Written by rjs, MarketWatch 666
The news posted last week for the coronavirus 2019-nCoV (aka SARS-CoV-2), which produces COVID-19 disease, has been surveyed and some important articles are summarized here. The articles are more or less organized with general virus news and anecdotes first, then stories from around the US, followed by news from other countries around the globe. This week we have increased coverage of overseas hotspots. Economic news related to COVID-19 is found here.
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Coronavirus infection in children — it may not start with a cough – Children suffering from sickness and diarrhea, coupled with a fever or history of exposure to coronavirus, should be suspected of being infected with COVID-19, recommends a new study published in Frontiers in Pediatrics.The research also suggests that the gastrointestinal symptoms first suffered by some children hints at potential infection through the digestive tract, as the type of receptors in cells in the lungs targeted by the virus can also be found in the intestines.”Most children are only mildly affected by COVID-19 and the few severe cases often have underlying health issues. It is easy to miss its diagnosis in the early stage, when a child has non-respiratory symptoms or suffers from another illness,” says author of this study, Dr. Wenbin Li, who works at the Department of Pediatrics, Tongji Hospital, Wuhan, China. He continues, “Based on our experience of dealing with COVID-19, in regions where this virus is epidemic, children suffering from digestive tract symptoms, especially with fever and/or a history of exposure to this disease, should be suspected of being infected with this virus.”
Kawasaki-like disease afflicting young children and teens after infection with SARS-CoV-2 – On April 27, the United Kingdom put out a medical alert over a small rise in cases of critically ill children with COVID-19. They had developed a multi-system inflammatory disease that had features similar to toxic shock syndrome and Kawasaki Disease. A week later, New York City followed with an alert delivered on May 4, reporting on 15 pediatric cases, ranging in age from 2 to 15, hospitalized at various hospitals in the city. The syndrome has now been named “Pediatric Multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome.” All the pediatric cases were temporally related to a COVID-19 infection that was marked by persistent fevers characterized by single organ or multi-organ dysfunction. These cases were unique in that infection with the virus preceded the symptomatic manifestation of the disease by four to six weeks when the virus was no longer detectable on nasal swabs. Given that the pandemic first really took hold in the United States in the latter half of March, it remains to be seen if the cases presenting now suggest the beginning of an insidious and dangerous impact in children infected with COVID-19.The basis of the April 27 alert was the report published in The Lancet, titled “Hyperinflammatory shock in children during the COVID-19 pandemic,” and focused on a case cluster of eight children who presented with the symptoms of inflammatory shock and Kawasaki-like disease. All the children had tested negative on PCR and bronchoscope lavage, where washings are obtained from the airways and tested for SARS-CoV-2. They also tested negative for any viral infections. Cardiac ultrasound evaluation revealed abnormal findings in the coronary vessels of the heart. One child progressed to developing an aneurysm in these vessels a week after discharge. The authors concluded their report by highlighting that Evelina London Children’s Hospital pediatric ICU had treated 20 children with similar clinical presentations. The first 10 children had tested positive for the coronavirus antibody. Some of those affected presented with some or all the features that are seen in a rare and unusual inflammatory condition called Kawasaki disease, named after the physician who first described the constellation of symptoms back in the 1960s. These include fever, rash, conjunctivitis, swollen hands, and red, cracked lips. Some cases lead to enlargement or aneurysms of the coronary arteries, vessels that provide the heart with oxygenated blood. Laboratory findings indicate the victims have an exaggerated systemic immune response, similar to cytokine storms that have caused organ damage in adults with COVID-19. On Monday, New York state health officials reported that the number of children affected by Pediatric Multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome has now possibly risen to 100 as they continue their investigations. Governor Andrew Cuomo also said that there had been two additional deaths. If confirmed, that would raise the total to five children who have died from complications of this manifestation.
Rare Inflammatory Disease Linked to More Than 100 Childhood COVID-19 Cases – A new health condition seemingly related to COVID-19 related symptoms has appeared in more than 100 children living in New York and New Jersey, prompting health officials to ramp up awareness campaigns and spur new health protocols in response to the mysterious disease. At least 102 children in New York and 18 cases in New Jersey have been reportedly connected to the newly named “pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome (PMIS),” reports NBC. At least three children have died in connection with the disease as another two deaths are currently under investigation. More than a dozen states have confirmed similar cases. PMIS is a new health condition believed to be related to COVID-19, the severe respiratory disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, but experts say that the connection is “still not clear.” Like other inflammatory conditions, such as toxic shock syndrome and Kawasaki disease, childhood cases of PMIS are linked to issues with the heart and other organs and can sometimes require hospital support in an intensive care unit. “So far, from what we understand, this is a rare complication in the pediatric population that [doctors] believe is related to COVID-19,” New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker told The New York Times. Although uncommon, PMIS can be life-threatening. Guardians are urged to call a doctor immediately if their child becomes ill and has a continued fever of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) lasting several days, along with other symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting, swollen hands and feet, or a red tongue that “looks like a strawberry.” PMIS is not believed to be contagious, but its connection to COVID-19 suggests that a child may be infected with the virus or another underlying infection that may be contagious. Kawasaki disease is an acute febrile illness that typically infects children under the age of five, according to the CDC. Clinical signs often overlap with toxic shock syndrome to include fever, rash, as well as redness of the mouth and throat. A new study published Wednesday in The Lancet “provides the strongest evidence yet that the syndrome [Kawasaki disease] is linked to the coronavirus,” The New York Times reported. Doctors in Bergamo, Italy “aimed to evaluate incidence and features of patients with Kawasaki-like disease diagnosed during the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic,” according to the report. After studying 15 girls and 14 boys age 7 and younger, the doctors concluded: “The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic was associated with high incidence of a severe form of Kawasaki disease. A similar outbreak of Kawasaki-like disease is expected in countries involved in the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic.”
Klobuchar, Rubio ask CDC to investigate reports of coronavirus causing strokes in younger patients – Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) are asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to assess the risk of strokes in younger and middle-aged coronavirus patients.“We believe it is critical that the CDC evaluate the prevalence of stroke in COVID-19 patients, including the potential link to stroke from the development of blood clots caused by the virus,” the two wrote in a letterto CDC Director Robert Redfield.“With over one million confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States as of May 13, even a relatively low prevalence of stroke in this particular patient population could lead to a significant increase in the number of stroke patients in our country,” they added.The two ask whether the CDC currently has any preliminary data on a potential coronavirus-stroke correlation, and whether it is working to obtain further data.They further ask whether the CDC plans to update educational materials on strokes for health professionals and patients to include coronavirus-related information, even for patients who do not present typical risk factors for strokes, and what steps the agency can take to educate Americans about the potential risks.In April, Thomas Oxley, a neurosurgeon at New York’s Mount Sinai Health System, told CNN he and colleagues have treated abut five partially or entirely asymptomatic coronavirus patients under 50 who suffered increased clotting in large arteries, which caused severe strokes.“Our report shows a seven-fold increase in incidence of sudden stroke in young patients during the past two weeks. Most of these patients have no past medical history and were at home with either mild symptoms (or in two cases, no symptoms) of Covid,” Oxley told CNN. Both strokes in general and large-vessel strokes in particular are typically extremely rare in patients between 30 and 40, according to Oxley, who said that over the previous 12 months he and his team treated an average of 0.73 patients under 50 per two weeks for large vessel strokes.
Profile of a killer: the complex biology powering the coronavirus pandemic – Now, as the death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic surges, researchers are scrambling to uncover as much as possible about the biology of the latest coronavirus, named SARS-CoV-2. A profile of the killer is already emerging. Scientists are learning that the virus has evolved an array of adaptations that make it much more lethal than the other coronaviruses humanity has met so far. Unlike close relatives, SARS-CoV-2 can readily attack human cells at multiple points, with the lungs and the throat being the main targets. Once inside the body, the virus makes use of a diverse arsenal of dangerous molecules. And genetic evidence suggests that it has been hiding out in nature possibly for decades.But there are many crucial unknowns about this virus, including how exactly it kills, whether it will evolve into something more – or less – lethal and what it can reveal about the next outbreak from the coronavirus family.“There will be more, either out there already or in the making,” says Andrew Rambaut, who studies viral evolution at the University of Edinburgh, UK.Of the viruses that attack humans, coronaviruses are big. At 125 nanometres in diameter, they are also relatively large for the viruses that use RNA to replicate, the group that accounts for most newly emerging diseases. But coronaviruses really stand out for their genomes. With 30,000 genetic bases, coronaviruses have the largest genomes of all RNA viruses. Their genomes are more than three times as big as those of HIV and hepatitis C, and more than twice influenza’s.Coronaviruses are also one of the few RNA viruses with a genomic proofreading mechanism – which keeps the virus from accumulating mutations that could weaken it. That ability might be why common antivirals such as ribavirin, which can thwart viruses such as hepatitis C, have failed to subdue SARS-CoV-2. The drugs weaken viruses by inducing mutations. But in the coronaviruses, the proofreader can weed out those changes. Mutations can have their advantages for viruses. Influenza mutates up to three times more often than coronaviruses do, a pace that enables it to evolve quickly and sidestep vaccines. But coronaviruses have a special trick that gives them a deadly dynamism: they frequently recombine, swapping chunks of their RNA with other coronaviruses. Typically, this is a meaningless trading of like parts between like viruses. But when two distant coronavirus relatives end up in the same cell, recombination can lead to formidable versions that infect new cell types and jump to other species, says Rambaut.
