Category: Corona Virus

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Alaska on Thursday logged the highest combined count of active coronavirus infections in residents and nonresident workers and visitors since the pandemic began.

Nearly all the new nonresident cases reported Thursday involved seafood industry workers, who are required to get tested under safety plans filed by processing companies.

Nine of the new seafood industry cases were in the Bristol Bay region, where workers are arriving for the lucrative salmon season amid local concerns about the spread of the coronavirus given their limited health-care capacity.

But local officials say none of the Bristol Bay seafood workers who tested positive were showing any symptoms as of Thursday, so they werent stressing the system.

Alaskas number of active cases among residents those with positive tests who arent considered recovered increased again to a new high of 291 as reported Thursday, according to state data. There are 114 active cases involving nonresidents.

All told, there are a total of 405 confirmed active cases in Alaska.

Health officials reported 44 new cases Thursday: 25 in residents and 21 in nonresidents, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services COVID-19 dashboard. State data indicated 46 new cases as of Thursday morning, but that number was updated based on information released Thursday afternoon.

Statewide data shows the spike in confirmed cases isnt leading to a parallel increase in serious illness requiring hospital stays at this point.

Alaskas total number of residents reported hospitalized with the virus rose by one Thursday to a total of 65 since March as it has for several days. Around the state, one patient with COVID-19 and another with a case under investigation were on ventilators as of Thursday, according to statewide hospital data.

The average number of people with COVID-19 who are hospitalized in the state, most of them in Anchorage, has risen slightly since the beginning of pandemic, according to Jared Kosin, president and CEO of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association.

The states ICU capacity is relatively good with fewer than half those beds full now, state data shows. Just under half the non-ICU beds statewide are available statewide. At least a quarter of Anchorages non-ICU hospital beds are open, about the normal level.

There were just over seven patients hospitalized with the virus on average over the past 14 days, Kosin said. That number was closer to four on average between early April and this week.

The hospitalized COVID-19 patient numbers are still low, Kosin said, but the increase bears watching if statewide case counts keep rising and hospital capacity shrinks.

It has my attention, and I think it has other peoples attention, he said.

Health officials have tallied 973 confirmed cases in Alaska since the pandemic began in March: 816 involving residents and 157 involving nonresidents. Some 513 Alaskans are considered recovered including six new recovered cases recorded Wednesday.

Twelve Alaskans have died with the virus.

The new cases in residents include six each in Anchorage and Fairbanks; three in Homer; two each in Eagle River and North Pole; and one each in an unspecified Kenai Peninsula community; Seward; Valdez; Palmer; Wasilla; and Bethel, according to data released Thursday.

The new cases in nonresidents include at least 17 seafood workers: nine in the Bristol Bay area; four identified as unknown; two in Wrangell; and one each in Anchorage and on the Kenai Peninsula.

There were eight new cases among seafood workers at an onshore salmon plant in Naknek within the Bristol Bay Borough, said Mary Swain, executive director at the Camai Community Health Center. She declined to name the plant or company.

Six more positive cases were confirmed but wont be reported in the states data until Friday, Swain said. That group includes an independent fisherman as well as seafood plant workers, plus one additional case in the Lake and Peninsula Borough.

None of those people are showing symptoms of the illness, she said.

The health center serves King Salmon, Naknek and South Naknek, and theyre coordinating testing for other fisheries nearby, Swain said.

The center could care for about 15 mildly ill patients who didnt need oxygen, she said. A field hospital donated by Samaritans Purse could also be set up if needed.

Swain said the recent uptick in cases among people without symptoms is less concerning than if more vulnerable people get sick.

As of Thursday, the state was reporting three COVID-19 cases involving residents of the Bristol Bay and Lake and Peninsula boroughs and 18 cases in nonresidents there.

Of the new Alaska resident cases identified by the Department of Health and Social Services on Wednesday, 15 are male, nine are female and one was unknown. Three are under 10; three are ages 10-19; six are in their 20s; one is in their 30s; four are in their 40s; six are in their 50s; one is in their 60s; and two are in their 70s.

A total of 99,452 tests have been conducted, state health officials say. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous three days is 0.69%.

[Because of a high volume of comments requiring moderation, we are temporarily disabling comments on many of our articles so editors can focus on the coronavirus crisis and other coverage. We invite you to write a letter to the editor or reach out directly if youd like to communicate with us about a particular article. Thanks.]

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Alaska's active coronavirus infections hit new high including spike in seafood workers - Anchorage Daily News

Internationally, scientists now have on file the genomes of more than 47,000 different samples of the virus that causes COVID-19 up from just one in January. Here's a transmission electron micrograph of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (orange) isolated from a patient. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/National Institutes of Health hide caption

Internationally, scientists now have on file the genomes of more than 47,000 different samples of the virus that causes COVID-19 up from just one in January. Here's a transmission electron micrograph of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (orange) isolated from a patient.

