Category: Corona Virus

The St. Louis area has more than 400 patients hospitalized with the coronavirus, according to the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force.

Last week hospital leaders spoke with Gov. Mike Parson and state health officials, asking what the plan is to curb COVID-19 cases and advocating for a statewide mask mandate, according to the Missouri Hospital Association.

On the recorded conference call, BJC HealthCare President and CEO Richard Liekweg said there were basically no beds available for patients to transfer to across the BJC hospital system, which currently has 205 COVID-19 patients. While BJC hospitals treated more COVID-19 patients back in April, at the time they had postponed elective and nonemergency procedures, he said.

Were in the process right now of reassessing whether were going to need to start to cancel elective procedures (again) in order to accommodate what we think is going to continue to be a gradual increase in COVID patients at a time when our staff, like everyone else, is completely exhausted, Liekweg said, addressing state health director Randall Williams.

If you consider a (mask) mandate rather than just encouragement statewide we still have too many municipalities that are creating too many options for individuals. I think a statement coming from the governor would actually put us in a much better position.

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Franklin County boy is the first child to die of coronavirus in Missouri - STLtoday.com

Dr. Scott Gottlieb testifies on Capitol Hill in April 2017. Getty Images

Former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb warned Sunday that Thanksgiving will be an inflection point for the coronavirus pandemic, and that things will only get worse in December.

Speaking Sunday on CBS Newss Face the Nation, Gottlieb, President Donald Trumps former head of the Food and Drug Administration, said things are getting worse around the country. I think Thanksgiving is really going to be an inflection point. I think December is probably going to be our toughest month.

Gottliebs comments echoed those of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who told the Washington Post in a weekend interview that were in for a whole lot of hurt in the coming months. The White House quickly condemned Fauci for making those comments, claiming he was politicizing the pandemic.

I think the facts are going to overtake any political dialogue very quickly, Gottlieb told CBS News. I think as we get into the next two or three weeks, it will be unmistakable whats happening around the country, and were going to have to start taking tough steps.

Gottlieb said he doesnt expect another widespread lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19, but instead urged a targeted approach, including wearing face masks and the passage of another aid package from Congress.

He also dismissed unfounded claims by President Donald Trump that doctors are inflating coronavirus numbers because hospitals make more money in federal reimbursements from coronavirus deaths.

Gottlieb called Trumps assertations troubling, and that doctors doing so would be committing fraud. Unfortunately I think there [are] probably advisers telling him that, he added.

New coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths and have spiked in recent weeks, witha record 98,000 new casesconfirmed Friday.

As of Sunday, the U.S. has had nearly 9.2 million coronavirus cases, with more than 230,000 deaths, according to data fromJohns Hopkins University.

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Gottlieb says Thanksgiving could be 'inflection point' for winter coronavirus surge - MarketWatch

President Trumps illness from a coronavirus infection last month was the most significant health crisis for a sitting president in nearly 40 years. Yet little remains known about how the virus arrived at the White House and how it spread.

The administration did not take basic steps to track the outbreak, limiting contact tracing, keeping cases a secret and cutting out the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The origin of the infections, a spokesman said, was unknowable.

But one standard public health technique may still shed some light: tracking the clusters genetic fingerprints.

To better understand the outbreak, The New York Times worked with prominent geneticists to determine the genetic sequence of viruses that infected two Times journalists believed to have been exposed to the coronavirus as part of their work covering the White House.

The study reveals, for the first time, the genetic sequence of the virus that may have infected Mr. Trump and dozens of others, researchers said. That genome is a crucial clue that may allow researchers to identify where the outbreak originated and whether it went on to infect others across the country.

The White House has not disclosed any effort to conduct similar genetic testing, but the studys results show that it is still possible, even weeks after positive tests. Additional sequencing could help establish the path of the virus through the White House, the role of a possible super-spreading event for Judge Amy Coney Barrett and the origin of an outbreak among the staff of Vice President Mike Pence in the last week or so.

The journalists, Michael D. Shear and Al Drago, both had significant, separate exposure to White House officials in late September, several days before they developed symptoms. They did not spend any time near each other in the weeks before their positive tests.

Mr. Shear traveled with Mr. Trump and other staff on Air Force One on Sept. 26, when Mr. Trump approached within five or six feet without a mask. Mr. Drago covered the Judge Barrett event that day and a news conference the next day near officials who were not wearing masks and later tested positive. Both journalists wore masks.

The viral genomes of the two journalists shared the same distinct pattern of mutations, the research found. Along with their exposure history, the findings suggest that they were infected as part of the broader White House outbreak, said Trevor Bedford, a geneticist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington who led the research team.

These mutations that are possessed by these viruses are quite rare in the United States, Dr. Bedford said. I am highly convinced that these viruses come from the same outbreak or cluster based on their genomes.