How the COVID-19 Coronavirus Attacks the Entire Body – Of course, the lungs and airways are the main focus of attention with the COVID-19 respiratory disease. Since the new SARS-CoV-2 pathogen mainly attacks the lower respiratory tract, infected persons who experience a moderate or severe course of the disease have a dry cough, shortness of breath and/or pneumonia. However, there are now numerous indications that the new coronavirus also attacks other organs on a massive scale and can severely affect the heart, blood vessels, nerves, brain, kidneys and skin. Several studies and papers from countries including the US, China and Italy suggest that SARS-CoV-2 also attacks the heart. The evidence is based not only on the significantly higher mortality of COVID patients with cardiovascular diseases and high blood pressure: Several studies have also shown that patients with severe courses of the disease often had elevated blood biomarkers released by destroyed and dying heart muscle cells. In many previously healthy patients, the virus infection has been shown to cause myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle. During the COVID-19 disease, the lung is massively attacked, but the damage doesn’t always stop there: Many recovered patients have presented partially reduced lung function as a late consequence. Chinese researchers have found a milky glass-like cloudiness in the lungs of some people who have recovered from COVID-19, which suggests permanent organ damage has occurred. Further investigations must now show whether the patients have developed pulmonary fibrosis, in which the connective tissue of the lung becomes inflamed. This makes it harder for oxygen to reach the blood vessels, stiffens the lungs and makes breathing shallow and rapid. Respiratory disorders, shortness of breath and a dry, irritable cough are the consequences; physical performance decreases and even everyday activities become difficult. Pulmonary fibrosis cannot be cured because the scarred changes in the lung tissue do not regress. During the autopsy of deceased COVID-19 patients, pathologists at the University Hospital of Zurichdiscovered that in some of them the entire cell layer on the inside of the blood and lymph vessels (endothelium) of various organs was inflamed. In more than 80% of COVD-19 patients, a disturbance of the senses of taste and smell is observed. Such ageusia or anosmia occurs at the very beginning of the infection, and COVID-19 can be diagnosed early on the basis of these symptoms. The earlier coronavirus infections MERS and SARS already showed a similar penetration of the viruses via the nerves into the brain. When a patient in Japan infected with the new coronavirus showed signs of epileptic seizures, he was diagnosed with meningitis caused by the new coronavirus, which had penetrated the central nervous system.
Kidney damage seen in one-third of COVID-19 patients studied in new report – More than a third of patients treated for coronavirus infections in New York’s largest hospital system showed signs of serious kidney damage, according to a new study. Reuters reported that the study from a team at Northwell Health, the state’s largest health care provider, found that 36.6 percent of all patients treated in the hospital system for COVID-19 showed signs of “acute kidney injury,” resulting in 14.3 percent of that segment of patients requiring dialysis treatments. “We found in the first 5,449 patients admitted, 36.6 percent developed acute kidney injury,” the study’s co-author, Dr. Kenar Jhaveri, told Reuters. Jhaveri cautioned that the study does not suggest that COVID-19 specifically targets the kidneys; rather, she said, the high rate of kidney injuries is a sign of the seriousness of a patient’s condition. “It’s not specific to COVID-19. It’s more related to how sick you are,” she said. Kidney failure in COVID-19 patients appears to be related to the speed of the disease, the study continued: 37.3 percent of patients with coronavirus-related kidney injuries developed such injuries either before arriving at the hospital or within the first 24 hours of treatment. New York state has confirmed more than 338,000 cases of the coronavirus, the most of any state in the U.S. More than 21,000 deaths have been reported across the state related to the disease.
Is the New Coronavirus Airborne? A Study From China Finds Evidence – Reducing our risk for COVID-19 depends on how well we understand the way SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is transmitted. Experts believe SARS-CoV-2 mainly spreads from person to person through respiratory droplets released when a person with the virus coughs, sneezes, or talks.It’s also possible that you can contract the virus if your hands come in contact with your mouth, nose, or eyes after touching a contaminated surface.But can SARS-CoV-2 be spread through the air we breathe?A new study has found evidence of the virus in the air around two hospitals in Wuhan, China.While it’s still unclear whether you can contract the virus from breathing virus-laden air, the latest findings could make an impact on how we protect ourselves as states begin to open up. In a report published April 27 in the journal Nature, researchers measured the concentration of genetic material known as RNA from the new coronavirus in samples collected in February and March from 30 spots in and around two COVID-19 treatment hospitals in Wuhan.One hospital was dedicated to treating patients with severe cases of the disease, while the other was a makeshift field hospital used to quarantine and treat people with mild symptoms.The investigators found higher concentrations of material from the virus in samples collected in areas prone to crowding, certain intensive care units, and places with poor airflow, like bathrooms.Areas where medical staff removed protective apparel were found to have elevated concentrations of viral material, which may indicate that SARS-CoV-2 can be resuspended in the air when staff take off their apparel.Sites that were rigorously sanitized, well-ventilated, and uncrowded were found to have low or undetectable concentrations of viral RNA in aerosol samples.
What We Don’t Know About Coronavirus Origins Might Kill Us – The best minds in virology are trying to unravel a mystery: How did a lethal coronavirus jump from the wilds of rural China to major human population centers? And what chain of genetic mutations produced a pathogen so perfectly adapted for stealth and mass transmission? Deciphering the creation story of SARS-CoV-2, as the virus now rampaging around the globe is known, is a crucial step toward arresting a pandemic that’s killed 270,000-plus and triggered what could be the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. To reduce the risk of deadly secondary outbreaks or the emergence of an entirely new strain, disease chasers need to retrace the pathogen’s journey around the globe. That means heading back to China, where it all started sometime in 2019. Last week, the World Health Organization sought permission from Beijing to send a new scientific mission for more epidemiological detective work. China, which let a WHO team into the country in early February as its epidemic raged, hasn’t yet signed off. However, as death tolls and joblessness rise worldwide, pressure on Beijing is intensifying to allow international researchers back in to interview survivors, do field work, and examine virus samples that the country has been stingy about sharing, according to the U.S. Nearly half a year into a historic global health crisis, there are still enormous gaps in our knowledge. Those unanswered questions are hampering our ability to contain the outbreak and to prevent future pandemics, while fueling a war of words between the U.S. and China over the origins of the virus. Roughly 70% of emerging infectious diseases in humans are zoonotic, or transmitted from animals to people. Genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 shows it’s related to two other deadly coronaviruses that originated in bats.Severe acute respiratory syndrome, which started in China in 2002, and Middle East respiratory syndrome a decade later spread to humans via a secondary animal source. In the case of SARS, experts pointed to civet cats – small, sleek nocturnal mammals used in wildlife dishes in China – as the probable conduit. With MERS, camels are believed to be the carrier.It’s presumed that SARS-CoV-2 has made a similar journey, yet investigators have yet to identify an intermediate animal host, according to Peter Ben Embarek, a WHO food safety and animal diseases expert. “We have some kind of a missing link in that story between the origin of the virus and when it started to circulate in humans,” he said.
How Likely Is A Second Wave Of SARS-CoV-2? – Barkley Rosser – How Likely Is A Second Wave Of SARS-CoV-2? Dr. Anthony Fauci has testified before a Senate committee that he is worried that there may be a serious “Second Wave” of the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the United States. The basis for this fear is the experience over a century ago with the Spanish flu, still deadlier than the current pandemic. It came in three full waves, and of those the second was easily substantially larger than the other two. The lag between the first and second was several months, and as of now no nation that has had its first wave essentially get under control, has not had it under control for as long as that gap. So we are not yet in a position to see if this pandemic can or will imitate that former pandcmic. Nevertheless, there is some evidence about the possibility of more immediate, less dramatic, second waves in the form of the number of new cases in a nation rising noticeably after having had a major decline from an initial peak. We have now seen this in a number of nations, in a small number quite dramatically. What is the current situation regarding this? On May 11, the site endcoronavirus.org showed graphically the time path of new cases per day for 99 nations. This group divides these nations into three groups: “Winning” (32 nations) that have basically gotten their numbers well down, with a few exceptions; “Nearly There” (31 nations) that exhibit a variety of patterns, although nearly all currently below their peak by some; and “Need to Take Action” (36 nations), most of which simply are steadily moving up, although a small group have flattened or are slightly declining from a peak (including Ecuador, Finland, and US). Out of each of these groups there are minorities that have exhibited seeing a noticeable upturn in the number of cases after noticeably declining from a peak, with some of those only showing a modest upturn, but a smaller group showing a substantial such upturn of moving back up at least halfway towards the previous peak, with a very small number actually moving back up above the previous peak. I shall note these particular set, but note that out of the 99 total, 16 have shown such a noticeable secondary increase, and out of those 7 that have exhibited a large such increase, with two of those moving back up beyond the previous peak. As a broader perspective on all this I close by noting that a substantial portion of the world’s 10 most populous nations are not only in the final group that need to take action, which included the US that is mildly declining, they are simply rising solidly with little sign of flattening, with this group including Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Russia. Clearly this pandemic has a serious way to go, even if we luck out and avoid any really enormous second waves on the scale of the Spanish flu’s one, which we have not yet seen out of any nations so far.
