Category: Covid-19

The first mention of the word coronavirus in a Cornell Chronicle story in 2020 came on Jan. 29, when the university designated mainland China as an elevated-risk destination, and imposed travel restrictions on students, faculty and staff.

Since then, there have been more than 300 stories or university statements that mention COVID-19 posted on news.cornell.edu. It has been the story of the year.

The most-read Chronicle story of the year was a Weill Cornell Medicine-produced research FAQ from April 20, Why is COVID-19 mild for some, deadly for others? Given the fact that so much remains unknown about this mysterious virus, its no surprise that more than 60,000 readers and counting clicked on this story.

Four of the top five most-read articles on this site this year were related to COVID-19. Other top stories included the announcement of plans to reactivate the campus; maps that showed virus vulnerability by New York county; and the announcement of the launch of the testing dashboard and alert system.

The only non-virus story in the top five? Announcement of the death Sept. 18 of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg 54, which came in at No. 2 with more than 36,000 clicks.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg 54 gives remarks in 2007 during the unveiling of a plaque announcing Cornell Law Schools role in establishing the Center for Documentation on American Law at the Cour de Cassation in Paris.

Research continued on campus, despite challenges brought on by COVID-19 restrictions. On Feb. 27, the university announced plans to launch a School of Public Policy, as well as superdepartments that will draw faculty from multiple colleges or schools in the disciplines of economics, psychology and sociology. And on Dec. 17, Cornell announced plans for the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, established by a transformative nine-figure gift from Ann S. Bowers 59.

True to its founding principle of any person any study, Cornell made anti-racism a top priority in 2020, with President Martha E. Pollack in July outlining several new initiatives promoting racial justice, including the creation and implementation of a for-credit, educational requirement on racism, bias and equity for all Cornell students.

And over the course of the year, Cornell lost several beloved members of its vast community of administrators, professors and alumni including the aforementioned Ginsburg, as well as beloved former university president and renowned paleontologist Frank H.T. Rhodes.

Here are some notable stories from the past 12 months:

COVID-19

The novel coronavirus touched every aspect of life at Cornell, beginning on March 13, when Pollack announced in a statement that classes were suspended and would resume online April 6, following spring break.

The new normal had begun.

Volunteer Leslie Schultz works at one of the sewing tables at Bartels Hall March 25.

As hospitals across the country tried to manage a surge in COVID-19 patients while also facing a global shortage of the protective gear needed to treat them, the Cornell community banded together to donate crucial medical supplies to local health care providers. Departments and units from almost every college answered the call. The College of Veterinary Medicine alone donated 900 N95 respirators to Cayuga Medical Center (CMC); a surgical mask-sewing effort in Bartels Hall produced more than 100,000 cloth masks for the hospital.

Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM), of course, lent its considerable expertise to the fight, including sending the 109 members of its Class of 2020 directly into the fray. WCM gave its fourth-year students the option of graduating early, in April, and more than half opted in.

Cornell exhibited leadership in other ways, too. On April 8, a pair of Cornell Campus-to-Campus buses rolled out of Ithaca carrying more than 60 doctors, nurses and other health care professionals from CMC to assist medical personnel in New York City, then the U.S. epicenter of the pandemic.

In Ithaca, the university launched its public health campaign on Aug. 6. Through social media feeds, inboxes, signs blanketing campus and nudges from fellow Cornellians, the campaign reinforced the need for students, faculty and staff to adhere to the three Ws: Wear your mask, watch your distance and wash your hands. ABCs Good Morning America featured Cornells public health success on Sept. 22.

One of two Campus-to-Campus buses bound for NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan heads out of Ithaca April 8. They were sent off by well-wishers lining the roads out of town. Cayuga Medical Center/Provided

While maintaining safe health practices, Cornell continued its core missions: education and research. Adapting to the reality of life during a pandemic, faculty, staff and students responded with imagination and ingenuity. On April 6 the first day of virtual instruction after a three-week pause Cornell instructors led 6,600 Zoom meetings with a total of 89,000 participants. This is an amazing number of instructors and students engaged in online learning, many of them completely new to this mode of teaching and learning, saidJulia Thom-Levy, vice provost for academic innovation.

Lab instructors had to be creative in rethinking how they taught hands-on, collaborative and experiential courses. For the class Mushrooms, Molds and More, students discovered fungi in their surroundings and shared photos of them via Instagram, andused online resources to identify mushrooms.

On May 14, after six weeks of remote learning, the Cornell Chronicle told six stories of innovation and intellectual growth from the thousands of classes lectures and seminars, laboratory and performance courses, capstone projects and veterinary clinics that had transitioned entirely online.

At the start of the summer, Pollack announced plans to reactivate the Ithaca campus for the fall semester, which included a rigorous testing program for more than 25,000 students, faculty and staff. In addressing the Employee Assembly a couple of weeks later, she laid it out in plain language: Follow established public health guidelines. We are working to build this culture of challenging one another and holding one another to a high standard of mutual responsibility, Pollack said.

The Cornell COVID-19 Testing Laboratory (CCTL), based in the College of Veterinary Medicine, played a huge role in making Cornell an example of how to reactivate a college campus. The pooled-testing approach yields results within 24 hours for 5,000 to 7,000 Cornell students, staff and faculty per day.

The Cornell COVID-19 Testing Laboratory, housed in the College of Veterinary Medicine, is a cornerstone of the universitys plan to reactivate campus as safely and scientifically as possible.

Thanks to its massive testing effort, the university along with Cayuga Health System was able to donate $160,000 worth of testing capacity to the Ithaca City School District, helping the district reopen for in-person learning Oct. 5.

As a successful fall semester went on, committed leaders, expert faculty, trained staff and student hires worked tirelessly behind the scenes to create a winning strategy for keeping the community safe. Through aggressive testing and contact tracing, the number of positive test results was below even the most hopeful early estimates. Statistics can be seen on the campus COVID-19 tracking dashboard.

