Indian-US firms working together on atleast 3 COVID-19 vaccines: Ambassador Sandhu Economic Times
60-70% of human population will get COVID-19 if vaccine is not developed: Expert | Photo Credit: iStock Images
Jaipur: Health is one of the most important pillars of sustainable development, and India needs to spend more on healthcare infrastructure as the coronavirus crisis will have a major impact, public health strategist, Dr. David Bishai has said.
In his address at the webinar organised by Indian Institute of Health Management and Research (IIHMR), Jaipur on "Effect of COVID-19 on Indian Economy: Policy and Programmatic Implications" and attended by 722 participants, Bishai, a professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, suggested focusing on the health needs for poor.
He also raised the concern that the Covid-19 outbreak won't end until 60-70 per cent of the human population is immune to the virus, as it may take between 18 and 24 months to develop a vaccine for it.
If a vaccine is developed in next two years, it will impact Indian economy dramatically, particularly the health sector because there will be less money and the human resource available to run the existing programs will not be enough, Bishai said.
"The immediate need is to recover small business post Covid-19 by ensuring that the credit should reach them regularly from banks so that employment can be created," he said.
Dr. Narain Sinha, Professor, University of Botswana, talked about the Indian economy before Covid-19, the present situation, and the economy after Covid-19. His absolute focus was on the issue of migrant labors as they are most important for Indian economy.
"During lockdown, 92.5 per cent of labourers have lost 1 to 4 weeks of their work. Therefore Government should make immediate policies according to local demographic, social and economic fabric," he said.
Ujwal Thakar, ex-top banker, ex-CEO, Pratham India, and Board Member, Educate India, said that Covid-19 has forced the entire system to think about the biggest disaster i.e poverty.
"The tragedy that has made us realise that a very large section of daily wage earners in the country became very vulnerable in the wake of the pandemic. We need to focus on migrant labourers that they get immediate employment in their own villages which could help in boosting rural economy and sustainable livelihoods for poor," he said.
Author Tamal Bandyopadyay, Chartered Accountant, MSMEs consultant and IIM visiting faculty, Hema Krishnamurthy, IIHMR's Pro President, and Dean P. R Sodani, and IIHMR University's Faculty- Health Economics & Financing, Monika Chaudhary were others who participated in the webinar.
Americas vocal ensembles,one of the soundtracks ofthis country, may notbe making musicuntil theres a COVID-19 vaccine. The same might also be true ofchurch choirs or church congregations. Operas and musicals, where performers sometimes sing directly into another's face,mighthave to be restaged to placesingers much farther apart.
The silencing of choral groupscould hit hard since an estimated 54 million people or 1 in 8 Americans sing in some type of choir, according to a 2019 study made for the group Chorus America.
The National Association of Teachers of Singing lastweek brought togetheran online panel discussion of scientistsand medical professionals to assess how the coronavirus will affect choirs.The discussion shared on YouTubesentshock waves through the singing world.
There is no safe way for singers to rehearse together until there is a COVID-19 vaccine and a 95% effective treatment in place, said Dr. Lucinda Halstead, president of the Performing Arts Medical Association, and the medical director of the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of South Carolina.
Earl Rivers, director of the Knox Church Choir reacts to his piano player as he directs during practice at the Knox Presbyterian Church in Hyde Park in 2011. The choir has a reputation for being one of the finest in Cincinnati.(Photo: Enquirer file)
Its culturally devastating, Ive never faced anything like this. Choir directors all over the country are asking what we can do safely (and) how were going to conquer this, said Earl Rivers, director of music at Knox Presbyterian Church in Hyde Park.
I share their concerns, but we also know the evidence is not clear yet as to what we can and can not do, said Rivers, who isthe outgoing director of choral studies and professor of music at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, as well as the former music director of the Vocal Arts Ensemble, Cincinnati's professional chamber choir.
Halstead noted that somesevere COVID-19 infections had started in churches. Examples include two congregations in Hopkins County, Kentucky that had a combined total of50 COVID-19 cases and four deaths after revivals in March.