This summer’s severe temperatures could make the pandemic even more complicated – While there is some preliminary evidence that sunlight, heat, and humidity could slow the spread of COVID-19, the summer months also promise a host of new risks, The Washington Post reports. Soaring temperatures will either compel people wanting relief to go outside, where they could get infected, or the pandemic will force people to stay indoors, where they could swelter. Both the pandemic and extreme heat pose a mortal risk to the elderly and the infirm. Experts say that climate change will likely compound the problem. Much of the country can expect unusually high temperatures this summer, relative to average temperatures between 1981 and 2010. The projections, from the National Weather Service, are consistent with the long-term warming trend. The northeast, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus, faces an especially high risk of warmer weather. No part of the country is looking forward to an unusually cool summer. It won’t be possible to determine the role of climate change until after the season has passed, experts say. The forecast of an exceptionally balmy summer comes as no surprise, given that since 1980, the contiguous US has warmed close to 1 degree C, according to data from NOAA. One reason is that warmer weather is drying out soil early in the season, making it hotter later on. When the soil is moist, some of that moisture evaporates, cooling off the ground – but when the soil is dry, the ground stays warm. Climate change is also producing more days that are both hot and humid, says Radley Horton, a climate scientist at Columbia University. As oceans warm, more seawater is evaporating, turning the air more humid, which is making hot days more miserable. “One thing that worries us about really extreme heat and humidity is that if the air becomes humid enough, it’s basically impossible for somebody to stay cool,” Horton says. When you sweat, the water on your skin evaporates, cooling you off. But when it’s muggy out, the air is already saturated, so the sweat just clings to your skin. If it’s humid enough, healthy people can die in heat waves because they cannot cool off. “From a summer standpoint, the things that I think are going to be really damaging are the combined heat and humidity events,” Mankin says. “For the same temperature, New York has a higher incidence of heat-related mortality than Arizona does. And the reason is because when heat hits New York City, it comes with humidity.” Crucially, heat waves don’t pose the same risk to all people. “They affect the most vulnerable among us, just like COVID-19,” Mankin said. “The ability to cool yourself is increasingly a sign of wealth.”
‘This virus may never go away,’ WHO says – (Reuters) – The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 could become endemic like HIV, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday, warning against any attempt to predict how long it would keep circulating and calling for a “massive effort” to counter it. “It is important to put this on the table: this virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities, and this virus may never go away,” WHO emergencies expert Mike Ryan told an online briefing. “I think it is important we are realistic and I don’t think anyone can predict when this disease will disappear,” he added. “I think there are no promises in this and there are no dates. This disease may settle into a long problem, or it may not be.” However, he said the world had some control over how it coped with the disease, although this would take a “massive effort” even if a vaccine was found – a prospect he described as a “massive moonshot”. More than 100 potential vaccines are being developed, including several in clinical trials, but experts have underscored the difficulties of finding vaccines that are effective against coronaviruses. Ryan noted that vaccines exist for other illnesses, such as measles, that have not been eliminated.
Nursing home residents and workers make up a third of coronavirus deaths. In some states, they account for half. About one-third of all coronavirus deaths in the US are residents or workers in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to an interactive database compiled by The New York Times. The figure is startling, given that only 10% of coronavirus cases occur in such facilities, and less than 0.5% of Americans live in them. Long-term care facilities – which in this case includes nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, memory care facilities, retirement and senior communities, and rehabilitation facilities – in certain states have been particularly affected, with residents and workers making up more than half the states’ coronavirus deaths, the report found. The Times’ data are based “official confirmations from states, counties, and the facilities themselves” since there’s a lack of comprehensive data from some states and the federal government. The database includes deaths of residents and, where available, employees. “Given the wide variability in the type of information available, the totals shown here almost certainly represent an undercount of the true toll,” the team wrote. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers nursing home residents to be a high-risk population when it comes to contracting or dying from COVID-19, the illness the novel coronavirus causes. Not only are residents vulnerable because they’re older and tend to have underlying conditions, but they also often live in close quarters and are cared for by burdened staff who frequently travel between rooms. “They’re death pits,” Betsy McCaughey, a former lieutenant governor of New York who founded the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths told The New York Times on April 17. “These nursing homes are already overwhelmed. They’re crowded and they’re understaffed. One COVID-positive patient in a nursing home produces carnage.”The first coronavirus deaths at a US nursing home occurred in suburban Seattle. By the end of March, at least 43 deaths were linked to the Life of Care Center in Kirkland, Washington, Business Insider previously reported. At least 94 residents and staff at the Long Island State Veterans Home at Stony Brook University contracted the virus, and 32 residents died. On April 17, the Times reported that at least 7,000 people had died from COVID-19 associated with nursing homes, making up almost 20% coronavirus deaths in the US. The publication’s latest findings – that at least 25,600 residents and workers have died from coronavirus related to long-term care facilities, making up one-third of US coronavirus deaths – suggest the earlier data was a grave underestimate, or that nursing home-related deaths are rising at a faster rate than coronavirus deaths in the general population, or likely, both.
Half Of Illinois’ COVID-19 Deaths Come From Retirement Homes – More than 85 percent of DuPage County’s 236 COVID-19 deaths originated in long-term care facilities, or LTCs. In McHenry County, the percentage is nearly 80 percent. And in downstate Macon County, all 15 of its deaths are tied to LTCs. In all, half of Illinois’ COVID-19 deaths are linked to long-term care facilities, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. That percentage has been rising since IDPH began posting retirement home deaths on April 19. And as that number rises, the more a majority of Illinoisans learn that they face far less risk than originally thought. Instead, the true risk is heavily concentrated in a few vulnerable demographics. Consider the following:
- 1. A total of 1,553 of the state’s 3,241 deaths as of May 8th, or 48 percent, were tied to long-term care facilities.
- 2. The impact of nursing homes is even more pronounced in the collar counties. In addition to the high proportion of deaths in DuPage and McHenry counties, Lake County’s LTC deaths total 63 percent, Kane County’s 57 percent and Will County’s 56 percent. In all, 70 percent of deaths in the Collar counties are tied to LTCs.
- 3. In Cook County, the epicenter of Illinois’ outbreak, 864 deaths, or almost 40 percent, are from LTCs. That means over a quarter of all COVID-19 deaths in Illinois come from Cook County long-term care facilities.
- 4. In the rest of the state – outside of Cook and the collar counties – 60 percent of all deaths are retirement-home related. When you subtract all LTC deaths downstate, the entire region has just 125 deaths.
- 5. Eighteen downstate counties had 50 percent or more of their COVID-19 deaths related to LTCs. Macon, Jackson, Jasper, Peoria, Iroquois and Union County all had 100 percent of their deaths tied to retirement homes.
92% Of Cook County COVID-19 Victims Had Pre-Existing Conditions – A Wirepoints analysis of COVID-19 deaths from the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office reveals that 92 percent of victims from the virus had pre-existing medical conditions.The medical examiner’s database showed COVID-19 as the primary cause of death for 2,303 people. Of those, 2,112 were shown to have at least one underlying condition as a secondary cause of death. Those conditions, also known as comorbidities, included hypertension, diabetes, obesity and heart disease. There were no secondary causes reported for 191 deaths. This finding is important because Gov. J.B. Pritzker has refused to release any statewide comorbidity data as part of his official Illinois Department of Health releases. Wirepoints asked for data directly from the governor’s office on April 21st, but we were told it was not available. We’ve since released a piece asking Gov. J.B. Pritzker why that’s so: Who’s most at risk for COVID-19 and why isn’t Illinois publishing that data?Understanding who is most at risk – and who is not – is central to a public understanding of the virus. It’s also central to helping decide when and how to open up our economy and schools. What Cook County’s and other comorbidity data across the country implies is that the risk of death for healthy Illinoisans is far lower than Gov. J.B. Pritzker might lead people to believe based on his protracted lockdown and drawn out reopening plan.Cook County reports that of the 2,303 victims where COVID-19 was listed as the primary cause of death, 92 percent had one or more comorbidities.Hypertension affected 1,070 victims, or more than 46 percent of all deaths. Diabetes impacted 973 victims, or 42 percent of the total. Pulmonary disease was part of 397 deaths, or 17 percent. And 215 of those deaths, about 9 percent, were accompanied by obesity or morbid obesity.Yet others had conditions including cancer and cardiovascular and kidney diseases. The numbers above add up to more than 100 percent because many victims had more than one pre-existing condition.
5,000 deaths in NYC with links unclear to virus, CDC report says – A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 284,000 people worldwide. Over 4.1 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some governments are hiding the scope of their nations’ outbreaks. Since the first cases were detected in China in December, the United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than 1.3 million diagnosed cases and at least 79,825 deaths. A new report released Monday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) examines the 32,107 total deaths reported in hard-hit New York City from March 11 to May 2.Of those deaths, 24,172 were found to be in excess of the expected baseline. Out of those 24,172 deaths, 13,831 were confirmed to be related to COVID-19, and another 5,048 were likely linked to COVID-19. That left 5,293 excess deaths that were not identified as either confirmed or probable COVID-19 cases — and the report says those fatalities “might have been directly or indirectly attributable to the pandemic.” “The percentages of these excess deaths that occurred in persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 or resulted from indirect impacts of the pandemic are unknown and require further investigation,” the CDC said.
New COVID-19 cases in New York coming from people leaving home, Cuomo says – (Reuters) – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday the state’s new confirmed COVID-19 cases are predominantly coming from people who left their homes to shop, exercise or socialize, rather than from essential workers. “That person got infected and went to the hospital or that person got infected and went home and infected the other people at home,” Cuomo said during his daily news conference on the coronavirus outbreak. State data showed the number of new cases statewide has fluctuated between 2,100 and 2,500 per day. On Saturday, the number of new cases decreased to 2,419, from 2,762 on Friday. Cuomo said while last week he had theorized that new cases were coming from essential workers, “that was exactly wrong. “The infection rate among essential workers is lower than the general population and those new cases are coming predominantly from people who are not working and they are at home,” he said. The state’s budget director, Robert Mujica, said officials expect to “learn a lot more” about the genesis of new cases from contact tracing over the next week. Cuomo has said that New York was hiring thousands of workers to trace the contacts of people who test positive for the coronavirus. Health experts say contact tracing is critical to isolating potentially contagious people in order to limit further outbreaks. Cuomo said the five regions of the state that were allowed on Friday to reopen for business – out of 10 total regions – were required to have a certain number of tracers proportionate to their populations. “The tracing operation is tremendously large and challenging,” he said. New York state, home to both bustling Manhattan and hilly woods and farmland that stretch hundreds of miles north to the Canadian border, has been the global epicenter of the pandemic, but rural areas have not been nearly as badly affected as New York City, the country’s biggest city at roughly 8.4 million people. Driven by the impact in New York City, the state has accounted for more than one-third of the nearly 80,000 American who have died from COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, according to a Reuters tally.