Scientists are monitoring the virus that causes COVID-19 for genetic changes that could make a vaccine ineffective. But so far, they're not seeing any.

"There's nothing alarming about the way the coronavirus is mutating or the speed at which it's mutating," says Emma Hodcroft, a molecular epidemiologist at the University of Basel in Switzerland. "We don't think this will be a problem [for vaccines] in the short term."

"To date, there have been very few mutations observed," says Peter Thielen, a senior scientist at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. "And any mutations that we do see are likely not having an effect on the function of the virus itself."

That's good news for scientists working to produce an effective vaccine by the end of the year. And it reflects the enormous quantity of genetic information on SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, that researchers have amassed since the virus appeared in China late last year.

In January, scientists were limited to just one whole genome sequence of the virus. "Today we have over 47,000 coronavirus genomes that have been submitted to international databases," Thielen says.

New genomes are added every day by teams of scientists from around the world. And each time a new one arrives, it gets a close examination, Thielen says.

"What we're looking for in the data is similarity between the virus that first emerged and the genome that had been deposited and any changes that have occurred in the virus," he says. And overall, the viruses circulating today look remarkably similar to the ones first identified in China.

There had been concern about mutations because SARS-CoV-2 is a type of virus capable of quickly changing its genes. But unlike many similar viruses, the coronavirus uses a proofreading system to catch any errors in the genetic code when it begins generating copies of itself.

"The targets for vaccine design today remain the same as we would have designed them in January."

Peter Thielen, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory

"So if there's a change, it will actually make a correction at a specific location," Thielen says.

Vaccine developers have been especially concerned about genetic locations that affect something called a spike protein. It's a structure on the surface of the coronavirus that allows it to invade cells.

Spike proteins also give the virus its distinctive appearance and account for its name. Scientists who first viewed a coronavirus through an electron microscope were reminded of the solar corona.

The candidates for a coronavirus vaccine now under development are all designed to teach the immune system to recognize these spike proteins. So far, Thielen says, that's looking like a good strategy.

"The targets for vaccine design today remain the same as we would have designed them in January," he says.

Some other well-known viruses have proved less amenable to the strategy of using the same vaccine from year to year. Influenza, for example, is constantly altering its surface proteins in ways that require annual vaccine updates for each strain that's making the rounds that year.

"Flu just really loves to change these parts," Hodcroft says. "And that's why we can end up with such different flus from season to season."

Measles represents a virus at the other extreme its genome has stayed fairly consistent over the years, at least in the ways that trigger immunity in people after infection. That means children today still get a measles vaccine that was developed in the 1960s, and it provides immunity for a lifetime.

Hodcroft says she thinks SARS-CoV-2 is likely to fall somewhere between the flu and measles when it comes to making a vaccine.

"I think in the short term we'll find something," she says. "The big question is whether this is something we'll be able to vaccinate once and then you never have to get it again, or will it be something you'll have to get every couple of years to keep your immunity up to date."

Scientists are uncertain because the coronavirus is still so new, Hodcroft says.

"We haven't really seen the full diversity of how the virus can mutate," she says. "It gathers mutations over time. We can't speed up time, so we just have to wait and see."

At the moment, though, vaccine developers have more pressing concerns than mutations. First, they'll have to demonstrate that they can produce vaccines that are both safe and effective. Then they'll have to make huge quantities.

"It's not a small feat to manufacture a vaccine for billions of people and then to get it to all of those people," Hodcroft says.

That will take months, she says, in addition to the months required to develop a vaccine in the first place.

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Coronavirus's Genetics Not Changing Much, And That Bodes Well For A Vaccine : Shots - Health News - NPR

No final decision has been made and Dunford still needs to complete an ethics review, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

It was created in the stimulus law after Democrats demanded additional oversight measures over the Treasury Department's $500 billion fund.

Dunford, a former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman for Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, is well known by those who have worked for him to be meticulous and detailed in his decision making.

Dunford sits on the board of directors at Lockheed Martin and is chairman of the board at Semper Fi Fund & America's Fund, which provides resources and support to wounded and critically ill service members and their families.

He is also a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

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Congress looks to retired top general to oversee coronavirus commission - CNN

A top official at the Department of Health and Human Services who says he was ousted from a key pandemic response job for pushing back against demands to sign off on a coronavirus treatment the president had advocated said Thursday hed been further retaliated against by the departments head.

Dr. Rick Bright, who had been deputy assistant secretary of health and human services for preparedness and response and director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, until mid-April, updated his existing whistleblower complaint Thursday with allegations that Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar directed staff at the agency to thwart his ability to do his new job.