The study, which has been posted online but not yet peer reviewed or published in a science journal, followed academic protocols that require genetic samples to be anonymous. Mr. Shear and Mr. Drago chose to disclose their identities for this article.

Viruses constantly mutate, picking up tiny, accidental alterations to their genetic material as they reproduce. Few mutations alter how a virus functions. But by comparing patterns of mutations across many genetic sequences, scientists can construct family trees of a virus, illuminating how it spreads.

The genomes believed by these researchers to be connected to the White House outbreak do not identify a recent geographic source, in part because they are unusual. The ancestors of those viruses spread to the United States from Europe and were circulating widely across the country in April and May, but the trail goes cold after that, according to Dr. Bedford.

Geneticists said the genomes are a key piece of the puzzle that may spur future research to determine where the White House outbreak originated and where it may go next. Scientists collect and publish tens of thousands of new sequences of the coronavirus every month, and additional testing may fill in the picture.

The results show that even weeks after it was identified, the White House outbreak would be better understood by sequencing samples of more people who were infected. Swabs used in positive tests are often kept in labs for months after an initial infection, and genetic material for the coronavirus is stable if stored appropriately.

The C.D.C. routinely relies on genetic testing to help understand Covid-19 outbreaks elsewhere across the country. In a study released on Thursday, the C.D.C. cited genetic sequencing and intensive contact tracing that documented an super-spreading event at a high school retreat in Wisconsin.

But the Trump administration is not known to have conducted its own genetic analysis of people infected in the outbreak. The White House declined to respond to questions on genetic sequencing of Mr. Trump and the cluster of aides and officials who tested positive or became ill.

There is still a remote possibility, Dr. Bedford said, that a previously unseen version of the virus had been circulating undetected in Washington or Northern Virginia and infected both journalists independently from the White House cluster. More testing of the outbreak could eliminate that possibility entirely, he said.

Scientists not involved in the research who reviewed the results agreed with the conclusion that the two samples sharing rare mutations strongly suggested they are part of the same outbreak.

These genomes are probably going to be identical or nearly identical to the genome that infected the president, said Michael Worobey, head of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona.

Dr. Worobey disputed the White Houses characterization that the source of the outbreak could not be known.

A lot of things are unknowable if you make no effort to know anything about them, and this falls into this category, Dr. Worobey said. All of these things actually can be known if you make the effort and you have the transparency that scientists are desperately trying to promote as we sequence hundreds of thousands of these genomes around the world.

For months, the White House minimized the threat of the virus and eschewed basic safety precautions at official events, like wearing a mask or keeping people six feet apart.

At least 11 people who attended a Rose Garden celebration on Sept. 26 for Judge Barrett, which included an indoor event without masks, became infected with the coronavirus, including Mr. Trump. Additional genetic testing could help more clearly establish the role of that event.

Dr. Bedford and his colleagues were able to obtain a full genetic sequence for the virus that infected Mr. Shear and a partial sequence of the virus that infected Mr. Drago. Several unusual mutations matched in the two samples, sufficient evidence to determine with a very high probability that they were essentially the same genome, Dr. Bedford said.

The work was carried out by a multidisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine, the Hutchinson Center and the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine in Seattle.

The work is convincing, and it is the best way to piece together the progression of such an outbreak, said David Engelthaler, head of the infectious disease branch of the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Arizona, where he and colleagues have sequenced thousands of genomes to track the spread of the coronavirus, including devastating outbreaks at Native American reservations in the state.

Its critical no matter where we are to sequence this virus, Dr. Engelthaler said. Not just at the White House, but at the White Mountain Apache Reservation here in Arizona.

Carl Zimmer contributed reporting.

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Tests Show Genetic Signature of Coronavirus That Likely Infected Trump - The New York Times

The influence of Bethel Church can be felt all over this economically stressed Northern California city.

In the Redding police officers whose positions the megachurch funded. The once-dying civic auditorium it keeps afloat. The church elder on the Redding City Council.

Bethel can be felt in the trendy new coffee shops and restaurants where young, well-dressed people huddle at tables with open Bibles and nary a mask in sight. It can be felt in parking lots and on sidewalks where believers approach strangers, asking to pray for and heal them.

In downtown Redding on a recent afternoon, Chevon Gilzene, a 25-year-old student at the churchs Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, declared: We want to love the city well.

It is a proclamation that is as disputed as it is acclaimed across Redding, a city of 92,000 where more than 10% of the population attends the nondenominational Christian megachurch.

But anger toward Bethel Church intensified after members and students fueled such a major spike in coronavirus cases that Shasta County briefly fell backward to the most restrictive tier on Californias reopening plan.

Pamphlets in the foyer of a prayer chapel at Bethel Church in Redding. Bethel wields major influence in the city, where more than 10% of the population attend the church.

