Category: Covid-19

Its probably no exaggeration to say that every urban planner dreams of a world in which parking lots dont exist. They take up a lot of space (about one-third of land area in American cities), theyre not used as much as you think, and all of that pavement increases the urban heat island effect. So much of that space could be given back to people, but the process is slow, complex, and mired in zoning problems.

[Photo: courtesy Central Square]In Cambridge, Massachusetts, Lot 5 used to be a repository for 90-odd cars right off the main street. Then three things happened: The pandemic hit, ridership plummeted across the country, and the city found itself without a good outdoor space at a time when the safest place to gather was, well, outdoors.

[Photo: courtesy Central Square]Thus begins the story of Starlight Square, a pop-up public space that took over Lot 5 for what was only supposed to be 120 days. But for the third year in a row, Starlight Square has just reopened for the season. About half of the space has been given back to cars for abutting businesses. The other half has proved so popular that Starlight even hosted the City Council inauguration in January, as the omicron wave was sweeping through the country. Now, Starlight finds itself at a crossroads: Should it give in to the small number of noise complaints that have trickled in over the past years? Or should its makers fight to build a permanent building, with actual walls to frame the open courtyardand alleviate the noise?

[Photo: courtesy Central Square]Similar narratives played out all over the country. To weather the crisis, cities from New York to San Francisco relaxed their zoning rules and turned tens of thousands of parking spaces into parklets and outdoor seating. For many, the pandemic was an opportunity to hit the reset button, but two years in, and in a country where the parking landscape hasnt been rethought since the 1950s, resetting the button has proved a lot more complicated.

[Photo: courtesy Central Square]Take Starlight Square. It was developed by the Central Square Business Improvement District (BID), together with Boyes-Watson Architects and Flagg Street Studio. Back in March 2020one day before Massachusetts declared a state of emergencythe team had proposed a smaller iteration unrelated to the pandemic, but when the pandemic set in, the team started dreaming even bigger. They wanted a sizable public space with an open-air amphitheater and a space for the Central Square Farmers Market. But there was one problem: the land was zoned for cars, not people.

Eventually, the city manager used his executive authority to remove all zoning restrictions; but in March 2022, the Governor of Massachusetts deemed the state of emergency over, so the team had to go before the zoning board of appeals and seek a special permit in order to reopen for the summer. Of the six months they applied for, only three months were approved. And while the abutting supermarket asked for some of its parking spaces back last year, this isnt because of parking. For Michael Monestime, then the executive director of the BID, It all boils down to sound.

Its a bit of a catch-22. Starlight is framed by a simple structure made up of Jersey barriers; a scaffolding frame; and a translucent scrim, printed with historic photographs, architectural sketches, and artwork curated by a local creative agency. Starlight won the city over because it was designed to be temporary and reversible: If they didnt like it, it could be taken down, explains Matthew Boyes-Watson, partner of Flagg Street Studio and a principal of his eponymous architectural firm. So Starlight is noisy because it has no walls or insulation, but it has no walls or insulation because it had to be temporary.

[Photo: courtesy Central Square]Now the team has one goal: Convince the neighbors who have complained and bring them into the fold so that, come July, they can go back to the zoning board of appeals and get the rest of the permit approved. But how?

It starts with balanced programming. Weve tried to make everything much more predictable; so if youre a neighbor, youre able to know, When might I feel the impact, or when can I join in?' says Nina Berg, the BIDs creative director (and also a partner of Flagg Street Studio). Together with local community partners, Starlight runs events five nights a week; but only two of those now feature amplified music, Fridays and Saturdays. Its a story of compromises, says Monestime.

The operating budget for Starlight, which includes the installation, operation, and underwriting grants for organizers, has ranged from $490,00 to $560,000 per yearand every single event is free of charge.

To further alleviate the impact, the team has done a series of adjustments to the number of speakers and how theyre positioned. Boyes-Watson says theyve also investigated acoustic paneling, but you cant overcome that challenge of how sound carries in what is essentially scaffolding and scrim.