The debate about the safety ofsinging in the age of COVID-19 comes days ahead of when the May Festival Chorus should have been taking the stage at Music Hall to begin its annual two-week run, starting this year with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on May 22. The chorus runs the oldest continuous choral festival in the Western Hemisphere.
Soloists Michelle DeYoung and Anthony Dean Griffey in the foreground, while projections played across a large screen behind the May Festival Chorus and Cincinnati Symphony, led by Michael Francis in the May Festival's "Dream of Gerontius."(Photo: Provided/Lee Snow)
"As far as when we return to singing in groups and when that is safe nobody can say definitively when that is going to be,it is a long way off," said Matthew Swanson, the festival's associated director of choruses. "But its going to be different depending on what part of the country youre in and what your singing circumstances are."
A vaccine is 18 to 24 months away, Halsteadestimated during the panel discussion, which also included representatives of the American Choral Directors Association, Chorus America andthe Barbershop Harmony Society. Other estimatesincluding one by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious disease expert say a vaccine will be available sooner.
As of 5 p.m. Sunday, there hadbeen 1.3million COVID-19 in the United States resulting in more than 79,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.
The concern of scientists is what's put into the air when somebody sings and how that's magnified when a group of people sings.
Since early in the coronavirus epidemic, scientists have been focusing on aerosol transmission of the virus where the coronavirus in droplets goes directly into the respiratory system or ends up there after somebody touchesa surface contaminated with droplets and then touchestheir "T-zone" in and aroundtheir mouths, noses or eyes.
Aerosolized particles of the virus are about five microns in size (for reference, a human hair is 100 microns) and can survive in aerosol form for about three hours, a recent New England Journal of Medicine article concluded.
"Ordinary breathing and speech both emit large quantities of aerosol particles," noted an April 4 article published in the journal Aerosol Science and Technology.
San Francisco Gay Mens Chorus conductor Tim Seelig in a scene from "Gay Chorus Deep South."(Photo: Courtesy of Adam Hobbs and Thorsten Thielow)
But the volume of airborne droplet nuclei generated by singing issix times more than those emitted during normal talking, according toTim Seelig, director of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, who talked to doctors in his chorus and researchedscientific papers about singing and aerosolized particles.
Singing is equal to coughing in the number of particles emitted, he wrote in a set of guidelines for choruses. Unlike coughing, "singing ... is sustained," Seelig addedin his guideposted on the Chorus America website.
He concluded: "Should we be so fortunate as to perform in the fall/winter, not only will audiences most likely be required to adhere to physical distancing, but the performers will as well."
In addition to cases at churches, an outbreak among dozens of choir members at a Washington state church drew attention in March. The Los Angeles Times reported that at least two singers died.
In Germany, 59 of 78 singers in Berlin's Protestant cathedral caught the virus, according to the Guardian newspaper. When the countryreopened its churches on May 3, there was no singing, reported the public broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
Officials at the Archdiocese of Cincinnati Friday announced that in-person services would resume May 25 six days before Pentecost Sunday, commemorating the date that the Christian church began its mission to the world with the descent of the Holy Spirit converting Christ's disciples into apostles.
In addition to limiting the number of parishioners and observing social distancing, guidelinesfor the 211 parishes in the 19-county archdiocese includethis: "Consideration should be given to reducing the role of choirs and ensembles in light of social distancing and public health regulations."
Sunday, Indiana reopened churches in 91 of its 92 counties for in-person services with no health restrictions on singing. Churches in Marion County (Indianapolis) remained closed.
Gov. Eric Holcomb said officials will be able to learn from places of worship, depending on what happens over the next 14 to 21 days as in-person services resume."If we can manage this, it gives us a lot of confidence in some other arenas as well," he said.
The May Festival Chorus(Photo: Provided)
Donald Milton, an infectious bio-aerosol specialist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, said during last week's conference call there are multiple challenges keeping singers from safely coming together.
