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On Thursday, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control reported 987 new COVID-19 cases a new daily record.
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Staff, The Greenville News & Independent Mail Published 5:41 a.m. ET June 19, 2020 | Updated 4:07 p.m. ET June 19, 2020
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This is a developing storythat will be updatedthroughout the day with the latest newsabout the coronavirus pandemic and its effects in UpstateSouth Carolina.
SC COVID-19 map: County-by-county look at coronavirus cases
Coronavirus noticias en Carolina del Sur: Empresas que suponen contacto cercano pueden reabrir
Full coverage: Everything you need to know about coronavirus in South Carolina
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control on Friday reported another single-day high in new coronavirus cases. Today, 1,081 new coronavirus cases were reported, shattering yesterday's single-day record of 987. SCDHEC also reported 18 additional deaths.
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Unemployment estimates showed little movement, decreasing to 303,218 people, according to the SC Department of Employment and Workforce.
Nationally, the unemployment rate declined from 14.7 percent in April to 13.3 percent in May, thus reflecting the continued impact of the virus on the household survey data.
Clemson University officials have reaffirmed their decision to resume in-person instruction in the fall, but have not announced when the majority of employees can return to campus as coronavirus cases continue to rise.
Since Clemson launched its three-phase reopening plan on June 1, Pickens County has seen more than 130 newcases of COVID-19, according to an analysis of State Department of Health and Environmental Control data.
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COVID-19 cases and testing over time. Source: PA Department of Health
New COVID-19 cases bumped up in PA, with the state reporting over 500 new diagnoses.
The state Department of Health today reported 526 new positive cases for the 24-hour period ending at midnight.
This breaks a trend of five straight days near 400 cases, though the long-term trend of lower cases overall remains intact.
Cases peaked in early April at nearly 2,000 daily new cases. Since then, cases have shown a gradual decline, despite increasingly greater testing levels for the virus.
With the additional cases, 80,762 Pennsylvanians have now been diagnosed with the coronavirus.
Locally, total diagnosed cases are as follows:
Overall, 12.6 percent of PA residents tested have shown to be positive for the virus.
The department also reported an additional 38 deaths, meaning that 6,399 Pennsylvanians have died from the disease since March.
Around central PA, the COVID-19 fatality data now stands as follows:
Statewide, Philadelphia County continues to have the most confirmed cases with 20,404 cases, followed by Montgomery County with 8,046 cases. The two counties also have reported the most deaths statewide from the disease: 1,550 and 780, respectively.
With more than half of the state now in the green phase of the process to reopen, it is essential that we continue to take precautions to protect against COVID-19, health Secretary Rachel Levine said. The commonwealths careful, measured approach to reopening is working as we see case counts continue to decline even as many other states see increases. But the virus has not gone away.
Nearly all of the Harrisburg area is now in the green phase of reopening, which means fewer restrictions on businesses and gatherings. Locally, Lancaster and Lebanon counties are the only counties that remain in the more restrictive yellow phase.
Nursing homes and personal care facilities have been particularly hard hit by the virus. Of total deaths, 4,345, or 67.9 percent, have occurred in residents from nursing or personal care facilities, according to the health department.
In nursing and personal care homes, there are 16,895 resident cases of COVID-19, and 3,012 cases among employees, for a total of 19,907 at 651 distinct facilities in 47 counties, according to the health department.
In addition, about 6,141 of total cases in PA are in health care workers.
Statewide, 637,218 coronavirus tests have been performed, with 556,456 people testing negative, according to the state health department. Yesterday, the state reported that 624,068 people had been tested for the virus.
Of the patients who have tested positive to date, the age breakdown is as follows, according to the health department:
Most of the patients hospitalized are 65 or older, as are most of the reported deaths, according to the state.
Levine continued to emphasize that Pennsylvanians should do the following:
Each of us has a responsibility to protect ourselves, our loved ones and others by wearing a mask, maintaining social distancing and washing our hands frequently, Levine said. Together, we can protect our most vulnerable Pennsylvanians, our essential workers and our healthcare system.
For more information, visit the PA Department of HealthsCOVID-19 website.
Editors Note: With this article, we are ending our daily COVID-19 updates, which we began three months ago. Instead, we will report weekly, each Friday, or as breaking news warrants.
The latest developments in the COVID-19 pandemic in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) reported 362 new cases of COVID-19 and 17 additional deaths across the state on Friday.
That brings the statewide totals to 32,031 cases and 1,361 deaths. Of those deaths, 1,077 happened in long-term care or assisted living.
