Category: Corona Virus

1. India could become the world's worst affected country

Global deaths from the pandemic have now reached more than 997,000 while global cases have risen to more than 33 million according to data from the Johns Hopkins University.

This tally of deaths is likely to rise to above 1 million shortly and the World Health Organization has warned that the pandemic may eventually cause 2 million deaths before an effective vaccine is rolled out.

Indias coronavirus cases have now topped 6 million after it reported 82,170 new infections in the last 24 hours. Infections are rising faster than anywhere else in the world.

Restrictions began to be lifted in June, despite the fact that cases have continued to rise.

Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic requires global cooperation among governments, international organizations and the business community, which is at the centre of the World Economic Forums mission as the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.

Since its launch on 11 March, the Forums COVID Action Platform has brought together 1,667 stakeholders from 1,106 businesses and organizations to mitigate the risk and impact of the unprecedented global health emergency that is COVID-19.

The platform is created with the support of the World Health Organization and is open to all businesses and industry groups, as well as other stakeholders, aiming to integrate and inform joint action.

As an organization, the Forum has a track record of supporting efforts to contain epidemics. In 2017, at our Annual Meeting, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was launched bringing together experts from government, business, health, academia and civil society to accelerate the development of vaccines. CEPI is currently supporting the race to develop a vaccine against this strand of the coronavirus.

2. China acts to prevent future outbreaks

Beijing has said it will protect healthcare workers who warn of emerging health emergencies. The move comes after criticism of the treatment of medical staff in Wuhan when they first warned about a new and unknown disease at the end of 2019.

It now says it will offer a reward to health workers who alert the authorities to new threats, and will also ensure their safety and legal rights are protected.

China had reported no local infections of the coronavirus for more than a month

However, it has detected cases of the virus on imported seafood products, raising new fears that the virus could travel via refrigerated supply chains.

The rise and fall of confirmed cases.

Image: Our World in Data

3. Tighter restrictions in Europe

France, Spain and the UK are all seeing rising case numbers as winter approaches, and are imposing tighter restrictions as a result.

More than 1 million people in and around Madrid will not be able to leave their area except for school or work. And the Spanish government wants local officials to go further and impose a citywide lockdown, despite a backlash of protests against the new measures.

Nearly two-thirds of Wales population is now under lockdown, with households not allowed to mix. Elsewhere in the UK, much of the focus has been on the impact of students starting university, with thousands of students now confined to their halls of residence.

Also in Europe, the Czech Republic is becoming a new hotspot, reporting 1,305 new cases on Sunday, while Russia has reported 8,135 cases in the past 24 hours.

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COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 28 September - World Economic Forum

Overall frequency of alcohol consumption increased by about 14% from 2019, the researchers reported in the journal JAMA Network Open. That increase averages out to about one additional drinking day per month by 75% of adults.

RAND Corporation sociologist Michael Pollard and colleagues analyzed a nationally representative sample of 1,540 people ages 30 to 80. The participants completed a survey about their drinking habits between April 29 and June 9 of 2019 and then again between May 28 and June 16 of 2020.

The volunteers reported they drank alcohol on more days every week. They also reported increases in the number of drinks they had; the number of heavy drinking days; and the number of alcohol related problems over the last 30 days between 2019 and 2020.

Frequency of drinking increased by 17% among women, 19% among people aged 30 to 59 and by 10% among White people.

Heavy drinking among women increased by 41% -- about one additional day of heavy drinking for one in every five women. Nearly one in 10 women, or 39%, reported an increase in alcohol-related problems, the researchers found.

"At times of lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, alcohol consumption can exacerbate health vulnerability, risk-taking behaviors, mental health issues and violence," the World Health Organization said in April.

The researchers say it's important to watch for whether the increases in alcohol consumption persist over the pandemic, and whether there will be physical and mental health consequences as a result.

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Americans over 30 have been drinking more during the coronavirus pandemic, research shows - CNN

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A sign is posted on the campus of Marquette University at the corner of 15th and Wells street for COVID-19 awareness and testing on Monday, Sept. 29, 2020.(Photo: Angela Peterson / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Milwaukee and Madison are no longer Wisconsin's coronavirus hotspots.

As the state's outbreak balloons to one of the nation's worst, the surge of cases and hospitalizationsin Northeast Wisconsin is unlike anything the region has experienced since the pandemic began.

