Category: Corona Virus

The projection by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation comes with a silver lining: About 70,000 of those lives would be saved if many more Americans wore masks, the institute's leader said.

"It really depends on what our leaders do, (both) as individuals, and what governments do," the IHME's chief, Dr. Chris Murray, told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Friday night.

IHME projected that if nothing about the nation's approach to prevention changed, death rates would dip in September but rise later in the fall, and the total would reach about 310,000 by December 1.

But changes in behavior would affect the projection, he said:

If governments ease current social distancing restrictions and mask mandates, daily death rates could reach 6,000 daily by December, up from his current prediction of 2,000 daily, Murray said.

On the other hand, if significantly more people wore masks, the projection of total deaths from now to December would drop by almost 70,000, he said. About 95% of the US population would have to wear masks for that to happen, he said.

Coronavirus case rates have been dropping for weeks in parts of the US, but death rates have been relatively elevated.

Daily US cases over the past week averaged about 44,100 as of Friday, down from a peak average of 67,317 on July 22, John Hopkins data show.

Preventing another wave

"We don't need to have a third wave in the heartland right now," Redfield said Thursday. "We need to prevent that."

On Friday, the top health official for Seattle and King County in Washington warned the state was seeing an increased number of cases linked to social gatherings.

"We expect Covid-19 to get worse in the fall and winter and people to spend more time indoors," said health officer Dr. Jeffrey Duchin.

To help prevent widespread infections, Murray said governors need to put mask mandates in place -- mandates "with teeth" -- that would allow local authorities to fine residents without a face covering.

"It will take a concerted effort but the impact is extraordinary, it's really quite extraordinary what it could achieve," Murray said.

6-year-old is Florida's youngest Covid-19 victim

Florida has reported more than 593,000 infections since the start of the pandemic, second only to California, which has recorded 660,000 positive results.

The girl's death comes as schools across the US have begun reopening. Some have adjusted plans after hundreds of students and staff were asked to quarantine in response to coronavirus cases.

More than two dozen cases linked to motorcycle rally

Minnesota reported 15 cases of the virus among people who attended the rally in South Dakota earlier this month, said Kris Ehresmann, infectious disease director at the Minnesota Department of Health.

Among those cases, one person was hospitalized. Officials say they expect more cases over the next few days.

In Nebraska's Panhandle region, at least seven cases were tied to the rally, according to Kim Engel, director of the Panhandle Public Health District.

Universities continue to struggle with reopening

In Florida, university officials are already identifying Covid-19 cases as students move into dorms, according to data from Florida universities.

Florida State University in Tallahassee has now created "a rapid COVID-19 test laboratory that turns around results in 24 hours" and its own contact assessment team, FSU spokeswoman Amy Farnum Patronis told CNN.

At Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, students began moving into campus dorms on a staggered schedule with designated hours to promote social distancing.

Mark and Kari Thronson from San Antonio, Texas, helped their freshman son, Tyler, move into his dorm on Friday. Kari Thronson told CNN's Natasha Chen she felt comforted by the university's protocols in place for their safety.

"I think it's everywhere. I don't think there's any hiding from it. I think just protecting yourself is the best thing you can do," Kari Thronson said.

Evania Lauscar, a freshman at Florida Atlantic who hopes to become a doctor one day, said she debated in July whether she would actually come to campus.

"I was thinking what if I do move in, and probably a week later or two, they tell us to go home? But I told myself I really want to be here and I kind of want to see this experience, so, so far it has been good, but it's still a thought in the back of my mind," Lauscar said.

Both Tyler Thronson and Lauscar said they have one course for which they need to attend in person, while the rest of the classes will be held remotely.

In other schools where students have moved in, university officials are working on limiting large group gatherings.

New students who say they plan to either host or attend parties will have their offers of admission rescinded, according to the letter from Madeleine Estabrook, the university's senior vice chancellor for student affairs. Current students can expect to be removed from university community, including the immediate loss of university housing, the letter said.

The university said it learned earlier this week that several students expressed on social media their intent to gather in large groups and to engage in parties.

Other colleges have already reversed plans for in-person classes and returned to remote learning after coronaviruses cases were detected on campus, leading to quarantines.

CNN's Melissa Alonso, Natasha Chen, Shelby Lin Erdman, Jennifer Henderson, Kay Jones, Jamiel Lynch, Janine Mack and Andy Rose contributed to this report.

Read the original post:

Nearly 70,000 lives could be saved in the next 3 months if more Americans wore masks, researchers say - CNN

From a competitive standpoint, sitting out a weekend might help both teams. The Yankees were just swept by the Tampa Bay Rays, with their ever-nimble roster of useful position players and little-known power arms in the bullpen. And while the Yankees are troubled by their annual injury plague, the Rays also have two starters (Charlie Morton and Yonny Chirinos) and a very good reliever (Jose Alvarado) on the injured list.

Updated Aug. 21, 2020

Heres whats happening as the world of sports slowly comes back to life:

The Mets had just won three games from the Marlins, who are slumping but still in second place in the mediocre National League East. The Atlanta Braves are in first, but their rotation is in shambles and their dynamic young stars, second baseman Ozzie Albies and outfielder Ronald Acua Jr., are out with wrist injuries.

The Mets could use a starter like Zack Wheeler, who fled New York last December for a five-year, $118 million contract with the Phillies. Wheeler has thrived in Philadelphia he is 3-0 with a 2.81 earned run average but his new team is squandering its luck as the healthiest roster in the division.