There are no barriers currently safe for singing. An N95 mask may provide some measure of safety if fit-tested, but it would be difficult to breathe (and) decrease the levels of oxygen with rebreathing, Milton said, adding, the masks could cause headaches and injure people with asthma.
A particular concern about rehearsal spaces is that they are smaller than performance halls, making it hard to space the singers at least six apart. In addition, indoor spaces have air that's potentially more likely to be saturated with aerosolized particles emitted from singing.
The spacing issues also will apply to performances, Halstead said.
"Think about the Westminster Choir spacingsix feet apart," she said talking about an acclaimed 50-voiceensemble from New Jersey's Rider Universitythat is the chorus-in-residenceat the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina. "You would need a football field."
Seelig has an array of ideas he's considering for his nearly 300-voice chorus, which has made more than 30 recordings and toured across America and numerous foreign countries. They include:
Rivers said his church will have three Zoom meetings thisweek to discuss solo, choir and congregational singing.
Were waiting to find out the best practices and what might we safely do to protect the singers or one attending a choir concert, he said. We arent going to do anything until safe.
The May Festival's Swanson said smaller groups of singers may be able to get together sooner than a 120-member chorus.
Theres still a lot to be found out in terms of science. Hopefully, we wont have to wait 18 months, Swanson said.
Singing in Cincinnati itself is not going to stop, he added.
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Lansing Michigan's COVID-19 death toll reached 4,551 Sunday, but the numbers of hospitalizations and new infections continued to trend downward two months after the state confirmed its first cases of the virus.
On Sunday, the state reported 25 new deaths and 382 new cases, pushing the total number of confirmed cases to 47,138, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Michigan hasn't experienced a day with at least 1,000 new cases since April 29. The state reported its first cases of COVID-19 two months ago on March 10.
The 25 new deaths were the lowest daily total since March 29.
The Sunday numbers came a day after the Department of Health and Human Services updated data on COVID-19 recoveries in Michigan. As of Friday, 22,686individuals were considered recovered here because they were still alive 30 days after the onset of symptoms.
The state updates the recovery figure once a week on Saturday. The figure covers through Friday.
As recoveries have grown in Michigan, the percentage of people testing positive for the novel coronavirus and the number of hospitalizations have decreased statewide in recent days.
For the seven-day period ending Friday, Michigan reported the most tests conducted yet: 75,782. Of those, 6,055 or 7.9% were positive, according to state data.
Two weeks earlier, from April 18 through April 24, the state reported 43,113 total tests with 7,157 positives or 16.6%.
As of Friday, Michigan's tracking showed 1,437 COVID-19 inpatients statewide, less than half the 2,889 inpatients reported two weeks earlier on April 24.
Testing results and hospitalizations are two factors that Michigan health officials are watching as they decide when to lift additional restrictions that are meant to stem the spread of the disease.
As of Sunday afternoon, Michigan ranked seventh among all U.S. states for the number of confirmed cases and fourth for the number of deaths linked to the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University.
cmauger@detroitnews.com
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Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health reported today that since Friday there were eight new cases of COVID-19 for a total of 927 cases statewide. There were no new deaths, which held at 53. There has not been a new death since Thursday's report. Total hospitalized for COVID-19 or under investigation increased by six to 21 total. The number officially recovered is up 40 to 777. The total tested is 20,048.
GovernorPhil Scott announced Friday that child care centers can reopen June 1 and summer day camps will be able to open this summer, provided they can follow safety guidelines expected to be issued next week. State officials acknowledged opening child care programs will be an important part of ensuring Vermonters can get back to work, asmodelingcontinues to indicate a slow in the spread of COVID-19.
The coronavirus is spreading much slower in Vermont than in any state in the Northeast (see graph above). This week, New Hampshire's rate increased from cases doubling every three weeks to every two weeks. Meanwhile, cases in Vermont are doubling every 12 weeks, which is among the slowest rates in the nation.
