Category: Corona Virus

1. How COVID-19 is affecting the globe

2. COVID-19 and seasonality

Responding to a question about the onset of winter in the southern hemisphere, the Executive Director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme, Dr Mike Ryan said:

Right now, we have no data to suggest that the virus will behave more aggressively, or transmit more efficiently, or not."

He said the same was true of summertime conditions, and added: "At this point, just to be clear, we have no indication as yet how the disease will behave in future.

Tracking the history of confirmed cases.

Image: Our World in Data

3. 3 actions for redesigning our food systems in the post-COVID world

The coronavirus crisis has been a "stress test" for global food systems - and they are failing, write Sara Farley, Managing Director, Food Initiative, Rockefeller Foundation, and Sara Scherr, President and Chief Executive Officer, EcoAgriculture Partners.

World leaders and experts will come together for the Food Systems Summit of 2021 to articulate and adopt an actionable, integrated plan for food systems transformation.

Here are three actions to reimagine global food systems:

1. Re-think supply chains for a diverse and healthy diet.

Supply chains must be redesigned with health and nutrition in mind, to reduce diet-related disease, including heart disease, diabetes and stroke, which increase the risk of serious illness from COVID-19.

2. Build strong connections between environment and food policy.

The way farmers produce food determines the fertility of their soils and the health of the planet. The food systems of tomorrow must embrace the One Health vision and advance positive interactions between human health, livestock health, wildlife health and ecosystem health.

3. Strengthen, democratize and localize food systems planning.

While national policy-makers can provide critical perspectives and frameworks for change, local and regional stakeholders must be able to shape their own food systems to reflect local values, resources and priorities.

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What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 11 June - World Economic Forum

Workers line up to enter a Tyson Foods pork processing plant last month in Logansport, Ind. Some of the worst workplace coronavirus outbreaks have been in the meatpacking industry. Major meatpackers JBS USA, Smithfield Foods and Tyson have said worker safety is their highest priority. Michael Conroy/AP hide caption

Workers line up to enter a Tyson Foods pork processing plant last month in Logansport, Ind. Some of the worst workplace coronavirus outbreaks have been in the meatpacking industry. Major meatpackers JBS USA, Smithfield Foods and Tyson have said worker safety is their highest priority.

The past few months have weighed heavily on Edgar Fields. He has been meeting with workers at chicken processing plants across Georgia and in nearby states. His union represents them, and many have become sick. Some have died.

"You know, you lay in the bed and you can't sleep because stuff is on your mind? I've got to do this. I've got to do that," he says. "That's what I wake up in every morning thinking, 'What can I do to protect my members to where they have a safe work environment to go to?' "

For example, Fields says, take a Tyson Foods chicken processing facility in Camilla, Ga. Tyson confirms more than 100 workers there tested positive for the coronavirus and four died. Fields says the company promised to spread the workers out 6 feet apart.

From his Atlanta office and across the state of Georgia, union leader Edgar Fields has been pushing for safety protections for workers during the COVID-19 outbreak. Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union hide caption

From his Atlanta office and across the state of Georgia, union leader Edgar Fields has been pushing for safety protections for workers during the COVID-19 outbreak.

But it's not doing that everywhere in the plant. "In some places, they haven't spread them out at all," Fields says. "They're still close." He says the company could do it if it processed fewer chickens. He's also pushing for on-site testing for the coronavirus at the plant.

Tyson tells NPR in a statement, "Our top priority is the health and safety of our team members." The company says it's checking workers' temperatures and requiring them to wear masks. And that they wear face shields in "the limited areas in the plant where neither barriers nor physical separation is feasible."

The company also says its safety measures "meet or exceed" federal safety guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

But therein lies the heart of a big problem, according to safety advocates. The federal government has issued guidelines for employers during the outbreak but those aren't mandatory or enforceable.

"They have decided not to issue any specific requirements for employers to keep workers 6 feet apart, to keep workers in masks," says Debbie Berkowitz, a former chief of staff at OSHA. "The guidance is voluntary. Employers can comply with it, or they can ignore it."

As a result, she says, "OSHA has received thousands of complaints from terrified workers from all over the economy." Berkowitz is now working with the nonprofit National Employment Law Project.

She says there are still some things workers can do. If an employer isn't following even the suggested federal guidelines from OSHA and the CDC, workers should still file a complaint with OSHA. She says that can be done confidentially at osha.gov.

Berkowitz says OSHA will contact the employer, and that in itself can be a strong nudge to improve safety measures. "Sometimes that can make all the difference in the world," she says.

Workers may also have state-level protections.

"There are states where the governors have, by executive order to protect the public, have set some real requirements in the workplace," Berkowitz says. "Workers really need governors and health departments to step in because the federal government has failed here."

Loren Sweatt, the top Trump administration official overseeing OSHA, says the agency is not failing workers. "We have over 5,000 complaints, and our inspectors are investigating all of them," Sweatt said at a recent hearing in Congress. "So yes, the agency has been doing its job since the beginning of this pandemic."

But Berkowitz says almost none of those investigations have been on-site, in-person inspections, which could result in enforcement actions. And she says that with only voluntary federal guidelines, there's not much OSHA can do in the way of enforcement anyway.

The AFL-CIO disagrees. The big labor union group is suing OSHA to get it to issue emergency national mandatory safety requirements for the outbreak.