(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

In recent weeks, more than 300 COVID-19 cases have been reported by the church and its Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (or BSSM), an unaccredited school focused on prophecy and miracles. It has been the largest cluster of cases in Shasta County.

The outbreak which local officials blame on crowded living conditions for students and leadership publicly questioning the effectiveness of masks has since been brought under control, with fewer than a dozen active cases. But its effects linger.

The perception from that is they dont really care, Shasta County Supervisor Leonard Moty said. What we tried to tell them is, if you really want to be part of the community, you have to do more to respect the community.

Doni Chamberlain is a former newspaper reporter who runs a community news website in Redding that often focuses on Bethel Church and its affiliated Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry.

(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

The church sits at a nexus of faith, politics and celebrity. It has provoked a debate not just on the influence of its famed pastors and high-profile members who have written books, produced worship albums and have massive social media followings but on how much it is channeling another leader 2,800 miles away: President Trump.

Some religious experts say Bethels actions are indicative of a growing wave in American religion that eschews teachings of traditional denominations and embraces fame and prosperity and charismatic leaders in tune with the conservatism of Trump. It has been especially successful in drawing in young worshipers.

That would be true of Donald Trump as well; he has somehow woven magic with these people, and they think he can give them something they want, said Richard Flory, senior director of research and evaluation at the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture.

The churchs worship music label Bethel Music brought in $12 million in revenue in 2017, and its Bethel Media raked in more than $4 million, according to tax returns. Bethel also started Jesus Culture, a revivalist youth ministry with its own record label that hosts conferences around the world.

They make millions and millions and millions of dollars off the back of their congregation and their music, said Joshua Barbour, a former megachurch worship leader, based in Canada, who now hosts a podcast about the inner workings of large churches.

Bethels pastors have embraced Trump. Senior leader Bill Johnson endorsed him in an op-ed in The Christian Post, and senior associate leader and BSSM co-founder Kris Vallotton claimed to prophesy last year that God wanted him reelected.

In an email, Bethel spokesman Aaron Tesauro said the church does not promote or endorse any political candidates [and] have always believed that part of the Christian faith includes praying for those in leadership positions. It has, however, openly opposed California bills seeking to crack down on LGBTQ conversion therapy, which claims to heal people of homosexuality, and encouraged members to contact legislators.

Some former Bethel members say the church has grown more blatantly political in the era of Trump, who has appealed to the Christian right by vowing to repeal the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 law that bars tax-exempt organizations from engaging in political activity.

Amid the Bethel coronavirus outbreak, Valloton officiated an outdoor wedding for his grandson with more than 100 guests and few masks in the tiny Shasta County community of Shingletown. Facing a swift backlash, he posted a video in which he cited Trumps continuing having outdoor campaigns where he draws thousands of people.

I am willing to sacrifice for my job, my students, my co-workers, my city ... But Im not willing to, like, give up my life, he said. Im not willing to stop living because theres a pandemic.

Johnsons wife, Beni, a Bethel senior leader, said in a now-deleted Instagram video that masks were peoples security blankets and that she refused to shop in a coastal town where she was asked to wear a stupid freaking mask that doesnt work.

Tesauro told The Times that Bethel has strictly enforced health measures, including halting indoor church services and requiring masks, social distancing and COVID-19 tests from all BSSM students and staff before classes started.

But it has been difficult, and confusing, he said, to publicly separate Bethel and its nearly 800 employees from the public messages of a few prominent personalities, each with their own social media followings. Individuals do not always speak for the broader institution, he said.

People gather at the Sundial Bridge in Redding at dusk. Redding is a conservative stronghold and home to the Bethel Church and its affiliated School of Supernatural Ministry.

(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

Among Bethels most high-profile attendees is singer Sean Feucht, a volunteer worship leader at the church and failed Republican congressional candidate who led a nationwide Let Us Worship tour in defiance of health mandates, drawing thousands of people to Christian music concerts, including at the National Mall.

Bethel Church formally distanced itself from Feuchts shows after he hosted a crowded gathering at Reddings Sundial Bridge this summer, saying the church did not sponsor or pay for them. But to the public, the distinction was muddled. Beni Johnson touted his tour on Instagram. And Feucht, in an Instagram caption, called Bill Johnson a champion to us on this journey.

Some Let Us Worship posts have been censored by Facebook as possibly linked to the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory that alleges Trump is battling a syndicate of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who control the federal government.

Feucht, who has said the allegation is false, did not respond to a request for comment.

Founded as an Assemblies of God church in 1952, Bethel split with the denomination in 2006. It now occupies a hilltop campus at the end of driveway lined by dozens of international flags representing the home countries of BSSM students. The school is credited with singlehandedly increasing diversity in Redding, where 78% of the population is white.