Through Thursday, the Phillies had led by at least two runs in each of their last six losses, undone by a bullpen whose 8.07 earned run average was by far the worst in the majors. The Phillies relievers make the Mets bullpen (4.56 E.R.A.) look like the 1990 Nasty Boys, who led the Cincinnati Reds to a title.

The point is that the Mets, who are 12-14, have a chance, even without two players they were counting on designated hitter Yoenis Cespedes and starter Marcus Stroman who opted out of the shortened season. Their hitters have the best on-base percentage in the majors, at .356, but they have mostly wasted those opportunities, ranking last in the majors in batting average with runners in scoring position, at .214.

Jacob deGrom has been dazzling as usual, with a 1.93 E.R.A. in five starts, though he has not yet worked past the sixth inning. Seth Lugo is poised for his spot in the patchwork rotation, making Edwin Diaz the closer again. Predictably, Diaz blew a save on Wednesday, but he preserved a victory by striking out the side in the ninth. He has faced 47 batters and struck out 24, and deserves this latest chance to be the lockdown closer of the Mets dreams.

In any case, it is comforting to worry about on-field matters after four months without baseball. Local and national television ratings are up across the sport even with rare late summer competition from the N.B.A. and the N.H.L. and the Mets are compelling to follow; their broadcast teams are among the best in the game, and the roster is talented and likable.

Excerpt from:

Mets' Coronavirus Positive Tests Postpone Series with Yankees - The New York Times

LONDON For all of the challenges in controlling the spread of the coronavirus, Europes initial strategy was relatively straightforward: nearly universal, strictly enforced lockdowns.

It eventually worked. And in the two months since most countries have opened up, improved testing and tracing have largely kept new outbreaks in check. With basic rules on wearing masks and social distancing, life has been able to resume with some semblance of normality.

But in recent days France, Germany and Italy have experienced their highest daily case counts since the spring, and Spain finds itself in the midst of a major outbreak. Government authorities and public health officials are warning that the continent is entering a new phase in the pandemic.

There isnt the widespread chaos and general sense of crisis seen in March and April. And newly detected infections per 100,000 people across Europe are still only about one-fifth the number in the United States over the last week, according to a New York Times database.

But there are growing concerns that with the summer travel season drawing to a close, the virus could find a new foothold as people move their lives indoors and the fall flu season begins.

With countries employing a variety of strategies and with rules often changing suddenly and guidance varying from nation to nation it remains to be seen which tactics will prove both enforceable and effective.

The virus is also spreading across a landscape vastly changed from the one it found in the spring, with many cities centers still largely empty of office workers and a public on guard.

The increase in cases in Europe, as in many other parts of the world, is being driven by young people. The proportion of people age 15 to 24 who are infected in Europe has risen from around 4.5 percent to 15 percent in the last five months, according to the World Health Organization.

Dr. Hans Kluge, its director for Europe, said on Thursday that he was very concerned that people under age 24 were regularly appearing among new cases.

Low risk does not mean no risk, he said. No one is invincible, and if you do not die from Covid, it may stick to your body like a tornado with a long tail.

This time, European leaders have largely avoided imposing widespread lockdowns, and are instead relying on measures like targeted restrictions on movement in hot spots, increased mask requirements and public health education campaigns.

Dr. Kluge said that strategy could work.

Between the basic measures at the national level and additional targeted measures, we are in a much better position to eradicate localized viral outbreaks, he said. We can manage the virus and keep the economy and the education system running.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron has ruled out another countrywide lockdown, opting instead for very localized strategies.

We cannot bring the country to a halt, because the collateral damage of confinement is considerable, he told Paris Match magazine this week, adding that zero risk never exists in a society.

A growing number of French cities have made mask wearing mandatory in crowded streets and markets, and on Thursday the southern cities of Nice and Toulouse became the first to extend the rule to all outdoor areas.

But as the number of new infections rises daily on Thursday, there were nearly 4,800 new infections, a figure not reached since April some wonder whether the government is being too lax.

Olivier Vran, the health minister, acknowledged on Friday that the viruss spread was accelerating, but he said the situation would remain under control as long as people observed social distancing and hygiene measures.

We are several days away from the return from vacations, Mr. Vran said, warning that people are going to get back to their lives in places like offices and schools.

The virus must not spread from younger people to older people, he added.

A surge in cases in Spain, however, illustrates the difficulties of an ad hoc approach to virus suppression.

Since the lifting of a state of emergency in June, 17 regional governments in the country have been directing their own efforts. That has left Spain splintered into a mosaic of different rules, many of which had to be changed almost immediately once hundreds of local outbreaks were identified.

Countries like Britain have now introduced self-quarantine rules on travelers coming from Spain, wrecking Spanish hopes of a strong summer tourism recovery. Nightclubs were closed again within weeks of reopening, and some Spanish regions have recently gone further, including banning smoking in public outdoor spaces.

The back-and-forth has also been coupled with uncertainty over whether regions are doing enough testing and tracing of infections. In the Madrid region, labor unions representing schoolteachers voted on Wednesday to go on strike rather than reopen classrooms in September, in protest over what they consider inadequate safety guarantees from the regional government.

Nobody should be in any doubt, Dr. Fernando Simn, the director of Spains health emergency center, said on Thursday. Things are not going well.

The approach in Britain, which has had the greatest rate of excess deaths in Europe during the pandemic, has a similarly disjointed feel, with sudden rule changes often confusing the public.

Updated August 17, 2020

In Birmingham, residents are facing the return of the dark days of lockdown, a local official has said, after a surge of new cases was reported. In northern England, including around Manchester, people from different households have been barred from meeting.