Things Fall Apart — Incidental Economist, Bill Gardner – Stay-at-Home orders are now expiring in many US states. In some places where orders remain in force, compliance is weakening. The US has not used the time in lockdown to establish effective testing and contact tracing plans. The vulnerable populations in nursing homes, factories, and prisons remain unprotected. These lapses will cause more COVID-19 deaths than would have occurred if the time had been used well. But if we aren’t using the lockdown to prepare an offensive against COVID-19, then continuing it is pointless. So if the lockdown is ending, where are we? The US is in a threefold crisis.
- Population health is declining. Despite being wealthier than any nation in history and despite spending 1 in every 5 dollars on health care, US life expectancy at birth was lower in 2019 than it was in 2014. And that is before the pandemic hit. To the morbidity and mortality that rose in this decade, COIVD-19 adds more than 2000 excess deaths per day, and this may persist for months.
- Economic production and employment are collapsing. We are seeing job loss and the destruction of financial and human capital reminiscent of the Great Depression. The steepness of these declines is unprecedented, and we haven’t hit bottom yet. As poverty and despair grow, these calamities will further undermine population health. Release from lockdown will have economic benefits. But it is difficult to see how the economy can recover until the pandemic is extinguished.
- American political institutions are failing. One of the virtues of democracy – a government of the people – is that a democracy can mobilize the population in a crisis. But despite being the world leader in biomedical science, the US has failed to mount a coherent response to the pandemic. If Clinton were president, she would have tried to implement public health measures appropriate to the crisis. That is what previous American presidents from both parties did when facing epidemics. Yet it is not clear that Clinton would have succeeded. Fighting a pandemic requires social solidarity. US citizens are highly polarized, scientists are not trusted, and conflict entrepreneurs would have exploited our fear and suffering. Many Americans would have resisted lockdown, testing, contract tracing, selective quarantine, and – when we have them – vaccinations.
American is hemorrhaging life, wealth, and social cohesion. Now we face what will be a vicious election in the context of a pandemic and depression. Things will fall apart faster. This is where I am supposed to reveal what we need to do to solve the problem. But I don’t have a solution. Even if I did, I’d present it another time. Right now, it is essential to see that the United States is broken.
Virginia reports highest daily jump in coronavirus cases – Coronavirus cases in Virginia jumped to their highest daily total on Wednesday, just two days before most of the state is scheduled to begin the first phase of reopening. State officials confirmed a record 1,067 new cases and 28 new deaths, according to news reports. The previous one-day record was 1,055 new cases on May 1. Overall, Virginia has recorded 27,813 cases of COVID-19. State officials say they’re aiming to conduct 10,000 tests a day, almost double the 5,467 they’ve conducted since Wednesday, Norfolk station WAVY reported. The percentage of positive cases from testing since Wednesday was 19.5 percent, a higher rate than the state average of 14 percent, according to Harrisonburg station WHSV. Health officials have recommended areas reach 10 percent or lower before reopening, but state officials say the Northern Virginia numbers are skewing the statewide rate. Earlier this week, the number of new cases stayed below 1,000, with 946 cases on Tuesday, 730 on Monday and 989 on Sunday, WHSV reported. The latest figures from Virginia come as neighboring Washington, D.C., has extended a stay-at-home order to June 88. It was previously scheduled to lift on Friday. Maryland will begin reopening on Friday, except in the D.C. suburbs. Northern Virginia made up more than two-thirds of the new cases in Virginia on Wednesday, aligning with previous data showing the more densely populated part of the state is counting the most cases. The northern region, which is near D.C., has delayed its reopening by at least two weeks because of the high counts of cases.
Coronavirus Pandemic Poses Dual Threat in Virginia Coal Country – THE CORONAVIRUS HAS YET to hit many rural communities the way it’s raced through major cities, but it’s already compromising health in the mountains of southwest Virginia.Bordering West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, Virginia’s westernmost communities are deep in coal country, where mining jobs continue to vanish and the Appalachian Mountains separate residents from the rest of the state. Today, less than half of adults are in the labor force, about 1 in 5 people in the broader area live in poverty and rates of chronic health issues like heart disease, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are high. The region has long been considered medically underserved, with a lack of hospitals, primary care, and mental health and dental services. Now, the COVID-19 crisis is exacerbating existing health issues and stretching resources thin in an area that so far has remained relatively unscathed by the virus itself – and local providers worry residents will fare poorly if outbreaks emerge.”We are so isolated here in the Appalachian Mountains,” says Paula Hill-Collins, a nurse practitioner and clinical director of The Health Wagon, a local mobile health practice that serves communities with limited health care options. “It’s like we’re forgotten, and we’re very vulnerable.” There are relatively few confirmed COVID-19 cases in the area, with 70 cases and four deaths in Virginia’s seven westernmost counties and the city of Norton as of earlier this week. But testing for COVID-19 has been notoriously subpar in the U.S., including in many rural communities, and Dr. Susan Cantrell, who directs both the Lenowisco and Cumberland Plateau health districts in the region, says it’s likely there are people whose infections are not being identified. A surge in cases could make it difficult to control the virus. In April, for example, an entire apartment building was quarantined in a town of less than 2,000 people in Wise County, after a resident in his 70s became the county’s first COVID-19 case. A total of eight people who lived in the building became infected with COVID-19, and two died, according to Fred Luntsford, the town manager.
Texas sees 1,000 new coronavirus cases 5 days in a row – – Texas, which began to open its businesses at the beginning of May, has reported more than 1,000 new cases of COVID-19 for five consecutive days as the state struggles to curb the coronavirus pandemic. According to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services, 1,179 new cases were reported on Tuesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Lone Star State to 41,048. Since Gov. Greg Abbott (R) allowed some businesses to resume operations on May 1, Texas has only been below 1,000 new cases per day twice – on May 4 and May 7. On Tuesday, Anthony Fauci, one of the nation’s top public health officials, appeared before the Senate Health Committee and warned that states who reopen their economies too quickly could see new outbreaks of the disease that could result in “needless suffering and death.” “The consequences could be really serious,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the committee. Fauci stressed that states follow the reopening guidelines released by the White House, specifically citing that states should see a 14-day consecutive decline in daily new COVID-19 cases before beginning to reopen. Texas has failed to reach that benchmark. Also on Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) warned cities to not enforce stricter coronavirus restrictions than those the state government has mandated during the state’s first reopening phase, which Abbott has slated to run through May 18. “Unfortunately, a few Texas counties and cities seem to have confused recommendations with requirements and have grossly exceeded state law to impose their own will on private citizens and businesses. These letters seek to avoid any public confusion as we reopen the state,” Paxton said in a statement. “I trust that local officials will act quickly to correct any orders that unlawfully conflict with Texas law and Governor Abbott’s Executive Orders.”
Illinois reports record COVID-19 death toll as businesses and politicians prepare to “reopen” – As of May 13, 84,698 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Illinois. On Wednesday, 1,677 new cases were confirmed and 191 were reported to have died in the last 24 hours, the highest number of deaths in a single day so far. On Tuesday, the state reported its second-highest death toll to date. There have been 3,792 confirmed deaths in the state. “We haven’t passed our peak yet. We have seen more stability in our numbers, but so far, we are not seeing significant declines in key metrics like hospitalization,” Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker told the media on Tuesday. These deeply worrying figures were announced as state and local officials and business leaders prepare to end mitigation via shelter-in-place and distancing, sending workers back on the job in order to finance the enormous bailout of Wall Street and the super-rich led by the Trump administration with the support of congressional Democrats. On Monday, Pritzker announced all areas of the state are preparing to move into the third, more relaxed phase, of the four phases of social distancing after May 29, except for the northeast part of the state, which includes Chicago and the populous counties around it that make up the metro area. Robocalls went out to Ford workers Tuesday at Ford’s assembly and stamping plants in Chicago and nationally, announcing a back to work start date of May 18. Workers took to social media to express their frustration and anger at their health and safety being sacrificed so that Ford can try to make as much money as possible as the pandemic continues to claim lives. One worker wrote, “Look at what Ford is doing, compromising our health to build cars. It is impossible for everyone to be six feet apart and build cars!” Ford workers also asked important questions: “If the city is still shut down, why isn’t Ford?” “What about carriers of COVID-19 who don’t have fevers?” and “Why isn’t Ford opening factories based on the number of cases in that area instead of one big opening of everyone?” Among those who have died in recent days is Unique Clay, a 31-year-old letter carrier for the US Postal Service. She was a resident of Englewood and had given birth to her third child just a few days before her death.
