Category: Covid-19

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea reported a new epidemic" of an intestinal disease on Thursday, an unusual announcement from the secretive country that is already contending with a COVID-19 outbreak and severe economic turmoil.

Its unclear how many people are infected in what the official Korean Central News Agency said was an acute enteric epidemic in southwestern Haeju city.

The agency didnt name the disease, but enteric refers to intestinal illnesses, such as typhoid, dysentery and cholera, which are caused by germs in contaminated food or water or contact with the feces of infected people. Such diseases routinely occur in North Korea, where there is a shortage of water treatment facilities and the public health system has been largely broken for decades.

Some observers said the purpose of the announcement was not so much to report the infections themselves as to mention that leader Kim Jong Un donated medicine from his personal stock an apparent effort to burnish his image at a moment of extreme hardship.

The official Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim donated medicine from what it referred to as his familys reserves. The country's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper carried a front-page photo showing Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, looking at saline solutions and medicine that the paper said they donated.

In a country where power is concentrated is the hands of a small ruling elite and hospitals often lack even basic supplies, defectors say it's common for anyone who can to keep stocks of medicine in their homes and senior officials are typically able to stockpile more than ordinary citizens. Observers also said the donated medicine may have simply come from state storage facilities but was distributed in Kim's name.

The outbreak of measles or typhoid isnt uncommon in North Korea. I think its true there is an outbreak of an infectious disease there, but North Korea is using it as an opportunity to emphasize that Kim is caring for his people, said Ahn Kyung-su, head of DPRKHEALTH.ORG, a website focusing on health issues in North Korea. So its more like a political message than medical one.

Last month, North Korea reported a rising number of patients with fever. At the time, South Koreas spy agency said that a considerable number of the cases included those sick with measles, typhoid and whooping cough.

KCNA said Thursday more than 4.5 million out of the countrys 26 million people have fallen ill due to an unidentified fever and 73 died. The country, which apparently lacks coronavirus test kits, has identified only a fraction of those as confirmed COVID-19 cases. Many foreign experts question the Norths death toll, saying thats likely underreported to protect Kim from any political damage.

North Korea recently claimed progress in slowing the spread of COVID-19 across the unvaccinated population, though a top World Health Organization official said this month the agency believes the outbreak is worsening.

During a ruling party conference last week, Kim claimed the pandemic situation has passed the stage of serious crisis." But the country still maintains elevated restrictions. Some outside experts have said the measures will further strain the countrys already troubled economy hit by long-running pandemic-related border shutdowns and U.N. sanctions.

Late Thursday, South Koreas Unification Ministry renewed its offer of help on health issues. After the North first announced the COVID-19 outbreak, South Korea and the United States offered to ship vaccines and other medical supplies, but the North hasn't responded.

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N. Korea reports another disease outbreak amid COVID-19 wave - ABC News

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SECRETARY BLINKEN:Good afternoon, everyone. Good to see you all here. When I heard everyone was gathering here, I thought the least I could do is drop by to simply say thank you, thank you, thank you for the remarkable work that youre doing.

You all know this, but four months ago our countries created the Global Action Plan to try to accelerate our efforts to vaccinate 70 percent of our people against COVID-19, the goal set by the WHO. I think we all knew that hitting that target would take countries stepping up together in a highly coordinated way. So we identified key gaps that remained, we established together six lines of effort to bridge those gaps, and then everyone in this room in effect took responsibility for leading this effort and doing it together.

And as weve talked, and I know as youre discussing today, we have made significant progress on each of these lines of effort. A lot more work remains to be done, but this is moving forward precisely because weve come together in a coordinated way.

The first line of effort: trying to get more shots into arms. We know that there are a lot of vaccines out there. The challenge has been actually getting the shots into arms. Weve ramped up vaccine delivery. Weve improved cold chain capacity to store and ship more doses to more places. Weve conducted in-country campaigns to increase demand for vaccines.

For example, just to cite a few: Colombia has stepped up its efforts to vaccinate Venezuelan refugees; India has enhanced its vaccine production; Japan has significantly expanded cold chain storage worldwide; Australia, New Zealand are doing great work vaccinating citizens in the Pacific Island nations, just to cite some of the striking examples.