Green Bay and Fox Valley-area hospitals are near capacity, and local resources are strained as cases rise at a nearly exponential rate. While growth has slowed among college-aged people, that gain has been lost torapid increases among other age groups.

"We can't blame it all on college campuses," said Jeff Pothof, chief quality officer at University of Wisconsin Health.

Pothof believes that the early-September surge among young people and the outbreaks at University of Wisconsin campuses may have given people in other parts of the state a false sense of security.

"People started to think that, 'as long as I'm not in a college town and I'm not a college student, things are OK,'" he said.

Young people in college townsdo continue to report high case numbers, but the outbreak has spread beyond campus communities, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis.

Two weeks ago, people ages 10 to 29accounted for nearly half of new cases in the state. But last week, they made up a little more than a third.

And that age group actually reported fewer cases last week than the week prior, while middle-aged adults saw 45% to 55% more casesweek over week.

The state Department of Health Services on Monday reported 1,726 new cases and 6,159 negative tests for a positivity rate of 21.9%.

The average daily new case count over the last seven days is 2,155.On March 25, when Gov. Tony Evers' Safer at Home order went into effect, Wisconsin reported 192 new cases.

Testing is up compared to the spring the state now regularly tests more than 10,000 people a day, compared to about 1,500 a day in late March but the percentage of positive testsrarely surmounted 10% then.

The positivity rate has climbed steadily since early September, and the average over thelast seven days was 18.2%.

The state also reported two deaths, bringing the total to 1,283.

It all comes as President Donald Trump plans to hold rallies Saturday at airports in Green Bay and La Crosse an areaexperiencing the second-highest rate of infection in the country, according to a New York Times analysis. The Green Bay area has the sixth-highest rate.

Trump's airport rallies around the country have been marked by little social distancing or mask-wearing.

The outbreaks in the Green Bay, Appleton and Oshkosh areas are driven by large gatherings like weddings andparties as well as varying levels of mask-wearing, local health officials said.

Wisconsin residents may have"COVID fatigue," tired of staying home, and are choosing to attend events and socialize as normal, health officials said.

Its not the time to throw in the towel and say, 'What the heck, Im just going to live my life,'" saidChris Woleske, chief executive officer of Bellin Health.

Bellin Hospital, 744 S. Webster Ave., in Green Bay.(Photo: Sarah Kloepping/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

Pothof said a few large gatherings can spread the virus to hundreds of people.

Even those who live in small towns are not immune to the virus, he said the rural, northern Kewaunee and Shawano counties are reporting the highestcase ratesin the state,several times greater than Milwaukee.

"The biggest thing that needs to shift is our behaviors," Pothof said. "We really are stuck with ... the same tools we've had since March, which is masking, social distancing, good hygiene."

Much of the Midwest is seeing a surge in cases,as Minnesota,North Dakota and South Dakota join Wisconsin in outsized case growth.

In recent days, Wisconsin has been reporting higher daily case counts than the state of New York, which is three times as populousand has been seeing about 800 to 900 new cases a day. Its positivity rate is about 1%.

And Florida, in the spotlight in recent months for widespread outbreaks, is reporting an average positivity rate of just under 5%.

Cases in Wisconsinhave been swelling since early September when colleges brought students back to campus, thought to be an early explanation for the surge.

UW-Madison halted in-person classes a week into the semester after more than 1,000 students were infected, and other schools including UW-La Crosse, UW-Eau Claire and Marquette University have quarantined dorms in hopes of preventing the virus from spreading further.

But campuses are no longer the only flash points.

For weeks, Fox Valley and northeastern Wisconsin communities have been setting records and filling hospitals Appleton, Green Bay and the Oshkosh-Neenah area all fall among the top 10 metro areas in the nation where outbreaks are the worst, according to the New York Times.

The Fox Valley is at a "critical burden" level of infection, Winnebago County health officials said. The county reports about 574 cases per 100,000 residents. Milwaukee County, in comparison, reports a rate of 182.

And the growth is rapid. In Winnebago County, the 778 cases reported last week were more than double the week prior and more than five times the cases three weeks ago, according to local health officials.

Winnebago County last Thursdayrecorded 194 new cases in a single day, the highest total since the pandemic began. The city of Appleton has set a new record for weekly case counts for the fifth straight week, reporting 340 cases from Sept. 21 through Saturday.

And Brown County on Friday reported nearly 30% of tests were returned positive.

