Category: Corona Virus Vaccine

Local and state health officials confirm the first COVID-19 related death in Benton County.

"It is with great sadness that our community joins the majority of Indiana counties with pandemic related deaths," reads the information provided by the local officials. No additional information will be released about the patient due to privacy laws.

While Benton County COVID-19 case number remain low, it is still strongly urged that those with higher risk health conditions consider all recommended precautions, which includes wearing a mask, according to the news release.

Benton County Officials emphasize the importance to residents to keep doing their part to slow the spread of the virus and protect those in our communities who might be at higher risk of severe illness or death. The most vulnerable include those over 65 and those with underlying health conditions.

Signs and symptoms of COVID-19 (corona virus) are a dry, persistent cough, fever and shortness of breath.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and members of our community that have been affected by this death, as well as others that are dealing with similar circumstances," reads the information from Benton County authorities.

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Benton County sees first death related to COVID-19 - Newsbug.info

TheWest Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of 10:00 a.m., October 31,2020, there have been 776,609 total confirmatorylaboratory results received for COVID-19, with 24,460totalcases and 457 deaths.

DHHRhas confirmed the deaths of a 62-yearold male from Fayette County, a 70-year old male from Summers County, a 76-yearold female from Logan County, a 78-year old male from Cabell County, a 91-yearold male from Cabell County, and a 79-year old male from Kanawha County.

Theloss of more West Virginians is truly heartbreaking, said DHHR CabinetSecretary Bill J. Crouch. To these families, we extend our deepest sympathy andcommitment to continue working to prevent this deadly virus.

CASESPER COUNTY: Barbour(187), Berkeley (1,665), Boone (404), Braxton (71), Brooke (243), Cabell(1,526), Calhoun (36), Clay (65), Doddridge (72), Fayette (794), Gilmer (65),Grant (199), Greenbrier (210), Hampshire (143), Hancock (234), Hardy (108),Harrison (680), Jackson (410), Jefferson (622), Kanawha (3,799), Lewis (105),Lincoln (260), Logan (796), Marion (410), Marshall (404), Mason (179), McDowell(128), Mercer (794), Mineral (239), Mingo (648), Monongalia (2,348), Monroe(264), Morgan (156), Nicholas (191), Ohio (604), Pendleton (77), Pleasants(34), Pocahontas (73), Preston (214), Putnam (952), Raleigh (855), Randolph(425), Ritchie (48), Roane (115), Summers (135), Taylor (172), Tucker (66),Tyler (48), Upshur (276), Wayne (612), Webster (36), Wetzel (205), Wirt (56),Wood (671), Wyoming (331).

Please note that delaysmay be experienced with the reporting of information from the local healthdepartment to DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the local healthdepartment level, it may reveal that those tested in a certain county may notbe a resident of that county, or even the state as an individual in questionmay have crossed the state border to be tested.

Please visit the dashboard located at http://www.coronavirus.wv.gov for more information.

Free COVID-19 testing isavailable today in Barbour, Berkeley, Boone, Clay, Hampshire,Jefferson, Logan, Mingo, Monroe, Morgan, Roane, Tyler, Wetzel, and Wyomingcounties.

BarbourCounty, October 31, 1:00 PM 5:00 PM, Barbour County Fairgrounds, 113 FairgroundsWay, Belington, WV

BerkeleyCounty, October 31, 12:00 PM 8:00 PM, Musselman High School, 126 ExcellenceWay, Inwood, WV

Boone County,October 31, 1:00 PM 5:00 PM, Boone County Health Department, 213 Kenmore Drive,Danville, WV

Clay County, October31, 8:00 AM 12:00 PM, Clay County Health Department, 452 Main Street, Clay,WV

HampshireCounty, October 31, 1:00 PM 7:00 PM, Hampshire County High School, 157 TrojanWay, Romney, WV

JeffersonCounty, October 31, 12:00 PM 6:00 PM, Ranson Civic Center, 432 W. 2nd Avenue,Ranson, WV

