Category: Corona Virus

Good morning.

(If you dont already get California Today delivered free to your inbox, heres the sign-up.)

Over the weekend, roughly 40 million Californians adjusted to life under a sweeping new order to stay at home, even as questions lingered about what, exactly, that means.

For small businesses, there was plenty of confusion over how it was determined whether they were essential.

[What does it mean to shelter in place?]

My colleagues Conor Dougherty and Thomas Fuller reported that even in the Bay Area, already several days into its massive containment experiment, there was plenty of room for interpretation.

Rather than get bogged down in questions, Matt Haney, a member of the San Francisco board of supervisors, said hes advising businesses to simply think of the common good.

On Wednesday, a gin distillery that had been deemed as nonessential asked him if it could convert into a factory that makes hand sanitizer.

In normal times, Mr. Haney said, that request would be met with various permitting requests and neighborhood and civic meetings that together would take months or years to satisfy, if it was possible at all. His advice: If youre able to make hand sanitizer, then do it.

[What does it mean to call in the National Guard?]

Theres no decision maker in an office somewhere stamping expedited permits, he said. Theres a wartime feel to it, where if you are doing something that is contributing to public health then thats the right thing to do.

Local leaders have been emphasizing that they dont want to punish people who violate the restrictions.

But theyve said that as theyve encountered residents or businesses not complying, enforcement is likely to ramp up.

The police chief of San Jose, Eddie Garcia, said Friday that his officers had already broken up gatherings in the city. The city also ordered a gun shop closed earlier this week. (Gun shops were declared nonessential by Mayor Sam Liccardo.)

Chief Garcia said he was incredulous at some of the businesses that tried to stay open.

A billiards hall. Are you kidding me? he said. I dont know how a billiards hall thought they could be open through this time.

[Heres what to know before you go to the grocery store.]

As the weekend wore on, big outdoor spaces explicitly exempted from new restrictions were crowded with people grasping for some sense of normalcy.

In the East Bay, The San Francisco Chronicle reported, parks and beaches were so packed that officials may be forced to close some of them.

San Diegans flocked to beaches and parks, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune, prompting county health officials to plead with residents to stay home.

In Malibu on Saturday, hikers on a wide trail mostly edged away from one another as they passed, even if their ecstatic dogs played together under a clear blue sky. Some, however, walked in larger groups down the center of the path.

A group of young roommates narrated their walk to a phone. An older woman wore a T-shirt that read, Stay Away, written in marker, accented by a hand-drawn heart.

[Read about how warmer weather may slow, but not stop, the spread of the coronavirus.]

Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles said on Sunday that after seeing the flood of people heading toward the water in Venice, hed be working with other leaders around the county to close beach parking lots, and if necessary, close off beaches altogether.

Your decision to not physically distance yourself may kill someone, he said. Dont take risks, dont mess around, dont be selfish.

[Check here for statistics and more information about the coronavirus outbreak in California.]

Heres more about which businesses are considered essential:

On Friday, after the statewide stay-at-home order went into effect, officials posted a longer document laying out which workers and businesses are considered essential and how theyd be allowed to operate.

Among the businesses that will be allowed to keep operating are convenience stores that sell food, liquor stores, cannabis dispensaries and laundromats.

You can read the list in full here, though state officials have said the directive could evolve in days and weeks to come.

[Read more about which industries and companies are hiring a lot.]

We often link to sites that limit access for nonsubscribers. We appreciate your reading Times coverage, but we also encourage you to support local news if you can.

President Trump approved a major disaster declaration that Mr. Newsom had requested earlier on Sunday. The move will bring more federal resources to help California fight the Covid-19 outbreak.

Pacific Gas & Electric reached a deal with the governor, clearing a major hurdle to exiting bankruptcy. (The plan needs a judges approval, but a signoff from the governor makes that more likely.) [The New York Times]

Firefighters are finding themselves squeezed from both sides amid the pandemic, which could make wildfire season much more difficult. [The New York Times]

And Hayward is set to open a coronavirus testing center that will prioritize emergency workers. [KQED]

As requested, the U.S. Navy is set to send a 1,000-bed hospital ship to the Port of Los Angeles this week. Its based in San Diego. [City News Service]

Want to understand how the coronavirus spread across the world? Heres a graphic explainer. [The New York Times]

Through this whole ordeal, we didnt want her to get lost in the story. Thousands of people have been dying from the coronavirus. Theyve been laid to rest without big gatherings. But the family of Loretta Mendoza Dionisio, outgoing and unstoppable, wanted her to be remembered as more than a statistic. [The New York Times]

[Read the latest updates on the coronavirus pandemic here.]

I dont know about you, but last week felt like a lifetime to me. And this week seems unlikely to be any less strange and anxiety-ridden.

Well have some more pet photos soon, but first, here are some tips for staying sane. They include setting small, achievable goals, finding joy and turning your panic into service. (Heres a list of organizations to get you started, if youre in a position to donate.)

And on the bright side, you can go to the hottest parties happening anywhere, and you can stay in your sweats; theyre all happening online.

California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for California Today here and read every edition online here.

Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, graduated from U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter, @jillcowan.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.