The 362 new cases reported Friday are down from 387 cases reported Thursday.
Hospitalizations are slowly trending downward with 339 patients hospitalized as of Thursday and 168 of them in the ICU.
MDH reported that 14,216 tests were completed Thursday.
People ages 30-39 have the highest number of cases in the state with6,483 and 10 deaths.
People ages 80-89 have the highest number of deaths with 465 out of1,480 cases.
As he will do for the 19th of every month in 2020, Gov. Tim Walz instructed all flags across state and federal buildings to be flown at half staff from sunrise to sunset in memory of those lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thousands of Minnesotans have lost dear friends and close family members in the fight against COVID-19. Each life taken has been a heartbreaking tragedy for our state. In these challenging times, we must work together to slow the spread of this pandemic," the governor said in a Thursday statement.
Businesses, individuals and other organizations across the state are also encouraged to do the same, in a show of support not only for those lost, but also the loved ones they've left behind.
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) issued new guidance Thursday for long-term care (LTC) facilities looking for safe ways to allow friends and family members to visit residents during the coronavirus pandemic.
For outdoor visits, MDH makes the following recommendations for long-term care residents:
MDH also lists recommended visitor criteria for outdoor visits at a long-term care facility:
The Minnesota Department of Education released a 100-page guide for public schools to prepare for three potential schooling scenarios in the upcoming academic year.
A final decision for the schooling scenario that will be used is expected to be made July 27.
The three scenarios outlined in the guide are: in-person learning, hybrid learning and distance only learning.
MDE said in their guidance that it is possible that all three scenarios could be used in the 2020-21 school year.
KARE 11s coverage of the coronavirus is rooted in Facts, not Fear. Visit kare11.com/coronavirus for comprehensive coverage, find outwhat you need to know about the Midwest specifically, learn more about thesymptoms, and see what businesses are open as the state slowly lifts restrictions. Have a question? Text it to us at 763-797-7215. And get the latest coronavirus updates sent right to your inbox every morning. Subscribe to the KARE 11 Sunrise newsletter here. Help local families in need: www.kare11.com/give11.
The state of Minnesota has set up a hotline for general questions about coronavirus at 651-201-3920 or 1-800-657-3903, available 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. There is also a data portal online at mn.gov/covid19.
As fears of a second wave of Covid-19 weigh on stocks, heres some potentially good news: A vaccine may be approved before the November election, according to a major biotechnology investing research firm.
The prediction is a big deal for investors for three reasons.
1. Its credible because it comes from Jefferies, a high-profile brokerage in biotech and pharma thats wired in to literally hundreds of companies in the group, including the major vaccine developers. Jefferies has nine analysts covering the industry.
2. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a vaccine ahead of voting could have an impact on the elections, possibly swaying the outcome in favor of President Trump.
3. For investors, early vaccine approval would be bullish for biotech stocks, cyclical stocks, travel stocks, the economy and the market overall. The S&P 500 Index SPX, -0.56% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.80% have recovered most of their March losses, and the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.03% recently hit new highs. Theyll need some good news to support further advances.
Ironically, early vaccine approvals probably wont mean much for investors who have already enjoyed good runs in vaccine developers. It might not mean much for most people worried about contracting the virus, either. Weird, right? Well get to that later in this column.
We hear time and again that vaccines take 10 to 15 years to research and bring to market. So given the limited timeline of Covid-19 vaccine safety and efficacy studies to date, the following is a bold projection.
We believe the FDA will likely approve at least one vaccine prior to the November election, Jefferies health-care strategist Jared Holz said in an interview. Perhaps multiple vaccines could get the go-ahead at some point early in the fourth quarter and quell fears of a second wave of Covid-19.
But this isnt too off the wall, even if Covid-19 vaccines have only been investigated for under a year. Thats because Holz is basing his prediction, in part, on signals from vaccine-development companies.
He says New York-based Jefferies has heard from several vaccine developers including Moderna MRNA, +2.15% and AstraZeneca AZN, +0.68% that an emergency authorization may happen before the elections. And just as important, theyll be close to having the capacity to produce millions of doses.
That sets a very high bar, which no one is asking them to set, says Holz.
Efficacy studies will continue. Moderna is moving into Phase II Covid-19 vaccine trials now, and it will start a larger Phase III clinical study at the beginning of July, the company has said. Both trials look at efficacy, and they will continue to examine safety. Many other vaccine companies are on a similar timeline.