What needs to happen next is pretty obvious: The pop-up structure has to graduate and become a proper building. We wanted to show that this city land could be deployed for something so much more than parking and to benefit of residents of Cambridge, says Boyes-Watson. Now, the architect is quietly working on a more permanent solution, like a U-shaped building that would frame an open courtyard space. Except, the approval threshold for something like this is much lower. A permanent project would likely require City Council approval, numerous Requests For Proposals, a special permit, and a building permitbefore construction can even begin.

[Photo: courtesy Central Square]In a country where new luxury condos seem to shoot up every other month, it may seem surprising that so much effort needs to go into developing a no-frills public space. But this just goes to show how poorly many cities are set up for change and how far down on the list of priorities public spaces are. Sure, zoning laws exist for a reason, but unprecedented crises like a global pandemic and climate change should call for radical solutions that prioritize quality of life and green spaces, not more asphalt.

The fact that Starlight Square has just reopened for the third year in a row is proof that Cambridge can function without Lot 5. Because, at the end of the day, this is about changing behavior. Every municipality has surface lots, and when you remove cars a lot of magical stuff can happen, says Monestime. People have been programmed that this is no longer a parking lot.

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COVID-19 relaxed red tape in cities. Then the bureaucracy returned - Fast Company

By Mark Koosau and Daniel Israel

After decreasing in the wake of the holiday season surge, COVID-19 cases have begun to gradually increase again in Hudson County.

The county has seen a seven-day average of 361 cases since May 19, a 68 percent increase over the past 14 days, and the highest in recent months. The number of cases since the holiday surge had leveled since early-to-mid February.

The average cases in the county was at 318 on Feb. 1, and had reduced to the lowest average at 68 cases on March 17. Cases had then begun to increase again to around an average of 97 on April 2.

The trends are also seen on the local level. In Jersey City, 228 cases were reported on May 19, with a seven-day average of 154. In comparison, there were an average of 37 cases at the beginning of March. Over in Hoboken, the city had a seven-day average of about 44 cases since May 13, compared to an average of about 23 cases back on March 1.

Hospitalization for COVID have increased as well, with an average of 35 patients being reported between May 6 to 12, compared to about 14 patients from April 1 to 6. Although cases have increased, the death rate has remained next-to-zero so far. Both the hospitalization and death rates remain lower than they were during the holiday surge.

Bayonne sees the signs of a surge?

In Bayonne, things are a little different, with only one patient at Bayonne Medical Center as of May 12. Health Officer Michelle OReilly told the Bayonne Community News that while cases are increasing by the day, things are still stable in the city.

As of May 9, the COVID-19 Activity Level Index (CALI) score increased to high, which indicates a high level of transmission of COVID-19 across Hudson County, OReilly said. She added the county and Bayonne is still predominantly seeing the Omicron variant for a large majority of cases, which have been increasing each week this month.

We have seen a slight increase week by week, OReilly said. From the beginning of May, we started to see about 15 cases a day. The following week, we started seeing about 30 cases a day. Then, on Friday on the 13th we had seen that number almost double. So we have definitely seen increasing cases.

Due to the availability of at-home testing, other testing options, and the shuttering of the municipal testing site, the city no longer reports active case numbers or positivity rates.It is very difficult to determine, OReilly said.

Soon municipalities across Hudson County could incorporate the results of at-home tests into local statistics, OReilly added. She said things continue to change as the pandemic enters the endemic phase, such as contact tracing becoming a thing of the past.

As we move into the endemic phase of the COVID-19 response, we are relying heavily on cases to notify their own direct contacts, she said.

OReilly noted there have been some outbreaks in Bayonne, particularly in child care settings. However, things are far from where they were during the recent holiday surge.

The children or clients from those child care centers dont have the ability to get vaccinated at this time, OReily said. Some there are some outbreaks there and some outbreaks in schools, especially since Gov. [Phil] Murphys lifting of the universal mask mandate back in February. So there have been some outbreaks, which is to be expected.

Readying for another an increase

If the outbreaks get worse, OReilly said the city could erect another municipal COVID-19 testing site again.

