Category: Covid-19

Tyler Amburgey, 29, is being remembered as a loving husband, father, hockey player and coach.

DALLAS Some youth hockey players and fans are mourning the loss of a beloved coach in North Texas.

Tyler Amburgey, 29, died on Aug. 29. His wife, speaking publicly about the tragedy for the first time this week, said he tested positive with COVID-19 at the time of his death.

It started out like originally like with him getting like call like normal cold symptoms, said Aimee Amburgey.

Tyler experienced advancing stages of illness over a period of three days, according to his wife. The first night was nausea, then sleeplessness and wheezing. Shortness of breath, congestion and feeling rundown followed.

Amburgey said her husband canceled his hockey practice. Some of his youth players had already been testing positive with the virus.

Body aches and migraines came. By day three, Amburgey said her husband finally got some rest.

While the couples young daughter, Riley, went out for swim lessons, Amburgey found her husband unresponsive in bed.

I ended up calling 911, she said.

A neighbor helped perform CPR. It was too late.

Amburgey said the medical examiner told her Tyler was positive for COVID-19 at the time of his death. Amburgey said, sleeping pills her husband took for rest didnt help. She said with COVID, the medicine compromised Tylers oxygen levels.

He was a great guy, and loving husband and a loving father, said Amburgey.

Tyler Amburgeys former hockey team, The Peoria Rivermen, is planning a memorial service for him Saturday, Sept. 12.

Aimee Amburgey said she knows her husband wanted so much for his family and his youth players.

"I just want him to be remembered for more than just a person that passed away from COVID, said Amburgey.

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North Texas youth hockey coach dies from complications of COVID-19 - WFAA.com

Nantucket has experienced a spike in COVID-19 cases and is seeing community spread among tradespeople working in construction, landscaping, and cleaning who are sharing transportation to workplaces, officials from the town and Nantucket Cottage Hospital said Friday.

Seven new cases of the coronavirus were reported Wednesday, and another seven were reported Thursday, for a total of 77 cases in the town, according to a statement Friday from Select Board Chairwoman Dawn Hill Holdgate.

These are the highest number of cases in a short period of time that we have so far seen in Nantucket, Holdgate said. While this is not an unanticipated situation, due to the nature of the coronavirus, we can expect episodic growth in the number of cases over the next 10-14 days.

Of those 14 new cases, a dozen were among Nantucket residents, and most of those residents worked in construction, carpentry, landscaping, painting, or cleaning, according to a separate statement Friday from Roberto Santamaria, the towns health and human services director, and Gary Shaw, the president of Nantucket Cottage Hospital.

The towns Select Board and Board of Health will hold an emergency meeting at 10 a.m. Monday to consider placing restrictions on some of those trades, Holdgate said. The town will also increase visits and health inspections at construction and landscaping sites, she said.

The town is closing Tom Nevers Park from dusk to dawn and may close other town-owned recreational spaces during those hours, Holdgate said. Police will patrol those areas and ask anyone visiting during those hours to leave, she said.

Holdgate said the evidence of community spread in Nantucket shows that we have regressed in our mission to quell the spread of COVID.

Santamaria and Shaw asked that anyone contacted by a contact tracer answer their questions thoroughly and truthfully, cooperate with the case investigation, and comply with all isolation and quarantine procedures.

Contact tracing is among the strongest tools we have to prevent the spread of the virus in our population, they said.

Officials encouraged Nantucket residents to wear a face mask when in public, observe social distancing practices, and avoid large gatherings.

Lets all cheer for the Patriots on Sunday, but we ask you to do so with your immediate families rather than gathering in large groups or parties to watch the game, Santamaria and Shaw said.

Holdgate acknowledged that residents are being asked to make uncomfortable sacrifices for the sake of public health.

Right now, we need stamina and commitment. Its hard! she said. The consequences are worse. We have seen too many illegal gatherings in certain public places. The lax behavior of a few people has caused restrictions due to this current surge.

Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeremycfox.

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Nantucket finds community spread of COVID-19 among tradespeople - The Boston Globe

When Covid-19 hit China in January, the Ministry of Education postponed the start of spring semester to late April. That closure separated children from their friends and their broader community network, and seems to have had an impact on their mental well-being.