To that end, one of the things Im excited to be able to share today is that the United States, in partnership with COVAX, will begin donating pediatric Pfizer vaccines for 5-to-12 year-olds. In fact, the first shipment is going out today: 300,000 doses are being donated to Mongolia; 2.2 million doses are being donated to Nepal. Weve got many more ready to go for countries that want them.

The second line of effort that weve all been working on together: strengthening supply chains for COVID-related materials tests, syringes, treatments. Well, we are building resilience into the supply chains when shortages and disruptions emerge. For example, the European Union has been consulting with businesses across Africa on medical supplies. The United States has started similar engagements in our own hemisphere as well as globally.

The third line of effort: addressing information gaps that lead to low confidence in vaccines. With help from Canada, were coordinating across governments to combat misinformation and disinformation, as well as through programs like the United States Global VAX effort, which uses evidence-based interventions to increase vaccine demand.

The fourth line of effort that weve been working together: providing more support to frontline health care workers. Well, with leadership from Spain, from India, the Republic of Korea, were ensuring that those workers have access to vaccines as well as accurate information about vaccines so that they can stay healthy and keep doing the heroic work that theyre doing every day.

The fifth line of effort: Weve begun a critical conversation on how to increase access to treatments and therapeutics so that people who get COVID can survive it and bounce back faster. Theres a lot more work well need to do on this line of effort to ensure that we have enough interventions available worldwide, from testing to treating, as we move to the next phase of the pandemic.

And finally, the sixth line of effort: building a stronger, more effective global health architecture so that we can better detect, prevent, respond to future emergencies. Well, we started by building on the work of the structures that we created to address this pandemic COVAX, the ACT-Accelerator. And I particularly want to thank Norway and South Africa for coordinating the ACT-As work to develop and equitably distribute tests, treatments, vaccines; Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan for galvanizing donors; Indonesia for creating a financial intermediary fund for pandemic preparedness.

I know that we all agree around this table and in this room that if were just as vulnerable at the end of this pandemic as we were when COVID-19 began, thats dangerous and its a major disservice to our citizens. We have to seize this opportunity to become better prepared than we were before.

Looking ahead, the lines of effort that were all working, the six lines of effort, remain critical. In many ways this is a marathon. We still have a long way to go if were going to end the acute phase of the pandemic and build a lasting foundation for our future.

To do that, perhaps more than anything else, we have to maintain our commitment. We cant let the pandemic and pandemic fatigue deplete our political will. And I just want to assure you all that the United States continues to be intently focused on fighting the pandemic and leaving the world better prepared and better defended for whatever comes next.

This experience, this pandemic, has taught us that health security is national security and that in this 21st century, health emergencies often cant be solved by countries working on their own. Viruses dont respect borders. We are, quite literally, all in this together. And so Im really grateful to everyone here, to the countries you represent, for this partnership. The progress weve made to date has been possible because of your leadership, because of your engagement, because of your willingness to coordinate and collaborate to what I think is a remarkable degree. Now we just need to keep doing it.

So thank you. I hope the meetings here in Washington are productive, I hope theyre energizing, and I look forward to seeing everyone again soon to review our progress, strengthen our efforts, and keep up this common fight. Thank you very, very much. (Applause.)

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Secretary Antony J. Blinken At the COVID-19 Global Action Plan Meeting - United States Department of State - Department of State

In a recent study published in the CDCs Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, researchers assessed the associations between mental health conditions (MHCs) and severe outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Individuals with MHCs might be at an elevated risk for severe outcomes of COVID-19 post-hospitalization. Most prior studies were limited by the small sample size or aggregation of MHCs concealing the risk differences. Moreover, earlier studies did not evaluate readmissions and hospital length of stay (LOS).