Hairstylist Ashley Weiner cuts a friend's hair outdoors. She says she's worried about returning to work. She says that before the pandemic customers would often show up sick. "They come and sit in my chair, and I often get sick and bring that home." She says, "If COVID comes into the salon, there's a high chance that it's going to get passed around." Mike Goetz hide caption

Hairstylist Ashley Weiner cuts a friend's hair outdoors. She says she's worried about returning to work. She says that before the pandemic customers would often show up sick. "They come and sit in my chair, and I often get sick and bring that home." She says, "If COVID comes into the salon, there's a high chance that it's going to get passed around."

Meanwhile, the economy continues to reopen. And while meat processing plants have seen some of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks, people with plenty of other types of jobs are worried about their safety, too.

"I'm feeling anxious. It's stressful because I feel like my back is up against a wall," says Ashley Weiner, a hairstylist who has two young children in Portland, Ore.

Hair salons are about to reopen there, and she'll need to make money. So she'll be touching clients' heads and breathing next to them indoors all day. She says she worries that customers and salons won't be able to get high-quality face masks.

"I know people who work in the medical field here, and they say they don't have enough supplies themselves, so then how are we going to be getting access to these supplies?" Weiner asks.

Berkowitz says you can call your state health department, governor's office and attorney general's office to find out what the state-level protections are in your area.

Another issue advocates for workers are watching: Republican lawmakers in Washington want to shield employers from legal liability if their workers contract the coronavirus. The lawmakers argue that employers need that protection to reopen, but critics say it would result in more unsafe workplaces.

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Thousands Of Workers Say Their Jobs Are Unsafe As Economy Reopens - NPR

"At home he would say, 'Let's stay apart from each other.' He wanted to keep us safe because he knew his working conditions weren't safe," his wife Nancy Edith Alba Cullar told CNN in an interview.

The father of three girls told her his ambulance crew hadn't been given the proper protective equipment such as gloves, coveralls and masks to keep them safe. He'd complained to his bosses, she said, but they'd respond there wasn't more money available for better supplies.

Still, he kept doing his job. It was mid-April when he started feeling sick.

By April 20, Dr. Prez had been hospitalized with a confirmed case of Covid-19. On April 22, he typed out his last message to his family before being intubated.

'Be very careful. I love you all,' he texted his wife. He passed away a few days later.

In response to CNN's request for comment regarding allegations of improper PPE gear, the federal agencies that manage the paramedics said proper equipment is provided. They declined to provide numbers on how many staff have contracted Covid-19 or have died from it.

CNN interviewed seven paramedics and one doctor who work in Mexico City public ambulances, belonging to two different sections of the country's Health Ministry. All eight said they feel a sense of betrayal because they argue the government has not helped to keep them safe.

"From the beginning we took precautions," said Fatima Torrs, a 29-year-old paramedic who tested positive for the virus. "But we didn't have much material to avoid contamination."

'I don't know anyone who goes to work and isn't afraid'

On the frontlines are the paramedics, shuttling patients to hospitals across the city. In interviews with CNN, they described many shortcomings with protective equipment, including poor-quality masks (not the N95 masks recommended to protect healthcare workers), no face shields unless they bought their own, a short supply of gloves, poor-quality goggles and coveralls, and no equipment to isolate Covid-19 patients inside ambulances.

Plastic isolation capsules are not provided inside their work vehicles, so paramedics described taping up garbage bags around the cabin to isolate patients as much as possible.

"I don't know anyone who goes to work and isn't afraid," said Oscar Prado, a paramedic who has worked in a public ambulance for 10 years. "The level of stress we're working under is immense and we're angry that we're not getting the proper support from our superiors."

Every paramedic we spoke to had bought some extra supplies, ranging from N95 masks to swimming goggles and snorkels to hazmat suits.

One man, speaking anonymously for fear of losing his job, said once the supplies he bought run out, he's not going to go back to work. "It's not worth it. They're sending you to war without anything. You don't send firefighters to a fire without equipment. It's the same for us."

A government response that doesn't add up

Mexico City's public ambulance fleet is a patchwork group of units, spanning several different government agencies and ministries. The city relies on a large number of private, for-profit ambulances and volunteer groups like the Red Cross to help meet its emergency medical needs.

Those who spoke to CNN about the poor supplies work for the Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers, or ISSSTE, and the Regulatory Center for Medical Emergencies, known as CRUM. The two agencies, both under Mexico's Healthy Ministry, operate about 130 ambulances in the capital.

"[CRUM] guarantees the provision of personal protective supplies, fundamental to carry out their work, recognized as highly specialized and that provide service with the highest standards of care and patient protection," a CRUM spokesperson said in a statement provided to CNN.

In a one-line WhatsApp message to CNN, ISSSTE said "[our ambulances] have the required supplies."

Both statements appear to be demonstrably untrue, based on interviews with the staff.

Repeated requests to both agencies for both the official number of ambulance healthcare workers that have contracted the virus and those that have passed away went unanswered.

'I think about my family'

The epidemic in Mexico has shown no signs of slowing down. "We are experiencing one of the most complex and most dangerous moments of the epidemic," Cristian Morales, the World Health Organization's Representative in Mexico, said in a press briefing Tuesday.

That means the demand for emergency medical services is still extremely high.

"I think about my family," said another paramedic, who asked to remain anonymous. "I think about Dr. Prez's family. What if that happened to mine?"