Area hospitals have begun to sound the alarm. At a news conference Friday,Woleske said COVID patients occupy three-quarters of Bellin Hospital's ICU beds and two-thirds of medical unit beds roughly double the number two weeks prior.

In the past week, Bellin's emergency room was so overwhelmed that workers had to tend to patients on gurneys in the hallway.

Coronavirushospitalizations in the Fox Valley are more than five times as high as they were a month ago. ThedaCare, which throughout the pandemic has been able to house all coronavirus patients at its Appleton hospital, is now making plans to route patients to Neenah and its critical access hospitals in Berlin, Shawano and Waupaca.

"If we dont change something ... we are back to square one, where we were back in February and March, and actually probably even somewhat worse off than at that moment in time," CEO Imran Andrabi told the Appleton Post Crescent.

Hospitals in the spring made plans to expand their capacity to treat coronavirus patients, but since then many have restarted non-emergency procedures, compounding the space issue some hospitals are now facing, Pothof said.

If trends continue, the state's health care system will face the far reaches of its capacity, he said.

"None of those plans is infinite. At some point, they all have an end-point," he said."And if you get to those end-points, that's when bad things start to happen to patients."

And as cases accelerate, one of the main tools to stop the spread gets harder to accomplish.

Multiple health departments across the state have reported that contact tracers, tasked with reaching infected people and identifying and tracking down their close contacts, have become overwhelmed by the barrage of new cases to work through.

Our goal is to reach out to all confirmed cases within 24 hours of being reported to the health department, but due to the current surge in cases we are days behind this goal, the Winnebago County Health Department wrote in a Thursday release.

Tracers in Portage County, Outagamie County and Marathon County have also reported not being able to keep up.

The key to turning around the current outbreak is getting the public to understand the severity of the virus and its widespread impact, Pothof said.

"The longer we go on, the gravity of those numbers and the historic nature of what we're going through is starting to get a little bit lost," he said, "and people are starting to go back to their normal behaviors, which unfortunately allowfor the continued spread and escalation (of the virus)."

Haley BeMiller of the Green Bay Press-Gazette contributed to this report.

Contact Sophie Carson at (414) 223-5512 or scarson@gannett.com. Follow heron Twitter at @SCarson_News.

Read or Share this story: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2020/09/28/wisconsin-coronavirus-green-bay-fox-valley-outbreaks-worsen/3562169001/

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State reports nearly 22% positive coronavirus tests as outbreak in northeast Wisconsin worsens - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

SEOULSouth Korea appears to have cracked the code for managing the coronavirus. Its solution is straightforward, flexible and relatively easy to replicate.

The country has averaged about 77 new daily cases since early April and recently suppressed a spike in infections. Adjusting for population, that would be the equivalent of about 480 cases a day in the U.S., where new daily cases have averaged about 38,000 over the same period. Total deaths in the U.S. due to Covid-19 just surpassed 200,000.

South...

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How South Korea Successfully Managed Coronavirus - The Wall Street Journal

Officials this week released statistics showing that the positivity rate in some Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods had grown to anywhere from 3 percent to 6 percent, significantly more than the citys overall rate of between 1 percent and 2 percent. Officials are especially worried about the positivity rates in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Borough Park, Midwood and Gravesend, which they have referred to as the Ocean Parkway Cluster.

Mr. de Blasio said on Friday on the Brian Lehrer radio show that the city had closed four yeshivas over violations of social distancing rules. This is an indicator of something well be fighting for a little while here, he said.

The uptick in these neighborhoods amounts to the first major virus challenge for the city after months of declining or flat numbers. The concern now is that if the outbreak spreads further in the Orthodox community, it could begin to take hold elsewhere, with even more serious consequences. If the citys overall positivity rate hits 3 percent, that would trigger a new lockdown, including the closing of public schools.

Visits to Borough Park showed how the rules are often ignored. The outbreak devastated New Yorks Orthodox Jewish community in March and April, but this week, there was hardly a face mask in sight, as if the pandemic had never happened.

In other U.S. news:

In rural Minnesota, a coronavirus survey was stopped after multiple occurrences of residents intimidating and shouting racial and ethnic slurs at workers going door-to-door, the states health department said. The state has reported an average of nearly 900 cases per day over the past week, according to a New York Times database.

Joining a growing number of colleges that have taken disciplinary action against Greek organizations that violate health rules, Indiana University has forced a fraternity to shut down through next summer because it held a large event at which people did not wear face masks or socially distance. The fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi, agreed to close its chapter house in Bloomington.

