Category: Corona Virus

REPUBLIC, Wash. -- About 10% of the population of Republic, a small city in north-central Washington, has tested positive for COVID-19 in an outbreak traced to large indoor events last month at the local Fraternal Order of Eagles hall.

Ferry County Memorial Hospital officials have confirmed more than 100 cases, with one reported death, since the April 9-11 events, including a membership drive that featured dinner, live music and a 1980s-themed karaoke night.

Some patients have had to be transferred to Wenatchee and Yakima because of a lack of capacity. Less than one-quarter of the countys residents have received a vaccine, according to the health district, but officials said the outbreak has increased interest in it.

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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

India wants to vaccinate all adults; sets record 400,000 daily virus cases

Olympic torch relay detour; diving test event opens in Tokyo

Las Vegas hitting jackpot with return of pandemic-weary visitors

London to Delhi stationary biking raises cash for Indias virus crisis

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Follow more of APs pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

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HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

CARTHAGE, Mo. A gathering that traditionally has drawn tens of thousands of Vietnamese Catholics from across the U.S. to southwest Missouri has been canceled for a second straight year because of the pandemic.

The Joplin Globe reports that the city of Carthage and the Congregation of the Mother of the Redeemer in Carthage have decided that the risk of COVID-19 transmission is still too great to hold the Marian Days celebration. Before 2020, the event had taken place in the city every year since 1978, reuniting families and friends separated after the fall of Saigon.

The Rev. John Paul Tai Tran, provincial minister of the congregation, said the decision not to hold the celebration during the first week of August was again difficult.

Our people come from all over and there are a lot of states in the U.S. where the cases of infection are still booming, he said.

Carthage police Chief Greg Dagnan said the leaders of the congregation met with city officials Tuesday about the event but had pretty much decided beforehand that it would still be too dangerous.

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NEW DELHI India has opened vaccinations to all adults in hopes of taming a monstrous spike in COVID-19 infections.

The worlds largest maker of vaccines is still short of critical supplies the result of lagging manufacturing and raw material shortages. Those factors delayed the rollout in several states.

Only a fraction of Indias population likely can afford the prices charged by private hospitals for the shot. That means states and the federal government will be in charge of immunizing 900 million Indian adults.

India set another global record Saturday with 401,993 daily cases, taking its tally to more than 19.1 million. There were 3,523 confirmed deaths in the past 24 hours, raising the overall death toll to 211,853, according to the Health Ministry.

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BEIJING Chinese tourists are expected to make a total of 18.3 million railway passenger trips on the first day of Chinas international labor day holiday.

Thats according to an estimate by Chinas state railway group. The start to the five-day holiday on Saturday included tourists rushing to travel domestically now that the coronavirus has been brought under control in China.

May Day is offering the first long break for Chinese tourists since the start of the year. A domestic outbreak of the coronavirus before the Lunar New Year holidays in February cancelled travel plans for many after the government advised people to refrain from traveling.

Border closures and travel restrictions mean tourists are traveling domestically.

China in recent weeks reported almost no cases of locally transmitted infections. Vaccinations in China, where over 240 million doses of the vaccine have been administered, have boosted confidence about travel.

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VATICAN CITY Pope Francis led a special prayer service in St. Peters Basilica on Saturday evening to invoke the end of the pandemic.

Francis, wearing white robes, sat in a chair and fingered the beads of a rosary, while about 200 people, including young children, sat spaced apart according to coronavirus safety protocols and recited the prayers aloud.

The pope prayed that this hard trial end and that a horizon of hope and peace return.

Every day, for the rest of the month, various Catholic sanctuaries in the world dedicated to the Virgin Mary will take turns holding a similar rosary service. The initiative ends on May 31, when Francis will lead the rosary recitation in the Vatican Gardens.

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TOKYO The Tokyo Olympics torch relay will take another detour this weekend when it enters the southern island of Okinawa.

A leg of the relay on Okinawas resort island of Miyakojima has been canceled with coronavirus cases surging in Japan. Other legs on Okinawa will take place. A 17-day state of emergency went into effect on April 25 in some areas in Japan.

Organizers on Saturday say six people helping with traffic control on April 27 in the southern prefecture of Kagoshima had tested positive. Two were identified as men in their 20s and 30s. This brings the total number of positive tests on the relay to eight, according to organizers.