Logan County,October 31, 10:00 AM 2:00 PM, Old 84 Lumber Building, 100 Recovery Road, PeachCreek, WV

Mingo County,October 31, 10:00 AM 3:00 PM, Williamson Health and Wellness Center, 173 East2nd Avenue, Williamson, WV, (under the tent)

Monroe County,October 31, 12:00 PM 4:00 PM, Monroe County Health Department, 200 HealthCenter Drive, Union, WV

MorganCounty, October 31, 12:00 PM 8:00 PM, Warm Springs Middle School, 271 WarmSprings Way, Berkeley Springs, WV

Roane County,October 31, 9:00 AM 1:00 PM, Roane General Hospital, 200 Hospital Drive,Spencer, WV (flu shots offered)

Tyler/WetzelCounty, October 31, 11:00 AM 2:00 PM, Wetzel-Tyler Health Department, 425 S.4th Avenue, Paden City, WV

WyomingCounty, October 31, 11:00 AM 3:00 PM, Old Board of Education, 19 Park Street,Pineville, WV

Testing is available toeveryone, including asymptomatic individuals. Additional testing will be held Sunday,November 1 in Berkeley, Hampshire, Jackson, Jefferson, Marshall, Mingo, Monroe,Morgan, Putnam, Upshur, and Wyoming counties.

BerkeleyCounty, November 1, 12:00 PM 8:00 PM, Musselman High School, 126 ExcellenceWay, Inwood, WV

HampshireCounty, November 1, 12:00 PM 6:00 PM, Hampshire County High School, 157Trojan Way, Romney, WV

JacksonCounty, November 1, 1:00 PM 5:00 PM, Jackson County Health Department, 504Church Street South, Ripley, WV

JeffersonCounty, November 1, 3:00 PM 8:00 PM, Ranson Civic Center, 432 W. 2nd Avenue,Ranson, WV

MarshallCounty, November 1, 10:00 AM 2:00 PM, Marshall County Health Department, 5136th Street, Moundsville, WV

Mingo County,November 1, 12:00 PM 4:00 PM, Williamson Health and Wellness Center, 173 East2nd Avenue, Williamson, WV (under the tent)

MonroeCounty, November 1, 12:00 PM 4:00 PM, Monroe Health Center, 2869 Seneca TrailSouth, Peterstown, WV

MorganCounty, November 1, 12:00 PM 8:00 PM, Warm Springs Middle School, 271 WarmSprings Way, Berkeley Springs, WV

PutnamCounty, November 1, 12:00 PM 4:00 PM, Valley Park, 1 Valley Drive, Hurricane,WV

UpshurCounty, November 1, 12:00 PM 4:00 PM, Buckhannon Upshur High School, 270 BUDrive, Buckhannon, WV

WyomingCounty, November 1, 11:00 AM 3:00 PM, Old Board of Education, 19 Park Street,Pineville, WV

For more testing locations, pleasevisit https://dhhr.wv.gov/COVID-19/pages/testing.aspx.New sites are added every day.

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COVID-19 Daily Update 10-31-2020 - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

COVID-19 spreads in U.S. households more often than previously thought, according to a new study.

The study, published Friday (Oct. 30) in the journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, involved 191 people in Tennessee and Wisconsin who lived with someone recently diagnosed with COVID-19. Of these, 102 people become infected within seven days of being enrolled in the study, for a "secondary infection rate" of 53%. (The secondary infection rate is the percentage of exposed people who catch COVID-19 from the first case.)

About 75% of these secondary infections occurred within five days of the first household member getting sick.

Related: 20 of the worst epidemics and pandemics in history

"We observed that, after a first household member became sick, several infections were rapidly detected in the household," study lead author Dr. Carlos Grijalva, an associate professor of Health Policy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, said in a statement.

Other studies looking at transmission of COVID-19 in households mostly conducted in Europe and Asia have found a secondary infection rate of 30% or lower. But the new study, which was conducted from April through September, is one of the first to look at COVID-19 transmission in U.S. households in a systematic way, with participants undergoing daily testing for COVID-19.

