Category: Corona Virus

Illinois health officials on Friday reported 19,244 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, along with 209additional deaths and over 251,000 new vaccine doses administered.

In all, 1,650,108 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the state since the pandemic began, according to the latest data from the Illinois Department of Public Health. The additional deaths reported this week bring the state to 25,224 confirmed COVID fatalities.

The state has administered 903,198 tests since last Friday, officials said, bringing the total to nearly 33 million tests conducted during the pandemic.

The states seven-day positivity rate on all tests dropped to 2.1% from last week 2.2% and 2.7% the week before, officials said. The rolling average seven-day positivity rate for cases as a percentage of total tests also dropped to 2.6% from 2.8% last week and 3.7% the week before.

Over the past seven days, a total of 251,287doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered to Illinois residents. The latest figures brought the states average down to 35,898 daily vaccination doses over the last week, per IDPH data.

More than 14.8 million vaccine doses have been administered in Illinois since vaccinations began in December. More than 54% of Illinois resident are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with more than 69% receiving at least one dose.

As of midnight Thursday, 1,653 patients were hospitalized due to COVID in the state. Of those patients, 412are in ICU beds, and 209are on ventilators.

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Coronavirus in Illinois: 19,244 New COVID Cases, 209 Deaths, 251K Vaccinations in the Past Week - NBC Chicago

The White House allocated an additional $1 billion to buy millions of rapid at-home COVID-19 tests earlier this week.

Why it matters: Rapid tests can quickly determine whether you're infected with COVID-19 and at risk of spreading it to others, but lack of funding and slow approval has led to a dire shortage.

Driving the news: White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeffrey Zients told reporters on Wednesday that the new funding as well as an additional $2 billion allocated in September will quadruple the number of available tests over the next few months.

How it works: Rapid antigen tests which can deliver results in as little as 15 minutes are particularly useful for the current moment.

The catch: In part because of that utility, however, rapid tests have become increasingly difficult to find.

What's next: This week, the FDA also authorized a new lab-based test from PerkinElmer that can detect COVID-19 as well as influenza and respiratory syncytial virus a capability that should be especially useful this winter.

More here:

The U.S. slowly catches up on rapid COVID-19 tests - Axios

This story will be updated.

Fivemore Mainers have died as health officials on Saturday reported another 600coronavirus cases across the state.

Saturdays report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 94,948,according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Thats up from 94,348 on Friday.

Of those, 67,648have been confirmed positive, while 27,290were classified as probable cases, the Maine CDC reported.

The statewide death toll now stands at 1,075.

The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 7,759. This is an estimation of the current number of active cases in the state, as the Maine CDC is no longer tracking recoveries for all patients. Thats down from 7,762 on Friday.

The new case rate statewide Saturday was 4.48 cases per 10,000 residents, and the total case rate statewide was 709.41.

Maines seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 500.7, down from 519.9 the day before, down from 609.9 a week ago and up from 357.6 a month ago. That average peaked on Jan. 14 at 625.3.

The most cases have been detected in Mainers younger than 20, while Mainers over 80 years old make up the majority of deaths. More cases have been recorded in women and more deaths in men.

So far, 2,590Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Additional information regarding those hospitalizations wasnt immediately available.

Cases have been reported in Androscoggin (10,099), Aroostook (3,521), Cumberland (20,859), Franklin (1,995), Hancock (2,474), Kennebec (9,055), Knox (1,739), Lincoln (1,666), Oxford (4,648), Penobscot (11,258), Piscataquis (1,215), Sagadahoc (1,840), Somerset (3,814), Waldo (2,170), Washington (1,602) and York (16,991) counties.Additional information about two cases was not immediately available.

As of Saturday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 44,291,158people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as caused 712,698deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

More articles from the BDN

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5 more Mainers have died and another 600 coronavirus cases reported across the state - Bangor Daily News

LONDONCoronavirus infections among schoolchildren in the U.K. have pushed daily caseloads to stubbornly high levels, a setback that underscores how Britain now trails many of its European neighbors on vaccination after staking out an early lead.

