Category: Covid-19

India reported its third death from COVID-19 on Tuesday.

Despite being the worlds second most populous country, with more than 1.3 billion people, the nation has reported three deaths and around 150 cases, giving rise to questions about why the virus has not spread as rapidly as elsewhere.

For some, the answer is the fast action that Indias government took as the virus spread from China to many parts of the world. And if the relatively low number of cases continues, it could make the nation a blueprint for others seeking to limit the impact.

Taking rapid actions to limit travel by suspending visas and quarantining all incoming travellers has helped. All international passengers entering India undergo Universal Health Screening. According to health officials, more than 1 million passengers have been screened at airports, limiting the entry of coronavirus.

The response also mirrors Indias reaction to previous disease outbreaks, including Ebola in 2014 and Nipah in 2018, when people were quickly put into quarantine or under surveillance. Indian citizens have been advised to avoid all non-essential travel abroad, and citizens have been evacuated from Iran, Italy, China and Japan.

A new strain of Coronavirus, COVID 19, is spreading around the world, causing deaths and major disruption to the global economy.

Responding to this crisis requires global cooperation among governments, international organizations and the business community, which is at the centre of the World Economic Forums mission as the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.

The Forum has created the COVID Action Platform, a global platform to convene the business community for collective action, protect peoples livelihoods and facilitate business continuity, and mobilize support for the COVID-19 response. The platform is created with the support of the World Health Organization and is open to all businesses and industry groups, as well as other stakeholders, aiming to integrate and inform joint action.

As an organization, the Forum has a track record of supporting efforts to contain epidemics. In 2017, at our Annual Meeting, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was launched bringing together experts from government, business, health, academia and civil society to accelerate the development of vaccines. CEPI is currently supporting the race to develop a vaccine against this strand of the coronavirus.

Apart from ensuring the safe return of hundreds of Indians from China, Iran and other countries, the Indian government has taken decisive measures to contain community spread, said Sriram Gutta, Head of Community Development, India and South Asia at the World Economic Forum.

While these measures will have short-term economic impact, they will ensure the safety and welfare of Indians.

A novel coronavirus landing page on the Ministry of Healths website gives the numbers of phone helplines, as well as detailed advice and guidelines. Actions like these have been lauded by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is leading the global charge against the virus.

Prime Minister Narendra Modis government was quick to recommend residents avoid or postpone mass gatherings until the the virus is contained. The Ministry of External Affairs postponed the Indian cricket league and state authorities are shutting schools, gyms and swimming pools in the worst-hit regions.

Such responses are good and impressive, according to the WHO.

India is doing quite well, said the WHO Representative, Henk Bekedam.

Even so, the nation still faces many of the same challenges as other countries, including limiting unauthorized gatherings and debunking fake health messages circulating on social media. The global economic impact will be hard to avoid, with the United Nations trade and development agency predicting the slowdown in the global economy caused by the coronavirus outbreak is likely to cost at least $1 trillion.

The Public Health department of Maharashtra on Wednesday said that consuming more garlic, curry leaves or cows urine would neither treat nor prevent coronavirus infection. Instead, they urged people to practise good hygiene, contain coughs and sneezes and eat nutritious food.

The Director-General of the Indian Council of Medical Research Balram Bhargava said on Tuesday that community transmission of COVID-19 has not yet occurred in India, meaning people who contracted the virus did so from a known source.

Even so, officials are preparing for it to happen, with private laboratories authorized to test for the virus, freeing up more capacity for diagnosis and detection. Restaurants are also shutting, with the National Restaurants Association advising members to close at least until 31 March.

If the statistics continue to show a relatively low infection rate, then India will have helped lead the way in containing coronavirus.

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How India is responding to COVID-19: quarantine, travel limits and tests - World Economic Forum

YouTube has switched to standard definition streaming by default in Europe.

We asked the company if it planned to do this yesterday, and today a spokeswoman confirmed the step. The move was reported earlier by Reuters.

Its a temporary measure in response to calls by the European Commission for streaming platforms to help ease demand on Internet infrastructure during the coronavirus crisis.

Users can still manually adjust video quality but defaults remain a powerful tool to influence overall outcomes.