Researchers from Anhui Medical University got results back from surveys for 1,241 students who were in grades 4 through 8, and in junior high. The kids lived in Chizhou, Anhui Province, an area that did not have a large number of Covid-19 cases.

Nearly 25% of the students reported depressive symptoms in May, when only about 19% did in November. Suicide attempts more than doubled -- at 6.4% in May compared to the 3% who made suicide attempts in November. There were no similar increases seen in reports of children who reported feeling an increase anxiety.

Researchers hope school leaders will use this research to prepare the necessary mental health services to help children as they return to school following the lockdowns.

Benefits of in-person school outweigh virus risks

As states grappled with how to safely reopen schools earlier this year, the American Academy of Pediatrics led a push for students to be physically present in classrooms rather than continue in remote learning for the sake of their well-being.

""The importance of in-person learning is well-documented, and there is already evidence of the negative impacts on children because of school closures in the spring of 2020. Lengthy time away from school and associated interruption of supportive services often results in social isolation, making it difficult for schools to identify and address important learning deficits as well as child and adolescent physical or sexual abuse, substance use, depression, and suicidal ideation," the group said.

What it looked like when schools reopened

More students and teachers tested positive for Covid-19, some schools were forced to suddenly change plans, while others opted to delay the start of the school year giving educators more time to prepare for in-person classes.

"What we do know is children have a harder time social distancing. And we can't put a whole bunch of them in a classroom with a teacher right now," Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in an August briefing announcing a delay.

"Other states that have tried to open this new school year are now having to close. We don't want to start and stop. That may be more difficult on our children," he said.

Schools across the country have reported system outages, cyberattacks and other issues that prompted some districts to postpone the first day of class.

If you're experiencing a suicidal crisis, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or text the Crisis Text line by texting HOME to 741741 to get help.

CNN's Nicole Chavez, Christina Maxouris and Alicia Lee contributed to this story.

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Covid-19 school closings linked to increase in depression and suicide, study finds - CNN

Photo illustration by Natalie Matthews-Ramo/Slate. Photo by Ljupco/iStock/Getty Images Plus.

This is an entry in Viral Studies, a Slate series in which we break down recent viral articles andmost importantlytheir caveats.

The recent mass gathering in South Dakota for the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally seemed like the perfect recipe for what epidemiologists call a superspreading event. Beginning Aug. 7, an estimated 460,000 attendees from all over country descended on the small town of Sturgis for a 10-day event filled with indoor and outdoor events such as concerts and drag racing.

Now a new working paper by economist Dhaval Dave and colleagues is making headlines with their estimate that the Sturgis rally led to a shocking 266,796 new cases in the U.S. over a four-week period, which would account for a staggering 19 percent of newly confirmed cases in the U.S. in that time. They estimate the economic cost of these cases at $12.2 billion, based on previous estimates of the statistical cost of treating a COVID-19 patient.

Not surprisingly, the internet lit up with we told you so! headlines and social media shaming and blaming. The huge figures immediately hit the confirmation bias button in many peoples brains. But hold up. There are lots of reasons to be skeptical of these findings, and the 266,796 number itself should raise serious believability alarm bells.

Modeling infection transmission dynamics is hard, as we have seen by the less than stellar performance of many predictive COVID-19 models thus far. (Remember back in April, when the IHME model from the University of Washington predicted zero U.S. deaths in July?) Pandemic spread is difficult both to predict and to explain after the factlike trying to explain the direction and intensity of current wildfires in the West. While some underlying factors do predict spread, there is a high degree of randomness, and small disturbances (like winds) can cause huge variation across time and space. Many outcomes that social scientists typically study, like income, are more stable and not as susceptible to these butterfly effects that threaten the validity of certain research designs.

The Sturgis study essentially tries to re-create a randomized experiment by comparing the COVID-19 trends in counties that rallygoers traveled from with counties that apparently dont have as many motorcycle enthusiasts. The authors estimate the source of inflow into Sturgis during the rally based on the home location of nonresident cellphone pings. They use a difference-in-difference approach, calculating whether the change in case trends for a county that sent many people to Sturgis was larger compared with a county that sent none. They looked at how cumulative case numbers changed between June 6 and Sept. 2.