Research highlights

Discovery is at the heart of Cornells mission of knowledge with a public purpose. This year, research into the novel coronavirus was a priority on the Ithaca campus and at Weill Cornell Medicine, but robotics, artificial intelligence and space exploration were among the many other areas of study.

An interdisciplinary Cornell research team reported in January that as little as 10 minutes in a natural setting can help college students feel happier and lessen the effects of both physical and mental stress. It doesnt take much time for the positive benefits to kick in were talking 10 minutes outside in a space with nature,said lead author Gen Meredith, associate director of the Master of Public Health Program and lecturer at the College of Veterinary Medicine.The story attracted more than 34,000 views, making it one of the most-read Chronicle stories of the year.

Just when you thought robots couldnt get any cooler, Cornell researchers led byRob Shepherd, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering created a soft robot muscle that actually sweats to regulate its temperature. This form of thermal management is a basic building block for enabling untethered, high-powered robots to operate for long periods of time without overheating.

A Cornell team led by Rob Shepherd, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, made a 3D-printed hand with hydraulically controlled fingers that can cool itself by sweating.

Of course, Cornell researchers invested plenty of time investigating SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. A Cornell study of the viruss structure, led by Gary Whittaker, professor of virology in the College of Veterinary Medicine, revealed a unique feature a structural loop in the spike protein, the area of the virus that facilitates entry into a cell that could help explain why it is so transmissible between people.

Artificial intelligence touches innumerable aspects of life, and Cornell research helped inform a new AI system that allows shoppers on Facebook to identify characteristics of items in uploaded photographs. Announced May 19 by CEO Mark Zuckerberg via Facebook Live, the product-recognition system can identify attributes across billions of photographs in dozens of categories. The click photo and search technology was first developed in 2015 byKavita Bala, professor and dean of computing and information science, and then-doctoral student Sean Bell, M.S. 15, Ph.D. 16, whos now a research scientist at Facebook.

While Ithaca is home, the work of some Cornellians is out of this world: Alex Hayes 03, M.Eng. 03, associate professor of astronomy in the College of Arts andSciences, is a co-investigator on Mastcam-Z, the NASA Perseverance rovers zoomable mast-mounted camera system, launched July 30. Cornell researchers were among the hundreds of scientists and engineers who prepared instruments for the Perseverance rover (about the size of a small car) and its accompanying helicopter Ingenuity, which took off aboard the Atlas V-541 rocket. The rover is expected to land on Mars in mid-February 2021.

NASAs Mars 2020 mission will collect rock and soil samples for future joint NASA/European Space Agency missions to ferry back to Earth. Cornell scientists will be actively involved including Alex Hayes, associate professor of astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences.

In March the Cornell Lab of Ornithologys eBird program, the largest biodiversity citizen science project in the world, released500 animated mapsspanning the entire Western Hemisphere. The maps show in fine detail where hundreds of species of migratory birds travel, and how their numbers vary with habitat, geography and time of year. We not only have an idea of where to find a bird, but where that bird is most abundant as well, said Steve Kelling, co-director of Center for Avian Population Studies at the Cornell Lab. The detail and information in the animations is breathtaking.

Notable deaths

The Chronicles In Memory page lists two dozen notable current and former professors, and prominent alumni, who left us is 2020. Among them:

Ruth Bader Ginsburg 54, called by The New York Times the Supreme Courts feminist icon, died Sept. 18 in Washington, D.C., of metastatic pancreatic cancer. She was 87. The second woman appointed to the Supreme Court, Ginsburg a government major in the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell was a pioneering advocate for womens rights, helping to bring about a revolution in the legal status of women during her career as a litigator and strategist.

She earned a rock-star following with younger generations late in her life and became known as Notorious R.B.G.

Noted for her precisely worded decisions and dissenting opinions, Ginsburg acknowledged the influence of Vladimir Nabokov, Cornell professor of European literature, on her own writing. He was a man in love with the sound of words, she once said, as he taught her the importance of choosing the correct words and the most effective word order.

Frank H.T. Rhodes, Cornells ninth president, a higher education leader and an esteemed paleontologist, died Feb. 3 in Bonita Springs, Florida. He was 93.

Frank H.T. Rhodes, center, died Feb. 3 in Bonita Springs, Florida. He was 93.

During Rhodes tenure as president from 1977-95 only Jacob Gould Schurman (1892-1920) and founding president Andrew Dickson White (1865-85) served longer Cornell saw significant growth in research and academic programs that continue to shape the university. Cornell more than tripled research funding, to more than $300 million; established major initiatives in areas from astronomy to Asian studies; completed a $1.5 billion capital campaign; increased diversity among students and faculty; and strengthened the universitys international presence.

When Rhodes retired, he had become a formidable national advocate for education and research, influencing the development of national science policy during the administrations of four U.S. presidents.

Other notable deaths:

See the original post:

2020 in review: COVID-19 was the story | Cornell Chronicle - Cornell Chronicle

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are warning the public about several emerging fraud schemes related to COVID-19 vaccines.

The FBI, HHS-OIG, and CMS have received complaints of scammers using the publics interest in COVID-19 vaccines to obtain personally identifiable information (PII) and money through various schemes. We continue to work diligently with law enforcement partners and the private sector to identify cyber threats and fraud in all forms.

The public should be aware of the following potential indicators of fraudulent activity:

Tips to avoid COVID-19 vaccine-related fraud:

General online/cyber fraud prevention techniques:

If you believe you have been the victim of a COVID-19 fraud, immediately report it to the FBI (ic3.gov, tips.fbi.gov, or 1-800-CALL-FBI) or HHS OIG (tips.hhs.gov or 1-800-HHS-TIPS).