The U.K. began vaccinating teenagers in August, far later than in the U.S. and Europe, and decided to drop almost all public-health restrictions during the summer, amid optimism that vaccines had checked the fast-spreading Delta variant.

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Covid-19 Cases Rise in U.K. Schoolchildren, Whom the Nation Hesitated to Vaccinate - The Wall Street Journal

The bottom line is that the more often you use the tests, the better, said Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at Harvard and a proponent of rapid testing. (Dr. Mina advises Detect, Inc., a diagnostics company working on a rapid molecular test.) If you want to spend time with a medically vulnerable person, you should take a test a few days before seeing them, and then take another test on the day of the visit. Think about, How do I test as close as possible to the thing that Im doing? Dr. Mina said. When I go visit my parents, I always bring rapid tests with me. Right before I walk in the door, I use the test in my car.

Most of the time, a positive result means you have the coronavirus, particularly if you have symptoms. But false positives do happen. Recently, Ellume, an Australian company, recalled nearly 200,000 test kits because of concerns about a higher-than-expected rate of false positives.

If theres reason to doubt a positive result, take another test, preferably from a different manufacturer or at a testing center. People hosting large events, like weddings, and using the tests to screen guests should have a few extra tests on hand from a different brand for those guests who test positive. You can be confident in the result if the second test is negative, Dr. Mina said.

It would be really rare for someone to have a true positive and then have a second test show a false negative result, he said. If youre having a dinner, you may as well just cancel dinner if someone tests positive. But if its a high consequence event, like youre having a wedding and flying somewhere, and youre going to screen a few hundred people, you may get a false positive and want to test again.

Although supplies are expected to improve in the coming weeks, the tests can be difficult to find right now. Try the websites of stores like CVS, Walgreens, Costco or Walmart or check with a local drugstore. I recently searched the CVS website for a friend in New Jersey and found BinaxNow tests at a store about 30 minutes away. When he arrived, he found the shelves stacked with tests.

A word of warning: Make sure you search by brand name. If a store is sold out of a rapid test, the website may direct you to a different type of test, called a home collection test, that requires you to mail the sample to get the result. But hold out until you find a rapid test. The fact that they are rapid, Dr. Gronvall, of Johns Hopkins, said, is what makes them a really great test to make sure somebody is not infectious at that moment.

Read the rest here:

Covid Rapid At-Home Tests: How Accurate Are They and Other Questions Answered - The New York Times

RICHMOND, Va. -- The health department reported 18,831 more people tested positive for COVID-19 out of the +272,437 total tests processed over the past week. That brings Virginia's total number of coronavirus cases to 888,159.

As of Friday's update, 37,264 (+553 from the Friday before) people had been hospitalized and 13,075 (+269) people had died as a result of COVID-19-related illnesses, according to updated Virginia Department of Health (VDH) data.

Scroll down for complete city/county-by-county breakdown of COVID-19 cases in Virginia

These localities saw the biggest jumps (100 or more) in COVID-19 cases last week (Oct. 2-8):

Central Virginia

Chesterfield 38,072 ( +704 )Henrico 33,230 ( +442 )Richmond City 23,145 ( +341 )Hanover 11,257 ( +233 )Louisa 3,022 ( +116 )

Hampton Roads

Virginia Beach 48,362 ( +682 )Chesapeake 27,861 ( +403 )Norfolk 23,629 ( +321 )Newport News 19,864 ( +356 )Hampton 14,554 ( +215 )Portsmouth 12,213 ( +220 )James City 6,714 ( +168 )Suffolk 10,518 ( +180 )

Northern Virginia

Fairfax 89,473 ( +862 )Prince William 53,386 ( +581 )Loudoun 33,175 ( +310 )Spotsylvania 14,266 ( +332 )Stafford 15,332 ( +273 )Arlington 18,046 ( +212 )Alexandria 13,850 ( +148 )

Additional Localities:

