Texas has seen a recent uptick in the number of COVID-19 cases, with a record level of new cases and hospitalizations announced Tuesday. People are seen here Monday along the San Antonio River Walk. Eric Gay/AP hide caption
Texas has seen a recent uptick in the number of COVID-19 cases, with a record level of new cases and hospitalizations announced Tuesday. People are seen here Monday along the San Antonio River Walk.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Tuesday the state's highest-ever number of new COVID-19 cases: 2,622.
He also reported a second record high: 2,518 people hospitalized with the virus in Texas, up from 2,326 a day earlier.
Despite the concerning uptick in people sick with the virus, Abbott said that the reason for his news conference was to let Texans know about the "abundant" hospital capacity for treating people with COVID-19. He and other officials spent much of the briefing touting the state's hospital bed availability.
Disclosing the new record high number of hospitalizations related to COVID-19, Abbott emphasized that figure is "really a very small percentage of all the beds that are available."
Texas has so far been spared the high case numbers in other populous states. While it's the second-largest state by population, Texas currently ranks sixth in terms of cumulative case numbers.
Before releasing the number of new cases, Abbott delved into what he said accounted for the previous daily high on June 10, which had 2,504 new cases. The governor said that spike could be largely attributed to 520 positive tests of inmates in Texas prisons being reported at once as well as a data error in a rural county.
He said there are also reasons for why Tuesday's new case count was so high: tests results coming from an assisted living facility near Plano; a county south of Austin where positive cases seemed to be reported in batches; and 104 cases in one East Texas county that appear to be primarily from tests at a prison.
But he also pointed to uncareful behavior as a possible driver in some of the new cases. Abbott said there were a number of counties where a majority of those who tested positive for the coronavirus were under the age of 30, which he attributed to people going to "bar-type" settings or Memorial Day celebrations and not taking health precautions.
Abbott said that measures such as wearing masks, hand sanitizing and social distancing are what make it possible to reopen the state's economy.
Dr. John Hellerstedt, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, struck the same note.
"The message is we are seeing some increase in the number of COVID patients in the state. We expected this," he said. "But we are seeing it occurring at a manageable level. I really want to stress that the continued success is up to the people of the state of Texas."
Despite Abbott's emphasis on the importance of masks, he has barred Texas cities from implementing any rules that would require face coverings.
Abbott signed an executive order on April 27 that says while individuals are encouraged to wear face masks, "no jurisdiction can impose a civil or criminal penalty for failure to wear a face covering."
On Tuesday, the mayors of nine Texas cities including Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Fort Worth and El Paso sent a letter to the governor asking for the authority to set the rules and regulations on the use of face coverings.
"A one-size-fits-all approach is not the best option. We should trust local officials to make informed choices about health policy. And if mayors are given the opportunity to require face coverings, we believe our cities will be ready to help reduce the spread of this disease," they wrote. "If you do not have plans to mandate face coverings statewide, we ask that you restore the ability for local authorities to enforce the wearing of face coverings in public venues where physical distancing cannot be practiced."
Abbott said Tuesday that judges and local officials have other tools available for enforcement such as issuing fines for gatherings that don't follow state protocols.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler extended a stay-at-home warning on Monday amid the news of rising cases but that warning could only be advice to residents and not an order due to the state's preemption.
"People are confused," Adler told NPR's Steve Inskeep on Tuesday. "They just don't know at this point if it's really important to wear face coverings or not, because I think they're feeling like they're getting mixed messaging not only from state leadership but from national leadership. So we're just not getting the vigilance that we need on these efforts."
In Austin, Adler said, you'll see most everyone wearing a mask in grocery stores but not in restaurants or music clubs: "When we started opening up the economy and when the governor took away from cities the ability to make it mandatory, more and more people stopped wearing them."
Adler said he agreed with Abbott that face coverings are key to reopening parts of the economy, even if they're unpleasant for wearers.
"I know it's inconvenient. I know it's hot. I know it's a nuisance," Adler said. "And it's hard to do, and people don't like it. But at the same time, our community has to decide just how much we value the lives of folks in our community that are over 65 and older. We have to decide how much we value the lives of the communities of color that are suffering disproportionately because of this virus."
(CNN) The bars and restaurants are full. People are out enjoying themselves. Spectacular geological attractions are wide open to tourists. Anyone visiting Iceland right now could be forgiven for thinking they've arrived in a parallel universe where the coronavirus never happened.
It's a tantalizing prospect. For people arriving from countries still under lockdown, the sheer normality of eating lunch in a bustling Reykjavik cafe is almost as thrilling as peering over the thundering abyss of Iceland's mighty Gullfoss waterfall.
There's an added bonus for anyone who does make the trip here at the moment. Usually crowded with travelers at this time of year, the country is empty. Visitors will more or less have attractions like Gullfoss or the explosive hot springs of Geysir to themselves.
All to yourself: Iceland's now-empty Gullfoss waterfall.