Read the original here:

Coronavirus in California: What Are the Rules for 'Stay at Home'? - The New York Times

After a week of Congress members and the Trump administration proposing various plans to get cash into the hands of Americans to help them weather the coronavirus crisis, Senate Republicans appear to have landed on a plan. While details are still being negotiated, it appears likely that what changes to the cash measures will be made will change how the cash is delivered, not how much and to whom.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, or the phase three coronavirus bill, includes, as of now, cash measures totaling $301 billion per the conservative Tax Foundation, the only think tank that has modeled the exact proposal as of this writing.

The plans provisions are very simple. Adults would get $1,200 each and children $500 each. At higher incomes, the checks would get smaller: The benefit would start decreasing at a rate of $5 for every additional $100 in income. The phaseout starts at $75,000 in adjusted gross income for singles, $112,500 for heads of household, and $150,000 for married couples filing jointly; it would phase out entirely by $99,000 for singles and $198,000 for couples (with no children).

For example, a single childless person with an AGI of $85,000 would get $700 because $500 of the benefit was phased out by their higher income.

Unlike some early Senate Republican proposals, there is no minimum income (which wouldve excluded very poor people), and the check amounts dont phase in, so the middle class doesnt get more than the poor.

Here is how that policy looks in graph form:

The check is a one-off. While Senate Democrats like Michael Bennet (CO), Cory Booker (NJ), and Sherrod Brown (OH) called for additional checks to be triggered by changes in the unemployment rate, and left-leaning members of Congress like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Reps. Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) called for monthly payments, the Senate bills cash portion wont re-up unless Congress explicitly authorizes additional cash assistance. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin had signaled he wanted two installments but faced pushback from some Senate Republicans like Lindsey Graham (SC).

The Tax Foundation estimates that 93.6 percent of tax filers will get a check. Using a conventional measure (that is excluding dynamic effects), they find that the poorest fifth of Americans will see their income grow by 16.33 percent due to the bill while the top 1 percent wont see their incomes grow at all. One hundred percent of the poorest Americans would be eligible for a rebate, a huge change from the earlier Senate GOP proposal where as little as 80 percent of poor households were eligible.

The phase-out for top earners will be done using 2019 tax returns or 2018 returns if the taxpayer in question hasnt filed their 2019 taxes yet. The bill says that taxpayers relying on Social Security as part of retirement or through the Social Security Disability Insurance program can have their Social Security Administration data used directly; beneficiaries of Supplemental Security Income, which often benefits old or disabled people in poverty, are not included in the current version.

But its important to note that a large minority of Americans dont file taxes. The Tax Policy Center estimates that in 2019, about 43.8 percent of American tax units owed zero or negative income taxes. Most of those Americans will still file taxes to get refundable credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit or to retrieve taxes withheld by their employer that they dont actually owe. But millions of Americans 12 percent is a decent estimate will not file taxes, either because theres no reason to or because theyre among the millions eligible for the EITC who dont receive it.

The Senate bill as written would require these people to file 2019 returns to get their coronavirus checks. Thats a potentially significant burden, especially at a time when the IRSs volunteer tax prep centers for low-income people are largely shut down due to social distancing (I should know Ive been volunteering this tax season and havent gone in since March 14).

Senate Democrats have included among their demands a request that the bill be amended to allow cash to go more directly to these people. Some of them are addressed by the Social Security language already in the Senate GOP bill, but more could be included by allowing the benefits to be sent through EBT cards to people benefiting from welfare or food stamps, or by allowing it to be added the Supplemental Security Income checks for elderly or disabled poor people, or by allowing states to send the rebates to households whose information they have on file. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Robert Greenstein lays out some options here.

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Excerpt from:

Stimulus checks from the government, explained - Vox.com

The early signs in South Korea were alarming. In late February and early March, the number of new coronavirus infections exploded from a few dozen, to a few hundred, to several thousand.

At the peak, medical workers identified 909 new cases in a single day, Feb. 29, and the country of 50 million people appeared on the verge of being overwhelmed. But less than a week later, the number of new cases halved. Within four days, it halved again and again the next day.

On Sunday, the country reported only 64 new cases, the fewest in nearly a month. As new infections in wealthier countries like the United States and Germany soar to thousands daily, South Koreas have stabilized.

South Korea is one of only two countries with large outbreaks, alongside China, to flatten the curve of new infections. And it has done so without Chinas draconian restrictions on speech and movement, or lockdowns like those in Europe and the United States.

Italy, whose outbreak initially paralleled South Koreas, now reports thousands of new cases daily, and hundreds of deaths 793 on Saturday alone. In South Korea that day, Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, killed two people. Some days, the toll is zero.

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has hailed South Korea as demonstrating that containing the virus, while difficult, can be done. He urged countries to apply the lessons learned in Korea and elsewhere.

South Korean officials caution that their successes are tentative. A risk of resurgence remains, particularly as epidemics continue raging beyond the countrys borders.

Still, as global deaths from the virus surge past 15,000, devastating health care systems and economies, officials and experts worldwide are scrutinizing South Korea for lessons. And those lessons, while hardly easy, appear relatively straightforward and affordable: swift action, widespread testing and contact tracing, and critical support from citizens.

President Emmanuel Macron of France and Prime Minister Stefan Lfven of Sweden have both called South Koreas president, Moon Jae-in, to request details on the countrys measures, according to Mr. Moons office.

Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, has repeatedly raised South Korea as a model, writing on Twitter, South Korea is showing Covid-19 can be beat with smart, aggressive public health.

Just one week after the countrys first case was diagnosed in late January, government officials met with representatives from several medical companies. They urged the companies to begin immediately developing coronavirus test kits for mass production, promising emergency approval.

Within two weeks, though South Koreas confirmed cases remained in the double digits, thousands of test kits were shipping daily. The country now produces 100,000 kits per day, and officials say they are in talks with 17 foreign governments about exporting them.

Officials also swiftly imposed emergency measures in Daegu, a city of 2.5 million where contagion spread fast through a local church.

South Korea could deal with this without limiting the movement of people because we knew the main source of infection, the church congregation, pretty early on, said Ki Mo-ran, an epidemiologist advising the governments coronavirus response. If we learned about it later than we did, things could have been far worse.

South Koreans, unlike Europeans and Americans, were also primed to treat the coronavirus as a national emergency, after a 2015 outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome in the country killed 38.

The coronavirus is thought to have a five-day incubation period, often followed by a period of mild symptoms that could be mistaken for a cold, when the virus is highly communicable. This pattern creates a lag of a week or two before an outbreak becomes apparent. What looks like a handful of cases can be hundreds; what looks like hundreds can be thousands.

Such characteristics of the virus render the traditional response, which emphasizes lockdown and isolation, ineffective, said Kim Gang-lip, South Koreas vice health minister. Once it arrives, the old way is not effective in stopping the disease from spreading.

South Korea has tested far more people for the coronavirus than any other country, enabling it to isolate and treat many people soon after they are infected.

The country has conducted over 300,000 tests, for a per-capita rate more than 40 times that of the United States.

Testing is central because that leads to early detection, it minimizes further spread and it quickly treats those found with the virus, Kang Kyung-wha, South Koreas foreign minister, told the BBC, calling the tests the key behind our very low fatality rate as well.

Though South Korea is sometimes portrayed as having averted an epidemic, thousands of people were infected and the government was initially accused of complacency. Its approach to testing was designed to turn back an outbreak already underway.

To spare hospitals and clinics from being overwhelmed, officials opened 600 testing centers designed to screen as many people as possible, as quickly as possible and keep health workers safe by minimizing contact.

At 50 drive-through stations, patients are tested without leaving their cars. They are given a questionnaire, a remote temperature scan and a throat swab. The process takes about 10 minutes. Test results are usually back within hours.

At some walk-in centers, patients enter a chamber resembling a transparent phone booth. Health workers administer throat swabs using thick rubber gloves built into the chambers walls.

Relentless public messaging urges South Koreans to seek testing if they or someone they know develop symptoms. Visitors from abroad are required to download a smartphone app that guides them through self-checks for symptoms.

Offices, hotels and other large buildings often use thermal image cameras to identify people with fevers. Many restaurants check customers temperatures before accepting them.

When someone tests positive, health workers retrace the patients recent movements to find, test and, if necessary, isolate anyone the person may have had contact with,a process known as contact tracing.

This allows health workers to identify networks of possible transmission early, carving the virus out of society like a surgeon removing a cancer.

South Korea developed tools and practices for aggressive contact tracing during the MERS outbreak. Health officials would retrace patients movements using security camera footage, credit card records, even GPS data from their cars and cellphones.

We did our epidemiological investigations like police detectives, Dr. Ki said. Later, we had laws revised to prioritize social security over individual privacy at times of infectious disease crises.

As the coronavirus outbreak grew too big to track patients so intensively, officials relied more on mass messaging.

South Koreans cellphones vibrate with emergency alerts whenever new cases are discovered in their districts. Websites and smartphone apps detail hour-by-hour, sometimes minute-by-minute, timelines of infected peoples travel which buses they took, when and where they got on and off, even whether they were wearing masks.

People who believe they may have crossed paths with a patient are urged to report to testing centers.

South Koreans have broadly accepted the loss of privacy as a necessary trade-off.

People ordered into self-quarantine must download another app, which alerts officials if a patient ventures out of isolation. Fines for violations can reach $2,500.

By identifying and treating infections early, and segregating mild cases to special centers, South Korea has kept hospitals clear for the most serious patients. Its case fatality rate is just over one percent, among the lowest in the world.

There arent enough health workers or body-temperature scanners to track everybody, so everyday people must pitch in.

Leaders concluded that subduing the outbreak required keeping citizens fully informed and asking for their cooperation, said Mr. Kim, the vice health minister.

Television broadcasts, subway station announcements and smartphone alerts provide endless reminders to wear face masks, pointers on social distancing and the days transmission data.

The messaging instills a near-wartime sense of common purpose. Polls show majority approval for the governments efforts, with confidence high, panic low and scant hoarding.

This public trust has resulted in a very high level of civic awareness and voluntary cooperation that strengthens our collective effort, Lee Tae-ho, the vice minister of foreign affairs, told reporters earlier this month.

Officials also credit the countrys nationalized health care system, which guarantees most care, and special rules covering coronavirus-related costs, as giving even people with no symptoms greater incentive to get tested.

For all the attention to South Koreas successes, its methods and containment tools are not prohibitively complex or expensive.