Here are three other reasons we may well see Covid-19 vaccine approval before early November.
1. President Trump has a penchant for timing policy decisions (such as China trade negotiation breakthroughs) to influence the markets and the electorate at key tactical turning points. So it wont be surprising if he exerts behind-the-scenes pressure to get vaccine approval to boost ratings and his odds against the Democrats, says Holz. Sounds Machiavellian. But welcome to politics.
2. The federal government is directly funding many of the vaccine-development programs. This raises the odds of near-term approval, given the inherent bias, says Holz.
3. Initial approval would be for emergency use only, which lowers the research hurdles for efficacy. The efficacy bar will be fairly low considering the toll Covid-19 has taken on the world over the past four to six months from a health and an economic standpoint, says Holz.
Emergency-use approval seems like a letdown because it would take a lot of potential beneficiaries, including you and me, out of the equation. Health-care workers would be first in line. But limited-use approval would still be important for investors and the economy.
Heres why.
It would help the health-care system. Our leaders shut down much of the economy when Covid-19 struck because they had failed to prepare the health-care system for a pandemic. Having vaccines that might keep more front-line health care workers on the job and healthy boosting their morale and numbers would take some of the pressure off politicians to reimpose fresh lockdowns to flatten the curve in a resurgence.
Will we get a resurgence? Probably, but not right now. I think the current resurgence data are just noise. The case-count data are based on non-random samples, which renders them meaningless, statistically. Florida tested more and found more, in lockstep. Exactly what you would expect. The Florida data do not show a resurgence in Covid-19, only more testing.
But I do expect a meaningful resurgence starting in early October when the flu season begins. This is what happened with the swine flu in 2010 and the Spanish flu a century ago. However, the October resurgence wont be as scary as round one, because a lot of people will already have been exposed, and we will have better testing and tracking capabilities to support selective rather than blanket lockdowns. And we might even have a vaccine.
Early approval of vaccines before the elections probably wouldnt help investors in the companies developing them, including Moderna, AstraZeneca, Pfizer PFE, +0.54%, Johnson & Johnson JNJ, +0.29%, Sanofi SNY, +1.73%, Inovio Pharmaceuticals INO, -0.48%, Novavax NVAX, +9.24% and Arcturus Therapeutics ARCT, +2.92%, among others.
Thats because many of the stocks have already risen a lot, especially those closer to being pure plays because they are smaller.
Next, it would be bad PR for vaccine producers to be seen making a lot of profits off a global pandemic health crisis. (The same goes for Covid-19 therapy developers including Gilead GILD, +4.63%, which is researching remdesivir as a treatment.) Given the governments role in funding research, it would likewise also pressure vaccine makers to cap pricing.
But many other investors would benefit from vaccine approvals. Biotech and pharma investors would get a boost if the public and politicians view them as having saved the day in the Covid-19 crisis. That would mean there would be less pressure for them to rein in drug pricing.
That would support biotech and pharma companies and exchange traded funds including iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index IBB, +3.26% and SPDR S&P Biotech XBI, +2.83%. They have been plagued for years by worries the government will regulate drug prices.
In the end, a vaccine likely does more for the sector as whole from a sentiment standpoint, says Jefferies Holz.
Vaccine approval would also help cyclical and travel stocks because it would lower the odds of another full lockdown. It would also benefit a group I call public-gathering-place stocks.
A portfolio of eight public gathering place stocks I suggested in my stock letter, Brush Up on Stocks, on March 17 was already up 71% by the close June 15, compared with 26.3% gains for the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY, -0.57%. I wrote about this topic in MarketWatch last month.
I expect further gains from those stocks when vaccines are approved. My portfolio includes Churchill Downs CHDN, -1.92%, Royal Caribbean Cruises RCL, -6.87%, Carnival CCL, -5.26%, Planet Fitness PLNT, -0.33% and Cedar Fair FUN, -3.99% in amusement parks.
At the time of publication, Michael Brush owned CHDN and CCL. Brush has suggested PFE, JNJ, SNY, INO, NVAX, IBB, XBI, CHDN, RCL, CCL, PLNT and FUN in his stock newsletter, Brush Up on Stocks. Brush is a Manhattan-based financial writer who has covered business for the New York Times and The Economist Group, and he attended Columbia Business School. Follow Brush on Twitter: @mbrushstocks.
Medical professionals escort a patient into the the COVID-19 ward at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital in New Delhi on June 15. Vipin Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images hide caption
Medical professionals escort a patient into the the COVID-19 ward at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital in New Delhi on June 15.
