On 8 March this year, the Amsterdam Mixed Choir gave a performance of Bachs St John Passion in the citys Concertgebouw auditorium. It was one of the last major classical concerts to be held in the Netherlands before the country went into Covid-19 lockdown.
The performance had unexpected consequences. Days later, singers began to sicken, one by one, until 102 of 130 choristers had fallen ill with Covid-19. One 78-year-old died, as did three partners of choir members; singers ended up in intensive care; and conductor Paul Valk displayed serious symptoms.
Nor was this the only major chorus to suffer from Covid-19. Members of the Skagit Valley Chorale, based in Washington State, met for a rehearsal in March and within three weeks, 45 of them had been diagnosed with the disease or had symptoms. Three were hospitalised and two died. Similarly 50 members of the Berlin Cathedral Choir contracted the coronavirus after a March rehearsal, and in England many members of the Voices of Yorkshire choir became infected with a Covid-like disease earlier this year.
These alarming developments raise a critical question. Does public singing not just in choirs, but at football matches or at birthday parties help transmit the coronavirus that is the cause of Covid-19? Jamie Lloyd-Smith, an infectious diseases researcher at University College Los Angeles, said it was possible that an infected singer might disperse viral particles further than other infected individuals. One could imagine that really trying to project your voice would also project more droplets and aerosols, he told the Los Angeles Times. In this way, the virus would cause increased numbers of infections.
The idea is alarming. A traditional pastime imbued with widespread cultural importance appears to be posing a distinct threat to the health of singers, concert-goers, football fans and a host of others.
But not all scientists agree with the idea that our musical appetites pose a health. In particular, fluid mechanics expert Professor Christian Khler of the Military University, Munich was highly doubtful about the dangers posed by concerts and decided to conduct experiments in the wake of the Amsterdam outbreak to find out how far singers and musicians expel air and droplets.
I have been studying how droplets and aerosols behave for decades and I was very doubtful that musicians and singers were spreading the virus. So I decided to measure just how strong was the airflow from them, Kahler told the Observer last week. We studied singing in low and high frequencies and all sorts of things like that. We also studied different instruments. And based on the flow analysis we did of these performances we could clearly see what was going on.
And yes, one or two instruments did pose threats in terms of their powerful air flow and might spread virus particles dangerously if some form of protection was not added. In particular the flute is especially strong while the oboe and clarinet also posed problems. The large wind instruments like the horn were not dangerous but the flute could be, it turned out. Its air flow is considerable.
However, we also found out that singing is quite safe. It was not the cause of the outbreaks of Covid-19 at these concerts , he said. Air was only propelled about half a metre in front of a singer, and that is not far enough to cause the infection levels of these outbreaks.
Khler said the virus was probably spread among chorus members because of their close proximity to each other before and after rehearsals and performances. As he pointed out: These outbreaks among choir members all occurred during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, before lockdowns were imposed and before our minds were concentrated on the importance of social distancing. Choir members probably greeted each other with hugs, and shared drinks during breaks and talked closely with each other. That social behaviour was the real cause of these outbreaks, I believe.
This point was also stressed by Professor Adam Finn of Bristol University. The evidence for a link with singing and spreading the virus may look compelling but is still anecdotal, he said. Without data from comparably large groups who interacted in the same way but didnt sing, its hard to be certain that the singing was responsible.
The point is that we now live in a world where the constant need for risk evaluation is suddenly noticeable. Before, we did it all the time without thinking about it.
MUMBAI, India Bollywood conjures images of ubiquitous stars, but every movie produced in Mumbai is made possible by an army of men and women toiling in the shadows: the extras, the carpenters and caterers, the tailors bent over sewing machines creating glittering costumes, the men putting up movie billboards, the men sitting in the ticket window at the local theater.
India has been under a strict lockdown since March 25 to fight the coronavirus outbreak. The complex machinery of Bollywood has come to a halt, affecting about a million people according to the Producers Guild of India who are directly or indirectly employed by the movie industry. Many are without work and wages. The worst hit are about 35,000 daily wage workers.
A March report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Ernst & Young estimates that 1,833 movies were released in India in 2019. India makes movies in as many as 28 languages. More than 200 of them are produced by the Hindi film industry in Mumbai, which is popularly known as Bollywood.
Movie studios, production offices, editing and sound suites, and stars homes are mostly in north Mumbai. The more palatial homes are traffic landmarks. Ask someone for directions and you could easily hear the reply, Take a U-turn at Shah Rukh Khans house. Every Sunday for years, crowds have gathered in front of the actor Amitabh Bachchans house for a sighting. The 77-year-old actor, surrounded by security guards, dutifully steps out and waves to his admirers. The coronavirus outbreak has put an end to the ritual.
The film industry effectively shut down in mid-March when the producers guild decided to stop filming and most of the movie theaters across India were closed. Bollywood has a calendar tightly packed with release dates for new movies. As the pandemic closed down the theaters, some of the years biggest films, scheduled to open in March and April, have been indefinitely postponed. It is impossible to predict when theaters will open, and even when they do, when audiences will feel safe enough to venture in again.
Bollywood has long been accused of peddling escapist, overblown fantasies and having little connection to reality, but when the pandemic hit Mumbai, the movie industry came together to protect its most vulnerable. Several movie trade associations have been raising funds and providing financial assistance.
Some of the wealthiest actors donated to coronavirus relief funds run by the Indian government. The actor Salman Khan made direct transfers to bank accounts of the workers in the film industry. On May 3, Bollywoods leading actors, musicians and singers recorded performances and messages from their homes for a digital concert and raised over $6.8 million to fight the virus.
The pandemic also brought into focus the curiously cordial relationship between the movie industry and the Bollywood paparazzi. The Mumbai paparazzi are less feral than their London and Los Angeles counterparts. Yet they doggedly cover every entertainment event, from movie trailer releases to parties to premieres.
They feed the insatiable demand for the stars by taking photos of them outside gyms, bars, restaurants and especially the Mumbai airport. Stylists responded by designing airport looks for their celebrity clients. The paparazzi play a vital role in creating the chimera of relevancy and buzz around actors and films.
After the coronavirus outbreak, the Bollywood paparazzi, who make about $15 to $20 after a long day, had little work. The filmmaker and producer Rohit Shetty and the actor Hrithik Roshan donated money to support them.
Bollywoods complex publicity machinery is dormant. The actors, models, filmmakers and fashion designers who relentlessly fill Indias media and mind space are stuck at home and trying to stay alive in public memory through Instagram livestreams, Zoom interviews and curated glimpses of their quarantined lives on social media. Every third celebrity has turned into a chef and a poet.
All of this provides momentary distraction from the mounting dread and anxiety about the extent of damage the coronavirus outbreak will inflict on Bollywood. India has a mere 9,527 movie screens, and a majority 6,327 screens are in single-screen theaters. Some of them will close permanently in the post-pandemic world. Given the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, no one is willing to predict the exact amount of loss, but experts estimate that Bollywood will lose between $1 billion and $1.3 billion.
I called Karan Johar, arguably Bollywoods most successful filmmaker and producer, who currently has three films in postproduction. Mr. Johars Takht, an ambitious, historical movie set in the Mughal era, was scheduled to start filming in Italy in April. All creators are optimists, Mr. Johar said. You have to believe that it will all work out. But right now, we also have to be realists. I have told everyone in my company: Please dont think of growth, think of survival.