Bayonne stands ready to initiate additional COVID-19 testing sites as we have plenty of test kits in our personal inventory to be able to pop up a testing site if necessary, OReilly said. We are also putting residents in touch with vaccination and booster opportunities on a daily basis.

However, vaccination sites may be a thing of the past, according to OReilly. She added that if the demand did arise, the city could acquire more doses and stand up a vaccination site again if necessary, but local and large retail pharmacies are providing vaccines.

If this pandemic was anything, it was ever-changing, OReily said. So if there was a need to do that again in the future, of course wed be ready to get some more vaccine inventory in stock and set up another site. But I think its too early to tell.

Meanwhile, the city continues to work with the school district to protect those most vulnerable to the outbreaks, OReilly said.

As soon as we found out the CALI score had reached high, we reached out to our partners at the Bayonne Board of Education, and they were very quick to respond with some messaging to the community as well to inform the parents, students, and staff, OReilly said. We worked closely with them too on some messaging on masking, and some additional signage if necessary. The Board of Education has been a phenomenal partner.

Overall, OReilly said Bayonne is still holding strong:Bayonne is faring well. Its to be expected and I think the mission now is to focus more on the boosters, the vaccine testing, and the COVID therapeutics, more of like a pivot to that as we move into the endemic status of COVID-19.

West New York seeing COVID-19 rise too

OReilly is also the Health Officer for West New York through a shared services agreement with the town. She said the town is doing similarly to Bayonne as she works closely with the administration and Communicable Disease Investigator.

Its kind of a similar scenario across the board, OReilly said. Theres always just constant communication back and forth. Theyre always going off of what is working in Bayonne and implementing that in West New York. Theyre very open and willing to anything that we do in our approach.

Part of the approach to mitigating COVID-19 involves working with the West New York school district. OReilly continued: Ive spoken with the Superintendent of West New York to get the message out there to them as well in regards to the slight increase in COVID.

According to OReilly, West New York is seeing week by week increases in COVID-19 cases throughout the past month, but to a less severe extent. This past week, the town has seen numbers as low as 14 to as high as 30 new cases a day as of May 20.

West New York hasnt seen as many cases over the past three week as Bayonne, but the good thing is that there has been no additional deaths in either municipality, OReilly said.

West New York is holding the line for now, although the town could see things continue to worsen such as Bayonne, Jersey City, Hoboken, and potentially the rest of the county.

Its been a pretty similar response, OReilly said. The good thing about Hudson County is that all of the Health Officers talk to each other. We do touch base, speak often, help each other out, and offer advice and recommendations. Were all just working together to ensure each municipality continues to respond to COVID-19 safely and effectively.

Multifactorial cause in increase

The causes of the increases are multifactorial, according to a number of health experts, such as waning immunity, new variants, and the relaxing of mask mandates in schools and public spaces.

Society has sort of readjusted to normal in the sense that the precautions that people were taking prior when it came to mask use, travel, and being socially distant are now waning, said Dr. John Rimmer, the Chief Medical Officer at Hoboken Medical Center. As a result, I think were gonna have bumps in cases fairly sporadically moving forward.

Officials locally and statewide have moved towards an endemic approach to COVID-19. New Jersey lifted its school mask mandate in March, with a number of Hudson County schools following suit, as well as for NJ Transit and other public transportation in April after a Trump-appointed federal judge voided the national mask mandate for transportation.

Dr. Schubert Perotte, the Chair of Emergency Medicine at Jersey City Medical Center, believes that part of the reason for officials changing their approach is when they look at the number of cases in the past, as well as the vaccination rate.

I think the consideration is that the amount of people that will require hospitalization, given the past presentation, has been relatively low, and weve still been able to conduct our businesses, both here at the hospital and outside the walls of the hospital, he said. They havent been severely impacted by those surges.

Both doctors said that hospitalizations have increased at their respective hospitals, but have not reached the levels from the holiday surge that was fueled by the highly-transmissible Omicron variant.

For updates on this and other stories, check hudsonreporter.com and follow us on Twitter @hudson_reporter. Daniel Israel can be reached at disrael@hudsonreporter.com. Mark Koosau can be reached at mkoosau@hudsonreporter.com or his Twitter @snivyTsutarja.