Study: Mental Health Conditions and Severe COVID-19 Outcomes after Hospitalization, United States. Image Credit:lumezia.com/ Shutterstock

In the current study, researchers investigated the associations of select MHCs with severe COVID-19 outcomes, LOS, and readmission. They analyzed a large United States (US)-based database of patient records. Patients hospitalized with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and discharged between March 1, 2020, and July 31, 2021, were identified. Anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, and schizophrenia were select MHCs. The outcomes of interest were intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, LOS, invasive mechanical ventilation, all-cause readmission to the same hospital within 30 days, and all-cause mortality during the hospital stay.

The association between each MHC with each outcome was examined using mixed-effects models. The reference cohort comprised patients without the diagnosis of any MHC. Adjusted odds ratios and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated with logistic models. 95% CIs and percentage differences for LOS were computed using Poisson models. Models were adjusted for age, race, sex, ethnicity, admission month, insurance type, Elixhauser Comorbidity Index, and hospital characteristics.

The study sample comprised 664,956 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Most patients (77.1%) were 50 years or older, and 55% of male patients did not have any MHC diagnoses compared to 45% of females. More male patients (53.8%) than females (46.2%) had schizophrenia. In contrast, most female patients had depression (61.7%), anxiety (61%), or bipolar disorder (58.8%), outnumbering male patients.

Outcomes of hospitalized COVID-19 patients (n = 664,956), by mental health condition diagnosis, compared with patients without mental health condition diagnoses in the Premier Healthcare Database Special COVID-19 Release, United States, March 2020July 2021. For each condition, odds ratios represent the odds of the given outcome for patients with the condition compared with patients without mental health conditions. For length of stay, percentages represent the percentage difference in length of stay for patients with the condition compared with patients without mental health conditions. Covariates were selected based on factors known or plausibly associated with both the mental health condition and given outcome. Bolded values indicate statistical significance (2-sided =0.05), adjusted for multiple comparisons using the Bonferroni-Holm method.

Greater odds of ICU admission, mechanical ventilation, and death were noted for patients with anxiety than those without MHC. Patients with any of the select MHCs had significantly elevated odds of readmission. All select MHCs were significantly associated with longer mean LOS. Patients with anxiety, on average, had the longest hospital stay of 34.8 days, followed by those with schizophrenia (25.6 days), bipolar disorder (20.6 days), and depression (19.5 days).

The authors found that anxiety was strongly associated with severe disease outcomes. Each of the select MHCs was independently associated with an increased risk of all-cause readmission within 30 days and longer mean LOS. These results could not be compared with findings from previous studies because they had substantial heterogeneity in data/results, aggregation of MHCs, and populations with varying risk profiles, among others.

Moreover, earlier studies found no significant relationship between anxiety and increased risk for mechanical ventilation, ICU admission, or in-hospital mortality. In contrast, most others did not evaluate outcomes such as LOS and readmission. In summary, MHCs might aggravate respiratory diseases, increasing the risk for readmission or prolonged hospital stay in non-psychiatric hospitalizations. The study showed differences in the risks of each select MHC and provided evidence that MHCs could be deemed high-risk factors for COVID-19 patients.

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People with mental health problems at higher risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes - News-Medical.Net

Ivermectin, a drug used to treat parasitic infections, has no meaningful benefit for treating COVID-19 symptoms, according to a new study from Duke University.

Why it matters: The Duke study is one of the largest clinical trials to show ivermectin which soared in popularity to treat COVID symptoms during the pandemic is not effective for doing so.

What they're saying: "Given these results, there does not appear to be a role for ivermectin outside of a clinical trial setting, especially considering other available options with proven reduction in hospitalizations and death," Adrian Hernandez, the executive director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute, said in a statement. Hernandez led the study.

The big picture: This was not the first study to suggest the ineffectiveness of ivermectin against COVID-19.

What's next: Duke plans to study ivermectin further, with another volunteer group receiving 50% more of the drug than it did in this study.

Go deeper: Read the full study here.

More here:

Ivermectin doesn't show meaningful reduction in COVID-19 - Axios

Now that child development centers are returning to normal operations coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, most have restarted a prior policy that supplants lower-priority children when a higher-priority family such as an active duty working family requests care.

Theres long been a shortage of military child care, and of child care nationwide.

A Defense Department policy issued just before the pandemic and implemented in September 2020 gave working military families, including Coast Guard families, higher priority for spaces in child development centers and school-age child care programs.