View related flyer (pdf)

Continued here:

Federal Agencies Warn of Emerging Fraud Schemes Related to COVID-19 Vaccines - Federal Bureau of Investigation

Hidalgo County announced six additional COVID-19 related deaths and 411 new cases of the virus Monday.

The deaths include two men and a woman over the age of 70 from Edinburg, a man in his 60s from McAllen, a woman in her 60s from Mission, and a man over the age of 70 from Pharr. The countys death toll now stands at 2,160.

Mondays numbers were announced on the same day that the county launched its new billboard campaign honoring those who have died due to the virus.

Before Thanksgiving, Hidalgo County residents were asked to submit photos of departed loved ones for the campaign. They will be depicted on billboards throughout the county and in a slideshow on the countys website and various social media outlets.

This is one of the most powerful images that Ive seen resulting from the pandemic, Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez said in a news release. This is a reminder to hold those we love even closer, especially as the holidays approach.

The billboards will be located at U.S. Expressway 83 East of Bridge Street in Weslaco; U.S. Expressway 281 North of Business 281 in Edinburg; and Expressway 83 West of 29th Street in McAllen.

Cortez, who tested positive for the virus recently, continued to urge social distancing amid the Christmas holiday.

Our continued message is not to gather in large groups, wear a face covering and social distance, Cortez said. But have a blessed Christmas in honor of those lives depicted in this billboard.

In accordance with the Texas Department of State Health Services 2020 Epi Case Criteria Guide, the countys new cases were sorted into three categories: confirmed, probable and suspect.

Of the countys 411 new cases, 250 were confirmed, 134 were probable and 27 were suspect. The new cases raise the countys total to 48,715, of which 34,380 are confirmed, 13,596 are probable and 739 are suspect.

There are currently 240 people in county hospitals with COVID-19 related complications, of which 81 are in intensive care units.

The county announced that 319 people were released from isolation over the weekend, raising that total to 43,748.

There are 2,807 net active cases in Hidalgo County.

The county has administered 287,906 COVID-19 tests, and 238,376 have had negative results.

Cameron County confirmed five additional COVID-19 related deaths and 361 new cases of the virus.

All five deaths were residents of Brownsville. They include women in their 20s, 40s, 70s and 80s, and a man over 90.

The deaths raise the countys death toll to 1,164.

Of the 361 new cases, 156 were from Brownsville, 90 were from Harlingen, and 55 were from San Benito. The total number of confirmed cases in Cameron County climbed to 28,613.

Additionally, 138 people have recovered from the virus, raising that total to 24,807.

Willacy County confirmed 16 additional cases of COVID-19 Monday, raising the total number of cases there to 1,514.

Go here to see the original:

Lives lost to COVID-19 to be displayed on billboards - Monitor

Governor Tom Wolf and Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine today released a weekly status update detailing the states mitigation efforts based on the COVID-19 Early Warning Monitoring System Dashboard, highlighting a seven-day case increase of 57,098 cases, a statewide percent positivity of 15.8% and all 67 counties with substantial transmission status.

The update includes the following:

The dashboard is designed to provide early warning signs of factors that affect the states mitigation efforts. The data available on the early warning monitoring dashboard includes week-over-week case differences, incidence rates, test percent-positivity, and rates of hospitalizations, ventilations and emergency room visits tied to COVID-19. This weeks update compares the period of December 11 December 17 to the previous seven days, December 4 December 10.

A decrease in percent positivity this week shows that we must continue to stay the course as we prevent the spread of this virus, Gov. Wolf said. As we approach a number of holidays, we need to put Pennsylvania on pause and continue to follow the time-limited mitigation efforts announced last week. We need all Pennsylvanians to follow these measures as part of their collective responsibility to protect one another and the health system.

As of Thursday, December 17, the state has seen a seven-day case increase of 57,098 cases; the previous seven-day increase was 61,469 cases, indicating 4,371 fewer new cases across the state over the past week compared to the previous week.

The statewide percent-positivity went down to 15.82% from 16.2% last week. Every county in the state except for Sullivan County has a concerning percent positivity above five percent. This includes 20 counties with percent positivity at or above 20 percent.

While our case data shows some improvement, the continued strain COVID-19 is placing on the rate of hospitalizations and ventilator use serve as a reminder to us all of our role in protecting our health care system, Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said. We know that hospitalizations and deaths often lag after our case increases. Our hospitals are taxed and many locations have very few ICU beds available. We know COVID-19 does not discriminate and is affecting every county in the commonwealth. This virus knows no bounds and it is affecting all Pennsylvanians, no matter your race, ethnicity, age, socioeconomic status or whether you live a rural, suburban or urban area.

As of Fridays data, all 67 counties were in the substantial level of community transmission, the highest level of transmission. The departments of Education and Health will speak with school district representatives in these counties to discuss the implications of this level of transmission.

For the week ending December 17, 67 counties were in the substantial level of transmission.

The Department of Health is providing weekly data on the number of statewide cases of COVID-19 among 5 to 18-year-olds.

Throughout the pandemic, there have been 44,290 total cases of COVID-19 among 5 to 18-year-olds. Of that total, 5,750 occurred between December 11 December 17. For the week of November December 4 December 10, there were 6,192 cases of COVID-19 among 5 to 18-year-olds.

Cases by demographic group is available on the DOH website.

The Department of Health is providing weekly data on the number of individuals who responded to case investigators that they spent time at business establishments (restaurants, bars, gym/fitness centers, salon/barbershops) and at mass gatherings 14 days prior to the onset of COVID-19 symptoms.

It is important to note that due to the recent number of cases, the department is prioritizing case investigations to prevent outbreak. In addition to the need for people to answer the call, the significant number of cases helps contribute to the low percentages in case investigation data. All of this reinforces the need for Pennsylvanians to take steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Of the 71,341 confirmed cases reported between December 6 and December 12, 4.1 percent (2,936) provided an answer to the question as to whether they spent time at a business establishment.