Some of the technology the country has used is as simple as specialized rubber gloves and cotton swabs. Of the seven countries with worse outbreaks than South Koreas, five are richer.

Experts cite three major hurdles to following South Koreas lead, none related to cost or technology.

One is political will. Many governments have hesitated to impose onerous measures in the absence of a crisis-level outbreak.

Another is public will. Social trust is higher in South Korea than in many other countries, particularly Western democracies beset by polarization and populist backlash.

But time poses the greatest challenge. It may be too late, Dr. Ki said, for countries deep into epidemics to control outbreaks as quickly or efficiently as South Korea has.

China turned back the catastrophic first outbreak in Hubei, a province larger than most European countries, though at the cost of shutting down its economy.

South Koreas methods could help the United States, though we probably lost the chance to have an outcome like South Korea, Mr. Gottlieb, the former F.D.A. commissioner, wrote on Twitter. We must do everything to avert the tragic suffering being borne by Italy.

Max Fisher reported from New York, and Choe Sang-Hun from Seoul, South Korea.

Read more here:

How South Korea Flattened the Coronavirus Curve - The New York Times

The arc of coronavirus cases in Italy is frightening, continuing to jump by hundreds each day. But a public-health official looking at those numbers will see definite signs that the nationwide lockdown, imposed to keep individuals apart and the virus from spreading, is working.

The data look very different when plotted on what is called a logarithmic scale. In a typical graph, values on the (vertical) y-axis are plotted linearly: 1, 2, 3, and so on, or 10, 20, 30, or the like. By contrast, in a logarithmic plot, each tick on the y-axis represents a tenfold increase over the previous one: 1, then 10, then 100, then 1,000, then 10,000 and so on. (The interval doesnt have to be a factor of 10, it could be a factor of 2, or 5, or 27, or any other number, but humans seem to prefer factors of 10.)

Unconstrained, the coronavirus spreads exponentially, the caseload doubling at a steady rate. That curve, plotted linearly, is a skyrocketing curve. Plotted logarithmically, however, it transforms into a straight line which means that deviations from the exponential spread of the virus become much easier to discern.

Presented this way, the data for Italy clearly show that the infection rate is no longer exponential. The straight line is now a slight downward curve indicating that the rate of increase is slowing.

At a quick glance, the rate of spread in the United States looks similar to Italys, at least when plotted on a linear scale. But on a logarithmic scale, it is instantly apparent that the number of Americans becoming infected continues to double every three days or so. That indicates that the limited measures taken until recently did not sever social contact enough to slow the spreading. The U.S. curve has even bent upward in the last few days an even faster exponential growth perhaps reflecting more widespread testing.

Italys experience shows that more drastic containment measures work, so the U.S. curve may start bending downward in the coming days, as measures here go into effect. (John Burn-Murdoch at The Financial Times maintains a log chart for multiple countries.) The lag between the imposition of measures and their impact on the curve could take days to a week or two, because of the incubation time before symptoms arise. If the line does not begin to bend downward, more stringent actions are probably needed.

But when it finally does, it will herald a real change in the direction of the epidemic in the United States.

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A Different Way to Chart the Spread of Coronavirus - The New York Times

But from chaos comes heroes.

Despite so much uncertainty and with lives indefinitely upended, people and communities are still coming together to support one another. Here are some of the ways people are lending a hand through individual acts and large-scale efforts.

For millions of students, school closures mean no reliable access to meals.

Some districts have implemented plans to continue making food available to students who need it. But restaurants -- some dealing with business loss because of the outbreak -- have also risen to help meet the need.

Restaurant owners in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, met to discuss what they were going to do to keep their businesses going as the pandemic restricted how they could serve customers, said Caf Gelato owner Doug Lammers. Then, he said, the conversation turned to how they could help.

So, until further notice, his shop is offering meals to children in need.

And other establishments are reaching out to their communities in their time of need as well.

"Our family welcomes your family in this time of need," said a post on Instagram signed by Laura and the White Duck Taco Shop family. "We can all get through this together."

Contributing to hourly workers' wages

Hourly workers, who don't have sick days and whose jobs are threatened because of orders to shut down or limit the hours of restaurants, bars and stores, are already experiencing financial strain.

Customers have been digging into their pockets to help their servers weather the times.

The check specified that the tip on the $29.75 bill was to be split equally between five staff members, each specified by name.

The receipt said to "hold tip to pay your guys over the next few weeks."

Split over 30 employees, that came out to about $300 each, Galvan said.

"They were amazed that a client would care enough about them to leave that amount to help them get through this tough time," Galvan said.

Providing resources to those most affected

Jayde Powell is a "shopping angel."

"As a pre-med student, I know that people who are older or people who have heart, lung or immune conditions are especially at risk for contracting the virus," Powell, a University of Nevada, Reno student, told CNN. "We're doing this to try and reach out to people who might feel that they are just completely alone in this situation."

The assistance goes beyond delivery. Powell has created a GoFundMe for older adults who can't afford to get the things they need.

In Minnesota, healthcare workers who are pressed to serve more and more patients as the virus spreads have gotten help at home from University of Minnesota Medical School students.

What started with two second-year medical students became an operation with more than 280 students in three days.