But the countrys health secretary, Matt Hancock, told the BBC this week that workers should go back to their offices. And the government is funding an initiative to get people back out into restaurants, covering a portion of the cost of some meals.

The authorities are also requiring 14 days of self-quarantine for travelers coming from Austria, Croatia, France and the Netherlands, and have warned that more countries could be added.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to tackle the spread of the virus without closing national borders, despite a rise in daily infections not experienced since the end of April. She said on Thursday that the European Union must be united and that it needed to act even more European to stop the virus.

I dont think were just going to close the borders again, she said. Politically, we really want to avoid that at all costs.

Nearly 40 percent of recent new infections in Germany have been brought back by returning vacationers, according to the government.

The countrys Foreign Ministry has warned against traveling to several popular destinations, including most of Spain and parts of Croatia. But returning travelers can now be tested for free at German airports.

And even if political leaders did want to impose lockdowns again, there are indications that the public would not be so compliant a second time around.

This month, tens of thousands of people in Berlin took part in demonstrations against coronavirus restrictions. And in the Netherlands, dozens of protesters from a group claiming that the virus was a government hoax clashed with police officers in The Hague on Thursday, an extreme example of rising tensions over the Dutch governments handling of the pandemic.

Face masks, now common in much of Europe, have been a subject of confusion in the Netherlands, where the head of the countrys National Institute of Public Health, Jaap van Dissel, has said that masks offer fake protection.

Although masks are now required on public transit, the Dutch government says it is more important for people to stay six feet apart in all situations. It has also urged people not to have more than six guests in their homes.

Public wariness with regulations has been blamed for an uptick of cases in Belgium.

As the summer has progressed, many people there stopped wearing masks in stores, and the police have had to break up partying students at major squares in Brussels.

As the infection rate has ticked up, politicians issued more restrictions and Prime Minister Sophie Wilms issued broad mask-wearing requirements.

The future will depend on the behavior of everyone, she said. These are not suggestions, but orders.

Reporting was contributed by Allison McCann, Elian Peltier and Kaly Soto from London; Raphael Minder from Madrid; Christopher F. Schuetze from Berlin; Thomas Erdbrink from Amsterdam; Elisabetta Povoledo from Rome; Aurelien Breeden from Paris; and Julia Echikson from Brussels.

Go here to see the original:

Europe Braces for New Phase in Pandemic With Cases Surging - The New York Times

Since systematic testing for the coronavirus began Monday, Northeastern has completed 4,098 tests, with 4097 negative results and one positive as of early Friday. The university is launching an online dashboard to track and share the results of everyone being tested on the Boston campus.

Northeasterns dashboard tracking coronavirus test results from the first three full days of testing on the Boston campus.

The figures in this report reflect 3,949 samples from Monday through Wednesday, plus an additional 149 samples from Thursday. A remaining 1,379 samples taken on Thursday were still being processed as of 12:30 a.m. on Friday.

The dashboard is being updated daily with the numbers from the latest full day of results byNortheasternsLife Sciences Testing Center, a new, state-of-the-art laboratory on the universitys Innovation Campus in Burlington, Massachusetts that this month secured state and federal certifications to process coronavirus samples.

At the Cabot Physical Education Center on the Boston campus, where everyone who shows no symptoms of COVID-19 is being tested, people go through a physically distanced and self-administered testing process that takes between five and 10 minutes.

The principle behind testing everyone quickly and regularly is to promote the safety of the campus and the surrounding communities, says David Luzzi, senior vice provost for research and head of the universitys testing operation.

In order to make the campus safe you want to get your results from testing back as quick as possible, Luzzi says. The faster you get it back, the better you are at getting people isolated from the community so you dont get more spread.

Most students will need to be tested every five days if they are on the Boston campus more than one day a week. Other students who are on campus less frequently will need to be tested every seven days, or whenever they visit the campus. All students will need to undergo three coronavirus tests within the first five days of their arrival on campus. Students who were already studying or working on campus can also begin their initial testing now.

For faculty, staff, and contract workers, the testing plan requires a test once a week, or whenever they visit the university if they are not on campus regularly.

Anyone experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 will need to consult with a medical provider to see if testing is needed, and proceed to a different, specially designated facility for testing.

Everyones samples go through a process that involves fast, but highly specific analysis of the genetic material of the virus at the Life Sciences Testing Center. Samples from Cabot are sent in for analysis every two hours, and most people have received their results back within 24 hours by checking into an online portal that provides the status of their tests.

If the results are delayed, people should contact Northeasterns COVID-19 hotline, according to university officials.

Northeastern has retrofitted Cabot into a facility that can test everyone studying, living, and working on the Boston campus. Its 48 self-swabbing stations are open 12 hours a day during the week, and eight hours a day on weekends.

Combined with the Life Sciences Testing Center, the Cabot facility is part of a strategy to test up to 5,000 people a day by Aug. 29, as students begin to move to campus.

In addition to the ongoing and rapid testing of everyone on the Boston campus, the reopening plan also requires that all people on campus wear a mask at all times and maintain a distance of at least six feet from othersbe it indoors or outdoors. The plan also includes upgrades that exceed the requirements of public health guidelines to air filtration and ventilation systems in classrooms, laboratories, and other indoor spaces.

And, everyone is required to check for symptoms of sickness on a daily basis, or whenever they visit campus, using the Daily Wellness Check.

To help slow the spread of the virus on campus and inside the Cabot center, everyone who shows up for a test must use the wellness checker to confirm they do not have symptoms of COVID-19.