The state also hopes to have over-night camps available this summer. At this point they are working on protocols that would allow out-of-state campers to come to the state. As for all other activities, like for the newly reopened golf courses, out-of-staters are not welcome yet. And anyone coming into the state for any reason must self-quarantine for 14 days. So far, this has not been enforced.
Also today, the Labor Department saidabout 8,400 individuals did not receive their PUA unemployment benefits this week. They will be paid next week. This is due to an issue with payments, as some claimants were errantly receiving more than their calculated benefit, causing them to go into overpayment. The update will correct the issue and going forward will ensure that benefit amounts are accurate.
Education officials also providedguidance on end-of-the-year gatherings. Large gatherings will not be permitted through the end of the school year, and events should be virtual. Schools are encouraged to plan creatively with their communities for opportunities to celebrate milestones and graduations in ways that are safe and supportive of students and their achievements.
All traditional high school graduations are therefore canceled. All end of year gatherings and graduations shall be designed to ensure equal access and participation by all affected students.
GovernorPhil Scott announced Wednesday that Vermonters can participate in outdoor recreation and limited social interactions under strict health and safety precautions, asstate modelingcontinues to indicate a slow in the spread of COVID-19.Read the Governors press release.
While theStay Home, Stay Safe orderremains in effect, the Governorslatest orderallows for certain social activities if Vermonters follow outlined safety measures:
The Governors order,Addendum 13, includes additional health and safety guidelines for these interactions, including following safety and hygiene protocols, limiting non-essential travel, and protecting those in at-risk categories, who should continue to stay home.
Read the Health Departments guidelineson how to weigh the risks and connect with family and friends safely.
Health Commissioner Mark Levine, MD, said at Wednesdays press conference that as the state reopens, Vermonters should consider keeping a contact journal a list of other people who you have been in close contact with each day. If you did get sick, this would make it easier to get in touch with those people and so they can take proper precautions to prevent further spread of COVID-19.
As we begin to enjoy the outdoors in Vermont, remember to take theusual precautionsto stay safe and healthy. Ticks are out, so make sure you know how to Be Tick Smart:healthvermont.gov/BeTickSmart.
For more outdoors information, visit:https://fpr.vermont.gov/recreation/outdoor-recreation-and-covid-19
Governor Phil Scott on Monday announced that limitedelective medical procedures could resume. These procedures had been put on hold as Vermonts health care system focused on preparing for, and responding to, COVID-19.
The Governors decision comes as state modeling continues to show spread of COVID-19 has slowed thanks to Vermonters physical distancing efforts and thestates ability to track and trace outbreaks of COVID-19 has become more robust.
Health care providers that meet specific criteria to protect patients and clinicians from possible infection, can begin non-essential outpatient clinic visits, diagnostic imaging and outpatient surgeries and procedures.
Some examples include:
Providers may also begin to perform outpatient surgeries and procedures that have a minimal impact on inpatient hospital bed capacity and protective equipment levels, including those performed in the office or ambulatory surgical center. They must follow additional criteria.
Some examples include:
Opioid-related fatalities decreased in 2019
Opioid-related fatalities in Vermont have decreased for the first time since 2014, the Health Department announced Tuesday.Newly released preliminary datashow a 15% decline in the number of deaths attributed to opioid misuse down from 130 in 2018 to 111 in 2019.
Health Commissioner Mark Levine, MD said that our strategies to meet this public health challenge are making a difference, but even a single death tied to opioid use is too many.
Vermonts efforts have included providing rapid access to medication-assisted treatment, patient education and rules governing prescription monitoring, the creation of a statewide network for naloxone distribution, safe drug disposal, syringe service programs, a statewide network of recovery centers, and building strong community partnerships.
Read the press release
Health Department to open additional COVID-19 testing sites
A pop-up site in Colchester will be open on Saturday, May 9 to offer COVID-19 virus testing for workers on the frontlines of Vermonts pandemic response. The specimen collection site is one of several to be opened around the state in the coming days for health care workers, first responders (EMS, fire, and law enforcement), and child care providerscurrently serving essential workers.