While this approach may sound sensible, it relies on strong assumptions that rarely hold in the real world. For one thing, there are many other differences between counties full of bike rally fans versus those with none, and therein lies the challenge of creating a good counterfactual for the implied experimenthow to compare trends in counties that are different on many geographic, social, and economic dimensions? The parallel trends assumption assumes that every county was on a similar trajectory and the only difference was the number of attendees sent to the Sturgis rally. When this parallel trends assumption is violated, the resulting estimates are not just off by a littlethey can be completely wrong. This type of modeling is risky, and the burden of proof for the believability of the assumptions very high.

More critically, the paper assumes the noise in COVID-19 cases from different counties averages out over time and thus comparing the trends is valid. We all probably know by now that epidemic curves are not so predictable and are heavily dependent on the luck of floating wildfire embers, so to speak. This approach may work for changes in the uptake of state benefits or other outcomes traditionally analyzed by difference-in-difference designs, but not for outcomes that are serially correlated, like wildfires or epidemics. Thus, this ideathat even if the parallel trends assumption held, differences in COVID-19 cases across counties are fully attributable to the rallyis a strong ask.

Somewhere between zero and 450,000 infections would not have been asheadline-grabbing.

Having estimated such a large number of additional infections due to the Sturgis rally from aggregate data, the authors should have wondered if such high levels of transmission were epidemiologically feasible over the short time frame. But as computational social scientist Rex Douglass details in this Twitter thread, the paper doesnt provide a model of infectious disease transmissiona pretty major oversight. Basically, the authors dont outline what transmission on this scale would have to look like to reach 266,796 infectionsfor example, X percentage of attendees arriving infected across the 10 days, Y percent transmitting the virus to Z new people, etc. Given the staggered arrivals (traffic flow data show that about 50,000 showed up per day) and incubation period (roughly five days), it seems likely that those infected at arrival could only have infected on average one or two new generations of infections during the rally itself. Even with a bleak assumption that 1 percent of attendees arrived already infectious (spread over 10 days) yet well enough to ride motorcycles to South Dakota, and all of them were superspreaders, passing their infection along to another 10 people, back-of-the-envelope math makes it hard to get in the ballpark of this number of infections that could have happened at the rally.

Of course, the study measures new cases in home counties, so perhaps thats when the transmission really explodes. Lets recall this was a motorcycle rally, so many attendees almost certainly didnt fly home as soon as possible. High numbers of people came from California, Nevada, and Florida, so we can assume the return trip home took at least a few days for those heading home directly. The lure of the open road in August after months of worldwide lockdown may have even induced many riders to take a meandering path home. In short, it is a stretch to believe that so many infected riders could have gotten home in the short time frame required to infect others, incubate, get tested, and have these infections show up in county statistics by Sept. 2, just two weeks after the conclusion of the rally. In theory, the authors could have used the cellphone ping data to incorporate this variation in return times and routes, but they dont mention doing so in the paper.

Since attendees hardly had time to attend the rally, get infected, and then bike home and infect others, the fact that rates in large sending counties are higher than those for non-sending countries strongly suggests that these differences in trends were in the works anyway due to local transmission dynamics, and not a direct result of the rally. As Ashish Jha, a physician and the dean of Brown Universitys School of Public Health, pointed out on Twitter, the raw data show no spikes in counties where the authors say the rally attendees came from, increasing the mystery of where the 266,796 cases could have taken place.

If thinking through the required transmission dynamics doesnt raise your alarm bells, consider this: The papers results show that the significant increase in transmission was only evident after Aug. 26. That makes senseit would be consistent with a lag time for infections from the beginning of the rally. Nonetheless, the authors state that their estimate of the total number of cases, 266,796, represents 19 percent of the 1.4 million cases of COVID-19 in the United States between August 2nd 2020 and September 2nd. (Italics mine.) In reality, these extra cases must have occurred in the second half of the month, meaning these estimates would account for a staggering 45 percent of U.S. cases over those two weeks. This simply doesnt seem plausible.