A YouTube spokesperson confirmed the switch, sending us this statement:

People are coming to YouTube to find authoritative news, learning content and make connections during these uncertain times. While we have seen only a few usage peaks, we have measures in place to automatically adjust our system to use less network capacity. We are in ongoing conversations with the regulators (including Ofcom), governments and network operators all over Europe, and are making a commitment to temporarily default all traffic in the UK and the EU to Standard Definition. We will continue our work to minimize stress on the system, while also delivering a good user experience.

Yesterday Netflix announced it would default to SD streaming in the region for 30 days for the same reason.

In recent days, the EUs internet market commissioner, Thierry Breton, has held discussions with platform executives to urge them to help reduce the load on Internet infrastructure as scores of Europeans are encouraged or required to stay at home as part of quarantine measures.

The Commission is concerned about the impact on online education and remote work if theres a major spike in demand for digital entertainment services and is pushing for collective action from platforms and users to manage increased load on Internet infrastructure.

Breton met with Google CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki to press the case for lowering the quality of video streams during the coronavirus crisis.

Today he welcomed YouTubes move. Millions of Europeans are adapting to social distancing measures thanks to digital platforms, helping them to telework, e-learn and entertain themselves. I warmly welcome the initiative that Google has taken to preserve the smooth functioning of the Internet during the COVID19 crisis by having YouTube switch all EU traffic to Standard Definition by default. I appreciate the strong responsibility that Mr Pichai and Mrs Wojcicki have demonstrated. We will closely follow the evolution of the situation together, said Breton in a statement.

Googles spokeswoman told us it hasnt seen much change in regional traffic peaks so far but said there have been changes in usage patterns from more people being at home with usage expanding across additional hours and some lower usage peaks. (The company routinely makes traffic data available in the Google Traffic and Disruptions Transparency Report.)

YouTube, along with other major social platforms, has faced scrutiny over the risks of their tools being used to spread coronavirus-related misinformation.

Although, in the case of Google, the company appears to have taken a proactive stance in suppressing bogus content and surfacing authoritative sources of health information. YouTubes spokeswoman noted the homepage directs users to the World Health Organization for info on COVID-19 or other locally relevant authoritative organizations, for instance.

She also noted the company is donating ad inventory to governments and NGOs to use for education and information pointing to a blog post earlier this month in which Pichai discussed some of the measures its taking to shield users from misinformation that could be harmful to public health.

YouTube will be rolling out a campaign rolling across Europe that encourages people to follow health authorities guidance and stay home, she added.

Googles response to the COVID-19 pandemic looks to be a far swifter and more aggressive to the threat posed to public health than its approach to other types of content that can also be harmful to peoples health such as anti-vaccination content, which YouTube only moved to demonetize last year.

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YouTube goes SD streaming by default in Europe due to COVID-19 - TechCrunch

A 48-year-old woman from a small town in Ohio is recovering in quarantine after a scary diagnosis of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. She's only the second known victim in Summit County.

After logging on to Facebook over the weekend and seeing people question how "real" the pandemic is, Amy Driscoll had enough. She finally decided to tell her community just how "real" it can be by sharing her experience with the disease.

"For all the non believers and those who are not taking this seriously, if you need [to] KNOW someone who has been diagnosed with the COVID-19, well if you are reading this you know me," Amy Driscoll began her Facebook post, which has gone viral.

Driscoll told BuzzFeed News she hopes her experience serves as a sobering wake-up call for people who don't think the virus can affect them. She said her symptoms dramatically escalated and sent her to the hospital in the middle of the night last week.

"It was so surreal," she said. "I was really sick and I knew something was wrong."

Driscoll, ne Brock, said she felt completely "fine" on Wednesday as she headed in to work. Within hours, she was lethargic, ran a fever, and had difficulty breathing.

In her Facebook post, she wrote that she had woken up in the middle of the night to her heart racing; her "chest felt tight" when she coughed, she wrote. She recounted similar symptoms to BuzzFeed News and added that she had even joked with her colleague at work that she had been affected by the pandemic earlier in the day.

"She laughed and said, 'Oh, its probably COVID-19,' and I thought, 'Thats funny.' We were joking, but in retrospect it was not a funny joke," Driscoll said.