When CNN spoke a few weeks ago to Dr. Prez's wife, Nancy, she worried her husband wouldn't be the last ambulance worker to die.

"There are many of his colleagues, many people that are still at risk and don't have the necessary supplies to work properly and to be safe," she said.

Her words were prescient.

Last weekend, 53-year-old Sergio Arturo Mendoza Romero, a paramedic of 33 years and a former colleague of Dr. Prez, passed away from the coronavirus after being intubated and fighting for his life for weeks in the hospital.

His colleagues believe he contracted the virus on the job.

Meantime, the Prez family is battling to get help from the government as the doctor was the sole breadwinner.

"I just think it's unfair. My husband and his colleagues are just doing their jobs. They do it out of necessity and because they love what they do," Nancy said. "They're helping their country."

But in the face of an unprecedented pandemic, it appears their country isn't helping them.

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'We're forgotten.' Mexico City paramedics say government failing to support them amid the pandemic - CNN

(CNN) Almost all coronavirus restrictions in New Zealand will be lifted tomorrow, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced, after the country reported no active cases.

Social distancing, however, is still encouraged and Ardern said New Zealand's international borders will remain shut to non-residents to prevent new outbreaks. Residents arriving in New Zealand will still have to quarantine for two weeks.

"This freedom from restrictions relies though heavily on the ongoing role that our border controls will play in keeping the virus out ... The virus will be in our world for some time to come," Ardern said at a press conference Monday.

Ardern said she had danced from excitement on hearing the news that New Zealand currently has no active Covid cases.

New Zealand's lockdown timetable

The first case of coronavirus was confirmed in New Zealand on February 28 -- more than a month after the United States confirmed its first infection.

On March 14, when the country had six cases, Ardern announced that anyone entering the country would need to self isolate for two weeks, which at the time was among the toughest border restrictions in the world. Foreign nationals were banned from entering the country on March 20.

Days later, on March 23 -- with no deaths and when there were 102 confirmed cases -- Ardern announced the country was entering "level three" lockdown. Non-essential businesses were closed, events and gatherings canceled and schools closed to all children except those of essential workers.

Employers were told to allow working from home where possible, public transport was reserved for essential workers, and discretionary domestic air travel between regions was banned.

At midnight on March 25, New Zealand moved to the strictest level 4 lockdown, with people told not to leave home except for essential exercise near the home, while maintaining social distancing.

On April 9, despite a decline in cases, Ardern tightened border restrictions so that all citizens and permanent residents arriving in New Zealand were required to spend two weeks quarantined in an approved facility rather than at home.

Travel bubble looms?

Both countries have mostly controlled their local coronavirus outbreaks and have large tourism industries which have been severely impacted by widespread travel restrictions.

However, Ardern warned Monday that such a corridor could still be months away.

"I don't want New Zealand businesses or even Kiwis who want to travel across the ditch to be given a false start. I'd rather share timelines when we have much more certainty," she said.

"(Australia is) making progress state by state, but it's not universal."

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With no active Covid-19 cases, New Zealand is lifting almost all its coronavirus restrictions - CNN

Coronavirus: Rising trend of new cases in southern US states as it happened  Financial Times

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Coronavirus: Rising trend of new cases in southern US states as it happened - Financial Times

Workers also contributing less to retirement funds; Fox Biz Flash: 5/27.

The coronavirus pandemic has put a financial strain on people and households throughout the United States, and a new survey shows that many have turned to their retirement stash as a means to meet immediate payment obligations.

More than one-in-three people were thinking about or had already decreased retirement savings contributions, according to new data from TD Ameritrade.And others are putting retirement plans on hold. Forty-four percent of people said they would delay retirement as a means to cut costs, while 51 percent were open to picking up a job.

About 17 percent of people told TD Ameritrade they had already tapped their retirement accounts as of May, and 21 percent said they were considering doing so. Nearly 30 percent of respondents had withdrawn, or were considering withdrawing, from their 401(k) accounts, and 27 percent said the same about their IRA and Roth IRA accounts.

Lawmakers approved legislation that gives individuals greater flexibility to tap retirement accounts as a means to help them weather the financial effects of the virus. People can take up to $100,000 from their 401(k) retirement stash without being subject to the 10 percent penalty so long as the funds are used for coronavirus-related financial needs. Individuals will, however, have to pay incometaxeson the money.

CORONAVIRUS AND RETIREMENT: EXPERTS' 401(K) TIPS

Experts, however, are cautioning against using this option if possible. Jeff Schneble, CEO of Human Interest, said it could eventually compromise the ability for people to retire down the line especially considering people would essentially be selling at a time when the market is near a low point in valuation.

Nevertheless, 71 percent of respondents said their retirement plans will be affected by the pandemic when compared with the Great Recession (58 percent).

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On the bright side, many Americans are hoping to shore up their savings accounts when their financial situations stabilize. Seventy-two percent said they would prioritize saving for retirement once the pandemic ended.

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Workers tap retirement savings to cope with coronavirus pandemic - Fox Business

In the last two days, Los Angeles County officials announced 81 new coronavirus-related deaths, the highest total reported over a weekend in more than a month.

The highest weekend total of deaths was previously reported April 18-19, when 105 deaths were announced. Officials also reported 3,000 new cases on Saturday and Sunday.