Part of the reason for the higher secondary infection rate in the new study, compared with previous reports, may be due to the study's rigorous methods and follow-up testing of household contacts, the authors said. In addition, studies in other countries may have had lower secondary infection rates because people in those countries were quicker to wear face masks inside their own home when another household member was sick. (Mask use when sick has not traditionally been part of American culture, whereas it is in some other countries.)

The study also found that "substantial transmission" occurred regardless of whether the first household case (known as the index case) was a child or an adult.

Indeed, in households in which the index case was under 12 years old, the secondary infection rate was 53%; and in households in which the index patient was ages 18 to 49, the secondary infection rate was 55%, the report found.

"Infections occurred fast, whether the first sick household member was a child or an adult," Grijalva said.

What's more, fewer than half of household members showed symptoms at the time they tested positive for COVID-19, and 18% remained asymptomatic over the seven-day study. This finding underscores the need for people to quarantine if they've had close contact with someone who tests positive for COVID-19, the authors said.

Overall, "persons who suspect that they might have COVID-19 should isolate, stay at home, and use a separate bedroom and bathroom if feasible," the report said. This isolation should begin even before a person gets tested or gets their results. In addition, all household members should start wearing a mask in their home, particularly in shared spaces where social distancing isn't possible, the authors said.

The authors note that their study was conducted in two U.S. cities Nashville, Tennessee, and Marshfield, Wisconsin and the families in the study may not be representative of the general U.S. population.

Originally published on Live Science.

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COVID-19 household transmission is way higher than we thought - Livescience.com

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that when a COVID-19 vaccine in approved it will be free whether you have insurance or not.

With several COVID-19 vaccines under development around the world, many Americans have wondered how much it'll cost to get the immunization once one is approved.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services answered that question this week.

THE QUESTION

Will Americans have to pay a lot for a COVID-19 vaccine, once the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves one?

THE ANSWER

No, it will be free, CMS announced on Wednesday.

WHAT WE FOUND

On Wednesday, CMS said in a news release that Americans wont have to pay out of pocket for a coronavirus vaccine that gains full FDA approval or Emergency Use Authorization. That includes Medicare and Medicaid recipients, people with private insurance -- even those who havent met their deductibles for the year -- and those with no insurance at all.

As a condition of receiving free COVID-19 vaccines from the federal government, providers will be prohibited from charging consumers for administration of the vaccine, the release said.

In a document released Thursday, the World Health Organization showed several vaccines are in Phase 3 development, being given to thousands of people to test their effectiveness and safety.

Four vaccine candidates are currently in large scale Phase 3 trials in the U.S. Pfizer executives said they should have data in early November that shows whether its vaccine effectively prevents coronavirus infections.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has previously emphasized that any vaccine approved this year would be in "very limited supply" at first. It wouldn't be available to most until summer or fall of 2021.

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COVID-19 vaccine will be free when approved, health officials say - KING5.com

Although were still learning about the virus, whats clear is that this is not just a virus that kills people. To a significant number of people, this virus poses a range of serious long-term effects,said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaking in Geneva on Friday during the UN agencys latest virtual press conference.

The situation also underscores how herd immunity is morally unconscionable and unfeasible, he added.

The WHO Director-General described the vast spectrum of COVID-19 symptoms that fluctuate over time as really concerning.

They range from fatigue, a cough and shortness of breath, to inflammation and injury of major organs including the lungs and heart, and also neurological and psychologic effects.

Symptoms often overlap and can affect any system in the body.

It is imperative that Governments recognize the long-term effects of COVID-19 and also ensure access to health services to all of these patients, he said.

This includes primary health care and when needed specialty care and rehabilitation.

Three patients an epidemiologist, a nurse and a 26-year-old software engineer shared their experiences with COVID-19and its long-term consequences.

Professor Paul Garner, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in England, was fit and well when he fell ill with the disease in March.