The movie industry that emerges after the pandemic will be necessarily altered. Perhaps the movies will as well. Until there is a vaccine, how can anyone film a spectacular song sequence with 200 dancers in the background? Our stories and the way we tell them will change.
I have never understood how they arrived at this number, but industry old-timers will tell you that every day, 200 aspirants come to Mumbai hoping to break into show business. That is why the city is also called Mayanagri, or the City of illusions. I have long maintained that Hindi cinema is a necessary comfort and a collective expression of hope. Even as Bollywood scrambles to survive, we have to believe that a happy ending is a possibility.
Anupama Chopra is the editor of Film Companion, an Indian cinema portal, and the author of Sholay: The Making of a Classic.
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Several months into a pandemic that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and decimated economies around the world, scientists still lack a complete understanding of how the virus that caused it is transmitted. Lockdowns are already easing in some places, and people are preparing to return to a version of work and social life. But a crucial question stubbornly remains: Can the pathogen behind COVID-19 be airborne?
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, the novel coronavirus is primarily spread by droplets from someone who is coughing, sneezing or even talking within a few feet away. But anecdotal reports hint that it could be transmissible through particles suspended in the air. After attending a choir practice in Washington State in early March, dozens of people were diagnosed with or developed symptoms of COVID-19 even though they had not shaken hands or stood close to one another. At least two died. After dining at an air-conditioned restaurant in China in late January, three families at neighboring tables became sickened with the viruspossibly through droplets blown through the air.
To address the prospect of airborne spread of the novel coronavirus, it is first necessary to understand what scientists mean by airborne. The term refers to transmission of a pathogen via aerosolstiny respiratory droplets that can remain suspended in the air (known as droplet nuclei)as opposed to larger droplets that fall to the ground within a few feet. In reality, though, the distinction between droplets and aerosols is not a clear one. The separation between what is referred to as airborne spread and droplet spread is really a spectrum, especially when talking about relatively small distances, says Joshua Santarpia, an associate professor of pathology and microbiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Airborne spread has been hypothesized for other deadly coronaviruses, including the ones that cause severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). A handful of studies suggest the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, can exist as an aerosol in health care settings. But much remains unknown about whether the aerosolized virus is infectious and what amount of virus one needs to be exposed to in order to become sick, known as the minimal infectious dose. Even if aerosol transmission does occur, it is not clear how common it is, compared with other transmission routes, such as droplets or surfaces. Uncovering this information is vital, especially given the fact that people can spread SARS-CoV-2 when they have no symptoms.
Perhaps Is the coronavirus airborne? is the wrong question. COVID-19 may have the potential for airborne spread, says Stanley Perlman, a professor of microbiology at the University of Iowa. But whether [this route is] important clinically is really the question one wants to know about, he says.
Some of the strongest evidence that airborne transmission of the new coronavirus may be possible comes from a study published late last month in Nature. In it, researchers measured the virus's genetic material, or RNA, in aerosols sampled in February and March at two hospitals in Wuhan, Chinathe city where the outbreak is widely believed to have begun. The researchers found very low levels of airborne viral RNA in the hospitals isolation wards and in ventilated patient rooms. But there were measurably higher levels in some of the patients toilet areas. They also found high levels of viral RNA in places where medical workers remove protective gear, as well as in two crowding-prone locations near the hospitals. Our study and several other studies proved the existence of SARS-CoV-2 aerosols and implied that SARS-CoV-2 aerosol transmission might be a nonnegligible route from infected carriers to someone nearby, says study co-author Ke Lan, a professor and directorof the State Key Laboratory of Virology at Wuhan University.
A preprint (not yet published) study led by Santarpia and his colleagues similarly found evidence of viral contamination in air samples and surfaces from rooms where COVID-19 patients were being kept in isolation. I think there are a lot of usmyself includedwho feel very strongly that the airborne route of transmission is very possible, he says. I would hesitate to call it proven by any means. But I think theres mounting evidence to support it.
Both the Nature study and Santarpias paper measured viral RNA, not actual virus, so it is not clear that the material found in aerosols was functionally infectious. Finding RNA doesnt tell you [that] you have aerosol spread, says Perlman, who was not involved in either study.
Another paper, recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus can remain in aerosols for at least three hoursand for several days on various surfacesin a laboratory setting. But the amount of viable virus diminished significantly during that time. Scientists do not know the infectious dose of SARS-CoV-2. (For influenza, studies have shown that just three virus particles are enough to make someone sick.)
Overall, most of the evidence that SARS-CoV-2 can become airborne comes from clinical settingswhich tend to have a lot of sick people and and may host invasive procedures, such as intubations, that can cause patients to cough, generating aerosols. It is not clear how representative of everyday environments these areas are. There is not much convincing evidence that aerosol spread is a major part of transmission of COVID-19, Perlman says.
That assessment does not mean it is not occurring, however. Benjamin Cowling, head of the division of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Hong Kongs School of Public Health, says there is a popular misconception that if a virus can spread through the air at all, it must be able to spread over a long range. He gives the analogy of being in a restaurant where someone is smoking: If the person on the other side of restaurant is smoking, you probably wouldnt smell it, and youd never even notice. Thats because the smoke would never reach you, he says. It doesnt mean theres not smoke produced. In other words, just because SARS-CoV-2 may not be transmitted over a long range, that does not mean it is not airborne. Like cigarette smoke, aerosol particles spread around a person in a cloud, with the concentration being highest near the smoker and lower as one gets farther away.
Even if aerosols do not travel farther than most droplets, the oft-touted six-foot rule for social distancing may depend on the circumstances, Cowling says. If there is a fan or air conditioner, infectious aerosols (or even droplets, as was suspected in the case of that restaurant in China) could potentially sicken someone farther away who is downwind.
Some evidence suggests that talking could be a significant mode of viral transmission. A study publishedon May 13inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USAused laser light scattering to visualize tiny saliva droplets expelled during speech.The researchdid not measure dropletswith viableSARS-CoV-2virus. Butif one assumes the droplets contain seven million virus particles per milliliter, a minute of loud speech could generate more than 1,000 virus-containing droplets that could hang in the air for eight minutes or more, the researchers write in the study. There is a substantial probability that normal speaking causes airborne virus transmission in confined environments, they conclude.
Cowling hypothesizes that many respiratory viruses can be spread through the airborne routebut that the degree of contagiousness is low. For seasonal flu, the basic reproduction number, or R0a technical designation for the average number of a people a sick person infectsis about 1.3. For COVID-19, it is estimated to be somewhere between two and three (though possibly as high as 5.7). Compared with measles, which has an R0 in the range of 12 to 18, these values suggest most people with the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 are not extremely contagious.
But there are seeming exceptions, such as the choir practice in Washington State, Cowling says. A CDCreportabout the eventreleased on May 12found that of the 61 peoplewho attendedthe 2.5-hour practice(one of whom had coronavirus symptoms),32 developed confirmed COVID-19 infections and 20 developed probable ones. The report concluded thattransmission was likely facilitated by close proximity (within 6 feet) during practice and augmented by the act ofsinging andthat singing might have contributed to transmission through emission of aerosols, which is affected by loudness of vocalization. For unknown reasons, some individuals seem to infect many more people than others do. These so-called superspreaders were documented in the SARS outbreak of 2003, too. In what has become known as the 20/80 rule, about 80 percent of infectious-disease-transmission events may be associated with just 20 percent of cases, Cowling notes. We dont know how to identify those 20 percent, he says. But if we were able to, in some way, then that would be a major advance.