India reported a record spike in coronavirus cases Thursday, even as the prime minister ruled out a new nationwide lockdown.
With 12,881 new infections registered, it's the first time India's daily tally has exceeded 12,000. For most of this week, only the United States and Brazil have been adding more new cases daily.
The Health Ministry confirmed a total of 160,384 active cases Thursday, and 12,237 deaths since the pandemic began in a population of nearly 1.4 billion. But testing rates are very low.
Hospitals in the biggest cities, Mumbai and New Delhi, are overflowing. Social media is flooded with desperate pleas from families searching for COVID-19 tests and hospital beds. Patients, unable to get admitted, have died in parking lots outside clinics and hospitals.
India has about one doctor per 1,500 citizens. In rural areas, where two-thirds of Indians live and rely almost solely on government hospitals, the ratio is one doctor to more than 10,000 people. The World Health Organization's standard is one doctor per 1,000 residents.
While government hospitals are overcrowded, some of India's elite private clinics are charging up to $950 a day for intensive care with a ventilator.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi rejected media reports that his government is considering another nationwide lockdown, and told a gathering of chief ministers that they should be looking to minimize restrictions in their states.
Despite Modi's stance, individual states maintain their own restrictions. The southern state of Tamil Nadu imposed a fresh 12-day lockdown on Monday.
Nationwide, schools remain closed and international air travel is halted. Local restrictions on shopping and traffic remain in containment zones neighborhoods with high concentrations of COVID-19 cases.
On March 25, India imposed the biggest coronavirus lockdown in the world, a move that left tens of millions of migrant workers unemployed and stranded in urban centers or industrial zones, far from home. Many starved to death as they set out on foot to their villages, often hundreds of miles away.
Last month, the government allocated special interstate trains to ferry migrant workers to safety, but many were already so weak, they died en route. In late May, a video went viral on social media, showing a toddler trying to wake up his dead mother on the floor of a train station.
That call would be the beginning of a 12-day journey that would end in tragedy.
"I can't tell you how a perfectly healthy 16-year-old boy can be making his own peanut butter sandwich late Wednesday night, getting his own tea out the fridge and head up to bed like any other teenager in the state or in the country is doing. And then within 24 hours is fighting for his life," Dawn said.
Andre, an easygoing sophomore at Lawrence North High School, loved YouTube and knew everything about video games; for his birthday in April, he asked for a game that wasn't set to be released until December, and his parents planned on getting it for him when it was released. He also loved photography and annoying his siblings and excelled at basketball and bowling.
Born prematurely at 25 weeks, he and twin sister Abby spent months in the hospital before they were brought home and later adopted by Dawn and her husband, Johnny. Though Andre was diagnosed with moderate autism, his parents were fierce advocates and he thrived with a positive attitude and a smile on his face. "He always just flew through," said Dawn.
In fact, Andre was the only family member who did not leave the house at all. But the virus has proven to be a wily foe, circulating in some communities before public health officials realized it was there. It found vulnerable people like Andre Guest despite all recommended precautions.
After Dawn left for work that morning, Andre normally self-sufficient asked his dad for help getting a drink. Odd. At 1:30 p.m., when Johnny went to check on Andre, the teen said he was tired, but, Johnny said, "his speech was really slurred. He could still understand me and answer me." A short time later, when Andre fell down in the bathroom, Johnny called his wife.
By the time Dawn got home, Andre had lost the ability to grip objects, he had trouble standing, his head and eyes were rolling, he could not hold his body weight up, and he appeared confused. She called an ambulance, which rushed Andre to the nearest emergency room, which transferred the critically ill teen to Riley Hospital for Children.
Although Andre had no underlying medical conditions, the first thing doctors discovered was that he had developed Type 1 diabetes his blood sugar was a dangerous 1,500 milligrams per deciliter, more than 10 times normal. Type 1 diabetes frequently comes to light for the first time in the setting of an infection.
Because he had a fever and cough and was breathing hard, he was tested for Covid-19. Negative. But the doctors were having trouble controlling the teen's blood sugar usually fairly straightforward with an insulin infusion in a first episode of diabetes. At the same time, his temperature kept rising and his breathing deteriorated even with increasing supplements of oxygen. A second Covid test came back positive and he was moved to a Covid unit.
Johnny and Andre's two sisters were subsequently swabbed, and they, too, were positive, though they had only mild fevers and fatigue. Dawn, who was at the hospital with Andre, decided not to get tested because, according to Riley's policy, if she tested positive she would not be allowed back into the hospital until she tested negative twice.