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COVID-19 cases are rising in Hudson County again - The Hudson Reporter

KALAMAZOO, MI Elementary schoolers in Kalamazoo took to the trails surrounding Kalamazoo Valley Community College on Saturday for the annual 20th annual Girls on the Run 5K.

Girls on the Run of Greater Kalamazoo is a youth development program focused on instilling womens empowerment in young girls. The annual 5K is the culmination of a coaching program for girls in elementary schools across the Kalamazoo area.

As girls go through adolescence, it gets really tricky and sometimes you start to go under peer pressure, and listen to voices that maybe arent the best for you, said Melisa Beeson, executive director of Girls on the Run Kalamazoo. We give them the life skills so they can be confident and strong in their decisions and stick to themselves so they can be their best selves.

The regular program was postponed for two years due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the 5K was canceled entirely while in 2021, participants had the option to conduct it virtually or at their respective school.

In the past, the runs started and ended at Waldo Stadium, with the route winding through the Vine neighborhood.

Were really excited that they get to see a different kind of a course than an urban street environment, Beeson said of the KVCC campus in Texas Township. They get to be out in nature and see the birds and flowers and all the trees. Its been a big process but were really excited about it.

State Reps. Christine Morse and Julie Rogers attended the event to commemorate the 20th anniversary celebration. Rogers has coached, ran and volunteered for Girls on the Run in the past.

As soon as I saw that it was the 20th anniversary, I wanted to do a special recognition tribute as a state representative so I was really thrilled to present it and see all the girls out here, Rogers said.

Morses two daughters participated in Girls on the Run in the past.

Kids that have never run before, theyre out here doing it and feeling so good about themselves, Morse said. I just think its a great positive message about you really can do anything if you set your mind to it.

A rain delay pushed back the start time of the race while participants sheltered in the KVCC building or in their cars from lightening. Despite the delay, organizers, participants and families were still eager to participate, Beeson said.

It didnt go quite as planned weather wise but everyone was super flexible and we were able to adapt and adjust and just push the start time back so that we can give the girls the experience theyve been training for for the last eight weeks, Beeson said.

Leading up to the 5K, the girls participate in a program where they learn about managing emotions, building healthy relationships and standing up for yourself and others as well as conduct a community impact project.

We teach them the power of collective action and how they can work together to meet a need and help people in their community, Beeson said.

Beeson was motivated to work with Girls on the Run because of a middle school gym coach who discouraged her from participating in sports because she wasnt athletic.

If I had had Girls on the Run, I would have not listened to her as much, Beeson said. I would have said, You know what, I can still be athletic, I may not be the fastest, I may not make it to the olympic trials but I can still be physically active and do what makes me feel good.

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Girls on the Run Kalamazoo celebrates 20th anniversary after COVID-19 hiatus - MLive.com

Getting Covid-19 ... again

But here's an individual story for anyone coming to terms with the persistence of Covid-19 and a lesson that if you've had it, you can easily test positive again.

Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel did. And it's wreaking havoc on his schedule just like infection does for school kids, teachers, service workers, office workers or anyone else who does the responsible thing and goes into isolation.

The news comes after he previously announced a positive test and guest hosts to fill in while he quarantined at home at the beginning of the month.

The lesson is that no, you are not exempt from Covid-19 awareness for 90 days after a positive test, since new variants are emerging and infection rates are rising in much of the country.

A surge in the Northeast

About a third of the US population is in an area with high or medium infection rates, according to a warning this week from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The high-transmission areas at this moment are in the Northeast, particularly New York and New Jersey, and stretch over to Michigan and Wisconsin.

No new mask rules in New York

Despite the high community spread in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams said he has no plans to reinstate mask requirements there, suggesting we've got to learn to live with Covid-19.

Less than half of fully vaccinated Americans have received a booster dose, while about 38% of New Yorkers have.

Booster shots for kids

On the heels of the FDA's authorization earlier this week, CDC vaccine advisers voted on Thursday to recommend a booster dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. Walensky has signed off on the recommendation.

More free tests

The administration also called on Congress to authorize $22.5 billion in more spending for testing, treatment and vaccines, but the additional funding is opposed by many Republicans.