Mick Krever/CNN
This isn't because Iceland has been immune to Covid-19. In its early stages, the infection wreaked havoc among the island's relatively small population. But thanks to a rigorous regime of tracking and tracing, it has more or less been eliminated, giving the country confidence to reopen borders on June 15.
Two days later, on June 17, Iceland celebrated its annual national day with its usual zeal, locals mingling in the pretty Nordic streets of the capital. There were no face masks or social distancing as Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdttir came out to address the crowds.
Airport swabs
Masks are worn at the airport, but not in the rest of Iceland.
Mick Krever/CNN
There's no complacency though. Before entering Iceland, travelers must wear a mask on flights and within the arrival halls of Keflavik Airport. On landing, they join a new queue for nose and throat swabs to filter out anyone who might be carrying Covid-19.
This can be an unsettling experience. It involves being ushered into a cubicle where two people dressed in full medical protective gear use long plastic sticks to prod much deeper than you might expect to take a sample.
From July 1, when Iceland opens up to countries beyond Europe's Schengen Zone, visitors will have to pay $114 for this process.
Results come by text message several hours later. If positive, visitors must enter quarantine for 14 days regardless of any plans they might have for their visit. There's also the option of forgoing the test and going straight to quarantine.
If the test is negative, visitors are free to enjoy Iceland with no restrictions. As of this coming weekend, they could head straight from the airport to the steaming waters of the Blue Lagoon, just a few miles down the road.
Ultimately, Iceland's screening and contact tracing system has been so efficient that it can boast one of the lowest virus death rates in the world: three per 100,000 people compared to 440 per 100,000 in the UK.
Iceland's bars and restaurants are crowded.
Mick Krever/CNN
What makes that even more notable is that they started off with one of the highest infection rates in Europe -- 513 cases per 100,000 compared to 450 per 100,000 in the UK.
Kri Stefnsson, CEO of deCODE, the private lab in Reykjavik that handles all of Iceland's testing, tells CNN that part of this success is down to efforts to identify regional accents displayed by mutations of the virus arriving from different parts of the world.
"When a virus moves into a new region, it continues to mutate somewhat randomly," Stefnsson says. "Since we have sequenced the virus from everyone in Iceland, we can first determine where the mutation came from and then we can follow it as it's spreading in society."
That data is passed on to the health authorities who use it to trace anyone who might have come into contact with the virus.
Back to work
Crowds hit the streets during Iceland's national day on June 17.
Mick Krever/CNN
Kristin Yr Gunnarsdottir got to experience this first-hand when she was called up by the tracing team and told she had been served by a waiter with Covid-19 during a lunch she'd had six days earlier.
She had to go into isolation and soon developed virus symptoms. Then she was tested positive.
"It was a bit shocking because then I knew I had to be home for at least two weeks, but I ended up being at home for 23 days because you have to be at home without symptoms for seven days before they let you out."
Stefnsson is baffled that other countries aren't using the same system.
"We have been able to work on this in an informed manner rather than poking in the dark and I insist that what has happened in the United States, what has happened in Great Britain, is that, because of lack of screening or lack of an attempt to understand what is really going on, it has been really difficult to contain the infection."
With the virus under control, the government is stepping up again, to help restart the economy, particularly the hard-hit tourism sector. That's why it's so keen to reopen its borders, despite the risk of arrivals bringing in fresh infection.
"I am obviously worried about a second wave, but in Iceland we are faced with very high unemployment rates right now," Prime Minister Jakobsdttir tells CNN. "We are not very used to high unemployment rates, so our guideline now in the government will be how to lower that number and to have more people working again."
The latest official figures show the unemployment rate in Iceland doubled from January to April to 7% and has presumably been climbing ever since.
Attractions such as the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa have been closed since March, which has lost it the revenue from 2,500-3,000 paying visitors on average per day. While it is set to reopen this weekend, numbers will be restricted to reduce the risk of spreading the virus.
Reconnecting with the world
A wide open road: Iceland is hoping more tourists will come.
Mick Krever/CNN
"We were able to hold on for a little while, but it was getting to that point where it wasn't going to be that much longer that we could hold on for with no revenue," he says.
Now that the border is reopening, things are looking up. "Our website traffic surged 500% in a matter of days as soon as the announcement came."
Tourism only accounted for 8% of GDP in 2019 and economists warn that the border opening won't necessarily help the wider economy.
"It's devastating for the tourism industry for sure but as an overall effect, the balance of trade in Iceland has not been hit that severely and opening the borders will also cause currency to flow out of the country with Icelanders traveling abroad," says Professor Tinna sgeirsdttir of the University of Iceland.
"Icelanders, up until now during this Covid crisis, have been spending their money to a greater extent within Iceland, so there are a lot of things to consider."
A group of Polish visitors enjoy a waterfall near Reykjavik.