When officials announced that the county would more fully reopen businesses and outdoor venues, such as beaches and parks even as the case count and death rate continued to climb they reiterated a message repeated countless times in weeks prior: The virus has not changed; the only change has been in peoples behavior and the commitment to practice social distancing.

Now, two weeks after Memorial Day weekend saw crowds gather at newly reopened beaches and just over a week since restaurants and most businesses were given the green light to resume operations, officials have reported that the transmission rate of the virus appears to have increased, an expected reality as activity rose.

Dr. Christina Ghaly, director of health services for L.A. County, said Friday the effective transmission rate had now risen above 1 meaning each infected person goes on to infect more than one other individual and was gaining ground.

While we dont know precisely yet how reopening and the recovery activities will affect transmission of COVID-19, Ghaly said, the transmission rate does appear now to be greater than 1, and slightly uptrending.

On Monday, officials announced an additional 10 deaths and 823 new cases of the virus, bringing the total number of infections to 64,644. The numbers are typically lower on Mondays because of fewer reports over the weekend.

The latest rise in cases cannot be linked to the thousands who have taken to the streets in the past week to protest over police killing of George Floyd and racial inequality. The incubation period for the virus is can take up to 14 days, so numbers currently reported reflect actions from weeks prior, officials have said.

Thats not to say that activities at the protests wont affect the case count in the coming days.

Officials have continued to commend peaceful protesters for exercising their 1st Amendment rights while also reminding them to remain cautious.

Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer on Monday compared the risk of exposure at protests to the risk posed by gathering in other public settings, including indoor malls and restaurants. In such instances, contact tracers would not be in touch with individuals who might have been exposed to the virus.

Nobody knows you were there, she said. No one will call you.

Ferrer encouraged protesters Monday to be proactive and to get tested for the virus, while reminding demonstrators that it could take up to two weeks for the virus to show up in a persons system.

A negative test result doesnt mean you cant become infected during the 14-day incubation period.

Those who came into contact with someone who was not wearing a face mask or had a known case of exposure should self-quarantine during the incubation period.

The risk is still there. Even though it may not be a huge risk, its enough of a risk for everyone to take these universal precautions, she said.

Although many have worn face coverings while protesting, it is nearly impossible to maintain a six-foot separation amid a crowd. Various state officials, as well as health experts with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are warning protesters to get tested amid concerns that the demonstrations might lead to another surge in cases.

Those individuals that have partaken in these peaceful protests or have been out protesting, and particularly if theyre in metropolitan areas that really havent controlled the outbreak ... we really want those individuals to highly consider being evaluated and get tested, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield told a congressional hearing last week.

Citing concerns over violence that erupted during early protests, L.A. County officials closed or modified hours at several testing sites last week. The decision concerned experts, as tests and social distancing practices remain the only real weapons against the virus in the absence of a vaccine and medical therapies.

The virus has remained on the minds of protesters, who have ended months of self-isolation to voice their outrage over the death of Floyd last month at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. In addition to the free food and water that volunteers have passed out at protests, there has been an ample supply of hand sanitizer distributed.

A group of about 50 nurses and healthcare workers who have been battling the coronavirus on the front lines at Santa Monica Medical Center, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, USC Keck Medical Center and Kaiser Permanente joined Saturdays protest in front of Los Angeles City Hall with bags full of sanitizer.

Racism is a public health crisis, said Delilah Garcia, 24, about why she was attending the protests despite the risk of COVID-19, which has disproportionately affected black communities. Enough is enough.

Meanwhile, as thousands continue to protest against police brutality and inequality, protests over coronavirus restrictions continue. A crowd gathered Monday to protest for the reopening of the nail industry at the Asian Garden Mall in Westminster. The protest came after industry association Nailing it for America released a statement Saturday calling Gov. Gavin Newsoms previous comments about nail salons nothing short of a fiasco for business owners.

In May, Gov. Gavin Newsom said that the coronavirus in California originated from a nail salon. Activists said that wasnt true after meeting with the governor last week. Nail salons are one of the businesses that are currently not allowed to reopen under the state orders.

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L.A. County coronavirus deaths spike over the weekend - Los Angeles Times

As states open up and some people return to life as usual, others will be staying home and isolated. USA TODAY

Statewide shutdowns across the country may have prevented millions of coronavirus infections in the USA, according to a study published Monday.

Researchers found the USA may have been able to avoid an additional 4.8 million confirmed coronavirus cases, which translates to about 60 million more infections, as a result of statewide lockdowns and mandated social distancing restrictions, according to the report published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature.

Infections were much higher than confirmed cases, they argued, because many people didn't have access to a coronavirus test or didn't go to their doctors to obtain one. The study documented changes in testing procedures and availability, as well as differences in case detection across the country.

Johns Hopkins University reportedmore than 1.9 million confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 110,000 deaths as of Monday.

The studys authors used a reduced-form techniquemore commonly used to measure economic growth rates. They argued that, similar to COVID-19 infections, economic output generally increases exponentially as a result of policies and other conditions.

The study looked at 1,717 local, regional and national policies, including travel restrictions, the cancellation of events, the closing of schools, retailand religious gatherings,quarantinesand other emergency declarations, from early April.

"Theyre using economic growth as a proxy for interconnectedness, and its the interconnectedness that drives the epidemic," saidDr. Kevin Dieckhaus, chief of infectious diseases at University of Connecticut Health.