Boosters are saving lives

While the CDC recommends a booster shot for most Americans, the percentage of those who have received third shots is relatively low.

Why aren't people getting boosters?

Szabo spoke with multiple researchers and experts who argued the federal government has not focused nearly enough on getting the word out about booster shots.

"The booster program has been botched from day one," Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, told her. "This is one of the most important issues for the American pandemic, and it has been mismanaged."

Topol and other experts argued the federal government hasn't taken a forceful enough role in coordinating and messaging the need for booster shots.

What should you do if you test positive?

Be careful

Wen: A more transmissible variant means that the activities we thought were relatively safe before are now higher risk. This doesn't mean that we should avoid all activities, but rather that people who have been very careful before may be getting infected now because of how contagious this subvariant is.

5 days of isolation may feel more like 6 days

Wen: The day that you take your positive test is day zero. If you had symptoms before then, say the day before, that day is day zero -- whichever is first. Day 1 is 24 hours after the positive test or appearance of symptoms.

You need to be isolated from others for five days. That means not being in the same room at home with people you live with and not going to work in person. If you have to share, say, a bathroom, make sure to wear a well-fitting N95, KN95 or KF94 while in these common areas, minimize your time in them, and open the windows as much as possible.

And after the 5th day ...

Wen: The CDC says that after the fifth day of isolation, if you have no fever and your symptoms are improving, you can go into public spaces like grocery stores and to work and school, as long as you wear a well-fitting mask the entire time.

A lot of workplaces and schools have their own policies that are more stringent than this and may require, for example, a full 10 days before you return.

Do you need a negative test after 5 days?

Wen: Many public health experts, including me, would recommend testing out of isolation as an additional level of precaution that also reduces inconvenience.

This is not what the CDC says, but I think it's reasonable to start testing with a home rapid test from day 5. If you test negative on day 5 and day 6, and you have no fever and improved symptoms, then you could exit isolation.

That would make for a less onerous isolation period, especially for families who live in small spaces or have young children to care for.

Read more:

Tales of Covid-19 reinfection - CNN

A medical staff member treats a patient suffering from the coronavirus disease COVID-19 in the Intensive Care Unit at Scripps Mercy Hospital in Chula Vista. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

The number of people hospitalized with a coronavirus infection in San Diego County increased by one to 133, according to the latest state data out Saturday.

Of those patients hospitalized as of Saturday, 23 were being treated in intensive care, the same number as Friday. The number of available hospital beds was 220, an increase of two.

On Thursday, the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency reported 1,579 new COVID-19 infections, the most since early February and part of a larger trend as infections continue to increase.

A total of 7,008 cases were reported during the past week compared to 4,996 cases identified the previous week, a 40% increase. These are only the cases reported to county or hospital sites. As the proliferation of at-home tests has increased, the actual number of infections is likely higher.

The HHSA reported five COVID-related deaths Thursday, increasing the countys cumulative totals from throughout the pandemic to 775,369 infections and 5,282 deaths.

Health officials have said that the majority of people who die of COVID complications have underlying conditions, mainly hypertension, diabetes and heart disease.

Pending approval from the Western States committee, booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine may soon be available for San Diego children ages 5 through 11, the HHSA announced Thursday. The Pfizer boosters should be given five months after receiving the final dose of the primary vaccine series, officials said.

Some parents have been anxiously waiting to give their children extra protection against COVID-19 and the shots may be finally approved, said Dr. Wilma Wooten, San Diego County public health officer. COVID-19 boosters for everyone who is eligible are easy to get because we have plenty of vaccine available in the region.

Omicron variants have been making more San Diego children sick, the HHSA reported, with some requiring hospitalization and others developing multi- system inflammatory syndrome or MIS-C. From Nov. 27, 2021 to May 7, 2022, 90% of the pediatric hospitalizations for the syndrome occurred in children who were not fully vaccinated.