The 266,796 number also overstates the precision of the estimates in the paper even if the model is taken at face value. The confidence intervals for the high inflow counties seem to include zero (meaning the authors cant say with statistical confidence that there was any difference in infections across counties due to the rally). No standard errors (measures of the variability around the estimate) are provided for the main regression results, and many of the p-values for key results are not statistically significant at conventional levels. So even if one believes the design and assumptions, the results are very noisy and subject to caveats that dont merit the broadcasting of the highly specific 266,796 figure with confidence, though I imagine that somewhere between zero and 450,000 infections would not have been as headline-grabbing.

None of this means that the rally was probably harmless. Common sense would tell us that such a large event with close contact was risky and did increase transmission. The papers estimates for the rise in cases in Meade County, South Dakota, the site of the rally, reports a more plausible increase of between 177 and 195 cases, consistent with raw data.* Given the huge inflow to this specific location along with increased testing for the event, a bump was not surprising. Contact tracing reports have identified cases and deaths linked to the event, but in the range of hundreds.

More broadly, while its important for us to understand factors driving COVID-19 transmission, the methodological challenges to identifying these effects at the aggregate level are difficult to overcome. Improved contact tracing and surveys at the individual level are the best way to gain insights into transmission dynamics. (At Dear Pandemic, a COVID-19 science communication effort I run with colleagues, we unfortunately spend much of our time explaining and correcting such misleading statistics.) The authors of this study have used the same study design to estimate the effects of other mass gatherings including the BLM protests and Trumps June Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally. Each paper has given some part of the political spectrum something they might want to hear but has done very little to illuminate the actual risks of COVID-19 transmission at these events. Exaggerated headlines and cherry-picking of results for I told you so media moments can dangerously undermine the long-term integrity of the sciencesomething we can little afford right now.

Correction, Sept. 11, 2020: This article originally and erroneously questioned the papers estimates for Meade County based on a data error. The Meade County estimates are in fact in a range consistent with raw county data.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.

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The Sturgis biker rally did not cause 266,796 cases of COVID-19. - Slate

We're making this important information about the pandemic available without a subscription as a public service. But we depend on reader support to do this work. Please consider joining others in supporting independent journalism in Alaska for just $3.23 a week.

Alaska on Friday reported one new death and 97 new cases of COVID-19, according to the Department of Health and Social Services COVID-19 dashboard.

The person who died was an Anchorage woman in her forties. Forty-three Alaskans have died with COVID-19 since the pandemic began here in March. The states death rate is among the lowest in the U.S.

Statewide as of Friday, 40 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 while four other hospital patients were awaiting test results, according to state data. Of Alaskas 153 intensive care unit beds, 83 were in use statewide.

Active cases of COVID-19 among Alaska residents increased from 3,830 on Thursday to 3,918 on Friday. Another 704 active cases were reported among nonresidents.

Of the new cases, it wasnt clear how many patients were showing symptoms of the virus when they tested positive.

Of the 89 new cases of COVID-19 involving residents, 35 were in Anchorage; 27 were in Fairbanks; five were in North Pole; one was in Delta Junction; four were in Palmer; five were in Wasilla; two were in Utqiagvik; one was in Douglas; and four were in Juneau.

Among communities smaller than 1,000 not identified to protect confidentiality, there was one in the northern Kenai Peninsula, one was in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area; one was in the Nome Census Area; one was in the combined Bristol Bay and Lake and Peninsula boroughs; and one was in the Kusilvak Census Area.

Of the eight nonresident cases, three were in Anchorage, one was in Eagle River; three were in Fairbanks and one was in an unknown part of the state.

The states testing positivity rate as of Friday was 1.82% over a seven-day rolling average.

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

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Tracking COVID-19 in Alaska: One new death and 97 new infections - Anchorage Daily News

The aging population has been particularly at risk since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted earlier this year. Natalie Mazzullo, University of Nevada, Reno Extension healthy-aging specialist, has been helping to create a safe and engaging environment for homebound seniors in Nevada.

Mazzullo serves as an action team member for the states Nevada COVID-19 Aging Network Rapid Response Team, known as Nevada CAN. She is a member of both the social service action team and the food and medication action team. Nevada CAN is focused on maintaining the quality of life for the 454,221 homebound elders in Nevada. Keeping elders safe from exposure to the virus, while ensuring they are well-supplied, have access to medical and social services, and remain free from isolation are the top priorities.