As COVID-19 Spreads In Meat Plants, 200 USDA Inspectors Test Positive –As coronavirus has spread rapidly among meat plants across the country, it’s not just the workers that are getting infected. Many people have strongly criticized the industry’s response for waiting too long to implement safety precautions and close processing plants as thousands have tested positive for coronavirus and at least 20 workers have died. But the inspectors checking these facilities and their products are not immune to the virus either. FSIS inspectors are classified as essential workers, so they have continued to travel to monitor these facilities. But as the plants become coronavirus hot spots, reports have shown the inspectors haven’t been able to protect themselves adequately. A FSIS inspector interviewed in Government Executive said moving inspectors exposed to an outbreak at one plant to another location isn’t safe because they could then be coronavirus carriers and further the spread.Last month, Politico reported many of the inspectors were expected to find their own protective gear since USDA wasn’t able to secure face masks for all of its workers. In April, USDA said it would give a $50 reimbursement for inspectors to find their own, according to Politico. But now the department says it has enough masks.Since more than 300 inspectors have either tested positive or self quarantined, that can make it challenging to inspect every plant. Recent closures, however, could make that easier. More than 20 meatpacking plants, including facilities run by Tyson Foods, JBS USA, Smithfield Foods and Cargill, have closed temporarily or indefinitely following pressure from local authorities and their own workforce. But as plants start to reopen, the smaller FSIS workforce could weigh on meat processors. Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring meat plants as “critical infrastructure” using the Defense Production Act to keep these facilities open and help prevent shortages. But as plants reopen, inspectors will need to travel to them and there is still risk of the virus continuing to spread. The new executive order puts USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue in charge of coordinating with companies to reopen or continue operations during the pandemic. Perdue previously said he anticipated plants would reopen in “days not weeks.” Already, a major beef and pork plant for Tyson reopened with limited production last week after nearly 900 of its workers tested positive. A Smithfield plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where hundreds contracted the virus, also reopened with limited staff last week. Several labor groups have criticized the USDA, asking if it can’t protect its own employees from the virus, how can it protect workers? “The health and safety of federal inspectors and plant workers is in the hands of an industry that the administration is now pressuring to stay open, no matter the costs,” Paula Schelling, acting president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 45, which represents 6,500 federal food inspectors, said in a release.
May 13 Update: US COVID-19 Test Results: Possible Errors Cloud Data – This data is from the COVID Tracking Project. These people are doing amazing work. However, @alexismadrigal at the project has noticed a possible error. Alexis wrote yesterday: We’re aware of at least one state including [antibody tests], and this has led us to a broader investigation of which states might have lumped these tests in without telling anyone. If antibody tests were included, then the reported test count is too high – and the reported percent too low. The US might be able to test 400,000 to 600,000 people per day sometime in May according to Dr. Fauci – and that might be enough for test and trace. However, the US might need more than 900,000 tests per day according to Dr. Jha of Harvard’s Global Health Institute. There were 336,392 test results reported over the last 24 hours. This data is from the COVID Tracking Project. The percent positive over the last 24 hours was 6.4% (red line). The US probably needs enough tests to keep the percentage positive well below 5%. (probably much lower based on testing in New Zealand). Hopefully the possible data issue will be clarified soon.
California Inmates Infecting Themselves With COVID-19 In Scheme To Get Released — Inmates in Los Angeles County, California are infecting themselves with the Wuhan coronavirus in the hope that they will be released from prison, Sheriff Alex Villanueva revealed during a Monday press conference. Surveillance footage from the Pitchess Detention Center just north of Santa Clarita shows inmates passing a bottle of hot water around in what Villanueva described as an attempt to both become infected, and raise their body temperature before a nurse takes their temperature in order to fake the illness. “Under normal circumstances, no one would be doing that anyway, particularly when everyone has the same access to the water. … No one shares this,” said Villanueva. “Now, they’re sharing the hot water and using the same bottle.” There are roughly 2,000 inmates who have been quarantined at Pitchness, according to SCVTV. “Everyone has the same symptoms,” said 28-year-old inmate David Lopez, who is serving a two-year sentence for assault. “I was down for four days. I had severe body aches, troubling breathing, sweating profusely with cold sweats, and I didn’t have the energy to get up to even use the restroom,” he said, adding “I have not been tested.” In other footage noted by Breitbart, inmates can be seen drinking from the same styrofoam cup and sniffing from a mask to try and become infected. They are also ‘deliberately crowding together and not social distancing,’ according to the Sheriff. That said, “There’s no such thing as social distancing here,” said inmate Rudolph Castro, 46, who is currently awaiting trial to face murder charges. “We’re pretty much packed in here like sardines.” Castro said the inmates use the same soap, they shower together, line up, sit and eat together, and “everything is really close.” They’ve also been given disinfectant to clean the floors with, but the inmates have said they don’t believe it is enough.
Second COVID-19 Wave Hits USS Theodore Roosevelt – A second coronavirus has reportedly hit the USS Theodore Roosevelt after five sailors who had returned retested positive for the virus. In March, as many as 1,000 of the vessel’s 4,900 crew tested positive and were evacuated to shore. The Navy quickly implemented screening procedures to allow those who had recovered to return if they tested negative.The New York Times first reported the emergence of the virus outbreak on Wednesday. Commander Myers Vasquez, a Navy spokesman, told CNN in a statement Thursday that “five TR Sailors who previously tested COVID positive and met rigorous recovery criteria have retested positive. The Navy recovery criteria exceed all CDC guidelines.”“The five Sailors developed influenza-like illness symptoms and executed their personal responsibility by reporting to medical for evaluation,” Vasquez said. “The Sailors were immediately removed from the ship and placed back in isolation, their close contacts were mapped, and they are receiving the required medical care.”The vessel is currently docked in Guam. The sailors, who have been reinfected, were removed from the ship. An additional 18 crew members were also removed due to their close proximity to the infected sailors. A US defense official told CNN that the “flare-up” in cases could be the result of a testing issue than a renewed outbreak.
Stranded by COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of cruise ship workers suffer under horrifying conditions – Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, dozens of cruise ship passengers and crew have died due to COVID-19. Last month there were 200,000 stranded cruise ship crew members worldwide. While companies have since begun to slowly enact measures to repatriate their remaining employees in accordance with governmental guidelines, the conditions facing those workers still stuck on board has grown untenable. Among crew members who remain on ships, there have been 4 confirmed deaths in the past ten days alone, two of which were from crew going overboard, another two of which the causes have not yet been clarified, but that are widely suspected to have been suicides. Governments worldwide as well as cruise companies are criminally responsible for the failure to repatriate the upwards of 100,000 ship employees still stranded at sea. The Miami Herald reported on April 30 that cruise companies refused to arrange for the repatriation of their stranded employees in accordance with the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the basis that the requirements were “too expensive.” “Governments are failing these people,” Thomas noted. “From my exchanges with crew members [currently on board], messages have shifted from positive to hopeless and defeated. I now get messages about being in dark, windowless rooms for 60 plus days, missing the birth of a child, the death of a parent or spouses being unfaithful.”
Coronavirus live updates: India records largest single-day jump in cases India reported 4,213 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours to bring its tally of confirmed infections to 67,152, according to the latest data by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The number of new cases was the largest single-day increase in India, reported CNBC-TV18. The spike comes as the country enters its final week of a nationwide lockdown that’s set to end on May 17. The country’s death toll increased by 97 to 2,206, while the number of recoveries jumped by 1,559 to a total of 20,917, the health ministry data showed. The number of cases worldwide crossed 4 million as governments planned to reopen economies, raising risks of a second wave of infection. New outbreaks in Germany and South Korea were reported as both countries eased restrictions. Germany’s total cases jumped by 357 to 169,575, according to the latest data by Robert Koch Institute, a federal government agency responsible for disease monitoring and prevention. The country’s death toll increased by 22 to 7,417, the data showed. South Korea reported 35 new cases, an apparent rebound as the country eases restrictions. The daily number of cases had dropped to single digits or zero in recent weeks.However, the country reported a new, growing outbreak linked to a number of night clubs. The government shut down all such clubs and bars in Seoul and warned of a second wave of infections. (see 8:10 a.m. update) The new cases reported Monday brought the country’s total to 10,909, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There were no new deaths.
Wuhan reports first new coronavirus cases since end of lockdown – Wuhan, the Chinese city where the global coronavirus pandemic began, on Monday reported its first cluster of new infections since a strict quarantine was relaxed in early April. The setback occurred just over a week before China’s rubber stamp parliament was supposed to convene in Beijing for its delayed annual session, which is usually held in March. It also coincided with a sharp uptick in new cases in South Korea, where the government’s successful efforts at containing the disease since late January had been hailed as a global model. According to Wuhan health authorities, the five cases were discovered on Sunday in a single residential community and linked to an infection reported a day earlier – the first confirmed in the city since April 3. The state council dispatched an inspection team to Wuhan on Sunday and said in a statement that “we cannot ruin the results of what we’ve achieved”. People in Wuhan and surrounding Hubei province had been barred from leaving their hometowns from late January until April 8 and March 25 respectively. The lifting of restrictions signalled a shift in the Chinese government’s focus from combating locally transmitted cases to ones “imported” from abroad, mostly by returning Chinese nationals. Chinese authorities have banned almost all foreigner arrivals, including longtime residents of the country, since late March. Try our newsletter on Sustainable Business Free four-week trial of the Moral Money newsletter Get the newsletter But there have been concerns about the possible re-emergence of locally transmitted clusters, especially by asymptomatic carriers of the disease. The five new confirmed cases in Wuhan were previously classified as asymptomatic. Clampdowns after clusters emerged in different parts of China would probably be the “new normal”, “There is definitely a lasting concern about resurgence.” The Wuhan cluster cases were among 17 new infections reported in China on Monday. Seven of the other cases were “imported” on a flight to Beijing that stopped in Inner Mongolia’s Hohhot for screening, Chinese state media reported. The remaining five were local transmissions discovered in north-east China. The 10 locally transmitted cases were the highest daily total reported since early March
New nightlife cluster causes spike in South Korea virus cases – South Korea announced its biggest spike in coronavirus infections in more than a month Monday, driven by a cluster at Seoul nightclubs and forcing authorities to delay this week’s planned re-opening of schools. The country has been held up as a global model in how to curb the virus, but over the weekend its capital — as well as neighbouring Gyeonggi province and the nearby city of Incheon — ordered the closure of all clubs and bars after a burst of new cases sparked fears of a second wave. Authorities are scrambling to track down thousands of people who visited venues in the Itaewon entertainment district — including several gay clubs. Many visitors are believed to be reluctant to come forward because of the stigma surrounding homosexuality. The spike comes as parts of Europe begin a cautious re-opening, with health experts warning that moving too quickly will result in a surge in infection numbers. South Korean officials reported 35 new cases Monday, taking its total to 10,909, after recording only single-digit increases for eight of the preceding 12 days — many of them overseas arrivals. Now 86 cases have been linked to the nightlife cluster, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. It was first thought to have been triggered by a 29-year-old man who tested positive after spending an evening at five clubs and bars in Itaewon in early May. But the KCDC said there appeared to be multiple origins for the cluster, with director Jeong Eun-kyeong telling reporters people visited “different kinds of clubs” on “different dates”. “The majority of the visitors are not reachable,” said Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun. “If you hesitate a single day, our daily clock may stop for a month. Please contact the nearest clinic or health centre right now.” – Privacy concerns – City authorities also urged anyone who visited the district over the past two weeks to get tested.