According to the amended complaint, Bright alleged that Azar had told agency employees to refrain from doing anything that would help Dr. Bright be successful in his new role and that employees had been warned that Azar was on the warpath in response to Brights initial complaint.

Going forward, Dr. Bright will need a collaborative relationship with BARDA to be successful, and Secretary Azars direction to BARDA employees is a clear act of retaliation that has impaired his ability to perform his job, the amended complaint said.

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In his initial whistleblower complaint to the Office of Special Counsel filed last month, Bright had said he was transferred from BARDA "without warning or explanation" over his refusal to embrace hydroxychloroquine the anti-malarial drug promoted by President Donald Trump as a potential coronavirus remedy. Bright also said there was gross mismanagement" at the agency.

Bright, whose initial complaint sought his reinstatement at BARDA, was transferred to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

In the initial complaint, Bright also described a chaotic response to the coronavirus at the Department of Health and Human Services fueled largely by "pressure from HHS leadership to ignore scientific merit and expert recommendations and instead to award lucrative contracts based on political connections and cronyism.

But in his amended complaint filed Thursday, Bright alleged that after he filed his initial complaint, top administration officials, including Trump, launched a retaliatory media campaign to try to discredit him and that hed been sidelined at the NIH in an extremely narrow role that excluded him from the agencys work on vaccines, including the vaccine programs that he initiated in response to the current COVID-19 pandemic response.

This intentional effort to pigeon-hole Dr. Bright is detrimental to his entire professional career, the amended complaint said. He is excluded from the scientific and industry work to which he has devoted decades of his career.

The amended complaint seeks that Azar recuse himself from the departments official response to Brights initial complaints request that Bright be reinstated to his old job.

A week after he filed his initial complaint, Bright testified before Congress that the Trump administration's timeline for a coronavirus vaccine is likely too optimistic and faulted Trump and other senior officials for having minimized the outbreak early on with, he said, deadly consequences.

As of Thursday, there were nearly 2.4 million COVID-19 cases reported in the U.S. and more than 122,000 deaths.

Trump dismissed Bright as a "disgruntled employee" on Twitter ahead of his testimony a tweet that Bright cited in his amended complaint as evidence of the administrations retaliatory campaign.

Adam Edelman is a political reporter for NBC News.

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Ousted coronavirus whistleblower says Trump administration is 'on the warpath' against him - NBC News

But there is little evidence so far that American voters are punishing Mr. Biden for his caution. A suite of polls from The New York Times and Siena College released this week show Mr. Biden leading Mr. Trump by 14 percentage points nationwide and with healthy leads in the battleground states of Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

On Thursday Mr. Biden called on Americans to wear masks in public to protect themselves and others. He began his remarks wearing what has become his signature black face mask, which hung from his left ear for the opening minutes of his speech. As he finished and walked off stage, Mr. Biden reattached the mask.

I know as Americans, its not something were used to, but it matters, he said. All the evidence from all over the world tells us it might be the single most effective thing we can do.

Mr. Trump, who has refused to wear a mask in public and has appeared at political events at which most of his supporters have gone maskless as well, first said that he had ordered a slowdown in coronavirus testing during a speech he gave to a half-full arena Saturday in Tulsa, Okla. He said that more testing had led to more evidence of infection, which he said reflected poorly on the United States.

So I said to my people, Slow the testing down, Mr. Trump said.

Almost immediately, White House aides said the president had been joking. But later this week, Mr. Trump told reporters, I dont kid, and reiterated his opposition to increased testing.

Mr. Biden called Mr. Trumps response self-centered and compared him to a child who constantly complains about being unable to get what he wants.

The president wants you to believe this is a choice between the economy and the publics health, Mr. Biden said. He still hasnt grasped the most basic fact of this crisis: To fix our economy, we have to get control of the virus.

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Biden Hits Trumps Coronavirus Response: Hes Worried About Looking Bad - The New York Times

Flare-ups of COVID-19 in the U.S. have delivered a fresh gut check to bulls on Wall Street, following an unprecedented market rebound from the coronavirus-ignited downturn back in March.

The U.S. recorded a one-day total of 34,700 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, the highest figure since late April, when the number was viewed as having peaked at 36,400, the Associated Press reported, citing using data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Cases in the southern and western state of the U.S. have accelerated and threaten to reverse, or stall, plans to reopen economies nearly frozen for months to limit the spread of the deadly contagion. Over the past several days, hospitalizations and infections have been resurgent in places like California, with more than 7,000 new cases, as of Tuesday, and in Arizona, where identified infections jumped nearly 50% from a week earlier, representing the largest increase by any U.S. state, the Wall Street Journal reported.

