Category: Covid-19

DHEC continues to emphasize the importance of testing, said Dr. Brannon Traxler, DHEC Physician. While many people with COVID-19 have mild or no symptoms, it is still possible that they could be infected and pass the disease to friends, family, and loved ones. Meanwhile, others dont know that theyve been in close contact (within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes) with someone with confirmed COVID-19. Therefore, we continue to provide no out-of-pocket costs community testing events open to anyone who would like to be tested.

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DHEC: 1,019 new cases of COVID-19, 11 more deaths announced in SC - WTOC

'Disease tolerance' is the ability of an individual, due to a genetic predisposition or some aspect of behavior or lifestyle, to thrive despite being infected with an amount of pathogen that sickens others. It might play a role in asymptomatic coronavirus infections. Alexander Spatari/Getty Images hide caption

'Disease tolerance' is the ability of an individual, due to a genetic predisposition or some aspect of behavior or lifestyle, to thrive despite being infected with an amount of pathogen that sickens others. It might play a role in asymptomatic coronavirus infections.

One of the reasons Covid-19 has spread so swiftly around the globe is that for the first days after infection, people feel healthy. Instead of staying home in bed, they may be out and about, unknowingly passing the virus along. But in addition to these pre-symptomatic patients, the relentless silent spread of this pandemic is also facilitated by a more mysterious group of people: the so-called asymptomatics.

According to various estimates, between 20 and 45 percent of the people who get COVID-19 and possibly more, according to a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sail through a coronavirus infection without realizing they ever had it. No fever or chills. No loss of smell or taste. No breathing difficulties. They don't feel a thing.

Asymptomatic cases are not unique to COVID-19. They occur with the regular flu, and probably also featured in the 1918 pandemic, according to epidemiologist Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London. But scientists aren't sure why certain people weather COVID-19 unscathed. "That is a tremendous mystery at this point," says Donald Thea, an infectious disease expert at Boston University's School of Public Health.

The prevailing theory is that their immune systems fight off the virus so efficiently that they never get sick. But some scientists are confident that the immune system's aggressive response, the churning out of antibodies and other molecules to eliminate an infection, is only part of the story.

These experts are learning that the human body may not always wage an all-out war on viruses and other pathogens. It may also be capable of accommodating an infection, sometimes so seamlessly that no symptoms emerge. This phenomenon, known as disease tolerance, is well-known in plants but has only been documented in animals within the last 15 years.

Hints that 'disease tolerance' is at work

Disease tolerance is the ability of an individual, due to a genetic predisposition or some aspect of behavior or lifestyle, to thrive despite being infected with an amount of pathogen that sickens others. Tolerance takes different forms, depending on the infection. For example, when infected with cholera, which causes watery diarrhea that can quickly kill through dehydration, the body might mobilize mechanisms that maintain fluid and electrolyte balance. During other infections, the body might tweak metabolism or activate gut microbes whatever internal adjustment is needed to prevent or repair tissue damage or to make a germ less vicious.

"Why, if they have these abnormalities, are they healthy? Potentially because they have disease tolerance mechanisms engaged. These are the people we need to study."

Janelle Ayres, physiologist, Salk Institute for Biological Studies

Researchers who study these processes rely on invasive experiments that cannot be done in people. Nevertheless, they view asymptomatic infections as evidence that disease tolerance occurs in humans. At least 90 percent of those infected with the tuberculosis bacterium don't get sick. The same is true for many of the 1.5 billion of people globally who live with parasitic worms called helminths in their intestines. "Despite the fact that these worms are very large organisms and they basically migrate through your tissues and cause damage, many people are asymptomatic. They don't even know they're infected," says Irah King, a professor of immunology at McGill University. "And so then the question becomes, what does the body do to tolerate these types of invasive infections?"

While scientists have observed the physiological processes that minimize tissue damage during infections in animals for decades, it's only more recently that they've begun to think about them in terms of disease tolerance. For example, King and colleagues have identified specific immune cells in mice that increase the resilience of blood vessels during a helminth infection, leading to less intestinal bleeding, even when the same number of worms are present.

"This has been demonstrated in plants, bacteria, other mammalian species," King says.

"Why would we think that humans would not have developed these types of mechanisms to promote and maintain our health in the face of infection?" he adds.

Maybe germs aren't the enemy: A more nuanced view

In a recent Frontiers in Immunology editorial, King and his McGill colleague Maziar Divangahi describe their long-term hopes for the field: A deeper understanding of disease tolerance, they write, could lead to "a new golden age of infectious disease research and discovery."