I am honored to be part of the Nevada CAN action teams to assist Nevadas elders with social engagement, and food and medication, Mazzullo said. As a result of Nevada CAN and the efforts of so many compassionate and caring professionals and volunteers, Nevada elders have had the opportunity to become connected with much-needed services.

As part of the action teams response, Mazzullo helped to coordinate Extensions support to provide information on where elders in need could access food in Nevadas rural communities. In addition, Extension county educators helped to identify volunteers to assist with food delivery, including volunteers from Extensions 4-H Youth Development Program.

Year-round, Mazzullo and Extensions healthy-aging team assist in the successful development of action plans that promote access and appeal around nutrition and physical activity that is uniquely tailored to the needs of communities where elders live and congregate. Since April, Extensions healthy-aging team has worked to ensure that some of the most vulnerable and needy elders still have access to resources and activities to aid in their well-being, despite the ongoing pandemic. The team has:

Mazzullo also serves as the assistant director for the Sanford Center for Agings Nevada Geriatric Education Center at the University. In that capacity, she provides educational offerings for health professionals and eldercare partners. In October 2019, she was appointed by Gov. Steve Sisolak to the Governors Commission on Aging. The mission of theCommission is to facilitate and enhance the quality of life and services for allNevadaseniors in partnership with theAgingand Disability Services Division and other entities.

Mazzullo sits on various other committees, including the Aging and Disability Services Divisions Caregiver Conference Planning Committee and Three Squares Senior Hunger Program Steering Committee. She also provides direct oversight for the Nevada Healthy Aging Alliance, currently focusing on SNAP-funded nutrition; physical activity; and policy, systems and environmental initiatives.

For more information on Extension's programs to promote healthy aging, email Natalie Mazzullo.

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Extension aims to help older adults stay healthy amid COVID-19 - Nevada Today

With 112 new coronavirus cases reported on campus in just three days, Brigham Young University in Provo appears to be driving a rise in cases in Utah County, which has the worst infection rates in the state.

Were really attributing this to ... a certain, a young adult population: 15- to 24-year-olds. Its really both public school being back in session as well as having university students being back [in] classes as well as being back in the community and comingling together, said Aislynn Tolman-Hill, spokeswoman for the Utah County Health Department.

Statewide, coronavirus cases spiked on Friday, with 656 new infections, the Utah Department of Health reported. But the rise may be tied to reporting delays due to Mondays Labor Day holiday and Tuesdays windstorm in northern Utah, health officials said.

A third of those newly reported cases were from Utah County. And BYU on Friday reported 258 cases since Aug. 28 among the 43,000 students and employees on campus for fall term. Thats up from the 146 cases the school reported on Wednesday, making it the most infected campus in Utah, and the campus with the fastest spread.

In Utah County, Tolman-Hill said, there is kind of a I dont know if you want to call it a counterculture or not that is kind of a Were back in school, end of summer, celebrate, live it up attitude. A Were young, well be fine kind of thing.

By contrast, there have been 182 cases reported since Aug. 15 at the University of Utahs campus of 62,000; 67 cases as of Sept. 7 on Utah Valley Universitys campus of about 23,000; and 96 during fall term at Utah State University, which enrolled about 28,000 students in 2019.

Meanwhile, Utah County on Friday posted its biggest single-day increase, with 219 new infections reported. For the past seven days, the county has averaged 155 new cases per day the most of any county in the state, including Salt Lake County, which has close to twice as many people.

Provo and Orem account for the largest share of the new cases, reporting three of every five of the countys new cases in the past three days, despite making up about a third of the countys population, according to county health data.

Health officials acknowledged that the spread in Utah County is unique. Were not seeing the same numbers in other areas of the state where there are major universities, Tolman-Hill said.

Multiple cases have been linked to two businesses that organize dance parties in Utah County, Tolman-Hill said. Utah Country Dance has been hosting Country Dance Provo twice a week. Although Tolman-Hill said health officials had seen photos of events where people werent wearing masks, the venues manager said masks had been required since Provo implemented a mask order.