Dieckhausexpects the USA will be able to decouple economic activity and case transmission as some businesses restructure office settings to promote social distancing, schedule constant disinfecting and require a mask.

A separate study, also published Monday in the journal Nature, found such lockdown methods may have prevented more than 3 million deaths across 11 European countries.

Both studies contribute to the growing evidence that national and regional lockdowns helped prevent coronavirus transmission and infection. Experts are concerned about a second wave of cases as the USA begins to ease restrictions and reopen the economy.

Giant kookaburra: A man built a giant, laughing kookaburra while he was in lockdown to 'cheer us up'

A website created by three college students is helping volunteers link up with organizations to provide services from food delivery and tutoring to mental health and support for older adults during the coronavirus pandemic. (June 4) AP Domestic

"Thelockdown measures have served an important role in our society to prevent and mitigate unabated spread of the virus probably saving many millions of lives in doing so," saidMichael Mina, assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

He's concerned the millions of confirmed cases prevented by social distancing restrictionsin the spring may reappear in the fall. Most seasonal coronaviruses thrive in the fall,then begin to settle down in February and March.

"We have yet to experience this particular novel coronavirus during a season when it's usually most transmissible, and thats a scary thought," hesaid.

Dieckhaus said the fall may bring more cases asthe physical properties of the coronavirus prefer the cold, dry weather and more people spend less time outdoors in the well-circulated air. He said officials and residents have the power to manage cases by upholding preventive measures.

"The idea with all these changes is to continue the economicactivity but doing it in a way that doesn'ttransmit the virus," he said.

Follow Adrianna Rodriguez on Twitter: @AdriannaUSAT.

Health and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.

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Coronavirus shutdowns prevented 60 million infections in the USA, study says - USA TODAY

None of the plans for how the nation might safely emerge from the coronavirus lockdown involved thousands of Americans standing shoulder to shoulder in the streets of major cities or coughing uncontrollably when the authorities used tear gas to disperse them. No one planned on protesters being herded into crowded prison buses or left in crowded cells.

Before the eruption of outrage over the killing of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis, debates about reopening centered on whether states had adequate systems in place to detect and treat cases of the coronavirus, which has killed more than 110,000 people in the United States since the beginning of the year.

But as the protests against police brutality continue for a second week, public officials are warily watching for signs that an unanticipated end to social distancing on a mass scale has led to new cases of the virus. The question has become part of the politicized debate over the economic repercussions of the lockdown, which some critics have argued went too far.

And on Sunday, infectious disease experts on Twitter debated how to supply a reliable estimate of the impact of the protests on virus transmission or whether trying to do so may wrongly be seen as discouraging participation in the growing racial justice movement.

In what he called a back-of-the-envelope estimate, Trevor Bedford, an expert on the virus at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, wrote on Twitter that each day of protests would result in about 3,000 new infections. Over several weeks, as each infected person infected just under one other person on average the current U.S. transmission rate those infections would in turn lead to 15,000 to 50,000 more, and 50 to 500 eventual deaths. Given the racial disparities so far in the pandemic, he noted, those deaths will be disproportionately among black people. Societal benefit of continued protests must be weighed against substantial potential impacts to health, he wrote.

Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at Harvard, agreed that those projections were reasonable, and said in an email that Dr. Bedford had done a service by making an approximate estimate with explicit assumptions.

But he also noted that if states where the virus was still spreading managed to rein it in, that would massively overshadow the effects of the protests. About 20,000 new cases are identified across the country on most days, and about 1,000 new deaths are announced. If all communities were performing enough tests and contact tracing to bring down those numbers, fewer of those acquiring infections at protests would infect others, shortening the transmission chain and reducing the number of eventual deaths.

Dr. Bedford wrote that his estimates contained a lot of uncertainty. There is no official estimate for how many people are protesting on an average day, for instance. Still, he thought it was important, he said, to provide a framework grounded in epidemiologic principles to counter the offhand assumptions being made by political pundits. But, in response, other scientists voiced concern that Dr. Bedfords posts would give fodder to those opposing civil rights.

Many epidemiologists, including Dr. Bedford, have noted in recent days that Americas entrenched racial inequalities themselves translate into disproportionate early deaths and illness among African-Americans. That has been especially evident in the coronavirus pandemic, in which black Americans are dying at about twice the rate of white Americans. A group of more than 1,000 people working in health and medicine signed a letter recently that said protests were, in fact, vital to public health.

Racism and police violence are major threats to public health in this country, and protest is one of the only options available to people who have been systematically disenfranchised, said Eleanor Murray, an epidemiologist at Boston University.

Because it can take up to two weeks for a newly infected person to show symptoms and the protests started shortly after Mr. Floyds death, health experts expect that any increase in cases will begin to surface this week. Demonstrators in several places have contracted the virus, including in Lawrence, Kan., where someone who attended a protest last weekend tested positive on Friday. That person did not wear a mask while protesting, local officials said. In Athens, Ga., a county commissioner who attended a protest said that she had tested positive.

In Oklahoma, a college football player who participated in a demonstration revealed that he later tested positive for the virus.

After attending a protest in Tulsa AND being well protective of myself, I have tested positive for Covid-19, Amen Ogbongbemiga, a linebacker at Oklahoma State University, wrote on Twitter. Please, if you are going to protest, take care of yourself and stay safe.