But for the first time, it also allowed officials to supplant, or displace, children who already were in a child development program, whose parents were in a lower priority category, if the military family was expected to be on a waitlist for more than 45 days after the time they need child care.

DoD officials allowed a pause in the supplanting process during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic; not all the service branches paused the process.

The Navy announced the restart of its supplanting process on Tuesday. That change comes in the peak of moving season for military families, when many families are searching for child care as they move to a new duty station. Air Force officials restarted the services supplanting policy earlier in 2022. The Army never stopped its supplanting procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In June, the Navy has restarted the supplanting procedures at six fleet concentration areas with long child care waitlists: Norfolk, Virginia; San Diego; Naval Base Kitsap and Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington; Naval Air Station Jacksonville and Naval Station Base Mayport, Florida, said Coleen R. San Nicolas-Perez, spokeswoman for Navy Installations Command.

In July, all other Navy installations will restart the supplanting policy.

Across DoD, working active duty families and certain others cant be displaced from the child development centers. Families who are displaced receive notice at least 45 days in advance if their child or children must leave the child development center, so they can attempt to find child care elsewhere.

Families who are supplanted also are allowed to reapply for space through MilitaryChildCare.com, which is the DoDs website for military and DoD-affiliated families seeking child care ranging from the centers, school-age care, family child care homes and fee assistance programs for child care in the civilian community.

Navy officials will review all school-age care programs in the fall to determine if any supplanting will be required, San Nicolas-Perez said.

Some military families felt they were at a disadvantage because they move frequently, while others, such as DoD civilians, dont move frequently, so those child care spots were locked up. The policy allows lower-priority families to be displaced so that there is more room for military children.

For example, the policy change moved DoD civilians down on the priority list. If a military family moving into the area is expected to be on a waitlist for more than 45 days, a DoD civilian familys child could be displaced from the DoD child care program to make room for that military child, with a minimum of 45 days notice to the civilian family.

The priorities are as follows:

* Priority 1A Child development program staff.

* Priority 1B Single/dual military members and military members with a full-time working spouse, including active duty Coast Guard.

* Priority 1C Military members with a part-time working spouse or those with a spouse seeking employment.

* Priority 1D Military members with a spouse enrolled full-time in a post-secondary institution.

* Priority 2 Single/dual Department of Defense civilians or with a full-time working spouse.

* Priority 3 Space available.

Those who cant be supplanted are:

Child development program direct care staff.

Active duty combat-related wounded warriors.

Single/dual active duty military/Coast Guard.

Single/dual Guard/Reserve on active duty or inactive duty training status.

Active duty military/Coast Guard with a full-time working spouse.

Guard/Reserve on active duty or inactive duty training status with a full-time working spouse.

Gold Star spouses (combat-related).

For the full matrix of who can be supplanted, and by whom, visit MilitaryChildCare.com https://www.mcccentral.com/system/files/downloads/training-center/resources/MilitaryFamilyTypes_Supplanting_0.pdf

Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book "A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families." She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.

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More child care spaces opening to working military families after COVID-19 pause in priority system - Military Times

Vaccines developed early in the COVID-19 pandemic still provide strong protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death. But SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, continues to mutate. Many of these mutations alter the spike protein, which the virus uses to enter and infect cells. These mutations help the virus to dodge the immune systems attack.

Current vaccines prompt the creation of antibodies and immune cells that recognize the spike protein. However, these vaccines were developed using the spike protein from an older variant of SARS-CoV-2. This has made them less effective at preventing infection with newer variants. Researchers have found that immune cells called T cells tend to recognize parts of SARS-CoV-2 that dont mutate rapidly. T cells coordinate the immune systems response and kill cells that have been infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

A vaccine that prompted the body to create more T cells against SARS-CoV-2 could help prevent disease caused by a widerange of variants. To explore this approach, an NIH-funded research team led by Dr. Marulasiddappa Suresh from the University of Wisconsin, Madison studied two experimental vaccines that included compounds to specifically provoke a strong T-cell response in mice.