Before that, they were checking guests' temperatures at the door, said manager Miguel Guzman, who said he was surprised to learn of cases tied to the dance nights. No one else has contacted us about it, he said.

Meanwhile, the organization Young/Dumb has been hosting weekly dance parties that have elicited criticism on social media. After a dance party last month, the company posted video of crowds of people dancing, nary a mask in sight, with the caption: Young/Dumb: 1 Karens: 0.

The group planned to host a Mask-Querade party Friday night in Orem, where unlike Provo there is no mask mandate. Nonetheless, the organization advised some sort of face covering.

Wear a masquerade mask or decorate a safety mask, the advertisement suggested. Traditional masquerade masks do not cover the mouth. The companys owner did not respond to The Salt Lake Tribunes requests for comment.

Tolman-Hill said she did not know the number of cases tied to the dance parties, but she said contact tracers have definitively linked multiple cases to them.

There absolutely have been multiple cases linked to those parties I would say clusters which is absolutely concerning to us, she said. We know that there are additional people out there that have been exposed.

As the number of infected patients age 15 to 24 has shot up about 50 percent since Sept. 1, parties in Utah County have prompted rebuke from BYU as well as the governor.

Brigham Young University ... is taking significant efforts of mandating mask wearing on campus, yet off campus some of the students have been conducting themselves in very close quarters with no masks and no social distancing, Gov. Gary Herbert said in a press conference this week.

BYU officials tweeted that they were "concerned w/ reports & videos circulating about off-campus activities.

Behavior this weekend could make or break our ability to remain on campus, school officials wrote, though they did not identify a case count that would trigger a return to online-only classes.

Theres not a specific threshold, but rather a variety of factors that would impact the ability to maintain an on-campus experience. This includes disease prevalence on & off campus, local hospital capacity and BYUs capacity to isolate or quarantine those living on-campus.

Although the countys new cases are concentrated around BYU, most of the communities in the county are posting case numbers that are higher, per population, than the state as a whole. At least 595,000 of the countys 636,000 residents live in communities with infection rates above the statewide average of 12.4 daily new cases per 100,000 people, according to county data for the past three days.

There are 384,000 people in Utah County communities with more than 20 new cases per 100,000 residents, and 176,000 in towns with a rate of over 30 new cases per 100,000. Sewage monitoring also has detected rising levels of the virus in Payson, Spanish Fork, Springville, Orem and Lehi.

Utah County is kind of where a lot of the anti-mask movements have been happening, so I think there might be kind of a culture of denial that this is a serious problem, said Grace Brown, a BYU freshman. She was finishing her last day of quarantine in a designated isolation dorm on campus, after she contracted the virus during her first week at school.

BYU has quarantine space for about 5% of the 5,600 students living with roommates in dorms, said university spokeswoman Carri Jenkins.

Brown said she thought she was being careful, avoiding big parties and meeting with friends only in small groups. But the virus can cross degrees of separation quickly; Brown got tested after learning that a friend of a friend had tested positive, and a woman in her hall had gone to another party where someone else was infected.

Even if it was just small social gatherings, that is most likely where I got it, Brown said.

Before going into quarantine and developing a fever and aches, Brown said she noticed that students werent 100% diligent about mask wearing.

In the dorm buildings, technically youre required to wear them in the hallways and common areas, but I dont see very many people doing that, she said. And in other social gatherings, I dont see people wearing masks or social distancing.

It is hard to move to a university as a freshman, meet people and make friends from behind a mask, Brown acknowledged especially if youre the only person wearing one. But now, she said, shell be masking up even in small groups.

Its not that difficult, its not that uncomfortable, she said.

Not necessarily a trend

Statewide, Fridays growth in cases is the largest daily net increase we have reported since late July," state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn said in a news release. We are looking closely at the numbers, and want to reiterate, as we have throughout this response, that one day of data does not necessarily indicate a trend, she said.

... Many testing locations were closed Monday for Labor Day and Tuesday due to the windstorm," Dunn also noted. "Its possible people who would have been tested Monday and Tuesday waited until later in the week to be tested, resulting in an increase in the number of positive cases identified today.