Two former leaders of a Massachusetts veterans home were indicted on charges of criminal neglect in connection with the coronavirus deaths of at least 76 residents at the facility, the states attorney general said on Friday. Bennett Walsh, 50, and Dr. David Clinton, 71, were indicted Thursday by a state grand jury on charges related to their work at the Holyoke Soldiers Home in Holyoke, Mass. Each man was indicted on five counts, and the specific charges were for caretakers who wantonly or recklessly permit or cause bodily injury and abuse, neglect or mistreatment of an older or disabled person.

The major U.S. stock indexes all rose on Friday, but the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average still recorded their fourth straight week of losses. The Dow closed with a 1.34 percent gain for the day, but was down 1.8 percent for the week, and the S&P 500 ended the 1.6 percent higher, but with a 0.6 percent loss for the week. The Nasdaq, which rose 2.26 percent on Friday, gained 1.1 percent for the week after ending the previous three weeks with declines.

Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia said on Friday that he and his wife, Pamela Northam, had tested positive for the virus. Mr. Northam, a Democrat, said that he felt fine, while his wife was experiencing mild symptoms. Gov. Mike Parson of Missouri, a Republican, announced Thursday that he and his wife, Teresa, had tested positive. Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, also a Republican, contracted the virus in July.

A federal judge barred the Trump administration from ending the 2020 census a month early, the latest twist in years of political and legal warfare over a contested population count that was delayed for months because of the pandemic. In U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Judge Lucy H. Koh issued a preliminary injunction on Friday preventing the administration from winding down the count by Sept. 30, a month before the scheduled completion date of Oct. 31.

In Boulder, Colo., public health officials have banned social gatherings of any size and issued a stay-at-home order for all people aged 18 to 22. The measure attributed a recent surge in cases to the reopening of the University of Colorados Boulder campus on Aug. 24, noting that 78 percent of new virus cases in the county were among that age group. The mandate will remain in effect until at least Oct. 8.

Less than a week before indoor dining resumes in New York City, Mayor de Blasio said that the citys outdoor dining program would be made permanent and year-round. Restaurants will have the option of enclosing their outdoor areas, but if they do, they will have to adhere to indoor dining restrictions of 25 percent capacity, the mayor said.

Reporting was contributed by Livia Albeck-Ripka, Hannah Beech, Pam Belluck, Choe Sang-Hun, Emily Cochrane, Karen Crouse, Johnny Diaz, Ben Dooley, Michael Gold, Emma Goldberg, Joseph Goldstein, Antonella Francini, Matthew Futterman, Rebecca Halleck, Winnie Hu, Makiko Inoue, Mike Ives, Isabel Kershner, Juliana Kim, Andrew E. Kramer, Dan Levin, Donald G. McNeil Jr., Sarah Mervosh, Raphael Minder, Saw Nang, Richard C. Paddock, Azi Paybarah, Bryan Pietsch, Daniel Politi, Alan Rappeport, Simon Romero, Julie Shaver, Dera Menra Sijabat, Mitch Smith, Liam Stack, Daniel E. Slotnik, Anna Schaverien, Eliza Shapiro, Jeanna Smialek, Mitch Smith, Eileen Sullivan, Michael Wines, Elaine Yu, Mihir Zaveri and Karen Zraick.

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Under 10 Percent of Americans Have Covid-19 Antibodies, Study Finds - The New York Times

Im dwelling on numbers because this week, the US officially counted 200,000 COVID-19 deaths. Words like grim milestone just dont seem adequate in the face of that toll.

Numbers are valuable. Case counts help scientists track the infections spread. Death tolls help policy makers figure out where things are going right or horribly wrong. Theyre utilitarian.

They can also hit like a derailed train.

Since I started this column two months ago, more than 345,470 people have died of COVID-19 around the world. 57,993 of those deaths were in the US.

Thats 345,470 people, each with families and friends and coworkers and enemies and cats and dogs and people who just saw them on the street while walking to the bus. Theyre gone. Their desks and armchairs and beds are empty. The people who loved them are red-eyed and sorting through the stuff they left behind. Each human lost cuts deep into communities, and the US has etched a wound into itself that is deeper than any other covid-wound on Earth.

Ive stopped looking at the numbers every hour, like I was doing this spring. But every Friday, when I look at the numbers on Johns Hopkins dashboard, its still a shock. I know Im not alone.