The clinic is by appointment only and is not open to the general public.
Organized by the Department of Health and the states Enhanced Testing and Contact Tracing Task Team with support from the Vermont National Guard and EMS agencies, the clinics are designed to increase current testing volumes five-fold to meet thegoal set by Governor Phil Scott to conduct 1,000 tests per day.
For more information about the clinic,read the press release.
The data dashboard onhealthvermont.gov/covid19now includes the estimated number of people recovered from COVID-19.
We calculate this recovery estimate in two ways:
Collecting recovery data is not something epidemiologists normally do in disease investigation. Because of this new challenge, this method provides us our best estimate, and many other states are reporting recovery data this way.
The number of people recovereddoes nottell us who is actively sick with COVID-19 in Vermont. This is because:
Read more info about our data by clicking onAbout Dashboard Data New Questions on People Recovered above the data dashboard.
Current COVID-19 Activity in Vermont
As of 11:00 a.m. on May 10, 2020
Total cases*
927
Currently hospitalized
5
Hospitalized under investigation
16
Total people recovered
777
Deaths+
53
Total tests
20,048
People being monitored
24
People completed monitoring
845
*Includes testing conducted at the Health Department Laboratory, commercial labs and other public health labs.
+Death occurring in persons known to have COVID-19. Death certificate may be pending.
Hospitalization data is provided by theVermont Healthcare Emergency Preparedness Coalition and is based on hospitals updating this information.
Find more information on new data dashboard athealthvermont.gov/covid19by clicking on the map of Vermont.
Vermonters with mild symptoms of COVID-19 can be tested
The Health Department is encouraging all Vermonters with even mild symptoms to contact their health care provider to get tested. This includes parents of children who have symptoms that could be related to COVID-19.
Your provider will refer you to a hospital or health center near you that can perform the test. Testing is free, and testing sites are following precautions to make sure you are safe. If you dont have a health care provider, call 2-1-1 to connect with acommunity or hospital-connected clinic.
Be sure youknow the symptoms associated with COVID-19, which have been expanded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In addition to fever, cough and shortness of breath, symptoms may include:
Health care professionals are urged to ensure Vermonters with any symptoms be tested. The state is expanding itstesting and contact tracing capabilitiesand is ready with the necessary supplies and resources. We are relying onhealth care professionals to help achieve this important public health goal.Visithealthvermont.gov/covid19-providersfor more information.
By being tested for any associated symptoms, Vermonters can help us quickly identify and isolate outbreaks, and better understand COVID-19 in Vermont.
Map of Cases by Town - Frequently Asked Questions
Long dissatisfied with the doctor treating his diabetes, Reginald Relf decided to fight through whatever was causing his nagging cough. But then his temperature spiked and his breathing became so labored that he reluctantly took his sisters advice to visit a doctor.
The staff at an urgent care clinic in suburban Chicago sent him home, without testing him for Covid-19 but after advising him to quarantine.
So Mr. Relf, a 50-year-old African-American engineer, settled into his mothers basement. A week later, after he was found dead, his sister, Ami Relf, was left shaken.
When I finally get him to go to seek help, hes turned away, she said. If he was a middle-aged white woman, would they have turned her away? Those are questions that haunt me.
The coronavirus has left tens of thousands of grief-stricken American families struggling to make sense of the seemingly random terror it inflicts, sickening many but only taking some lives.
But for many black families, mourning coronavirus deaths brings an added burden as they wonder whether racial bias may have played a role.
Decades of research shows that black patients receive inferior medical care to white patients. A long history of experimentation, exploitation and mistreatment has left many African-Americans deeply suspicious of the medical establishment. Now comes Covid-19, and the fear among many families, social scientists and public health experts that racial bias might be contributing to the disproportionately high rate at which the novel coronavirus is killing African-Americans.
Americans of all races may have experienced less than ideal care in recent months in an overwhelmed health care system, and it is not uncommon to hear stories of people who visited health professionals for treatment, only to be turned away.