Frederick 11,045 ( +314 )Roanoke City 11,583 ( +258 )Augusta 9,836 ( +260 )Roanoke County 11,242 ( +260 )Bedford 9,485 ( +220 )Lynchburg 11,435 ( +238 )Pittsylvania 7,696 ( +192 )Smyth 4,493 ( +191 )Washington 7,192 ( +191 )Shenandoah 5,995 ( +171 )Wise 4,883 ( +171 )Rockingham 8,930 ( +156 )Fauquier 6,636 ( +151 )Campbell 6,852 ( +146 )Henry 6,129 ( +141 )Montgomery 11,458 ( +135 )Danville 6,020 ( +131 )Salem 3,224 ( +128 )Warren 4,680 ( +126 )Albemarle 7,709 ( +123 )Botetourt 3,586 ( +118 )Franklin County 5,724 ( +116 )Russell 3,555 ( +113 )Wythe 4,255 ( +106 )Page 3,201 ( +102 )Pulaski 3,861 ( +102 )Harrisonburg 8,027 ( +101 )Carroll 3,686 ( +100 )Culpeper 6,196 ( +100 )

City/County-by-County Breakdown of Cases (Oct. 2-8)

Accomack 3,892 ( +76 )Albemarle 7,709 ( +123 )Alexandria 13,850 ( +148 )Alleghany 2,014 ( +53 )Amelia 1,332 ( +22 )Amherst 4,178 ( +61 )Appomattox 2,304 ( +46 )Arlington 18,046 ( +212 )Augusta 9,836 ( +260 )

Bath 429 ( +9 )Bedford 9,485 ( +220 )Bland 1,037 ( +14 )Botetourt 3,586 ( +118 )Bristol 2,191 ( +27 )Brunswick 1,741 ( +33 )Buchanan 2,230 ( +69 )Buckingham 2,577 ( +51 )Buena Vista City 1,207 ( +32 )

Campbell 6,852 ( +146 )Caroline 3,702 ( +83 )Carroll 3,686 ( +100 )Charles City 653 ( +3 )Charlotte 1,203 ( +27 )Charlottesville 5,175 ( +59 )Chesapeake 27,861 ( +403 )Chesterfield 38,072 ( +704 )Clarke 1,296 ( +23 )Colonial Heights 2,492 ( +57 )Covington 731 ( +2 )Craig 501 ( +25 )Culpeper 6,196 ( +100 )Cumberland 690 ( +9 )

Danville 6,020 ( +131 )Dickenson 1,518 ( +64 )Dinwiddie 2,993 ( +72 )

Emporia 851 ( +10 )Essex 1,169 ( +24 )

Fairfax 89,473 ( +862 )Fairfax City 638 ( +4 )Falls Church 530 ( +8 )Fauquier 6,636 ( +151 )Floyd 1,341 ( +24 )Fluvanna 2,506 ( +54 )Franklin City 1,569 ( +49 )Franklin County 5,724 ( +116 )Frederick 11,045 ( +314 )Fredericksburg 2,949 ( +61 )

Galax 1,451 ( +14 )Giles 2,131 ( +48 )Gloucester 3,722 ( +81 )Goochland 1,910 ( +34 )Grayson 1,965 ( +31 )Greene 2,106 ( +69 )Greensville 1,837 ( +19 )

Halifax 3,677 ( +99 )Hampton 14,554 ( +215 )Hanover 11,257 ( +233 )Harrisonburg 8,027 ( +101 )Henrico 33,230 ( +442 )Henry 6,129 ( +141 )Highland 165 ( +4 )Hopewell 3,595 ( +59 )

Isle of Wight 4,263 ( +99 )

James City 6,714 ( +168 )

King and Queen 592 ( +11 )King George 2,477 ( +81 )King William 1,812 ( +38 )

Lancaster 1,038 ( +17 )Lee 3,538 ( +85 )Lexington 1,525 ( +19 )Loudoun 33,175 ( +310 )Louisa 3,022 ( +116 )Lunenburg 1,025 ( +20 )Lynchburg 11,435 ( +238 )