Using mice that could be infected with SARS-CoV-2, the team tested the vaccines ability to control infection and prevent severe disease caused by an earlier strain of SARS-CoV-2 as well as by the Beta variant, which is relatively resistant to antibodies raised against earlier strains. The results appeared on May 17, 2022, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

When the researchers vaccinated the mice either through the nose or by injection, the animals developed T cells that could recognize the early SARS-CoV-2 strain and the Beta variant. The vaccines also caused the mice to develop antibodies that could neutralize the early strain. However, they failed to create antibodies that neutralized the Beta variant.

The team exposed the mice to SARS-CoV-2 around 3 to 5 months after vaccination. Vaccinated mice had very low levels of virus in their lungs compared with unvaccinated mice and were protected against severe illness. This was true of infection with the Beta variant as well. This showed that the vaccine provided protection against the Beta variant despite failing to produce effective antibodies against it.

To understand which T cells were providing this protection, the researchers selectively removed different types of T cells in vaccinated mice prior to infection. When they removed CD8 (killer) T cells, vaccinated mice remained well protected against the early strain, although not against the Beta variant. When they blocked CD4 T (helper) cells, levels of both the early strain and Beta variant in the lungs and severity of disease were substantially higher than in vaccinated mice that didnt have their T cells removed.

These results suggest important roles for CD8 and CD4 T cells in controlling SARS-CoV-2 infection. Current mRNA vaccines do produce some T cells that recognize multiple variants. This may help account for part of the observed protection against severe disease from the Omicron variant. Future vaccines might be designed to specifically enhance this T cell response.

I see the next generation of vaccines being able to provide immunity to current and future COVID-19 variants by stimulating both broadly-neutralizing antibodies and T cell immunity, Suresh says.

This research summarywaspublishedby the National Institutes of Health on June 7, 2022.

Read more:

T Cells Protect Against COVID-19 in Absence of Antibody Response - POZ

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on asthma exacerbations: Retrospective cohort study of over 500000 patients in a national English primary care database  The Lancet

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Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on asthma exacerbations: Retrospective cohort study of over 500000 patients in a national English primary care database -...

Colorado hospitals response to COVID-19 ranked 17th among all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to The Commonwealth Funds national health care scorecard, an annual report that ranks state health care systems on various metrics based on how well states provide high-quality, accessible and equitable health care.

For the first time, the scorecard focused specifically on how well states managed COVID-19 in 2022.

Anuj Mehta, a pulmonary care physician at Denver Health, told CPR in March while Colorado's COVID-19 numbers are better in recent weeks than earlier in the pandemic, most hospitals remain incredibly busy with non-COVID patients who are much sicker and tend to stay in the hospital for longer periods of time than before the pandemic.

He said health care systems across the state continue to face significant staffing issues, which may worsen as health care workers finally take a moment to reflect on the immense psychological trauma they have suffered in the last two years.

Colorado ranked 12th in fully vaccinated adults who also received a booster dose with 44 percent of Colorado adults having received a vaccine and booster shot.

The state also ranked 12th best in preventing excess deaths associated with COVID-19 with 281 deaths per 100,000 people in the state.

The lowest COVID-19 metric was in the number of hospital shortages. Colorado hospitals went 59 days with shortages placing the state 28th nationally.

Colorado ranked 12th overall in health care performance. Hawaii, Maine, Vermont, Washington and Oregon landed in the top five. Alabama, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Mississippi and Georgia rounded out the bottom.

The state saw its highest marks in hospital patient experience and fitness, but also in preventable hospitalizations. It also saw its highest improvements in hospital 30-day mortality, the number of adults who report fair or poor health and avoidable ER visits.

However the good numbers came with some stark reminders of Colorados mental health crises.

The state ranked among the worst at 45th in deaths by suicide, 46th in alcohol related deaths which nearly doubled from 15 deaths per 100,000 people to 24 deaths per 100,000. The state also saw drug overdoses severely increase along with the rest of the nation.

We have had some of the nation's highest rates of adult and youth suicide. We've got an opioid epidemic on our hands, said Vincent Atchity, the President and CEO of the non-profit Mental Health Colorado. So we're in a critical condition on the extreme side of things in so many ways.