Mick Krever/CNN
Prime Minister Jakobsdottir also recognizes the pent-up demand among Icelanders for reestablishing connections to the outside world.
"It's not just about the economy, it's also about the fact that we are an island and in our modern times, just having a normal transport between countries is an essential factor and it's very different when you're an island or when you have borders lying with other countries all around. It's a very different situation."
Iceland now hopes to be an example of how to recover from a pandemic as well as how to handle the virus itself.
It'll be an equally challenging test for the cohesiveness and resolve of this small island nation.
ASHEVILLE - North Carolina COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to rise.
As of noon June 20, 883 people were hospitalized with the disease in the state, the highest number since the start of the pandemic, and the fifth consecutive day of record-setting numbers.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services tallied 51,389lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 statewide as of noon June 20, an increase of 1,549 from the previous day. That is the third-highest one-day case increase since the start of the pandemic.
NCDHHS counts a total of 1,212 deaths associated with lab-tested COVID-19 cases statewide, an increase of 15 over the previous day.
Those numbersdiffer from the Johns Hopkins University report in the graphic above.As of about 1:30 p.m. June 20, JHU counted 2,2028,368 confirmed cases and 119,241deaths as a result of COVID-19 in the Unites States. Its worldwide tally was 8,705,724 cases and 461,037 deaths.
As of about noon June 20, Buncombe County reported 487cases, up four from the previous day. The number of COVID-19 related deaths in the county remained at 36
Confirmed cases in other Western North Carolina counties, according to state counts:
The Citizen Times is providing this story for free to readers because of the need for information about the coronavirus. We encourage you to further support local journalism by subscribing.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper on Friday vetoed another attempt by Republican legislators to accelerate the speed in which North Carolina commerce is being restored through his COVID-19 executive order.
Gary D. Robertson of the Associated Press reports that the vetoed measure would have allowed fitness centers and gyms shuttered since March to reopen at 50% capacity and require they follow social distancing and cleanliness rules. The bill also tried again to let still-closed bars reopen for outdoor patrons only and expand current outdoor seating for restaurants already partially reopened for sit-down service.
Two weeks ago, Cooper vetoed a bill containing help for bars and restaurants, saying legislation was the wrong way to reopen during uncertain times in which virus cases could spike. The bill vetoed Friday had offered the governor the authority to still shut down the bars and gyms under his emergency powers, but only with the agreement of the Council of State. The veto shows the "fail-safe" legislators said they gave him wasn't enough.
The Stony Fork Picnic Area in Pisgah National Forest is open.(Photo: John Boyle, jboyle@citizen-times.com)
Looking for something to do on Father's Day?
The weather is expected to be sunny and warm in the Western North Carolina mountains, and more recreation areas are now open in Pisgah National Forest, reports Karen Chvez.
These include the ultra-popular Looking Glass Falls and Picnic Area, and the picnic areas at Pink Beds, Stony Fork, Sycamore Flats, and Coontree in the Davidson River Corridor, as well as all the picnic areas along U.S. 276, and Wash Creek Road/FSR 5000, in the Pisgah Ranger District.
The Forest Service began closing some of its most popular recreation areas in late March and early April as the coronavirus pandemic swept across the country.
More: Summer starts with more Pisgah National Forest openings including Looking Glass Falls
Clarence Robinson, owner of Cooking With Comedy.(Photo: Courtesy of the YMCA)
Local food insecurity has increased during the COVID-19 shutdown, along with unemployment and uncertainty about the economic future. Since mid-March, the YMCA of Western North Carolina has scaled up its traditional nutrition outreach program to meet community needs.
Mackensy Lunsford reports that over the past three months the Y has served more than 40,000 prepared meals through its ongoing partnership with Wicked Weed and Food Connection as part of the Beers That Build initiative. The delivery program has brought meals to children, families, seniors, veterans and shelter residents.
Additionally, the YMCAs award-winning summer feeding program is partnering with three local chefs to serve healthy, delicious food at its summer day camps.
The Ys vending partners are Chef Gene Ettison of the Ettison Investment Group, Chef Aaron Mathews of McDowell Local and Chef Clarence Robinson of Cooking with Comedy Catering.
More: As need expands, Asheville chefs throw support behind YMCA's summer feeding programs
Anthony Little, left, with members of his family.(Photo: Courtesy Photo)
David Thompson reports in this story for subscribers:
Jackie Little would've said goodbye in a different way if she knew this could be the final moment with her husband of 45 years.
Little, a 63-year-old Asheville resident, watched from the parking lot as her husband's silhouette disappeared through the entrance of Mission Hospital on June 15. Anthony Little, 68, had been ill for a week and was suffering from COVID-19 symptoms. .
His wife had not been allowed to follow. Instead she remained in her car alone, amid a fog of worry and confusion.
"I was expecting to see him very soon," Jackie Little said. "He told me through FaceTime that they were going to put some tubes in him and that he'd contact me as soon as he could."