Madison 940 ( +29 )Manassas City 4,942 ( +68 )Manassas Park 1,262 ( +3 )Martinsville 1,955 ( +25 )Mathews 866 ( +16 )Mecklenburg 3,260 ( +95 )Middlesex 914 ( +21 )Montgomery 11,458 ( +135 )

Nelson 1,274 ( +32 )New Kent 2,215 ( +66 )Newport News 19,864 ( +356 )Norfolk 23,629 ( +321 )Northampton 1,110 ( +24 )Northumberland 1,147 ( +11 )Norton 527 ( +22 )Nottoway 2,505 ( +24 )

Orange 3,481 ( +96 )

Page 3,201 ( +102 )Patrick 1,937 ( +46 )Petersburg 5,118 ( +73 )Pittsylvania 7,696 ( +192 )Poquoson 1,271 ( +42 )Portsmouth 12,213 ( +220 )Powhatan 2,687 ( +83 )Prince Edward 2,830 ( +48 )Prince George 4,783 ( +89 )Prince William 53,386 ( +581 )Pulaski 3,861 ( +102 )

Radford 2,832 ( +20 )Rappahannock 538 ( +18 )Richmond City 23,145 ( +341 )Richmond County 1,676 ( +34 )Roanoke City 11,583 ( +258 )Roanoke County 11,242 ( +260 )Rockbridge 2,008 ( +35 )Rockingham 8,930 ( +156 )Russell 3,555 ( +113 )

Salem 3,224 ( +128 )Scott 2,874 ( +88 )Shenandoah 5,995 ( +171 )Smyth 4,493 ( +191 )Southampton 2,331 ( +49 )Spotsylvania 14,266 ( +332 )Stafford 15,332 ( +273 )Staunton 3,279 ( +58 )Suffolk 10,518 ( +180 )Surry 575 ( +10 )Sussex 1,507 ( +24 )

Tazewell 5,453 ( +77 )

Virginia Beach 48,362 ( +682 )

Warren 4,680 ( +126 )Washington 7,192 ( +191 )Waynesboro 3,351 ( +69 )Westmoreland 1,726 ( +39 )Williamsburg 1,105 (+23)Winchester 3,618 ( +34 )Wise 4,883 ( +171 )Wythe 4,255 ( +106 )

York 5,211 ( +99 )

VDH

Who's getting sick

The coronavirus first most impacted people aged 50 to 69, which currently accounts for 23.1% of cases in Virginia.

However, people in their 20s now account for 19% of cases in the state.

Additionally, people aged 30 to 49 are 30.9% of cases, data show.

And stats show children and teens account for 18.5% of cases.

More women have been infected by the virus at 458,540 cases versus the 423,094 cases reported in men. No gender was reported for 6,525 cases in the Commonwealth.

WTVR

Virginians age 12+ are eligible for COVID-19 vaccine. Pre-registration is no longer required, so go to Vaccine Finder to search for specific vaccines available near you or call 877-VAX-IN-VA (877-275-8343).

Have You Been Fully Vaccinated?

People are considered fully vaccinated:

Virginia Department of Health

How to Protect Yourself and Others When Youve Been Fully Vaccinated

COVID-19 vaccines are effective at protecting you from getting sick. Based on what we know about COVID-19 vaccines, people who have been fully vaccinated can start to do some things that they had stopped doing because of the pandemic.

Were still learning how vaccines will affect the spread of COVID-19. After youve been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, you should keep taking precautionslike wearing a mask, staying 6 feet apart from others, and avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spacesin public places until we know more.

These recommendations can help you make decisions about daily activities after you are fully vaccinated.

They are not intended for healthcare settings.Click here for more information from the Virginia Department of Health.

Depend on CBS 6 News and WTVR.com for the most complete coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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County-by-county look at COVID-19 cases in Virginia; which areas saw biggest spikes this week - wtvr.com

RICHMOND, Va. -- In an effort to provide accurate, easy-to-read information on the COVID-19 pandemic and on-going vaccination efforts, WTVR.com will update this post weekly with statistics from the Virginia Department of Health.

