Category: Covid-19

Vials of the Moderna, Jannsen and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.

Spains sixth coronavirus wave, driven by the highly transmissible omicron variant, has multiplied positive cases among both unvaccinated and vaccinated people, with almost 1.4 million infections reported since the beginning of January and thousands more going unreported. However, Covid-19 vaccines are proving highly effective in protecting against severe infection. While pinpointing the exact level of this protection is complex, partial data collected in Spain and extensive analysis in the United Kingdom show that vaccinated individuals are at a much lower risk of being hospitalized or dying from the virus.

The most detailed information in Spain has come out of Catalonia, where the data is broken down by vaccination status. Analyzing the deaths in this northeastern region between December 23 and January 12 per 100,000 inhabitants, the mortality rate among individuals aged 70 and 80 is five times higher for the unvaccinated. Something similar occurs in other age demographics. In the 70-79 population, 50 deaths per 100,000 people are reported among the unvaccinated, compared to 10 per 100,000 among the vaccinated, i.e. five times less. Meanwhile, in the 60-69 demographic, the disparity is repeated: the mortality rate among the unvaccinated is 15 per 100,000 people while, for the vaccinated, it is 5.5 per 100,000.

The Catalan data also shows that vaccine protection helps prevent hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions. For those vaccinated between 70 and 79, the probability of ending up in hospital is almost six times lower than for those who are not immunized. Meanwhile, the chance of being admitted to an ICU for Covid-19 is up to 10 times lower for the vaccinated than the unvaccinated.

The Spanish Health Ministry also publishes hospitalization data throughout Spain broken down by vaccination status, although in this case it is based on estimates: to calculate the number of unvaccinated in each age group, they subtract the number of vaccinated from the population in 2020. However, the target population will have grown since then, so it is possible that the ministrys calculations overestimate the incidence among the unvaccinated. While the element of overestimation may explain why this figure is much higher than in Catalonia, the ministrys figures yield similar conclusions: for people between 60 and 79, for example, hospital admission is 18 times higher among the unvaccinated.

In other countries, hospital data leads to the same conclusions. In Italy, where the sixth wave is following a similar pattern to Spain, the gap between vaccinated and unvaccinated is evident and maintained over time. The probability of hospital admission is 10 times higher for the unvaccinated in the 60-79 age group, a figure also echoed in Switzerland.

In the UK, the Health Security Agency (HSA) has analyzed more than half a million omicron infections in the last weeks of 2021. In order to draw accurate conclusions when comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated groups, many factors influencing the probability of infection and admission were taken into account, such as age, gender and region of residence as well as whether a person had previously tested positive, traveled to other countries or suffered from any health conditions. The aim is to monitor the effectiveness of vaccines by measuring the extent to which the risk of infection, hospitalization and death is reduced by vaccination.

The HSA results confirm that the vaccines continue to protect those who are fully vaccinated, particularly against severe disease, but they also note a loss of effectiveness over a period of weeks. Soon after receiving the second dose, the effectiveness of the vaccines with regard to preventing hospital admission is around 72%, but this drops to 52% after six months. In this sense, the good news is that a booster shot strengthens protection; for those over 65, for example, Covid-19 vaccines are 90% effective at preventing severe disease.

The new variant is very capable of infecting vaccinated individuals, as studies from the UK have shown: the effectiveness of two doses against symptomatic infections could drop to almost zero after six months, whereas with the delta variant it remained at 40%. Even after the booster shot, vaccine effectiveness against omicron is partial, with rates of between 40% and 60%, again with figures worse than those recorded against delta (90%).

These results are adjusted according to many variables. In fact, when the basic infection rates are compared for the vaccinated and unvaccinated without factoring in the variables, they are very similar or even worse for the vaccinated group than for those who have not received any shots. This could be the case if there are many more individuals among the unvaccinated who have natural immunity from a previous infection and may explain why some studies find what looks like negative vaccine effectiveness, as has been noted in reports from the UK and a preliminary study in Denmark.