Shocked that would be the word that I would say captures my response to our current death numbers from the vantage point of February, David Celentano, the head of Johns Hopkins School of Public Healths epidemiology department, told Vox this week.

In February, the first US death was alarming. Now, around 800 people in the country are dying of the disease every day, and the sirens and alarm bells have blurred into the background of a horrible year.

When it comes to death, numbers like 200,000 are no more tragic than numbers like 145,763, or 12 or one. But the roundness of the number does help to turn up the volume on that incomprehensible din. Visuals that compare the national death toll to our neighborhoods and cities, like The Washington Posts brutal new interactive map, can help us understand the volume of death body by body and block by block. Comparisons to other death tolls can help us reckon with just how unprecedented this is.

The number of dead is equivalent to a 9/11 attack every day for 67 days. It is roughly equal to the population of Salt Lake City or Huntsville, Alabama, Carla K. Johnson wrote for The Associated Press.

Thinking beyond the USs borders more than 985,748 people have died of this disease. There are 74 different countries and territories around the world with populations smaller than that number.

Wrestling with the loss of a nations worth of people is not something that any one of us thought wed be dealing with this year. Every single death, every single case, ever since the pandemic roared into public consciousness in January, is one too many.

These numbers are the subject of all the science we talk about every week they provide the data that researchers use to study this disease. But the climb of these numbers is also an urgent motivation behind this research. Whether researchers are trying to find a vaccine, or a treatment, or figure out how the virus moves between us, or how it wrecks our bodies the goal is the same. No one can make those numbers go down but it is still possible to keep them from going up.

Heres what else happened this week.

Child deaths tied to covid-19 remain remarkably low, months into U.S. pandemicWhile the COVID-19 death toll in the United States remained the highest in the world, the fatality rate for people under 20 remained extraordinarily low. Experts are still trying to understand how the disease affects younger people. (Lenny Bernstein/The Washington Post)

The Core Lesson of the COVID-19 Heart DebateThere has been a lot of effort put into understanding some of the damage that COVID-19 can do to the heart. Many studies have poured out of labs, as a flood of data has rushed into them but many conclusions in the heart debate remain out of reach. Over at The Atlantic, Ed Yong discusses why, and finds that as pandemics get wider, they feel weirder. (Ed Yong/The Atlantic)

What Do Two New Studies Really Tell Us About Coronavirus Transmission on Planes?This is a good breakdown of some of the limitations behind two case studies that looked at coronavirus transmission on planes. (Jane C. Hu/Slate)

Johnson & Johnson Starts Phase 3 Trial for Single-Dose Coronavirus VaccineThis week, Johnson & Johnson started its large-scale trials for its vaccine in the US. Unlike many of the other candidates, this one is designed to only require a single dose potentially making is easier to distribute. A different company, Novavax, also entered phase three trials this week in the UK. (Elliot Hannon/Slate)

Here come the tortoises: In the race for a Covid-19 vaccine, slow starters could still win outAt STAT theres a good update on some of the other vaccine candidates. Pharma companies Merck and Sanofi are both moving more slowly and methodically, but are still very much making progress towards a vaccine. (Helen Branswell/STAT)

A Covid-19 Vaccine for Children May Not Arrive Before Fall 2021As vaccine development pushes ahead, one group is noticeably not represented in any of the vaccine trials underway in the US kids. Vaccine developers are keenly aware that children are not simply miniature adults. Carl Zimmer writes in The New York Times. Creating a vaccine that is safe and effective for children will likely take a lot more work, and a lot more time.(Carl Zimmer/The New York Times)

156 countries are teaming up for a Covid-19 vaccine. But not the US or China.How will a vaccine get distributed when we finally have a good candidate? Manufacturing and shipping issues aside, its going to be a massive political undertaking too. For a look at the international relations side of vaccine distribution, read up on Covax, an initiative that aims to distribute billions of doses worldwide by the end of next year. (Julia Belluz/Vox)

Averting a COVID-19 vaccination crisis will take careful communicationIn order for a vaccine to work, people have to be willing to take it. The Verges Nicole Wetsman talked with a vaccine hesitancy researcher about this vaccine, and what concerns public health experts will have to overcome. (For more expert opinions on a similar topic, check out Maggie Koerths `How To Know When You Can Trust A COVID-19 Vaccine` at Five Thirty Eight.) (Nicole Wetsman/The Verge)

The code: How genetic science helped expose a secret coronavirus outbreakThis is a great feature that dives deep into how researchers uncovered a single outbreak at a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa. (Sarah Kaplan, Desmond Butler, Juliet Eilperin, Chris Mooney and Luis Velarde/The Washington Post)

To the more than 32,397,479 people worldwide who have tested positive, may your road to recovery be smooth.