The next day, Jackie Little received a call from a Mission doctor: Anthony Little was dying.
He had tested positive for COVID-19 and had been placed on a respirator. The doctor told Jackie that her husband's kidneys were failing and to begin making end-of-life arrangements.
Read the fullstory: Coronavirus: A COVID-19 diagnosis, a death prognosis and a family's claim of Mission's disparity
Read or Share this story: https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2020/06/21/coronavirus-pandemic-what-you-need-know-asheville-wnc-june-21/3232712001/
But because Covid-19 is transmitted by droplets via coughing or even breathing, rather than by sex, he said, there are a million more exposures from who did you work with on the set to who did you come into contact with before testing positive? Everyones happy to comply with testing because no one wants to work on a set where they can get infected.
If an infection were to occur, the production would shut down. Everyone on the set those infected and those who tested negative would be out of work. Most people in the adult film industry are independent contractors; if theyre not working, theyre not getting paid, so the incentive to keep working is high.
Back in 1998, there was an H.I.V. outbreak in the adult film industry. Marc Wallice, an adult film actor, falsified his H.I.V. test certificate and infected a handful of actresses. H.I.V. tests, at the time, were printed out on paper and could be easily forged.
Sharon Mitchell, a former actress with a doctorate in human sexuality and training taking blood samples, formed the Adult Industry Medical health care foundation that year, formalizing the protocols that would eventually become PASS.
While the acronyms and organizations have changed, and the testing improved, the general principles are the same, Mr. Stabile said.
The system brought a major shutdown in 2004 and two shorter ones in 2013.
I only perform on sets where the PASS system is in place, said Maitland Ward, an adult film star with three Adult Video News Oscars and a former star on the sitcom Boy Meets World. Professional porn follows very strict guidelines on a regular basis, Ms. Ward said. When production resumes, in addition to the coronavirus testing, extra precautions will be in place on sets, such as temperature checks and social distancing among crew members, she said.
Health screenings are the norm for us. I think the adult industry is far more prepared than mainstream film sets or other businesses. This is just one more thing we need to be cautious and vigilant about. Honestly, I think mainstream will be looking to how the adult industry handles this because we are the standard-bearer when it comes to health and safety on sets.
Story By STACEY BURLING, The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA (AP) Anna Marie Bresnan, who lives at Philadelphia Protestant Home, a retirement community in Northeast Philadelphia, is 84 and has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
John and Kitty Stagliano, of Exton, are both 82 and have diabetes and high blood pressure.
Norma Cammisa is 93, has dementia, takes medicine for high cholesterol, and lives in a nursing home in Collingswood.
All of them caught the coronavirus. All of them survived.
Why they did so well when thousands of other people over 80 have succumbed to the new disease is a mystery that intrigues and heartens physicians and aging experts. In New Jersey, 47% of the more than 12,000 people who have died of coronavirus were 80 and older. As of June 5, 58% of Pennsylvania's 5,886 deaths were in that age group. Age, plus chronic health problems such as heart and lung disease or diabetes, greatly increases the odds that people with COVID-19 will get very sick or die.
Even in nursing homes, which are populated by frail elders who need hands-on care, a high percentage of residents who test positive for the virus have had no symptoms or mild ones. Most survive.
Joshua Uy, a Penn Medicine geriatrician who is medical director of a West Philadelphia nursing home that had the city's first coronavirus outbreak, said about a third of the 22 residents there with confirmed coronavirus were asymptomatic, a third had mild symptoms, and the remainder got very sick. Five died.
"We had a 96-year-old guy who never had a symptom," Uy said. Some with mild symptoms have "recovered and it's like nothing ever happened to them."
Uy couldn't predict which residents at Renaissance Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center would be fine and which would "crump," or go into rapid respiratory failure. Patients with obesity another big risk factor and frailty sometimes lived. One resident with serious lung disease survived. "It's really amazing to me," he said. "It blows my mind."
Early in his center's two-week outbreak, he felt hopeless. "On my worst day, I was worried that they were all going to die, to be honest." Then widespread testing revealed how many residents were asymptomatic. Some with symptoms began getting better. "When you look at the numbers," he said, "I think most people will survive it. It just doesn't feel like it at the moment."
Other nursing home medical directors described similar proportions of residents with mild illness and equally surprising survivors. Nina O'Connor, chief of the University of Pennsylvania Health System's palliative care program, cared for a 101-year-old coronavirus patient with no symptoms. Jim Wright, medical director of Canterbury Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center near Richmond, Va., where 136 residents tested positive and 56 died, said one 91-year-old had poor oxygenation for a long time and kept removing her oxygen mask.
"She's in our memory center now," Wright said in wonderment. "Her favorite thing to say is, 'I love you.' She says it every time."
Jim Clancy, executive director of United Methodist Communities of Collingswood, where Cammisa lives, said a 91-year-old who was already on oxygen for advanced lung disease survived while the virus "wiped out" people who were not as sick.