For the past seven days, Utah has averaged 403 new positive test results per day, the health department said, noting that is below the previous Fridays 409-case average.

Gov. Gary Herbert had said he wanted the state average to get below 400 new cases per day by Sept. 1, a goal Utah met in mid-August but surpassed again last week.

Utahs death toll from the coronavirus stood at 431 on Friday, with one fatality reported since Thursday a Salt Lake County man, older than 85, who was not hospitalized when he died.

Hospitalizations were up slightly on Friday, with 123 Utah patients concurrently admitted, UDOH reported. On average, 119 patients have been receiving treatment in Utah hospitals each day for the past week.

In total, 3,288 patients have been hospitalized in Utah for COVID-19, up 15 from Thursday.

There were 4,041 new test results reported on Friday, about on par with the weeklong average of 4,013 new tests per day. The rate of tests with positive results was at 9% on Friday, down slightly from Thursdays 9.1%. Dunn has said a 3% positivity rate would indicate the virus is under control, but statewide, Utahs rate of positive tests has been above 5% since May 25, according to UDOH data.

Since public schools began opening on Aug. 13, there have been 34 outbreaks in schools, affecting 156 patients, with five new outbreaks and eight new cases reported in the past day.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 201 patients infected in 45 school outbreaks, with a median age of 17. Nine of those patients have been hospitalized; none has died.

Of 56,675 Utahns who have tested positive for COVID-19, 48,021 are considered recovered that is, they have survived for at least three weeks after being diagnosed.

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Utah County has worst COVID-19 infection rates in the state, as Utah cases spike to 656 - Salt Lake Tribune

SCHOOLS IN ORANGE COUNTIES TO MOVE TO REMOTE INSTRUCTIONCiting rising case numbers during his Friday COVID-19 briefing, Gov. Justice announced that, going forward, schools in counties designated as orange in the West Virginia Department of Educations official 5 p.m. Saturday update of theCounty Alert Mapwill stop in-person instruction and move to a full-remote learning model.

We've got to continue to work together as West Virginians because our numbers are going the wrong way, Gov. Justice said. We've got to continue to try to protect the health and the safety of all West Virginians. And, in my opinion, it is not safe, with our numbers trending the way they are, to continue to go to school if were in orange.

Athletic and extracurricular activities will be limited to conditioning only when a county is orange. No sport-specific or contact practices will be permitted. Marching band activities must be limited to outdoors only. Instruments are permitted only when students are stationary and distanced in pods. The WVSSAC will release additional guidance documents soon.

A mid-week color status change from green or yellow to orange, as reported on theDHHR Dashboard, would not immediately trigger these restrictions. Countywide restrictions under an orange designation only take effect if a county is classified as orange on the WVDEs official Saturday map update.

These restrictions will only be lifted if and when a county reaches green or yellow status in a subsequent official Saturday map update.

Mid-week color status only comes into play if a county reaches a red designation. If a county reaches red status, all in-person activities are halted immediately, regardless of the day of the week.

The change comes as a result of increases in several categories of COVID-19 numbers.Additionally, West Virginiasstatewide rate of COVID-19 transmission also known as Rt increased Friday afternoon to 1.42; the highest and worst such rate in the country.

Weve all got to step up our level of concern, Gov. Justice said. To just tell it like it is, we've got to get afraid again. Weve gotten complacent.

If we don't watch out, it'll come home to some families tomorrow, Gov. Justice continued. Those families are full of real people. They have names. Theyre West Virginians. All of us have got to take responsibility.

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COVID-19 UPDATE: Gov. Justice announces orange counties will move to remote instruction; pays tribute on 19th anniversary of 9/11 attacks - West...

TheWest Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of 10:00 a.m., on September 8,2020, there have been 462,547 total confirmatorylaboratory results received for COVID-19, with 11,661 totalcases and 250 deaths.

DHHR has confirmed the deaths of a63-year old female from Kanawha County, a 78-year old female from Putnam County,and an 85-year old female from Kanawha County. We mourn the tragic loss of these West Virginiansand send our deepest sympathies to their loved ones, said Bill J. Crouch, DHHRCabinet Secretary.

CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour(35), Berkeley (837), Boone (157), Braxton (9), Brooke (102), Cabell (595),Calhoun (19), Clay (29), Doddridge (13), Fayette (420), Gilmer (20), Grant(144), Greenbrier (106), Hampshire (93), Hancock (132), Hardy (76), Harrison(304), Jackson (219), Jefferson (394), Kanawha (1,737), Lewis (36), Lincoln (126),Logan (522), Marion (232), Marshall (134), Mason (123), McDowell (74), Mercer(350), Mineral (147), Mingo (282), Monongalia (1,433), Monroe (138), Morgan(41), Nicholas (58), Ohio (297), Pendleton (45), Pleasants (15), Pocahontas(45), Preston (142), Putnam (352), Raleigh (393), Randolph (228), Ritchie (6),Roane (37), Summers (21), Taylor (110), Tucker (12), Tyler (15), Upshur (50),Wayne (300), Webster (7), Wetzel (45), Wirt (8), Wood (324), Wyoming (72).

Pleasenote that delays may be experienced with the reporting of information from thelocal health department to DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the localhealth department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certain countymay not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individual inquestion may have crossed the state border to be tested.Such is the case of Fayette Countyin this report.

Pleasevisit the dashboard located at http://www.coronavirus.wv.gov for more information.

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COVID-19 Daily Update 9-8-2020 - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) As staff returned this week to buildings, two Brooklyn teachers at two different schools have tested test positive for COVID-19.

The city is not closing the schools, which the United Federation of Teachersidentified as PS 1 and MS 88, but is giving co-workers the option to work remotely pending contact tracing.

The UFT released the following statement in response to the positive tests:

Until we have a vaccine in place, the most effective tactics against the spread of the coronavirus have been masks and social distancing, along with testing and contract tracing. All of these are part of the citys safety plan.

The plan anticipates that testing will sometimes show that asymptomatic individuals in schools have contracted the virus.

The isolation and quarantine of such individuals, followed by aggressive contact tracing, are also key elements of the safety plan. We will be working with the citys Department of Education and NYC Health + Hospitals to make sure that all affected schools follow the quarantine and contact tracing guidelines.

It all comes as staff at other schools walked out, citing unsafe conditions, CBS2s Lisa Rozner reported Wednesday.

COMPLETE COVERAGE: Schools: The New Normal

Yellow water. Dead roaches. Dusty desks.

Thats how teachers at a Crown Heights school for children with special needs were welcomed back Tuesday.

It just looked dirty, like we left it in March, special ed teacher Mark John said. Your anxiety goes up.

So after finding bathrooms lacked soap and promised PPE was not available, teachers worked outside. However, Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza claimed only a handful of schools were affected.

In some cases the landlord did not accept those deliveries. But this is why we have more time, Carranza said.

He said theres plenty of PPE and the situation is being corrected immediately.

MORE:New York City School Buses Will Be Ready To Roll, But Teachers Still Concerned About Buildings

But teachers also claimed the Department of Education did not arrange a ventilation inspection at the state-run facility, a process Mayor Bill de Blasio boasted about Wednesday when he shared a video that shows how issues have been fixed at four of the 10 schools that failed.

This district should have been ready two weeks ago! said Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers. We tried to have a meeting in this school and site in August.

Some teachers in different parts Queens told Rozner their schools also had issues.

A Cambria Heights teacher called the situation a (expletive) show, adding there was no toilet paper, no hand sanitizer dispenser, and one window doesnt open.

Another in Forest Hills said, They arent actually checking temperatures physically pretty risky.

Once the students come in all this stuff has to click into place, UFTPresident Michael Mulgrew said.

He claimed wall-mounted thermometers were ordered, but there was no protocol from city hall.

A DOE spokesperson said in addition to at-home daily health screenings, schools will have random temperature checks.

But teachers are asking why that isnt in place now, and why should they be the guinea pigs for safety.

Teachers at another special education school P352X in the Bronx also walked out Wednesday, citing issues there as well.

You can get the latest news, sports and weather on our brand new CBS New York app. Download here.

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2 NYC Teachers Test Positive For COVID-19, Others Report Disgusting Conditions In Buildings, Walk Out - CBS New York