Many did their best. In Califoria, Jarrion Harris, 32, wore a cloth mask for a march in Hollywood on Sunday.

Im definitely not out here because I think Covid-19 has gone into the shadows, he said. Its worth the risk.

Politicians and public health officials have urged demonstrators to wear face coverings and to maintain social distancing. In some places, including Atlanta, Illinois, Los Angeles and Minnesota, officials have also urged protesters to seek coronavirus tests to make sure they have not become infected.

The surge of protests throughout American cities and the seeming support of some political leaders have not gone unnoticed on the right. Pundits and commentators have made the point in recent days that mayors and governors who sternly warned against public gatherings are now giving their blessing to the protests.

Dr. Tom Frieden, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who was appointed by President Barack Obama, tweeted last week that the threat to controlling the coronavirus was tiny compared with the threat created when governments act in ways that lose community trust.

That struck Jonah Goldberg, a writer for The Dispatch, an online conservative magazine, as an unfair double standard.

You know what erodes public trust in people like Frieden? Mr. Goldberg wrote. When they say that youre a fool or monster who will get people killed for wanting to go to church or keep your business open but youre a hero when you join a protest they approve of.

As the virus has spread across the country, many conservatives have rebelled against the stringent measures supported by public health experts, and there have been skirmishes over wearing masks in public, allowing in-person religious services and placing a premium on restoring the economy over other concerns.

If the virus surges again, said Christopher F. Rufo, director of the Center on Wealth and Poverty at the Discovery Institute, a conservative think tank, the experts standing will have been undermined. Youre going to have half the country that has lost faith almost completely in the public health establishment, he said.

But it may be hard to trace infections to other protesters, who are often marching side by side with strangers. And infectious disease experts have said that any increase in cases may well be the result of the continued reopening of restaurants, workplaces and mass transit.

In Las Vegas, casinos are reopening. In New York City, long the center of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, as many as 400,000 workers on Monday can begin returning to construction jobs, manufacturing sites and retail stores as the city enters the first phase of its reopening.

You cannot pin this on the protests, said Jeffrey Shaman, an epidemiologist at Columbia University, whose projections of the viruss path suggest that U.S. coronavirus deaths will increase in the coming weeks. The protests are not in and of themselves going to drive the resurgence in cases. This is associated with all the new opportunities that are providing a way for people to get together and pass the virus to one another.

For their part, activists said the drive to protest in the face of the virus reflected the larger gravity of the moment and the intensity of their passion.

If I get infected fighting for justice, my soul can sit with that, said Sara Semi, 27, a protester in Minneapolis who wears a mask with a filter and carries cans of disinfectant spray. I cant sit at home protected by my privileges if others arent. I cant sit inside my house safe while my friends and neighbors are not. Yes, corona is happening. Its real, its deadly. But racism kills way more lives.

Vidal Guzman, 29, a protester in New York, said: People are more scared of the police than Covid-19. They are willing to do anything.

Different conditions and the many remaining unknowns about how the virus is transmitted can make it difficult to predict the spread of the virus at any given protest. Outdoor gatherings are much lower risk than indoor ones. How many people are wearing masks, whether they are shouting or using noisemakers and even the weather may all affect the risk of infection.

Still, expert say it is within the power of law enforcement authorities to minimize or eliminate some of the chief risk factors, like arrests and tear gas. And they add that protesters, if they choose to take to the streets, should do everything they can to stay safe.

If you attended a protest, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said on Sunday, assume you may have been exposed to Covid. Get tested.

Mitch Smith, Sabrina Tavernise, Anjali Tsui, Jill Cowan and Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura contributed reporting.

Read more from the original source:

A Delicate Balance: Weighing Protest Against the Risks of the Coronavirus - The New York Times

Editors note:This is a live account of COVID-19 updates fromMonday,June 8,as the day unfolded. Tofind resources and the latest extended coverage of the pandemic,click here.

Health experts warn that tear gas and pepper spray could make respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19 spread more easily by inducing coughs, sneezes and irritation. Despite these admonitions, Seattle Police again used both to disperse crowds of protesters on Capitol Hill late Sunday night and early Monday morning. (Follow live protest updates here.)

Counties around Washington state are confirming they likely missed some early deaths from undiagnosed novel coronavirus disease. Although retrospective testing elsewhere hasset back the timelinefor its spread in the country, medical examiners and coroners offices here in Washington have had limited ability to do the same, and counties have prioritizedusing resources to detect and contain current outbreaks.

State health officials confirmed 287 new COVID-19 cases in Washington on Sunday, as well as six additional deaths. The update brings the states totals to 23,729 cases and 1,159 deaths, according to the state Department of Healthsdata dashboard. The dashboard reports 3,669 hospitalizations in Washington.

Throughout Monday, on this page, well post updates from Seattle Times journalists and others on the pandemic and its effects on the Seattle area, the Pacific Northwest and the world. Updates from Sunday can be foundhere, and all our coronavirus coveragecan be found here.

The following graphic includes the most recent numbers from the Washington State Department of Health, released Monday.

For months, immigrant advocates have feared the novel coronavirus was silently spreading at the Northwest detention center.The results of court-ordered testing have now come back, and all but one of 45o were negative, according to a Monday filing by federal authorities.

Not everyone was tested at the Tacoma facility because 111 detainees declined to give their consent, according to the filing.