One glaring metric was a 10 percent jump in adults with unmet mental illness needs, up to 32 percent. Colorado ranked 48th in that category.

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Colorado's health care system scored 17th for COVID-19 response, but ranked among the five worst states for mental health, alcohol deaths and...

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--KKR today published Engaged. KKR COVID-19 Relief Effort Progress Report (the COVID-19 Report), which discusses the relief fund formally established by KKR and its employees in May 2020 to provide support for those most affected by COVID-19 and the resulting economic dislocation. As part of this initiative, KKR also announced the 82 grants awarded to small business owners and nonprofits in the final rounds of the KKR Small Business Builders (SBB) and KKR Grants programs.

The COVID-19 Report details the four key initiatives of the relief effort KKR SBB, KKR Grants, portfolio company support programs and employee giving which were established with an emphasis on impact and equity. Over the past two years, KKR and its employees have contributed more than $50 million in community funding to support over 20 million people across 19 countries. The results include the following:

Over the past two years, we have provided support for the most vulnerable members of our communities who were disproportionally affected by the unprecedented global health, social and economic crisis, said Ken Mehlman, Partner, Global Head of Public Affairs and Co-Head of Global Impact at KKR. By focusing on small business owners, growing our strategic philanthropy, drawing on our employees skills and passion and creating support systems for our portfolio companies, our goal has been to engage with our communities to build a healthier, more resilient world. We know there is more work to do as we slowly emerge from the pandemic, and we remain committed to investing in and staying engaged in our communities.

Final Round of KKR Small Business Builders

In connection with the progress report, KKR announced the recipients of the final rounds of KKR SBB and KKR Grants programs, two of the cornerstone initiatives of the KKR relief effort focused on providing grants and support to small businesses and nonprofits worldwide.

In the final round of the KKR SBB program, 49 small business owners in 47 cities spread across 24 states in the United States, as well as in Singapore, were selected to receive $10,000 grants. The businesses selected in the final round of SBB grants are 71% minority-owned, 25% owned by veterans or their immediate family members, 14% owned by persons with disabilities and 10% LGBTQ+-owned. To date, 67% of KKRs SBB grantees are from historically underrepresented groups and the LGBTQ+ community. Notably, 54% of recipients have reported being able to increase wages for employees, 57% have reported an increase in revenue and nearly 75% say their KKR grant was a difference-maker in their ability to survive the pandemic.

Final Round of KKR Grants

The final round of KKR Grants through the relief effort included commitments of more than $3.1 million to 33 nonprofits. The grants were awarded to organizations whose missions are aligned with priority areas, including delivering immediate aid to vulnerable populations impacted by the pandemic, providing innovative pathways of workforce recovery and development, and supporting our heroes including teachers, first responders, essential workers and front-line medical professionals.

The recovery from the pandemic will be lengthy and complex, requiring continued and reliable support for the nonprofit sector; our findings underscore this reality, and we are committed to ensuring help is on hand, said Pamela Alexander, Managing Director and Head of Corporate Citizenship at KKR. As we evolve our philanthropic programming beyond the relief effort, we aim to ease these challenges and ensure that communities around the world receive the support they need as they recover and rebuild.

To access the KKR COVID-19 Relief Effort Progress Report, click here.