After consulting with her cousin who's a nurse, Driscoll made the rapid decision to leave her family at home and drive herself to the emergency room at 4:30 a.m. Thursday.

She was met with medical personnel, who had all of their protective gear on and immediately tested her and admitted her to a quarantine room. She would spend the next few days there in complete isolation.

"Everyone that comes in is completely gowned head-to-toe covered that was really weird," said Driscoll. "I was very isolated. ... You're just trying to go through everything on your own."

According to Driscoll, she received pain medication for her headache and antibiotics in case her infection turned out to be bacterial. She didn't receive her official positive diagnosis of COVID-19 until close to midnight on Friday.

Fortunately, by then, she said she had already started to feel better.

"The next day [on Saturday] the doctors came in and said, 'We're going to send you home. But don't stop anywhere, go straight home. Be quarantined until we tell you when you're not,'" she recounted.

Driscoll said she was just happy to be in recovery and back with her family until she logged on to Facebook. She saw many of her Facebook friends posting about not believing in the severity of the pandemic and not understanding why strict restrictions were being imposed on them.

"I saw a lot of postings of how people couldnt believe we were going through all these restrictions. People were like, 'Lets get together and have a corona party,'" she said.

"I was trying to ignore it, but then a friend from high school had posted, 'I dont know anyone with COVID-19. Is it real? I cant believe were going through all of this.'"

The post struck a nerve for Driscoll.

"I am the face of this infection. It is brutal and I'm a healthy 48 year old with no underlying conditions," she wrote in her viral post. "I'm not 100% better but I'm home resting. Please take this seriously. People you love, their lives may depend on it."

Driscoll told BuzzFeed News she's still "weak" with limited abilities to move around her house, but she is "healing." After her Facebook post went viral, she was also uplifted by all the support she's received from her local community.

"Quarantine is not fun, but I would much rather be in quarantine and know Im not exposing anyone else to this and Ill take that," she added.

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A Mom From A Small Ohio Town Is Recovering From The Coronavirus. She Wants Everyone To Know What It Is Really Like. - BuzzFeed News

COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has been much deadlier in older people but more anecdotes are popping up of young, healthy people getting critically ill and even dying of the disease.

Two 29-year-old health care workers became seriously ill in Wuhan only one survived, a report in The New York Times detailed. Other stories about people under 50 coming down with serious symptoms are making the rounds on social media, along with questions about whether seemingly healthy young people ought to be more concerned. What do these cases tell us about the disease?

There are reasons for people in every age group to be cautious, health experts say, but not because our understanding of who is most vulnerable to the virus is changing. Just because older people are more likely to develop a severe case or die from the disease, it doesnt mean some young people wont. That smaller number of severe cases among young people still doesnt disprove the data that shows that seniors are the most vulnerable.

The US will likely see more young people get really sick over the next several weeks simply because the pandemic is still growing. Days can pass before someone starts feeling the symptoms of COVID-19. So experts anticipate a jump in the number of cases in the US as those who have been in incubation periods start feeling ill and more people get tested for the virus.

I think its almost a math problem in some ways, right? says Benjamin Singer, an assistant professor of medicine in pulmonary and critical care at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Even with a lower likelihood of younger people getting critically ill, a certain percentage will get critically ill, and since the denominator is growing and growing these cases are popping up more and more.

Underlying health conditions can also make younger people susceptible to a severe case of the virus. Where you find severe cases or even death in young people, we dont really have full information on these patients, says Lee Riley, chair of the division of infectious disease and vaccinology at the University of California, Berkeley. Its possible that some of those people might have had medical conditions that we just didnt know about. Chronic conditions that can affect young people, like diabetes, can make it more difficult for someone to recover from the disease.

Even younger people who feel perfectly healthy need to take the pandemic seriously because they can spread the virus even if theyre not feeling any symptoms, Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said. Dont get the attitude, Well, Im young, Im invulnerable. Fauci said at a press briefing today. You dont want to put your loved ones at risk, particularly the ones who are elderly and the ones who have compromised conditions. We cant do this without the young people cooperating. Please cooperate with us.