In church services, attendees have reported supernatural glory clouds, in which feathers and gold dust fell from the ceiling. Last year, parishioners tried to resurrect Olive Heiligenthal, the 2-year-old daughter of a Bethel worship leader, after she died in her sleep. Thousands of Instagram posts were shared with #WakeUpOlive.

The exterior of a large building on the campus of Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry in Redding.

(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

Its crazy to me because this doesnt even feel like my city or my town that I grew up in, said Donna Zibull, who has lived in Redding for five decades.

Zibulls grandson, Orian LeBlanc, died in 2014 after collapsing on the street in front of a Bethel members home. LeBlanc, who had asthma and an undiagnosed heart condition, was pronounced brain dead at a hospital.

But for four days, Zibull said, the church members came, uninvited, into his room in the intensive care unit. They spoke in tongues, and one member said he could see God in the room. Zibull and her daughter eventually asked hospital staff to remove them.

On a recent Sunday, 20-year-old Ashley Morse, a third-year BSSM student, sat alone in the churchs Alabaster Prayer House, working on a laptop. Growing up in San Diego, her family listened to Bethel Music, and her mother eventually began listening to online sermons. Morses older sister enrolled in the school, followed by Morse. This year, her parents are first-year students.

Coming here has really, really, really helped me cultivate that relationship with Jesus that I didnt really have before, she said. I just grew so much ... and knowing what his voice sounds like, knowing how he speaks to me. Before, I kind of viewed him as kind of like an upset dad.

Gilzene, the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry student, wore a mask as she helped shoot a video of a dancer with fellow BSSM pupils. The Toronto native accustomed to more strict COVID rules in Canada had planned to get her masters degree in music but stumbled upon the school after listening to Bethel Music and attending worship conferences.

Gilzene lives with six other young women and contracted a mild case of COVID-19 in September. Gilzene and her roommates, she said, self-isolated immediately. While its difficult to control what people do in their personal lives, school leadership has consistently told students to take safety precautions on campus out of concern for the broader city, she said.

People cant come into the building and see that, she said. Speculation naturally happens. It breaks my heart that it does, but I completely understand and empathize with it.

Traffic streams through Redding, a conservative stronghold and home to the Bethel Church and its affiliated School of Supernatural Ministry. Members of the church and school have fueled a major coronavirus outbreak in Redding, with nearly 300 cases reported.

(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

Annelise Pierce, a former BSSM student, and her family moved to Redding a decade ago from Uganda, where they did educational aid work with a Christian organization. They had planned to return to the U.S. for a year or so for the sake of their young children, as Ebola began spreading in their town and rebel action grew more concerning. Some friends recommended Bethel.

As a student, Pierce was disturbed by the feeling that you could not question pastors. Vallaton, she said, seemed to be making it up on the fly, claiming, for example, that he woke up in the middle of the night craving a milkshake and that that was a message from God.

Among members, we met a lot of doctors and professors and really high-quality, thoughtful, intelligent people. But also a ton of really young people searching desperately.

Her family left the church as it grew more political, and she has since abandoned the Christian faith. At a Redding Starbucks, she spoke quietly in a mask, looking around because, she said, members are everywhere.

Doni Chamberlain, an independent journalist, writes regularly about the church. The 64-year-old lost her mother to suicide as a child. She and her sisters were taken in by foster parents who attended Bethel, which was then still an Assemblies of God church.

Church members, she said, told her her mother was in hell. When she and her twin sister were 12, church elders laid their hands upon them trying to cast out demons because they had a form of dystonia, a disorder that causes spasms and convulsions. Their medication was taken away, and they were told that if they believed in God, they would stop having spasms.

Chamberlain, who left the church 42 years ago, said its not hard for to spot church members about town. She plays a game she calls Bethel Bingo.

If youre in a parking lot and see a crowd of young people, well-dressed, praying around a homeless guy, you go: Bethel! she said. God help someone with a crutch because they will converge upon you.

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God, masks and Trump: What a coronavirus outbreak at a California church says about the election - Los Angeles Times

Over all, he thinks the reaction to the virus was overkill, but he also thinks Mr. Trump was wrong to suggest it was nothing to worry about.

He did a terrible job, Mr. Lohoefer said of Mr. Trumps handling of the pandemic. But everybody did a terrible job.

As the virus spread across her facility, Ms. Frazier, the caretaker who witnessed dozens of deaths, said she would see Mr. Trump on television without a mask and grow frustrated. And although she has voted for Republicans and had been a fan of Mr. Trumps when he was on reality television, she began to blame his cavalier response for her worsening situation at work.

Americans, she came to believe, would not act until the virus affected them personally.