A few days later, Andre was on a ventilator, and doctors, trying to understand and treat his quickly changing illness, even tried "proning" placing him on his stomach to improve lung capacity.
Still, his mother thought he'd survive. He was getting superb care, and his blood sugar was finally at normal levels suggesting the worst of the infection had passed. He was young and had always been resilient.
On the morning of April 27, that hope quickly evaporated. His blood sugar spiked. His arterial line began to clot, suggesting coagulation problems that have been a hallmark of the disease. He went into cardiac arrest and, despite chest compressions, succumbed.
Andre is among the small number of children who have died of Covid-19 and Indiana's first recorded victim under age 18.
"They were wonderful there," Dawn said. "Every nurse and every doctor. I can't complain. We just didn't get the results that we wanted."
Despite stay-at-home restrictions, Andre's death resulted in an outpouring of support from the community. Letters and cards arrived from teachers recollecting their favorite encounters with the teen.
More than 70 cars drove by the Guests' house to express their condolences in a memorial organized by Lawrence Township where Andre attended school.
Marion County Northeast Special Olympics retired Andre's team basketball jersey No. 54 and sent it to the family's home.
With this virus, "you are taking care of your community, as much as you're taking care of yourself. You have no idea if you're a carrier or if you've touched something that has it on there," said Dawn.
Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
It had been a triumphant story of national unity and political leadership combining to vanquish a virus that still plagues most nations on the planet. But just a week after New Zealanders celebrated having rid the country of Covid-19 and the government lifted all restrictions on daily life except controls on entering the country, the one vulnerability in its defences its borders was dramatically laid bare.
The failure to test returning travellers before they left quarantine, and reports of slipshod standards at the hotels where they are placed in government-managed isolation, threatened political fallout for Jacinda Arderns government, which was heralded worldwide for having flattened the Covid-19 infection curve with a swift, early lockdown of the country.
Its incredibly unfortunate because that is what has been the cause of the governments increase in their poll ratings, their competency confidence, said Bryce Edwards, a political scholar at Victoria University in Wellington. The public clearly thought that this government deserved support due to that competency and this is a major blow to that narrative.
The trouble started when health officials were forced to admit that two women who had arrived from the UK on 6 June had been allowed out of managed quarantine early on 13 June with a compassionate dispensation to visit a dying parent. They were not tested for the virus, but were were later found to be infected.
With health officials permission, the pair drove 400 miles (650km) down the length of North Island to visit their family. Without the officials knowledge they had also met up with friends on the way.
Suddenly, after 24 days of reporting no new cases of Covid-19, the countrys recovery was on shaky ground. Health officials had already said it was inevitable that new cases would arrive from abroad, but they promised measures stringent enough to intercept them.
More stories of lax practices and failures to test at the quarantine hotels emerged. One facility had held a wedding in the same ballroom where isolating returnees had walked for exercise. Another had convened a childrens birthday party.
Six people were released on compassionate grounds to attend a funeral and then absconded rather than returning to quarantine. Health officials told travellers tests were entirely voluntary, and the health ministry has not been able to provide figures for how many people were released from isolation without being tested.
Ardern, who had done a little dance when New Zealand was declared free of the coronavirus a week earlier, was now stony-faced. The failings were unacceptable and the lack of testing nonsensical, she said.
By Friday, New Zealanders were on edge again, and politicians, health officials and military leaders warned of jail time and fines for anyone breaching the quarantine rules for returning travellers. The military would audit the isolation facilities, Ardern said, and ensure the rules were enforced.
Compassionate exemptions were also revoked. Two separate tests for those in quarantine hotels are now mandatory during their 14-day stay, and refusal to take a test will result in a further 14 days in isolation.
New Zealanders, whom Ardern has referred to as a team of five million, prided themselves on their unity in adhering to earlier lockdown restrictions. The government imposed a national shutdown in late March when just over 200 people had been diagnosed with Covid-19. The country has reported fewer than 1,500 confirmed cases and 22 deaths.
New arrivals would have to earn the right to join the team of 5 million by following the rules, said Megan Woods, a government minister, on Friday. Only New Zealanders, their families and essential workers are currently permitted to enter the country.
For some analysts, the governments stern response to the breaches was still a positive. The prime minister had been quick to acknowledge that protocols were not being followed consistently, and that procedures needed to be tightened urgently, said Prof David Skegg, an emeritus professor in epidemiology at the University of Otago.