COVID-19 IN VIRGINIA (Scroll to bottom for U.S. stats)

Positive COVID-19 Cases Since Start of Pandemic: 888,159 (+18,831 from last Friday)People Hospitalized Since Start of Pandemic: 37,264 (+553 from last Friday)COVID-19-Linked Deaths Since Start of Pandemic: 13,075 (+269 from last Friday)

Total Tests: 13,127,263 (+272,437 from last Friday)All Health Districts Current 7-Day Positivity Rate Total: 8.2% (Down from 9.0% last Friday)

People Vaccinated with at least One Dose: 5,830,729 (+46,370 from last Friday)% of Population with at least One Dose: 68.3% (Up from 67.8% last Friday) People Fully Vaccinated: 5,196,313 (+50,920 from last Friday)% of Population Fully Vaccinated: 60.9% (Up from 60.3% last Friday)

Click here for complete city/county-by-county breakdown of COVID-19 cases in Virginia

NOTE: This update data is provided from the Virginia Department of Health daily at 10 a.m. Officials said their cutoff for data is 5 p.m. the previous day. (Cases/testing data is now available Monday-Friday while vaccination data is updated seven days a week.) Get the latest charts and updated numbers from VDH here.

**Scroll down for week-to-week COVID cases comparison**

WTVR

VACCINATE VIRGINIA: Virginians age 12+ are eligible for COVID-19 vaccine. Register for the COVID-19 vaccine on the Vaccinate Virginia website or call 877-VAX-IN-VA (877-275-8343). You can also search for specific vaccines as well as which ones are available near you via the Vaccine Finder website.

VACCINE SUPPLY USAGE

COMPLETE COVERAGE: COVID-19 HEADLINES (App users, click here for a complete list.)

Coronavirus

The Associated Press

9:30 PM, Oct 09, 2021

Coronavirus

WTVR CBS 6 Web Staff

9:03 PM, Oct 09, 2021

Local News

The Associated Press

3:14 PM, Oct 08, 2021

Coronavirus

WTVR CBS 6 Web Staff

3:01 PM, Oct 08, 2021

Coronavirus

WTVR CBS 6 Web Staff

11:16 AM, Oct 08, 2021

Coronavirus

WTVR CBS 6 Web Staff

9:49 AM, Oct 08, 2021

National News

Alex Hider

9:27 AM, Oct 08, 2021

Coronavirus

WPTV Staff

8:06 AM, Oct 08, 2021

National News

KERO Staff

3:41 PM, Oct 07, 2021

National Politics

Scripps National

3:04 PM, Oct 07, 2021

Coronavirus

Cameron Thompson

2:34 PM, Oct 07, 2021

Coronavirus

KXXV Staff

2:24 PM, Oct 07, 2021

Coronavirus

Scripps National

12:42 PM, Oct 07, 2021

Coronavirus

WTVR CBS 6 Web Staff

11:25 AM, Oct 07, 2021

Coronavirus

WTVR CBS 6 Web Staff

11:19 AM, Oct 07, 2021

Coronavirus

The Associated Press & Scripps National

9:17 AM, Oct 07, 2021

Coronavirus

Alex Hider

8:31 AM, Oct 07, 2021

Coronavirus

The Associated Press & Scripps National

3:04 AM, Oct 07, 2021

National News

Scripps National

7:55 PM, Oct 06, 2021

National News

Tomas Hoppough

4:50 PM, Oct 06, 2021

Buddy Check 6

Reba Hollingsworth

3:49 PM, Oct 06, 2021

Coronavirus

Sarah Dewberry

2:48 PM, Oct 06, 2021

Coronavirus

Scripps National

2:08 PM, Oct 06, 2021

Coronavirus

Tyler Layne

1:57 PM, Oct 06, 2021

TRACKING COVID IN VIRGINIA: WEEK-BY-WEEK COMPARISON

Week of Oct. 4-8 Positive COVID-19 Cases : +18,831People Hospitalized: +553 COVID-19-Linked Deaths: +269