If we want to make America great again, then we need to change the political face of our country, she said, noting that she has made a point of discussing her view of Mr. Trump with Republican friends. Ms. Frazier said she would vote for Mr. Biden somewhat begrudgingly, mostly as a vote against Mr. Trump.

I cant even tell this story without having a tear coming down my face, she added. How can you, as the leader of our country, stand in front of our thousands and not show emotion?

Ms. Frazier began to cry as she recalled her final moments in April with a resident with whom she had built a rapport over several years.

During better times, the woman assumed the role of floor matriarch. She was sassy, and would tell you exactly what she felt, Ms. Frazier said. Sometimes, when she had a spare moment during her shift, Ms. Frazier would pop by and say Hey, beautiful! and the woman would beam.

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Caregivers Have Witnessed the Coronaviruss Pain. How Will They Vote? - The New York Times

A medical worker administers a rapid COVID-19 test in Oakland, Calif., earlier this month. Coronavirus cases are once again surging across much of the country, reaching almost 100,000 on Friday. Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

A medical worker administers a rapid COVID-19 test in Oakland, Calif., earlier this month. Coronavirus cases are once again surging across much of the country, reaching almost 100,000 on Friday.

The U.S. is edging ever closer to 100,000 new daily cases of the coronavirus. According to data released Saturday by Johns Hopkins University, the country added 99,321 cases and 1,030 deaths to its tally on Friday.

It's the greatest single-day increase of the pandemic so far a sentence likely to be repeated in the coming weeks as the U.S. experiences a third surge in infections that's expected to dwarf the previous two. Experts have long warned of a devastating increase with the changing of the seasons, as colder weather forces a pandemic-weary public inside and social distancing restrictions become harder to enforce.

Health experts say the current increase is being driven in large part by people who don't have any symptoms. It's a "silent epidemic," Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the SiriusXM show Doctor Radio Reports on Friday, according to CNN.

The Dakotas are faring particularly poorly. South Dakota is currently seeing some of the fastest growth in the country, with cases up 61% from two weeks ago. Over the past seven days, the state has been averaging 994 new cases per day.

South Dakota has no mask requirement, and its governor has opposed mandating them.

"Those who don't want to wear a mask shouldn't be shamed into wearing one," South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem wrote earlier this month. "And government should not mandate it."

North Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin also reported record cases Friday. Cases are up across much of the Midwest, which could have implications for Tuesday's presidential election as key battleground states struggle to contain the virus.

In Wisconsin, more than 20,000 people tested positive over the past week and nearly 200 died, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Four years ago, the state went to Donald Trump. This year, Democratic nominee Joe Biden currently has a more than six-point lead in the polls, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average.

"Donald Trump waved the white flag, surrendered to the virus," a masked Biden said at a campaign rally in Wisconsin on Friday, echoing statements he has made in several states along the campaign trail. "But the American people don't give up. We don't give in. Unlike Donald Trump, we're not going to surrender to this virus."

At another rally in Wisconsin on Friday, President Trump said the country is "rounding the turn" and promised a vaccine was on its way. As he campaigned from Pennsylvania on Saturday, the nation crossed the tragic toll of more than 230,000 deaths.

Halloween could pose additional dangers. The CDC cautions against "higher-risk activities" such as traditional door-to-door trick-or-treating, crowded indoor costume parties, haunted houses and hayrides with people outside your household. And costume masks are generally no substitute for cloth masks, unless they're made of multiple layers of fabric that entirely cover your mouth and nose, the CDC says.

But a "virtual Halloween costume contest" is just fine, the agency says.

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Nearly 100,000 New COVID-19 Cases Reported In 1 Day - NPR

The National Museum of Mexican Art is paying tribute to those who have died of COVID-19 in its yearly exhibit for the Day of the Dead. A counter displays the number of people who have died. Michael Tropea/National Museum of Mexican Art hide caption

The National Museum of Mexican Art is paying tribute to those who have died of COVID-19 in its yearly exhibit for the Day of the Dead. A counter displays the number of people who have died.

On Sunday and Monday, families across Mexico, the U.S. and elsewhere are observing Da de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, a Mexican holiday that celebrates the lives and honors the memory of those who've passed on.

And each year, the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago has a special exhibition for the holiday.

But the coronavirus pandemic has made the usual programming impossible. This year, the museum is going virtual, with a Day of the Dead exhibition that pays tribute to the people in Mexico, the U.S. and around the world who have died of COVID-19.

Catrina Reyna (Fancy Lady Queen) by Jos Alfonso Soteno Fernndez and Juan Jos Soteno Elias of Metepec, Mexico, 2016, polychrome ceramic and wire. Michael Tropea/National Museum of Mexican Art hide caption

Catrina Reyna (Fancy Lady Queen) by Jos Alfonso Soteno Fernndez and Juan Jos Soteno Elias of Metepec, Mexico, 2016, polychrome ceramic and wire.