Something similar is observed in the official data coming out of Iceland: the 14-day incidence rate is higher among the vaccinated population who have not received a booster shot than among the unvaccinated (5,600 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to 4,000 in the unvaccinated group). However, the lowest incidence is among Icelanders with three doses.

This coincides with the data emerging from Catalonia: in November the incidence was lower for the vaccinated than for the unvaccinated in all age groups. But since the arrival of omicron, among the under-50 population a demographic that has received few boosters the infection rates seem to be higher among the vaccinated.

English version by Heather Galloway.

See the article here:

The success of Covid-19 vaccines against omicron: Vaccinated up to five times less likely to be hospitalized - EL PAS in English

KANSAS CITY, Mo. Missouri's Show Me Strong Recovery Task Force, a group created by Gov. Mike Parson to assess the recovery of small businesses, has released its final report.

The report makes recommendations that the task force believes will help small businesses recover from struggles brought by COVID-19.

"In addition to a seven-city listening tour, the Task Force worked closely with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis to analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on small businesses across Missouri," a release from the governor's office said. "The analysis confirmed that businesses in some industries, such as hospitality and retail, were particularly negatively affected, and businesses across all sectors are experiencing ongoing difficulties with hiring, supply chain issues, and workforce challenges."

The recommendations included improving child care availability and affordability, expanding apprenticeships in the hospitality industry and promoting state programs that support small, women and minority-owned businesses, among an array of other things.

The full report, with a complete list of its recommendations, can be found here.

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged our state in many ways, and Missouri small businesses are among those hardest hit, Anna Hui, the director of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and chair of the task force, said. Our hope is these findings will be helpful in addressing the needs of business owners and securing a prosperous future.

We want to hear from you on what resources Kansas City families might benefit from to help us all through the pandemic. If you have five minutes, feel free to fill out this survey to help guide our coverage: KSHB COVID Survey.

Read the original:

MO COVID-19 task force releases final recommendations to help small businesses - KSHB

By Julie Appleby and Phil Galewitz, KHN

Julie Ann Justo, an infectious disease clinical pharmacist for a South Carolina hospital system, hoped Christmas week would finally be the time her family could safely gather for a reunion.

Before the celebration, family members who were eligible were vaccinated and boosted. They quarantined and used masks in the days leading up to the event. And many took solace in negative results from rapid COVID-19 tests taken a few days before the 35-person indoor gathering in South Florida to make sure no one was infectious.

But within a week, Justo and at least 13 members of her extended family tested positive for COVID-19, with many feeling typical symptoms of an upper respiratory virus, such as a sore throat and a runny nose.

Like many other Americans, Justos family learned the hard way that a single negative result from an at-home rapid test, which takes about 15 minutes, is no guarantee that a person is not ill or carrying the virus.

There are just so many variables. Testing may come either too soon, before enough virus is present to detect, or too late, after a person has already spread the virus to others.

And most rapid tests, even according to their instructions, are meant to be used in pairs generally a day or two apart for increased accuracy. Despite that, a few brands are sold one to a box and, with the tests sometimes expensive and in short supply, families are often relying on a single screening.

While home antigen testing remains a useful and underutilized tool to curb the pandemic, experts say, it is often misused and may provide false confidence.

Some people mistakenly look at the home tests like a get-out-of-jail-free card, said Dr. William Schaffner, a specialist in infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee. Im negative, so I dont have to worry anymore.

That is even more true now that the new more transmissible variant dominates the country.

Omicron is so transmissible that it is challenging to use any kind of testing strategy in terms of get-togethers and be successful, said Dr. Patrick Mathias, vice chair of clinical operations for the Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Rapid tests are pretty good at correctly detecting infection in people with symptoms, Mathias said, with a 70% to nearly 90% range of accuracy estimated in several studies. Other studies, some that predate current variants or were performed under more controlled settings, have shown higher rates, but, even then, the tests can still miss some infected people. That raises the risk of spread, with the chance rising dramatically as the number of people attending an event grows.

Results of antigen tests are less accurate for people without symptoms.

