begun stockpiling millions of doses of different shots, in hopes at least some will prove usable.
Health officials assured lawmakers Tuesday that there wont be shortcuts on safety.
We absolutely must maintain regulatory independence and make the right decision for the American people based on the science and the data, said Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn.
Democrats blasted Trump for confusing the public with erroneous statements from testing to masks to unproven treatments and ignoring the public health experts advice.
It costs lives, Rep. Kathy Castor of Florida said of Trumps false claims. She urged the public health specialists to do more to counter the president: We really expect you to be more outspoken.
Pushed on whether schools should reopen in August and September, Redfield insisted that will vary not just by state but by school district, depending on how many infections are in a particular area.
Many jurisdictions will be reopening schools, and CDC will soon issue some guidelines to help, he said.
Fauci noted that schools should tailor their decisions to local conditions, saying some might need few restrictions and others more. He offered the same advice to colleges, saying they should assume some students will get infected and that there must be ways to keep them and their classmates safe.
Many of us are well-aware of the everyday tactics of battling the coronavirus: wearing masks, washing our hands and staying six feet apart from others. But what are the recent developments in the medical world in terms of treatment or prevention?
Health experts and economists report the United States may not return to life before COVID-19 until a vaccine is widely available. While The New York Times reports more than 140 potential vaccines are in development, none have yet to be approved for use.
Dr. Charlie Monteiro serves on the board of the Durham-Orange County Medical Society and is the former president of the North Carolina Medical Society. In a recent interview with 97.9 The Hills Aaron Keck, Monteiro said the development process is moving very quickly compared to normal and said he thinks its going better than expected.
Vaccine development or any new drug or treatment development has to go through various phases to determine whether it works and is safe, Monteiro said. Then, it gets compared to whatever the standard treatment is to determine if its acceptable to be approved. The vaccine research is getting into the third phase and thats the last phase before it gets approved. Thats very exciting.
One popular option discussed in the absence of a vaccine has been developing antibodies, which happens when someone recovers from COVID-19 and their body has developed a way to combat it. Monteiro said there have been some cases where a serum is made with a persons antibodies to treat severely ill coronavirus patients. But he said he thinks the methods of either administering or everyone naturally developing antibodies to the coronavirus are unlikely to be what solves the pandemic.
The antibody test has been a disappointment, from my experience, said Monteiro. Ive tested a number of patients who were proven positive and Ive only had one come back positive with antibodies. That patient had been severely ill and hospitalized. I think the false negative rate for the antibody test is very high and, unfortunately, not good enough.
In the meantime, Monteiro said strides have been made regarding drug treatment for patients who have the coronavirus. For the most severe cases, he said a drug developed at UNC has seen success.
Theres an antiviral drug called remdesivir, said Monteiro, which has demonstrated to be beneficial for very severely ill patients who are in the intensive care unit. [When a patients] oxygen levels are below 94 percent oxygen saturation, those are the indicators to use [remdesivir] and its been demonstrated to be helpful.
Monteiro also said recently-published research from the United Kingdom showed progress with using an anti-inflammatory steroid to combat COVID-19.
We found out that dexamethasone, a very inexpensive, powerful oral or IV steroid, has been effective in treating very sick patients, he described.
Whenever a vaccine ultimately comes out, theres likely to be challenges making it widely available.
Who does Monteiro think it should go to first?
I think along the front lines for those who are most at-risk he said, and of course all of our frontline workers who have [already] been exposed. I think its going to be [given] there first, for sure.
For daily updates of COVID-19 cases in Orange and Chatham Counties, as well as across North Carolina, visit Chapelboros coronavirus tracker web page.
Photo viaAP Photo/Brian Inganga.
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