The relay is made up of a convoy of about a dozen vehicles with sponsors names festooned on them: Coca-Cola, Toyota, and Nippon Life Insurance. The torch bearer follows, each running for a few minutes, before giving the flame to the next runner who awaits holding another torch.

Meanwhile in Tokyo, a six-day diving event, opened with 225 athletes from 46 countries but no fans. The Olympics are scheduled to open on July 23.

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PHOENIX -- Arizona reported 1,047 confirmed daily cases on Saturday, the largest single-day increase in three weeks amid slowing in deaths.

The cases and 14 additional deaths reported by the state increased Arizonas totals to 863,571 confirmed cases and 17,388 confirmed deaths.

The COVID-19-related hospitalizations in recent days hovered above 600, with 635 on Friday. The range was 500 to 600 during most of April, according to the state. The numbers remain well below the pandemic peak of 5,082 on Jan. 11.

Arizonas seven-day rolling average of daily cases rose in the past two weeks from 624 on April 15 to 736 on Thursday. The states rolling average of daily deaths dropped from 16 to 12 during the same period, according to Johns Hopkins University.

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LAS VEGAS Las Vegas has increased its casino capacity and more pandemic-weary tourists are arriving at the entertainment city.

Casino capacity on the Strip increased to 80% and person-to-person distancing drops to 3 feet on Saturday. The boom began in mid-March when casino occupancy went from 35% to 50% under state health guidelines.

Among the first arrivals were people ages 60 and older who were recently vaccinated with time and disposable income. Analysts said pent-up demand, available hotel rooms and $1,400 pandemic recovery checks from the federal government have contributed to the rush.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority tallied more than 2.2 million visitors in March. The figure was down 40% from March 2019. Casinos closed from mid-March to early June last year, helping to drive the Nevada jobless rate in April above 30% -- the highest in any state. The current state rate is 8.1%.

Gov. Steve Sisolak has set a June 1 target for lifting nearly all coronavirus mitigation restrictions statewide. Mask mandates will remain in place indefinitely.

There have been 315,000 reported cases and 5,464 confirmed deaths in Nevada. The majority were reported in the Las Vegas area, where most people in the state live.

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WASHINGTON Mississippi has the lowest vaccination rate in the U.S., with less than 31% of its population receiving at least one anti-coronavirus shot.

Alabama, Louisiana, Idaho and Wyoming are the next four, according to an Associated Press analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

Those states vote reliably Republican in presidential races. So Republican leaders are stepping up efforts to persuade their supporters to get the shot, at times combating misinformation.

The five states with the highest vaccination rates backed Democrat Joe Biden in November. New Hampshire leads the nation with 60% of its population receiving at least one dose, followed by Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut and Maine

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PARIS Workers and union leaders have dusted off bullhorns and flags that had stayed furled during coronavirus lockdowns for boisterous May Day marches.

In countries that mark May 1 as International Labor Day, workers clamored Saturday for more labor protections and financial support in the midst of the pandemic that has impacted workplaces and economies.

In Turkey and the Philippines, police cracked down on May Day protests, enforcing virus lockdowns.

For labor leaders, the annual celebration of workers rights was a test of their ability to mobilize people in the face of the pandemics profound disruptions.

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NAIROBI Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta loosened infection-control measures Saturday after the number of coronavirus cases in the country dropped from an early spring surge.

Kenyatta announced in his May Day speech that a nightly curfew will move to 10 p.m., following a 72% reduction in new cases. On March 26, 2020, the president ordered the year-long curfew to start at 8 p.m. and prohibited travel in and out of five areas, including Nairobi. That ban also has been lifted.

Kenyatta says the government is allowing church services to resume at one-third capacity and restaurants can serve food on their premises instead of only takeout orders.

Sports events will resume under regulations issued by the Ministry of Health, he says.

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WARSAW Thousands lined for hours Saturday to get immunized with the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine in hopes of engaging in activities and travel.

Polish authorities decided to use the long national holiday weekend to make shots more widely available.

Temporary vaccination sites were set up in Polands 16 main cities to speed up the immunization of the nation of some 38 million, where the rate of coronavirus infections and deaths was recently among Europes highest. Each site is equipped and staffed to vaccine 90 people per hour.