For the asymptomatic, the rapid tests, on average, [correctly] detect infection roughly 50% of the time, said Shama Cash-Goldwasser, an adviser for Prevent Epidemics at Resolve to Save Lives, a nonprofit group run by Dr. Tom Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Looking back, Justo said her family took precautions, but she acknowledges missteps that put them at increased risk: Not all family members were tested before getting together because of a shortage of test kits. Some members of her family who could find rapid tests tested just once because of the need to ration tests. And in attendance were several children under age 5 who are not yet eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine. They were later among the first to show symptoms.

We probably were relying too heavily on negative rapid tests in order to gather indoors with others without other layers of protections, she said.

Even if everyone tested properly before the party, health experts said, it wouldnt mean all attendees are safe from getting COVID-19. Testing merely reduces the risk of exposure; it doesnt eliminate it.

Other factors in assessing risk at a gathering: Is everyone vaccinated and boosted, which can help reduce the likelihood of infection? Did attendees properly follow all the steps outlined in the test kits instructions, which can differ by brand? Did anyone test too early after exposure or, conversely, not close enough to the event?

One critical detail is the timing of the test, said Schaffner at Vanderbilt. Another, he said, is how well the tests can spot true positives and true negatives.

Test too early, such as within a day or two of exposure, and results wont be accurate. Similarly, testing several days before an event wont tell you much about who might be infectious on the day of the gathering.

Schaffner and others recommend that self-testing start three days after a known exposure or, if one feels ill, a few days after the onset of symptoms. Because the timeline for detecting an infection is uncertain, its always a good idea to use both tests in the kit, as instructed the second one 24 to 36 hours after the first. For an event, make sure one of the tests is performed on the day of the gathering.

Antigen tests work by looking for proteins from the surface of the virus, which must be present in adequate amounts for a test to spot. (Lab-based PCR tests, or polymerase chain reaction tests, are more accurate because they can detect smaller amounts of the virus, but they take longer to get results, possibly even days, depending on the backlog at the labs.)

COVID-19 markers may linger as remnants long after live virus is gone, so some scientists question the use of tests whether antigen or PCR as a metric for when patients can end their isolation, particularly if they are looking to shorten the recommended period. The CDC recommends five days of isolation, which can end if their symptoms are gone or resolving, with no fever.

Some patients will test positive 10 days or more after their first symptoms, although it is unlikely they remain infectious by then.

Still, that means many people are using the rapid tests inappropriately not only over-relying on them as a safeguard against COVID-19, but also as a gauge for when an infection is over.

Rapid home tests need to be used over multiple days to increase the chance of an accurate result.

Each individual test does not have much value as serial testing, said Dr. Zishan Siddiqui, chief medical officer at the Baltimore Convention Center Field Hospital and an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University. And, because the tests are less reliable in those without symptoms, he said, asymptomatic people should not be relying on a single rapid test to gather with friends or family without taking other mitigation measures.

Worse still, a recent study looking at the omicron variant found that rapid tests could not detect the virus in the first two days of infection, even though lab-based PCR tests did find evidence of COVID-19.

The study examined 30 vaccinated adults in December 2021. Most omicron cases were infectious for several days before being detectable by rapid antigen tests, according to the study, which has not been peer-reviewed.

False negatives are also more likely when the extent of the disease in a certain area, called community spread, is rampant, which is true for most of the United States today.

If theres a lot of community spread, that increases the likelihood that you have covid at a gathering, explained Cash-Goldwasser, since one or more attendees who tested negative may have received a false result. Positivity rates are running over 25% now in some U.S. cities, indicating a lot of virus is circulating.

So, right now, if you get a negative result, its important to be more suspicious, she said.

Vaccinations, boosters, masking, physical distancing, ventilation and testing separately are all imperfect strategies to prevent infection. But layered together, they can serve as a more effective barrier, Schaffner said.

The rapid test is useful his own family used them before gathering for Thanksgiving and Christmas but its a barrier with holes in it, he added.

The virus moved through those gaps to crash the party and infect the Justo family. While most of the attendees largely had mild symptoms, Justo said she was short of breath, fatigued and experienced headaches, muscle pain and nausea. It took about 10 days before she felt better.