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Why were seeing some severe COVID-19 cases among younger people - The Verge

What is the best public policy to counter the health risk from the Coronavirus, COVID-19? This is the question on everyones mind.

It is wise to try and learn from the current situation in China, where the rate of COVID-19 infections was extinguished as a result of a lockdown, and Italy, where hospitals are full and doctors have to make life-death decisions about patients because there are not enough beds to treat everyone in need. The mortality fraction of infected people appears to be higher by an order of magnitude when hospitals are overcrowded, so suppressing the rate of new infections serves the important purpose of allowing those in need to be treated.

If we do nothing, the current state of affairs is likely to worsen dramatically in the coming weeks. To gauge how bad circumstances may become, lets examine publicly available data.

Our first plot shows the reported number of infections over time. For each country, Wikipedia has a continuously updated Web site with links to the original official sources such as the World Health Organization, research institutes and health ministries. The plotted curves show the cumulative number of known infections per country as a function of date. Colored points show the current situation as of this writing on March 15.

The data exhibit exponential growth in all countries, except for China and South Korea. Because of the rapid growth, early action is crucial in moderating the number of infections. Extrapolating the curves all the way to the edge of the box implies that the United States will reach a million infections at the beginning of April, with four million for Spain and about 0.1 million for the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Sweden, respectively. If no effective action is taken by April 10, the U.S. and the European countries could reach the 10 million mark.

The doubling times appear to evolve, as shown in our second plot. These values represent the slopes of the growth curves, averaged over a period of eight days.

But the number of reported cases must be smaller than the actual number of infections. Many countries, including the U.S., were limited until recently by the availability of COVID-19 test kits. It is possible that there are many more cases than those in public reports. We label those invisible infections. South Korea performed many more tests than the U.S. and succeeded in flattening its curve. The COVID-19 tests in the U.S. had a positive fraction that was three to 10 times larger than in South Korea, implying a substantial invisible population.

If the correction factor due to the "invisible population" is a factor of approximately 10 and only about 20 percent of people infected show symptoms (based on the Diamond Princess cruise ship statistics), then the actual number of people exposed to the coronavirus at this time is already five million. This implies: (i) with an approximately 2 percent mortality fraction out of the infected population, at least 100,000 people will die; and (ii) we are only about 10 doubling times away from having most of the worldwide population being infected if no social distancing is established. Given that the measured doubling time is a few days, this implies that uninhibited exponential growth will saturate within a month, leading up to some 100 million deaths. But if many countries flatten the curve, as we all hope, then saturation will take a much longer time and the number of deaths could be reduced.

What does all of this imply? The wisest policy at the moment is to flatten the curves and lengthen the doubling times as much as possible by suppressing social interactions. The virus does not move on its own. It is transmitted by humans and survives a few days on contaminated surfaces. To flatten the curves, all nations must engage immediately in social distancing as well as in extensive testing and comprehensive isolation of patients with COVID-19 symptoms and people who had been in contact with such patients.

This policy will reduce crowding in hospitals and minimize the mortality rate in the short term. But one should keep in mind that it does not eliminate the virus and will likely lead to a yo-yo behaviorwhere, as soon as mobility of people is enabled months from now, the spread of COVID-19 will resume. The spread will saturate once most of the population is infected, as forecast by Angela Merkel, or a vaccine is widely distributed in about a year.

This short-term policy does not take into consideration the economic impact that could lead to a major recession due to loss of income by small businesses, tourism, travel and entertainment, over an extended period of time. The financial implications, combined with the societal and psychological impact of a lockdown, could deteriorate the livelihood of many communities. Bad economic times could lead to deaths of people with low income who are most vulnerable to an economic downturn. There must be a sweet spot that balances the negatives associated with crowding of hospitals versus economic downturn. This sweet spot should be the long-term goal that policy makers aim at.

Overall, there is no doubt that many people will be exposed to COVID-19. As of now, delaying the growth is crucial for reducing the total number of deaths that the COVID-19 will amass. The situation is analogous to waiting after rush hour before driving our cars in order to minimize the death toll from collisions. The optimal strategy of policy makers must be to buy as much time as possible, so that hospitals will not be overcrowded. Lets all work together to flatten the growth curves shown above. By doing so, we could save many lives. And as stated in the Talmud: whoever saves a single life, saves the whole world.