President Donald Trump traveled to Arizona on Wednesday for an event at a megachurch in Phoenix attended by about 3,000 mainly youthful supporters and a visit to a section of wall along the southern border, on which he inked his autograph.

Read:Fauci says in 40 years of dealing with viral outbreaks, hes never seen anything like COVID-19

Coronavirus cases reportedly have been increasing among people between the ages of 22 and 44, notably in Arizona and Texas.

While the ramp-up in infections may not represent a second wave most experts say we remain in the first wave in the U.S., and at least one has observed that a forest fire might be a more apt description than first, second and subsequent waves the equity market on Wednesday suffered its biggest selloff since June 11, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -2.17% and the S&P 500 index SPX, -1.86% ending the session 2.6% or more lower and the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -2.06% snapping an eight-day winning streak.

Over the course of this pandemic, some market experts have sought to evolve into armchair epidemiologists, assessing the implications of the rising tide of infections in the U.S. and around the globe.

Thomas Lee, head of Fundstrat Global Advisors, in a research report Monday, said that the biggest implications were on policy. This raises many questions but the most important is the policy direction. Given the surge in COVID-19 cases, states and the U.S. need to mitigate transmission [which is to say] course correct, wrote Lee.

Thirty-three states on Tuesday recorded a seven-day average of new cases that was higher than their average during the past two weeks, according to the Wall Street Journals analysis of data from Johns Hopkins.

Ironically, elevated infections and hospitalizations in clusters across America, compelled New York formerly an epicenter of the global pandemic to instate a quarantine on travelers visiting from Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah and Texas. New York is rolling out the 14-day quarantine protocol in coordination with Connecticut and New Jersey, states that also have seen cases stabilize in recent weeks.

Trump, slated to travel to his Bedminster, N.J., golf resort this weekend, will not abide by the quarantine, according to a White House deputy press secretary. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy noted on CNN that there is a carve-out in the quarantine order for essential work.

Fundstrats Lee wrote that one of the fears for investors is that the jump in infections will force a broader reinstatement of stay-at-home orders, which are viewed as politically and economically unpalatable after three months of such procedures in much of the world.

The last resort is likely reinstate shelter at home, Lee wrote. He said the best solution, probably, but also the most unpopular, is [to] require usage of masks.

Lee provided a list of 10 public-policy steps that could be implemented to curtail a surge in COVID-19 infections:

A number of states, including Washington and California, are mandating the wearing of facial coverings. Until a vaccine or cure is developed, this is going to be one of our best defenses, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said in a statement.

On Tuesday, at a congressional hearing, public health expert Dr. Anthony Fauci described the rise in cases as a disturbing development and vowed to increase testing, but also expressed hope about progress toward a vaccine.

See:Race for a COVID-19 vaccine has drug makers scaling up manufacturing before one is developed

It isnt universally clear why certain states are showing flare-ups while others are not, though experts say that the adherence to social-distancing protocols and stricter public health policies have been far from uniform across the 50 states. Some states more eagerly heeded a White House preference for quick and full reopenings.

In Arizona, some health professionals have linked the surge in cases in the Grand Canyon state to lifting stay-at-home orders too early. Arizona eased its orders a month ago. Gov. Doug Ducey has said that hes not considering reinstating a shelter-in-place measure even as cases rise, though he did stage an about-face to allow localities to mandate mask usage.

Emergency rooms in the state are seeing about 1,200 suspected COVID-19 patients a day, compared with some 500 a month ago, the AP reported.

That surge has prompted Dr. Joseph Gerald, a professor of public health policy at the University of Arizona, to predict that, if current trends continue, hospitals will probably exceed capacity within the weeks. We are in deep trouble, the doctor was quoted as saying.

Earlier this week, California touched a new high in the number of hospitalizations related to COVID-19, surpassing the previous peak in late April. Data as of Sunday showed that the state had 3,702 hospitalized, with the rise in infections being attributed there to an erosion of social distancing, particularly as residents welcome summertime weather and activities.

Fundstrats Lee has attributed at least some of the rise in cases to a wave of national protests that erupted in late May and earlier this month following the murder of George Floyd.

Floyd, a black handcuffed man, died on May 25 after Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis officer, was captured on video driving his knee into his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds even as Floyd said he couldnt breathe and stopped moving. That action helped spark a wave of civil unrest over inequality in the U.S. and treatment of black Americans in policy custody.

Chauvin and three fellow officers were fired and criminally charged.

Each of the protests involved tens of thousands of Americans in close proximity for hours, Lee wrote.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said Gov. Greg Abbott reopened Texas businesses too soon. I would have stayed with the course that was working well for the city of Houston and other cities in the state of Texas, he said, according to the Texas Tribune.