"I've never met a lot of the people on this team and am convinced they are superheroes in disguise," said Sara Lederman, one of the founding students. "Everyone's superpowers are coming out. We are realizing so many of our classmates have incredible skills and talents that we didn't know about until now."

Restoring faith in humanity

Some people are using music to bridge the distance the outbreak has imposed on their communities.

"It was one of those moments where you feel like you're a part of something incredible," Rebecca Tien, the children's mother, told CNN. "It was also a good way to remember the value of connection, especially at a time like this when everyone feels disconnected. Just to know we were a part of something so sweet, even just for a minute, meant a lot."

For Emmanuel Maira Mallen and his wife, mariachi was the way to give back.

He woke up Saturday morning to a slew of frightening posts about coronavirus on his Facebook feed, he said. Hoping to brighten someone else's day, the couple decided to hire a mariachi to play in a San Antonio area H-E-B grocery store.

The energy was tense when he (and the band) walked in, he said. The store didn't know they were coming, and employees struggled to meet customers' needs through an air of panic. No one was talking, he said. No one smiled.

But when the music began, he saw laughter and people began to dance. The whole atmosphere changed, he said. A video of the performance has been shared around Facebook, expanding the impact of his act beyond what he ever imagined.

"We wanted to do something small for our community and bring some laughter and now that it has reached millions of views, I'm pretty sure we put a lot of smiles on a lot of faces," Mallen said.

CNN's Alaa Elassar, David Williams and Lauren Lee contributed to this report.

See more here:

Here are some of the heroes rising from the coronavirus pandemic - CNN

What became known as Covid-19, or the coronavirus, started in late 2019 as a cluster of pneumonia cases with an unknown cause. The cause of the pneumonia was found to be a new virus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or Sars-CoV-2. The illness caused by the virus is Covid-19.

Now declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the majority of people who contract Covid-19 suffer only mild, cold-like symptoms.

WHO says about 80% of people with Covid-19 recover without needing any specialist treatment. Only about one person in six becomes seriously ill and develops difficulty breathing.

So how can Covid-19 develop into a more serious illness featuring pneumonia, and what does that do to our lungs and the rest of our body?

Guardian Australia spoke with Prof John Wilson, president-elect of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and a respiratory physician.

He says almost all serious consequences of Covid-19 feature pneumonia.

Wilson says people who catch Covid-19 can be placed into four broad categories.

The least serious are those people who are sub-clinical and who have the virus but have no symptoms.

Next are those who get an infection in the upper respiratory tract, which, Wilson says, means a person has a fever and a cough and maybe milder symptoms like headache or conjunctivitis.

He says: Those people with minor symptoms are still able to transmit the virus but may not be aware of it.

The largest group of those who would be positive for Covid-19, and the people most likely to present to hospitals and surgeries, are those who develop the same flu-like symptoms that would usually keep them off work.

A fourth group, Wilson says, will develop severe illness that features pneumonia.

He says: In Wuhan, it worked out that from those who had tested positive and had sought medical help, roughly 6% had a severe illness.

The WHO says the elderly and people with underlying problems like high blood pressure, heart and lung problems or diabetes, are more likely to develop serious illness.

When people with Covid-19 develop a cough and fever, Wilson says this is a result of the infection reaching the respiratory tree the air passages that conduct air between the lungs and the outside.

He says: The lining of the respiratory tree becomes injured, causing inflammation. This in turn irritates the nerves in the lining of the airway. Just a speck of dust can stimulate a cough.

But if this gets worse, it goes past just the lining of the airway and goes to the gas exchange units, which are at the end of the air passages.

If they become infected they respond by pouring out inflammatory material into the air sacs that are at the bottom of our lungs.

If the air sacs then become inflamed, Wilson says this causes an outpouring of inflammatory material [fluid and inflammatory cells] into the lungs and we end up with pneumonia.

He says lungs that become filled with inflammatory material are unable to get enough oxygen to the bloodstream, reducing the bodys ability to take on oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide.

Thats the usual cause of death with severe pneumonia, he says.

Prof Christine Jenkins, chair of Lung Foundation Australia and a leading respiratory physician, told Guardian Australia: Unfortunately, so far we dont have anything that can stop people getting Covid-19 pneumonia.

People are already trialling all sorts of medications and were hopeful that we might discover that there are various combinations of viral and anti-viral medications that could be effective. At the moment there isnt any established treatment apart from supportive treatment, which is what we give people in intensive care.

We ventilate them and maintain high oxygen levels until their lungs are able to function in a normal way again as they recover.

Wilson says patients with viral pneumonia are also at risk of developing secondary infections, so they would also be treated with anti-viral medication and antibiotics.

In some situations that isnt enough, he says of the current outbreak. The pneumonia went unabated and the patients did not survive.

Jenkins says Covid-19 pneumonia is different from the most common cases that people are admitted to hospitals for.

Most types of pneumonia that we know of and that we admit people to hospital for are bacterial and they respond to an antibiotic.

Wilson says there is evidence that pneumonia caused by Covid-19 may be particularly severe. Wilson says cases of coronavirus pneumonia tend to affect all of the lungs, instead of just small parts.

He says: Once we have an infection in the lung and, if it involves the air sacs, then the bodys response is first to try and destroy [the virus] and limit its replication.