For four months, he battled cyclical bouts of fatigue, headaches, mood swings and other symptoms, followed by three months of complete exhaustion.

When I overdid things, the illness would echo back, it would come back. And it was completely unpredictable, he said, speaking via videolink.

Professor Garner reported that his health has only begun to improve within the past two weeks.

I never thought I would have seven months of my life wiped out by this virus, he said. It has just gone, evaporated.

Stories like this underline how people facing the long-term effects of COVID-19 must be given the time and care they need to recover fully, according to the WHO chief.

It also reinforces to me just how morally unconscionable and unfeasible the so-called natural herd immunity strategy is, he said, adding, not only would it lead to millions more unnecessary deaths, it would also lead to a significant number of people facing a long road to full recovery.

He explained that herd immunity is only possible when a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine has been distributed globally, and equitably.

And until we have a vaccine, Governments and people must do all that they can to suppress transmission, which is the best way to prevent these post-COVID long-term consequences,he stated.

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Long-term symptoms of COVID-19 'really concerning', says WHO chief - UN News

Like a specter, the question looms: How risky is trick-or-treating with SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in the air and possibly on the candy?

In a study published October 30, 2020 in the journal mSystems, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and San Diego State University analyzed the viral load on Halloween candy handled by patients with COVID-19.

SARS-CoV-2 is primarily transmitted by respiratory droplets and aerosols. The risk of infection by touching fomites objects or surfaces upon which viral particles have landed and persist is relatively low, according to multiple studies, even when fomites are known to have been exposed to the novel coronavirus. Nonetheless, the risk is not zero.

Researchers say the main COVID-19 risk during Halloween festivities is interacting with people without masks, so if you are sharing candy, be safe by putting it in dish where you can wave from six feet away. Photo credit: Pixabay

The main takeaway is that, although the risk of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by surfaces, including candy wrappers, is low, it can be reduced even further by washing your hands with soap before handling the candy and washing the candy with household dishwashing detergent afterwards, said co-senior author Rob Knight, PhD, professor and director of the Center for Microbiome Innovation at UC San Diego. The main risk is interacting with people without masks, so if you are sharing candy, be safe by putting it in dish where you can wave from six feet away. Knight led the study with Forest Rohwer, PhD, viral ecologist at San Diego State University, and Louise Laurent, MD, PhD, professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

For their study, the researchers enrolled 10 recently diagnosed COVID-19 patients who were asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic and asked them to handle Halloween candy under three different conditions: 1) normally with unwashed hands; 2) while deliberately coughing with extensive handling; and 3) normal handling after handwashing.

The candy was then divided into two treatments no post-handling washing (untreated) and washed with household dishwashing detergent followed by analyses using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, the same technology used to diagnose COVID-19 infections in people, and a second analytical platform that can conduct tests on larger samples more quickly and cheaply. Both produced similar findings.

On candies not washed post-handling, researchers detected SARS-CoV-2 on 60 percent of the samples that had been deliberately coughed on and on 60 percent of the samples handled normally with unwashed hands. However, the virus was detected only 10 percent of the candies handled after handwashing.

Not surprisingly, the dishwashing detergent was effective for reducing the viral RNA on candies, with reducing the viral load by 62.1 percent.

They had also planned to test bleach, but importantly, we noted that bleach sometimes leaked through some of the candy wrappers, making it unsafe for this type of cleaning use, Rohwer said.

The study authors underscored that the likely risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission from candy is low, even if handled by someone with a COVID-19 infection, but it can be reduced to near-zero if the candy is handled only by people who have first washed their hands and if it is washed with household dishwashing detergent for approximately a minute after collection.

Additional co-authors include: Rodolfo A. Salido, Sydney C. Morgan, Celestien G. Magallenes, Clarisse Marotz, Peter DeHoff, Pedro Belda-Ferre, Stefan Aigner, Deborah M. Kado, Gene W. Yeo, Jack A. Gilbert, all at UC San Diego; and Maria I. Rojas of San Diego State University.