To the families and friends of the 985,748 people who have died worldwide 203,549 of those in the US your loved ones are not forgotten.

Stay safe, everyone.

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The coronavirus pandemic by the numbers - The Verge

The UKs daily coronavirus death toll will rise from 34 to 100 a day in three to four weeks time, an expert on the governments Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has warned.

Infectious disease modelling expert Prof Graham Medley said there is little that can be done now to prevent daily deaths climbing to 100 but we need to make sure transmission comes down now to prevent the figure increasing further.

Medley told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: The treatments [for Covid-19] have improved, the way the virus is transmitting is going to be different, but nonetheless it is a dangerous virus and inevitably it will lead to some deaths.

He said that even if only 0.8% of infections lead to deaths, down from an estimated 1% in February and March, it still means that we are going to see deaths increase.

He projected the UK would see 100 deaths a day in three to four weeks based on the number of cases the country is seeing now (there were 6,874 new cases on Friday) a figure he said is doubling every 10 days.

In order to stop that process increasing again, then we need to make sure that that transmission comes down now, because that doubling time will carry on. The things that we do now will not stop 100 people dying a day, but they will stop that progressing much higher.

On Friday, new coronavirus restrictions were announced for Leeds, parts of Wales and more towns in the north-west, bringing the numbers affected by stricter measures across the UK to 21.3 million.

The Welsh government has announced that Cardiff, Swansea and some parts of Llanelli in south Wales will be subject to local lockdowns from this weekend. Meanwhile restrictions on household mixing were announced for Blackpool, Wigan, Stockport and Leeds.

The Welsh health minister, Vaughan Gething, said the situation was real and very serious, with coronavirus transmission driven by households mixing indoors and in pubs.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Saturday, he said: Id say we are in a comparable place to the end of February and, of course, we ended large parts of NHS activity about two weeks later, we were in full lockdown three and a bit weeks later.

Councillor Judith Blake, leader of Leeds city council, said that new lockdown restrictions may not be enough to halt the spread of the virus on their own.

We know that the restrictions themselves wont just work on their own, it has to come as part of a whole raft of measures, she told BBC Radio 4s Today programme.

The important message that we know from other areas is there is a lot of confusion, a lack of clarity, particularly in areas where there are different rules in one borough and the next-door borough has another one. This has to be a wake-up call to people.

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Coronavirus UK: Sage expert warns of 100 deaths a day within four weeks - The Guardian

WESTMORELAND COUNTY (KDKA) Members of the National Guard are expected to arrive today at Westmoreland Manor after an outbreak of Coronavirus cases.

It is expected that six national guard members will arrive this morning.

They will be providing assistance with testing staff and residents.

This comes after two additional employees and one contracted staff member tested positive for the virus on Saturday.

Almost 50 residents and more than 20 employees with the long term care facility have been infected.

There are 336 residents at Westmoreland Manor.

Westmoreland County Commissioners say Excela Health and the Regional Response Health Collaboration Program advised county leaders to bring in the National Guard to test patients and staff.

Were expecting them to come in and begin a more rigid surveillance testing and overseeing the precautions necessary to keep everyone safe and healthy, said Westmoreland County Commissioner Doug Chew.

At this point, no deaths have been reported at the facility.

(Photo Credit: KDKA Bryce Lutz)

Westmoreland Manor is continuing to test all staff and residents who test negative every three to seven days until its been two weeks since the most positive test result.

Westmoreland Manor has also put in a request for more personal protective equipment.

They are going through about 8,400 gowns per day.

The National Guard is expected to be there until Tuesday.

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National Guard Expected To Arrive At Westmoreland Manor To Help Contain Coronavirus Outbreak - CBS Pittsburgh

TheWest Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of 10:00 a.m., September 26,2020, there have been 541,883 total confirmatorylaboratory results received for COVID-19, with 15,158 totalcases and 332 deaths.

DHHR has confirmed the deaths of a 77-yearold male from Logan County and a 62-yearold female from Logan County. We are deeply saddened by this news, aloss to both the families and our state, said Bill J. Crouch, DHHR CabinetSecretary.