KKR Small Business Builders Final Round Recipients

Vernishia Robinson

A Healing Touch Chiropractic Center, LLC |

Columbia, SC

Alison Cox

Ali Cox & Company, Inc. | Turlock, CA

Christian Parker

Alternative Home Care Services LLC |

Indianapolis, IN

Marisol Villalobos

Amasar LLC | Jayuya, PR

Amber Jones

Amber's Addictions LLC | Fort Worth, TX

Amyanna Germany

Amyanna's Cosmetics | Bossier, LA

Sherry Chao-Hrenek

Asian Bite | San Antonio, TX

Jamila Musayeva

Avocado Toast LLC | Santa Monica, CA

Breanna Leonard

Bels Dispatching | Columbus, GA

Daphne Tay

Bluente | Singapore

Rose Limon

Borracho Products LLC | Canutillo, TX

Jessica Bussert

Wave Therapeutics | Nashville, IN

Nancy Cruz

Caribella | Chicago, IL

Candy Caboverde

City Roofing and Construction Inc | Miami, FL

April Hendrix-Buckle

Criselle Collection | Sterling Heights, MI

Duygu Karaolan Altop

Cubtale | Marina del Rey, Los Angeles, CA

Rachel Daily

Cure Studios | Austin, TX

Natalie Boone

Ensemble Therapy | Austin, TX

Amari Carrington

Family Matters to Us Inc. | Milwaukee, WI

Sylvia St.John-Martinez

FishBowl Radio Network | Bedford, TX

Ali Rose VanOverbeke

Genusee | Flint, MI

Malia Powell

Go N' Glow Travel | Marietta, GA

Amy Renz

Goodness Gracious, LLC | Marblehead, MA

Margie Traxler

Grain Free Mama's | Henderson, NV

Monika Dharia

GreenGear | Albertson, NY

Ruth Linton

Highland Orchards Farm Market | Wilmington, DE

Jennifer Harden

JenRan Holdings, LLC | Westlake Village, CA

Johannah Easley

Joh So Good Food LLC | Minneapolis, MN

Melissa Wharton

Workout Anytime | Jeffersonville, IN

Jennifer Brogee

KaffeeScape LLC | Lima, OH

Shimere Burrell

Konnect Services, LLC | Charlotte, NC

Cindy Soto Seyford

Local Pour House Inc. | Queens, NY

Dana M. Persico

Long Island Nail Skin & Hair Institute | Levittown, NY

Lindsay Smith

LYS, A Licensed Clinical Social Worker Corporation | San Jose, CA

Nikki Riojas

Made in Corpus Christi, LLC | Corpus Christi, TX

Kellee James

Mercaris | Silver Spring, MD

Andrea Johnson

Tumbleweed Farm Sanctuary | Salina, KS

Tara Ghorashi

Morning Star Child Development Center | Knoxville, TN

Camille Kapaun

Nightingale | New York City, NY

Shane Brown

Pretty in London LLC | Douglasville, GA

Donna Childs

Prisere LLC | Cranston, RI

Trinetta Powell

Reveal and Restore Counseling | Frisco, TX

Laura Fleet

SendaRide, Inc. | Oklahoma City, OK

Lisa Ludwinski

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KKR Announces Progress of the KKR COVID-19 Relief Effort - Business Wire

The Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care announced on Friday that it's phasing out a state-sponsored COVID-19 testing program that thousands of child care programs across the commonwealth have relied on over the last year.

The announcement which came two weeks after the state relaxed quarantine guidelines for child care, but before federal approval of COVID-19 vaccinations for children under 5 only adds to the uncertainty for day care providers on how best to keep children and staff safe.

Winding down the testing program

In an email to child care providers, the state Department of Early Education and Care announced it will end the COVID-19 testing program at the end of this month. The program, which has been run by the nonprofit Neighborhood Villages, provided tests to centers each month and included a system for reporting and tracking positive cases.

The state's contract with Neighborhood Villages was set to expire at the end of this month, and child care providers told GBH News this spring that they were worried the program might not be renewed. Even though the program is ending, the state says it will continue to provide free rapid antigen tests to providers on a quarterly basis through the end of December.

The state is also closing drive-through testing sites in Braintree and Tewksbury that were exclusively serving child care staff and families with kids in those programs. State officials have not yet said whether they'll continue offering a "surveillance" program of weekly PCR tests that several hundred child care providers have been using.

One of the centers that's been participating in the PCR testing program is Temple Beth Shalom in Needham. The program serves about 220 children and is run by Ellen Dietrick, who told GBH News she's worried the state will end PCR testing.

"I think that testing is one of the very few methods we have to protect these under-fives," Dietrick said, noting kids that age are terrible at social distancing and still unvaccinated.

The state's email on Friday said Neighborhood Villages will continue to offer a phone hotline through the end of August, "to support the implementation of recently updated guidance and other COVID-19 related inquiries."