Dr. Robert Quigley, senior vice president and regional medical director of International SOS, a medical-security and travel-safety company, said that its hard to place blame on any one state for the resurgence in cases. Even as an immunologist, I am struggling with some of the characteristics of this novel virus and itsbehavior, he said, referring to the highly contagious nature of this coronavirus compared with other coronaviruses.

The virus was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December and has infected more than 9 million people worldwide. The World Health Organization currently estimates that 16% of people with COVID-19 are asymptomatic and can transmit the coronavirus, while other data posit that 40% of coronavirus transmissions are due to carriers not displaying symptoms of the illness. As a result, public health officials have advised people to keep a distance of 6 feet between themselves and others from outside their households.

Read: No, this surge in coronavirus cases in some states isnt part of a second wave

Plus:Disney delays reopening Disneyland and other California theme parks

Quigley said that its important for states to impose restrictions and compel citizens to wear masks and to adhere to proper sanitization procedures to have any hope of limiting the spread of the virus. What we do know is that if we are compliant with social distancing and universalprecautions, not limited to sanitizing our hands and wearing a mask at all times possible,the likelihood of transmitting the disease is remarkably lower, he said.

Dr. Jeremy Faust, in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, said that states and local governments need to be more evidence-based in their decision making around the pathogen. The lesson, he said, is that they need to be "data driven not date driven.

He also advocated for measures that in their totality help reduce the contagions spread, including wearing facial coverings. It helps a little, he said. Just because something isnt perfect, it doesnt mean it doesnt help.

As for the markets downturn, Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab, told MarketWatch via email that investors may have become too complacent about the epidemic and too hopeful that a V-shaped, or quick, economic recovery would take place.

We probably had a lull because of hopium around stronger economic data recently, but concerns are increasing (justifiably so) about the ability for the economy to sustain a V-shaped recovery with rising cases, she said. Even if governments dont shut things down again, it wont prevent businesses from doing so, or consumers from deciding on their own to shelter in place again.

Wednesdays selloff and early declines on Thursday came amid growing worries about the divergence between buzzy technology stocks, which have gotten a boost from the long-term implications of the viral outbreak, and cyclical stocks that are more sensitive to the economic outlook.

There is also some legitimate concern about equity valuations and how strong the rally has been over the past couple of months, wrote Brian Price, head of investment management for Commonwealth Financial Network.

The massive amount of monetary and fiscal stimulus that has been injected into the global economy was the primary catalyst behind the markets advance, but there seems to be ambiguity about additional support.

Reluctance to extend or offer additional stimulus could bring a risk factor into the market that may not be fully appreciated at this point, he said, referring to calls for further fiscal stimulus to help mitigate damage to businesses during this public health crisis.

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Heres why stock-market distress over spiking coronavirus cases is intensifying - MarketWatch

My colleague Jack Nicas usually covers tech in the Bay Area, but recently he snagged what sounded like a dream assignment: reporting on his local bar. It was actually heart-wrenching.

Heres an update about the Hatch, an Oakland watering hole:

On March 15, Gov. Gavin Newsom called for the states restaurants and bars to close to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Restaurateurs and bar owners across California knew they were in for a struggle, but they expected the closure wouldnt last much more than a month.

Three months later, Californias restaurants and bars are now just starting to open. In many cases, diners are kept outside, and some bars without kitchens are remaining shuttered.

For the public, the lockdown has been an inconvenience. Many of us have sharpened our cooking skills or become even more reliant on takeout and delivery. But for many of the millions of Californians who work in the service industry, the past few months have been economic anguish.

When the lockdown began, I started following my local watering hole in Oakland, a side-street hideaway called the Hatch, to understand the economic toll on the bar and its staff. In that story, which we published earlier this month, I wrote about the bars owner, Louwenda Pancho Kachingwe, and his creative efforts to save the Hatch, including battling with delivery apps and scrambling for a stimulus loan. By the time we published, he had burned through $40,000 of the bars emergency funds and his personal money, but he had some hope after securing a $72,500 federal loan.

I also kept up with several of his employees. Santos, the 56-year-old cook, lost his job the same day as his six children and hunkered down in a three-bedroom house he shared with 11 family members on the outskirts of Oakland. They gathered each night to pray for a way to pay their bills. The last time we spoke, they had missed their latest rent payment. Maria, the 55-year-old undocumented cleaner, battled extreme back pain that turned out to be cancer while also struggling to pay rent.

Both said they were fortunate not to have been touched by the virus; money was their biggest worry.

And Abel Oleson, a 34-year-old bartender, had $20 to his name shortly after the lockdown began but soon was making twice as much as he did at the Hatch with his stimulus-boosted unemployment checks.

Here is the original post:

Coronavirus in California: How One Oakland Bar Is Navigating Reopening - The New York Times

Coronavirus has accelerated the shift to virtual reality shopping, drone deliveries, and human-free stores like Amazon Go, according to one top banker.