Scientists have traditionally viewed germs as the enemy, an approach that has generated invaluable antibiotics and vaccines. But more recently, researchers have come to understand that the human body is colonized by trillions of microbes that are essential to optimal health, and that the relationship between humans and germs is more nuanced.

Meddlesome viruses and bacteria have been around since life began, so it makes sense that animals evolved ways to manage as well as fight them. Attacking a pathogen can be effective, but it can also backfire. For one thing, infectious agents find ways to evade the immune system. Moreover, the immune response itself, if unchecked, can turn lethal, applying its destructive force to the body's own organs.

"With things like COVID, I think it's going to be very parallel to TB, where you have this Goldilocks situation," says Andrew Olive, an immunologist at Michigan State University, "where you need that perfect amount of inflammation to control the virus and not damage the lungs."

Some of the key disease tolerance mechanisms scientists have identified aim to keep inflammation within that narrow window. For example, immune cells called alveolar macrophages in the lung suppress inflammation once the threat posed by the pathogen diminishes.

Much is still unknown about why there is such a wide range of responses to COVID-19, from asymptomatic to mildly sick to out of commission for weeks at home to full-on organ failure. "It's very, very early days here," says Andrew Read, an infectious disease expert at Pennsylvania State University who helped identify disease tolerance in animals. Read believes disease tolerance may at least partially explain why some infected people have mild symptoms or none at all. This may be because they're better at scavenging toxic byproducts, he says, "or replenishing their lung tissues at faster rates, those sorts of things."

Asymptomatic COVID-19 infections

The mainstream scientific view of asymptomatics is that their immune systems are especially well-tuned. This could explain why children and young adults make up the majority of people without symptoms because the immune system naturally deteriorates with age. It's also possible that the immune systems of asymptomatics have been primed by a previous infection with a milder coronavirus, like those that cause the common cold.

Asymptomatic cases don't get much attention from medical researchers, in part because these people don't go to the doctor and thus are tough to track down. But Janelle Ayres, a physiologist and infectious disease expert at the Salk Institute For Biological Studies who has been a leader in disease tolerance research, studies precisely the mice that don't get sick.

The staple of this research is something called the "lethal dose 50" test, which consists of giving a group of mice enough pathogen to kill half. By comparing the mice that live with those that die, she pinpoints the specific aspects of their physiology that enable them to survive the infection. She has performed this experiment scores of times using a variety of pathogens. The goal is to figure out how to activate health-sustaining responses in all animals.

A hallmark of these experiments and something that surprised her at first is that the half that survive the lethal dose are perky. They are completely unruffled by the same quantity of pathogen that kills their counterparts. "I thought going into this ... that all would get sick, that half would live and half would die, but that isn't what I found," Ayres says. "I found that half got sick and died, and the other half never got sick and lived."

Ayres sees something similar happening in the COVID-19 pandemic. Like her mice, asymptomatic people infected with the novel coronavirus seem to have similar amounts of the virus in their bodies as the people who fall ill, yet for some reason they stay healthy. Studies show that their lungs often display damage on CT scans, yet they are not struggling for breath (though it remains to be seen whether they will fully escape long-term impacts). Moreover, a small recent study suggests that people who are asymptomatic mount a weaker immune response than those who get sick suggesting that mechanisms are at work that have nothing to do with fighting infection.

"Why, if they have these abnormalities, are they healthy?" asks Ayres. "Potentially because they have disease tolerance mechanisms engaged. These are the people we need to study."

The goal of disease tolerance research is to decipher the mechanisms that keep infected people healthy and turn them into therapies that benefit everyone. "You want to have a drought-tolerant plant, for obvious reasons, so why wouldn't we want to have a virus-tolerant person?" Read asks.

A 2018 experiment in Ayres' lab offered proof of concept for that goal. The team gave a diarrhea-causing infection to mice in a lethal dose 50 trial, then compared tissue from the mice that died with those that survived, looking for differences. They discovered that the asymptomatic mice had utilized their iron stores to route extra glucose to the hungry bacteria, and that the pacified germs no longer posed a threat. The team subsequently turned this observation into a treatment. In further experiments, they administered iron supplements to the mice and all the animals survived, even when the pathogen dose was upped a thousandfold.

When the pandemic hit, Ayres was already studying mice with pneumonia and the signature malady of COVID-19, acute respiratory distress syndrome, which can be triggered by various infections. Her lab has identified markers that may inform candidate pathways to target for treatment. The next step is to compare people who progressed to severe stages of COVID-19 with those who are asymptomatic to see whether markers emerge that resemble the ones she's found in mice.