Ventilation likely also plays an important role in how easily the virus can be transmitted through the air. Indoor spaces probably pose a higher risk than outdoor ones, especially if they are poorly ventilated, Cowling and others say. Crowded areas such as bars, restaurants and subway trains could all be riskyespecially if people are asymptomatic and spend long periods of time in such areas. Precautions could include better ventilation, regular cleaning and mask wearing.
Cowling co-authored a study, published in early April in Nature Medicine, of patients with respiratory infections at an outpatient clinic in Hong Kong between 2013 and 2016. This research detected RNA from seasonal coronavirusesthe kind that cause colds, not COVID-19as well as seasonal influenza viruses and rhinoviruses, in both droplets and aerosols in the patients exhaled breath. The paper, led by Nancy Leung, an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kongs school of public health, found that wearing surgical masks reduced the amounts of influenza RNA in droplets and of seasonal coronavirus RNA in aerosols.
Although the study did not look at COVID-19 specifically, the findings support mask wearing as an effective way to limit transmission of the virus from an infected personknown in medical parlance as source control. There is not much evidence that masks convey protection to healthy people, although it is possible (and may depend on the type of mask). Given the prevalence of asymptomatic infection with COVID-19, however, there is some justification for universal mask wearing to prevent those who do not know they are sick from infecting others. In Hong Kong, which has kept its outbreak relatively under control, masks are worn by the vast majority of the population, Cowling says.
The likelihood of airborne transmissionespecially compared with other routes, such as droplets or surfacesremains unclear. Most researchers still think the new coronavirus is primarily spread via droplets and touching infected people or surfaces. So diligent hand washing and social distancing are still the most important measures people can take to avoid infection.
Leung puts the risks in perspective. Most of what people know about aerosol transmission is from tuberculosis, measles and chickenpox, she saysand these pathogens usually have high transmissibility, with the potential for long-range spread. The conventional thinking is, therefore, once you mention theres aerosol transmission, everyone is so worried because [they assume that the virus has] higher transmissibility and that its more difficult to control, she explains. But even if there is airborne transmission, it may only happen at short rangewithin which other infection routes may be just as likelyor more so. Thus, Leung adds, having a higher risk of aerosol transmission itself doesnt necessarily translate to more transmissibility.
Read more about the coronavirus outbreak from Scientific American here, and read coverage from our international network of magazines here.
Editors Note (5/14/20):This story was updated after posting to include new informationabout droplets spread bytalking andabout a choir practice in WashingtonStatethat sickened many people.
The double graduateThats two graduations in my life that I wont get
Karsyn Bryant poses in front of her two graduation signs Friday, May 15, 2020, at her home in Mahomet.
Karsyn Bryant enjoys filling her day with productivity.
Thats why in January 2017, when she was a sophomore at Mahomet-Seymour High School, the then-15-year-old decided to use her two study-hall periods to have her mother drive her to Parkland College to take classes.
The next year, she became a full-time college student while wrapping up her high school coursework online.
I would say that every minute of every day was accounted for during that time, and I was even taking night classes that didnt get out until 9:30 at Parkland just to get everything in, she said. It was overwhelming at times, to be sure.
If I had papers that were due the same time both at the high school and at Parkland ... the high school didnt care that I had Parkland homework to do, and Parkland didnt care that I had high school homework to do.
On Thursday, Bryant was supposed to walk across the stage at Krannert Centers Foellinger Great Hall and receive her associate degree from Parkland, over a week before she officially graduated from Mahomet-Seymour, where shed again walk across the stage at Krannert.
She did walk across a stage, but it wasnt quite the same. At Mahomet-Seymour, graduates are being filmed receiving their diplomas. On Saturday, shell sit at home watching two virtual commencements.
Its really weird, but even just walking across the stage, its really cool to still be able to do it, she said. Thats the tough part of having two graduations at the same time. Now theyre both canceled, so thats two graduations in my life that I wont get.
The school closures have been strange for a student whos always on the go. While she finished her high school credits in an online format last year, she says its different when classes are built to take place in person.
After finishing high school last year, Bryant began working at a bank while she finished her first college degree.
Of course, Bryant will have more graduations in her future. She plans on earning her bachelors degree in social work from the University of Illinois in two years before getting her masters in the same subject and heading to law school. She then hopes to go into family law and eventually open her own firm, she said, so she can, Be busy but still have time to have a life.
Shes already been through the intensity of earning a diploma and a degree at once, though, so no amount of work will take her completely off-guard.
It gave me more time to process what Im doing and be like, Wow, that was actually really tough, she said. It made me proud of myself to just be like, Wow, this is tough, but looking back, (doing both) was really tough and now I get to just focus on college.
After a long day of studying for medical school in mid-March, Anant Naik had an idea for a poem.
The second-year medical student at the University of Illinois couldnt help in the current crisis in the way he wanted after students were removed from the hospital, where he was on a pediatrics rotation. So he wrote about people who were making impacts, including but not limited to doctors and nurses, and drew some illustrations to go along with them.
Initially, I was going to post it on social media, Naik said, but after sharing it with some friends, they said it could be really cool as a childrens book. After that, I changed and modified the poem until it looked more like a book. I didnt sit down and set out to write a childrens book.
About a month after he sat down to write a poem, he held in his hands his self-published childrens book, titled Heroes of a Pandemic.
Anant Naik, a second-year medical student at University of Illinois, holds the children's book he wrote and illustrated, 'Heroes of a Pandemic.'
This wasnt a road Naik necessarily expected to go down.
He wrote for his student newspaper at the University of Minnesota, where he went to undergrad, but his artwork was less formal. Painting and drawing were simply hobbies he was passionate about. Naik, though, wanted to find a way to make a difference during the pandemic, and his pediatrics rotation put him in a childs mindset.
I realized that a lot of kids are confused as to whats going on, but parents dont really have good explanations for them as to why they need to be at home, and their parents cant really explain whats going on, he said. I was trying to synthesize a narrative that the kids could understand as to what is happening in the world at the moment with the pandemic, what is the story of the pandemic, and also offer a positive lens to look at it through as the story is going on.
Thats why I picked up the idea to honor the sacrifice that the people on the front line are making. Not just the doctors and the nurses, but also the grocery store workers, the truckers and various other people, and synthesize it into a story, and that became this book.
The book takes children through the origins of the pandemic and its implications, highlighting doctors, nurses and other essential workers throughout.
All proceeds from the book go to Doctors Without Borders, an organization that helps health care systems in need around the world in myriad ways. For Naik, that simply added another layer of what he could do to help while hes not allowed inside the walls of a hospital.
When you think about the phrase flattening the curve, were only flattening the curve so that were adjusting to the capacity of the health care system, he said. For many countries around the world who dont have a health care system or a mature health care system, flattening the curve means something entirely different from that.
This book honors the heroes of the pandemic to fund the heroes that are emerging in other countries.
Michelle Huls Rice and her colleagues at the Grainger College of Engineering knew they couldnt recreate the joy and nostalgia that comes with graduation in a remote setting. They decided leave the live online ceremony to the full university commencement.
But they wanted to bring some emotion to students who were capping off four years of college through their computer screens.
Because campus is doing something live already, we didnt want to add to that experience for them, Rice said. We didnt want them to feel like they had to be attached to their computer screens all day. We wanted to give them something to open after the live experience.
In a ceremony where students are siloed in their own homes, they decided that theyd incorporate the ultimate song of togetherness and unity for University of Illinois students and alumni: the Alma Mater.