People waiting in line in Warsaw say they believed the vaccine will return some degree of normalcy to their lives. Lukasz Durajski, a doctor at the Warsaw location, says the massive public response was very good news.

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GENEVA The World Health Organization has given the go-ahead for emergency use of Modernas COVID-19 vaccine.

The mRNA vaccine from the U.S. manufacturer joins vaccines from AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson in receiving the WHOs emergency use listing. Similar approvals for Chinas Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines are expected in the coming days and weeks, WHO has said.

The greenlight for Modernas vaccine, announced late Friday, took many months because of delays WHO faced in getting data from the manufacturer.

Many countries without their own advanced medical regulatory and assessment offices rely on the WHO listing to decide whether to use vaccines. U.N. childrens agency UNICEF also uses the listing to deploy vaccines in an emergency like the pandemic.

The announcement isnt likely to have an immediate impact on supplies of Modernas vaccine for the developing world. The company struck supply agreements with many rich countries, which have already received millions of doses.

In a statement Friday, CEO Stephane Bancel said Moderna was actively participating in discussions with multilateral organizations, such as COVAX, to help protect populations around the world.

Hes referring to a U.N.-backed program to ship COVID-19 vaccines to many low- and middle-income countries.

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NEW DELHI A fire in a COVID-19 hospital ward in western India killed 18 patients early Saturday, as the country grappling with the worst outbreak yet steps up a vaccination drive for all its adults even though some states say dont have enough jabs.

India on Saturday set yet another daily global record with 401,993 new cases, taking its tally to more than 19.1 million. Another 3,523 people died in the past 24 hours, raising the overall deaths to 211,853, according to the Health Ministry. Experts believe both figures are an undercount.

The fire broke out in a COVID-19 ward on the ground floor and was extinguished within an hour, police said. The cause is being investigated.

Thirty-one other patients at the Welfare Hospital in Bharuch, a town in Gujarat state, were rescued by hospital workers and firefighters and their condition was stable, said police officer B.M Parmar. Eighteen others died in the blaze and smoke before rescuers could reach them, Parmar said.

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ISLAMABAD Pakistans COVID-19 death toll is nearing 18,000 as the countrys continues to suffer through its third infection wave of the pandemic.

The military-backed federal body charged with controlling the spread of the coronavirus reported 146 more daily deaths. The number reported Saturday brings Pakistans overall death toll in the pandemic to 17,957.

Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar has warned citizens that the number of critically ill COVID-19 patients is rapidly increasing and the next few weeks are very critical for impoverished Pakistan.

He urged people to strictly adhere to social distancing rules to help the governments efforts to limit infections.

Pakistan has deployed troops in high-risk cities to stop people from violating social distancing rules and to close business at early evenings. Offices are also working with reduced staffs and for shorter hours.

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Originally posted here:

The Latest: 10% of Washington town positive for COVID-19 - The Associated Press

HONOLULU (KHON2) Wilcox Medical Center on Kauai is opening its drive-thru COVID-19 testing site on Sunday, May 2, in response to community needs.

The specimen collection site will be open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday. The site is usually open Mondays through Saturdays.

[Hawaiis Breaking NewsDownload the FREE KHON2 app for iOS or Android]

Officials say that no appointment is needed Sunday, but a physicians order along with a photo ID and insurance card are required.

Wilcox is located at 3-3420 Kuhio Hwy. and the drive-up testing will be conducted at the rear entrance.

Click here for more information about COVID-19 testing at Wilcox Medical Center

Here is the original post:

Kauais Wilcox Medical Center opening drive-thru coronavirus testing site - KHON2

Posted: May 1, 2021 / 04:33 PM CDT / Updated: May 1, 2021 / 04:33 PM CDT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.The Arkansas Department of Health released the new COVID-19 numbers for Saturday, May 1.

The ADH reported that 19,536 vaccine doses were given out over the last 24 hours.

The ADH reported 243 new cases for a total of 335,968 cases.

There are 2,036 active cases, which is an increase of 70 from Friday. 168 hospitalized, which is up 2 from Friday, and 29 on ventilators, which is up 1 from Friday.

Two new deaths were added today, for a total of 5,741.

The Health Department reported the top counties for new cases:

Governor Hutchinson released the following statement on todays COVID-19 numbers:

There are 243 new COVID-19 cases in Arkansas. Todays report shows much better vaccine numbers compared to last week. Im encouraged by the number of Arkansans who are getting vaccinated. Lets continue the progress weve made.