If a medicine is developed, it would work differently from anything that's currently on the market because it would be lung-specific, not disease-specific, and would ease respiratory distress regardless of which pathogen is responsible.

But intriguing as this prospect is, most experts caution that disease tolerance is a new field and tangible benefits are likely many years off. The work involves measuring not only symptoms but the levels of a pathogen in the body, which means killing an animal and searching all of its tissues. "You can't really do controlled biological experiments in humans," Olive says.

In addition, there are countless disease tolerance pathways. "Every time we figure one out, we find we have 10 more things we don't understand," King says. Things will differ with each disease, he adds, "so that becomes a bit overwhelming."

Nevertheless, a growing number of experts agree that disease tolerance research could have profound implications for treating infectious disease in the future. Microbiology and infectious disease research has "all been focused on the pathogen as an invader that has to be eliminated some way," says virologist Jeremy Luban of the University of Massachusetts Medical School. And as Ayres makes clear, he says, "what we really should be thinking about is how do we keep the person from getting sick."

Emily Laber-Warren directs the health and science reporting program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

This story was produced by Undark, a nonprofit, editorially independent digital magazine exploring the intersection of science and society.

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Asymptomatic COVID-19 Infections And 'Disease Tolerance' : Shots - Health News - NPR

After such a volatile month of cases and deaths of COVID-19, the West Piedmont Health District has a rather quiet report this morning. There are 14 new cases and one new hospitalization -- but no new deaths. Henry County has 9 of those cases, Franklin County 3 and Martinsville and Patrick County 1 each. The new hospitalization is in Martinsville. But this has been a really bad month in the district. Since Aug. 1 two people have died every three days, as cases continued to surge and the death rate has increased from 13 dead on Aug.1 to 34 dead as of today. Meanwhile, the Henry County Jail has taken steps to curtail an outbreak among the inmates. Sheriff Lane Perry wouldn't say exactly how many, but he said "several" had been infected and that the outbreak was limited to two cells (which could mean more than 20 men). We also offer two personal perspectives again today on how students are learning from home and the problems there-in during the pandemic. A My Word by a teacher is insightful into how this has affected her work. Colleges and universities continue to be at the forefront of the case growth America. The University of Alabama has been hit particularly hard. The number of cases of the coronavirus worldwide have surpassed 25 million, which is, for perspective, more than the populations of Virginia and North Carolina combined. Deaths in the U.S. today could surpass 6 million.The Virginia Department of Health reportsthis morning there have been 119,747 cases and 2,569 deaths statewide -- only 1 new death since Saturday. Some 9,555 people have been hospitalized. Henry County has had 844 cases, with 91 hospitalizations and 16 deaths. Martinsville has had 326 cases, with 49 hospitalizations and 6 deaths. Patrick County has had 224 cases including 46 hospitalizations and 11 deaths. Franklin County has had 212 cases, 11 hospitalizations and 1 death. Danville has reported 604 cases, and Pittsylvania County has had 768.Johns Hopkins University's real-time mapshowed 25,039826,930 cases worldwide and 843,243 deaths. In the U.S. there are 5,962,057. There have been182,785 deaths in the U.S. because of COVID-19.

(183) updates to this series since Updated 6 hrs ago

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Martinsville-region COVID-19/coronavirus daily update from state, nation and world: Aug. 30 - Martinsville Bulletin

ROME The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care beds in Italy has been rising in the past few weeks.

On Sunday, 86 persons infected with the coronavirus occupied ICU beds, compared to 38 in late July, as returning vacationers drive up Italys numbers of day-to-day new caseloads as well as hospitalizations.

Italy registered 1,365 new infections since Saturday, according to Health Ministry figures. Still, those numbers are low when compared to the daily bulletin early in the pandemic, when thousands of Italians each day were testing positive for COVID-19, and a few thousand were needing intensive care, overwhelming hospital staff.

Italy counts 268,218 confirmed infections and 35,477 known deaths, including four in the last 24 hours. After months in which the heaviest concentration of cases occurred in northern Italy, lately many southern regions are seeing sharply rising numbers. On Sunday, Campania, the region which includes the southern metropolis of Naples, had the most new cases in Italy 270.

ISLAMABAD Pakistani authorities have reported 264 new COVID-19 cases, the countrys lowest daily count for the new coronavirus in more than four months.

In a statement Sunday, the national command and control center said only four people died from the new virus in the previous 24 hours, taking overall COVID-19 deaths to 6,288 since the start of the outbreak in February.

Originally posted here:

The Latest: COVID-19 hospitalizations in Italy increase - Richmond.com

Ron Trask spent 11 days on a ventilator and nearly died of COVID-19 at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. The 69-year-old Corinth resident doesnt remember much from his harrowing, 39-day stay.