One factor in New Zealands success in eliminating Covid-19 has been the willingness of the government to respond quickly to mistakes and to listen to expert advice. I think this episode illustrates that again.
Officials announced on Thursday that New Zealand had reported another case of Covid-19, bringing its total to three. This time the traveller from Pakistan had been diagnosed at the quarantine hotel where he was staying, the way the system was supposed to work.
Ashley Bloomfield, the director general of health, appeared tired on Friday. This had clearly not been the week he had planned.
The public has venerated Bloomfield for his handling of the crisis. His face has appeared on tea towels and memes, and a shrine to Saint Ashley was erected in a Wellington shop window.
Some commentators pointed out early on that to make him into a saint, which wasnt any of his doing, really wasnt good for the democratic method of being able to hold such a figure to account, and it might lead to a lack of scrutiny, said Edwards. I think that was the case and I dont think he was scrutinised as much, but thats clearly going to change now.
When he spoke to reporters on Friday, Bloomfield said the fiasco with the two women did not appear to have caused lasting damage to New Zealands coronavirus status.
Hundreds of people had been considered close contacts of the infected pair, and officials had tested 6,273 people on Thursday, much higher than we have been doing in recent weeks, he said.
He began his briefing with the sentence that had sounded so sweet to New Zealanders for 24 straight days: Today the country had zero new cases of Covid-19.
Nursing home residents account for nearly 1 in 10 of all the coronavirus cases in the United States and more than a quarter of the deaths, according to an Associated Press analysis of government data released Thursday.
As federal data collection becomes more robust, a clearer picture is emerging of the ravages of COVID-19 in nursing homes. About 1.4 million older and medically frail people live in such facilities, a tiny share of the American population that has borne a crushing burden from the pandemic. Most residents have been in lockdown since early March, isolated from families and friends, even in death.
Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
APs analysis of data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found that nearly half of the more than 15,000 nursing homes have reported suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of June 7. About 1 in 5 facilities or 21 percent have reported deaths.
Nationwide, nursing homes reported nearly 179,000 suspected or confirmed cases among residents and 29,497 deaths. The latest figures include about 95 percent of nursing homes.
Earlier this week, a special House panel on the coronavirus pandemic launched an investigation into the crisis in nursing homes.
The vulnerabilities are many. Residents live in close quarters, usually two to a room before the pandemic. They shared dining and recreational areas, and physical therapy gyms. Many staff aides work in several facilities, so they can unwittingly carry the virus from one nursing home to another.
Lawmakers are concerned that lax oversight by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the federal governments failure to provide testing supplies and personal protective equipment to nursing homes and long-term care facilities may have contributed to the spread of the coronavirus, said committee Chairman James Clyburn, D-S.C. Despite CMSs broad legal authority, the agency has largely deferred to states, local governments, and for-profit nursing homes to respond to the coronavirus crisis.
But CMS chief Seema Verma has said that trying to finger-point and blame the federal government is absolutely ridiculous. She says nursing homes with poor ratings on infection control are more likely to have high numbers of cases, a claim that academic researchers say they have not been able to substantiate.
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Republican lawmakers also have blamed some Democratic governors who issued orders requiring nursing homes to take recovering coronavirus patients. New York rescinded its directive after Gov. Andrew Cuomo faced an outcry.
The APs analysis also found that:
Among states, New Jersey had the highest proportion of nursing homes with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases, about 82 percent. This comprises 299 of the states 363 nursing homes.
Massachusetts had the highest proportion of nursing homes with COVID deaths, nearly 66 percent. That represented 247 of the states 376 nursing homes.
In 30 states, nursing homes share of COVID-19 deaths was higher than the national average of 26.7 percent. In some of the hardest-hit, such as Connecticut and Massachusetts, more than one-third of the states deaths occurred in nursing homes.
The AP has previously reported a higher number of 45,500 deaths, but that count incorporates assisted living facilities, not just nursing homes, and includes staff. The federal data reported Thursday is for nursing homes, since CMS does not regulate assisted living facilities.
Consumers will have access to coronavirus information through Medicares NursingHomeCompare website. They will be able to look up individual nursing homes to learn the number of cases and deaths among residents and staff. Data are expected to be updated weekly.
CMS head Verma says nursing home reporting required by her agency will constitute the backbone of a nationwide COVID-19 surveillance system to identify and contain expected rebounds of the virus as communities reopen. The nations first major outbreak, reported in late February, was in a Seattle-area nursing home.