Of those who did provide an answer, 0.4 percent, or 261, answered yes, they visited a business establishment 14 days prior to onset of symptoms:

Of the 71,341 confirmed cases, 4.2 percent (2,981) answered the question as to whether they attended a mass gathering or other large event. Of the 4.2 percent, 8 percent (246) answered yes to whether they attended a mass gathering or other large event 14 days prior to onset of symptoms.

Compared to data reported on December 7, this weeks data saw an increase for people who reported going to a some other business (38 percent vs. 25 percent last week), going to a bar (14 percent vs. 8 percent last week) and going to a salon/barbershop (8 percent vs. 5 percent last week). The data saw a decrease for people who reported going to a restaurant (37 percent vs. 50 percent last week) and going to a gym (10 percent vs. 16 percent last week). The number of those who attended a mass gathering or other large event decreased to 8 percent from 10 percent last week.

The numbers above highlight business settings and mass gatherings as possible sites for transmission. With less than half of those asked about what types of businesses they visited or if they attended a mass gathering responding to the question, the department is reminding Pennsylvanians that it is essential that people answer the phone when case investigators call and to provide full and complete information to these clinical professionals.

In November, the Department of Health provided an updated travel order requiring anyone over the age of 11 who visits from another state to provide evidence of a negative COVID-19 test or place themselves in a travel quarantine for 14 days upon entering Pennsylvania. Travel quarantine guidance was changed to 10 days on Dec. 5 based on new CDC guidance.

This order does not apply to people who commute to and from another state for work or medical treatment, those who left the state for less than 24 hours, and those complying with a court order, including child custody.

It is important that people understand that this Order is in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania. A concerning number of recent cases have been linked to travel, and if people are going to travel, we need them to take steps to protect themselves, their loved ones and their community, and that involves having either a negative test, or placing themselves in a quarantine.

Gov. Wolf continues to prioritize the health and safety of all Pennsylvanians through the COVID-19 pandemic. Pennsylvanians should continue to take actions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, regardless of in what county they live. This includes wearing a mask or face covering anytime they are in public. COVID-19 has been shown to spread easily in the air and contagious carriers can be asymptomatic. Pennsylvanians are encouraged to wash their hands, social distance, avoid gatherings and download COVID Alert PA.

Read more here:

Pennsylvania COVID-19 Early Warning Monitoring Dashboard Update for Dec. 11 Dec. 17: Case Increases Close to 57,100; Percent Positivity at 15.8% and...

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) With the Christmas holiday just days away, local health officials said more people are getting tested for COVID-19.

The problem is were filled up, ETSU Health Chief Medical Officer Sheri Holmes said.

Holmes said people who are getting tested before visiting family this holiday season should know that a negative result wont necessarily prevent the person from spreading the virus to his or her family.

Lets say someone tests today, which is Monday, and they go to a holiday event on Friday, Holmes said. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, they could have converted.

Holmes said if youre interested in getting an appointment, you should watch the ETSU Health site to see if a cancellation pops up.

As of Monday evening, Holmes said the drive-through testing is booked until December 28 at 1:10 p.m. and the total capacity for testing is 200 tests per day.

Sometimes it can look like its really full and then you can have 10 people cancel the morning of and spots open up, Holmes said.

Those who are tested at ETSU Health should expect to have their results within 24 hours.

Read the original:

The problem is were filled up: COVID-19 testing demand spikes as Christmas nears - WJHL-TV News Channel 11

Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine will expand a statewide program to prevent driving under the influence of alcohol, cannabis and prescription drugs. With funding from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the UC San Diego Training, Research and Education for Driving Safety Program (TREDS) provides education and resources to teach the public about the dangers of driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs in an effort to keep our roadways safe.

In addition to alcohol, driving under the influence of cannabis and certain prescription or over-the-counter medications has rapidly become a serious traffic safety issue in the United States, especially during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Linda Hill, MD, MPH, program director of TREDS and professor of family medicine at University of California San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity.Photo Credit: UC San Diego Health Sciences

An NHTSA study conducted at five hospital trauma centers between March and July of 2020 found that nearly two-thirds of seriously or fatally injured road users tested positive for at least one active drug, including alcohol, cannabis or opioids. The number of drivers that tested positive for opioids or cannabis dramatically increased after mid-March compared to the previous six months.

Stress, anxiety and depression are serious mental health concerns during the pandemic, and some are turning to alcohol, drugs and opioids to manage their emotions and then getting behind the wheel, said Linda Hill, MD, MPH, program director of TREDS and professor of family medicine at University of California San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity. Collisions due to driving under the influence are 100 percent preventable. Our behavior profoundly influences our crash risk. We can reduce this risk by providing intervention strategies.

TREDS develops traffic safety education programs and conducts train-the-trainer workshops to prepare law enforcement and health professionals to teach classes to the public. The focus of this years program includes the following:Delivering virtual workshops on a monthly basis with the goal of training professionals in every county in California. This is a major expansion from previous years, said Hill. The workshops will feature curricula that address the topics of distracted driving, pedestrian safety, older road user safety and driving under the influence of alcohol, cannabis and medications.Linking organizations, groups and educational institutions with professionals in their communities who have received training to deliver these prevention programs.

Experts like Hill remind the public that the potency of todays cannabis has increased dramatically in recent years and affects each person differently. The peak effect for smoking THC is approximately 10 minutes after inhaling and can last four to eight hours. For edibles, the peak effect may occur up to two hours after ingesting and may last 10 hours or longer.

Impairing effects are based on the strength of THC, personal tolerance and mode of use, said Hill. It is critical that we continue to collaborate with those on the frontlines of road safety and the health professionals who see the tragic results of impaired driving in our emergency room settings, so we can have a unified message to our community to drive safely and sober, alcohol and drug free.