Week of Sept. 27-Oct. 1 Positive COVID-19 Cases : +19,463People Hospitalized: +579COVID-19-Linked Deaths: +295

Week of Sept. 20-24Positive COVID-19 Cases : +22,668 People Hospitalized: +718COVID-19-Linked Deaths: +269

Week of Sept. 13-17Positive COVID-19 Cases : +25,370 People Hospitalized: +718COVID-19-Linked Deaths: +233

Week of Sept. 6-10Positive COVID-19 Cases : +23,660People Hospitalized: +670COVID-19-Linked Deaths: +137

Week of Aug. 30 - Sept. 3

Positive COVID-19 Cases : +23,515People Hospitalized: +682 COVID-19-Linked Deaths: +130

Week of Aug. 23-27

Positive COVID-19 Cases: +20,573 People Hospitalized: +674 COVID-19-Linked Deaths: +122

Week of Aug. 16-20

Positive COVID-19 Cases: +16,253 People Hospitalized: +577 COVID-19-Linked Deaths: +48

Week of Aug. 9-13

Positive COVID-19 Case: +13,162 People Hospitalized: +465 COVID-19-Linked Deaths : +41

Week of Aug. 2-6

Positive COVID-19 Cases: +10,280 People Hospitalized: +292 COVID-19-Linked Deaths: +26

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COVID-19 in Virginia: 18,800+ new cases reported this week; 60.9% of Virginians now fully vaccinated - wtvr.com

The deaths occurred when an assault amphibious vehicle, or AAV, sank near San Clemente Island on July 30, 2020, during a 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) training exercise. A number of Marine officers, including the commander of the 1st Marine Division, Maj. Gen. Robert Castellvi were removed from their positions after the incident.Poor communication and human errors also played a role in the accident that Marine leaders have called "preventable."

Lt. Gen. Carl Mundy, who conducted the Marine Corps investigation, wrote that the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit "did not receive forces that were optimally trained and equipped to the required standards." But rather than pointing to any one failure or decision that led to the accident, Mundy highlighted a "confluence of factors" that contributed to the fatal incident.

In an already challenging environment, the coronavirus pandemic made it even more difficult to train and prepare for amphibious exercises. Mundy said the "leadership and staff oversight required to receive, interpret, and apply the evolving COVID policy guidance was immense," adding "layers of complexity" to the normal operations of I Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF).

The coronavirus pandemic created a series of changing and often confusing COVID precautions and restrictions and forced the cancellation of exercises in the months before the accident.

It was one of a series of factors that combined to ultimately lead to the sinking of the AAV on July 30, 2020.

A group of AAVs were moving from the USS Somerset to San Clemente Island and on the return trip, four AAVs were delayed for five hours because of a mechanical failure on one of the vehicles, a previous investigation found. When the AAVs did enter the ocean, one began taking on water from multiple spots, as the transmission failed and bilge pumps were overwhelmed, causing the vehicle to sink.

The vehicle commander issued a distress signal, but it took 45 minutes for another AAV to pull alongside to assist. The two AAVs collided, which forced the accident vehicle to turn towards a swell. A wave swept over the vehicle, into the open hatch, and the vehicle sank rapidly.

In the 4-month period leading up to the accident, 11 of the 14 AAVs were not operational at some point, highlighting the need for additional maintenance and inspections. Meanwhile, Mundy said a formal evaluation of waterborne operations of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit "would likely have revealed training gaps and deficiencies." Not all of the Marines had completed underwater egress training before the accident.

The readiness of the platoon was "below the expectations of a platoon preparing to deploy with a MEU, largely due to a lack of time to receive and work on their vehicles prior to composite."

The Navy investigation led to clarifications on the requirements for safety boats, which took too long to reach the sinking AAV at the time, as well as improvements to communication between the Marines and the Navy.

"The Navy and Marine Corps learned from this tragedy and we are codifying the lessons we have learned as an organization so that the deaths of these Marines and Sailor are not in vain," said Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener, Commander, Naval Surface Force, US Pacific Fleet. "We are reworking procedures and doctrine, clarifying aspects of amphibious operations, and instituting new training requirements to prevent future tragedies."