Read more from the original source:

COVID-19 in Arkansas: Hutchinson encouraged by increased vaccination numbers over week - KARK

The global tally for the coronavirus-borne illness rose above 150.5 million on Friday, as the death toll climbed above 3.16 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. continues to lead the world in cases and deaths by wide margins, with 32.3 million cases, or more than a fifth of the global total, and 575,197 deaths, or almost a fifth of the worldwide toll. India is second to the U.S. by cases at 18.8 million after recording 386,452 new cases in a single day, to break a record it set a day ago, according to the Indian Health Ministry, and 3,498 deaths. The U.S. has sent supplies, including oxygen, PPE and tests, and is planning to send more. The Indian army has opened its hospitals to patients who are struggling to find beds, oxygen and treatments, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi comes under growing criticism for mismanaging the crisis.Brazil is third with 14.6 million cases and second by fatalities at 401.186. Mexico has the third-highest death toll at 216,447 and 2.3 million cases, or 15th highest tally. The U.K. has 4.4 million cases and 127,759 deaths, the fifth-highest in the world and highest in Europe.

The rest is here:

Coronavirus tally: Global cases of COVID-19 top 150.5 million as India sets another daily case record of 386,452 - MarketWatch

A deadly second wave of coronavirus infections is devastating India, leaving millions of people infected and putting stress on the countrys already overtaxed health care system.

Officially, by the end of April, more than 17.9 million infections had been confirmed and more than 200,000 people were dead, but experts said the actual figures were likely much higher. In the same period, India was responsible for more than half of the worlds daily Covid-19 cases, setting a record-breaking pace of more than 300,000 a day.

For the most up-to-date figures, The New York Times is tracking the latest case counts here.

Months ago, India appeared to be weathering the pandemic. After a harsh initial lockdown, the country did not see an explosion in new cases and deaths comparable to those in other countries.

But after the early restrictions were lifted, many Indians stopped taking precautions. Large gatherings, including political rallies and religious festivals, resumed and drew millions of people.

Beginning this spring, the country recorded an exponential jump in cases and deaths.

By April, some vaccinated individuals, including 37 doctors at one New Delhi hospital, were found to have contracted the virus, leaving many to wonder if a more contagious variant was behind the second wave.

Many in India already assume that the variant, B.1.617, is responsible for the severity of the second wave. The variant is sometimes called the double mutant, though the name is a misnomer because it has many more mutations than two. It garnered the name because one version contains two genetic mutations found in other difficult-to-control variants.

Researchers outside of India say the limited data so far suggests instead that the variant called B.1.1.7, which has affected Britain and the United States, is more likely to blame.

So far, the evidence is inconclusive, and researchers caution that other factors could explain the viciousness of the outbreak.

Overwhelmed by new cases, Indian hospitals cannot cope with the demand, and patients in many cities have been abandoned to die.

Clinics across the country have reported an acute shortage of hospital beds, medicines, protective equipment and oxygen.

The Indian government says that it has enough liquid oxygen to meet medical needs and that it is rapidly expanding its supply. But production facilities are concentrated in eastern India, far from the worst outbreaks in Delhi and in the western state of Maharashtra, and it can take several days for supplies to reach there by road.

Families of the sick are filling social media with pleas for oxygen as supplies run low at hospitals or because they are trying to administer care at home.

Some in Delhi say they have paid at least 10 times the usual price for oxygen, and the news media have carried reports of cylinders being looted from hospitals.

India is one of the worlds leading vaccine manufacturers, but it has struggled to inoculate its citizens.

Less than 10 percent of Indians have gotten even one dose. Now, the countrys pain may be felt around the world, especially in poorer countries.

India had planned to ship out millions of doses. But given its stark vaccination shortfall, exports have essentially been shut down, leaving other nations with far fewer doses than they had expected.

Charities, volunteers and businesses in India and beyond are trying to help the countrys Covid victims and frontline workers.

(Before giving money to an organization, make sure you feel comfortable with it. In the United States, sites like Guidestar and Charity Navigator grade nonprofits on their effectiveness and financial health.)

Here are a few ways to help.