We have lots of rules that students have to obey on campus, Luzzi says. Theres a whole process to handle with compliance, so we feel like were in a good situation for that.

Everyone signing up for a test at Cabot needs to do so in advance using the COVID-19 Test Scheduler. Because the process of getting tested at Cabot consists of meticulous planning with a focus on rapidness, the facility cannot accept walk-ins.

Ian Thomsen contributed to this report.

For media inquiries, please contact media@northeastern.edu.

Read the original post:

Here are the results of Northeastern's first 4 days of coronavirus testingand here is how to keep track from now on - News@Northeastern

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Taneesha Mendez spent two weeks in May quarantined in her West Side house with her four kids. She had picked up the coronavirus from her job as an aide at a nursing home.

The single mother told the 2-year-old she couldnt sleep in mommys bed anymore. She had to gently push all the kids away when they wanted hugs. To stay safe, her mother and grandmother could not help with the kids.

Mendez knows at least 15 people who have been sick with Covid-19; three were hospitalized. She watched it kill nursing home residents.

That is why she will not send her kids back to school in the Syracuse City School District. Her four kids would go to two different schools, some on different days of the week. So thats different buses, different classes, times four. If just one gets exposed, so many dominoes would all get knocked over again.

She would have to relive those weeks in May, when every sniffle, every cough was a question with deadly potential. Her son, Jonathan, became ill after her quarantine. She is not sure if it was the virus, or not. He was not tested.

I already dodged a bullet once, Mendez says as she sits in her grandmothers driveway while her oldest rides her bike in circles.

Two days of school is just not worth it, she decided.

Mendez is among thousands of parents in the Syracuse school district who decided to keep their kids home rather than send them for two days of in-person education.

Early results show that 50% of parents in the district have decided to keep their children home all week. And its not just the parents. Syracuse teachers are worried, too: In a district survey, 75 percent of teachers and staff said they wanted to start the year with remote school.

This is in stark contrast to area suburban school districts, where 80 to 90 percent of families are sending their children for whatever in-person instruction is available.

Syracuse mirrors a trend in cities across the state and nation: Urban school districts have been slower to bring kids back into the classroom.

Families and experts say there are two things at play in cities: Parents are more worried about the virus because they know it. And city districts are often already struggling with old buildings and not enough money, making it harder to rise to the complicated task of pandemic schooling.

The coronavirus has hit Black communities, like Syracuses, much harder than the suburbs. In Onondaga County, Blacks are three times as likely to get Covid-19 than whites. They are more likely to work in jobs like Mendezs, where they are exposed to the virus. And once they get it, theyre three times as likely to end up hospitalized and 50 percent more likely to die from it because of the longstanding gap in health care.

Syracuse families know the deadly path the virus can cut. Its not just something on cable television.

And then there is the struggle of doing safe schooling on a massive scale of a city school district where resources are already thin. In Syracuse, there are more than 30 different schools and 20,000 students. So every question becomes exponential: Do the buildings have the right ventilation? What happens when a kid gets on the bus with a temperature?

It was these questions and others that spurred the teachers union in Syracuse asked the district to delay the start of in-person school until November.

The city school districts across New York, and the nation, are seeing the same trend. So many parents chose to keep their kids home in Auburn that the district had to delay its start. Rochester, Ithaca, Rome and Binghamton have also decided to delay in-person instruction. Utica is weighing a delay, too.

Urban districts across the nation have increasingly shifted toward sending kids all online, said Betheny Gross, associate director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education. She said Syracuse parents are echoing what others in struggling cities have already decided: They dont trust the schools to keep their kids safe.

You have communities of families who were just absolutely devastated by the virus, Gross said. Where you have more Latino and Black families, they have grown quite wary of this virus.

Gross also said city school districts struggle with less funding, less space and older buildings. And they tend to have stronger teachers unions. New Yorks city teachers unions want delays.

So far, suburban districts in New York have rarely pushed to go slow.

Theres this terrible discrepancy of the haves and the have nots, said Bill Scott. He has a foot in both worlds. Scott is the president of the Syracuse Teachers Association and he lives in Jamesville-DeWitt, where his two sons attend school.

In Syracuse, teachers and staff have a pile of questions, the newest of which is a list of buildings that can use Merv-13 air filters. Malls are required to have the filters; they are only recommended for schools. Some schools in the city not only cannot use the filters; the windows dont even open, Scott said.

At first, Scott and his wife thought they should keep their children home for online instruction because of concerns about student and teacher safety in Jamesville-DeWitt. But after talking with the union leaders and district officials there, he and his wife, a teacher in another suburban school district, decided it was safe for their teens.

Those same challenges dont seem to be there, Scott said. The district that is next door to Syracuses East Side is also world away. The buildings are newer and there are more resources.

At least one Syracuse school board commissioner, Tamica Barnett, has said she is not planning to send her child to school because she does not think the schools are safe or ready.

Erika Edelstein, a mother of three children in the Syracuse schools, has also decided to keep them home.

The schools are being asked to the impossible, Edelstein said. This is a culmination of years of underfunding.

She is not confident the schools are safe. So she worries her two school-aged children will start school only to have it interrupted. And they could bring the virus home to their toddler sibling.

Edelstein also couldnt imagine figuring out what to do every time one of the kids had a runny nose. Do I keep one home, or all of them, she wondered.

I thought it would be more painful for them to go back and have school be so erratic and different, she said.

Edelstein is the executive director of a nonprofit and her husband is a data scientist, so they have the resources to find care for their children or the flexibility for one parent to work from home. Still, Edelstein is not sure how theyll manage.