For more information, to request a training or locate a class instructor, contact TREDS at 858-534-8386 or treds@ucsd.edu.

Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

See original here:

Program Expansion to Address Increase of Impaired Driving During Global COVID-19 Pandemic - UC San Diego Health

The Maine CDC says at least 4,000 BinaxNOW rapid test kits are now in the hands of school nurses across the state to test symptomatic students and staff.

PORTLAND, Maine As cases of COVID-19 continue to climb in Maine, some 4,000 rapid test kits have been distributed to schools statewide.

The Abbot BinaxNOW antigen test kits are now in the hands of school nurses in at least 50 Maine schools, according to the Maine CDC and Dept. of Education.

Here is a list of schools and districts that have applied and been approved:

"It's so incredibly comforting for the staff at the school," Jill Webber, a nurse at the William H. Rowe School in Yarmouth told NEWSCENTER Maine.

Rowe and other nurses across the Yarmouth School Dept. have already tested students and staff showing symptoms of the virus over the last couple of weeks.

Compared to the traditional PCR test that often takes days to get results back, the Abbott kit uses a swab, card, and reagent to produce results in minutes.

"We have a kid come down that has symptoms that are consistent with COVIDto be able to quickly do a test and know if that kid's positive or not," Webber said.

"This could be a game-changer for us," Yarmouth Superintendent Andrew Dolloff said.

He said greater access to testing for schools is critical, especially as many in the state are struggling with staffing shortages.

Dolloff said the wait for testing and results has lengthened quarantine periods in some cases, making those ongoing staffing issues even worse.

So far he has only had to cancel classes twice at the town's high school due to staffing.

"It's really worth the effort. We appreciate what the state has done to make this available to us," Dolloff said.

The Maine CDC plans to continue to distribute the kits to organizations statewide that apply.

"We have of course in Maine expanded the use of these tests beyond schools to say hospital settings and other congregate care settings for the same reason, so that administrators can get a quick sense of what's happening," CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah said at Monday's press briefing.

For school nurses like Webber, this is only the start. She hopes resources are eventually available for routine surveillance testing of both staff and students.

"I think more testing, more readily available results, would be a game-changer for all school nurses in the state," she said.

Testing requires parental consent. While some schools have already started using the kits, others will start after the holidays.

Read the original post:

Thousands of COVID-19 test kits distributed to 50+ Maine schools - NewsCenterMaine.com WCSH-WLBZ

As COVID-19 cases rise daily in California with experts warning of a surge that will continue into the new year, CDA wants to ensure member dentists are aware of all the resources that CDAs Clinical Care Workgroup and Practice Support team have developed specifically to help them practice in the current environment while complying with Cal/OSHA and other regulations.

Recent calls to CDA Practice Support reveal that dentists are unclear about quarantine requirements. Members also have inquired about when they would need to close the practice due to COVID-19 exposures or outbreaks and those conversations indicate that some offices are closing prematurely.

In some phone calls, dentists are just learning about a new Cal/OSHA regulation that prohibits them from requiring their employees to provide a negative COVID-19 test prior to returning to work. Or that, beginning Jan. 1, 2021, they must provide to their employees a written notice of potential exposure to COVID-19 as required by state law.

Practice Support analysts are available to CDA members for one-one-one support, but resources are always available on-demand, 24/7, to assist dentists and their teams, including a new FAQ that answers the top five COVID-19-related questions members have now. Heres a quick summary of those resource and where to go to find them.

Members current top five COVID-19-related questions answered

Dentists can read CDAs top 5 FAQ on COVID-19 exposure for answers to all of the following:

For example, an office closure will occur only when one of three conditions is met: (1) The office cannot operate due to staff or provider shortages resulting from illness or quarantine, (2) the local health department orders the closure due to a workplace outbreak defined as fewer than three sick employees within 14 days and (3) Cal/OSHA finds dangerous conditions exist at the workplace.

In addition to the FAQ, a new flowchart shows dentist employers how to pay employees who have contracted or may have been exposed to COVID-19 in the dental office.

COVID-19 reporting requirements, training

The Reporting Symptoms/Positive COVID-19 Test Results was published in June and includes an online training module for dental team members, a reporting flowchart and related required forms and notices.

Specifically, participants will learn when to:

Identification of close contacts is a very important piece of the training, particularly when determining whether there is a need to close the practice, said CDA Regulatory Compliance Analyst Teresa Pichay.

Be sure to collect and record certain information from the reporting party, and then to do an assessment of whether there were close contacts. If there are no close contacts, it may not be necessary to close the practice, she said.

Most participants working at an average pace can complete the training module in 10 to 15 minutes.

Find all COVID-19 resources for dentists in the Back to Practice Resources Center.

Continued here:

When to quarantine, safely treat patients and close the office: CDA answers dentists' top 5 questions about COVID-19 exposure - CDA (California Dental...

They were educators, music teachers and community activists who served tirelessly for those living in poverty.

In less than two weeks, eight Roman Catholic sisters died of illnesses related to Covid-19 at a Wisconsin retirement home this month, a gut-wrenching loss that highlighted the risks of infection in communal residences, even as administrators said they took precautions against infection.

The deaths took place at Notre Dame of Elm Grove, about eight miles west of Milwaukee, in Waukesha County. Like most of the United States, Wisconsin is struggling to contain the spread of the coronavirus, and it has recorded at least 482,443 cases and 4,566 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, according to a New York Times database. There have been 34,176 cases in Waukesha, it shows.

The home was converted into a residence for elderly and sick sisters on a site historically used as an orphanage for children in the area in 1859. The first of the eight women died on Dec. 9, and the others in the days that followed, through Tuesday, Trudy Hamilton, a spokeswoman for the School Sisters of Notre Dame Central Pacific Province, which established the home, said on Friday.