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What We Know About India's Deadly Second Wave of Covid-19 - The New York Times

Weve learned time and again that animals can give diseases to humans. Weve seen this happen with coronaviruses, the flu, Ebola basically most major disease outbreaks in recent memory. But, of course, the reverse is true too: Humans can give viruses, including the novel coronavirus, to animals. FiveThirtyEights senior science writer Maggie Koerth wrote about this on the site earlier this week, and she joined PODCAST-19, FiveThirtyEights coronavirus podcast, to discuss her work further. The episode and a lightly edited transcript follow.

Anna Rothschild: So, to start off, which animals do we know can contract COVID-19?

Maggie Koerth: So, over the course of the last year, theres been a lot of research on this. And some of it has been just naturalistic this is a transference of SARS-CoV-2 that happened some of it is stuff thats coming from laboratory experiments on cell lines, and some of that is coming from direct animal experiments. But what we are sort of figuring out is that there are quite a few animals that actually are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, to contracting COVID-19, from us. That includes your minks, and ferrets, kind of similar to those minks from Denmark that got COVID last year. Youve got rabbits. You also have the cat family, so everything from lions and tigers to your domestic kitty cat living in your living room, are all susceptible to COVID. In fact, cats seem to get it pretty easily from us. You also have nonhuman primates. So this has been an issue for gorillas as well.

Anna Rothschild: So, just how sick do these animals get?

Maggie Koerth: Some of them get very sick. I mean, minks were dying from this, and some of them have very few symptoms at all. What weve seen sort of with the domestic cats, for instance, has been, you know, maybe a runny nose, but not necessarily even showing any symptoms, just carrying it around and transmitting it from cat to cat.

Anna Rothschild: So, this may seem like kind of a silly question. But if certain animals arent getting so sick, why should we worry so much about them actually contracting this disease?

Maggie Koerth: Well, to illustrate that, I will point back to the fact that Asian bats dont necessarily get very sick with COVID-19. But they were carrying around all of these coronaviruses, including the precursor viruses to SARS-CoV-2. A population that doesnt get very sick but gets this virus pretty readily is a population where a virus can begin to mutate and change and either jump back to humans or begin to make its hosts more sick and other hosts more sick.

Anna Rothschild: Right, its actually pretty similar to what we are saying about people who dont get vaccinated. Just because the risk to you is fairly low say, youre young and dont have any preexisting conditions doesnt mean that the virus cant mutate inside of you if you get it and, you know, start off a cascade of new infections that are actually more dangerous.

Maggie Koerth: Right, every place that a virus has an opportunity to divide, to reproduce, is an opportunity for its genetic information to be copied. And every time your genetic information gets copied, well, that is where mutations happen. And most of the time those mutations honestly do not matter. But the way that evolution works is that sometimes they do.

Anna Rothschild: Do we have real-world examples maybe not from COVID-19 but from past viral infections that have jumped from humans to animals of the viruses kind of changing as they get passed back and forth between humans and animals?

Maggie Koerth: We do. Flu is actually really fascinating for this. And we know a lot of this stuff about flu because this is something researchers have been focused on studying for a very, very long time, because flu, unlike COVID-19, seems to infect agricultural animals, things like chickens and domestic ducks and pigs. So, if you look at this pig situation, and this is one of the most fascinating stories I picked up while reporting, the 2009 swine flu pandemic, is something that some of you may remember, originated on these giant pig farms in Mexico, where people were in close contact with pigs and it was getting sort of passed over from the pigs to people. At that time, when it first emerged, this particular variant of flu was not present in pigs anywhere else in the world. Today, after that pandemic has happened and people have spread it all over the planet, there is not a place on earth that farms pigs that does not have descendants of that 2009 swine flu strain in the pigs. And it is not because the pigs have been traveling all over the place.

Anna Rothschild: You mean theyre not globe-trotters?

Maggie Koerth: Oh, man.

Anna Rothschild: Sorry.

Maggie Koerth: No, no, please, I respect that and shoot your shot. Yes, they were not globe-trotters. This is people, this is people spreading this virus to pigs. So, now you have these variants that are descended from that 2009 pandemic in these pigs, and theyre starting to change again and come back into us. And theres been at least 400 cases of kids who raise pigs for state fairs in the U.S. picking up new mutated strains of the 2009 pandemic, back from pigs to them again.