In a time when touching and closeness are forbidden, the typical decorum for the song is from a world that doesnt currently exist. Fans raise their arms up and put them around their neighbors shoulders.
The College of Engineering, though, asked graduating seniors to send in footage of themselves singing the song. In the span of a couple of weeks, a few dozen videos came in.
University of Illinois graduating senior Tommy Figel put together a video for the College of Engineering, where he's a communications intern, of graduates singing 'Alma Mater,' for the college's online graduation.
I think a lot of us were a little bit nervous because we were asking people who dont normally sing to sing for us and to videotape themselves, said Tommy Figel, a graduating UI senior and intern at the college. We didnt know what to expect. I think what surprised us was all the creativity we got.
Figel is quickly becoming immersed in compiling videos of remote performances. The communications major works with a musical-theater company called iTheatrics, and a few weeks ago he put together what they called a Zoomsical, a musical made over Zoom.
Putting together a compilation of graduates singing Alma Mater would be similar, aside from the fact that the singers arent necessarily trained performers. The untrained singers, though, made up for it. All wore Illini attire, and some sang with their families. Dogs were included, and one graduate hopped around on a pogo stick.
Thats honestly what brought it together, the videos themselves all had a little bit of something unique, regardless of whether they could sing or not, Figel said. Our team is really happy with what we got because we were nervous that people would want to send in videos of themselves singing. It ended up turning out very well.
In all, 33 videos came in. Most followed the directions and sang along to the track Figel provided. Some, he had to tweak. He filled out the background with a track from one of the schools a cappella groups.
While some of the videos may be goofy, he thinks the video gets across the nostalgia the song evokes like it does when its played in Memorial Stadium.
Its a little bit somber and kind of sweet, he said. Its definitely feel-good, but the goal at the end of it is definitely to tug at some heartstrings.
Like many of his fellow graduates, Figel is unsure what his future will hold. This summer, hell continue editing musicals over Zoom with iTheatrics. He hopes to continue the video-editing path in some sort of communications role and eventually wind up writing, editing and directing films.
While that future is on hold, Figel thinks the last few months have been a fascinating learning opportunity for people who want to produce their own videos or simply communicate.
I cant speak for everybody, but for myself, a lot of our summer internships or jobs are canceled or postponed, so theres a few months when I feel like a lot of seniors will be sitting tight while waiting for news to unfold, Figel said. I think in those few months, were going to get a lot of cool, creative content. I think people will have time to think and reflect on their time at Illinois and whats best for them. I think itll be a cool couple of months to see what people do with the new normal.
Actors at Jaclyn Loewenstein's Class Act acting school put on an online performance of 'The Show Must Go Online,' which has over 5,000 views on YouTube.
March 9 was a sad day for Jaclyn Loewenstein, when she turned out the lights on the final show at SoDo Theatre. Her acting school, Class Act, had educated young actors at SoDo for 11 years, but the theaters lease wasnt renewed, with a the buildings owner deciding to rent it to a new bar.
Loewenstein decided shed take a break from teaching before planning her next steps. Then, all theaters went dark, and Loewenstein decided she needed to fill the void.
It just seemed like something I had to do, she said. Even though I was planning to take this time off after leaving SoDo, things just changed.
Loewenstein saw that Beat by Beat Press, a publisher of childrens musicals, had put out one specifically made to be organized remotely called The Show Must Go Online, and she put word out to her most experienced actors. The play was about a musical that was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the actors convincing their drama teacher through a series of songs that they can produce the show electronically.
Instead of holding a traditional casting process, the actors looked over the script and ranked the roles they saw themselves playing.
Loewenstein then called each actor individually and helped them scout their homes for the best location to film.
Id look in their bedroom or living room and figure out the best place to stage it. Id look at their shots and help look at lighting that they had, natural lights and lamps, and I guided them through that and talked about props they needed, costumes and things that they needed, and anything else special, she said. They would send it to me, and a few of them nail it on the first try and some of them I would give it back to them and give them some feedback and have them do it again.
The musical culminated with a song sung by all of the students about how the school play can go on with the use of technology, and even though the cast is separated, they can connect through art.
Loewenstein originally planned on cutting a short clip of each actor singing a piece of the song and putting it together in one string. But then she began laying the performances over each other, and the individual performances became an ensemble.
Once I had three of the kids voices in there, I was so moved by the sound that was coming out of them, and I was just creating a choir right there, Loewenstein said. I just kept adding in more videos and decided pretty quickly that this was going to be more powerful if I put them all together. ... I think theyre all such dynamic natural performers that its really fun to see all of their faces up there at once and hear their beautiful, young, innocent voices. I thought it was really powerful.
After three days of editing, Loewenstein hosted a YouTube premiere, where 160 people including the cast watched it together for the first time. In a week, the show surpassed 5,000 views. Beat by Beat Press liked it so much, it hosted a Q&A with Loewenstein so she could give tips to other directors about how to put it together.
Loewenstein isnt sure of her next step as the theater community grapples with the inability to perform shows in front of live, in-person audiences. After putting together this performance, shes more confident than ever that theater can still take place, even when performers and audiences are sequestered in their homes.
So many people can relate, even if they arent theater people and havent had shows canceled, she said. I think everyone can relate to the idea of having a loss during this time. ... I feel a responsibility to fill that gap as much as I can.
The Virginia Theatre, shown Friday, May 15, 2020, in downtown Champaign, remains closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The calendar reminders pop up on Steven Bentzs phone every so often for events the director of the Virginia Theatre had to cancel or postpone, including Ebertfest, and shows by David Sedaris and Gordon Lightfoot.
Whenever Bentz starts getting used to the reality of the world of the COVID-19 pandemic, the phone in his pocket snaps him back to a different time.
The reminders hit me every day that this is what were supposed to be doing tonight, he said. Its obviously been a huge disappointment.
The theater has been dark for months, and Bentz isnt sure when shows will return in their normal form. Luckily, the theater had already planned to close from June 15 to Sept. 1 for a restoration that will include the installation of a new sound system.
When audiences return, the auditory experience will be completely different for those sitting in most parts of the theater.
When that will happen is up in the air, but Bentz and his staff at the Virginia are making plans for when Champaign enters Phase 4 of the states reopening plan later this year. At that point, gatherings of 50 people or fewer will be allowed.
Of course, that means most of the theaters large events wont be able to happen. That possibility wont exist until the area makes its to Phase 5 of Gov. J.B. Pritzkers plan, which wont happen until a vaccine or an effective treatment or enough widespread immunity that new cases fail to materialize, the governor said.
Our thinking is, at that point, thats a small, private event, thats a small, onstage performance, or thats film, Bentz said. Fortunately for the Virginia, it has that flexibility where its a movie palace as well as a live concert venue.
So, were able to focus a little more attention on film screenings and shaking up that program, adding new dimensions for our film-screening program because theres another opportunity to entertain the public and engage them in small groups, because its kind of perfect for that.
Bentz and the Virginia staff are having to think of creative ways to keep engagement with the theater alive. Theyre planning on drive-up concession sales for at-home movie nights starting this week. Theyve talked about hosting performances with small audiences that stream online and private screenings of movies in the massive theater.
The theater, though, was constructed to bring thousands of people together, sharing a moment as they all look up at the stage. It wont serve that specific purpose for months to come.
For 99 years, that is a place for family members and friends to make memories, Bentz said, and to see it dark week after week ... you just think of the thousands and thousands of people that were supposed to attend the event, and thats a hit.
You really, really feel it.