Rehabilitation is slow and arduous, and he doesnt know if hell ever feel the same as before he contracted COVID-19 in April.

I had to learn to feed myself, walk again and sign my name again, Trask said.

When her sickness from COVID-19 was at its peak, Alaina Tomlinson kept an oxygen monitor by her bedside. Most nights, she woke up in the darkness gasping for breath.

I played what I called the oxygen game at night, said Tomlinson, 40, of Cumberland. There was a lot of anxiety.

Tomlinson had 10 minutes to get her oxygen levels above 90 percent or she would have to go to the hospital. She would calm herself, take deep breaths and check the oxygen monitor. While she was never hospitalized, a few times she crossed the 90 percent threshold just in time to avoid a hospital trip.

Trasks wife, Sue, wasnt allowed to see him because of hospital visitation restrictions. So she sat by the phone for hours, waiting for updates.

One time, I was told his kidneys were shutting down and he probably wouldnt make it, she said. I was writing his obituary. In the back of your mind you always want to have hope, but in my heart I didnt believe it. By the grace of God he came back.

Since March 12, when the state confirmed its first case of COVID-19, more than 4,400 Mainers have contracted the disease. The virus has killed 132 of them, and nearly 3,900 have recovered. The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram interviewed five people who survived the ordeal and described the often-terrifying experience.

COVID-19 is a new disease that scientists are still learning about. The typical symptoms are shortness of breath, fever and coughing, and while the disease can be fairly mild for some, it can life-threatening for others. And even for people who are not in danger of dying, the complications can be long-lasting, extending perhaps for years, decades or even the rest of their lives.

Many of those categorized as recovered by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention have endured months of lingering side-effects and complications.

Sara Paulsen said she has scarring in her lungs, and even months after she recovered from COVID-19, has difficulty breathing and chest pain.

Research shows some patients are suffering from long-term complications even after patients test negative. A July study published in the Lancet medical journal shows that out of 55 patients in China who were cleared of the virus, 35 were suffering from symptoms three months later. Of those, 14 had lung abnormalities.

Another troubling complication is continued heart problems after COVID-19 has cleared the body. A German study published in July in JAMA Cardiology found that 60 of 100 patients studied had myocardial inflammation after recovering from COVID-19, and 78 of 100 showed abnormalities in MRI scans of the heart post-COVID-19.

And according to a preliminary study published in July in the scholarly journal Brain, severe COVID-19 can lead to neurological complications, including inflammation disorders, called CNS inflammatory syndrome.

More common lingering complications include fatigue, headaches, joint pain and shortness of breath.

The aftereffects of COVID-19 have become so common that survivors with continuing symptoms are now called long-haulers in the national media. All five Mainers who recovered from COVID-19 and interviewed by the Press Herald/Sunday Telegram said they are still suffering from aftereffects of the disease.

Dr. Eric Haskell, a MaineHealth primary care doctor based in Cape Elizabeth, said he has treated dozens of COVID-19 patients, and its been difficult because the science is still developing on how best to treat the disease. So he keeps up on the latest research on what scientists are learning about how to treat COVID-19. There is not a course of treatment to clear the virus, like there is with taking antibiotics to clear a bacterial infection. They work to keep patients hydrated, reduce pain and fevers, and help with breathing, if needed.

Its challenging both as patients and providers, with the anxiety of the unknown, Haskell said. There isnt a lot we can do. We do our best to support them.

Haskell said much of what can be done is case management, such as helping people with alternative living arrangements, like a hotel room, if they cant easily isolate themselves in their homes. Or they are treating conditions caused by COVID-19, such as heart inflammation.

What is our endpoint? When do we stop the treatment? There isnt a clear answer, Haskell said.

COVID-19 has hit minority communities in Maine disproportionately hard, taking up about 27 percent of the total cases despite Maines minority population being only 5 percent statewide. There are a number of reasons minorities are more likely to be at risk, public health experts say. For instance, minorities are more likely to have jobs that dont allow for working remotely, such as a home health aide. Or they have jobs where they work side by side with other employees, such as factory work, or interact a lot with the public. They are also more likely to live in multigenerational households, with more people in tighter quarters, making the virus more easily transmitted within a household.

Fatuma Hussein, founder of the Immigrant Resource Center of Maine nonprofit, said the pandemic is shining a spotlight on inequality.

What COVID has done is tangibly unveiled the disproportionate and lack of equity in regards to communities of color, Hussein said. It has really shown that for a person of color, nothing is equal for you.