But African-American patients enter the health care system with distinct disadvantages, experts say. There is less access to quality health care in many black communities, research shows, and black people are more likely to suffer from diabetes, hypertension and other underlying conditions that make Covid-19 particularly fatal.
So, should providers misinterpret or ignore coronavirus symptoms in black patients, there is a higher likelihood that the results could be grave, experts say.
The countrys largest professional organization representing black doctors is calling on federal health agencies to study the role bias may have played in the testing and treatment of African-Americans for Covid-19.
I think what we will find is race is a factor, said Dr. Oliver Brooks, president of the organization, the National Medical Association.
In previous studies, doctors have been found to have downplayed African-Americans complaints of pain, given them weaker pain medication for broken bones and withheld cardiac treatments from black patients who needed them. Research suggests that the decisions are the result of ingrained assumptions, cultural ignorance and hostile attitudes toward African-Americans.
The C.D.C. said in a statement to The New York Times that it did not have data to quantify the role of implicit bias in Covid-19 deaths. But the agency added, Becoming aware of and reflecting on ones own biases to help ensure they do not impact decisions is a potentially lifesaving step for clinicians to undertake.
When Ms. Relf made an appointment for her brother at the Loyola Center for Immediate Care in River Forest, Ill., in late March, she said she was hopeful that the clinic would be able to test and treat him for the coronavirus. He had become extremely lethargic with persistent coughs and chills, she said.
Before Mr. Relf left the clinic, he called his sister complaining that the staff would not test him because he did not have a fever. He sounded defeated, Ms. Relf said.
Quarantine at home for 7 days, his discharge papers said. Infection control will contact you regarding eligibility for testing.
The clinic set up an appointment for him to see his regular doctor 11 days later. Mr. Relf never made it. One of his brothers went to check on him after he stopped answering his phone and found his lifeless body crumpled in front of a couch. A posthumous test confirmed that Mr. Relf had Covid-19.
A spokeswoman for Loyola Medicine said in an email that privacy laws prevented it from discussing Mr. Relfs case specifically, but that Loyola did not discriminate based on race, age, gender or socioeconomic status.
It is difficult to know if any individual medical decision was affected by bias.
Still, a 2003 report commissioned by Congress on racial and ethnic disparities in health care found that even controlling for income and insurance access, Racial and ethnic minorities tend to receive a lower quality of health care.
Significantly, the report added, these differences are associated with greater mortality among African-American patients.
A pilot study by Rubix Life Sciences, the biotech research firm, compared the severity of Covid-19 symptoms exhibited by more than 27,000 patients during hospital visits in seven states with the treatment they received.
The study, which has not gone through peer review, showed that black patients were six times less likely to get treatment or testing than white patients, said Reginald Swift, the founder of Rubix.
Dr. Brooks, medical director at Watts Healthcare in Los Angeles, explained the issue this way: When we walk into an E.R., what they sometimes see is not a patient who is suffering from respiratory illness, they see a black man here who needs something.
Gary Fowlers family believes that the minimizing of his symptoms by doctors ultimately cost him his life.
Mr. Fowler, 56, who is black, had developed a deep, worrying cough, a fever and labored breathing, said one of his sons, Keith Gambrell. Over the course of five days, Mr. Fowler was sent home by three hospitals in metro Detroit, Mr. Gambrell said. A week later, Mr. Fowler died sitting in a blue recliner in his bedroom. He tested positive for the coronavirus after his death.
The three hospitals where his family said he sought care disagreed with the familys account. A spokesman from one of the hospitals, Detroit Receiving Hospital, said, there is no record of this individual coming to Detroit Receiving Hospital for any type of treatment. The other two hospitals disputed that Mr. Fowler was denied care.
Mr. Fowlers death added to the grim tally of deaths in Detroit, a city with a majority African-American population that has come to tragically symbolize the viruss devastation of black America.
Kaila Corrothers believed that her mother, Deborah Gatewood, did not have to be part of that tally.