Thursday evening was a warm, sticky night in late spring, the kind that normally attracts a line out the door at Custard Cup as customers fill the tables out front.
Those tables, though, were empty. A few customers went in and out of the doors. A slow stream of cars rolled through the drive-thru as Julia Davis took ustomers payments and handed them their desserts with gloves on and a mask covering her face.
We get geared up, and we get real excited for these upcoming months, manager Ashlee Rhodes said. So, in January and February, were thinking months ahead of what were needing to do and whats happening.
Your hard work doesnt go down the drain, but just like everywhere else, it was a big shocker.
Rhodes said Custard Cup was able to keep on most of its staff at reduced hours due to the drive-thru business. Those workers wear gloves and masks at all times. The gloves are sanitized in between every interaction. The masks never leave the store.
When they wash their hands, they have a timer that tells them when to stop. Customers who come in must wear masks. They set their payment on the table, and the cashier picks it up as they back away.
Theres just no being too careful so we take it above and beyond and go a little further, Rhodes said. We dont want to risk our crew, we dont want to risk our customers.
Rhodes said the pandemic has changed what people deem acceptable in terms of social norms. For instance, a cashier or drive-thru worker wouldnt previously have worn gloves, Rhodes said, because that would come with the implication that theyre making food as well.
Julia Davis serves ice cream Thursday, May 14, 2020, at the drive-thru at Jarling's Custard Cup.
The norm has become, I know that that person wearing gloves is taking my payment and not making my food, Rhodes said. Weve had so many customers say, Im so glad youre wearing gloves while taking my payment as opposed to questioning us on, I hope youre not making my food, too.
Those warm nights with packed tables dont appear to be returning any time soon, and Rhodes understands the reality that restaurants are facing.
But right now, she and her workers are focused on what she can control: shelling out treats to customers in a safe way.
Its there and present for absolutely everyone in this town and in the state, Rhodes said. Were approaching everything cautiously, and as long as were doing everything were doing to keep our workers and our customers safe, were only looking at the positive and working for the best.
Mark Denman Elementary School third-grade teacher Matt Thompson and his five co-workers made a video of their end-of-year field trip where they gave students a tour around their hometown of Danville.
Matt Thompson went into his classroom on Monday evening, a rare occurrence since the COVID-19 pandemic canceled in-person school for the rest of the year. He safely packed up the things his students had left at school with the full expectation theyd come back after spring break so he could send them home with their parents, who drove up to the school and stayed in their cars while the items were placed in their trunks.
Its an anti-climactic end to the school year that normally ends in excitement for the third-grade students at Mark Denman Elementary School in Danville. The year culminates in a multi-week lesson on the history of the city, ending with a trip around town to visit historical sites.
We were pretty devastated, Thompson said. We brought up that our kids wouldnt get our field trip and all of the things that our kids wouldnt get.
The members of the schools third-grade team, though, are problem-solvers and the most creative people Thompsons ever worked with, he said. So they began brainstorming.
Mark Denman Elementary School third-grade teacher Jodi Jones shows her students the headstone of Laura Lee, who founded an orphanage in Danville, during a virtual field trip.
They really enjoy learning about the people from the history of the town, Thompson said, and then it comes to life for them when they go and see the places. ... We got to talking and we decided we would really like to bring the field trip to them. And so we came up with this idea of doing a virtual field trip.
They quickly came up with a plan to take trips to various places and record them. Theyd go to the Vermilion Museum; the homes of Dr. William Fithian, a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, and Ward Hill Lamon Layman, Lincolns bodyguard; and the gravesites of prominent Danville natives like town founder Dan Beckwith, whose body was taken from his coffin, and record themselves giving the students a tour.
Then theyd curate the video and share it on Class Dojo, the app they use to communicate with students and parents throughout the year.
It wouldnt be quite the same as the popular field trip they take every year, but it was a way to keep their students engaged while theyre at home. They want their students to become invested members of a town they care about.
We think that its important for them to know about the history of our town and to be a part of it and feel a part of it, Thompson said. We also think that education is about more than what we do in the classroom.
For Becky Hanson, theres something special about beating on a drum. Its a feeling the Clark-Lindsey Village resident has known since she played the bass drum in high school band, and its one she gets three times each week as she leads fellow residents in singalongs in the hallways of the retirement home.I love beating on the drum, Hanson said. If you can beat on the drum, it kind of releases you.
For the last year or so, Hanson and Ron Black have led singalongs at Clark-Lindsey, starting when Black took his guitar to a public room in the facility.
Black strummed on the instrument he learned as a kid, playing the songs that his fingers havent forgotten since his days playing in a dance band.
The global coal industry will never recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, industry observers predict, because the crisis has proved renewable energy is cheaper for consumers and a safer bet for investors.
A long-term shift away from dirty fossil fuels has accelerated during the lockdown, bringing forward power plant closures in several countries and providing new evidence that humanitys coal use may finally have peaked after more than 200 years.
That makes the worst-case climate scenarios less likely, because they are based on a continued expansion of coal for the rest of the century.
Even before the pandemic, the industry was under pressure due to heightened climate activism, divestment campaigns and cheap alternatives. The lockdown has exposed its frailties even further, wiping billions from the market valuations of the worlds biggest coal miners.
As demand for electricity has fallen, many utilities have cut back on coal first, because it is more expensive than gas, wind and solar. In the EU imports of coal for thermal power plants plunged by almost two-thirds in recent months to reach lows not seen in 30 years. The consequences have been felt around the world as well.
This week, a new report by the US Energy Information Administration projected the US would produce more electricity this year from renewables than from coal for the first time. Industry analysts predict coals share of US electricity generation could fall to just 10% in five years, down from 50% a decade ago. Despite Donald Trumps campaign pledge to dig coal, there are now more job losses and closures in the industry than at any time since Eisenhowers presidency 60 years ago. Among the latest has been Great River Energys plan to shut down a 1.1-gigawatt thermal plant in North Dakota and replace it with wind and gas.
Rob Jackson, the chair of Global Carbon Project, said the pandemic was likely to confirm that coal will never again reach the global peak seen in 2013: Covid-19 will slash coal emissions so much this year that the industry will never recover, even with a continued build-out in India and elsewhere. The crash in natural gas prices, record-cheap solar and wind power, and climate and health concerns have undercut the industry permanently.
Records are falling thick and fast. By Friday, the UK national grid had not burned a single lump of coal for 35 days, the longest uninterrupted period since the start of the industrial revolution more than 230 years ago. In Portugal, the record coal-free run has extended almost two months, the campaign group Europe Beyond Coal recently reported.
Last month Sweden closed its last coal-fired power plant, KVV6 in Hjorthagen, eastern Stockholm, two years early because the mild winter meant it was not used even before the pandemic. Austria followed suit with the shutdown of its only remaining coal plant at Mellach. The Netherlands said it would reduce the capacity of its thermal plants by 75% to comply with a court order to reduce climate risks.
More importantly, in India the worlds second-biggest coal consumer the government has prioritised cheap solar energy rather than coal in response to a slump in electricity demand caused by Covid-19 and a weak economy. This has led to the first year-on-year fall in carbon emissions in four decades, exceptional air quality, and a growing public clamour for more renewables.
Elsewhere in Asia, the picture is mixed. A few years ago, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines were expected to be the industrys biggest growth areas, but the pandemic, falling renewable prices and a growing divestment campaign have put several major coal projects on hold. South Korean president Moon Jae-in has been re-elected on a pledge to phase out domestic coal use, and many in his ruling coalition are pushing to end financing of overseas projects. In Japan, the big three commercial lenders and the governor of the Japan Bank of International Cooperation have recently said they will no longer accept proposals for coal generation.