Read more about the coronavirus outbreakhere.

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Flattening the COVID-19 Curves - Scientific American

SPRINGFIELD, Mass (WWLP) The COVID-19 outbreak is a global pandemic, and with that comes a lot of false information on the internet.

There are many myths about COVID-19 that have been circulating through social media. Here are some of the most common ones, according to theWorld Health Organization.

Truth: The CDC and the WHO have said this from the start: the most effective way to protect yourself from COVID-19 is with frequent handwashing with soap and water or using hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol. The WHO says there is no reason to believe cold weather can kill the new coronavirus, or other diseases, for that matter.

Truth: Protective measures, like proper handwashing and social distancing, need to be taken no matter where you live. COVID-19 can be transmitted anywhere, regardless of how hot or humid the air is.

Truth: This myth has been stemming from the false idea that cold and hot temperatures can kill the virus. Just like the cold weather and hot and humid climate myths, this is not true. Your body temperature stays relatively stable even when you take an extremely hot bath. This just leaves you at risk for a burn. Still, the best way to prevent getting COVID-19 is to wash your hands often. This prevents viruses on your hands from infecting you when you touch your face.

Truth: As temperatures continue to warm as we dive into spring, mosquitoes will become more common again. That typically brings a risk of Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) and West Nile Virus, but the increasing population of mosquitoes does not create another channel in which you can get COVID-19. From the WHO, there has been no information nor evidence to suggest that the new coronavirus could be transmitted by mosquitoes. This is because the new coronavirus is spread primarily through droplets when someone with the coronavirus sneezes or coughs. This is why social distancing and frequent hand washing is so important.

Truth: The heat from a hand dryer alone is not enough to kill the new coronavirus. However, in combination with washing your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, this method is very effective. You can also dry your hands after using paper towels, or instead use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Truth: Its too soon to tell whether UV light is an effective way to kill the new coronavirus, and the World Health Organization does not suggest its use. It should especially not be used on hands or your body as it can cause irritation. UV lighthas been known to kill the flu virus, however.

Truth: Thermal scanners, like thermometers, can detect people who have a higher-than-normal body temperature due to infection from COVID-19. But not everyone who is infected with the coronavirus has a fever yet. According to the WHO, it takes between 2 and 10 days before people who are infected become sick and develop a fever.

Truth: This will not cure you of COVID-19 if it has already entered your body. Spraying alcohol and chlorine all over your body can be harmful if it gets into your eyes or mouth. The World Health Organization says they both can be used to disinfect surfaces, however.

Truth: The WHO says, Vaccines against pneumonia, such as pneumococcal vaccine and Haemophilus influenza type B vaccine, do not provide protection against the new coronavirus. COVID-19 is a respiratory infection, yes, but it requires its own vaccine, which is in thetesting phaseright now.

Truth: The World Health Organization says there is some evidence that regularly rinsing your nose with saline can help you get over the common cold more quickly. But this does not apply to COVID-19 and other respiratory infections. The same applies to gargling with a saline solution.

Truth: There is no scientific evidence that eating garlic prevents you from being infected with the novel coronavirus. However, according to the National Institutes of Health, it does have someantimicrobial properties.

Truth: The World Health Organization says people of all ages need to take steps to protect themselves from COVID-19. The best ways are frequent hand washing, the use of hand sanitizer, and social distancing. However, people who are older are more vulnerable to becoming severely ill with the new coronavirus. People with preexisting conditions are also at an increased risk for more severe complications, such as people with heart disease, diabetes, and lung disease.

Truth: Antibiotics are used to fight bacteria, not viruses, which is what COVID-19 is. This myth may have stemmed from the fact some people who are hospitalized for coronavirus have received antibiotics, but thats because bacterial co-infections are possible with COVID-19, according to the WHO. The antibiotic does not treat the virus itself.

Truth: The World Health Organization is helping with research and development efforts to find treatments for coronavirus, however, they are still under investigation, and must be tested through clinical trials. Right now, there is no medication recommended to prevent or treat COVID-19. You can use medication to relieve symptoms, but those with severe symptoms from coronavirus should seek help from a medical professional.