Ms. Gatewood, 63, developed a high fever in mid March. But in four visits over six days, she was sent home with nothing more than Tylenol and cough medicine from the suburban Detroit hospital where she worked as a phlebotomist for 31 years, her daughter said.
Days after that last visit, Ms. Gatewood became so weak at home that her daughter insisted she go to the hospital again.
No, theyre not going to take me, Ms. Corrothers recalled her mother saying.
But Ms. Gatewood collapsed and an ambulance rushed her to a different hospital, where she tested positive for the coronavirus and was placed on a ventilator.
On April 17, three weeks after being admitted, her heart, kidney and lungs failed, and she died.
Ms. Corrothers said she could not say whether the fact that her mother was African-American played a role in her treatment.
In her visits to the emergency room of her employer, Beaumont Hospital in Farmington Hills, Mich., Ms. Gatewood never presented with symptoms severe enough to warrant admission, a hospital spokesman said in a statement. Given the shortage of testing supplies, patients with mild symptoms were not tested and told to quarantine at home, but return if their condition deteriorated, the statement said.
The lack of resources in some hospitals and the overwhelming number of cases likely have played more of a role than bias in the negative outcomes for African-Americans, some public health experts said.
But, in another case that has raised concern of medical bias, the family of Robert Johnson Jr. cannot help but think that doctors could have done more for him.
He seemed to embody many coronavirus risk factors: 49 and black, he had diabetes, hypertension, a low-functioning kidney and a double amputation.
The day before Easter, he woke up too weak to leave his bed, eat, or tell his mother what precisely hurt.
The next morning, Mr. Johnsons fever soared to 103.3 degrees. He was rushed to the emergency room at Yale New Haven Hospital. His mother, Gloria Johnson, 71, called the hospital hours later and was told her son had been given the green light to return home after receiving a chest X-ray that showed signs of pneumonia. The hospital did not test him for the coronavirus.
Ms. Johnson brought her son Easter dinner that night after his discharge. He had no appetite but she insisted he taste a few spoonfuls of yams. When she called the following morning to check on him, he didnt answer.
She hurried to his apartment only to find him unresponsive in his bed. Ms. Johnson watched as emergency responders tried to revive him.
I thought, Oh my God, what if they had given him the Covid-19 test or even kept him overnight for observation? What would the outcome be? she said.
The medical examiner confirmed that Mr. Johnson had died of complications from the coronavirus and diabetes, Ms. Johnson said.
A spokesman for Yale New Haven Health said in a statement that they understand the familys concern. The hospital was confident in the care provided to Mr. Johnson, but his case was under review, the spokesman said.
After Mr. Johnsons burial in a graveside service in New Haven, his mother was preparing to have his old apartment packed and cleaned when she received one last call from the Yale hospital.
They were calling, she said, to schedule Mr. Johnsons Covid-19 test.
Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.
MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) -- The percent of positive coronavirus tests on Sunday increased, bringing the total number of positive cases in the state to more than 10,000, according to state health officials.
Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported an additional 280 cases on Sunday, bringing the states total number of positive COVID-19 cases to 10,219.
Out of the 3,508 total tests, eight percent returned positive. Thats up from seven percent of returned cases reported on Saturday. More than 3200 tests returned negative, bringing the total to 105,163.
More than 1,800 patients are hospitalized.
DHS also reported on Sunday two additional deaths from the virus, bringing the total to 400.
There are currently 51 labs performing coronavirus testing with a total testing capacity of 13,797.
Health Care workers with COVID-19
DHS is reporting 1,251 cases, or 12-percent, of positive cases in the state are health care workers. They include: nurses, physicians, surgeons, physician assistants, health care support staff, emergency medical technicians and paramedics, dentists and other dental health workers, and pharmacists.
Group housing cases
Roughly six percent of COVID-19 cases in the state are at long-term care facilities, or 634 cases. Four percent or 362 cases are in group housing facilities. A majority of cases are not in a group housing facility.