Originally posted here:

Infection by Confection: COVID-19 and the Risk of Trick-or-Treating - UC San Diego Health

Read: The pandemic is in uncharted territory

Jelic was among the doctors treating COVID-19 patients in New York in the spring, when hundreds of people were turning up at the citys hospitals everyday unable to breathe. Patients were crammed into hallways; doctors were overworked. Normally, Jelic says, she might have seen eight or 10 patients in a day. In April, she and two fellows were responsible for 60, any of whom might crash and need to be intubated.

Lack of knowledge about the virus constrained what doctors did. Hospitals initially favored ventilation in part because doctors feared that high-flow therapy oxygen could aerosolize the virus and spread it to staff who didnt have adequate supplies of personal protective equipment. (Now, of course, we know that the virus can be spread through aerosols generated from just normal talking and exhaling.) In some cases, aggressive intubation might have done more harm than good in patients who didnt need it. Doctors stopped putting every patient on a ventilator once they realized the benefits of less invasive oxygen therapy and even turning patients onto their bellies, also known as proning.

Because COVID-19 can, like many conditions, manifest so differently from person to person, knowing which patients might benefitor be hurtby a treatment is a key part of the learning curve. There isnt a one-size-fits-all treatment, says Nicholas Caputo, a doctor at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, who was one early advocate of proning. Ventilation is one example of a treatment that can help or hurt depending on the patient. Another is dexamethasone, a steroid that suppresses the immune system. The drug has been shown to reduce mortality in patients with severe COVID-19, whose immune systems have become hyperactive, but might harm patients with milder cases whose immune systems are still trying to clear the virus.

Read: Immunology is where intuition goes to die

Doctors have also learned to watch out for COVID-19s more unusual symptoms. The disease has been linked to kidney failure; those patients might need dialysis. Its also linked to blood clots; patients who show warning signs might need blood thinners. Seeing more cases of COVID-19 has also allowed doctors to refine details like the size of tubing used with ECMO, an artificial-lung technology for the sickest patients who arent doing well on ventilators.

A lot of this experience has been shared in real time and informally. J. Eduardo Rame, a cardiologist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals, helps convene a regular Zoom forum where doctors discuss the latest, such as how to use ECMO. Experiential learning, as Rame puts it, has been vital for sharing information about a new disease. But doctors are also trained to rely on data and randomized, controlled trials, not anecdotes. Were nowhere near the inflection point where we can have medical care dictated by evidence, Rame says, which puts doctors in a strange position. For now, they have experience to go on, which is better than nothing. But its not data.

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The Simple Rule That Could Keep COVID-19 Deaths Down - The Atlantic

The ICU at Tampa General Hospital in Tampa, Fla., was 99% full this week, according to an internal report produced by the federal government. It's among numerous hospitals the report highlighted with ICUs filled to over 90% capacity. Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post via Getty Images hide caption

The ICU at Tampa General Hospital in Tampa, Fla., was 99% full this week, according to an internal report produced by the federal government. It's among numerous hospitals the report highlighted with ICUs filled to over 90% capacity.

As coronavirus cases rise swiftly around the country, surpassing both the spring and summer surges, health officials brace for a coming wave of hospitalizations and deaths. Knowing which hospitals in which communities are reaching capacity could be key to an effective response to the growing crisis. That information is gathered by the federal government but not shared openly with the public.

NPR has obtained documents that give a snapshot of data the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services collects and analyzes daily. The documents reports sent to agency staffers highlight trends in hospitalizations and pinpoint cities nearing full hospital capacity and facilities under stress. They paint a granular picture of the strain on hospitals across the country that could help local citizens decide when to take extra precautions against COVID-19.

Withholding this information from the public and the research community is a missed opportunity to help prevent outbreaks and even save lives, say public health and data experts who reviewed the documents for NPR.

"At this point, I think it's reckless. It's endangering people," says Ryan Panchadsaram, co-founder of the website COVID Exit Strategy and a former data official in the Obama administration. "We're now in the third wave, and I think our only way out is really open, transparent and actionable information."