I certainly spent a lot of time going back to what we could have done differently, Justo said. Thankfully no one needed to go to the hospital, and I attribute that to the vaccinations and for that I am grateful.

See the article here:

Can you rely on results of an at-home rapid COVID-19 test? What the experts say - OregonLive

JERUSALEM, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Israel's Health Ministry said on Monday it would shorten the mandatory isolation period for those who test positive for COVID-19 to five days from seven days, following an initial cut last week, provided they are asymptomatic.

Until last week, the isolation period was 10 days.

The latest decision, which takes effect on Wednesday, brings Israel in line with recommendations in the United States.

Register

A negative home antigen test is also required before ending isolation, the ministry said.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said a spike in infections due to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus and the amount of people in isolation has become a burden on the Israeli economy.

"This decision will allow on the one hand to continue to ensure public health, and on the other hand, though difficult, sustain the economy in this period so we can safely get through this wave," Bennett said.

The country's pandemic-response coordinator, Salman Zarka, said the health ministry has found that people are at their most contagious during the first three days after infection.

Register

Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; editing by Barbara Lewis and Mark Heinrich

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

More here:

Israel cuts COVID-19 isolation to five days - Reuters

A construction worker walks past the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games logo on a street in Beijing on December 11, 2021. JADE GAO/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

A construction worker walks past the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games logo on a street in Beijing on December 11, 2021.

No tickets will be sold for the upcoming winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing due to the "grave and complicated situation of the COVID-19 pandemic."

Instead, organizers announced Monday that they would invite groups of spectators to attend the games in person.

"The organisers expect that these spectators will strictly abide by the COVID-19 countermeasures before, during and after each event as pre-conditions for the safe and sound delivery of the Games," the Beijing 2022 organizing committee said in a statement.

The International Olympic Committee previously said they would sell tickets only to spectators living in mainland China who met certain COVID-19 safety requirements.

Fans weren't allowed in the stands during the summer Olympics in Tokyo last year.

The winter games won't require athletes to be vaccinated against COVID-19, but those who are unvaccinated will have to quarantine for 21 days when they arrive in Beijing. The IOC also implemented other policies to prevent the spread of COVID during the competition, such as a "closed-loop" system that limits participants to certain Olympics-related areas and other permitted locations and isolates them from China's general public.

The winter Olympic Games will take place from Feb. 4-20, and the winter Paralympic Games will occur from March 4-13.

China has been working to quell a series of COVID outbreaks in the weeks before the games, recently putting more than 20 million people across the country in some form of lockdown, the Associated Press reported. Last week Beijing reported its first locally transmitted case of the omicron variant, according to media reports.

Read more here:

China will no longer sell tickets to the Beijing Winter Olympics due to COVID-19 - NPR

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. The number of active cases of COVID-19 in Arkansas dropped by more than 3,000 in new data released Monday, marking the first daily decline in active cases since December 26 of last year.

The new data from the Arkansas Department of Health showed that active cases fell by 3,068 to 93,311. Overall, the state saw 3,600 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, moving the number of cases reported during the pandemic to 684,776.

In a social media post, Gov. Asa Hutchinson attributed the drop in cases in part to a weekend decline in testing.

There were three more deaths added to the states count since the previous day, pushing the total to 9,437.

Hospitalizations saw an increase for the 18th day in a row, climbing by 35 patients to 1,420, while the number of patients on ventilators ticked up by four to 172.

Hutchinson used the increase in hospitalizations as a way to stress that Arkansans should seek out vaccinations. There were only 1,896 doses given in the past 24 hours. The number of Arkansans with full immunity rose to 1,528,481, while there are 370,688 people in the state with partial immunity.

Read more:

COVID-19 in Arkansas: Active cases drop for the first time in 20 days, hospitalizations climb - KARK

Former Houston Methodist doctor files lawsuit

A former Houston Methodist doctor has filed a lawsuit against Houston Methodist asking for Methodist to detail the effects of the vaccines and financial reports.