Noche de muertos con arco y ngeles (Night of the Dead with Arch and Angels) by Antonia Felipe Cadelario of Michoacn, Mexico, 2002, polychrome ceramic. Michael Tropea/National Museum of Mexican Art hide caption

Noche de muertos con arco y ngeles (Night of the Dead with Arch and Angels) by Antonia Felipe Cadelario of Michoacn, Mexico, 2002, polychrome ceramic.

"It was really important that we still put on this exhibition," says Cesreo Moreno, the museum's chief curator and visual arts director. "Like so many other rituals in our lives, they're more than just a marker of time or season. They give us a sense of the normal. They give us an idea of where we're at."

An electronic counter, updated each day, displays the number of people who have died of COVID-19. In the past, the museum has honored people who died in hurricanes and earthquakes, or those who died in the desert while attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

But memorializing an ongoing tragedy is more difficult than an event that has come and gone, Moreno tells NPR's Michel Martin on All Things Considered.

"Right now, we don't see the end. It's still going. And so it's difficult to really try to commemorate something that you are still in the middle of. So the best way we could think of symbolizing that is with the numbers."

Monja coronada (Crowned Nun) by lvaro de la Cruz Lpez of Capula, Mexico, 2004, polychrome ceramic and wire. Michael Tropea/National Museum of Mexican Art hide caption

Monja coronada (Crowned Nun) by lvaro de la Cruz Lpez of Capula, Mexico, 2004, polychrome ceramic and wire.

Catrina candelabro (Fancy Lady Candle Holder) by Pedro Hernndez of Michoacn, Mexico, 2016, ceramic, black paint and wire. Michael Tropea/National Museum of Mexican Art hide caption

Catrina candelabro (Fancy Lady Candle Holder) by Pedro Hernndez of Michoacn, Mexico, 2016, ceramic, black paint and wire.

This is the 34th year that the museum has commemorated Da de los Muertos, also called Da de Muertos. But the roots of the holiday itself go back centuries.

"It's a combination of two spiritual belief systems," Moreno says. "It's the ancient indigenous cosmology and the Spanish Catholicism that was brought over with the arrival of the Europeans. And so it's combined together to form a very unique tradition and understanding and rituals that deal with the idea of life after death. And, of course, remembrance of those people here on Earth."

In Mexico, Da de los Muertos can be celebrated by entire communities gathering together at cemeteries to clean and decorate graves of loved ones. There is singing, crying, drinking, eating and playing overnight until the sun rises, when people clean up and go home.

At home, people can build altars and put out ofrendas, or offerings, for those who have passed on.

Flowers and Bread in Tzurumtaro from the project Day of the Dead in Ptzcuaro and Michoacn 2009 (Flores y pan en Tzurumtaro del proyecto Da de muertos en Ptzcuaro y Michoacn) by Ann Murdy of La Jolla, Calif., inkjet print from 2020. National Museum of Mexican Art hide caption

Flowers and Bread in Tzurumtaro from the project Day of the Dead in Ptzcuaro and Michoacn 2009 (Flores y pan en Tzurumtaro del proyecto Da de muertos en Ptzcuaro y Michoacn) by Ann Murdy of La Jolla, Calif., inkjet print from 2020.

Sin ttulo (Untitled) by Alfonso Castillo Orta (1944-2009) of Izcar de Matamoros, Mexico, undated, polychrome ceramic and wire. Michael Tropea/National Museum of Mexican Art hide caption

Sin ttulo (Untitled) by Alfonso Castillo Orta (1944-2009) of Izcar de Matamoros, Mexico, undated, polychrome ceramic and wire.

"We remember them by remembering what they enjoyed while they were here on Earth," Moreno says. "So if somebody had a specific food that they liked, you would place that out on the altar as an ofrenda. You also put their photographs out, you share stories about them, and it really becomes a time to memorialize these individuals. It's really important that we keep saying their names, we keep telling their stories, and we pass these ideas on to the next generation."

This year, though, like so many other celebrations, the coronavirus pandemic has thwarted the way Da de los Muertos can be celebrated. The pandemic has had an outsize impact on Latinx people in the United States, who are hospitalized from COVID-19 at four times the rate of white Americans.

Moreno says that despite the show being entirely virtual, the tours are from all over the country, which feels, in a way, that they've "reached a little bit further."

"It's not as beautiful as having children walk through the museum galleries and hearing their reactions," he says. "But certainly it is at the heart of it, at the core of it, it is providing this idea of life and death and just sort of a celebration of life. It's a way of understanding death as a part of life. It's not the opposite. It's just part of the same thing."

Novia (Bride) by Alfonso Alejandro Rosas Zapin of Zinapcuaro, Mexico, 2016, polychrome ceramic, wire and string. Michael Tropea/National Museum of Mexican Art hide caption

Novia (Bride) by Alfonso Alejandro Rosas Zapin of Zinapcuaro, Mexico, 2016, polychrome ceramic, wire and string.