Were really exploring every single option, she said.

At mid-week, Jeff Leibo and his wife had decided to send their youngest, who is 5, back to the citys Montessori school for the hybrid schedule.

But they couldnt decide what to do with their twin 9-year-old boys who go to the citys Latin School.

I think a lot of families are paralyzed by indecision because all the options are bad, Leibo said.

He said hes thinking about choosing online-only for the older boys, but what would that would mean? Is it all videotaped instruction without teacher interaction? Or will the kids be in virtual classrooms, communicating with real teachers who can answer their questions?

There are clearly a lot of aspects the schools havent figured out yet, Leibo said.

Laiza Semidey plans to keep her 6-year-old son home from his city elementary school. She simply could not imagine sending him to school and expecting he and the other 6-year-olds would socially distance and remember to wash their hands. There were so many unknowns, she said.

I dont know how other people live, who they are around, she said.

Semidey worries about the burden put on teachers who are so used to helping little kids with the things they cannot yet do: Tie their shoes, remember to wash their hands after going to the bathroom. How can they be asked to do that? But how can those things go undone?

She is lucky, she said, that she can work from home.

Thats one less child that a teacher has to worry about, Semidey said.

Sheria Walker is keeping her five children and her grandson home from the Syracuse City Schools when school reopens. She doesn't think the schools are prepared to address the coronavirus risk.

Sheria Walker has Semidys worries times six: Her six kids would be at five different schools. The oldest would be a junior at the Public Service Leadership Academy and the youngest, Walkers grandson, would be in pre-k at the Latin School.

When she heard about the plan to send all but the high schoolers back to school two days a week, she immediately wondered: What happens if one is exposed?

There are five other kids in different classes at four other schools, on different buses. And then theres her husband, who is a Centro bus driver. And Walker, who works at the Gifford Foundation.

How in Gods name does that work? she said.

Walker imagined a string of exposures, then quarantines.

They are using these kids as guinea pigs. Im not willing to put that risk and exposure to my children, Walker said.

So she and her husband will continue to do what they did in the spring: flex their work schedules so one of them is always home.

She tried to be creative and fun, thinking up gym ideas, art projects and taking the kids outside. And then, when the kids who played instruments needed to do their lessons, she sent them outside, filling their Strathmore yard with drums, trombone, saxophone and flute. (Some neighbors did not appreciate it.)

Right now, the family has been given one laptop by the district for all the kids the use. How will that work?

There are so many unknowns to staying home. How will everyone get everything done? How will she explain this new math?

But to Walker the risk of going to school so much greater than the trouble of those unknowns: A family member died from Covid-19 and she knows others who became seriously ill.

She knows how it spreads, how it just takes one person in the wrong place at the wrong time. That risk is simply not acceptable.

If one gets sick, we all get sick, she said.

Are you a parent who wants to talk about your familys back-to-school plan? Reporter Marnie Eisenstadt would like to talk to you. Contact her anytime: email | Twitter| Facebook | 315-470-2246

See the original post here:

School, coronavirus, risk: In Syracuse, they dont have the suburbanites confidence - syracuse.com

Tourists from farther away than ever are heading to northern Wisconsin. One problem: Coronavirus is spiking.  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Read the rest here:

Tourists from farther away than ever are heading to northern Wisconsin. One problem: Coronavirus is spiking. - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

We spent weeks -- months, even -- reporting on the coronavirus protocols that the NFL and its players' union negotiated for 2020 training camps. It has been more than three weeks now since those camps opened, and a few days since players started practicing in full pads. So it's fair to wonder: How's it going so far?

I spent a good chunk of my week asking that question of players, coaches and other officials around the league, and here are four things I found out:

As of Thursday evening, there were only five players left on the league's reserve/COVID-19 list, which is not just for players who have tested positive but also those who have exhibited symptoms or come into contact with people who have tested positive or exhibited symptoms.

2 Related

The players with whom I spoke said they feel safe at their team facilities and that they believe their teammates, coaches and other members of their organizations are taking the protocols seriously. Daily testing is an understandable annoyance, but it's one they understand is necessary if they want to go to work. And while it makes some of them squeamish, there haven't been any major issues regarding cooperation with testing or the contact-tracing devices the players and other team personnel have to wear while in the facilities.

The National Football League Players Association officials with whom I spoke said this matches the feedback they've been getting, and they believe having convinced the league to test daily is a big part of the comfort level. They've already extended the daily-testing window to Sept. 5 -- it was originally supposed to last just the first two weeks of training camp unless positive test rates were over 5% -- and multiple sources told me to expect the NFLPA to push for daily testing to be extended into the regular season as well.

The league and union will continue to monitor developments in the science around the virus, and there are a few who believe testing advancements such as the newly approved Yale saliva test could help make the league's testing procedures even smoother and more effective. League officials said Wednesday that their emphasis would be on testing accuracy and efficiency, and as for the new saliva test itself, they will evaluate to see whether it can help, and likely implement it or something like it if it can.

Obviously I haven't surveyed every player in the league or even close to that. But it doesn't sound as though the veteran players are interested in wearing the Oakley mouth shields the league has provided for use with its helmets. Players were dubious about these back in June and July when they first came up, citing concerns about their potential effects on visibility and breathing, and the sense I get is that players aren't keen on giving them a shot in practice.

One veteran player I asked about the mouth shields texted me, "Some of the rookies are using them lol." Another said flatly, "Guys aren't going to wear those things." Players don't generally take kindly to these kinds of changes. Remember a few years back, when the league tried to mandate hip and thigh pads and players got upset about those?