HOUSTON - A Houston doctor, who was in the spotlight late last year after being suspended by Houston Methodist Hospital for spreading information related to COVID-19 they called "harmful to the community," has responded with a lawsuit.

Dr. Mary Bowden, an ear, nose and throat specialist, who runs a private practice in River Oaks, announced the suit on Monday morning.

BACKGROUND: Houston Methodist suspends privileges of doctor accused of spreading COVID-19 misinformation

In the lawsuit, she's asking for data from Methodist detailing the effects of the vaccines and financial reportes.

Dr. Bowden, who had provisional privileges at Houston Methodist, resigned in mid-November 2021 after the public back-and-forth with the hospital.

FOX 26 Reporter Randy Wallace has more as a Houston Methodist doctor has resigned after tweets she made regarding COVID-19. (Editor's note: This video is from an earlier report of the story.)

In a series of tweets, Houston Methodist Hospital wrote that Dr. Bowden had been using her social media to express political opinions about the COVID-19 vaccine and treatments. Methodist also confirmed Dr. Bowden had never admitted a patient at the hospital.

Dr. Bowden had tweeted that "Vaccine mandates are wrong" and shared about her battle to give her patients Ivermectin, a controversial drug hailed as a treatment for COVID-19 by some.

Houston Methodist said Dr. Bowden was "spreading dangerous misinformation which is not based in science."

In a press conference back in November, Dr. Bowden said she did not appreciate the way Methodist handled the situation. She says it led to her name being "vilified" and people calling her "the sister of the devil."

She added that she was focusing on treating the unvaccinated. "Eliminate the mandates, let people have a choice."

MORE: Houston doctor accused of spreading misinformation by Houston Methodist fires back

Excerpt from:

Doctor accused of spreading COVID-19 misinformation sues Houston Methodist - FOX 5 Atlanta

'); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body #mrd-alert"+ alertCount).append(""+val.title+""); if (val.poly != "" && val.polyimg != "") { $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body #mrd-alert"+ alertCount).append('"+val.ihtml+""); $("#expandable-weather-block .weather-index-alerts").show(); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body h2").css({"font-family":"'Fira Sans', sans-serif", "font-weight":"500", "padding-bottom":"10px"}); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body p").css({"font-size":"14px", "line-height":"24px"}); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body span.wxalertnum").css({"float":"left", "width":"40px", "height":"40px", "color":"#ffffff", "line-height":"40px", "background-color":"#888888", "border-radius":"40px", "text-align":"center", "margin-right":"12px"}); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body b").css("font-size", "18px"); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body li").css({"font-size":"14px", "line-height":"18px", "margin-bottom":"10px"}); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body ul").css({"margin-bottom":"24px"}); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body pre").css({"margin-bottom":"24px"}); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body img").css({"width":"100%", "margin-bottom":"20px", "borderWidth":"1px", "border-style":"solid", "border-color":"#aaaaaa"}); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body #mrd-alert"+ alertCount).css({"borderWidth":"0", "border-bottom-width":"1px", "border-style":"dashed", "border-color":"#aaaaaa", "padding-bottom":"10px", "margin-bottom":"40px"}); }); } function parseAlertJSON(json) { console.log(json); alertCount = 0; if (Object.keys(json.alerts).length > 0) { $("#mrd-wx-alerts .modal-body ").empty(); } $.each(json.alerts, function(key, val) { alertCount++; $("#mrd-wx-alerts .alert_count").text(alertCount); $("#mrd-wx-alerts .modal-body ").append(''); $("#mrd-wx-alerts .modal-body #mrd-alert"+ alertCount).append(""+val.title+""); if (val.poly != "" && val.polyimg != "") { $("#mrd-wx-alerts .modal-body #mrd-alert"+ alertCount).append(''); } else if (val.fips != "" && val.fipsimg != "") { // $("#mrd-wx-alerts .modal-body #mrd-alert"+ alertCount).append(''); } $("#mrd-wx-alerts .modal-body #mrd-alert"+ alertCount).append(val.dhtml+"

Instruction

Follow this link:

Drop in demand for COVID-19 testing in St. Louis area seen as good sign - KMOV.com

Activists asking New Mexico legislature for stimulus payments and tax credits for families making less than $35,000 a year

by: Julian Resendiz

Flashing highway message boards along Interstate 25 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, urge people in both English and Spanish to stay home amid the coronavirus outbreak on Thursday, April 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) Hispanic families in New Mexico particularly those who are Spanish-speaking, live in rural areas or lack lawful immigration status are still being disproportionally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and need help from their state legislature, a coalition of grassroots organizations says.