Kira Wakeam and William Troop produced and edited the audio version of this story.

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For The Day Of The Dead, Remembering Those Lost To The Coronavirus - NPR

KATHMANDU, Nepal Just last year, Nepal attracted so many mountain climbers that a human traffic jam of hundreds of hikers in puffy jackets snarled a trail to the top of Mount Everest.

The crowds were proof of how fast too fast, some have said Nepals alpine tourism industry had grown, becoming a lifeline for the country. Last year tourism brought in more than $2 billion to Nepal, one of Asias poorest nations, and employed a million people, from porters to pilots.

The pandemic has stopped all of that.

The trails snaking through the Himalayas are deserted, including those leading up to Everest Base Camp. Fewer than 150 climbers have arrived this fall season, immigration officials said, down from thousands last year.

Countless Sherpas and experienced mountain guides have been put out of work, leaving many to plant barley or graze yaks across the empty slopes to survive.

Many Nepalis fear that the combined effect of the coronavirus and the hammer blow to the economy could set this nation back for years.

I often think I will die of hunger before corona kills me, said Upendra Lama, an out-of-work mountain porter who now relies on donations from a small aid organization to feed himself and his children. How long will this go on?

Although the whole world is asking similar questions, Nepal has few resources to help people cope. Covid-19 cases are steadily rising, and with around 1,000 intensive-care beds for a population of 30 million, the authorities have instructed people who get sick to stay home unless they slip into critical condition. An unknown number may die out of sight and undetected.

The economic wreckage is easier to see. Hotels and the teahouses clinging to the sides of mountains are boarded up. Restaurants, gear shops and even some of the most popular watering holes in the capital, Kathmandu, have closed for the foreseeable future, including the Tom and Jerry pub, which for decades served as a beacon for backpackers.

Theres no hope in sight, said the pubs owner, Puskar Lal Shrestha.

Remittances from Nepalis working abroad have become another casualty. When times were good, millions sent back money from across Asia, especially from Persian Gulf countries. Last year, total remittances were almost $9 billion. Nepal relies on remittances more than just about any other country.

Many Nepalis held unglamorous jobs, such as security guards or maids. But the money was good, especially for people from a country where the average income is the equivalent of $3 a day.

Now many of them have been laid off. Some have been sent home, while others remain trapped in foreign countries, with no work and the specter of deportation hanging over them.

The pause in remittances has frightened many families. Several people who were interviewed said they had been forced to move to cheaper apartments and to take their children out of private schools and send them instead to government schools they considered inferior.

If the world does not get a corona vaccine soon, our remittances, which contribute around 30 percent to the national G.D.P., will completely dry up, said Sujit Kumar Shrestha, the general secretary of Nepals Association of Foreign Employment Agencies.

As the economy ails, hospitals are filling up. Doctors say that the wealthy and the politically connected are monopolizing hospital beds, leaving the poor who get sick with nowhere to go.

Our health system is weak, and the monitoring mechanism is even weaker, said Dr. Rabindra Pandey, who works for Nepal Arogya Kendra, an independent organization of public health experts. Well-connected and wealthy people can easily access private hospitals and afford their fees, but many of the poor are dying.

With winter fast approaching and the Hindu festival season in full swing, public health experts warn that Nepals Covid-19 crisis is about to get worse. The country has reported around 175,000 infections, roughly the same rate per capita as India next door. And although its reported deaths remain fewer than 1,000, testing remains low and the consensus among Nepali doctors is that virus infections and deaths are many times higher.

The virus has reached its tentacles into rural areas and remote towns that just a few months ago had few or no reported cases. Government officials have been accused of exploiting the pandemic to make money. A parliamentary committee is looking into accusations that officials close to the prime minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, inflated prices of key medical supplies. The officials have denied the allegations.

In some areas, Covid-19 has cut through entire families.

Dharma Kumar Shrestha, an elderly man who ran a small business importing clothes, checked into a hospital in southern Nepal in late September to seek treatment for asthma, the beginning of a chain of events that killed nearly half his family. He caught Covid-19 in the hospital, family members said. Two of his sons who visited him then got infected.

With the hospitals filling up, and the authorities ordering people to recover at home, the sons went back to their village. They got sicker. When one called for an ambulance, the driver refused, afraid of getting sick himself.

Within two weeks, Mr. Dharma and two sons had died.

What could be worse news than this? asked Suman Shrestha, a younger relative. Lets pray no one else has to face our fate.

Health experts say that many of Nepals infections have come from Nepali workers traveling back from India. India is now No. 2 in the world in terms of reported Covid-19 infections around eight million, right behind the United States.