China, South Korea and Germany report new COVID-19 outbreaks – China, Germany and South Korea have all reported substantial new outbreaks of COVID-19 after they eased lockdowns, sparking warnings that efforts to lift lockdowns in Europe and the United States risk a major new resurgence of the disease. There are now nearly 4.2 million reported infections of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus worldwide, and just under 284,000 deaths caused by the resulting disease. The number of daily new cases has risen from a two-week low on April 27 of about 66,000 to more than 80,000 yesterday, as the pandemic continues to spread from its current epicenters in Western Europe and the United States to Africa, South America, South Asia and countries of the former Soviet Union. Two new clusters of coronavirus cases were reported in China over the weekend, as well as a single larger outbreak in Seoul, South Korea. Concurrently, the German government reported that outbreaks had begun to grow exponentially again. These clusters of new infections include 14 cases discovered in China on May 4, including one in Hubei province, the original epicenter of the pandemic. This is especially concerning given that the number of new cases in China had been in the single digits during previous weeks, a result of the country’s lockdown from January through March and strict policies of testing, quarantining and contact tracing, as well as enforcement of the use of personal protective equipment for civil servants, health care workers and citizens. South Korea’s cluster emerged after a 29-year-old patient from the city of Yongin visited five nightclubs in the Itaewon area on May 1, and then visited the neighboring Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces before testing positive for COVID-19. He came into contact with more than 1,300 people, of which at least 54 have now contracted the infection. This number is expected to rise as the South Korean government continues to trace the progress of the outbreak. In response, the country’s nightclubs and similar institutions have all been closed indefinitely. While there have been no new major clusters reported in Germany, the Robert Koch Institute, which tracks the spread of the pandemic, noted that the reproduction rate for the virus in the country rose to 1.1 in the past week, which means that the number of new cases is again increasing. In all three countries, the new coronavirus cases have come after the partial lifting of lockdown measures. Germany first allowed museums, monuments, botanical gardens, parks and zoos, as well as religious services, to resume on April 30, while Hubei and China as a whole began lifting their most stringent lockdown measures in mid-April. And while the cases in China and Germany have not yet been directly traced to the measures taken to reopen their respective economies, the new cases in South Korea have been.
Rising number of COVID-19 deaths in Germany’s retirement and care homes – As the German government is effectively ending the coronovirus lockdown measures, reports about people dying of COVID-19 in retirement and care homes are increasing. Over the weekend four people, three men and one woman, died of the coronavirus in the Protestant retirement and nursing home of the Inner Mission in Planegg, Bavaria. On Friday, the health department of the city of Mönchengladbach confirmed the death of an 82-year-old resident at the St. Antonius retirement home. German nursing homes have become death traps in the coronavirus pandemic, making clear that is not only in the United States, Italy and Spain where COVID-19 has rampaged out of control. According to figures from the Robert Koch Institute released on April 23, around 1,500 residents of retirement and nursing homes had died of a coronavirus infection. At that time, this amounted to almost a third of all COVID-19 deaths in Germany and the number of unreported cases is certainly much higher. There are no official statistics on confirmed coronavirus cases in homes for the elderly and there is no proper register of cases in outpatient care. Around 800,000 people live in retirement and nursing homes in Germany. Conditions in some of the homes are nightmarish. For example, 23 people died of COVID-19 in the Maternus retirement home in Cologne, according to a report in Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) on April 29. The WDR had received information from staff at the home. The Cologne retirement home cares for 140 people in assisted living quarters and 75 in the care sector. The home is operated by the Berlin-based company Cura GmbH. A few weeks ago, more than 50 residents of the home and about two dozen staff were infected, including the head of the facility. Employees reported anonymously on their shocking experiences at the start of the coronavirus crisis. Staff brought residents with clear symptoms of the virus to surrounding clinics, from where they were sent back to the nursing home without being tested.
Thousands Of Brits Are Dying At Home Due To The Lockdown — A Guardian analysis has found that there have been thousands of excess deaths of people at home in the UK due to the lockdown.“The data shows 8,196 more deaths at home in England, Wales and Scotland compared with the five-year average for this time of year, including 6,546 non-Covid deaths,” reports the newspaper.“It also indicates a drop in non-Covid deaths in hospital, however, leading experts to conclude that many who would ordinarily have been admitted to a ward and died there are instead dying at home.”According to Jason Oke, a statistician with the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford, one explanation for the numbers is that, “People are dying of other causes that would not have happened under normal conditions – and are collateral damage of the lockdown.”Another analysis suggests there could have already been around 10,000 excess deaths in the UK compared with previous years. Why is nobody talking about the jump in NON-Covid related deaths? ONS data confirms lockdown is killing people. Over 10,000 Non-covid excess deaths in April!@BBC @bbclaurak @BethRigby @KayBurley @adamboultonSKY @SkyNews @Channel4News @afneil @toadmeister pic.twitter.com/8QHItqq0bz It’s a similar story in Italy, where there have already been 11,600 excess deaths due to seriously sick people avoiding hospitals.“Data from other countries has shown delayed presentation in patients with heart attacks during the pandemic, either because people don’t want to burden the health service at the current time, or because of fear of catching Covid-19,” said Prof Andrew Goddard. “It is critical that patients who are worried they may be having a heart attack or stroke should call 999.”
A new analysis of COVID-19 deaths estimates the patients might otherwise have lived much longer – regardless of underlying condition – A new study has modeled how a sample of COVID-19 patients who died might have been expected to fare without an infection, and the results were stark. On average, the group of several hundred patients in Italy who were infected by the novel coronavirus died more than a decade sooner than what would otherwise be expected, even when controlling for several common underlying conditions, according to estimates inthe study conducted by researchers at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.The researchers had been trying to learn more about COVID-19’s effects on life expectancy, specifically whether those dying of the novel coronavirus might otherwise have soon died of an underlying condition.The study, which is awaiting peer review, focused on the statistical measurement called “years of potential life lost,” or the time a person would be expected to live if they didn’t die from a health event like COVID-19. The researchers used data from the World Health Organization and other groups and accounted for age, sex, and underlying health conditions when making their estimates.The researchers concluded that “there appears to be a considerable burden in terms of years of life lost, commensurate with diseases such as coronary heart disease or pneumonia.”The study estimated that the average years of life lost for its sample when controlling for a set of common underlying conditions was 13 years for men and 11 years for women. The researchers noted that their results could not control for all underlying conditions or differences among nationalities and did not adjust for other factors like smoking. It also did not adjust for severity of underlying conditions, though the researchers said they did not expect that to significantly alter their findings.
Coronavirus: Male security guards, chefs and taxi drivers among those most likely to die with COVID-19, says ONS — Male security guards, chefs and taxi drivers are among those most likely to die from COVID-19, according to new figures.Plant processing workers, construction workers and bus and coach drivers are also among those with the highest coronavirus death rates, according to data released by the Office for National Statistics. Healthcare workers like doctors and nurses did not have a higher mortality rate compared with others of the same age and sex. But researchers did find people working in social care, including care workers and home carers, had “significantly” higher death rates than the working population as a whole.For male social care workers in England and Wales, the rate of COVID-19 related deaths is estimated to be 23.4 deaths per 100,000, while for female social care workers the figure is 9.6.The ONS said the highest rate of deaths was among male security guards (45.7 deaths per 100,000).It was 36.4 deaths per 100,000 among male taxi drivers and chauffeurs, 35.9 deaths per 100,000 among male chefs, and 26.4 deaths per 100,000 among male bus and coach drivers.By contrast, for all males of working age (20-64 years old), the rate is 9.9 deaths per 100,000, with 5.2 deaths per 100,000 females.The figures calculated by the ONS are based on coronavirus deaths in England and Wales registered up to 20 April.Healthcare roles dominate the list of occupations most exposed to the virus.Among them are dental nurses, paramedics, nurses and doctors. Lower ranking prison officers, opticians, vets and residential wardens also make the list for raised exposure.Figures showed three in four people in such roles are women.One in five people in these jobs are aged 55 or over. One in five are also from BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) backgrounds.Six out of 16 of these occupations have a median pay lower than £13.21, the median hourly pay across the UK. The ONS said its analysis “does not prove conclusively that the observed rates of death involving COVID-19 are necessarily caused by differences in occupational exposure”.
Boris Johnson- There May ‘Never’ Be A COVID-19 Vaccine – UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned that a coronavirus treatment or vaccine may be more than a year away – and in fact may never arrive, according to a 60-page ‘Covid-19 recovery strategy‘ document which details how the UK plans to emerge from lockdown. “A mass vaccine or treatment may be more than a year away. Indeed, in a worst-case scenario, we may never find a vaccine,” said Johnson. “So our plan must countenance a situation where we are in this, together, for the long haul, even while doing all we can to avoid that outcome.” Other notable items from the document (via The Independent):
- For the first time, the UK government is recommending that the public wear face-coverings in public settings such as mass transportation and some shops.