Other money taps are also being turned off, as investors and finance houses respond to scientific advice and campaigns by divestment activists and school strikers such as Greta Thunberg.
The economics of coal were already under structural pressure before the pandemic, said Michael Lewis, the head of climate change investment research at French bank BNP Paribas. And coming out of it these pressures will still be there but now compounded by the impact of the pandemic.
BNP Paribas is one of a growing list of financial institutions which have chosen to sever ties with coal. The bank said last week that it would accelerate its planned exit from coal financing to 2030 to bring its portfolio in line with the Paris climate goals sooner.
In the same week, the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund the worlds biggest ditched a host of coal mining and energy companies, including Glencore, Anglo-American, Vale and AGL over climate concerns. This follows coal blacklisting announcements by BlackRock, Standard Chartered and JPMorgan Chase.
The fossil fuel has fallen from favour in the eyes of many investors due to rising climate concerns, cheaper renewable energy alternatives and a public backlash against air pollution.
The public health benefits of cleaner air will be front and centre after weeks of lockdown that have prompted blue skies and clean air in Asias megalopolises, Lewis said. This pressure from the finance sector will only accelerate going forward, pushing the cost of capital for coal projects even higher.
Even before the pandemic, Australian coal companies said they were finding it hard to find financing for mines and port facilities due to the international divestment campaign. This is not the only economic squeeze. A near-30% fall in the price of thermal coal has made more than half of production unprofitable, prompting several firms to warn of pit closures and layoffs.
The elephant in the room is China, which burns half of the worlds coal and is the biggest financier of mines and power plants in Asia and Africa largely to provide an export market for its domestic manufacturing and engineering firms. A few years ago, domestic coal consumption fell, prompting hopes that president Xi Jinping was committed to a shift away from dirty, high-emitting power production. But after the lockdown, the political priority is to jumpstart the economy. Provincial governments are now working on a slew of new thermal plants. But they are running at less than half of capacity because demand for coal has not returned to its previous level.
Covid-19 has made clear that China and India have built more than they need. Even before the crisis, they had overcapacity. Now with lower demand, you can see everything is a mess, said Carlos Fernndez Alvarez, lead coal analyst at the International Energy Agency.
Alvarez said coal had been hit hardest by the pandemic, but he cautioned the decline could be temporary unless governments invest in renewables to pull economies out of the lockdown. We have to look at this structurally. If there is high energy demand again in the future, it will probably be coal that picks up the slack because it is the marginal supplier, he said.
While nobody is expecting coal to disappear any time soon, Ted Nace, director of Global Energy Monitor, believes the balance has shifted for good. Coal is definitely on the downturn and this pandemic is going to accelerate that. Demand should come back to some degree next year. But there is a very strong argument that it is not going to just bounce back.
When Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris announced a loosening of the state health order allowing bars and taverns to reopen under safe social distancing guidelines, the phone calls erupted at Veets Bar.
Everyones jaws dropped, said Gina Jo Previto, a manager at the family-owned downtown nightclub that, since 1998, routinely hosts musicians and late-night entertainment. Customers were wanting to reserve a seat for Monday night at the bar. Bands are calling. We are a live music venue, six days a week. I told the musicians that well book yall tentatively if we are ready and when we are ready to go. If were not ready, you all wont be playing.
The music and the dancing will have to wait a bit longer. As taverns and bars are allowed to reopen as long as the bar stools are moved six feet away from each other music venues and establishments labeled as nightclubs were given the bad news earlier this week: Keep on waiting.
And for the bars and taverns thinking they can reopen with games such as cornhole and pool, health officials are telling them to forget-about-it.
What is a night club?
At Veets Bar and other night clubs throughout Alabama, the doors will remain shut. Its not financially feasible for us to open at this time, said Previto, whose establishment is undergoing renovations inside and who is hopeful for more normalcy and a further loosening of restrictions by next month.
Confusion over what types of bars and bar-related activities could restart under the amended Safer at Home order lingered for much of the week. The Alabama Attorney Generals Office offered some clarity on Monday, by making a distinction after consulting with the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board:
-The main purpose of a night club is to socialize, consume alcohol and dance.
-Nightclubs typically have a dance floor area.
-Night clubs generally open for business at night and are open in the early morning hours.
-Adherence to social distancing guidelines would be near impossible at a night club.
Said Previto, At a night club, you have bands and dance floors and people are drinking. They get closer. Its going to happen. You rope off your dance floor, but you cant charge a cover. Bartenders arent going to wear a mask. We work 12-hour shifts. Whos going to wear a mask? Were at 50% capacity and hiring more people to oversee more things, which is safe. Financially, its hell.
Darts, axes and corn hole
Bar games, for the most part, are prohibited under the latest State Health Order issued in Alabama. The reasoning: They don't prevent congregating, which would protect patrons from COVID-19. Julia Hatmaker | jhatmaker@pennlive.com
But as the week wore on, more questions emerged about what is no longer allowed inside a traditional bar or tavern.
On Tuesday, Mobile County Health Department epidemiologist Rendi Murphree rattled off a list of other events not allowed to restart under the current order: pool, darts, foosball, axe throwing, corn hole, tiddlywinks, and full-contact Jenga.
Murphree said she received the list from state officials, who did not share a similar list with AL.com.
The spirit of the order was not to allow gatherings around common pool tables or foosball tables or corn hole or whatever sort of things are in bars that would cause people to be within six feet of another within extended periods of time, said Murphree. The night club designation is an easy one. Its gotten a lot of attention. But it has to be a place where socializing and drinking and staying open late is discouraged and not allowed in the Safer at Home order.
She added, Read the order and dont socialize and break the order. It was issued as an emergency rule. You could be charged with a misdemeanor.
The Alabama Department of Public Health, in response to questions about the order, forwarded to AL.com an ABC Board directive about night clubs that echoed the Attorney Generals definition. The directive also said that restaurants and bars can close off dance floors and place tables in a manner that complies with social distancing, change hours of operations to be consistent with restaurants, among other things.
When asked about bar games like pool and darts, ABC Board spokesman Dean Argo said, It stands to reason that the Health Department would prohibit the activities you mentioned because of the social distancing order. There is no way that patrons could participate in those activities and still observe the 6-foot distance requirement.
Some bar owners, however, are reopening and promoting their activities at safe social distance from each other. At 41st Street Pub & Aircraft Sales in Birmingham, manager Brian McGraw said the dart boards are set up at 6-foot distances from each other. He said his establishment is maintaining a strict capacity limit during reopening no more than 20 people will likely be inside at one time and tables and booths have been well-spaced.
Everyone is welcome, said McGraw. Its kind of a traveler beware type of thing. We do things on our end to make sure everyone who decides to show up is that we maintain their safety.
Bad Axe Throwing, with locations in Huntsville and Spanish Fort, remains closed under the current state health order. Mario Zelaya, the president & CEO of the company, claims he can reopen under strict social distancing and sanitization guidelines.
We are not one of those categories like movie theaters and bowling allies, said Zelaya. We dont fall into those clear buckets. We are hoping we get some clarity from the governor and her office.
Bad Axe Throwing had a slow reopening in states that loosened health order early on like Georgia. The reopening of the Atlanta venue last month was a complete disaster, Zelaya said. The company, at the time it reopened, required parties of at least eight to book for axe tossing competitions. They then dropped the limit to four, assigned 12-foot private lanes to groups to ensure social distancing and added free t-shirt or medallion promotion. Those changes helped bring some of the crowds back, Zelaya said.