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The nursing home industry says its going to need much more help from the federal government to regularly test staff and residents. Facilities have also lacked adequate supplies of protective gear.
Long-term care residents and staff need to be a priority for supplies and support, Mark Parkinson, head of the nursing home industry group American Health Care Association, said Thursday in a statement about the new data. Its time that America rally around our nations seniors and caregivers just as they did with hospitals.
The federal data release comes as many states have yet to meet a White House goal to test every resident and staff member for COVID-19. That was supposed to have happened before the end of May.
Also unmet is a separate federal goal for state inspectors to assess all nursing homes for infection control. There is no deadline, but federal officials are growing impatient. As of a couple of weeks ago, only a few states had inspected all facilities.
Even before the coronavirus pandemic, many nursing homes had persistent problems with infection control, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office, a watchdog agency for Congress.
Thorough, methodical, ongoing testing of residents and staff is considered one of the keys to making nursing homes safer.
Federal officials have recommended a one-time test for all residents and staff, as well as weekly retesting of staff. Nursing homes should retest residents weekly until none test positive.
Verma says states should use extreme caution before reopening nursing homes to visitors.
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The Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), an initiative of the group Amazon Conservation, has used an archive of satellite data to track deforestation across the Brazilian Amazon and found that most of last year's fires occurred on recently deforested land, rather than in primary forest. Deforested land is often intentionally burned to clear it for farming and cattle ranching.
So far this year, MAAP has detected several large areas in the state of Mato Grosso that have been recently deforested, and could be the sites of fires later this year.
"Fire season doesn't start out of nowhere in August -- it started a year ago with deforestation," said Matt Finer, senior research specialist and the director of MAAP. He says their research suggests this year's fires will be "as bad if not worse" than last year's. "We need the intensity of the rage and concern that people had back in August, we need that now to ratchet up the urgency of the situation."
Finer and his team used a new method combining data from heat-tracking satellites with data monitoring levels of particles in the atmosphere to give a more accurate picture of where forest fires occur. They have developed an app to track the fires in real-time and hope it will be of use to firefighters on the ground to focus resources over such vast areas.
As the Amazon burns, humans are to blame
Natural forest fires in tropical forests such as the Amazon are extremely rare due to high levels of humidity. That means humans are responsible for most of the recent destruction.
"All the fires we have seen in the Amazon have been set [intentionally]. Unlike some other forest systems that are dependent on fires, such as in California, Florida or Australia, the Amazon doesn't burn naturally," said Ane Alencar, IPAM's director of science in a press conference on Wednesday run by Columbia University's Earth Institute.
The move has had some success, Alencar said, but has not succeeded in combating the root cause -- deforestation.
"Around half the deforestation that we have seen so far is happening on public lands, which means that people are going after and grabbing the land and provoking conflicts, which is illegal," says Alencar. "This can only be fought by strong enforcement and strong signals from the government that illegal deforestation is not allowed."
Coronavirus is devastating Brazil's indigenous communities
This year, the risk of respiratory diseases due to air pollution from fires could exacerbate the impact of Covid-19, particularly for indigenous people whose lands may be nearer the fires. Such was the warning from former president of the U.S. Institute of Medicine and dean of the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, Dr Harvey Fineberg, at the press briefing.
She also warned that the health risks of the fires are not limited to the Amazon.
"The particulates from the forest fires can travel to other areas," Castro said at the press conference. "As cities relax social distancing measures in Brazil without adequate surveillance, testing and contact tracing, as we are seeing, an intense fire season could have devastating public health consequences, with the unnecessary loss of many lives and the widening of local inequalities."
As the eyes of the world remain focused on the pandemic, it remains to be seen whether the plight of the Amazon will receive the same attention that it did last year.
But Alencar says international pressure is key to tackling this problem.
"How international communities can help is to put pressure on the companies that buy products from the agribusinesses [and by] pressing the government to respect this amazing patrimony that we have, which is the forest."
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Five people who were at a gathering in Girdwood earlier this month tested positive for COVID-19 while others reported symptoms of the illness but declined to get tested, Anchorage health officials said Friday, urging increased vigilance to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Some attendees also went to another gathering in Girdwood held six days later, on June 11, while they were likely infectious, Anchorage Health Department director Natasha Pineda said during a community briefing.
Three of the five who tested positive after the June 5 gathering live in Girdwood, and two are from Anchorage, Pineda said. An additional 42 people from the Kenai Peninsula, Anchorage and Girdwood are being monitored in association with the private gatherings, she said.