Relaxing state quarantine guidelines

Day care providers were already feeling uneasy with new quarantine guidance issued by the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services about two weeks ago.

On May 25, EOHHS announced that, effective immediately, children were no longer required to quarantine if they've been exposed to someone who has COVID-19. The guidelines said those children should continue attending child care programs, and that while testing is recommended for those kids, it's not required.

The state says the changes were made to be more consistent with the guidelines for K-12 schools, after-school and camp programs. Still, the abrupt shift left some child care providers feeling less protected.

"So theoretically, you could have a young child who has a family filled with positive family members including their own parents ... and according to these guidelines, that exposure does not mean that the child should stay home," said Lauren Cook, CEO of Ellis Early Learning, which serves 250 children at three child care locations in Boston. "And we've seen at Ellis, based on our experience, that it is highly likely a young child will test positive within probably five days of the parents being positive."

The new guidelines also say that children who do test positive for infection can return to child care settings after they've quarantined for five days, as long as they're asymptomatic and able to mask.

Cook pointed out, though, that many programs provide breakfast, lunch and a snack each day.

"So that's three instances where kids are maskless," she said. "And then naps are usually over an hour where kids are maskless. So are we defining 'able to mask' as children who are taking their masks off for all those periods of time?"

Unlike public schools, most child care providers are private organizations that can make up their own rules. But Cook said she'd likely receive pushback from parents if her program adopted rules that were more stringent than state guidelines. She said she plans to poll parents to see if there's support for a policy that she feels would be more protective.

For the youngest kids, vaccinations haven't started yet

The scaled-back testing program and quarantine requirements come before children under 5 can get vaccinated. That could soon change, as the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are expected to approve vaccinations for the youngest children as soon as this week. But it will likely be months before a significant percentage of kids get shots.

"At this point, these little ones have no protection at all," said Ellen Dietrick at Temple Beth Shalom. "There's nothing. And some can't even wear masks."

She emphasized that child care staff are also at risk.

"These teachers are going to a work environment where no one is vaccinated. They are the only vaccinated individual in a room of 20 people," Dietrick said. "So protecting them is really critical. I mean, we have to protect them or we can't run the program. If they are out sick, that affects 20 families."

The state of child care funding is uncertain

The uncertainty over testing comes as child care programs also face the possible end of a state grant program that has helped keep them open during the pandemic.

A system known as C3 grants (which stands for Commonwealth Cares for Children) was set up last year using federal funds to help keep child care organizations from closing due to a loss of revenue because of the pandemic. Now that the one-time federal funding is gone, the grant program is set to expire this month.

"It has been a godsend," William Eddy, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Early Education and Care, said of the C3 grants. "It helped programs that were on the verge of collapse stay alive."

Ellen Dietrick said the grants have been enormously helpful to programs like hers in Needham.

"Most people are using it to pay for staff salaries, bonuses, anything to keep our teachers," Dietrick said. "That is the most important thing."

Others used the grants to help when they got behind on rent while closed because of the pandemic, she said. And programs have come to rely on the funds.

"Many of us don't know how we'll continue without getting the funding for next month," she said. "And I mean, we're talking about in three weeks."

The future of the grant program depends on where things land in current budget negotiations between the state Senate and House of Representatives, Eddy said. That budget is due at the end of the month.

"We asked for them to continue [the C3 grant program] for the six to eight months, and hope they do," Eddy said.

The Massachusetts Legislature is negotiating what could be a boost in funding for early education after a special legislative commission issued a report in March that called for a significant increase.

"The commission recommendation said there are over 230,000 children who are currently eligible for subsidy care who are not receiving it right now," Eddy said. "And so they said we should prioritize trying to help them. They came up with recommendations to prioritize the early educator workforce, which is struggling mightily."

That prioritization is beginning to be seen in draft House and Senate budgets, Eddy said, and he's closely watching what comes out of their negotiations.

"I'm hopeful that the state Legislature is going to put a record investment into early education programs and our workforce in the FY23 state budget," Eddy said.

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Child care providers concerned as state phases out COVID-19 testing support - GBH News