Since the pandemic began, there have been 98 MIS-C cases in the county. Of those, 53% have been reported in children ages five to 11 and 60%- have been Hispanic.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, MIS-C is a rare, but serious, post-infectious hyper-inflammatory condition occurring about 2 to 6 weeks after infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Symptoms of MIS-C include fever, abdominal pain, diarrhea, skin rash, inflammation and multi-organ dysfunction. In severe cases, children can experience hypotension (low blood pressure) and shock. Approximately 60-80% of the early cases of MIS-C patients required intensive care admission.

MIS-C can often be so severe that children require life-saving interventions, Wooten said. Parents should contact their doctor immediately if their child develops any of these symptoms. The best thing parents can do is get all the recommended doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for themselves and their children.

More than 2.96 million or 94% of San Diegans age 5 and older are at least partially vaccinated, while more than 2.62 million or 83.3% are fully vaccinated. A total of 1,323,824 or 58.5% of 2,264,730 eligible San Diegans have received a booster shot.

A total of 9,611 tests were reported to the county on May 14, and the percentage of new positive cases was 7.3%. The 14-day rolling percentage of positive cases, among tests reported through May 14, is 5.8%.

The county only reports COVID-19 data on Mondays and Thursdays.

City News Service

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Weekly COVID-19 Infections Increase By 40% in San Diego County - Times of San Diego

May 21, 2022, 3:32pmUpdated 6h ago

By: News 12 Staff

Health officials say the current dominant strain of coronavirus is a subvariant of Omicron its not as mild as the original Omicron and is rampant in the northeastern United States.

Health reporter Gillian Neff breaks down the current guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when it comes to isolating after a positive case.

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COVID-19 cases trend upwards: What are the current CDC rules for isolating - News 12 Bronx

ATLANTA - Coronavirus cases have been rising across the U.S. for the past six weeks with more than 100,000 new daily cases reported.

Nearly half of residents are living in a county with high or medium COVID-19 risk level. Hospitalizations for those 17 years old and under are up more than 16%.

This as children across the country roll up their sleeves once again with boosters green lighted for ages 5 to 11. The hope is that an extra shot will shore up protection as infections once again are on the rise.

"Vaccination with a primary series among this age group has lagged behind other age groups leaving them vulnerable to serious illness," said CDC Director Dr.Rochelle Wallensky.

Link:

Rise in Covid-19 cases across the US | News | ktbs.com - KTBS

D.C's health director has responded to a probe from the D.C. council to investigate why the health department didnt update its COVID-19 data to the Centers for Disease Control for almost two weeks.

The Districts health director has responded to calls from the D.C. council to investigate why the health department didnt report its COVID-19 data to the Centers for Disease Control for almost two weeks.

Six members of the D.C. Council last week wrote a letter calling for an investigation after D.C.s health department didnt update COVID-19 data to the CDC from April 27 to May 8.

DC Health director Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt said in a letter that D.C. had been providing manual and automated reports to the CDC. She said that for those two weeks starting April 27, the manual reporting from D.C. Health to the CDC was stopped; she said its back in sync.

The council also requested that D.C. Health increase the frequency of its posts on its own website for better public planning.

Nesbitt said that they wont be changing that, citing a high degree of burnout from public health workers.

The current public health workforce is experiencing a high degree of psychological stress, commonly referred to as burnout, having experienced over two years of 12+-hour workdays, attacks both verbal and physical on public health professionals, and significant misinformation about public health and our work. In response to that, and shifting goals of the pandemic response, public health agencies throughout the United States have reoriented how they share data to effectively inform the public of their risk without straining an already reduced public health workforce, Nesbitt said.

She said they switched to the new reporting process in March and report a full week of data from each Wednesday through Tuesday.

Nesbitt said the request from the council to report data from Wednesday through Monday would not improve the publics ability to understand their public health risk.

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DC Health responds to probe from council members on COVID-19 data - WTOP

Editors Note: Dr. Kee B. Park (@keepark) is director of the Korea Health Policy Project at Harvard Medical School. He has worked alongside North Korean doctors during more than 20 visits to North Korea and is a member of the National Committee on North Korea, which facilitates principled engagement between the US and North Korea. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. Read more opinion on CNN.