We have serious concern about the events in Girdwood, said Dr. Bruce Chandler, chief medical officer at the city health department. And I think its likely were going to see more cases coming out of that community.
In light of the Girdwood gatherings, the Anchorage Health Department issued an alert Friday about the importance of physically distancing from non-household members, wearing a face covering, washing hands and avoiding crowds.
The health department also noted that if someone had recent contact with a person who tested positive for COVID-19, they should stay home for two weeks after being exposed.
At the Girdwood gatherings, which took place primarily outdoors, Pineda said there wasnt a use of masks, there was no adherence to physical distancing behaviors she described as high risk.
Pineda said they cant force anyone to get tested, but that its recommended based on someones symptoms and exposure.
Im concerned, definitely, about group gatherings, Pineda said. Especially when people arent interested in participating in physical distancing.
Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz said during the briefing that if people keep a safe distance and wear masks, he wouldnt implement a limit on large gatherings.
But again, we are on the cusp of COVID having more of a presence in the community, Berkowitz said. And if that steps up, then I dont think we would hesitate to start to put additional restrictions in place about the size of gatherings or the location of gatherings.
Berkowitz also announced that a mask mandate is on the table, saying Anchorage needs to get to a level of critical mask, but there is no immediate plan to issue a mandate.
If people dont want to have to wear masks under a mandate, they should start wearing them voluntarily, he said.
We have the opportunity to start masking up in greater numbers, Berkowitz said.
Statewide, 26 people received positive COVID-19 test results on Thursday, including 14 Alaska residents and 12 people from out of state. Of the 12 nonresidents, 11 work in the seafood industry, including seven workers in the Bristol Bay plus the Lake and Peninsula region.
The new cases among Alaska residents include six people from Anchorage as well as one case each involving residents of Homer, Fairbanks, North Pole, Big Lake, Palmer, the North Slope Borough and a smaller community within the Bethel Census Area.
In Anchorage, there are more COVID-19 cases than test results have shown, said Chandler, the citys chief medical officer. As an example, Chandler said that someone was tested before a dental procedure but didnt start showing symptoms until days later and was likely infectious during the procedure.
Its clear some people no longer see the need to practice safe distancing or to wear face coverings in indoor spaces where safe distancing cant be assured, Chandler said.
The department has found others who arent following quarantine and isolation recommendations, he said. He has big concerns about the upcoming Fourth of July holiday, specifically citing a large event planned in Seward.
In the population, there are people with COVID running around in circulation, and the sneaky thing about COVID is people can have the infection but may have no symptoms, Chandler said.
Were all tired of COVID-19, he said. We wish it would go away. But its still here and spreading and almost all of us are not immune.
The Municipality of Anchorage tracks a set of metrics, such as hospital capacity and case transmission rates, that influence its decisions on pandemic-related measures. If those metrics move from yellow to red, reflecting an increased strain on resources to prevent the spread of the virus, Berkowitz said there could be targeted mask mandates for certain activities. Those likely wouldnt extend to outdoor activities, but the first step would be requiring masks in confined indoor spaces, he said.
Almost all the studies that exist out there, all the experts that I have heard from who have studied the issue ... say that masking up makes a difference, Berkowitz said.
Berkowitz said wearing masks in large numbers has been a hugely successful method worldwide of controlling the spread of COVID-19.
This week, mask mandates were issued in Oregon and California. Berkowitz said hes watching such decisions by other jurisdictions to see what the mandates look like and how they are being enforced.
We are learning from each other, city to city, because there are no national standards, he said. The lack of national standards makes it incredibly difficult for all of us.
After pandemic-related restrictions on businesses and gatherings eased through May, daily virus case counts and active case numbers rose in Anchorage and Alaska to record highs but hunker down-style mandates have not returned.
When asked why business closures were imposed when the virus was just getting a footing in the community, he said it was to prevent what could have been a catastrophic first wave. Berkowitz said some estimates found that doing nothing could have resulted in 5,000 deaths in Anchorage.
Its my understanding that we might have been the first city in the country to go into a hunker down or stay-at-home mode before there was community spread, Berkowitz said. Moving quickly and moving strongly as a community allowed us to minimize the harm that COVID had here.
As of Friday there were 123 active cases of COVID-19 in Anchorage, with 38 cases that occurred between June 11 and June 17, including five seafood industry workers and three visitors or tourists who were from out of state, said city health department director Pineda.
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