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Cold weather kills coronavirus and 13 other COVID-19 myths - KHON2

mark pazniokas :: ctmirror.org

Dr. Matthew Cartter, the state epidemiologist, said while Connecticut has logged 68 cases of COVID-19, there are likely more than 6,000. Testing is still limited, he said.

While Connecticut has now recorded 68 cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the new strain of coronavirus, more than 6,000 residents likely have contracted the disease, Dr. Matthew Cartter, the states epidemiologist, said Tuesday.

We dont test everybody. But we know that for every person who tests positive for flu, there are probably 100 others out there whove been sick with the flu who never get tested, he said. Right now, if we have 68 positives, you should assume there are at least 100 people out there who have COVID-19 for every single positive, which puts us around 6,000 or so and that might be a low estimate.

The majority of the states cases 48 are in Fairfield County. Another eight are in New Haven County, seven are in Hartford County and five are in Litchfield County. Twenty-six people are now hospitalized with coronavirus. No one in Connecticut has died from it.

While there have been no positive tests in the eastern part of Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamont said Tuesday that its only a matter of time.

Its been accelerating through the state, he said. Fairfield County is where the bulk of the incidents are, but now Litchfield County, Hartford County and New Haven County [have cases]. Southeast Connecticut is, thankfully, the last to have an incident. But we know its coming.

As hospitals prepare for a surge in patients, Lamont said the state is expediting certification for trainee nurses and reaching out to retired nurses to bolster staffing. He called on day care centers to remain open, so parents who work in hospitals or provide other emergency services have a place to turn to for child care.

Dr. Matthew Carter, state epidemiologist

The state expects to receive additional federal funding to expand Medicaid, known as HUSKY in Connecticut, and is opening enrollment on Access Health CT, the insurance exchange, for people who find themselves without coverage.

In an interview on CNBC Tuesday, Lamont said he was concerned that the states supply of ventilators wouldnt be enough to handle a dramatic increase in patients. He did not say how many more ventilators were needed, or when the crush of patients was expected to roll in.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo estimated that the coronavirus outbreak would peak in his state in 45 days. Health officials there have said that in the worst-case scenario of a flulike pandemic, New York could be short by as many as 15,783 ventilators a week at the height of the crisis.The state has logged 1,374 cases of COVID-19. Twelve people have died.

As hospitals in Connecticut continued to prepare and introduce new sites for testing, several businesses across the state announced temporary closures. Among them were department stores like Macys and Nordstrom.

State unemployment claims skyrocketed to 25,000 in four-and-a-half days. The Department of Labor announced it has begun at-home practice drills to ensure claims processing will continue amidst the coronavirus crisis.

Gov. Ned Lamont

The University of Connecticut said Tuesday that classes would remain online for the rest of the spring semester and the school has canceled its May commencement ceremonies. Several other state colleges have moved campus courses online for the foreseeable future.

Lamont on Sunday ordered all public schools closed, and on Monday he directed all bars, restaurants, movie theaters, concert halls, gyms and other businesses that draw large crowds to shut their doors until further notice. Restaurants and bars may stay open to fulfill takeout orders only.

The Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribal nations agreed Monday night to close Foxwoods Resort and Mohegan casinos for the first time since they opened in the 1990s.

Lamont said Tuesday that hes not yet ready to consider a shelter in place mandate, which would prevent people from leaving their homes except under certain circumstances, such as a trip to the grocery store or the doctors office. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has warned his residents to prepare for that directive.

I think the people of Connecticut understand the scope of what were confronting, and on a voluntary basis, theyre stepping up and doing the right thing, Lamont said.

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COVID-19 cases jump to 68 in Connecticut, though health officials warn there are likely thousands more - The CT Mirror

At first blush, it seems like the coronavirus pandemic is shutting down the economy everywhere, equally, with frightening force and totality. In many respects, thats true: Across the country, consumer spendingwhich supports 70% of the economyis crashing in community after community, as people avoid stores, restaurants, movie theaters, offices, and other public places. Already, the layoffs have begun, with reports coming in from both big cities including Seattle and Atlanta as well as small heartland towns.