Sisters Rose M. Feess, 91, and Mary Elva Wiesner, 94, a religious educator and liturgist, died on Dec. 9, according to the homes site. Sister Dorothy MacIntyre, 88, died two days later, and Sister Mary Alexius Portz, 96, died two days after that, on Sunday. Sisters Joan Emily Kaul, 95, Lillia Langreck, 92, and Michael Marie Laux, 90, died on Monday. Sister Cynthia Borman, 90, died on Tuesday.

It was quite a shock in a short amount of time, Ms. Hamilton said. Their full biographies were not immediately available, she said, as administrators were trying to deal with the grim loss of so many dying in such a short period of time. We are playing catch up, Ms. Hamilton said.

Experts say that aging populations are particularly vulnerable to the virus, which thrives in transmission anywhere people are in close contact. The sisters lived communally, just as residents living in nursing homes, which have especially been hard hit by the pandemic.

The deaths at the residence reflected losses at similar facilities. At the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in Livonia, Mich., 12 Felician sisters died in April and May, followed by a 13th sister in June, of Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

In Wisconsin, at least five sisters at Our Lady of the Angels Convent, in a suburb of Milwaukee, died, starting in April. All five nuns were discovered to have the virus only after their deaths.

Dec. 19, 2020, 12:28 a.m. ET

In Waukesha County, the Medical Examiners Office does not require mandatory reporting of Covid-19 deaths, said Linda Wickstrom, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services. It is the prerogative of a business or congregate setting to either confirm or deny an outbreak or health status of individuals, she said in an email.

Sister Debra Marie Sciano, the provincial leader for School Sisters of Notre Dame Central Pacific Province, said in an interview that the eight sisters at the Elm Grove campus had retired there after decades of service, in fields that included teaching, music education, crafts and poetry.

(A ninth sister, Sister Marcene Schlosser, 82, died at a separate S.S.N.D. campus in Mankato, Minn., on Dec. 14.)

Sister Debra said that the Elm Grove residence had followed federal guidelines to try to keep the sisters safe, with masks and social distancing protocols such as spacing a few at a time at dining tables, and curtailing the number of visitors.

Then on Thanksgiving Day, she was informed that one of the sisters had tested positive for the coronavirus. She was separated from the rest, and when others started to become sick, the group was cared for in one wing. Right after that, we began testing twice a week, Sister Debra said.

The 88 others who still live at the facility are required to stay in their rooms, where they eat and watch Mass on closed circuit televisions.

It has been rough, it has been very rough, she said. It is kind of like a gut-punch moment. The first was hard enough, and when it kept happening, there was a sense of deep loss.

Detailed biographies for some of the women, including quotes from them that were recorded on occasions celebrating 25 years of service, reflected lifetimes of work in education and in taking care of others.

Sister Mary Portz was a music teacher who said her greatest joy was teaching children piano lessons.

Sister Rose Feess loved teaching and working on the Indian Reservation in South Dakota with the Sioux Indians. Likewise, I have always been happy to work with the poor and underprivileged like the people of the streets who knock on my door, or Louie, the homeless man, who became our charge until God called him, she said, according to her profile on the site.

Sister Debra said Sister Dorothy was a teacher, as well as a dental assistant, and loved to do arts and crafts. Sister Michael taught in Guam, Alaska and Kenya. Sister Lillia was a poet, a special needs teacher and a strong advocate for peace and justice, Sister Debra said.

It really hurts, she said. But even as hard as it is for us, we try to celebrate their lives as well.

Excerpt from:

8 Catholic Sisters Die of Covid-19 Within a Week at a Wisconsin Home - The New York Times

Urban experts agree that cities like New York City, San Francisco and Chicago all need to adjust to this new post-pandemic world in order to survive. Wochit

SAN FRANCISCO Rory Cox shudders each time he steps outside the doors of his YuBalance fitness studio.

Its a damn ghost town, said Cox, 37, whose three studios have seen an 80% decline in business since the novel coronavirus hit inMarch. My number one marketing tool is people walking by. If theyre not out there, you lose.

Cox, like many of those he represents as founder of the San Francisco Small Business Alliance, loves this iconic and iconoclastic city, a place where tech start-ups havebrought both great riches and staggering inequality.

But if San Francisco, which this week joined much of Californiain a mandatory three-week lockdown, isnt able to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic, he, along with his wife, Shala, and their 5-year-old son, may pack up and head to a small Virginia town where his mother lives andstart over.

Rory Cox, in black outfit, helps a lone client workout at YuBalance, one of three fitness studios Cox operates in San Francisco. The pandemic has seen business slide 80%. Cox is concerned that the recent exodus of big tech companies from town may permanently hinder the city's rebound from the pandemic.(Photo: Courtesy of Rory Cox)

If this city doesnt work hard to rebuild after the winter, youll have more boarded-up shops, more homeless people in doorways, more break-ins, he said. Detroit was the richest city in America in the 1950s. We could be candidates for that kind of fall.

With the COVID-19 vaccine beginning to roll out, how the biggest cities in the United States economic engines and cultural cauldrons such as New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Miami return from the deadliest global health crisis in a century mayin someways foreshadow how the United Statesbounces back.

An altered future seems inevitable. Just over half of those polled in September by the Pew Research Center said they expecttheir lives will remain changed in major ways after the pandemic. For some, that has meant moving; a June Pew survey revealed one in five said the outbreak made them or someone they know change residence.

But despite the budget shortfalls plaguing nearly every major city due to the pandemic, urban planners, economists and architects share a resoundingly positive consensus.They say that buoyed by a younger demographic drawn to jobs, social opportunities and public services, cities will survive this crisis much as they didthe Spanish Flu of 1918 and the terrorist attacks on 9/11, an echo ofEuropean capitals' resilience after the bubonic plague of the 1300s and cholera outbreakof the early 1800s.