But Wilson says this first responder mechanism can be impaired in some groups, including people with underlying heart and lung conditions, diabetes and the elderly.

Jenkins says that, generally, people aged 65 and over are at risk of getting pneumonia, as well as people with medical conditions such as diabetes, cancer or a chronic disease affecting the lungs, heart, kidney or liver, smokers, Indigenous Australians, and infants aged 12 months and under.

Age is the major predictor of risk of death from pneumonia. Pneumonia is always serious for an older person and in fact it used to be one of the main causes of death in the elderly. Now we have very good treatments for pneumonia.

Its important to remember that no matter how healthy and active you are, your risk for getting pneumonia increases with age. This is because our immune system naturally weakens with age, making it harder for our bodies to fight off infections and diseases.

Here is the original post:

Coronavirus: what happens to people's lungs when they get Covid-19? - The Guardian

Read: The strongest evidence yet that American is botching coronavirus testing

This surge in testing capacity was slow in coming. In the 10 days after February 26when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that the coronavirus was being transmitted through community spread in the United Statesfederal and state labs tested 2,806 Americans. Another week elapsed before the country had tested 20,000 people. In the few days since, the country has expanded its testing capacity to cover at least that many people every day.

Yet the national numbers are still distorted by massive testing operations in just a few states. New York, California, and Washington have conducted nearly half of all tests nationwide, even though those states contain, combined, about a fifth of the countrys population. Florida and Texaseach home to more than 20 million peoplehave tested only about 3,000 patients each.

Some state public-health departments arent reporting as much information as others. Weve assigned every state a letter grade in the chart above to help readers understand how thorough each one is in its reporting. This grade is not assessing the quality of a states testing, but rather the transparency and regularity of its reporting.

All 50 states and Washington, D.C., regularly report their number of positive cases. Some states, such as Connecticut, disclose little additional information, so weve assigned them a grade of D. But others, such as Florida, publish not only their positive cases but also their negative cases and the results of tests conducted by private labs. Those states get an A grade. Having this full suite of figures at the state level allows for a far greater understanding of the size of both the outbreak and the response.

Read: The 4 key reasons the U.S. is so behind on coronavirus testing

In the chart above, each states number of positive cases includes people who are currently ill with the disease, people who have recovered from it, and people who have died. We have also broken out the number of deaths in its own column.

Some states have used strict criteria to determine who can and cannot be tested for the coronavirus. While we havent factored these into a states grade, we think these ruleswhile perhaps necessary, given the shortage of tests available from the CDChave led states to substantially undercount how many people had been infected in their communities, especially during the last week of February and the first two weeks of March. At least 18 states have enforced particularly stringent rules in some counties or hospitals: California, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. (Some of those states, such as Hawaii and Maryland, have since loosened their criteria.)

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Heres How Many People Have the Coronavirus in Your State - The Atlantic

What do we know about the virus now?

The Covid-19 virus is a member of the coronavirus family that made the jump from animals to humans late last year. Many of those initially infected either worked or frequently shopped in the Huanan seafood wholesale market in the centre of the Chinese city of Wuhan. Unusually for a virus that has made the jump from one species to another, it appears to transmit effectively in humans current estimates show that without strong containment measures the average person who catches Covid-19 will pass it on to two others. The virus also appears to have a higher mortality rate than common illnesses such as seasonal flu. The combination of coronaviruss ability to spread and cause serious illness has prompted many countries, including the UK, to introduce or plan extensive public health measures aimed at containing and limiting the impact of the epidemic.

Wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds and do this often, including when you get home or into work. Use hand sanitiser gel if soap and water are not available. Avoid touching your face. Cough or sneeze into a tissue or the crook of your elbow (not your hand) and put used tissues straight in the bin. Avoid close contact with people who are showing possible symptoms. Follow NHS guidance on self-isolation and travel.

The coronavirus outbreak hit amid flu season in the northern hemisphere and even doctors can struggle to distinguish between the two the overlap in symptoms probably contributed to slow detection of community infections in some countries, including Italy.

Typical flu symptoms, which normally come on quickly, include a high fever, sore throat, muscle aches, headaches, shivers, runny or stuffy nose, fatigue and, more occasionally, vomiting and diarrhoea. Doctors are still working to understand the full scope of symptoms and severity for Covid-19, but early studies of patients taken to hospital found nearly all of them developed a fever and dry cough, and many had fatigue and muscle aches. Pneumonia (lung infection) is common in coronavirus patients, even outside the most severe cases, and this can lead to breathing difficulties. A runny nose and sore throat are far less common, reported by just 5% of patients. The only real confirmation of having Covid-19 is taking a test though.

In the UK, the medical advice is now that the household of anyone who develops a new persistent cough or high temperature should all stay at home for 14 days, keeping away from other people. This applies to everyone, regardless of whether they have travelled abroad.

You should look on the dedicated coronavirus NHS 111 website for information. If you get worse or your symptoms last longer than seven days, you should call NHS 111. People will no longer be tested for the virus unless they are in hospital.