Anna Rothschild: Geez, thats so crazy. Again, this might seem like sort of a callous question, and I sort of suspect I know the answer, but for certain animals, like bats, which humans dont always have the best relationship with, why dont we just eliminate that reservoir of disease? Why not just kill those animals so that the diseases cant just jump back into humans?

Maggie Koerth: So, we can really easily, if necessary, kill an entire herd of pigs on a farm. Nobody wants to do that. But its a thing that you can do if youre trying to shut down the spread of disease. Thats really, really hard to do with animals that we dont have that kind of control over. So, I think a good example of this is that there was a species of bat that used to be extremely common in the American Northeast, one of the most common bats in that region, and people never figured out where most of these bats were spending the winter. People were studying these bats, people ran into these bats all of the time, and these bats still had these secrets that we just never knew. So you cant kill off something if you dont know its life. And even if you could do that, it doesnt necessarily work.

So, I talked to this guy who his research is studying vampire bats. And hes very defensive about the vampire bats, because like, he kind of had this kind of sad space of like, Well, nobody loves them, and no one cares about them. And theres all these conservation projects to, like, save bats all over the world. And I study the bats that people are actively trying to kill. And this is because these vampire bats these species of bats that actually do drink blood they spread rabies. And so there are a lot of Central and South American countries where these bats live, where there have been projects to cull them off to stop the spread of rabies among farm animals that they feed on. And one of the really interesting things that they found from that is that it does not necessarily reduce the spread of rabies to kill off all the bats in an area. In fact, it can make rabies cases go up. And they think that that is because when you wipe out an entire population of bats indiscriminately, youre knocking out the ones that were also resistant to that virus. And then youre leaving an ecological niche where new bats from someplace else who might not have been resistant to that virus can now sort of flow in and start doing their thing and it doesnt necessarily actually stop the spread of disease.

Anna Rothschild: I just want to say, for what its worth, I actually really love bats. And vampire bats are really cool. They share blood with each other. Theyre actually really good sharers. And theyll even share it with, like, genetically dissimilar members of their group. So theyre kind of nice.

Maggie Koerth: I mean, lets be clear, bats are adorable.

Anna Rothschild: I think so too.

Maggie Koerth: If youve ever wanted a snuggly-looking little mouse-fox thing that can fly oh, my God, who hasnt?

Anna Rothschild: I can think of some people probably who havent

Maggie Koerth: Theyre wrong.

Anna Rothschild: We now know that these animals can get COVID. What can we do to keep these animals safe?

Maggie Koerth: So, what we can do to keep these animals safe is honestly limiting our contact with them, and making sure that we are treating them as fellow creatures that we can spread disease to. The virus got into us, probably from bats. Those bats dont have the brain space to sit around and have conversations about how they should be treating us. But we do. And now that responsibility is with us to make sure it doesnt get spread to other animals.

Anna Rothschild: What are the next steps with this research?

Maggie Koerth: So, scientists are still sort of trying to figure out which bats in North America might be susceptible to this. So far, the one that theyve actually done a live animal study on turned out not to be. And theyre still doing research on what animals are susceptible to it more broadly as well. But I think a big part of what the next steps are is just being cognizant that this is something that can happen. So, you know, limiting contact between animals that have had contact with humans that have had COVID, limiting our contact with animals when we know we are sick. Those are things that are definitely the next steps in this process.

Anna Rothschild: Well, this is clearly an evolving story. So please keep me posted as you learn more. But for now, Maggie, thank you so much for speaking with me. This was great.

Maggie Koerth: Thank you so much for having me on.

Anna Rothschild: Thats it for this episode of PODCAST-19. If you have a question youd like us to answer on the show, email us a voice memo at askpodcast19@gmail.com. Thats askpodcast19@gmail.com Im Anna Rothschild. Our producer is Sinduja Srinivasan. Chadwick Matlin is our executive producer. We actually filmed this episode of the podcast, so if youd like to watch, head over to FiveThirtyEight on YouTube. Thanks for listening. See you next time.

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You Might Have Given The Coronavirus To Your Cat - FiveThirtyEight

U.S. Coronavirus Cases Have Dropped in Over Half of States  The New York Times

Excerpt from:

U.S. Coronavirus Cases Have Dropped in Over Half of States - The New York Times

It's 4 a.m. in southern Minnesota and infectious disease physician Priya Sampathkumar has yet to go to bed.