Some even posit that a year from now the United Statesmight be in the midst of a new Roaring 20s, a reference to giddy good times that followedthe Spanish Flu.

Economists at the University of California, Los Angeles, released a study last week predicting a gloomy winter would be supplanted by a leap in gross domestic product from a weak 1.2% in the current quarter to 6% by next spring, with more growth in sight.

Part of that growth will depend on how quickly and effectively cities pivotin the wake of a landscape-altering pandemic. A lot of that will depend on how fast municipal financial coffers, depleted by lost real estate and sales tax revenue, fill back up or whether federal aidcomes to the rescue.

Consider these possible best-case-scenario changes most driven by employees continuing to work at least part-time from home that experts say could come to our urban centers as COVID-19 hits the nations rearview mirror:

The need for commercial real estate shrinks, with some office spaces converted into living quarters. A boom in available housing drives down ownership and rental costs, revitalizing downtowns.

Ridership grows for improved public transportation systems, as flexible work schedules mean a move away from traditional commuting hours and increased demand for all-day access.

Parks mushroom across cities as residents crave more open spaces as a reaction to both pandemic-era social distancing habits and more time spent outdoors over the past year.

Restaurants roar back as the need to socialize returns, leaning heavily on new habits that include using sidewalks and parking spots as outdoor eating options.

New York commuters, shown here in a 2017 photo, have long relied on the city's web of subway lines to move around of the world's greatest cities. Many urban planners expect New York to be able to return to its former bustling glory after the nation reaches a herd immunity to the COVID-19 virus, and in fact some predict city life could be more appealing than ever if buildings and open spaces are redesigned with a mission to provide residents even more room than before the pandemic struck.(Photo: Mark Lennihan, AP)

A bit less clear, experts add, is the prospect for social activities that formerly implied shoulder to shoulder contact with other patrons. Bars, concert halls and even museums likely will have to take a wait and see approach to operating their businesses.

But if managed correctly, the fundamental and enduring lure of city life could be at the heart of the nation's recovery, saidJanette Sadik-Khan, former commissioner of New Yorks Department of Transportation and principal with Bloomberg Associates, a philanthropic consulting group funded by former New York mayor and one-time presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg.

There are so many opportunities following the pandemic not just to restore what wasnt working before, but to move in a new direction, she said, adding thatthe energy, excitement and sense of place offered by major cities means there will be a natural desire to return to them.

Our streets can be used for so much more than moving and parking cars, such as front yards for residents or dining areas for restaurants, she said.

As cities morph in response to changing work habits and the memory of the pandemic, architecture will be pivotal toredesigning existing spaces so that they reflect new concerns surfaced by the pandemic, experts predict.

The most obvious change will involve improving both air flow and natural light in buildings, said Michael Murphy, CEO of Boston-based architecture firm, MASS Design Group. He added that restaurants and museums will need to be particularly watchfulgiven their tendency to attract the masses.

Architects and designers will need to play a large role in rebuilding systems of trust through the design of safe and healthy spaces that remind us of our shared humanity, he said.

Chicago's lakefront area is home to one of many bike lanes around the Windy City. Urban planners say that a post-pandemic city life should include a shift away from cars and toward more bikes lanes, parks and other open spaces, in part as a response to newfound social distancing tendencies.(Photo: LeoPatrizi/Getty Images)

If politicians at the highest level don't turn their attention and funding efforts toward big cities where the poor and people of color were physically and fiscally impacted disproportionately by the pandemic life in our leading metropolises is only likely to get worse, said Richard Florida, a professor at the University of Torontos School of Cities and author of The New Urban Crisis.

This is now in the hands of states and the Biden-Harris administration, Florida said of President-elect Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris. Were going to need a pretty massive federal effort in the form of a bailout and fast. Its not just an opportunity, its an obligation. If we miss it, there will be hell to pay.

Cities may well be on their own. Congress continues to debate the next coronavirus relief package as stimulus funds are set to expire. But only $160 billion of the roughly $1 trillion new package would be earmarked for state, local and tribal governments, far short of the $500 billion requested by the National Governors Association.

Biden recently laid out a $1.3 trillion infrastructure spending plan, to be helmed by Pete Buttigieg, that would include helping to get public transportation rolling againaround the country. The spending proposal could face a tough battlein the Senate if Republican Mitch McConnell keeps majority control of the chamber.

Former mayor and presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, shown here last March with now President-elect Joe Biden, has been put forth by the president-elect as the nation's next transportation secretary. Biden hopes to allocate more than $1 trillion to the nation's infrastructure, which would include public transportation considered a key component in the revitalization of cities post-COVID-19.(Photo: Juan Figueroa, AP)

Some metro areas will have to rely even more heavily on natural selling points to build back stronger after the pandemic, said urbanist Florida.

New Yorks global appeal will bring back residents as soon as the worst of the pandemic is over, with perhaps younger families replacing retirees.In Florida, Miamis weather and no-tax-state status will prove a boon in the coming years, as will Los Angeles sunny climate, cultural offerings and nearby natural escapes.

Florida points to how some cities have been adding bike lines and closing streets to car traffic as evidence that the pandemic will only accelerate urban trends that already are underway. Hes bullish on the growth of so-called 15-Minute Neighborhoods, a concept wherein residents of a revitalized city will be able to shop, work and socialize within a few minutes walk of where they live.

Much more serious and deadly pandemics have not really even dented the arc of urbanization, said Florida. I think were in the infancy of this.

Urban experts all agree on one thing: all of these changes will be influenced directly by the degree to whether working from home becomes ingrained as a new normal.

While some businesses, notably technology companies, have signaled a permanent retreat from an office setting, most experts predict a hybrid model.