Were calling on them to provide funding to help support and stabilize this segment of the community that is falling behind the rest of the state, said Marcela Diaz, a member of Somos un Pueblo Unido.

The various organizations under the banner of New Mexico Economic Relief Working Group on Thursday sent a letter to legislators requesting tax credits and stimulus payments to the working poor in the state.

The group presented the results of a new poll showing the disproportionate effects of the pandemic on Hispanics. The poll says 26 percent spent all of their savings last year and have gone into debt, while 60 percent have less than $1,000 in savings and 30 percent arent paying their bills on time.

The poll says 28 percent of Hispanics in New Mexico earned less than $20,000 a year in 2021, in some cases because their hours were cut or they were sent home when schools and businesses shut down or reduced operations.

On the health front, 25 percent of Latinos in New Mexico have a family member who has died of COVID-19. This has to do with lack of adequate access to medical care and higher rates of underlying conditions that place their lives at risk once they contract the coronavirus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state that Hispanics are twice as likely as non-Hispanic whites to develop type 2 diabetes, for instance.

This emphasizes that Latinos have suffered higher infection and casualty rates than non-Hispanic whites and are twice more likely to be hospitalized, said Gabe Sanchez, lead researcher for BSP, which conducted the bilingual, telephone and internet survey of 1,000 Hispanics in New Mexico

Sanchez said those who live in rural settings, speak primarily Spanish, lack immigration status or are female are experiencing the most severe economic challenges. Immigration status prevented some from getting the federal stimulus checks and language barriers and lack of information kept others from applying for state aid.

The bottom line is that a large number of Latinos in the state are having to make difficult choices with the money they do have.

Mirna Lazcano, a member of the Albuquerque-based El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos, says her own family has faced some of those difficult choices.

During the pandemic, my husband, who works in construction, and I have accumulated financial debt since they cut our hours. We have both gotten sick from COVID, she said. We live day to day to pay bills and keep the utilities on. [] We shop the least expensive brands (of groceries) and limit the amount of meat we eat.

Lazcano, who cleans houses and babysits for a living, said she has gone to food banks to make sure her family has enough to eat.

The members of New Mexico Economic Relief Working Group are calling on their state legislature to allocate $15.6 million to the Human Services Department so low-income adults can get a $600 stimulus payment. Theyre also calling for tax credits and other benefits for families making less than $35,000 a year.

The New Mexico legislature is in session next week.

See the rest here:

New poll shows disproportionate impact of COVID-19 pandemic on health, finances of Hispanics - NEWS10 ABC

SALT LAKE CITY Starting next week, hospitals and clinics under Intermountain Healthcare will have new visiting policies, which they say will be in place temporarily to help reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Intermountain announced Saturday that the new rules are being created to "help further protect caregivers, keep patients safe, and help reduce the spread of COVID-19" as they're seeing an increase in patients and as the omicron variant continues to infect record-breaking amounts of people.

The new rules will take effect Tuesday, and they include limiting visitation hours and requiring masks.

Under the new and temporary policy, Intermountain is only allowing overnight visitors for pediatric patients, laboring and postpartum mothers, patients suffering form dementia, or those who are critically ill or receiving "end of life" care.

Visiting hours will be from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

"This avoids visitors removing their mask while sleeping, which increases possible exposure to our caregivers," the company's announcement read.

They added that visitors must wear masks at all times in all hospitals and clinics, including private rooms. Patients are also asked to wear masks at all times while they're with a caregiver, if feasible.

Read this article:

Intermountain Healthcare to issue temporary visitor restrictions amid COVID-19 surge - fox13now.com