"This is such a strange, random, and devastating virus. ... I don't think any two residents have been affected the same way," he said. Asked what was different about survivors, he said: "This is the thing. There is no rhyme or reason to it."
Wright has started analyzing the numbers at his facility and found no clear trends. He said patients there for rehabilitation, who tend to be younger and stronger than full-time nursing home residents, were more likely to survive. There were no racial differences.
"There was nothing I could put my finger on that determined your course," he said.
In this June 4, 2020 photo, Anna Marie Bresnan, 85, an independent living resident who survived COVID-19, despite having lung disease, poses in Philadelphia. (Jessica Griffin/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)AP
Doctor have theories about why some survive and some dont. Theyre waiting for science.
Scientists will sort this out eventually. In the meantime, speculation focuses on differences in the immune system, genetics, and possibly medications that could alter response to the virus. One doctor suspects that hydration and even sleeping position could be important.
Coronavirus often does not announce itself loudly in the elderly, a fact that allowed it to take hold in many nursing homes before anyone knew it was there. Instead of the classic symptoms we were all initially told to look for fever, cough, and shortness of breath people over 80 often lose their appetites, develop diarrhea, or become confused, agitated, or more subdued. Fevers over 99 are rare.
Sabine von Preyss Friedman, medical director of 50 facilities in Seattle, including one with an early and large outbreak, has learned to look for very subtle changes. "People look at you sideways and they don't look right, you're doing a test," she said.
Doctors said some patients never have more than mild symptoms. Wright said some can go from no symptoms to death in a few hours. Others develop what appears to be an overreaction of the immune system, or cytokine storm, a few days into the infection. In all age groups, this is a hallmark of very serious illness. Elderly people who get this sick typically do not do well, doctors said.
George Anesi, a pulmonary and critical care doctor at Penn Medicine who sees only hospitalized patients, said the virus is harder on people the older they are. Those with low blood-oxygen levels and high inflammation levels do the worst. Those whose problems are confined to their lungs fare much better than those with multi-organ failure.
But that doesn't explain why people have such different reactions to the disease, a question at all ages.
"It likely has to do with idiosyncrasies in their immune system and their genetics," said Amesh Adalja, a Johns Hopkins infectious-disease specialist and spokesperson for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. "That's part of the bigger puzzle with this virus."
The immune system wanes and becomes less efficient with age. These changes could affect both the initial response to the new virus and the more sustained response, experts said. With aging, underlying inflammation tends to increase and cells may not clear waste products as effectively. All of these things can affect the way older people respond to disease.
Chronic illness can accelerate aging. When it comes to fighting infection, chronological age is less important than biological age. An 80-year-old still living independently is more likely to survive than an 80-year-old who is sick enough to be in a nursing home. But the body can also age unevenly. "They might have Alzheimer's, but their immunity is pretty good," said Nir Barzilai, director of the Einstein Institute for Aging and scientific director of the American Federation for Aging Research. "Their liver can be younger than their brain."
Barzilai thinks certain common medications, including the diabetes drug metformin, may improve immune functioning. Nicole Osevala, a Penn State geriatric medicine specialist, wonders about angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, which recently were shown to decrease the risk of hospitalization in older people with COVID-19. Because COVID-19 can increase blood clotting, Stefan Gravenstein, director of geriatrics and palliative care at Alpert Medical School of Brown University, wonders whether people on blood thinners could be protected.
Viral load, or how much virus a patient was exposed to, may also be a factor, Barzilai said.
Because reflux can bring the virus up from the digestive system and lead to aspiration into the lungs, Gravenstein also said older people who go to sleep immediately after a meal this increases reflux could be at higher risk. Sleeping with the head elevated could be protective, although that's hard to test.
He is among many who think that maintaining hydration is crucial for elders with this disease. Nursing-home survivors may have been better at drinking enough liquids, he said.
Providence and gratitude
When Gus Cammisa heard that his mother, who will turn 94 later this month, had the disease late in April, he wondered whether "this is what's going to take her." She was in relatively good health, although she had had a small stroke and sometimes had blood pressure fluctuations. She'd lived a clean life. With COVID-19, she had fevers, needed oxygen, and stopped eating. The staff at United Methodist Communities gave her intravenous fluids. She has very slowly returned to baseline. Cammisa credits good care and Providence. "God decided, 'Not yet.' "
John Stagliano was still delivering auto parts part time when he got sick March 23. While waiting for test results, he felt weak and feverish. He isolated in his man cave. "It's not a hardship, believe me," he said. His wife, Catherine everyone calls her Kitty took care of him. He admits he was worried. "I'm damned scared the first week and I'm thinking, 'Is this the way it's going to end?'"