While others sleep, the Mayo doctor works into the wee hours from her Rochester home, making phone calls in a frantic search for hospital beds half a world away and for much-needed oxygen for patients she's never met.

As the deadly coronavirus overwhelms her native India, Sampathkumar and her colleagues are fielding desperate calls from family, friends and friends of friends back home who have nowhere else to turn for help as COVID-19 cases surge there.

"The sheer numbers are overwhelming," Sampathkumar said Thursday. "There are more than 350,000 cases a day and it's likely 10 times that because the information coming out of the country is unreliable. Testing is hard to come by because so many are sick."

The devastating toll is documented daily in news reports hospitals are swamped, oxygen supplies are dwindling and sick people are dying as they wait to be seen by doctors.

"I can't imagine what the images are like on TV because I'm hearing the pain in people's voices," Sampathkumar said.

Personally, she and her husband, Dr. Vincent Rajkumar, who also works at Mayo, feel fortunate because their families live in the southern part of India and have been isolated from the worst of the virus spread.

"We imposed a lockdown on them from here," Sampathkumar said.

That meant watching a grandchild's wedding via Zoom and giving permission to go out of the house only for a vaccine, she added.

But others have been less fortunate.

A colleague's mother desperately needed a hospital bed in India, so Sampathkumar and her Minnesota colleagues called until they found one. Soon after, the hospital where the woman was being treated tweeted that the facility had one more hour of oxygen left.

"She's one of 50 patients in a small hospital and they all need oxygen," Sampathkumar said.

The Minnesota doctors rallied again, reaching a friend who runs a hospital in India that could provide a cylinder of oxygen.

The situation is so grim that oftentimes doctors and families in Minnesota, more than 7,000 miles away, are the last hope for help.

"The patient is gasping for breath so who is going to make these calls?" Sampathkumar said.

Loved ones in India often are too sick with COVID-19 to lend support. Doctors and nurses are working 24/7 and many are falling ill as well, Sampathkumar added.

"It's unimaginable," she said.

For now, Sampathkumar has been so preoccupied by trying to help that she hasn't had time to feel the deep sorrow. Over the past five days, she's immersed herself in a global volunteer group India Covid SOS. People from all walks of life, such as health care workers, scientists, policymakers and logistics experts, have joined forces to raise money, collect supplies, create protocols and answer the needs of those on the ground in India, Sampathkumar said.

"I feel like we're helping but the need is so enormous that so much more has to be done, including help from the U.S. government," she said.

While the number of COVID-19 cases reported in the United States decreases as more people get vaccinated, the virus surge in India and neighboring countries can't be ignored, Sampathkumar said.

"Unless the U.S. wants to close its borders for a year, this is everybody's problem," she said. "If we don't help all these countries that are seeing surges, we're going to have our own fourth and fifth waves and it's never going to end."

Organizations in Minnesota and around the globe, such as the Hindu Society of Minnesota, which recently started raising money for COVID-19 relief efforts in India, are rallying.

The number of Minnesota residents with Asian Indian ancestry has increased from 30,500 in 2010 to 40,500 in 2019, making them the second largest Asian group after Hmong, according to the state demographer's office.

For many, what's playing out in India is taking a personal toll.

"In the last three weeks, I had four close relatives die," said Gokul Upadhyay, manager for the Hindu Society of Minnesota.

"The number of virus cases in India seemed to be falling earlier this year," he said. "Everyone in India was thinking everything would be OK by May or June. And then it escalated."

Minnesota neurologist Dr. Rajiv Aggarwal can hear the fear in his parents' voices when he calls them.

"They're vaccinated but they're shaken by what they're seeing," he said.

Like others in Minnesota, Aggarwal, president of the Chance Foundation, is springing into action. His organization has raised $51,000 since last week and hopes to raise even more to help open hospitals in India.

Meanwhile, the India Association of Minnesota also is urging members of Minnesota's congressional delegation to advocate for more U.S. aid to India and coordinating fundraising for some of its partner organizations.

If not for these relief efforts, Kiran Bandi, the association's president, would feel a sense of helplessness being so far from his homeland.

"I'm scared," he said. "I wish and hope that India will come through this soon."

Mary Lynn Smith 612-673-4788

The rest is here:

Minnesotans answer the call to fight the coronavirus surge in India - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Michigan reported 3,623 new coronavirus cases and 101 additional deaths on Thursday, April 29.