CASESPER COUNTY: Barbour(56), Berkeley (987), Boone (216), Braxton (13), Brooke (113), Cabell (791),Calhoun (25), Clay (34), Doddridge (23), Fayette (608), Gilmer (46), Grant(160), Greenbrier (126), Hampshire (106), Hancock (148), Hardy (89), Harrison(354), Jackson (259), Jefferson (429), Kanawha (2,603), Lewis (38), Lincoln(164), Logan (610), Marion (267), Marshall (172), Mason (141), McDowell (81),Mercer (412), Mineral (172), Mingo (376), Monongalia (1,992), Monroe (149),Morgan (55), Nicholas (100), Ohio (368), Pendleton (53), Pleasants (17),Pocahontas (59), Preston (153), Putnam (550), Raleigh (510), Randolph (242),Ritchie (12), Roane (49), Summers (54), Taylor (124), Tucker (23), Tyler (16),Upshur (71), Wayne (392), Webster (8), Wetzel (54), Wirt (12), Wood (362),Wyoming (114).

Pleasenote that delays may be experienced with the reporting of information from thelocal health department to DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the localhealth department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certain countymay not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individual inquestion may have crossed the state border to be tested.Suchis the case of Boone County in this report.

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

Free COVID-19 testing locations areavailable today in Jackson County and Monday in Boone, Cabell, Kanawha andTaylor counties:

Jackson County, September26, 12:00 PM 6:00 PM, Riverfront Park, 220 Riverfront Park, Ravenswood, WV

Boone County, September28, 1:00 PM 4:00 PM, Boone County Health Department, 213 Kenmore Drive,Danville, WV

Cabell County, September28, 9:00 AM 2:00 PM, Cabell Huntington Health Department, 703 Seventh Avenue,Huntington, WV

Kanawha County, September28, 10:00 AM 2:00 PM, Elkview Baptist Church, 1150 Main Street, Elkview, WV(flu shots offered)

Taylor County, September28, 12:00 PM 2:00 PM, First Baptist Church of Grafton, 2034 Webster Pike (USRt 119 S), Grafton, WV

Testing is available to everyone,including asymptomatic individuals. For upcoming testing locations, pleasevisit https://dhhr.wv.gov/COVID-19/pages/testing.aspx.

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COVID-19 Daily Update 9-26-2020 - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

COVID-19 widespread testing is crucial to fighting the pandemic, but is there enough testing? The answer is in the positivity rates. USA TODAY

Americans have a long way to go for "herd immunity" given that only about 9% of adults in the U.S. have been exposed to COVID-19. That's according tothe largest study so far that looks for evidence of the disease in peoples' blood.

California's health secretary said Friday that there have been increases in the number of newly confirmed cases, hospital emergency department visits for COVID-19 and new hospitalizations for confirmed or suspected cases.

And in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis lifted restrictions on restaurants and other businesses in a move to reopen the states economy despite the spread of the coronavirus.

Some significant developments:

Today's numbers:The U.S. has reported more than 7million cases and 204,000 deaths,according toJohns Hopkins University data. Globally, there have been more than 32.7million cases and over 991,000 fatalities.

What we're reading:Coronavirus has exposed a secret underbelly of the travel business: Ponzi-style schemes to pay bookings.

Mapping coronavirus:Track the U.S. outbreak, state by state.

This file will be updated throughout the day. For updates in your inbox, subscribe toThe Daily Briefing newsletter.

A Superior Court judge in Guamhas determined that the Department of Public Health and Social Services did not follow the law when quarantining travelersafter multiple passengers filed legal action against the government's quarantine policy.

After hearing from people held in the facility, Superior Court of Guam Judge Elyze Iriarte determined some passengers did not quarantine voluntarily, and the department held one woman against her will.

For at least 10 days, she was confined against her will without a meaningful and prompt opportunity to be heard regarding such confinement and not advised of her right to counsel, Iriarte wrote in her decision to release the woman and her children from the government facility.

Anewly-updated quarantine policy says that everyone entering the island by land or sea is subject to a 14-day quarantine, with all passengers going to a government of Guam facility unless "the individual qualified for quarantine at an approved rental lodging or personal residence as authorizedby (Public Health)."

Jasmine Stole Weiss, Pacific Daily News

Michigans movie theaters and other venues can reopen in two weeks after nearly seven months of closure during the coronavirus pandemic, and the limit on how many people can attend funerals and other indoor events is being raised.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also issued an order Friday requiring the vast majority of students to wear masks in classrooms as of Oct. 5, and mandating that public and private schools publish information on coronavirus cases.