The virus directly affected Husseins Lewiston-based nonprofit, where three staff members were infected with COVID-19 at the same time, and one additional employee was exposed.

By the time (the state) started talking about prevention and focusing on our communities, it was too late. COVID had already infected our communities, Hussein said.

For her nonprofit, that meant the remaining employees had to scramble to provide services that were stacking up because of the other workers who were ill.

I would go from hosting all meetings every day to providing direct services to people at night, whether that was going to Panera to pick up food for a family at night or picking up a load of food from BJs (Wholesale Club), Hussein said.

RON TRASK

Ron Trask, 69, of Corinth said he thought he was getting a head cold in April, but within days his symptoms worsened.

I wasnt getting any better, and I started having trouble breathing, Trask said. He doesnt know how he contracted COVID-19, but suspects spending time with friends inside a garage working on an antique car may have been how he was exposed.

He got a test, it came back positive, and within days he was in the hospital, where he would spend the next 39 days, 11 on a ventilator. Trask said he doesnt remember much, but he does recall the isolation, with no family or friends allowed to visit.

The hours went by with Trask lying alone in a hospital.

Youre there all by yourself, and you dont know whats going on, Trask said. Even though the doctors and nurses are coming in with spacesuits on, youre still glad to see them.

Sue Trask, Rons wife, said since she couldnt visit, she would drive by the hospital often. I somehow felt closer to him, just driving by, said Sue Trask, 59.

A retired truck driver, Trask said he is still weak and is having complications months after he left the hospital. My short-term memory is shot, Trask said. I dont have any strength or stamina anymore. I use a walker. The heat bothers me terrible.

Trask said he is also having short-term memory problems, and sometimes has uncomfortable sensations in his lungs. Doctors told him they dont know how long immunity lasts, so when he goes out now, hes very careful.

Trask said he hates to see people not wearing masks, especially people near his age, a more vulnerable age group.

Its so sad to see people my own age think this virus isnt anything to worry about, Trask said. Too bad a lot of the public thinks this is nothing. They really should take it serious.

ALAINA TOMLINSON

Tomlinson, 40, of Cumberland, said its a mystery how she contracted COVID-19 in June, but she is still dealing with aftereffects months later.

I had pretty much every symptom in the book, fever, nausea, coughing, chills, full body rash, shortness of breath, Tomlinson said. I had a lot of weird skin sensations, burning, tingling, hot and cold.

She lost her sense of taste and smell, and she had a metallic taste in her mouth. She had a headache that lasted at least 20 days.

But Tomlinson said by far the scariest symptom was gasping for breath. She was evaluated at a Falmouth respiratory center set up by MaineHealth, and had to keep the oxygen monitor by her bed.

The shortness of breath made sleeping difficult.

I was just absolutely exhausted, and yet I could not sleep, Tomlinson said. Theres a lot of worry and anxiety because you are not in control.

Doctors gave her breathing exercises to try to build up her lung capacity.

I would take five deep breaths, hold the sixth deep breath for five seconds and then on the next exhale cough, Tomlinson said. It took weeks, but her breathing eventually improved.

Tomlinson, a Sanford High School science teacher, said shes still fatigued, and walking up and down stairs tires her now. Lingering symptoms include frequent headaches, joint pain and short-term memory loss. And shes worried about school reopening, although she wants to teach some days in-person. Sanford approved a hybrid plan, so she is teaching in-person four days per week to limited class sizes.

We dont know what the long-term impacts of this disease are yet, Tomlinson said. That gives me pause. Im worried about being reinfected because we dont know how long immunity lasts.

FOZIA ROBLEH

Fozia Robleh, 41, of Lewiston said she visited some friends inside their homes in early June, and thats how she believes she was exposed to the coronavirus.

I started coughing, and had a lot of headache, Robleh said. I told my daughter to stay away from me, this is not normal.

She got tested soon thereafter, and was COVID-19 positive.

Robleh, an immigrant from Djibouti, said she had almost all the symptoms.

I had headaches, body aches, lost smell and taste, out of breath, abnormal heart rate. I would get dizzy. I just didnt have a fever, Robleh said.

After two weeks, she still had headaches, neck pain and an abnormal heart rate. She was isolated in her own home, staying away from her 21-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son. Local immigrant groups helped her by delivering food to their door.

I called the CDC, and they were telling me I was good to go (because more than two weeks had passed), but I was still feeling sick, Robleh said. So she got tested again, and was still positive.

Robleh said her heartbeat became so irregular that in early July she spent a night at St. Marys Regional Medical Center in Lewiston for monitoring.

By late July, she started feeling better and a subsequent test on July 28 came back negative.