Even Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL's chief medical officer, admitted on a conference call Wednesday that the mouth shields haven't been embraced to the extent that the league hoped. Sills said Oakley has gathered player feedback and is in the process of designing a version 2.0 of the mouth shields based on that feedback. But with no league-imposed mandate to wear them and a belief that the testing protocols are ensuring that all the players on the field are virus-free anyway, it's unlikely they'll gain popularity any time soon.

Yes, this whole thing is potentially one individual's bad decision away from unraveling. And yes, of course, the league is watching to see whether the positive test rate drifts upward now that players are actually on the field and practicing together. But the testing protocols allow teams to be certain that the players on the field don't have the virus. And the first three to four weeks of training camp have convinced the league and its teams that they're capable of reacting effectively to signs of COVID-19 and preventing it from spreading in their own facilities.

NFL coaches are 'caught in middle' with risk List of NFL players who are opting out Could players wear masks during season? Football historians discuss 1918 pandemic Calendar: Coronavirus-impacted schedules

So, barring some sort of major outbreak or a significant worsening of conditions in the states and municipalities in which the NFL's teams play, there's optimism that the Thursday night opener between the Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs 20 days from now will be played as scheduled, with the rest of the league kicking off three and four days later. The question, of course, is what happens after that.

While some teams have been able to maintain their own "bubbles," the regular season will require them to travel to other cities to play games. And as extensive as the league's travel protocols that went out to teams Wednesday are -- with rules governing everything from seating layouts on buses and airplanes to procedures for entering and leaving the stadium on game day to how to order hotel room service -- the movement of teams in and out of their protocol-protected bubbles will increase the risk of infection and transmission.

One of the great unanswered questions at this point is what happens if a team has some kind of outbreak on game day. The league is putting together an outside committee to advise commissioner Roger Goodell on issues such as when to cancel or postpone a game, but there's no hard-and-fast guideline that says, "X number of positive tests on Saturday and/or Sunday means that team can't play," and there isn't likely to be one.

0:43

Adam Schefter reports on how a postseason bubble is an option the NFL could consider this season if needed.

The NFL is closely watching the way Major League Baseball is adjusting its schedule following positive tests. To this point, positive tests on the Miami Marlins, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds and New York Mets have forced postponements of games. Baseball is able to make up a lot of those games with seven-inning doubleheaders, which won't be an available option for the NFL. But it's entirely possible that, on a given Sunday, one or more NFL games won't be able to be played for COVID-19-related reasons. If that happens, those games would need to be postponed to later in the week, or moved back in the season to mutual bye weeks. If it happens enough, large chunks of the NFL schedule might need to be altered on the fly or even canceled. The possibility of some teams ending the season having played more games than others isn't completely farfetched.

The league is going to have to be flexible. New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton brought up in a recent competition committee call the possibility of playing in an NBA-style "bubble" once the playoffs start, but it's unclear at this point whether that's possible, and the people I asked about it Wednesday and Thursday all said some variation of, "That's too far away to even worry about right now."

Bottom line: Things have gone well so far. Maybe even better than many expected. Compared to MLB, the NFL believes its system of daily testing and rapid isolation of positive or symptomatic personnel is so far protecting it from major disruption. Compared to college football, the NFL and NFLPA believe they've shown a level of leadership and collaboration that gives them a chance to actually pull this off. The season seems more likely than ever to start on time.

But no one is interested in taking a victory lap. Getting through the season and actually completing it remains the goal, and there's no way for the NFL to know whether it can do that until it actually has.

Read the original here:

The NFL's 2020 training camp coronavirus protocols are working -- so far - Four things we learned this week - ESPN

The annual Subway Series was bound to feel different this season without fans jamming the ballparks in Queens and the Bronx. Now, it faces uncertainty for a troubling reason: One Mets player and one staff member have tested positive for coronavirus.

Major League Baseball postponed the Mets game in Miami on Thursday and Fridays opener of their series with the Yankees at Citi Field. The Mets did not identify the people who tested positive but said both people and anyone found to have been in close contact with them would stay behind in Miami.

The Mets said the rest of the team would fly back to New York on Thursday night while following safety and testing protocols.

The Mets become the fourth team to have a player test positive since the truncated season began on July 23. The Miami Marlins and the St. Louis Cardinals have had large-scale outbreaks (20 overall positive cases for the Marlins; 18 for the Cardinals), and the Cincinnati Reds had one positive test last Saturday. The Marlins missed a week of games, the Cardinals missed two weeks, and the Reds had three postponements.

M.L.B. did not issue all those postponements at once; in each case, the teams had a longer break than the league initially announced. Based on those precedents, it is safe to wonder if any Subway Series games will be played this weekend.

I dont know, Yankees Manager Aaron Boone said after Thursdays loss to Tampa Bay. All theyve told us is that tomorrow nights is canceled. Im sure theyre trying to get their arms around it and see where we go from here.

The Mets are scheduled for another three-game series with the Yankees in the Bronx next weekend, and postponed games could be made up then with doubleheaders, with each of the games being only seven innings this season.

Ill feel safe if it gets to the point where were playing, Boone said. I will feel like the due diligence is done and safety is the first priority.

The Mets were not the only team affected by the virus on Thursday. The Pittsburgh Pirates president, Travis Williams, announced that he had tested positive for coronavirus but had not had recent contact with players, coaches or baseball operations staff. Williams said in a statement that the team had enacted contact tracing procedures.

John Mozeliak, the Cardinals president of baseball operations, said contact tracing would be the most important thing for the Mets as they try to prevent a larger outbreak.