Investors looking for companies that are ahead of the curve in terms of the future of grocery shopping should focus on Walmart WMT, -0.18%, Amazon AMZN, -0.79% and Kroger KR, +0.30% partner Ocado OCDO, +2.86%, Paul Cuatrecasas, founder and chief executive of investment bank Aquaa Partners, told MarketWatch in a recent briefing.

The coronavirus outbreak has seen demand for online grocery shopping surge as customers stay at home to avoid coming into contact with others.

A recent report by grocery fulfillment service Fabric forecasts online sales could make up one-tenth of all grocery sales by the end of 2020, four years sooner than previously expected.

This pandemic has just turbocharged really everything ahead by five years and food and grocery is one of those areas, Cuatrecasas said.

Walmart has filed patents for virtual reality shopping technology, said Cuatrecasas, which will let shoppers browse supermarket shelves, filling up baskets from the comfort of their living rooms.

I think convenience stores, store shops will always be around in the same way that the fax machine is still around, in the same way that people still do use horses and carts in some parts of the world, he said.

Read:Walmart surpasses eBay in U.S. e-commerce for the first time, Amazon still tops: eMarketer

But when 5G and virtual reality technologies are more advanced, with the ability to project holograms and simulate touch, why would we ever want to go to store again? he said.

U.K. stock Ocado is known for its customer fulfillment centers, which complete orders from online grocery shoppers almost entirely using robots.

Ocado announced in June it expected the shift to online shopping to stick and it raised 1.07 billion ($1.2 billion) to take advantage of the opportunity.

In five to 10 years, Cuatrecasas said, people will browse supermarket shelves from home wearing widely available VR headsets. And well have programmed into that experience, a friend stopping by or, someone that we find attractive, saying, Hi, how are you?

And our orders will be picked and delivered by a mix of robots, drones, and self-driving cars.

The technology exists now, though it is bulky and expensive, Cuatrecasas said, but shopping with holograms is four or five years away.

Also:Amazon could redesign Whole Foods stores to accommodate online grocery delivery orders: KeyBanc

Coronavirus, particularly if there is a second wave, will speed up the adoption of delivery drones too, he said.

Parcel drones, I think, will be approved more quickly than they otherwise would have been without this pandemic, especially if we get a real, you know, a second wave coming here in the fall, he said.

With all the sci-fi sounding technology being developed, though, there has to be a purpose. So while Cuatrecasas said groceries could arrive on the moon in 10-15 years, it is more likely it will be needed on Mars or asteroids.

It will rely massively on 3-D printing technology and lab-grown foods like Impossible Food and Beyond Meat BYND, -2.72%.

We dont have many cows or plants growing on Mars, nor will we. Were going to need vertical farms and, you know, lab meat, all of that is going to be necessary, he said.

Excerpt from:

Drone deliveries and holograph shopping are being fast tracked thanks to coronavirus: here are some companies set to benefit - MarketWatch

Surrounded by some members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, President Trump speaks at a press conference on COVID-19 in March in the Rose Garden. Of the 27 task force members, two are women, standing to Trump's left: Dr. Deborah Birx and Seema Verma (holding the sheaf of papers). Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Surrounded by some members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, President Trump speaks at a press conference on COVID-19 in March in the Rose Garden. Of the 27 task force members, two are women, standing to Trump's left: Dr. Deborah Birx and Seema Verma (holding the sheaf of papers).

There are 27 members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

Only two are women: Dr. Deborah Birx and Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

It's a gender breakdown that's echoed around the world. For example, 10 of the 31 members and advisers of the World Health Organization's Emergency Committee on COVID-19 are women, and of the 25 members of the WHO-China joint mission on COVID-19, 20% are women.

Although research has shown that men appear more likely to suffer more severely or die from COVID-19 than women, the pandemic is, by some measures, taking a greater toll on women.

Health care workers are at greater risk of infection than the general population, and 70% of the world's health workforce, according to the WHO, are women.

Countries are reporting higher numbers of reports of domestic violence as stay-at-home orders have confined women to tight quarters with abusive family members. And widespread shutdowns have disrupted women's access to maternal health services. A study in The Lancet estimates, in its worst-case scenario, that nearly 60,000 additional women could die of maternal health complications over a six-month time period as a result of COVID-19.

In response to this lack of voice, women activists around the world have pushed for better representation with mixed results.

In March, Roopa Dhatt, a physician who is the co-founder and executive director of Women in Global Health, held a dozen one-on-one meetings with representatives from U.N. agencies and governments, encouraging them to include more women on their coronavirus task forces.

Dhatt says most of the people she spoke to told her that "now is not the time" for such discussions. In a conversation with a senior member of a "global agency that has been leading" on the COVID-19 response, she says she was told: "We're in a wartime, and we have to prioritize what's the most urgent."