But as recession forecasts proliferate, its not necessarily true that all areas will be hit equally hard. In a huge nation made up of diverse places and varied local economies, a look at the geography of highly exposed industries makes clear that the economic toll of any coming recession will hit different regions in disparate, uneven ways.

To illustrate this, we mapped the employment geography of an array of industries vulnerable to disruption by virus-related demand declines, shutdowns, and layoffs.

To do this, we used an identification of the most at risk industry groups included in the recent (and quite dire) research note from Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moodys. Zandi composed a list of five especially vulnerable sectors: mining/oil and gas, transportation, employment services, travel arrangements, and leisure and hospitality. With this list in hand, we mapped those industries presence as a share of the economy within the nations various metropolitan areas.

Add the numbers up and the gargantuan scale of the current problem emerges. More than 24.2 million Americans work in the five high-risk sectors facing a sharp slowdown. This will likely prompt significant work disruptions, furloughs, and other uncertainties in the coming months.

But what do we find on a metro-area level? The most affected places are a whos who of energy towns and major resort, leisure, and amusement destinations across the nation.

The most exposed metro area nationwide is the oil-and-gas town of Midland, Texas, with 42% of its workforce in high-risk industries. Other major energy producers such as Odessa and Laredo, Texas as well as Houma-Thibodaux, La. also land in the top 10 most affected.

The numbers also underscore the massive size of the nations reeling leisure and hospitality sector. Kahului, Hawaii, Atlantic City, N.J., and Las Vegas all fall into the top five most recession-vulnerable metro areas, each with more than a third of their workforce in industries threatened by coronavirus-related uncertainties. Other noteworthy affected tourist destinations across the U.S. include Ocean City, N.J., Myrtle Beach, S.C., Flagstaff, Ariz., and the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and Alabama.

The same pattern holds across larger cities. Among the nations 100 largest metro areas, Las Vegas is most exposed, followed by Orlando, Fla., the theme park capital of the country. Rounding out the top five in this group are New Orleans, which has ties to both the energy and tourism/hospitality sectors, Honolulu, and Oklahoma City.

On the other end of the spectrum, the metro areas positioned to be least directly affected by COVID-19 are a diverse group consisting of older, manufacturing-heavy industrial cities, agricultural towns, and some already-distressed places. Agriculture communities Madera, Calif. and Yakima, Wash. are the two least exposed metro areas nationwide, with less than 10% of their workforce in affected industries. Elkhart-Goshen, Ind., the RV capital of the world, rounds out the top three, however its numbers may belie potential manufacturing sector exposure from increased automation, which tends to concentrate in economic downturns.

Among the 100 largest metro areas, the economically safest are mostly tech-oriented university towns. Provo, Utah is the least exposed, followed by Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C., Hartford, Conn., Albany, N.Y., and San Jose, Calif.

From these lists, we can see that the places most vulnerable to immediate, short-term economic shocks from COVID-19 are geographically varied, but with common industry themes. But because the variations are driven by the nations enormous leisure sector in particular, our map provides only an initial glance at which places are going to be affected. In the event that the pandemic tips the economy into a significant nationwide recession, very few places or industries will emerge unscathed. And if that happens, other large sectorsincluding construction, manufacturing, retail, education, and even the motion picture industrywill be affected regardless of geography.

This suggests an important takeaway for policymakers: While essentially all of America will likely be affected by COVID-19s economic effects, those effects will be distinct and varied from place-to-place. Given that, we must not only act quickly, but also attend to the unique regional and local impacts within this national crisis.

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The places a COVID-19 recession will likely hit hardest - Brookings Institution

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CHICAGO Gov. JB Pritzker announced the first COVID-19 related death in Illinois Tuesday.

"I'm deeply saddened to share the news that I have dreaded since the earliest days of this outbreak," Pritzker said at a news conference.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's office identified the patient as Patricia Frieson, 61, of Chicago. She died late Monday night at theUniversity of ChicagoMedicalCenter.

Pritzker said the woman did have an underlying health condition, but she was not a resident at a nursing home. She did have contact with another COVID-19

Illinois health officials reported 55 new cases of COVID-19 in the state Tuesday. In total, there are now 160 cases of COVID-19 in 15 Illinois counties. Cases have occurred in ages 9 to 91.