- Schools and non-essential shops will begin reopening starting June 1.
- “Social bubbles” where two households can mingle are under consideration.
- Easing of restrictions will be contingent upon no resurgence of the virus – which would cause the government to reimpose tight lockdowns, either nationally or locally or both.
“If the data goes the wrong way, if the alert level begins to rise, we will have no hesitation in putting on the brakes and delaying or reintroducing measures locally, regionally, or nationally,” said Johnson. “This document sets out a plan to rebuild the UK for a world with Covid-19,” he said. “It is not a quick return to ‘normality’. Nor does it lay out an easy answer. And, inevitably, parts of this plan will adapt as we learn more about the virus. But it is a plan that should give the people of the United Kingdom hope. Hope that we can rebuild; hope that we can save lives; hope that we can safeguard livelihoods.”
As Russia Now Has World’s 3rd Most COVID-19 Cases, Med Students Being Thrown To Front Lines – Coming off multiple record numbers in daily coronavirus case jumps, including another record increase of 11,656 new infections on Monday, Russia briefly reached the grim achievement of ranking as the third most infected country in the world, behind the United States and Spain. At this moment Russia and the UK are actually about even in third and fourth spots, with each approaching 225,000 cases. The new record rise in cases was announced a mere hours President Vladimir Putin was set to review lockdown measures. The epicenter of Moscow currently has over 115,909 cases and its ‘stay at home’ orders have been extended until at least the end of May, with Putin on Monday further confirming the continuation of a nation-wide ‘non-working’ period to combat the spread. In total Russia has reported 2,009 deaths.“But the fight with the epidemic isn’t ending, its threat remains even in territories where the situation is relatively safe,” Putin said. “Starting tomorrow, May 12, the national non-working period will end for the entire country and for all sectors of the economy,” he announced. In an effort to insulate the economy from more devastating impact, Moscow city plans to reopen industrial and construction company operations Tuesday. But like most countries service and entertainment sector related businesses such as restaurants, bars and theaters will remain closed. Meanwhile, the strain on under-prepared hospitals especially in and around the hard-hit capital has become so significant that Russian medical students have alleged they’ve been pushed onto the front lines of coronavirus wards while under “forced labor” conditions. As Al Jazeera describes: Daunted by the prospect of contracting the virus in the clinics and infecting family members, or facing expulsion, aspiring medics have protested against the decision to send students in their fourth, fifth and sixth years – who can be as young as 21 – to complete their medical training in coronavirus clinics. The Ministry of Health announced on April 27 that the measure would go into effect starting May 1, and only students with “medical contraindications” can refuse. The decree reportedly calls on students in all medical fields, even dentistry and pediatrics, to respond on an emergency basis. “Those who refuse to go will not get their qualification and can face expulsion,” Svetlana, a sixth-year student, told Al Jazeera.
Moscow officials: More than half of coronavirus patient deaths not included in totals – More than half of Moscow’s deaths of coronavirus patients are not being included toward the overall death toll, according to a report in The Moscow Times, citing city officials. The officials reportedly said more than 60 percent of deaths from “alternate causes” have not been recorded in the COVID-19 death toll, according to news outlet. “Over 60 percent of deaths occurred from obvious alternate causes, such as vascular accidents, stage 4 malignant diseases, leukemia, systemic diseases linked to organ failure and other incurable deadly diseases,” Moscow’s Health Department said in a statement to the newspaper. Moscow has seen a lower mortality rate compared with other major world capitals, causing critics to say the reported numbers should be doubled. The city reported 1,232 deaths out of 126,004 infections as of Wednesday, according to The Moscow Times. Data released by the Moscow’s civil registry office, first published by The Moscow Times, showed 20 percent more fatalities in April than the average April mortality rate over the past decade. The newspaper noted the jump in deaths could be linked to COVID-19. The health department told the newspaper it is “incorrect to compare monthly death rates.” The department also refuted claims that it was under-reporting its coronavirus deaths. Nationwide, Russia has reported 252,245 confirmed COVID-19 cases and reported just 2,305 deaths, based on data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. By contrast, countries that have reported just slightly less confirmed cases, have reported far more deaths. For example, the U.K. has reported 230,985 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 33,264 deaths, and Spain has reported 228,691 cases and 27,104 deaths, based on the Johns Hopkins data. Globally the virus has infected more than 4.3 million COVID-19 cases and killed 287,682 deaths, based on the same database.
Putin’s Longtime Spokesman Hospitalized With COVID-19 — Dmitry Peskov, the longtime spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin and one of the most recognizable members of the Russian government – at least to reporters and others who closely follow Russian political news – has been hospitalized with advanced coronavirus symptoms, Russian newswire RIA Novosti reported.Russia has surpassed the UK to become the country with the second-largest number of “confirmed” cases, behind only the US. Though Russian President Vladimir Putin has extended a lockdown and warned that the virus is a major problem, urging Russians to stay indoors and follow government guidance, Putin has largely been working from his residence in the Moscow region and running the country via videoconferencing, with only a few in-person meetings. That means it’s unlikely the president has been exposed to the virus, which has infected both his prime minister and several other close aides and officials. Exact details of Peskov’s condition are unclear. According to CNN, three Russian ministers had already tested positive, including Mikhail Mishustin (Russia’s PM), Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova and Minister of Housing Vladimir Yakushev. Peskov, who is 52, has served as the Kremlin’s top press secretary since 2012.
Iran destabilised by US amid COVID-19 pandemic – Iran is reeling under the impact of the world recession, the collapse in oil prices and one of the worst manifestations of the COVID-19 pandemic with one of the world’s highest mortality rates. This is being deliberately exacerbated by Washington’s provocative military deployments in the Persian Gulf and unrelenting “maximum pressure” sanctions that have been ramped up amid the global coronavirus pandemic. While official figures place the number of confirmed cases at more than 110,000 and deaths at just under 7,000, mainly in Tehran Province, the real figures are far higher. In March, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that the total number of cases might exceed official tallies by a factor of five, concealed due primarily to limited testing capacity. Last month, the Iranian parliament’s research arm estimated that the number of cases could be up to 10 times higher and the death toll nearly twice the official figure. The police have censored online blogs that question official figures, with the police chief announcing that his forces had identified and dealt with 1,300 websites and arrested 320 individuals for “spreading rumours” about the spread of COVID-19. Refusing to acknowledge the spread of the virus before the February elections, the government only reluctantly imposed a lockdown early in March, fearful of its economic and social consequences. Last month, in the run-up to the holy month of Ramadan, it ordered a partial return to work, including many shops, factories and workshops, but did not lift the ban on mass gatherings as the number of cases continued to rise. Mosques are to reopen for three nights this week at the highpoint of Ramadan. Congregational prayers have resumed in 180 towns and cities across the country, although not in Tehran and other major cities, amid reports of tensions between the government and the clerical establishment over the closures. Schools are set to reopen next week. On Sunday, the authorities were forced to reimpose a lockdown on southwestern oil region bordering Iraq, due to the sharp rise in new cases across Khuzestan Province.
Global coronavirus death toll surpasses 300,000 | TheHill – The number of confirmed global deaths from the novel coronavirus on Wednesday surpassed 300,000, as health experts continue to warn that reopening parts of the world too quickly could cause a second wave of infections. More than 4.4 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported worldwide and roughly 300,070 people have died from it, according to a Johns Hopkins University database. Health experts say that the death toll could be higher given a lack of transparency from China and other countries. In the U.S., more than 1.4 million individuals have contracted the virus and nearly 85,000 people have died from it. The United Kingdom, Spain and Italy have all confirmed more than 200,000 cases of the virus and more than 25,000 deaths caused by it. The death toll in the U.K. sits at about 33,600, making it the highest reported death count outside of the U.S. Meanwhile, France has reported more than 178,000 confirmed cases of the virus and roughly 27,000 deaths. Brazil has reported the highest number of cases of COVID-19 in South America. As of Wednesday, the country had confirmed about 196,000 cases of the virus and more than 13,500 deaths. The governmentsaid on Tuesday that 881 people had died from the disease in a 24-hour period, a new high in the country.
Over 90,000 health care workers worldwide have been infected with COVID-19 – Last week, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) reported that more than 90,000 nurses, doctors, and other health care workers have tested positive for COVID-19 worldwide, with over 260 health care workers succumbing to the disease. The Geneva, Switzerland-based organization represents some 20 million nurses of 130 national organizations. ICN’s CEO Howard Catton insists that both figures are a serious underestimation of the true scale of infections and deaths among health care workers, given the refusal of governments around the world to keep records of the pandemic’s spread to these front-line workers. The numbers reported to the ICN are from only 30 countries’ governments, nursing associations, and the media, representing merely 15 percent of all countries in the world. One month ago, ICN estimated that 23,000 nurses were infected. Catton stated, “If the average health worker infection rate, about 6 percent we think, is applied to that, the figure globally could be more than 200,000 health worker infections today. The scandal is that governments are not systematically collecting and reporting on this information. It looks to us as though they are turning a blind eye which we think is completely unacceptable and will cost more lives. If governments do not count the number of nurses who have lost their lives, if they continue to turn a blind eye, it sends a message that those nurses’ lives didn’t count.” Catton added, “This failure to record both infection rates and deaths among health care workers is putting more nurses and their patients in danger.” The World Health Organization (WHO), struggling with many of its uncooperative 194 member governments, reports that countries are not supplying the necessary comprehensive data to track the spread of the disease among their health care personnel and their populations more broadly. The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a paper April 14 in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) regarding health care workers’ infections across the US. In states and populations that included data for occupations of those infected, HCPs accounted for fully 11 percent of the total. Women accounted for 73 percent of HCPs with coronavirus, and 38 percent of infected health care workers had at least one underlying chronic illness.