Youve got to have people willing to be honest and transparent of who they were connected with, Mozeliak said on Thursday. Part of what you see in sports is the shaming of, Oh, you brought it into the clubhouse, and so then all of a sudden you lose a little bit of that transparency and honesty you need to totally get your hands on it.

So my advice is: Dont shame anybody. Its not a finger-pointing incident its really about helping mitigate spread as best you can.

Read the original:

Two Mets Games Are Postponed Because of Coronavirus Cases - The New York Times

At Delta Camp, an inmate firefighter facility outside Vacaville, an hours drive northeast of San Francisco, the number of incarcerated firefighters is down to 55, well below the camps capacity of 132. Over all, the state has the capacity to train and house about 3,400 inmate firefighters. Only 1,306 inmates are currently deployed.

Men like Mr. Martin, who was released on Aug. 11, say they are grateful to be back home.

The states main firefighting agency, Cal Fire, says it is overwhelmed by the size and complexity of the fires in Northern California, which by Saturday afternoon had burned through nearly one million acres, forcing more than 119,000 people to evacuate and leaving at least five people dead.

Cal Fire, which has deployed 13,700 firefighters, is pleading for more personnel, especially the crews that create the so-called hand lines, the clearings crucial to stopping and slowing down wildfires. Mr. Newsom has requested more firefighters from as far away as the East Coast and Australia.

Inmate fire crews are absolutely imperative to our ability to create hand line and do arduous work on our fires, Brice Bennett, a spokesman for Cal Fire, said. They are a tremendous resource.

The coronavirus has exposed countless examples of inequality across the nation, has devastated state budgets, and has left tens of thousands of families bereft. The debate over Californias inmate firefighters shows how the pandemics consequences have reached deep into unexpected corners of society. In California it has been the difference between having the manpower to save homes from wildfires or not.

The California prisons department estimates that its Conservation Camp Program, which includes the inmate firefighters, saves California taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year. Hiring firefighters to replace them, especially given the difficult work involved, would challenge a state already strapped for cash.

View original post here:

Covid Limits Californias Efforts to Fight Wildfires With Prison Labor - The New York Times

Portlands food carts show resilience during the coronavirus pandemic - OPB

"),r.close()),!r)throw Error("base not supported");var a=r.createElement("base");a.href=n,r.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(a);var i=r.createElement("a");return i.href=t,i.href}finally{e&&e.parentNode.removeChild(e)}}());var l=i(t||""),f=function(){if(!("defineProperties"in Object))return!1;try{var e={};return Object.defineProperties(e,{prop:{get:function(){return!0}}}),e.prop}catch(t){return!1}}(),h=f?this:document.createElement("a"),m=new o(l.search?l.search.substring(1):null);return m._url_object=h,Object.defineProperties(h,{href:{get:function(){return l.href},set:function(e){l.href=e,r(),u()},enumerable:!0,configurable:!0},origin:{get:function(){return"origin"in l?l.origin:this.protocol+"//"+this.host},enumerable:!0,configurable:!0},protocol:{get:function(){return l.protocol},set:function(e){l.protocol=e},enumerable:!0,configurable:!0},username:{get:function(){return l.username},set:function(e){l.username=e},enumerable:!0,configurable:!0},password:{get:function(){return l.password},set:function(e){l.password=e},enumerable:!0,configurable:!0},host:{get:function(){var e={"http:":/:80$/,"https:":/:443$/,"ftp:":/:21$/}[l.protocol];return e?l.host.replace(e,""):l.host},set:function(e){l.host=e},enumerable:!0,configurable:!0},hostname:{get:function(){return l.hostname},set:function(e){l.hostname=e},enumerable:!0,configurable:!0},port:{get:function(){return l.port},set:function(e){l.port=e},enumerable:!0,configurable:!0},pathname:{get:function(){return"/"!==l.pathname.charAt(0)?"/"+l.pathname:l.pathname},set:function(e){l.pathname=e},enumerable:!0,configurable:!0},search:{get:function(){return l.search},set:function(e){l.search!==e&&(l.search=e,r(),u())},enumerable:!0,configurable:!0},searchParams:{get:function(){return m},enumerable:!0,configurable:!0},hash:{get:function(){return l.hash},set:function(e){l.hash=e,r()},enumerable:!0,configurable:!0},toString:{value:function(){return l.toString()},enumerable:!1,configurable:!0},valueOf:{value:function(){return l.valueOf()},enumerable:!1,configurable:!0}}),h}var c,s=e.URL;try{if(s){if("searchParams"in(c=new e.URL("http://example.com"))){var f=new l("http://example.com");if(f.search="a=1&b=2","http://example.com/?a=1&b=2"===f.href&&(f.search="","http://example.com/"===f.href))return}"href"in c||(c=undefined),c=undefined}}catch(m){}if(Object.defineProperties(o.prototype,{append:{value:function(e,t){this._list.push({name:e,value:t}),this._update_steps()},writable:!0,enumerable:!0,configurable:!0},"delete":{value:function(e){for(var t=0;t1?arguments[1]:undefined;this._list.forEach(function(n){e.call(t,n.value,n.name)})},writable:!0,enumerable:!0,configurable:!0},toString:{value:function(){return r(this._list)},writable:!0,enumerable:!1,configurable:!0}}),"Symbol"in e&&"iterator"in e.Symbol&&(Object.defineProperty(o.prototype,e.Symbol.iterator,{value:o.prototype.entries,writable:!0,enumerable:!0,configurable:!0}),Object.defineProperty(u.prototype,e.Symbol.iterator,{value:function(){return this},writable:!0,enumerable:!0,configurable:!0})),s)for(var h in s)s.hasOwnProperty(h)&&"function"==typeof s[h]&&(l[h]=s[h]);e.URL=l,e.URLSearchParams=o}(),function(){if("1"!==new e.URLSearchParams([["a",1]]).get("a")||"1"!==new e.URLSearchParams({a:1}).get("a")){var r=e.URLSearchParams;e.URLSearchParams=function(e){if(e&&"object"==typeof e&&t(e)){var a=new r;return n(e).forEach(function(e){if(!t(e))throw TypeError();var r=n(e);if(2!==r.length)throw TypeError();a.append(r[0],r[1])}),a}return e&&"object"==typeof e?(a=new r,Object.keys(e).forEach(function(t){a.set(t,e[t])}),a):new r(e)}}}()}(self);}).call('object' === typeof window && window || 'object' === typeof self && self || 'object' === typeof global && global || {}); document.createElement("picture"); Food