Since then, Dhatt has seen signs of progress in the effort to bring women and women's issues to the table.

But there are still obstacles. "I don't think we've had too many honest conversations as to why women are left out in the first place. It's based on this fundamental lack of confidence in what they can bring to the table," says Loyce Pace, president and the executive director of Global Health Council, a coalition of academic institutions, think tanks and groups in the global health sector. "To exclude someone that's a choice."

Here are some of the issues that women are fighting for:

Data based on gender

Problem: Some countries are not reporting the gender of confirmed COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, intensive care unit admissions and deaths. According to Global Health 50/50, a research project of the University College London's Centre for Gender and Global Health, out of 106 countries surveyed, 23 do not have sex-disaggregated data. This includes countries with some of the largest COVID-19 case counts in the world: Russia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

The lack of gender-specific data matters, experts say. Dhatt says she believes that women face more situations that put them at risk of the disease. At home, they are more likely to be the ones caring for an ailing family member, exposing themselves to the virus, Dhatt says. And the risks that face all health workers fall disproportionately on women because of their high numbers in that field, she says: long hours, high stress and insufficient or inadequate personal protective equipment. Amina Jama, who leads Somalia's chapter for Women In Global Health, says that in her country, some health care workers have had to use the niqab, the Islamic covering that shields the face, as a face mask.

Women face an additional problem with personal protective equipment: It may not fit correctly, says Anna Purdie, program manager at Global Health 50/50.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is critical for PPE to fit properly to ensure protection, from the gown to gloves to goggles. But women don't always have access to PPE geared for women's frames. In fact, a 2016 survey of 3,086 women in a range of industries, conducted by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers Support Network and other groups, found that just 29% of respondents reported that the PPE they wear is designed for women.

If data establish higher infection rates among female health workers than among male health workers, then "the data can be used to devise policies and strategies that are gender-sensitive," says Jama for example, a government requirement that they be given properly fitting PPE.

The solution (in progress): Somalia is a partial success story. The initial COVID-19 data were not categorized by gender and age, but after four weeks of advocating for this breakdown, Jama and the Somalia chapter of Women in Global Health, along with other local nonprofits and advocates, say the government has begun releasing this information.

One initial finding is that the average age of women infected is younger than men. But the data have not yet been conclusive because the information is too preliminary, Jama says. As a result, the government has not made any changes to its policies, but Jama is continuing to monitor the data.

Women at the table

The problem: Women, because of their vast presence in health care, have crucial knowledge that can help shape COVID-19 prevention but decision-makers are not consistently tapping into their expertise, Jama says.

She shares the story of a nurse she met at a weekly Facebook chat for Somalian women health care workers, who make up an estimated 80% of the health workforce, according to the Ministry of Health.

The nurse said she was told to encourage people in the low-income community where she worked to wash hands frequently. "And she felt guilty telling [that to] people who do not have water to drink," Jama says.

After health authorities set up hand-washing stations in the area, people came not to wash up but to fetch water for household use.

If the nurse had been invited to share her insights with members of the country's COVID-19 task force, Jama says, "she would have told them that they need to provide water to drink first and then bring the hand-washing campaign."

The solution (in progress): Global health advocates are pressing for female representation in COVID-19 task forces. Dhatt and her group finally got their breakthrough in May at the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization. Some of the policies that Dhatt had been negotiating with member states to include in their own COVID-19 strategies made it into the World Health Assembly resolution: language calling for more involvement of women in pandemic decision-making as well as for COVID-19 plans to respond to the needs of all genders.

Getting words into a document may not sound like a big deal but is an important first step, Dhatt says. "These resolutions ensure from a global perspective that governments are prioritizing gender. Second thing is, these documents become useful for how funding is allocated. Without that language in the resolution, it's hard to hold governments to account."

Policies that consider women

The problem: As some governments develop policies to address the pandemic, services to women are severely affected. In May, the U.S. sent a letter to the United Nations, requesting that the agency remove references to "sexual and reproductive health" including abortion services in its COVID-19 plan, saying that the "U.N. should not intimidate or coerce Member States that are committed to the right to life." Women's health groups expressed concern, saying these services are an essential part of health care in an emergency such as the pandemic.

"From the very beginning," says Lyric Thompson, senior director of policy and advocacy for the International Center for Research on Women, "there should have been an analytical and intentional process [among U.S. foreign policy makers] that asked, 'How do we make sure the policy choices that we make are not exacerbating issues for women?' "

The solution (in progress): Create foreign policies that take women's well-being into account, Thompson says. In May, she and representatives from a coalition of more than 50 humanitarian and women's rights groups rolled out a vision for a U.S. "feminist foreign policy." They're calling for the creation of a "feminist inspector general" at the White House, among other actions, to ensure that international programs from trade initiatives to humanitarian aid are designed for women and protect women from the get-go in any future crisis.