Latin America emerges as new COVID-19 epicenter – The Americas have for the first time surpassed Europe in terms of the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday. The total number of officially reported infections in the Western Hemisphere reached 1.74 million, compared to 1.73 million in Europe. While this shift has undoubted significance, the figures themselves are universally regarded as a gross underestimate of the real spread of the deadly virus, both in the United States and through ever-expanding areas of Latin America. With five percent of the world’s population, the United States accounts for more than a quarter of the confirmed cases across the globe (over 1.4 million) and nearly a third of deaths worldwide (nearly 85,000). There could be no more irrefutable indictment of American capitalism and the criminal incompetence and indifference to human life on the part of the Trump administration and the entire US ruling oligarchy. But the shift of the pandemic’s epicenter from the Old World to the New is also driven by its increasingly uncontrolled surge in Latin America, where the rate of increase in the number of infections is among the highest on the planet. Fueling the spread of the deadly virus are pre-existing social and economic morbidities that have made Latin America the most socially unequal region on the face of the Earth. A century of oppression and economic exploitation by US imperialism, along with the rule of rapacious national bourgeoisies determined to place the full burden of the region’s crisis onto the backs of the working class, have left the working masses of Latin America among the most vulnerable to the pandemic. The spread of the coronavirus has had region-wide impacts, including soaring unemployment and poverty, bloody revolts among the continent’s 1.5 million prisoners trapped in overcrowded jails that have claimed the lives of hundreds, and a growing intervention of the military into political and social life.
Brazil passes France in coronavirus cases to become 6th worst-hit country – Brazil registered a record number of new cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, surpassing France’s tally to become the sixth-worst hit country, as the disease sends the economy toward its worst year since at least 1900. The government confirmed 11,385 new cases in the last 24 hours, bringing its total count to 188,974 cases of the coronavirus since the outbreak began. Early on Wednesday, France revised its total number of confirmed and suspected cases down 0.3% to 177,700. The pandemic has battered Brazil’s economy as residents shelter at home and many state and local governments instructed most businesses to close to slow the spread of the virus. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has locked horns with state governors for weeks over the lockdowns, saying they are causing more damage through lost jobs than the disease itself. On Wednesday, the economy ministry predicted the Brazilian economy would contract 4.7% in 2020, the biggest annual fall since records began more than a century ago. The ministry estimates every additional week of quarantine measures costs the economy 20 billion reais ($3.40 billion). “It will reach the point where hungry people take to the streets,” Bolsonaro said on Wednesday. He escalated the fight this week by declaring gyms and beauty salons as “essential” services that can open for business, threatening legal action against local governments that don’t comply. Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most populous state and with the most cases of the virus, will not comply with Bolsonaro’s decree, Governor Joao Doria said on Wednesday, echoing comments made by at least 10 other governors. The five countries that have registered more infections than Brazil are the United States, Spain, Russia, the United Kingdom and Italy. Brazil recorded 749 new deaths from coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the overall toll to 13,149.
Brazil Overtakes Spain to Be World’s Fourth-Most Infected Nation – Brazil added more cases after a record number of infections Friday, overtaking Spain as the nation with the world’s fourth-highest number of confirmed Covid-19 patients. The country added 14,919 cases, according to government data on Saturday, bringing its total to 233,142. It trails the U.S., Russia, and U.K. The numbers exceed those in Spain, which has a total of 230,698 cases and is planning to extend the state of emergency for a fifth time to combat the outbreak. Brazil’s new cases come as Vice President Hamilton Mourao and his wife are in self-isolation after a civil servant he came into contact with tested positive for Covid-19, according to a note sent by his press office. They are awaiting test results, which are expected on Monday. The country reported a daily record for cases on Friday — hours after Jair Bolsonaro lost his second health minister in under a month as the president’s reopen-at-all-costs stance alienates the medical community and deepens a political clash with state governors. Nelson Teich, who took over the post in April after Bolsonaro fired his predecessor amid public discord over social distancing, quit Friday after just 29 days on the job. The health ministry gave no details on who will replace him. Brazil reported a record 15,305 new cases on Friday, solidifying its status as the new global hotspot for the disease. Still, it has a lower death rate than Spain and other badly-hit countries. Brazil lost 816 Covid-19 patients in the past 24 hours, raising total fatalities to 15,633 — which is almost half of the death toll of Spain, France and Italy. Investors have taken notice of the turmoil. Brazil has the world’s worst-performing stock market and currency. The benchmark Ibovespa index’s 54% decline in U.S. dollar terms is the biggest slide among key indexes globally, and the real slumped 31%. With most Brazilians backing social distancing guidelines, Bolsonaro’s popularity is suffering, according to a MDA/CNT poll that interviewed 2,002 people May 7-10. The survey showed the president’s personal approval rating dropping 9 percentage points from the beginning of the year to 39%, and his disapproval rating hitting 55%.
Three nurses murdered in Mexico as coronavirus reaches peak transmission – Three nurses, all sisters, were found dead with signs of strangulation in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila, officials said on Friday, an apparent triple murder that follows a series of assaults on health workers in the coronavirus pandemic. Officials said they were investigating a crime but that the motive was not clear. Health workers have faced increased aggression in Mexico in recent weeks over fears of contagion. Javier Guerrero, a top official for Mexico’s main public health service IMSS in Coahuila, described the deaths of the three nurses as murders. They “happened at a moment when our health workers are the most important element to face the health crisis.” Coahuila State Attorney General Gerardo Marquez said two or three criminals might have been involved but no arrests have been made. It was not immediately clear when the sisters died. “Until now there is no evidence that suggests this was because of their jobs in the health sector,” he said. “It’s very regrettable for society – and I reiterate the state’s commitment to find those who are guilty and bring them to justice.”
Coronavirus: India surpasses China as cases surge; Greece reopens beaches – The number of cases in India surged to surpass that of China, climbing to a total of 85,940 infections, according to its health ministry. In the last 24 hours, India confirmed 3,970 new cases and 103 fatalities, according to AP. India is now the 11th worst-hit country globally, with China falling back to be the 13th most affected (see 10:30 a.m. update), according to data from Johns Hopkins University. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday that the country would look to ease a nearly seven-week lockdown despite reporting its largest single-day jump in cases this week, according to Reuters. Its lockdown had repeatedly been extended, with the latest until May 17. China’s National Health Commission reported eight new cases, six of which were imported infections, or attributed to travelers from overseas. That brings its total to 82,941 confirmed cases. There were no new deaths, with fatalities staying at 4,633, according to the NHC. There were 13 new asymptomatic cases, where patients do not display symptoms of the disease. In all, 561 asymptomatic cases were under medical observation.South Korea reported 19 new cases, as infections continued to climb following a growing outbreak linked to a number of night clubs. That came after weeks of single-digit or zero infections. That brought its tally to 11,037 cases, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It had two new deaths. Despite the new night club cluster in its capital city of Seoul, South Korea said this week that it had no plans to restore social distancing rules, which it eased last week, according to Reuters.Singapore has reported another 465 cases of Covid-19, taking its tally to 27,356, the health ministry said. Most of the new cases are migrant workers living in dormitories, said the ministry. Those workers, mostly men from other Asian countries, have accounted for a vast majority of cases in the Southeast Asian city-state. Indonesia’s health ministry reported 529 new cases of the coronavirus on Saturday, bringing the total number of confirmed Covid-19 infections up to 17,025. The Southeast Asian country also reported an additional 13 deaths due to the coronavirus, taking the nationwide death toll to 1,089. Russia reported 9,200 new confirmed cases, bringing its total to 272,043, according to Reuters. There were 119 deaths, with the total number of fatalities now at 2,537, the report said. Russia is the second worst-hit country, after the U.S., according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
- Global cases: More than 4.5 million
- Global deaths: At least 307,903
- Most cases reported: United States (More than 1.4 million), Russia (272,043), United Kingdom (238,004), Spain (230,183), Italy (223,885).
New Report Finds Malnutrition World’s Top Killer Amid Pandemic -As the coronavirus pandemic continues to expose and exacerbate enduring issues and inequities in the global food and health systems, a United Nations-backed report released Tuesday declares the double burden of malnutrition – undernourishment and obesity – the leading cause of death worldwide.The foreword of the 2020 Global Nutrition Report puts the assessment in the context of Covid-19, which has not only killed over 287,000 and infected over 4.2 million people around the world but also revealed “the vulnerability and weaknesses of our already fragile food systems” that are “stressed by increasing climate extremes.”Although the report was written before the current public health crisis, “its emphasis on nutritional well-being for all, particularly the most vulnerable, has a heightened significance in the face of this new global threat,” the foreword says. “The need for more equitable, resilient, and sustainable food and health systems has never been more urgent.”The foreword continues:Covid-19 does not treat us equally. Undernourished people have weaker immune systems, and may be at greater risk of severe illness due to the virus. At the same time, poor metabolic health, including obesity and diabetes, is strongly linked to worse Covid-19 outcomes, including risk of hospitalization and death. People who already suffer as a consequence of inequities – including the poor, women and children, those living in fragile or conflict-affected states, minorities, refugees, and the unsheltered – are particularly affected by both the virus and the impact of containment measures. It is essential that they are protected, especially when responses are implemented.In a statement Tuesday, report co-chair and Tufts University professor Renata Micha echoed the foreword’s call for learning from the pandemic and pursuing “well-functioning, well-funded, and coordinated preventive public health strategies that pay attention to food, nutrition, health, and social protection.” “Good nutrition is an essential defense strategy to protect populations against epidemics, relieve the burden on our health systems, and ultimately save lives,” Micha said. “The findings of the 2020 Global Nutrition Report make clear that tackling malnutrition should be at the center of our global health response.”
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