But Robleh said she is still not feeling 100 percent.

I am feeling tired all the time, Robleh said. My heartbeat is still irregular, I cough easily and cant sleep very well.

WHITNEY PARRISH

Parrish, 33, of Hallowell, said in late April she started having a deep, painful cough and a fever.

She went to Mid-Coast Hospital in Brunswick, and because tests at that time were in short supply, she was not given a test. At that time, tests were prioritized for front-line health care workers, those living in congregate care centers and those already hospitalized.

They told me, We are going to presume you have it, but go home and dont be around anyone,' said Parrish, an advocate who works in Bangor.

Parrish said her symptoms worsened.

I was short of breath, just going upstairs made me out of breath, and I was sleeping all day, Parrish said. Weeks passed, and she was getting worse.

Intense headaches began, and she started getting pains in her chest.

I was like, What am I supposed to do, this isnt getting any better. Im starting to get nervous,' Parrish said.

Alarmed by the chest pains and an accelerated heart rate, Parrish said she went to MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta, where she underwent a battery of tests.

They said, We dont really know whats happening to you, but we want to make sure youre OK. Every patient we see, this looks different,' Parrish said.

The tests did not show any underlying health conditions, and after a few more weeks, she finally started feeling better. But Parrish said she still tires easily, is more headache-prone and has short-term memory problems.

It was miserable for me, and yet I know its so much worse for other folks, Parrish said.

SARA PAULSEN

Sara Paulsen, 37, said she probably became exposed to COVID-19 while giving many presentations at schools in March about teen mental health, in the final week before the pandemic forced schools to close.

Ten days later, she started feeling ill, with shortness of breath and a fever, and she tested positive for COVID-19. But the symptom that has persisted is feeling out of breath.

I started having these dreams of suffocating or drowning, Paulsen said. It got to the point where I was wondering if I was going to be able to take my next breath.

Doctors gave her medications and instructed her to frequently use a nebulizer, a machine that helps people traditionally with asthma or COPD with their breathing. But symptoms persisted and she also started getting pains in her chest. At Maine Medical Center, they gave her more tests, and discovered blood clots on her lungs, which is one of the COVID-19 complications in some patients.

Paulsen said she took blood thinners, and the clots cleared, but shes still feeling weak and often out-of-breath.

I have pretty severe scarring on my lungs from the virus, said Paulsen, of Cumberland County. It might not ever go away.

Paulsen said she used to be physically active biking and swimming but now a walk around the block is exhausting. Paulsen said she doesnt know if her health will ever return to before she got COVID-19. And she still wears a mask and socially distances, because its not known how long immunity lasts. It bothers her to see people not wearing masks and crowding next to each other.

People really need to know this is not a hoax, Paulsen said. Please do not be any less careful. Please wear masks.

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The Recovered: Mainers tell their COVID-19 stories - Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel

Officials blasted the party in the letter, released days after the gathering when only one confirmed COVID-19 case among partygoers had been confirmed.

Not only did the number of people in attendance exceed the state limit on the number of people at a gathering, but attendees were not wearing masks or adhering to physical distancing guidelines, Michele C. Murray, dean of students, said in the letter.

The letter vowed that the students responsible for the party would be held accountable.

Hosting and attending a gathering of this size, in close quarters, with no masks, is highly irresponsible and violates our most important Holy Cross values of commitment and service to others, she said.

According to Bird, 20 other Holy Cross students linked to the party or in direct contact with partygoers have since contracted the virus. As of Friday, there were 5,803 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Worcester, according to the citys website. At least two other Worcester colleges have reported coronavirus cases in the past 30 days: four each at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Clark University.

In the wake of COVID-positive student cases at Holy Cross, the City has been working collaboratively with the College to identify those who have tested positive as well as those who need to be quarantined, city manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. said in an e-mailed statement to the Globe Sunday. The City intends to meet with College officials as soon as possible to discuss strategies to prevent the spread of the coronavirus on and off-campus.

A college spokesman did not provide details about the party, but said students have been reminded of their responsibilities to each other and to the greater community.

Any student who attended the party has been instructed to get tested and to quarantine themselves for 14 days. Any student who hosts a party will be held accountable under our student conduct policy, the spokesman, John Hill, said in an e-mail.

Hill did not provide information on how many students were told to isolate as a result of the party.

Holy Cross is a Jesuit liberal arts college founded in 1843 with just over 3,000 students , according to the schools website.

College officials spoke more strongly in their letter days after the event, warning students that such behavior jeopardized their presence on campus.