CNN's Chandelis Duster contributed to this report.

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Coronavirus pandemic and poor training contributed to a 2020 accident at sea that killed 9 US service members investigations say - CNN

Senior health officials who war-gamed the impact of a coronavirus hitting the UK, warned four years before the onset of Covid-19 of the need for stockpiles of PPE, a computerised contact tracing system and screening for foreign travellers, the Guardian can reveal.

The calls to step up preparations in areas already identified as shortcomings in the governments response to Covid, emerged from a previously unpublished report of a health planning exercise in February 2016 that imagined a coronavirus outbreak.

It was commissioned by Dame Sally Davies, then chief medical officer, who attended alongside officials from NHS England, the Department of Health, Public Health England, and observers from the devolved administrations.

The participants imagined cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) arriving in London and Birmingham and spreading rapidly resulting in a large scale outbreak. Like Covid, MERS causes potentially fatal respiratory illness and can spread asymptomatically; there were no known treatments or vaccines.

Government ministers have previously stressed that pandemic planning focused more on flu so did not prepare the UK for the demands a coronavirus placed on PPE, hospitals and care homes.

The disclosure of the 23-page report on Exercise Alice is set to trigger fresh scrutiny of the adequacy of UK preparations.

In August the government refused to release the file saying it could lead to loss of public confidence in the governments and the NHS Covid-19 response based on misinterpretation of the report.

However, the file was released on Thursday under freedom of information laws to Dr Moosa Qureshi, a clinician campaigning for greater transparency around the governments preparedness for the pandemic, which has claimed more than 137,417 lives so far, according to the governments own figures.

Qureshi is posting official documents about pandemic preparation exercises he has obtained so far online.

Some of the key issues raised in the report became problems in the early weeks of the Covid pandemic. In March 2020 nurses and care workers reported chronic shortages of PPE leading to fears they were spreading the virus more than was necessary. This led to a scramble for the right equipment as deaths and cases increased.

The UK government also continued to allow people to enter the country unscreened from Covid hotspots, such as China and Italy, despite the recommendations in Exercise Alice.

Health officials involved in the 2016 coronavirus exercise believed levels of PPE were of crucial importance for frontline staff and pandemic stockpiles were suggested as a means to ensure sufficient quantities were available.

They also explicitly called for consideration of port of entry screening to restrict the spread of the virus from abroad, and for health officials to produce an options plan using extant evidence and cost benefits for quarantine versus self-isolation for a range of contact types, including symptomatic, asymptomatic and high risk groups.

The exercise also raised concerns that the UK needed better systems ready to trace the contacts of people who had the virus. They suggested a web-based tool a live database of contacts with classifications, current state and other data germane to the situation.

In the event the UK government launched its NHS test-and-trace service on 28 May 2020 more than two months after the first lockdown and long after the 1,000-a-day peak of the first wave of fatalities.

Even by the summer of 2020 Test and Trace was failing to contact thousands of people in areas with the highest infection rates in England, with the proportion of close contacts of infected people being reached far below the 80% level considered necessary for such a system to be effective.

Qureshi said: Disgracefully, the government covered up Exercise Alice a coronavirus exercise which predicted the importance of isolating patients, contact tracing, PPE provision, trained personnel and adequate NHS beds.

The fact that Covid-19 is a novel type of coronavirus is irrelevant, every pandemic is different. But the lessons of Exercise Alice were generally applicable to coronaviruses including Covid-19, they were agreed by general consensus, and both political leaders and NHS England executives failed to implement that consensus.

The report also called for the government to enter into sleeping contracts to allow rapid trials of vaccines and therapies and guidelines for how clinicians should prioritise specialist treatments, for example oxygenation.

Tessa Gregory, partner at Leigh Day, the law firm which has represented Qureshi, said the government must now disclose what follow up action was taken and why matters such as a proper working contact tracing system had not already been set up.