His son, John Stagliano Jr., said his father's doctors at Penn Medicine Home Health urged him to go to the hospital, but he resisted. Meanwhile, the son, who is a cancer survivor, worried about the fatigue he heard in his mother's voice. He and a brother insisted she go to the hospital. When they arrived to meet her ambulance, she passed out. "I was just so exhausted," she remembered. "I thought it was from climbing up and down the stairs. ... It was the most exhausted I've ever been." She never had much of a fever or cough. Doctors said the virus may have attacked her heart.
Her husband never went to the hospital. She went twice. She's getting better but is still tired. He feels fine. "I can't wait to get back to work," he said.
Bresnan, who lives in independent living with her husband, tested positive on April 14, but she'd already been sick for quite a while. She lost her appetite, along with her sense of taste and smell. She had severe diarrhea and terrible chills. Even though she has COPD, her oxygen levels were always normal and she never had a cough or shortness of breath. She was hospitalized for dehydration and her lungs showed signs of pneumonia. She wasn't frightened until she saw all the protective garb that nurses were wearing. "I just felt so terrible, I didn't even care."
After a week in the hospital, she came home to the rehab unit at Protestant Home. Her energy is back now, but not her appetite. She has no idea why she lived and so many others didn't.
More from PennLive
Face masks, cigarettes & 1-armed bandits with arms tied behind their backs: Hollywood Casino reopens
Enough is enough: Weekend protests in Harrisburg highlight Black history, lack of opportunity for community
Scheduled for the Montreal Casino, the fight would have been her first after winning the North American Boxing Federation female light flyweight title in December. But then, with coronavirus, that fight was canceled.
And then, a revelation: She was young. She was healthy. And she had experience as a nurse in a maternity ward before stopping last year to focus on boxing. She knew she could help.
Clavel thanked the awards for the prize, saying she was "very honored."
"Every decision that I make, every thing I do, I do it with my heart and with passion. Thank you!" she wrote in a tweet, originally in French.
Clavel has seen her fair share of deaths, she told ESPN.
"You run, you run, you run. You don't take a break because you can't take a break. Then the morning comes, you're exhausted, and you give it to the next one," she said.
But even if we may not see Clavel in the boxing ring any time soon, here's how you can watch her take home her award.
How to watch the ESPYS
The ESPY Awards, short for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards, will air Sunday evening at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN and ESPN2.
WNBA champion Sue Bird, two-time World Cup winner Megan Rapinoe and Super Bowl-winning quarterback Russell Wilson will host the event.
WAUKESHA - As limitations imposed by the coronavirus pandemic were lifted, the same could be said of thesigns bearing the old names of three newly rebranded local restaurants.
Taco Amigo is now The Spanish Traveler Comida Latina. Boomerangs is now Waukesha Evolution Bar & Grill. And, as previously reported, Christina's is now The Coop.
In each case, the name changes only coincided with the spread of COVID-19 and the resulting loss of the dining-in option for customers. But the changes aren't limited to names only.
There's a tale behind the former Taco Amigo's new name, both in terms of the idea behind the new brand and the menu it represents.
"The Spanish Traveler is a story of one who travels from Latin America to here, and shares with you what they have to offer," said Joe Woolfolk, who in October 2018 bought Taco Amigo from his uncle and slowly began ushering in changes. "(The restaurant) has its roots not only in Mexico, but it can be from Guatemala, Venezuela, Honduras, or go back even further to the Old World, Spain."
Woolfolk, whose grandfather emigrated from Guatemala decades ago and eventually settled in the area after living in both Louisiana and Texas, began toying with the idea of a name change more than a year ago, but it wasn't as easy as simply ordering new signage.
Taco Amigo, in the Silvernail Shopping Center in Waukesha, has been renamed The Spanish Traveler, reflecting on the restaurant's roots beyond Mexican cuisine. Owner Joe Woolfolk said the process to change the name preceded the coronavirus pandemic and involved a complete rebranding of the restaurant.(Photo: Jim Riccioli/Now News Group)
"It's a long process," he said, noting the carefully plotted decision to tie the name change to a complete rebranding.
The restaurant, located in the Silvernail Shopping Center just south of Interstate 94, has been remodeled, the menu has been revamped and the website and online ordering elements have been enhanced, Woolfolk said.
But the restaurant remains in the family, as it has since the mid-1980s, he added.
The restaurant, which as Taco Amigo maintained curbside-pickup service throughout the state-induced restaurant closures in response to the pandemic, has again opened its doors for dining in its now-remodeled space.
One of Waukesha's many bar and grills doesn't carry the same long history as The Spanish Traveler, but it does sit on the apex of the city's long history downtown.
Waukesha Evolution picks up where Boomerangs left off at the Five Points intersection that marks the heart of downtown last winter. In fact, the bar/restaurant tried to reestablish the business in mid-March, until a certain virus made that impossible.
Boomerangs, which in turn succeeded Meli which succeeded Generations at Five Points at a location long known for its eateries, was opened as a sports bar late last summer. Is Evolution following in those footsteps?