The deaths include 78 that occurred prior to the last 24 hours and were identified by the state health department during a vital records review. These reviews happen three times per week.

The state is averaging 3,989 new COVID-19 cases per day and 62 new deaths per day over the last week. This is the 11th straight day where the seven-day case average decreased and is the first time the average has been under 4,000 since March 27.

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 837,514 reported coronavirus cases and 17,576 deaths.

Additionally, the state has reported 95,090 probable cases and 1,141 probable deaths, in which a physician and/or antigen test ruled it COVID-19 but no confirmatory PCR test was done.

(The above chart shows Michigans 7-day rolling average of new confirmed coronavirus cases. You can put your cursor over a bar to see the number.)

Seventy-five of Michigans 83 counties reported new cases on Thursday. Wayne County led in new cases with 666, with the next closest being Oakland with 370.

Other top reporting counties included Macomb with 305, Kent with 292, Genesee with 143, Muskegon with 129, Ottawa with 96, Saginaw with 93, Kalamazoo with 68 and Ingham with 65.

Thirty counties reported new deaths led by Macomb with 31 and Wayne County with 25. The next leading counties for new deaths is nine for Oakland, six in Genesee, four in Saginaw, three in Allegan and two each for Kent, Kalamazoo, Ingham, Jackson, St. Clair, Lapeer and Wexford.

The following counties reported one death each: Ottawa, Livingston, Washtenaw, Berrien, Montcalm, Monroe, Isabella, Van Buren, Gladwin, Cass, Hillsdale, Osceola, Baraga, Mackinac, Dickinson, Alcona and Charlevoix.

(The above chart shows Michigans 7-day rolling average of deaths involving confirmed coronavirus cases. You can put your cursor over a bar to see the number.)

Hospitals statewide were treating 3,392 patients with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, including 54 children and 852 total patients in the ICU. The totals are a slight dip from 3,976 hospitalizations last Thursday, April 22, when 895 were ICU patients.

Of the 49,751 diagnostic tests processed on Wednesday, 10.4% came back positive for SARS-CoV-2. The average positivity rate over the last seven days is 11.4%.

Case reporting

First is a chart showing new cases reported to the state each day for the past 30 days. This is based on when a confirmed coronavirus test is reported to the state, which means the patient first became sick days before.

You can call up a chart for any county, and you can put your cursor over a bar to see the date and number of cases.

(In a few instances, a county reported a negative number (decline) in daily new cases, following a retroactive reclassification by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. In those instances, we subtracted cases from the prior date and put 0 in the reported date.)

The next chart below shows new cases for the past 30 days based on onset of symptoms. In this chart, numbers for the most recent days are incomplete because of the lag time between people getting sick and getting a confirmed coronavirus test result, which can take up to a week or more.

You can call up a chart for any county, and you can put your cursor over a bar to see the date and number of cases.

For more statewide data, visit MLives coronavirus data page, here.

To find a testing site near you, check out the states online test finder, here, send an email to COVID19@michigan.gov, or call 888-535-6136 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays.

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Original post:

Coronavirus case average declines for 11th straight reported day on Thursday, April 29 - MLive.com

The global tally for the coronavirus-borne illness rose above 149.6 million on Thursday, as the death toll climbed above 3.15 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. continues to lead the world in cases and deaths by wide margins, with 32.2 million cases, or more than a fifth of the global total, and 574,329 deaths, or almost a fifth of the worldwide toll. India is second to the U.S. by cases at 18.4 million after recording 379,257 new cases in a single day, to break a record it set a day ago, according to the Indian Health Ministry, and 3,645 deaths. The U.S. is advising its citizens to leave India as soon as it is safe, as hospitals continue to clamor for vital supplies, including oxygen, PPE and tests. The U.S. is sending more than $100 million in supplies. Brazil is third with 14.5 million cases and second by fatalities at 398,185. Mexico has the third-highest death toll at 215,918 and 2.3 million cases, or 15th highest tally. The U.K. has 4.4 million cases and 127,734 deaths, the fifth-highest in the world and highest in Europe.

Originally posted here:

Coronavirus tally: Global cases of COVID-19 near 150 million and U.S. advises citizens to leave India as soon as it's safe - MarketWatch