A large study in China found that about 80% of confirmed cases had fairly mild symptoms (defined as no significant infection in the lungs). About 15% had severe symptoms that caused significant shortness of breath, low blood oxygen or other lung problems, and fewer than 5% of cases were critical, featuring respiratory failure, septic shock or multiple organ problems. However, it is possible that a larger number of very mild cases are going under the radar, and so this breakdown in severity could change over time as wider screening takes place. Older people and those with respiratory problems, heart disease or diabetes are at greater risk.

It is probably about or a bit less than 1%. Much higher figures have been flying about, but the chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, is one of those who believes it will prove to be 1% or lower. The World Health Organizations director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, talked of 3.4%, but his figure was calculated by dividing the number of deaths by the number of officially confirmed cases. We know there are many more mild cases that do not get to hospital and are not being counted, which would bring the mortality rate significantly down.

Deaths are highest in the elderly, with very low rates among younger people, although medical staff who treat patients and get exposed to a lot of virus are thought to be more at risk. But even among the over-80s, 90% will recover.

Most infections happen in families, where people live at close quarters. You need to be within one to two metres of somebody to be infected by viral-loaded water droplets from their coughs or when they are speaking. That is less likely on public transport. However, it would be possible to pick up the virus on your hands from a surface that somebody with the infection had touched. The virus can linger for 48 hours or even possibly 72 hours on a hard surface, such as the hand rail in the tube though less time on a soft surface. That is why the advice is to wash your hands regularly and avoid touching your face, to prevent the virus getting into your nose, mouth or eyes.

Not at the moment, but drugs that are known to work against some viruses are being trialled in China, where there are thousands of patients, and new trials are starting in the US and other countries. Large numbers are needed to find out whether they work in a few people or a lot of people or nobody at all. The most hopeful are Kaletra, which is a combination of two anti-HIV drugs, and remdesivir, which was tried but failed in Ebola patients in west Africa in 2013 and 2016. Some Chinese doctors are also trying chloroquine, an antimalarial drug, which is off-patent, therefore cheap and highly available, and would be very useful in low-income countries. The first results are expected in mid-March and should indicate if the drugs will at least help those who are most severely ill. A miracle cure is not expected.

Efforts to develop an effective vaccine for Covid-19 have been quick compared with historical epidemics, such as Ebola. A number of teams are already testing vaccine candidates in animals and preparing to carry out small trials in people. The US company, Moderna Therapeutics, is already recruiting and hopes to enrol 45 volunteers between 18 and 55 and will launch their trial imminently. Phase one trials like this look at whether the vaccine triggers an immune response and whether the given dose causes adverse effects and could be completed quite quickly. However, the subsequent phases, which will involve thousands of volunteers and will look more closely at efficacy, will take longer and obtaining a commercially available vaccine within a year would be extremely quick. The governments chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said he did not think a working vaccine to protect people from the coronavirus would be produced in time for the current outbreak, but that a timeframe of a year or 18 months was not unreasonable to assume.

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What is coronavirus and what is the mortality rate? - The Guardian

Amazon plans to hire 100,000 workers to assist with online deliveries in the U.S. and raise their minimum pay to at least $17 an hour through April. USA TODAY

With storesstripped bare of household essentials, retailers cutting back hoursand experts calling for social distancing amid the spread of coronavirus, many people may rely on delivery services to get what they need.

A study published in theNew England Journal of Medicine on Tuesdayfoundthat coronavirus could be detected up to three hours after aerosolizationin the air, up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to two to three days on plastic and stainless steel.

This had led some to wonder whether thosepackages on their front porch could spread coronavirus. The answer seems to beno. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the virus isspread through respiratory droplets and there is currently no evidence to support the transmission of COVID-19 with imported goods.

"In general, because of poor survivability of these coronaviruses on surfaces, there is likely very low risk of spread from products or packaging that are shipped over a period of days or weeks at ambient temperatures," the CDC said on its website.

The World Health Organization offered similar guidance saying it is safe to receive packages from any area.

"The likelihood of an infected person contaminating commercial goods is low and the risk of catching the virus that causes COVID-19 from a package that has been moved, travelled, and exposed to different conditions and temperature is also low," the WHO said in a Q&A about the virus.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, saidduring a CNN coronavirus town hallthat if the disease were to transfer onto something like mail, it would likely be alow concentration.

Here's what you need to know about sending mail during the coronavirus pandemic:

Coronavirus myths, debunked: A cattle vaccine, bioweapons and a $3,000 test

Joseph Vinetz, a professor ofmedicine at Yale and infectious disease researcher, said that wiping down mail may help with some people's anxiety, but there's no evidence that doing so would be useful to protect against coronavirus.

"Thats just not a viable way of thinking about this epidemic nor am I taking any special precautions myself personally or for family or my friends based on packages," he said. "Whether its a package that comes in the mail delivered by Amazon or a letter from the USPS it's no different than going to the grocery store or going to get take out food."

AmeshAdalja,a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, agreed that the risk is theoretical and minimal.

"I will never disinfect my mail," he said. "And I dont even know how you would disinfect your mail."

Trying to order groceries online?: Here are some tips to do it successfully amid coronavirus

Adalja said there's minimal risk of the virus living on a package for several days, but if someone were to sneeze or cough on a letter before putting it into your mailbox "that's a different story."

Still, he said the same best practices that work during flu season like washing your hands and not touching your face after you open your mail would solve this problem.