Waukesha Evolution Bar & Grill is the new name of the bar restaurant most previously occupied by Boomerangs at the Five Points intersection in downtown Waukesha. The sign images atop the awning depicts an evolution from ape to a guitar-playing man, a nod to Les Paul.(Photo: Jim Riccioli/Now News Group)
"Not right now, because there's no sports," said co-owner Henry Gacek, with a laugh. But it will be in part, as well as an intended hot spot for downtown patrons.
The name has some significance, Gacek said. For one, it plays on the idea of Waukesha evolving into the Guitar Town, honoring the history of its famous entertainer and music industry tech wizard Les Paul. But it's also about how the previous sports bar can become something more.
"It's kind of going to be a multipurpose bar," he said, with karaoke, DJs and live music at certain times, or a meeting place and birthday party center at other times. "We can do sports during sporting events, and other times we can do other stuff.That's kind of the Evolution thing. We'll evolve into what people want."
Gacek, who partners with Joey Gudgeon in the new venture, had a clear view of Boomerangs' short-lived efforts in recent months. That's because he also owns and operates the Picky Picky Resale Shop directly across the way at Five Points.
Boomerangs didn't fail because it was a poor business decision from the start, he said. With tighter inventory controls and deeper restaurant management experience Gudgeon owned several George Webb locations, including the Sunset Drive location in Waukesha in the past he believes Waukesha Evolution will grow with downtown's modern draw as an arts and entertainment district.
"It's just the kind of a place people can come around to and enjoy," Gacek said.
While it isn'tnews that Christina's All-Day Cafe is transitioning to The Coop, the process isn't yet final.
In a Facebook message, the restaurant acknowledged the remodeling of the Delafied Street building near Waukesha City Hall, is still underway. It's a process that began with the closing of Christina's in March as a result of pandemic control efforts.
A new sign stands for The Coop stands outside the restaurant known for decades as Christina's All Day Cafe on Delafield Street in Waukesha. The restaurant, which changed hands recently, is still in the midst of remodeling.(Photo: Jim Riccioli/Now News Group)
As previously reported, the previous ownersGeorge and Peggy Papagiannis allowed the pandemic to hasten retirement plans already in the works, putting the business into the hands of brothersJoseph and Nicko Sifnaios.
Together, they will operate the longtime Waukesha restaurant site as a breakfast and lunch business, eliminating the suppertime element that previously was part of the menu.
The ownership change puts the former Christina's and the Tuscan Hall Banquet Hall under the same ownership flag again. The banquet hall briefly operated as Christina's II a decade ago.
An opening date for The Coop has not been announced.
Contact Jim Riccioli at (262) 446-6635 or james.riccioli@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jariccioli.
Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.
Autoplay
Show Thumbnails
Show Captions
Read or Share this story: https://www.jsonline.com/story/communities/waukesha/2020/06/19/three-waukesha-restaurants-rebranded-during-coronavirus-pandemic/5327150002/
For years officials in Worcester have lauded the citys growth as strong as any in the country. On Friday, data backed those claims up placing Worcester among national metropolitan titans like Washington D.C., Seattle and San Francisco.
As Massachusetts navigates through phase two of its four-phase reopening strategy, the commonwealths two largest cities are poised to rebound from the coronavirus better than almost every city in the country.
According to analysis from Bloomberg, which ranked the largest 100 cities in the United States, Boston and Worcester fell within the top 10 of metropolitan areas set for growth moving forward.
San Jose and San Francisco captured the top two spots and Boston was third. Worcester ranked eighth far outslugging its weight class. The cities separating Boston and Worcester including Madison, Wisconsin, Seattle, Washington D.C. and Minneapolis.
Worcester ranked higher than New York City, Miami and Denver to name a few.
What catapulted New Englands two largest cities was their foundation of education and a strong health care center, Bloomberg said.
Together, they are home to about 40 colleges and universities and more than 20 hospitals, along with many of the worlds leading biotech companies, Bloomberg said.
Peter Dunn, Worcesters chief development officer, said in the report that health care and education are typically stable industries and tend to be less vulnerable to recession.
Each city also has a high student population due to the array of colleges, meaning that people in the area tend to be younger and not as susceptible to severe outcomes of coronavirus.
Diverse urban economies ranked in the Bloomberg gauge, especially ones that dont rely mainly on leisure and hospitality or on small businesses, the report said. Metro areas with strong human capital - a highly educated labor force - and lower consumer debt also scored higher.
The coronavirus has claimed more than 7,000 lives in Massachusetts so far. Thats the third highest in the country. As of Thursday, the state had confirmed 106,422 cases of the virus.
Gov. Charlie Baker on Wednesday said the progress made in the fight against the virus puts the state on a good trajectory toward the last two phases of its plan to reopen all sectors of the economy. Phase 2 of the states plan began on June 8.