Late Tuesday, Pritzker activated 60 service members from the Illinois National Guard.

Among those new cases, Pritzker said testing revealed an outbreak among the residents and staff of a private long-term facility in DuPage County.

On Saturday, a woman at Chateau Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Willowbrook tested positive for coronavirus, so all residents and staff were tested. Testing revealed 22 positive confirmed cases, including 18 residents and 4 staff members.

All of the individuals who have tested positive are now isolated at the facility or at a hospital, and visitors are now restricted, Pritzker said.

Some of the residents have been transferred to area hospitals

An employee who works on the eighth floor of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse has tested positive for COVID-19.

In a letter sent to building occupants Tuesday, U.S. District Chief Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer said she is not closing the building but that extensive cleaning is planned. The employee was last in the building Thursday.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot also confirmed a Chicago Fire Department paramedic tested positive for COVID-19 and is now quarantined, the first case among the city's first responders.

Chicago health officials said they do not believe the paramedic contracted the virus during a service call, and that they are doing well at home.

That individual's close contacts are in quarantine, and the city is sanitizing the station where this individual worked and screening employees there.

Pritzker put the heat on the federal government again, demanding a rapid increase in testing kits.

"I've requested, and now I'm demanding, the White House, FDA and CDC produce rapid increase in test deployment or get out of the way and allow us to obtain them elsewhere ourselves," he said.

Tuesday is the first day of school closures, as well as on-site dining at restaurants and bars. As far as the financial impact, Pritzker said there is a moratorium on utility bills, and he is working to expand medicaid and ease the requirements for WIC and SNAP food access.

He also issued a statewide economic injury declaration, allowing small business owners to apply for coronavirus assistance loans.

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Chicago woman becomes Illinois first COVID-19 related death; 160 total cases in the state - WGN TV Chicago

Someone with health insurance from their employer could pay $1,300 or more out of pocket for treatment if theyre hospitalized with a severe case of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, according to one analysis. Health researchers based that prediction off of the costs associated with hospitalization for pneumonia.

The thought is, how we treat pneumonia is going to look at lot like how we treat the coronavirus, said Matthew Rae, associate director for the Program on the Health Care Marketplace at the Kaiser Family Foundation, who worked on the analysis. Both are respiratory illnesses.

Rae and his co-authors analyzed a database of insurance claims for people enrolled in employer insurance plans. They found that the total cost of treatments for people on those insurance plans who were hospitalized with severe pneumonia with complications was, on average, around $20,000 though it ranged from around $11,000 to around $24,000. Insurers covered most of that cost, but the out-of-pocket expense for most people usually reached or exceeded $1,300.

The analysis, though, only captured the costs associated with an insurance plan. It doesnt capture out-of-network billing charges, Rae says also known as surprise medical bills, which can happen when a doctor who isnt in a patients insurance network stops by to see the patient. Around 18 percent of people with severe pneumonia end up with a surprise medical bill.

The costs for pneumonia treatment may not map exactly onto the costs for COVID-19 treatment. It doesnt include the costs of protective equipment and isolation, for instance. Those things will make it more expensive, Rae says. Its hard to estimate those costs, he says, because there isnt much data in insurance claims databases that includes them.

This analysis would only apply to patients who are insured through employer plans, which tend to have low deductibles and be fairly generous. People insured with Affordable Care Act plans may face different out-of-pocket costs, Rae says. It could really range, he says. But I wouldnt say that it would be magnitudes different.

For people who arent insured, though, the cost could be significantly higher. Around 8 percent of people in the US dont have insurance.

Policies and legislation enacted in response to the pandemic might affect costs of COVID-19 treatments. Insurance companies agreed to waive co-pays for testing, and the bill currently before Congress includes free testing, regardless of insurance status. The White House originally said that insurance companies would cover the cost of treatment in full, but the insurance lobby clarified that they would not be doing so. The insurance companies also said there would not be surprise medical bills associated with COVID-19 treatment, but Rae says its not clear how that would work because those charges are made by hospitals and doctors.

Its all an open question, he says. Were just trying to take our best guess right now.

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People with insurance could pay over $1,300 for COVID-19 treatment - The Verge