CNN

If I learned one thing after performing countless operations alongside surgeons in Pyongyang over the past 15 years, its North Koreans do not throw anything away.

I have used scalpels dulled from reuse to make incisions. One time I watched an anesthesiologist use his hands to squeeze a bag every three to four seconds to ventilate a patient for several hours during an operation.

It was business as usual in a place where medical equipment like mechanical ventilators are scarce. And I have always admired their ability to work with limited resources.

But now I fear for the safety of the doctors and nurses, as well as their ability to care for the surge of Covid-19 patients in the hospitals.

Last week, North Korea announced the first confirmed case of Covid-19 inside the country. Since then, we have learned of at least 1.72 million fever cases, with about half in quarantine and dozens of deaths so far. The Omicron BA.2 variant was found in at least one of the deaths.

With symptomatic cases accounting for roughly 7% of the population of 25 million, the outbreak is a disaster for North Korea.

We need to help North Korea immediately. Given the entire population has yet to be vaccinated, the death toll could be unprecedented.

North Korea, like China, has adopted a zero-Covid strategy for managing the virus. To its credit, this strategy of prioritizing the prevention of the virus from entering its borders seemed highly effective, with apparently no confirmed cases for over two years.

But the highly transmissible Omicron variants changed everything. China had successfully thwarted the virus until recently, succumbing to drastic lockdowns in several cities, including Shanghai.

Now, the virus has breached North Koreas defenses. And the relatively weak ability of North Korea to respond to the massive outbreak is alarming.

First, they lack medical countermeasures. The capacity to treat large numbers of patients with severe respiratory illness is limited. They need oxygen, IV fluids, ventilators, personal protective equipment (especially for the health care workers) and antibiotics.

But the most valuable items right now are the newly developed antivirals against Covid-19. Paxlovid appears to be effective against the Omicron BA.2 variant, can be taken by mouth and does not require any special storage and transportation methods. We should send these medical countermeasures as soon as possible. People are dying now, and we can and should help.

Secondly, their testing capacity is woefully inadequate. According to the WHO South-East Asia Region office situation reports, North Korea has been testing about 1,500 people each week for Covid-19.

If this is their maximum capacity, it would be impossible to test the current number of symptomatic patients 1.72 million and counting let alone their contacts. They also need Covid-19 tests to confirm diagnosis before initiating Paxlovid. We should send diagnostics in sufficient quantities now; they are flying blind.

Third, the country is food insecure. Lockdowns are hard on the people, especially the poorest. Even stricter isolation measures are expected now that the virus has entered the country.

Immediate food aid is needed to mitigate hunger for those who lack the supplies to weather the lockdowns.

North Korea has not vaccinated its population. They have rejected offers of vaccines, presumably believing they could ride out the pandemic in isolation until it goes away.

The risk of the virus entering via cargo and possibly foreigners was not worth the benefit the vaccines provided. They were overreliant on their ability to keep the virus out and therefore unprepared for the outbreak.

The breach and the ensuing outbreak require a new strategy that can increase the protection of the population from further outbreaks. mRNA vaccines are effective against Omicron BA.2. Sufficient quantities of vaccines and deployment supplies should be offered to North Korea quickly. Our research has shown North Korea can deploy mRNA vaccines using the existing network of refrigerators.

The first group of people to be vaccinated should be the frontline health workers as they are facing an onslaught of Covid-19 patients each day.

When delivering assistance to North Korea, the who and how are as important as the what. A nationwide crisis requires all actors to work together.

The United Nations is in the best position to coordinate the different agencies, such as the World Health Organization, UNICEF, World Food Programme and nongovernmental organizations; to manage the complex regulations and logistics; and to help implement them alongside the North Korean government.

The monitoring and evaluation requirements should not be a sticking point right now peoples lives are at stake. We should also take a solidarity approach and not demand North Korea ask for help first. Our hands should go out first; their need is clear.

North Korea needs to become more flexible as well. They should not try to manage the crisis by patching together isolated aid packages from individual organizations. We need a clear focal point of communication to coordinate with the international community. The obvious counterpart to the United Nations is the DPRK Mission in New York.