His comments come as Arizona, Florida and Texas on Tuesday all reported their largest single-day increase in case numbers to date, the New York Times reported. The newspaper reported that, based on these spikes in new infections, the U.S. could surpass Europe in overall deaths next week.
Related Content:
A crowd of supporters wait for a Trump campaign rally on Saturday. This is the first political rally since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images hide caption
A crowd of supporters wait for a Trump campaign rally on Saturday. This is the first political rally since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Six campaign staffers working on the advance team for President Trump's rally in Tulsa, Okla., have tested positive for COVID-19, the campaign said Saturday. Trump is still attending the rally.
"Per safety protocols, campaign staff are tested for COVID-19 before events. Six members of the advance team tested positive out of hundreds of tests performed, and quarantine procedures were immediately implemented," Tim Murtaugh, the campaign communications director, said in a statement. He added that none of those staffers or anyone in immediate contact with them will attend the rally. "As previously announced, all rally attendees are given temperature checks before going through security, at which point they are given wristbands, face masks and hand sanitizer."
Those face masks, however, will not be required, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters during a briefing Friday afternoon.
"I won't be wearing a mask," she said. "It's a personal decision. I'm tested regularly. I feel that it's safe for me to not be wearing a mask, and I'm in compliance with CDC guidelines, which are recommended but not required."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone wear "cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain." The Trump campaign is requiring that everyone who attends the rally sign a waiver releasing the campaign and the president of any liability if guests are exposed to COVID-19.
This is the first Trump rally since the pandemic began spreading across the U.S. in February and comes amid a wide dispute over whether the rally should even take place. On Friday, the Oklahoma Supreme Court rejected an appeal in a lawsuit filed this week by a group of Tulsa residents who were fighting to have organizers enforce social distancing measures. The lawsuit said that the rally could increase the spread of COVID-19, because it is held indoors at a 19,000-seat center in Oklahoma, a state that has seen a spike in the virus. Tulsa was also supposed to be under curfew for the weekend, but it was lifted on Friday.
"Last night, I enacted a curfew at the request of Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin, following consultation with the United States Secret Service based on intelligence they had received," Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said in a statement. "Today, we were told the curfew is no longer necessary so I am rescinding it."
Early results of a new study from University of Oxford researchers show that dexamethasone improved survival in some patients with COVID-19. Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption
Early results of a new study from University of Oxford researchers show that dexamethasone improved survival in some patients with COVID-19.
Earlier this week, researchers in the United Kingdom announced preliminary results from a clinical trial that showed a low-cost steroid called dexamethasone appeared to lower the risk of death in patients with COVID-19.
The researchers said the anti-inflammatory drug reduced the number of deaths in COVID-19 patients on ventilators or oxygen alone by one-third.
But details of the study did not accompany the announcement. And the announcement followed several prominent revisions in the advice that researchers have given around the coronavirus in recent weeks.
Which is why Dr. Kirsten Lyke, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, warns that a premature endorsement for the treatment can carry risks.
Lyke, who is running a coronavirus vaccine trial, said that, particularly when dealing with a new kind of virus, we "need to be extremely cautious" when rolling out treatments that have not gone through a rigorous vetting process.
"This is a press release, so they're going to basically give us sort of the bottom line," Lyke said about the dexamethasone announcement in an interview with NPR's Weekend Edition. "But there's a lot to unravel."
Dexamethasone has been successful at treating inflammatory conditions like arthritis and asthma. The research team behind the trial wanted to figure out whether the drug could also alleviate lung inflammation in COVID-19 patients.
"Many of us would like to see the peer review paper to understand how these people were randomized, who was not randomized. That's important to know," Lyke said.
But, in a world not pressured by a pandemic, a legit vetting process like that can take years, said Lyke. And she worries that a hasty embrace of the drug could do more harm than good.
"People really want to get results out quickly," she said. "But at the same time, if things are released too early or there's harm that occurs from the intervention, that really erodes public trust."
Lyke said researchers need to be mindful to avoid a scenario where, as was the case with the drug hydroxychloroquine, a treatment is championed before it has a chance to stand up to strict scientific scrutiny.
That wasn't the first instance of confusion over messaging related to the science around the coronavirus. For example, public health officials' guidance on whether the public should wear masks initially fluctuated until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officially recommended face coverings in April.
Lyke acknowledged the early mixed messaging was "frustrating" for researchers and the public alike, but reminded that one line of messaging around face coverings has been consistent.
"Typically, we say that using a mask doesn't necessarily protect you. It protects other people," she said. "It's really useless if you're the only one wearing it in a crowd. It has to be the entire crowd."
In order for such evidence-based health measures to work in the fight against the coronavirus, she said, everyone has to participate.
"There's a lot of individualism in the United States, but the pandemic and the virus don't really respect the individualism," said Lyke. "I think we need to really be stepping up as a group and protecting each other."
NPR's Elena Schwartz and Ed McNulty produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Emma Bowman produced the story for Web.