The person who tested positive, who arrived at the detention center May 29, was initially held with one other detainee in a unit reserved for new arrivals and was transferred, after the positive test result, to a medical isolation unit.The detainee exposed to that person tested negative for COVID-19 but will still be held alone in a cell and under medical observation for 14 more days.

The findings appear to be a validation for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which faces a proposed class-action lawsuit on behalf of vulnerable detainees seeking release.

Read the full story here.

Nina Shapiro

When looters broke into the Simply Seattle shop near Pike Place Market two weekends ago, owner Jamie Munson tried to take the long view.

None of his employees had been hurt. Insurance was likely to help with broken windows and smashed cash registers. And while the damage meant he couldnt open the shop last Friday, when King County allowed retailers and others to partly reopen, Munson doubts the delay will matter much, given the heavy restrictions and tough economic climate businesses will probably face for months.

That sort of weary pragmatism seems common among the scores of Seattle-area businesses swept up in the incidents of destruction that followed recent protests over police violence.

By latest count, vandals and looters struck more than 100 stores, restaurants, and other businesses in Seattles downtown, Belltown, Capitol Hill, and Chinatown-International District neighborhoods, according to the Downtown Seattle Association.

Aside from the looting and vandalism, area businesses faced unprecedented challenges in recovering from COVID-19.

Read the full story here.

Paul Roberts

EL CENTRO, Calif. The tinyEl Centro Regional Medical Center has seen spikes in emergency department visits here and there a bad flu season, injured off-road vehicle drivers, overheated farmworkers. But they've always been able to manage.

Then came COVID-19.

Thehospital, which has a 20-bed intensive-care unit, has been overwhelmed with ailing residents of the Imperial Valley, as well as Americans and U.S. green card holders fleeing overcrowded clinics and hospitals in Mexicali, a city of 1.1 million on the other side of the border.

To alleviate the pressure, hospitals in nearby San Diego and Riverside counties began accepting transfers in April. But the intensifying crisis prompted California last week to activate an extraordinary response, enlisting hospitals as far north as Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Sacramento to accept patients from this remote southeastern corner of the state.

The swelling numbers of COVID-19 patients entering the United States from Mexico comes as many parts of California have pushed down their infection rates, enabling many counties to lift stay-at-home restrictions and reopen businesses.

Read more here.

The New York Times

Police departments have used tear gas and pepper spray on protesters in recent weeks, raising concern that the chemical agents could increase the spread of the coronavirus.

The chemicals are designed to irritate the mucous membranes of the eyes, nose and throat. They make people cough, sneeze and pull off their masks as they try to breathe.

Medical experts say those rushing to help people sprayed by tear gas could come into close contact with someone already infected with the virus who is coughing infectious particles. Also, those not already infected could be in more danger of getting sick because of irritation to their respiratory tracts.

Read more here.

The Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are planning to vote this week on a measure that would allow President Donald Trump to speak in front of a packed Republican National Convention without some of the restrictions officials have required elsewhere to stop the coronavirus.

The first vote, which could be held as early as Tuesday, will largely be a symbolic one, given the measure will almost assuredly be rejected by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and Republicans will be unlikely to have the votes to override his veto.

During a Monday news conference, the governor called the proposal irresponsible and suggested state lawmakers do not have a role in the decision-making process.

Read more here.

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON The U.S. economy entered a recession in February as the coronavirus struck the nation, a group of economists declared Monday, ending the longest expansion on record.

The economists said that employment, income and spending peaked in February and then fell sharply afterward as the viral outbreak shut down businesses across the country, marking the start of the downturn after nearly 11 full years of economic growth.

A committee within the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private nonprofit group, determines when recessions begin and end. It broadly defines a recession as a decline in economic activity that lasts more than a few months.

For that reason, the NBER typically waits longer before making a determination that the economy is in a downturn. In the previous recession, the committee did not declare that the economy was in recession until December 2008, a year after it had actually begun. But in this case, the NBER said the collapse in employment and incomes was so steep that it could much more quickly make a determination.

Read more here.

The Associated Press

KENNEWICK A Washington labor union for farm workers has sued two state agencies, asking a Thurston County Superior Court judge to strike down emergency rules on temporary housing.

Union president Ramon Torres says the rules do not protect farm workers who live in dormitory-style housing during the harvest season.

The Tri-City Herald reports the lawsuit was filed last week by the union Familias Unidas por la Justicia because of fears sparked by the coronavirus pandemic.

Read more here.

The Associated Press

State health officials confirmed 312 new COVID-19 cases in Washington on Monday, as well as two additional deaths.

The update brings the states totals to 24,041 cases and 1,161 deaths, according to the state Department of Healths (DOH) data dashboard. The dashboard reports 3,699 people hospitalized in Washington.

So far, 410,290 tests for the novel coronavirus have been conducted in the state, per DOH. Of those, 5.9% have come back positive.

King County, the state's most populous, has reported 8,496 positive test results and 579 deaths, accounting for 49.9% of the state's death toll.

Marriott, Hilton and other big hotel companies are used to competing on price or perks. Now, they're competing on cleanliness.

From masked clerks at the front desk to shuttered buffets, hotels are making visible changes in the wake of the pandemic. Signage will tout new cleaning regimens: Red Roof Inns promise RediClean, while Hilton boasts of CleanStay with Lysol.