Recovered cases
As of Saturday, 4,875 of the states COVID-19 cases have recovered. DHS defines the number of recoveries as those who have documentation of resolved symptoms or release from public health isolation. A recovery is also considered 30 days since symptoms began.
Badger Bounce Back gating criteria
According to the Badger Bounce Back Plan, two of the six gating criteria has been met to begin reopening the state.
So far, 95 percent of hospitals say they can treat all patients without crisis standards of care and 95 percent of hospitals say they can do testing for all symptomatic clinical staff treating patients at the hospital.
The following criteria has not been met:
County data
Number of cases and deaths per county, according to the DHS:
Adams : 4 / 1Brown: 1,897 / 18Columbia: 32 / 1Crawford: 17 / 0Dane: 472 / 22Dodge: 67 / 1Grant: 68 / 7Green: 33 / 0Green Lake: 8 / 0Iowa: 10 / 0Jefferson: 50 / 2Juneau: 21 / 1Lafayette: 13 / 0Marquette: 3 / 1Milwaukee: 3,952 / 225Richland: 13 / 2Rock: 354 / 13Sauk: 71 / 3Waukesha: 400 / 23
To see the latest data sets from DHS, CLICK HERE
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) With all the reports of dramatic declines in air travelers, Dr. Ethan Weiss, a UC-San Francisco cardiologist, returning from an assignment at a New York City hospital to help battle that citys COVID-19 outbreak was shocked to see the crowded conditions on his flight back to San Francisco.
Weiss was flying back to San Francisco out of Newark on Saturday. He was a member of the UCSF medical team that volunteered to fly to New York in April to give some relief to the doctors and nurses being overwhelmed by coronavirus patients. With much fanfare, United Airlines flew the team round-trip for free.
But Weiss began tweeting about the flight soon after boarding. He had thought it was standard airline policy during the COVID-19 outbreak to keep all middle seats empty to allow for social distancing.
I guess @united is relaxing their social distancing policy these days?, he tweeted along with a phot. Every seat full on this 737.
This is the last time Ill be flying again for a very long time, he continued.
As his flight approached San Francisco, Weiss posted a checklist of what he thought the airline could have done better.
We are about to land & I just wanted to say a few things. 1) people on this plane are scared/ shocked. 2) I have no idea why most of them are traveling. 3)I am with a group of 25 nurses and doctors who have been working in NYC hospitals for the past 2-4 weeks. We are coming home. 4) United flew us here for free. They got a lot of great PR for taking great care of us on the way out including from me. Even from me. 5) they could have avoided this by just communicating better. They literally just sent an email 10 days ago telling all of us the middle seats would be empty.
Maya Kotas, who was another member of the UCSF team and worked in a busy ICU, posted a similar photo.
Trauma surgeon Rebecca Plevin was also on the flight.
Weiss posts drew a large response of others who have had similar experiences during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Replying to @ethanjweiss I recently flew home from a COVID assignment in NYC on @AmericanAir and they didnt give a crap about social distancing. I was sat right next to someone and when I asked if I could move, they said well this flights pretty full so no, posted sassyclassysmartassy.
Another traveler on Saturday posted a photo of his overcrowded American Airlines flight.
A new strain of Coronavirus, COVID 19, is spreading around the world, causing deaths and major disruption to the global economy.
Responding to this crisis requires global cooperation among governments, international organizations and the business community, which is at the centre of the World Economic Forums mission as the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.
The Forum has created the COVID Action Platform, a global platform to convene the business community for collective action, protect peoples livelihoods and facilitate business continuity, and mobilize support for the COVID-19 response. The platform is created with the support of the World Health Organization and is open to all businesses and industry groups, as well as other stakeholders, aiming to integrate and inform joint action.
As an organization, the Forum has a track record of supporting efforts to contain epidemics. In 2017, at our Annual Meeting, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was launched bringing together experts from government, business, health, academia and civil society to accelerate the development of vaccines. CEPI is currently supporting the race to develop a vaccine against this strand of the coronavirus.