Put simply: We will not be able to welcome back the entire campus community, or even a larger cohort than we have this fall, if students cannot demonstrate the self-discipline, mutual respect, and care for others by following requirements to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The letter, also signed by the colleges director of health services and associate dean of students, said Holy Cross was terribly disappointed by the events of the past weekend. The students who took part in this event should be equally disappointed, officials said.

We can do better. We must do better, they said.

Lucas Phillips can be reached at lucas.phillips@globe.com.

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Holy Cross off-campus party linked to 21 COVID-19 cases - The Boston Globe

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) Its only been a week and a half since college students returned to the University of South Dakota, but already there have been 212 cases of COVID-19 self-reported among students and employees.

Thats why the town of Vermillion made some changes to their normal operations.

On Thursday, all Vermillion bars and restaurants decided to close earlier than usual at 10 p.m., and those new hours are continuing through this weekend. The reason for this change is COVID-19.

Everyone came together as a group and after kind of seeing the numbers and seeing where kind of a concentrated area was going on, we all collectively got together and made a group decision of going, this is whats best for our community, Chad Grunewaldt said.

Grunewaldt owns the Old Lumber Company Bar and Grill. He says the goal of the temporary hours this weekend is to slow the spread of COVID-19.

It economically affects everyone so the more we can slow the spread and keep people in town, the better it is for our community as a whole, Grunewaldt said.

USD President Sheila Gestring hopes that students wont substitute those hours away from the bar for house parties.

Just take a few minutes, step back, settle down for the weekend, see if we cant slow this spread a little bit. And order some take out and support those businesses for making this sacrifice for the students and for the university, Gestring said.

Nate Welch, the President and CEO of the Vermillion Chamber and Development Company, says it was humbling to see the businesses in the city come together for that decision. He echoes Gestrings sentiments.

If you might not be affected and you feel its okay to go to these house parties or you go to places where theres a lot of people, try to help just hold back on that. Theres plenty of time for all of us to enjoy that once we get through it, but right now is just not the best time, Welch said.

USD also made some temporary changes on campus for this weekend. The Muenster University Center is not permitting indoor dining this weekend, outside visitors are not allowed in the residence halls and the Wellness Center is closed.

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Your Guide To Coronavirus

KELOLAND News is covering the COVID-19 pandemic. This is your guide to everything you need to know to prepare. We also have the latest stories from across the globe feeding into this page.

LATEST STORIES

PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) COVID-19 case numbers continue to climb on Sunday, after South Dakota reached new highs in the number of daily and active cases on Saturday.

VERMILLION, S.D. (KELO) Vermillion bars and restaurants are closing at 10 p.m. this weekend.

VERMILLION, S.D. (KELO) Vermillion is taking measures to help slow the spread, with the bars and restaurants of the city all coming together and making the decision to cut down hours this weekend.

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Vermillion bars, restaurants come together to help slow the COVID-19 spread - KELOLAND.com

Photo by Alexander Nguyen

Above: Man walking out of 7-Eleven in Bay Park on Aug. 1, 2020. The business, like many others in the county, is requiring customers to wear a mask before entering the premises to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

San Diego County public health officials reported 277 new COVID-19 cases and five deaths from the illness Thursday, raising the region's totals to 37,499 cases and 673 deaths.

Three women and two men died between July 28 and Aug. 26, and their ages ranged from their early 40s to their early 90s.

Of the 5,235 tests reported Thursday, 5% returned positive, raising the 14-day rolling average of positive tests to 3.7%, well below the state's 8% guideline. The seven-day average number of tests performed in the county is 6,946.

Of the total positive cases in the county, 3,040 or 8.1% have required hospitalization since the pandemic began, and 738 or 2% were admitted to an intensive care unit.

The case rate for the county remained under the state's 100 cases per 100,000 population, at 80.6 per 100,000, which means that schools are still on track to be able to open as soon as Sept. 1.

RELATED: KPBS Joining Voice Of San Diego In Suit Against County For COVID Outbreak Information

County health officials reported three new community outbreaks on Thursday, bringing the number of outbreaks in the past week to 20. Two outbreaks were reported in businesses, the third in a restaurant.

The number of community outbreaks remains well above the county's goal of fewer than seven in a seven-day span. A community setting outbreak is defined as three or more COVID-19 cases in a setting and in people of different households in the past 14 days.

San Diego State University announced Thursday that two more students tested positive for COVID-19 in addition to the two confirmed Wednesday.

"These two cases are unrelated to one another, and are also unrelated to the two cases confirmed yesterday, Aug. 26," the university said in a statement.

"The two students did not interact with campus, or with any SDSU employees outside of the SHS COVID-19 Test Collection Booth, and were not in any other spaces utilized by the campus community," the university said.