Pandemic planning exercises which have previously emerged have dealt with preparations for other kinds of infections. A report into the three-day Exercise Cygnus, in 2016, which was leaked to the Guardian in May 2020, revealed problems with preparations for a flu pandemic rather than coronavirus infection.

Lord Bethell, then health minister, told parliament at the time: It was a trial run for a flu pandemic, not of the kind that Covid produced, and the demands on PPE, the health sector and the care sector were more profound than the flu pandemic trials prepared us for.

Yet Exercise Alice had already concluded: There was a general consensus on the need to identify capacity and capability of assets within the health system. Assets in this context would be all resources that would be required to effectively respond to a MERS-CoV outbreak such as trained personnel, appropriate PPE in sufficient quantities and the requisite beds with suitable clinical equipment.

In 2019, a separate confidential Cabinet Office briefing warned ministers of the potentially catastrophic consequences of a pandemic, and included analysis of a viral flu.

Exercise Alice, focusing specifically on a coronavirus, adds to the weight of evidence that Covid was not a bolt from the blue.

In May, after months of defying calls from campaigners, the government finally agreed to convene a statutory public inquiry into its handling of the pandemic, saying it would begin in spring 2022.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care stressed MERS differed from SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, and said Exercise Alice was not a coronavirus pandemic preparedness exercise.

MERS-CoV does not transmit as easily as SARS-CoV-2 between people, outbreak sizes are comparatively small and the risk to individuals in the UK remains very low, they said.

The results of Exercise Alice have been incorporated into ongoing planning work conducted by DHSC, UKHSA and the NHS to respond to potential outbreaks of high consequence infectious diseases like MERS-CoV.

They added: We have always been clear that there will be opportunities to look back, analyse and reflect on all aspects of Covid-19, and a full statutory independent inquiry is due to begin in spring 2022.

See the original post here:

Coronavirus report warned of impact on UK four years before pandemic - The Guardian

Schools with COVID-19 cases have steadily grown since the academic year began. A month ago, just six buildings had reported five or more cases in students or staff.

Both Dakota and Washington counties have 19 buildings with outbreaks and Ramsey has 14 schools reporting outbreaks.

School-age children have the highest rate of new cases with the 10- to 14-year-old age group seeing a 10.7% positivity rate over the last week. School kids accounted for about 26% of the nearly 21,000 new infections recorded in the last week.

Most children are not eligible to be vaccinated. Those who are, age 12 and older, have some of the lowest rates of vaccination in the state with less than 60% receiving at least one dose.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends masks be worn indoors in all of Minnesotas 87 counties because community transmission of the coronavirus is so high. However, while there are virus mitigation recommendations from the state, there is no statewide mask mandate.

There were also 32 COVID-19 fatalities reported Thursday, Oct. 7. The latest deaths to be reported ranged in age from their early 30s to their early 90s with 21 residing in private homes and 11 in long-term care.

Eighteen of the deaths occurred in October, 13 in September and one in March. The death toll is 8,275 since the pandemic began with 4,668 fatalities in long-term care.

Cases in long-term care continue to grow even though almost 94% of seniors have gotten at least one dose of vaccine. There are 338 facilities where at least one resident or staff has tested positive, up from 309 a week ago.

Minnesota added new 2,674 coronavirus cases Thursday, the result of about 42,000 tests. There have been 732,001 infections diagnosed since the pandemic began in March 2020.

The rate of test positivity, new cases and hospitalizations continues to grow. There are 881 patients hospitalized including 234 in critical condition.

Parts of the state continue to experience hospital bed shortages, typically because of insufficient staff.

Health officials say the best way to avoid a severe illness and to slow the spread of COVID-19 is to get vaccinated. Breakthrough cases are on the rise, but about 99% of the 3.1 million fully vaccinated Minnesotans have not reported a breakthrough infection.

Minnesota has administered 6.4 million doses of vaccine and 3.4 million have gotten at least one shot. About 73% of eligible residents, age 12 and older, have gotten at least one shot.

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More than 400 Minnesota schools have COVID-19 outbreaks - Grand Forks Herald