The documents show that detailed information hospitals report to HHS every day is reviewed and analyzed but circulation seems to be limited to a few dozen government staffers from HHS and its agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health, according to distribution lists reviewed by NPR. Only one member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Adm. Brett Giroir, appears to receive the documents directly.

"Our goal is to be as transparent as possible, while still protecting privacy," an HHS spokesperson wrote in an email to NPR. "HHS and the White House Coronavirus Task Force utilize hospital capacity data to gain greater insights into how COVID-19 is spreading and impacting the population, and to better inform response efforts like staff deployments and supply shipments."

What data is being collected and shared internally?

The daily reports show county, city and hospital-level details, as well as national analyses that HHS does not post online.

A page from a report shared internally to HHS staffers presents hospital data from Oct. 27, including a list of cities where hospital and ICU beds are filling up. HHS hide caption

For instance, the most recent report obtained by NPR, dated Oct 27, lists cities where hospitals are filling up, including the metro areas of Atlanta, Minneapolis and Baltimore, where in-patient hospital beds are over 80% full. It also lists specific hospitals reaching max capacity, including facilities in Tampa, Birmingham and New York that are at over 95% ICU capacity and at risk of running out of intensive care beds.

In reviewing the analysis obtained by NPR, Panchadsaram says the local and hospital-level data HHS is collecting would be very useful to researchers and health leaders. "That stuff isn't easy to find at a national level," he says. "There's no one place [publicly] you can go to get all that data."

Hospitalization data is invaluable in looking ahead to see where and when outbreaks are getting worse, says Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. "Right now, as we head into the fall and winter surge," Murray says, "we're trying to put more emphasis on predicting where systems will be overwhelmed."

But what's missing for this kind of planning, he says, is "exactly the information" that appears in the internal report.

NPR has reviewed several of these reports generated in the past month. They present trends in hospital use, including increases in ventilator usage, along with a growing number of inpatient and ICU beds being occupied by COVID-19 patients. The Oct. 27 report showed that all three measures have increased by 14%-16% in the past month.

About 24% of U.S. hospitals are using more than 80% of their ICU capacity, based on reporting from nearly 5,000 "priority facilities," and more hospitals have joined their ranks in recent weeks.

A page from a report shared internally to HHS staffers shows the rising percentage of hospital ICUs that are at or above 80% capacity. It reflects data as of Oct. 27. HHS hide caption

A page from a report shared internally to HHS staffers shows the rising percentage of hospital ICUs that are at or above 80% capacity. It reflects data as of Oct. 27.

Researchers say observing these trend lines can help the nation know how to prepare for surge and be ready to intervene before systems become overwhelmed.

Daily hospitalization numbers in particular are key measures for tracking pandemic hotspots, Murray says, because they reflect the number of severe COVID-19 cases in a community.

"The best possible measure of where we are in the pandemic, and the one we would want to anchor modeling to, is daily hospitalizations," he says, which give an early warning of deaths that will likely follow.

Panchadsaram's data-tracking site COVID Exit Strategy pulls state-level hospital capacity estimates from HHS when they're updated, which generally happens once a week. In reviewing the reports obtained by NPR, Panchadsaram says it's clear that vital data is flowing into HHS daily. "But sharing with the public seems to be an afterthought," he says.

Gaps in transparency for state and local leaders

HHS tells NPR that more than 800 state-level employees have access to the daily hospitalization data it gathers, but only for their own state, unless another state grants them permission to view its data.

Without a larger view into national or regional data, some states like Tennessee, which has eight bordering states are missing out on valuable regional data, says Melissa McPheeters, who directs the Center for Improving the Public's Health through Informatics at Vanderbilt University.

"Hospitals in Tennessee serve patients who are from Arkansas and Mississippi and Kentucky and Georgia and vice versa, and so we're a little bit blind to what's going on there," she says. "When we see hospitals that are particularly near those state borders having increases, one of the things we can't tell is: Is that because hospitals in an adjacent state are full? What's going on there? And that could be a really important piece of the picture."