Fifteen SDSU students have contracted COVID-19 since March.

County health officials are still awaiting guidance from the state toward a reopening framework for businesses.

KPBS' daily news podcast covering local politics, education, health, environment, the border and more. New episodes are ready weekday mornings so you can listen on your morning commute.

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3 More Community Outbreaks Of COVID-19 Reported In San Diego - KPBS

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo todayannounced that New York State's rate of positive COVID-19 tests has been less than 1 percent for 20 straight days.The governor also updated New Yorkers on the state's progress during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The number of new cases, percentage of tests that were positive and many other helpful data points are always available atforward.ny.gov.

"We're closely monitoring the state's COVID-19 data every day, and the continued 20-day streak with an infection rate below 1 percent is good news. However, I urge New Yorkers not to get complacent, particularly as we move into the fall season,"Governor Cuomo said."COVID-19 is still a real threat, and it's the actions each of us takewearing masks, socially distancing and washing our handsthat make the difference in our ability to fight this virus. Congratulations to New Yorkersstay with it and stay New York Tough."

Yesterday, the State Liquor Authority and State Police Task Force visited 1,092establishments in New York City and Long Island and observed 2establishments that were not in compliance with state requirements. A county breakdown of yesterday's observed violations is below:

Today's data issummarized brieflybelow:

Of the 83,437testresults reported to New York State yesterday, 791, or0.95percent, were positive. Each region's percentage of positive testresults reported over the last three days is as follows:

REGION

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

Capital Region

1.4%

0.5%

1.1%

CentralNew York

0.8%

0.6%

1.4%

Finger Lakes

0.5%

0.5%

0.6%

Long Island

1.1%

0.9%

0.6%

Mid-Hudson

1.0%

0.9%

1.2%

Mohawk Valley

0.8%

0.2%

0.4%

New York City

0.8%

0.9%

0.9%

North Country

0.5%

0.6%

1.2%

Southern Tier

0.3%

0.3%

0.3%

WesternNew York

1.8%

1.4%

2.0%

The Governor also confirmed 791additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 432,131 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 432,131total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:

County

Total Positive

New Positive

Albany

2,736

18

Allegany

87

1

Broome

1,274

6

Cattaraugus

188

3

Cayuga

176

1

Chautauqua

340

30

Chemung

194

0

Chenango

224

1

Clinton

148

1

Columbia

568

4

Cortland

98

0

Delaware

110

1

Dutchess

4,815

17

Erie

9,668

79

Essex

119

14

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Governor Cuomo Announces 20 Straight Days with COVID-19 Infection Rate Below 1 Percent - ny.gov

For Immediate Release: August 26, 2020

Espaol

Silver Spring, MD -- Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the first antigen test where results can be read directly from the testing card, a similar design to some pregnancy tests. This simple design is fast and efficient for healthcare providers and patients and does not need the use of an analyzer.

This new COVID-19 antigen test is an important addition to available tests because the results can be read in minutes, right off the testing card. This means people will know if they have the virus in almost real-time. Due to its simpler design and the large number of tests the company anticipates making in the coming months, this new antigen test is an important advancement in our fight against the pandemic, said Jeff Shuren, M.D., J.D., director of the FDAs Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

HOW IT WORKS:

A healthcare provider swabs the patients nose and twirls that sample on a test card with a testing reagent added. After waiting 15 minutes, the healthcare provider reads the results directly from the testing card. One line indicates a negative result; two lines indicate a positive result.

WHERE IT CAN BE USED:

This test could be used at point-of-care settings, like a doctors office, emergency room or some schools. This test has been authorized for use in patients suspected of COVID-19 by their healthcare provider within seven days of symptom onset. Given the simple nature of this test, it is likely that these tests could be made broadly available. According to the test manufacturer, Abbott, it plans to make up to 50 million tests available monthly in the U.S. at the beginning of October 2020.

TEST DETAILS:

In general, antigen tests are very specific, but are not as sensitive as molecular tests. Due to the potential for decreased sensitivity compared to molecular assays, negative results from an antigen test may need to be confirmed with a molecular test prior to making treatment decisions. Negative results from an antigen test should be considered in the context of clinical observations, patient history and epidemiological information.

The emergency use authorization was issued to Abbott Diagnostics Scarborough, Inc for its BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card.

The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. The agency also is responsible for the safety and security of our nations food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, products that give off electronic radiation, and for regulating tobacco products.

###

08/26/2020

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COVID-19 Update: FDA Authorizes First Diagnostic Test Where Results Can Be Read Directly From Testing Card - FDA.gov