Portland, Ore. Aug. 22, 2020 1:30 p.m.

When Portlands Le Bistro Montage permanently closed its doors in June due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fans of its Southern-inspired comfort food were devastated.

One Yelp reviewer asked, Oh Montage, what will Portland do without you?

It didnt take long before former executive chef Derek Ingwood figured out a way to sling the mac-n-cheese and jambalaya again.

Derek Ingwood opened the Montage Ala Cart food cart in August 2020.

Geoff Norcross / OPB

Montage Ala Cart opened as a food cart this month, with Ingwood as its owner. He licensed the Montage name from the owners and grabbed the last open spot in the Hawthorne Asylum food cart pod.

I think its the only move right now for any restaurant thats trying to survive, Ingwood said. If youre going to go out of business because of this whole pandemic thing, this might be your only option rather than throwing in the towel.

Ingwood had to pare down his menu to the top dozen or so most popular dishes. Also gone are the famous aluminum foil creatures the restaurant wrapped its po boys in. Not enough room for that in the cart.

Its a lot different than just running the day-to-day in a kitchen, Ingwood said.

Industry observers say food cart operators by their very nature have to be nimble.

The big Portland food cart boom came more than a decade ago during the Great Recession, when the key to survival for food purveyors was to sell something fast and cheap that Portlanders could take back to their offices.

Now, with sit-down dining severely limited, take-out options are king again.

I do think that were uniquely positioned to make it through a downturn like this and in the strange environment were in, because we are designed for takeout, said Leah Tucker, founder of the Oregon Mobile Food Association.

Thats the basis of who we are.

It appears to be working. Portlands food carts are hanging on during the pandemic in a way that restaurants arent. Multnomah County said the number of applications for mobile food unit permits is about the same as this time last year. By contrast, the number of permit applications for restaurants is 50% less.

Jeff Martin, an environmental health supervisor for the Multnomah County Health Department, said food carts have been pretty much able to operate uninterrupted during the pandemic.

Some of them had some of their busiest days ever during this pandemic because theres such a limit now on the amount of food available to the public, Martin said. Food carts are now filling that niche.

On a recent Monday in the Hillsdale food cart pod, the lunch time crowd consisted of a smattering of customers sitting far apart at picnic tables that used to be more tightly packed. They all wore masks when they ordered, and their order takers talked to them from behind a pane of glass.

Rachel Maneloveg of Tigard, who was there enjoying a chicken bowl from Taco City, said its no big deal.

Its still a little weird having to wear a mask and talk to somebody behind a glass. But I think its important to support people during these times, Maneloveg said.

Restaurant patrons have to abide by a longer list of rules. In addition to the mask and distance requirements, there cant be more than 100 diners in any restaurant in Oregon at a time.

Elaine Escobar is a cook at Taco City. Because she has family members that are at higher risk of contracting COVID-19, she was afraid at first to come back to work. But she said her customers have been so nice and so compliant with the rules, shes glad to be back on the job.

Elaine Escobar works at the Taco City food truck in the Hillsdale food cart pod in Portland, Ore.

Geoff Norcross / OPB

Escobar said, It was pretty scary at first. But also everybody is doing a good job with wearing their own masks.

While food cart owners dont have the same regulations to navigate that restaurants do, there are unique challenges. Due to a lack of storage space, food cart operators have to supply themselves day-by-day. That leaves them especially vulnerable to COVID-related supply chain disruptions. Also, the coronavirus hit in the winter, when most food cart owners are just starting to ramp into their high-earning months.

The famous foil art from Le Bistro Montage is gone, but the new food cart gives foil roses with every order.

Geoff Norcross / OPB

But owners who were able to hang on and serve food in the spring and summer have been able to preserve a slice of Portlands vaunted food culture in a time of massive upheaval.

Derek Ingwood of Montage Ala Cart said, People are able to come out here and kind of forget all about that for once. Theyre able to come out here and enjoy this little slice of Portland they thought was going to disappear forever.

Theyre able to get a glimmer of positivity in this massive wave of negativity.

Sign up to get important news and culture from around the Northwest, delivered to your inbox six days a week.

Four Latino business owners share their stories on how the coronavirus haschanged their businesses and their lives.

Few large sectors have been hit as hard by the coronavirus-related economic fallout as restaurants, bars and coffee shops. Many have closed temporarily. Some have shifted to delivery or to-go orders. An increasing number are closing permanently.

Tags:Food, Restaurants, Portland, Culture, Oregon, Local, News, Health, COVID-19

Read more:

Portland's food carts show resilience during the coronavirus pandemic - OPB News