To be sure, aid to North Korea is controversial. On the same day the outbreak was announced, North Korea fired three short-range ballistic missiles. Perhaps we can have a moratorium on any military activity on the Korean Peninsula until the outbreak is contained. Such activity diverts precious resources and attention away from the urgent needs of the people.

All sides need to have their eyes on containing the pandemic. Its in everyones interest to help North Korea contain this outbreak and prevent future ones.

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Opinion: Why North Korea's Covid-19 outbreak could shock the world - CNN

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As a longtime supply chain technology professional and head of a software company focused on enterprise (B2B) cloud integration, Ive been watching several key trends that are shaping the fortunes for ecommerce and digital transformation as organizations push through the business impacts of the ongoing pandemic. These include the need for more IoT deployments and the rise of collaboration platforms to cope with increasingly remote and hybrid work environments. Were also seeing enterprise end-to-end visibility across the business ecosystem emerge as a top C-suite priority.

These factors will help define the level of success organizations can expect in transforming data into value and impact. Ecosystem Integration, which is an advanced approach to multi-enterprise B2B/EDI integration that creates seamless end-to-end integrations that connect partners, applications, systems, and marketplaces, enables organizations to leverage collaborative platforms and increase end-to-end visibility. Its a multilayered approach with various technologies that, when combined, amount to more than the sum of its parts. For the sake of this article, lets zero in on automation as the common underlying capability that will best serve in the months and years ahead as an increasingly critical lynchpin for successful ecosystem integration adoption.

As we continue to adjust to the new normal of pandemic-induced pressures on supply chain and business processes overall, automation and no-code are becoming more central as a foundation for digital transformation. Thats because COVID-19 showcased the fragility of manual processes. Recall how organizations struggled under the pressure of workforce lockdowns and the virus hindered efforts to become more agile in supply chain and other operations that were disrupted by the pandemic.

The pandemic is not yet over, but far enough along that we can see how companies like Amazon and others that invested in automation succeeded in growing both revenue and profitability despite the shutdowns. These success stories are sinking in, and thats driving consensus and C-suite buy-in at more companies to automate core business processes. Further accelerating adoption is the increasing availability of tools and techniques that lower the barriers to entry for companies that may have thought automation solutions were out of reach.

Automation tools and the low-code technologies that support them are fueling an expanded list of use cases and applications. Low-code automation simplifies the complexities of traditional back-end programming through more user-friendly interfaces and apps. This can shorten development cycles and allow organizations to automate more of the core processes that most impact operations and revenue.

Automation can help businesses in the process areas hit hardest by the pandemic.Consider the realm of transportation, a key part of the supply chain equation in a time when supply chain logistics have been hammered by COVID-19.

Developer experience (DX) teams can automate order processing and customs documentation with new electronic data interchange (EDI) capabilities, complete with rules engines for validating load tenders, invoices and shipment-status messages.Trucking providers can also enhance their application programming interface (API) integration to achieve more accurate load-tender processing and eliminate errors between the various transportation management systems (TMSs) of freight customers. With the right automation, these efficiencies can hold up even at the scale of large fleets.

Transportation logistics may be near the epicenter of pandemic impacts, but those impacts ripple far and wide through the spectrum of business operations. Thats why the opportunities and benefits of automation extend across the broader spectrum of business process automation.

For instance, companies hoping to excel in ecommerce and direct-to-consumer (D2C) operations can leverage automation to gain visibility and control across revenue-critical business processes like order-to-cash and procure-to-pay. This can be done by automating end-to-end processes that streamline the integration of internal applications with the external ecosystem of business partners, ecommerce sites, marketplaces and even consumers directly.

Automation allows for more efficient, scalable and agile control over a wide range of integration use cases that deliver more valuable insights and smoother operations. Along with this comes better visibility and more steady and secure innovation as organizations evolve their operations, even in the face of pandemic disruptions and other business headwinds. Thats why, as we forge further ahead into 2022, automation and no-code are cementing their place as vital components for any digital transformation.

Mahesh Rajasekharan is CEO of Cleo.

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COVID-19 makes automation more important than ever for enterprise integration - VentureBeat