Indoor cinemas, performance venues, arcades, bingo halls, bowling centers, indoor climbing facilities and trampoline parks can reopen starting Oct. 9. A 10-person cap on indoor events has been revised to instead allow 20 people per 1,000 square feet or 20% of fixed seating capacity, up to a maximum of 500 people.

By the end of July, about 9 percentof American adults had been exposed to thecoronavirusthat causes COVID-19, according toa new study of dialysis patients,the largest yet looking for evidence of the disease in people's blood.

That data showsthe American public is a long way from achieving "herd immunity" having enough infections to prevent further spread of the virus.

The infection rates varied from essentially zero in some states that avoided infection by mid-summer, to more than one-third of residents in parts of New York hard-hit in the spring.

The new study,published in The Lancet, is in line with previous, smaller studies, and also showed areas with high numbers of Black and non-white Latino residents had higher infection rates than mostly white communities.

Karen Weintraub

More than 60public health experts have called onthe pharmaceutical company Pfizer not to seek approval for its coronavirus vaccine until it has followed trial participants for at least two months after their second dose, according to one of the signators.

"To be successful, the public needs to have the utmost trust in the vaccine and the science behind it," the letter said, according to Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine who posted the letter Saturday on Twitter.

The Washington Post reports that Pfizer said in a statement that it shared the writers commitment to rigorous safety standards, but did not directly respond to their request. Pfizer, along with other pharmaceutical companies, signed a pledge earlier this month not to cut corners on a coranvirus vaccine.

The letter noted that since many trial participantshave not yet received their second dose, monitoring should occur throughat least late November before an application for an Emergency Use Authorization should be considered by the Food and drug administration.

It said the submission of an application before that standard would "wouldseverely erode public trust"and "prolong the pandemic, with disastrous consequences."

President Donald Trump has repeatedly said a vaccine would be available by Election Day, Nov. 3, or sooner.

A USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins data through late Friday shows six states set records for new cases in a week while four states had a record number of deaths in a week.

New case records were set in Minnesota, Montana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming, and also Puerto Rico. Record numbers of deaths were reported in Missouri, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.

The United States has reported 7,034,432cases and 203,789deaths as of Saturday morning.

Michael Stucka

California's health secretary said Friday that there have been increases in the number of newly confirmed cases, hospital emergency department visits for COVID-19 and new hospitalizations for confirmed or suspected cases.

Dr. Mark Ghaly says the trends appear largely attributable to the Labor Day holiday and could lead to an 89% increase in hospitalizations in the next month.

Ghaly notes the state is heading into another hot weekend, which could increase people gathering with others. He urged renewed efforts to prevent spread.

Texas A&Ms five Yell Leaders ran into an almost empty Kyle Field as Friday night crept into Saturday morning for their Midnight Yell.

Its a tradition almost 90 years old, normally held in front of more than 25,000 people before every football game. No fans were allowed this year because of the coronavirus, leaving the Yell Leaders to perform only to the schools band, their voices echoing in the cavernous space.

It was a little eerie, but I think it went well, head Yell Leader Keller Cox said through his mask moments after it ended.

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The global death toll from the new coronavirus sits just below 1 million, but without further action to slow the spread, it will likely double before a vaccine is widely available, a World Health Organization official said Friday.

Dr. Mike Ryan, head the WHOs health emergencies program, said that 2 million deaths was "not only imaginable, but sadly very likely" in the absence of increased testing, tracing, social distancing, mask wearing and other measures to slow the spread of the virus.

The time for action is now on every single aspect of this strategic approach, Ryan said.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday he was lifting COVID-19 restrictions on restaurants and other businesses across Florida as he pushed to reopen the state's economy.

DeSantis also said any local government limitations affecting restaurants and other businesses would have to be justified by his administration.

Were not closing anything going forward, DeSantis said, while insisting that the state is prepared with plans in place if infections increase again.

The Phase 3 order will allow theme parks to operate at full capacity and lift any restrictions on gatherings, although the state still is recommending people avoid crowded spaces.

Bars can go beyond 50% capacity, if local governments give them the green light, DeSantis said.

John Kennedy, Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Contributing: The Associated Press

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Coronavirus updates: Woman held against her will in quarantine, judge finds; 9% of American adults exposed to COVID-19 - USA TODAY