How are postal services dealing with coronavirus?

A spokesperson for USPS, which employs more than 630,000 people, said 13 of its employees have tested positive for COVID-19. The company is closely monitoring the situation and is following strategies recommended by the CDC, according to the statement.

FedEx has advised employees who are have flulike symptoms to stay home, and is temporarily suspending signature requirements and regularly disinfecting the equipment used to make deliveries.

Amazon said it is offering flexibility for employees who need to stay home and paid time off for those who are diagnosed with coronavirus.Prime Now, Amazon Fresh, and Whole Foods Market delivery customers also have the option of "unattended delivery" if they want to limit into contact with others.

UPS said in a statement Monday that it istemporarily modifying the procedures its drivers use for residential and business deliveries. In order to minimize contact with recipients,UPS drivers will validate and record the name of the recipient of the package instead ofobtaining a signature. If an adult signature is requested by a shipper, recipients must present identification with proof of age to the driver.

Online shopping?: Amazon prioritizing shipments for medical supplies, household staples during coronavirus crisis

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Coronavirus can live on surfaces for days. But it can't travel through the mail, experts say - USA TODAY

Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday said he and his wife will be tested for the COVID-19 coronavirus task force. Patrick Semansky/AP hide caption

Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday said he and his wife will be tested for the COVID-19 coronavirus task force.

Updated at 3:40 p.m. ET

Vice President Pence on Saturday announced he and his wife will be tested for the COVID-19 coronavirus, following confirmation that an aide on his staff was diagnosed with the respiratory disease last week.

Pence made the remarks at a news conference following the coronavirus task force meeting at the White House. Earlier in the week the vice president,who leads the task force, told reporters that he has not been tested for the virus because the White House doctor had told him he didn't need to be.

"I'm pleased to report that he is doing well," Pence said of his aide, adding that "he had mild cold-like symptoms for a day and half."

Pence explained that all contact-tracing has been completed and neither he nor the president had direct contact with the aide. Regardless, he said, he would undergo testing later in the day.

He also offered the latest figures on the number of Americans who have been tested: More than 195,000 people have been tested, not including those who were tested in county hospitals or health care labs around the nation. Of those, roughly 19,350 have tested positive for the coronavirus, Pence said.

President Trump, who was first to speak at the news conference at the White House, ran through the list of steps the administration has taken to fight the spread of the virus, including an order for "hundreds of millions" of face masks and other supplies for health care professionals.

"We started with very few masks and now we're making tens of millions of masks," Trump said after blaming previous administrations for the stockpile shortages the country now faces.

He later specified the government has issued a contract for 500 million N95 masks, saying they are "now" available to hospitals and other health care centers.

Part of the demand for supplies is being met by the private sector in "sixth gear," he said, which is heeding the call to make masks, swabs and ventilators by pivoting from their primary industries to making the desperately needed supplies.

Trump praised Hanes, the cotton clothing maker, for retrofitting its manufacturing capabilities to produce masks for medical use. He also noted the shift by alcohol distilleries in Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia toward making hand sanitizer products that will be distributed throughout all 50 states.

He touted his work on legislation to bring economic relief to businesses and workers. He said his administration will give people extra time to file taxes, moving the deadline from April 15 to July 15. Additionally, he said students will not face interest penalties or fines for delaying student loan payments. Homeowners will also get help: Foreclosures and evictions on HUD loans are suspended for the next 60 days.

Trump talked about reaching agreements with Canada and Mexico to halt the entry of what he called the "Chinese virus," a term some have criticized as stigmatizing.

Adm. Brett Giroir, head of the U.S. Public Health Service, is leading the effort to expand testing. He said the agency is distributing equipment from the Strategic National Stockpile to "many states" on a daily basis.

But there's no clear answer to when states would have enough masks or other equipment.

Giroir said the outcry for more tests is not necessarily an issue of supply he said there are tens of thousands of tests out there but of making sure the right facilities are getting the right kind of tests and training.

This week, governors across the country warned that they were seeing shortages of supplies needed for testing, including testing reagents, used to create a chemical reaction to detect the virus, and swabs. On Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said there had been "tremendous progress" in lab testing and dismissed complaints about shortages as "anecdotal."

But groups that represent public health labs, epidemiologists and state health officials said late Friday that there were "widespread shortages of laboratory supplies and reagents."

The Association of Public Health Laboratories said testing should be reserved for health care workers and first responders, older Americans with symptoms and other people at high risk of getting seriously ill from the virus.

The groups said mass testing would quickly deplete supplies, and it instead urged people with mild respiratory illness to stay at home and isolate themselves.

Hospitals have also said health care workers lack masks and other gear needed to protect themselves when treating patients with the virus. Pence said on Friday that there would be an announcement this weekend about what he called "a major acquisition" of masks.

A week ago, Trump and Pence had said there would be a website where people could find out whether they needed to be tested for the virus and direct them to nearby drive-though sites. While a division of Google's parent company has developed a pilot project in San Francisco, no website for national use has materialized.

After the president thanked Google for developing the website last week, the tech company put out a statement saying the life sciences division, Verily, was only in the "early stages" of such a rollout.

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Coronavirus Response Update From White House, Pence Will Be Tested - NPR