In Atlanta, we saw the sales jump, he said. Its not a path where we can claim were making a profit, because we are not. I think people are too afraid to go out.
Health risks
Health experts are supportive of the State Health Orders ban on night club reopening as the coronavirus pandemic continues to add newer cases daily in Alabama. According to state records, Alabama has 11,674 cases with over 4,000 added in the past 14 days. Since the pandemic struck last month, 485 Alabama residents have died from the virus.
The biggest concern with night clubs is the propensity for congregation, according to Dr. Ellen Eaton, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birminghams Division of Infectious Diseases. Mix alcohol with music, and people become less diligent toward hand hygiene and maintaining social distancing, Eaton said.
Anytime someone is around and dancing and singing and after a few hours and a few drinks, folks are not mindful of face coverings, said Eaton. And as the hours pass on, I imagine you see less diligence with hand hygiene and sharing spaces and all of those are high-risk behaviors we would not recommend at this time.
Eaton compared the risks at a night club to that of a choir practice that generated attention from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week. The CDC examined a deadly outbreak of a 2-1/2-hour choir practice that occurred in early March in Skagit County, Washington. Attended by 61 people, the March 10 practice infected 52 people (87%) with COVID-19 symptoms and has since been described as a super spreader event.
According to the CDCs review of the event, the act of singing, itself, might have contributed to the transmission through emission of aerosols, which is affected by the loudness of vocalization.
What were learning is that in small groups, even with choirs and people singing, is that singing is a good way to spread coronavirus, said Eaton.
A new study, published Wednesday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that simply talking in a venue that is not well-ventilated, can transmit the virus from person to person through tiny droplets that are suspended in air for up to 14 minutes.
We know that coronavirus can be transmitted by shared air, said Eaton. And what were seeing in Birmingham and elsewhere is there are 20-somethings and 30-year-olds who are getting sick with coronavirus. We are surprised to see really sick individuals who were totally healthy before this.
The Soul Kitchen Music Hall on Dauphin Street in downtown Mobile, Ala. (John Sharp/jsharp@al.com).
Maggie Smith Eynon, co-owner of the Soul Kitchen in downtown Mobile, is hopeful her music venue can open, at least partially, within the next six weeks or so. She said she believes that Soul Kitchen can open to a small capacity initially with music in its front room area. The larger backroom would open later under strict social distancing guidelines, she added.
But as far as reopening as a bar with tables scattered on the dance floor Enyon said she cannot see that working for a venue with a reputation as a music hall.
For now, Soul Kitchens marquee will have to settle on humorous and made-up coming soon band announcements: Flu Fighters, Panic at the Costco, System of a Lockdown and the Wu Han Clan.
I think we could do that if we operated as a bar, but people dont come to the Soul Kitchen for the drinks, she said. They come for music and entertainment. Not only do we need to get back in business, the musicians need work and the crews need work.
MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) -- Despite reporting the second highest number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases since the first day in May, the percentage of total tests that are coming back positive remains low.
Thats because the Department of Health Services reported the results of more tests Thursday than any day previously.
The agencys daily coronavirus tracker showed 5,860 tests were recorded in the past day. Of those, 373 new cases were confirmed. Only the May 1 and May 8 reports showed more new positive tests, 460 and 375 respectively. However, because of increasing testing the percentage of total tests on both days was significantly lower. On May 1, that percentage stood at 12.7 percent, while on May 8, it was 8.1 percent.
The jump in new confirmed cases, however, reversed a week-long trend in which the rolling 14-day average number of news cases decreased. Between May 6 and May 13, that average slid from 340 per day to 286 per day, before ticking up to 294 on Thursday.
Thirteen more deaths were reported statewide, bringing the total number of deaths from complications related to COVID-19 to 434.
With the latest numbers, 11,275 confirmed cases have been tallied and nearly 2,000 patients have been hospitalized.
County data
Number of cases and deaths per county, according to the DHS:
Adams : 4 / 1Brown: 1,999 / 21Columbia: 34 / 1Crawford: 18 / 0Dane: 494 / 22Dodge: 83 / 1Grant: 71 / 10Green: 39 / 0Green Lake: 10 / 0Iowa: 11 / 0Jefferson: 56 / 2Juneau: 21 / 1Lafayette: 15 / 0Marquette: 3 / 1Milwaukee: 4,387 / 242Richland: 13 / 2Rock: 393 / 14Sauk: 74 / 3Waukesha: 444 / 23
An Amazon warehouse worker in Indianapolis, Indiana, has died of COVID-19, the company confirmed.
The death brings the known total of COVID-19 deaths at Amazon warehouses to seven, but Amazons process for notifying workers makes the true number difficult to determine. Several workers at IND8 first learned of the death through rumors and say management began informing employees more widely only after being confronted.
They werent going to say anything if it wasnt for people asking questions, says a worker at IND8, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution.
Amazon has repeatedly declined to say how many warehouse employees have been diagnosed with or died from the virus. In an interview on 60 Minutes that aired Sunday, Amazon senior vice president of worldwide operations Dave Clark called statistics on infections not a particularly useful number. On Tuesday, 13 state attorneys general wrote to Amazon requesting data on the number of workers who had contracted or died of COVID-19.
An Amazon spokesperson said the company was made aware of the Indiana employees death on April 30th and immediately notified all employees within the building. We are saddened by the loss of an associate at our site in Indianapolis, IN, the company said in a statement. His family and loved ones are in our thoughts, and we are supporting his fellow colleagues in the days ahead.
In March, Amazon workers criticized the company for failing to notify employees when their colleagues were diagnosed with the virus. The company now sends text alerts or automated calls when a worker is diagnosed, but the alerts often refer only to multiple new cases, so workers have been left to tally alerts themselves to figure out the prevalence of the coronavirus at their facility. At IND8, workers believe the number is around a dozen. Jana Jumpp, an Amazon warehouse worker in Indiana, has been collecting alerts sent to workers around the country and says at least 800 Amazon warehouse workers have been diagnosed with the virus.
The Indianapolis case is the second known death of an Amazon warehouse worker in the state, after a worker was confirmed to have died in Jeffersonville, and its the seventh in the US. Workers have also died in Staten Island, New York; Bethpage, New York; Waukegan, Illinois; Hawthorne, California; and Tracy, California. Its unclear how the worker contracted the virus, and the employees name hasnt been released. Amazon says he was last in the building on April 19th.
Amazon has been determined to maintain something resembling normal operations throughout the pandemic. Faced with a surge of orders, it hired 175,000 new workers and resisted closing US warehouses where workers tested positive. (So far it has closed only one in the US, a returns-processing facility in Kentucky, after the governor ordered it shut.) After temporarily stopping deliveries of nonessential goods to its warehouses, it has now lifted restrictions and says delivery times have begun to fall to their pre-pandemic levels.
But workers, activists, and lawmakers have raised concerns about the safety of the companys warehouses. Starting in late March, warehouse employees staged walkouts, calling for facilities to be closed and cleaned after employees tested positive for the virus. Amazon fired several workers who raised safety concerns, and last week, senators wrote a letter demanding information on the terminations. Earlier this month, a senior engineer and vice president resigned over the firing of workers who called for improving warehouse conditions.