Lisa M. Lee, former chief science officer for public health surveillance at the CDC, now at Virginia Tech, says the federal government could help states work together across borders.

"It's very challenging for states to get the multistate view of things," she says. "It's just a lot easier when there's a knowledgeable third-party who can pull the data together, make them consistent across states and actually tell the story of what the information shows." Typically, she says, this role would be fulfilled by the CDC, but the agency was stripped of its role in collecting COVID-19 hospital data in July.

This kind of visibility into data could help policymakers decide how best to curb the spread of the virus. McPheeters and colleagues at Vanderbilt put out a report this week that found that Tennessee counties without mask mandates had more rapid increases in hospitalizations. That kind of analysis and insight would be possible at a much larger scale if HHS shared more granular hospitalization data, she says.

It could influence behavior among the public, says Lee. "The neighborhood data, the county data and metro-area data can be really helpful for people to say, 'Whoa, they're not kidding, this is right here,'" she says. "It can help public health prevention folks get their messages across and get people to change their behavior."

A page from a report shared internally to HHS staffers shows a list of health care facilities where beds are filling up, reflecting data as of Oct. 27. HHS hide caption

A page from a report shared internally to HHS staffers shows a list of health care facilities where beds are filling up, reflecting data as of Oct. 27.

A controversial data switch

Experts who reviewed the internal documents for NPR say that even for the limited group of federal employees who get them, the daily reports are not as useful as they could be.

"We're so focused on counting things but not contextualizing them," explains McPheeters. A community hospital might become overwhelmed at a different point than a big academic hospital, and without that context, she says, it's impossible to tell: "Is 75% [full] a good thing or is 75% a bad thing?"

Health data experts NPR consulted had ideas on how to improve the analysis. For instance, Panchadsaram suggested that some of the county-level charts, currently presented as raw numbers, would be more useful if analyzed per capita. "You really need to adjust it to the number of people [in an area] to get a sense of where things are being overwhelmed," he says.

And the quality of the underlying data is a concern. Health experts say the data quality was compromised by a controversial shift in data collection from the CDC to HHS in July, and that the issues with data quality have not been fully resolved.

Hospitals have had to adjust to onerous new reporting requirements, and the hospital data is no longer checked and analyzed by seasoned epidemiologists and other experts at CDC.

The daily trend documents circulated at HHS include this disclaimer: "This analysis depends on the data reported by hospitals. To the extent that the data is missing or inaccurate, this analysis will also reflect those issues."

According to HHS data posted on Monday, just 62% of the nation's hospitals reported all the required information last week.

But greater transparency, even of incomplete data, can be invaluable in a crisis, experts say.

HHS told NPR that since it took over collecting hospital capacity data, it has "consistently displayed state-level hospitalization data to help inform the public about COVID-19 prevalence in their communities."

But public health experts say the state level data isn't detailed enough and since the government is putting the effort into generating more granular daily analyses, it should share them.

"Even though they're collecting all these things and putting so much effort behind it, it gets blocked when it tries to get out of the door," Panchadsaram says.

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Federal Documents Show Which Hospitals Are Filling Up With COVID Patients : Shots - Health News - NPR

Hospitalizations for COVID-19 in Maine ticked up in the past week, with a geographic pattern that parallels the wider distribution in new cases as the state experiences a record surge of positive tests.

Throughout the pandemic, COVID-19 inpatient admissions have been concentrated at major hospitals in Maines three southernmost counties. But this weeks increases were primarily at hospitals in other parts of the state, with an unprecedented number of small hospitals having inpatients at the same time.

The total number of COVID-19 inpatients statewide is still low compared to other states. The count stood at 17 Friday, according to Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, well below the peak of 60 on May 26. But the agency Friday reported a record-breaking 103 new cases of the disease, which is spreading at twice the rate of a month ago.