The answer to just how many days we return to an office will drive a lot of change, said Christopher Mayer, professor of real estate at the Columbia University Business School in New York.

WeWork, a co-working space concept that took off like a rocket before running into financial problems last year, could be among the newly hot solutions for city-based employers, who are facing a wholesale change to their commercial real estate needs after the pandemic energized the working from home concept.(Photo: Spencer Platt, Getty Images)

Overall, a diminished demand for office space one of the most prominent by-products of COVID-19 as well as the sense that new offices will require more room for each employee will bring a series of changes to the workplace environment.

These will include a boom in so-called hot-desking, where employees coming to an office space on different days use the same work stations, said Carlo Ratti, professor of Urban Technologies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and director of the SENSEable City Lab.

Zoom, that pandemic work darling, isnt going away. But city businesses may start providing areas to conduct virtual meetings as a way of generating added revenue,Ratti said.

The way Starbucks became a place for email, these could be new places to patronize while Zooming, said Ratti.

The fact that the nation, admittedly some states more than others, has had to endure a collective quarantine for nearly a year means that as the vaccine takes hold there will be almost a frenetic desire to gather in public.

But those public spaces now will need to meet a new, higher standard, one that is safer and inspiring,said Rogier Van Den Berg, director of urban development at the World Resources Institute Ross Center for Sustainable Cities in Washington, D.C.

Tech giant Oracle, a longtime fixture in the Bay Area and most recently sponsor of the San Francisco Giants' stadium downtown, recently announced it would be moving its operations to Texas. Local business owners fear that such departures will make it harder for the city to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic.(Photo: Kyle Terada, USA TODAY Sports)

People will want urban spaces to be more appealing, more green, more walkable, more biking, he said, adding that the default attitude will be to give our city leadersthe benefit of the doubt.After disasters of any kind, people do tend to forget very fast what theyve been through. They recover and move forward.

First, they have to stop losing residents, not to mention employers.

A SeptemberLinkedIn survey based on user profile zip code changes shows Hartford, Connecticut, leading the pack in citizen losses, largely due to jobs evaporating, while Austin, Texas, tops the list of cities gaining the most residents during COVID-19.San Francisco is third in resident departures, just behind New York.

While many experts predict a Big Apple return once a vaccine lets life resume, they are less bullish on the prospects of San Francisco, whose boom and bust cycles date back to the 1850s Gold Rush. The main reason: fleeing technology companies, which for the better part of 20 years have fueled the region's soaring standard and cost of living.

In the past week alone, Tesla and Oracle both announced they would be leaving the Bay Area for Texas, eager to avoid paying Bay Area wages and pricey office rents.

"I'm worried about San Francisco," said urban expert Florida. "Cities like Austin have been eating its lunch."

Terzo in San Francisco has kept its door open thanks to seating people in former parking spaces. Owner Laurie Thomas says its vital city officials continue to allow the appropriation of such spots if local businesses are to survive and the city is to bounce back from COVID-19.(Photo: Courtesy of Laurie Thomas)

Beyond being expensive San Francisco's median home price is now $1.3 million some residents have started to leave due to a pressing homelessness issue exacerbated by the pandemic, said Tom Radulovich, executive director of transportation advocacy group Livable City and a former director of Bay Area Rapid Transit.

The city has in many ways rested on its laurels while the tech economy boomed, he said. Now we might find ourselves in a position smaller cities are familiar with, needing to up our game in order to attract business.

San Francisco's downtown financial and tech district, home to its new but sparsely populated Salesforce Tower, has been hollowed out by the pandemic. Conventions and tourists have vanished. Many storefronts are boarded up. Residential rents have dropped 25%.

In the second quarter of this year, sales tax revenue slid43%. More recently, credit card receipt data suggested that 85% of restaurants in this foodie mecca had shuttered.

Will there physically be people in town to even come to our places to eat? asked Laurie Thomas, owner of Roses Caf and Terzo restaurant and executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association. If not, that will just kill us.

Thomas said she has survived by cutting back to a skeleton staff, providing outdoor dining and doing take-out. She said being able to keep offering patrons outdoor dining in what used to be parking spaces will be crucial to her future survival.

We need locals, but we also need tourists and conventions andtheres no telling when those come back. We need help, she said.

For San Francisco, as with other major American cities, the question "seems to be, What is the value of a city after a pandemic? said Ted Egan, San Franciscos chief economist. A major worry for us is if people who have mastered Zoom and have gotten used to being at home just dont feel they really need that in-person interaction anymore.

For the past two decades, this bay citys boom at the hands of tech giants such as Twitter, Google and Facebook has flooded the city with young workers with better than average salaries craving those very in-person interactions. They spent money on great restaurants, hip cocktail lounges, stylish boutiques and personal training.

Rory Cox and his wife Shala pose in one of a trio of YuBalance fitness studios they own in San Francisco. The couple is concerned the city will have a hard time bouncing back from the pandemic after residents and tech companies have left over the past months.(Photo: Courtesy of Rory Cox)

If they and their discretionary dollars aren't a part of a post-COVID-19 plan, fitness studio owner Cox may be among those leaving the big city life behind.But for the momenthe remains hopeful city officials will listen to merchants like him and empower an urban renaissance that attracts businesses, tourists and new residents to a greener, culturally energized andwork-life friendly San Francisco.

I met my wife here, I started my business here, we started our family here, its where wewant to be, said Cox. Many of uswantto keep this city alive and vibrant after this pandemic is over. People dont move here for Target and Chipotle, they move for the cool small businesses. We need to come back strong, and we'll need help."

Follow USA TODAY national correspondent Marco della Cava: @marcodellacava

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/12/19/covid-19-vaccine-gives-new-york-san-francisco-chance-rebound/3872733001/

See the original post here:

Will San Francisco, New York and other big cities recover from COVID-19? What a post-vaccine city could look like - USA TODAY