Feminist foreign policies have been put in place in countries such as Sweden, France, Canada and Mexico.

Karina Gould, head of Canada's international development ministry and its Feminist International Assistance Policy, says she hasn't had any trouble convincing Canadian leaders to put gender on the global COVID-19 agenda. "I'm leading that. I can push that. That's my decision."

Since the pandemic began, "a large part of what I've been trying to do with Canada's international assistance is to stay the course on sexual and reproductive rights work," she says.

On Monday, the agency announced it would give $93.7 million to six global sexual health and reproductive rights projects to ensure access to safe abortion and contraception during the pandemic. The funding will benefit organizations such as Ipas, which provides contraception to Rohingya refugee women, and the U.N's family planning agency, the U.N. Population Fund, in countries such as Indonesia, South Africa and Tanzania.

Thompson says she hopes that the U.S. can adopt a similar gender-focused approach to foreign policy. "The key points we are advocating for transcend partisan politics and would benefit any administration," she says.

But Pace of the Global Health Council warns that the challenge with any new effort to bring women into all levels of COVID-19 planning or any policy for that matter is that "it doesn't solve all problems. Where the rubber meets the road is how that policy is executed."

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Men Dominate COVID-19 Task Forces. Women Are Demanding Representation : Goats and Soda - NPR

Here are the latest updates from June 23, 2020:

Nine more Minnesotans have died of COVID-19, the Minnesota Department of Health said Tuesday, for a total of 1,393.

Of the people whose deaths were announced Tuesday, two were in their 90s, four were in their 80s, two were in their 60s and one was in their 50s. Six of the nine deaths announced Tuesday were among residents of long-term care facilities. Of the 1,393 COVID-19 deaths reported in Minnesota, 1,101 have been among residents of long-term care.

The current death toll only includes Minnesotans with lab-confirmed positive COVID-19 tests.

MDH also said Tuesday there have been 33,469 total confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Minnesota. The number of confirmed cases is up 242 from Mondays count and is based on 7,261 new tests. You can find the seven-day positive case average here.

Since the start of the outbreak, 3,860 Minnesotans have been hospitalized and 339 are currently in the hospital, 158 in intensive care. You can find more information about Minnesotas current ICU usage and capacity here.

Of the 33,469 confirmed positive cases in Minnesota, 29,399 are believed to have recovered.

More information on cases can be found here.

At least 69 residents of North Ridge Health and Rehab nursing home in New Hope have died of COVID-19, making it the hardest-hit long-term care facility in the state, according to data released by MDH on Monday. There have been 334 total confirmed cases so far in the outbreak among residents and staff at the facility, which is run by Tampa-based Mission Health Communities.

While MDH had not released the known cases and deaths at each long-term care facility, it disclosed the information for facilities with more than 10 residents on June 5 after a Senate committee threatened to subpoena the state for the information.

MinnPost asked Monday for updated information and received information current to 4:30 p.m. Sunday. In that early June data, St. Therese of New Hope had 67 COVID-19 deaths while North Ridge Health and Rehab had 57.

Two weeks later, the new data show the same death toll at St. Therese and 197 total confirmed COVID-19 cases over the course of the pandemic, which is actually a decrease of one case from the earlier tally. North Ridge has had 39 more confirmed cases among residents and staff than reported in early June.

Austin Blilie, vice president of operations at North Ridge, said his 320-bed facility is the largest skilled nursing home in the state and has taken in nearly 70 patients sick with COVID-19 since May from hospitals and other facilities because of their ability to handle the deadly virus. Blilie said people at North Ridge are often elderly and have many underlying conditions and some admitted with COVID-19 are on hospice, making them susceptible to severe cases with the disease.

North Ridge, he said, is an example of a facility stepping up to serve the community, not of lax infection control. Blilie said staff has access to full personal protective equipment, though state data says 92 staff have had known cases of the virus. There are only 12 active cases at North Ridge currently, Blilie said, adding that 133 people sick with the disease have recovered since May 8.

More than 20 residents have died at eight long-term care facilities listed by MDH. Another 27 have at least 10 deaths among residents. The facility with the most deaths outside of the Twin Cities metro area is Eventide on 8th, an assisted living facility in Clay County with at least 16 deaths and 65 confirmed cases. That is an increase of two deaths and seven cases compared to the data released earlier this month.

The full updated data can be found here.

MDHs coronavirus website: https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/index.html

Hotline, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.: 651-201-3920

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Coronavirus in Minnesota: New Hope nursing home tied to at least 69 deaths - MinnPost