Its a strong warning for all of us, said Dr. Dora Anne Mills, chief health improvement officer at MaineHealth, the states largest hospital network and parent of Maine Medical Center. I would not say we are in a surge, but that we have all the ingredients for a surge and its baking.

We knew we would probably have a surge in the winter, she added, but I am concerned that all the ingredients are there and its still fall.

In a given week during the crisis, one or two of Maines smaller hospitals might have reported having a pandemic inpatient or two for a few days but would go weeks or even months without one. But this week many of these smaller hospitals had inpatients, including Franklin Memorial in Farmington, Waldo General in Belfast, York Hospital, Bridgton Hospital and A.R. Gould in Presque Isle.

PenBay Medical Center in Rockport and Rumford Hospital both had a higher average daily inpatient load than Maine Med this week, reporting 2 and 1.3 cases, respectively. In PenBays case, this weeks total of nightly COVID-19 inpatient counts 14 represented two-thirds of the hospitals total tally for the entire pandemic.

York Hospital had its busiest week since late August with 1.1 patients a day. Erich Fogg, who oversees COVID-19 testing at the hospital and its drive-thru rapid testing locate on Route 1, said it has also seen a steady rise in the proportion of tests coming back positive, with Thursdays total count of 80 being the largest daily figure yet. Were heading into a concerning trend line, he said.

Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor had its busiest week since July, averaging 1.7 COVID-19 inpatients a day for the period, while MaineGeneral in Augusta had 2.4 a day, its busiest week since the late May surge.

By contrast, Portlands hospitals were both unusually quiet for the week ending Thursday, with Maine Med reporting an average of only 0.9 patients per day, down from the low-to-mid 30s per day during the diseases peak surges in early April and late May. Mercy Hospital hasnt had a COVID-19 inpatient since Sept. 28.

The largest hospital in York County, Southern Maine Health Care Medical Center, also had 0.9 patients per day, while Mid Coast in Brunswick last had a COVID-19 inpatient on Oct. 2.

Androscoggin Countys major hospitals were quiet. Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston had 0.9 inpatients a day, less than half its burden in late September and the first half of October. Lewistons other hospital, St. Marys, had no COVID-19 inpatients at all for the period, whereas it had at least one every day from Sept. 26 to Oct. 19.

The window is getting narrower to get this under control, and its all in our hands, said Mills, a former director of the Maine CDC and younger sister of Gov. Janet Mills. Its the three Ws: Watch your distance, wear a mask, and wash your hands.

Hospitalizations are a lagging indicator in that they typically occur one to three weeks after a person is exposed to the disease, but unlike other metrics, it is not dependent on who and how many people were tested. They can end three ways: recovery, death or transfer to another facility.

The Press Heralds survey is for the seven days ending Oct. 29. It compiles data received directly from the hospitals and hospital networks. The data do not include outpatients or inpatients who were suspected of having the virus but never tested. The survey includes most of the states hospitals and accounts for the vast majority of the statewide hospitalizations reported each week by the Maine CDC.

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Originally posted here:

COVID-19 hospitalizations ticking up and spreading out in Maine as new cases soar - Press Herald

PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) 12 more South Dakotans have died from COVID-19, according to the latest update from the state department of health.

The death toll climbed to 415. The new deaths were four men and eight women. That makes 192 deaths in October, the deadliest month of the pandemic so far.

Active cases are now at 13,520, up from Thursday (12,462) and a new single-day record.

On Friday, 1,559 new coronavirus cases were announced, bringing the states total case count to 44,559, up from Thursday (43,000). There were 1,389 new PCR cases and 171 new antigen cases for 1,559 new total cases. Total recovered cases are now at 30,624, up from Thursday (30,135).

Total persons tested negative is now at 212,097, up from Thursday (210,514).

Current hospitalizations for COVID-19 are now at 403, down from Thursday (413). Total hospitalizations, which includes only South Dakota residents, is now at 2,660, up from Thursday (2,602).

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COVID-19 in South Dakota: 1,559 new total cases; Death toll rises to 415; Active cases at 13,520 - KELOLAND.com