Nepal lives in Indias shadow. Its economy, strategic affairs and overall health are constantly rearranged by what happens in its huge neighbor to the south.

Partly because of the boost from tourism, Nepals economy had been growing faster than Indias, at nearly 6 percent in 2019. Usually at this time of year, jet after jet would thread the mountain ranges by Kathmandus international airport and disgorge thousands of well-heeled tourists, including many Indians, eager to hike in the Annapurnas or up to Mount Everest base camp.

Last year, more than a million tourists visited. The average spent more than $50 a day.

Tourism officials expect that at least 800,000 people employed in the tourism industry will lose their jobs. Among the first to go, officials said, will be the 50,000 or so high-altitude guides, Sherpas and others in the trekking ecosystem. Some have started protesting on the streets of Kathmandu, urging the government to give them loans to help feed their families and threatening to vandalize the tourism boards office if they get no relief.

Guides, once known as the real agents of tourism, have been left in the lurch, said Prakash Rai, a climbing guide who participated in the recent protests. We have no means to survive this crisis.

Not long ago, some people inside and outside the country were saying it grew too fast. Some experienced climbers have complained that Nepal had become so eager to welcome climbers that the Everest scene had become unruly and dangerous. Another problem has been the growing trash heaps on Everests slopes.

Despite the rise in Covid-19 cases, other parts of the economy, like manufacturing, are trying to sputter back to life, and some schools have reopened. Travel restrictions imposed this spring and summer have been eased. A mass exodus has begun from the cities to far-flung villages as Nepalis head home to celebrate the Hindu holidays of Dashain and Tihar.

Yet such movement is bypassing tourist areas.

Pokhara, a beautiful lakeside city in the center of the country, has become a ghost town. At this time last year, it teemed with trekkers.

But as Baibob Poudel, a Pokhara hotelier, said, I havent seen a single foreigner here since April.

Bhadra Sharma reported from Kathmandu, and Jeffrey Gettleman from New Delhi.

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Mount Everest Empties as Covid-19 Strikes Tourism in Nepal - The New York Times

PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) Twelve new COVID-19 deaths were reported on Sunday as active cases of the coronavirus are down in South Dakota, according to thedepartment of healths update.

The death toll is now at 437. The new deaths were five women and seven men with four in the 60-69 age range, two in the 70-79 age range and six in the 80+ age range.

There has been 214 deaths in October, the deadliest month of the pandemic so far.

On Sunday, 1,332 new coronavirus cases were announced, bringing the states total case count to 47,324, up from Saturday (45,992). There were 1,221 new PCR cases and 111 new antigen cases for 1,332 new total cases. Total recovered cases are now at 33,749, up from Saturday (31,194).

Active cases are now at 13,138, down from Saturday (14,373).

Current hospitalizations for COVID-19 are now at 421, up from Saturday (415). Total hospitalizations, which includes only South Dakota residents, is now at 2,721, up from Saturday (2,683).

Total persons tested negative is now at 214,841, up from Saturday (213,540).

There were 2,633 new persons tested reported on Sunday. The test-positivity rate for Sunday was 50-percent.

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COVID-19 in South Dakota: 1,332 total new cases; Death toll rises to 437; Active cases at 13,138 - KELOLAND.com

The restrictions were part of new measures that also closed cinemas, gyms and theaters until Nov. 24. The government also required 75 percent of high school students to return to online learning, and continued earlier bans on large parties, including wedding receptions. But they seem likely to be replaced any day with stricter measures and the government was already weighing closing stores and limiting movement.

Some critics of the governments response have come from within its own parliamentary majority.

Better a total lockdown than these half measures, former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi told Italian reporters last week. He argued that closing restaurants for dinner but not lunch made no sense, and did nothing to limit infections, but increased unemployment.

The populist opposition also has supported the protests around the country. Matteo Salvini, the leader of the nationalist League party and former mask skeptic, showed up in a mask to talk to chefs at the Pantheon protests, where some onlookers jeered him.

Despite previously expressing skepticism about a second wave, Mr. Salvini now criticizes the government for dallying on its laurels over the summer. The government should have procured more buses to alleviate overcrowding and issued tenders for more ambulances in May, not October, he says constantly. If the state of emergency were real, then a total lockdown, not a half measure that targeted business, was in order.

Amid the political jostling, some regions have already gone beyond the national restrictions in fear of the virus overwhelming their hospitals.

Campania, the southern region that is home to Naples, where violent protests broke out last week, has banned movement across provincial lines except for work, health or extenuating circumstances. It has also canceled nursery school and mandated remote learning for students from elementary school to college. Other vulnerable southern regions, including Calabria and Sicily, have also adopted strict measures.

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In Italy, Like Everywhere the Virus Goes, Its the Discontent Thats Contagious - The New York Times