Hotels are still mostly empty; in the U.S., occupancy stood at 37% the week ending May 30, down 43% from the same period a year ago, according to STR, a data and consulting firm. But leisure travel is starting to pick up, and hotels see cleaning standards as a way to soothe jittery guests and possibly win back business from rivals like home-sharing companies like Airbnb.

Read the full story here.

The Associated Press

A U.S. federal agency approved a new highly sought-after respirator mask made by Chinese automotive conglomerate BYD Co., paving the way for Washington and other states to complete orders totaling hundreds of millions of dollars and distribute the masks.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health approved BYDs application for the N95 mask on Sunday, a spokeswoman for the federal agency told The Seattle Times on Monday.

The masks, which are designed to filter out tiny airborne particles, have been in high demand globally to protect against the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Washington states Department of Enterprise Services (DES) had ordered 55 million of the N95 masks for $178 million but has been waiting for federal approval to complete the orders.

The scarcity of N95 masks early in the pandemic prompted Washington and other states to initially order a Chinese alternative known as the KN95, but officials later canceled orders due toproblems with quality and fit.

Read the full story here.

Daniel Gilbert and Mike Reicher

The Columbia City Farmers Market will be open Wednesday, for the first time since it shut down in March amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Seattle's year-round neighborhood farmers markets shut down as social-distancing measures ramped up in March and have been slowly reopening since then.

The market, on 35th Avenue South, will be open from 3 to 7 p.m. There will be only one entrance, and shoppers are encouraged to wear masks and keep 6 feet of distance.

David Gutman

It's not just the protests.

Across the country and around the world, people are slowly beginning to move away from social distancing. Economies are starting to reopen and people are inching back toward their normal routines.

In Barcelona, Spain, above, teachers tried to prevent elementary school students from hugging on their first day back.

Click here for more images of a world beginning to venture out.

The Associated Press

Researchers are still trying to figure out a great many things about the new coronavirus, including how easily it is spread by people showing no, or mild symptoms of COVID-19.

The World Health Organization believes the transmission by asymptomatic people of SARS-CoV-2 is rare, but that the issue needs more study.

The WHO's position is based on data from countries doing extensive contact tracing investigations and is finding that asymptomatic people are not widely spreading the disease, said Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead for COVID-19, at a press briefing Monday.

When questioned in more detail about these cases, Van Kerkhove said many of them turn out to have mild disease or unusual symptoms.

We are constantly looking at this data and were trying to get more information from countries to truly answer this question, she said. It still appears to be rare that asymptomatic individuals actually transmit onward.

Kerkhove's comments come despite warnings from numerous experts worldwide that such transmission is more frequent and likely explains why the pandemic has been so hard to contain.

Although health officials in countries including Britain, the U.S. and elsewhere have warned that COVID-19 is spreading from people without symptoms, WHO has maintained that this type of spread is not a driver of the pandemic and is probably accounts for about 6% of spread, at most. Numerous studies have suggested that the virus is spreading from people without symptoms, but many of those are either anecdotal reports or based on modeling.

The Associated Press

Canada is slightly easing border restrictions enacted due to the coronavirus pandemic and will allow immediate family members of citizens or permanent residents to come to the country, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday.

Trudeau stressed anyone entering the country will be required to quarantine for 14 days or face serious penalties.

Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said the limited exception will apply to spouses, common law partners, dependent children, parents and legal guardians. He said they will have have to stay in Canada for at least 15 days.

Canada had allowed only Canadians and permanent residents into the country under a border closure to nonessential travel imposed in March.

The Associated Press

HCA Healthcare is one of the worlds wealthiest hospital chains. It earned more than $7 billion in profits over the last two years. It is worth $36 billion. It paid its chief executive $26 million in 2019.

But as the coronavirus swept the country, employees at HCA repeatedly complained that the company was not providing adequate protective gear to nurses, medical technicians and cleaning staff. Last month, HCA executives warned that they would lay off thousands of nurses if they did not agree to wage freezes and other concessions.

A few weeks earlier, HCA had received about $1 billion in bailout funds from the federal government, part of an effort to stabilize hospitals during the pandemic.

HCA is among a long list of deep-pocketed health care companies that have received billions of dollars in taxpayer funds but are laying off or cutting the pay of tens of thousands of doctors, nurses and lower-paid workers. Many have continued to pay their top executives millions, although some executives have taken modest pay cuts.

Read the full story here.

The New York Times

Shutdown orders meant to blunt the spread of the novel coronavirus were largely successful, according to two new studies.

The measures prevented about 60 million infections in the United States and 285 million in China, according to a study by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley.

A separate study from epidemiologists at Imperial College London estimated that the shutdowns saved about 3.1 million lives in 11 European countries, including 500,000 in the United Kingdom, and dropped infection rates by an average of 82%, sufficient to drive the contagion well below epidemic levels.

The reports, both published Monday in the journal Nature, provide fresh evidence that aggressive and unprecedented shutdowns, which caused massive economic disruptions and job losses, were necessary to halt the exponential spread of the novel coronavirus.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

Cities, counties and states continue to reopen even as the new coronavirus shows no signs of slowing down in many regions of the country.

A Washington Post analysis shows that 23 states and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, are showing an increase in the rolling seven-day average of coronavirus cases compared to the previous week.

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Coronavirus daily news updates, June 8: What to know today about COVID-19 in the Seattle area, Washington state and the world - Seattle Times