Amazon has instituted new safety measures, including temperature checks, face masks, and increased cleaning. Our top concern is ensuring the health and safety of our employees, and we expect to invest approximately $4 billion from April to June on COVID-related initiatives to get products to customers and keep employees safe, the company said in a statement. The company also says infection rates at its warehouses are at or below the rates in the communities where they are located.
But workers at IND8 and elsewhere say cleaning has been uneven and conditions are often too crowded to allow for proper social distancing. Many worry that recent policy changes put them at greater risk. This month, Amazon reversed a policy it instituted at the onset of the pandemic that allowed workers to take unlimited time off without pay. (Amazon is set to end another coronavirus policy, an additional $2 per hour of hazard pay, on June 1st.) The leave policy had allowed workers who feared for their safety and could afford to go without a paycheck to stay home without being fired for overdrawing their quarterly allotment of 20 hours of unpaid time off. When the policy ended on May 1st, workers say their facilities became far more crowded.
Before we had the unlimited UPT [unpaid time off] so if people didnt feel safe, they didnt have to come to work, said a worker at IND8. When that went away, we went from having one hundred twenty five people back to four to five hundred people per shift. Its really crowded.
That worker and others are concerned the end of the time-off policy is pushing people who feel sick to come to work. Amazon offers paid leave for people diagnosed with COVID-19, and partial pay for people with fevers but no test results, but no general sick leave. This week, workers at IND8 were sent home early when a worker on the floor received a positive COVID-19 test result.
The facility was cleaned, but the next shift came in as usual. For the IND8 workers, the risk feels particularly unwarranted, because they process returned merchandise rather than sending out goods to homebound customers. Were not essential, said a worker. Everyones like, why are we not shut down?
That worker has received six notifications about positive cases at the facility, but its unclear how many people those alerts represent. Trying to get a sense of the risk, she wrote on the Voice of the Associate board, a bulletin for workers to request changes and ask questions, exactly how many cases there have been at the warehouse. She has received no response.
The Oregon Convention Center and two Portland Parks& Recreation community centers have served as emergency shelters as COVID-19 required officials to rethink the amount of space required to safely shelter homeless people.
Now the Joint Office of Homeless Services will prepare for the next phase of the pandemicby movingshelter beds from group settings to hotels or other housing that allows separate bedrooms, particularly for people who are older or have medical conditions and are therefore more at risk of complications from COVID-19.
"Reopening means folks are going to be out and about," says Joint Office spokesman Denis Theriault. The risks, he adds, "may even grow for folks who are vulnerable."
Thereare no details yet on when exactlythe Joint Office will close the Convention Center shelterand the Charles Jordan and East Portland community centersor which motels or housing will replace those spaces.
But people won't be packed into existing shelters. Homeless shelters throughout the cityintendto maintain lower numbers to allow for social distancing.
The tent villages set up in Old Town and the central eastside will remain in operation, as will the shelters that existed before COVID-19.
"No one currently staying in the affected physical distancing shelters will lose a bed," says Theriault. "So long as funding remains available, our goal continues to be maintaining overall shelter bed capacity.
"If and when we shift beds from any of our current emergency sites, we plan to do so only when replacement sites are ready to accommodate that capacity, and we will provide transportation for those guests."
SALT LAKE CITY Beginning Saturday, businesses in most parts of Utah will be allowed to open, as well as swimming pools and team sports, so long as social distancing can be maintained.
I like the trend, I like the numbers. I like whats taking place, Gov. Gary Herbert said Thursday. It gives me hope and optimism about the future.
He said it is time to turn the dial incrementally to get closer to full economic recovery.
Herbert said the majority of the state will move from a moderate health risk to a low-risk designation, as outlined in the Utah Leads Together 2.0 plan, at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. Areas that will remain under tighter restrictions include Grand, Summit and Wasatch counties, Salt Lake City and West Valley City.
Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson said she had hoped the entire county because it has experienced a higher positive case rate over the past several weeks would remain under stricter guidelines for an additional 10 days. She said more time is needed to assess the impact of the states plan to reopen in phases.
The virus doesnt understand municipal boundaries and therefore, countywide caution and prudence will still be essential for success, Wilson said, adding that face coverings and social distancing is still the most effective way to keep the community safe. Now, more than ever, we need to be united in the commitment to those safe practices.
The governors Public Health and Economic Emergency Commission made the recommendation Thursday based on closely tracked data involving transmission rates, hospital capacity, positive-test rate and tracking the exposure sources after the virus is detected.
SLC zip codes 84116 and 84104 have continuously shown some of the highest COVID-19 numbers in the state, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall tweeted Thursday afternoon. She seemed wary of lifting restrictions when the city hasnt yet seen a decline in cases.
Lets continue taking care of one another so that we can ensure our city is on solid footing before we move to the next phase of recovery, Mendenhall said.
Dr. Michael Good, dean at the University of Utahs School of Medicine and a member of the states commission, said 99% of infected Utahns are recovering from coronavirus and 92% recover at home, without needing to be hospitalized. Still, he added, people over age 65 and those with existing medical conditions or otherwise compromised immune systems remain at high risk of complications should they acquire the virus.
Coronavirus is a bully, Good said. It finds and attacks at-risk individuals. Coronavirus finds and attacks older members of our communities. Coronavirus finds and attacks those that have other medical conditions.
In addition to age, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that lung disease or asthma, serious heart conditions, immunocompromised states, severe obesity, diabetes, kidney disease and liver disease, all increase the likelihood of a person needing a hospital bed should they contract COVID-19.
Even though the death rate is only 1%, those are the individuals likely to be beaten by coronavirus, he said. Good encouraged all Utahns to protect anyone at risk.
Another 129 cases of COVID-19 were reported by the Utah Department of Health on Thursday, bringing the total number of cases to 6,749. The state has tested more than 160,119 people and has had 558 hospitalizations since the start of the outbreak. Ninety-nine people are currently hospitalized with the novel coronavirus in Utah, the health department reports.
No new deaths were reported in Utah Thursday, and state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn said the coronavirus mortality rate is about 1.1% in the state.
In all, 75 people, with an average age of 74, have died with COVID-19 in Utah since March.
Herbert said the same protocols that have been in place, including wearing masks, washing hands and social distancing, should continue.
All of us need to still be careful and cautious, he said. This is individual responsibility and common sense combined, and they still apply as we go forward with this new designation.
Herbert said schools that were close to summer break anyway, will remain closed. Driver education will become available for new drivers in the state, as well as opportunities to travel throughout Utah.
Team sports will resume, though spectators must maintain social distance, and swimming pools can open so long as people dont congregate in large groups. Gatherings that have been limited to up to 20 people will be allowed up to 50 people under the new low-risk designation.
We are slowly opening the valve, Herbert said. We hope if we handle this right, we will not have a surge. Then again, if it happens, we will be ready.
On Wednesday, Dunn said that because the virus has impacted different areas of the state differently, it would make sense that they reopen at different times. She said then she would not recommend transitioning to yellow anywhere along the Wasatch Front, where pockets of new cases still exist.
Were not going to go back to normal for some time, she said Wednesday, adding that no model can predict the future of COVID-19 in Utah, or elsewhere. She also noted that because around 5% have become infected so far here, it is important to maintain capacities and sustain the energy to manage the virus until a vaccine is available.
On Thursday, Dunn said these decisions arent always made in a public health silo.
Herbert anticipates full economic recovery in the state by the end of the year.
This is a great day, Herbert said. Its an opportunity to move forward little by little. There is reason to be hopeful and optimistic. The proof will be in how we act in this time.
