Category: Covid-19

CHARLOTTE COUNTY

Tuesday, a new COVID-19 testing site opens at the Charlotte County Sports Park.

It will provide tests on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. until 11 a.m.

You must be at least 18 to get a test and it is a drive-thru service.

Appointments are not required at that testing facility but healthcare officials say it will speed up the process if you register beforehand.

Doctors stressed how important testing and contact tracing are.

It allows you to narrow down who has it and also who these people are coming in contact with and potentially further spreading the virus.

Thats why the CDC is stressing even if you have minimal to no symptoms you should still get tested.

But remember, if you receive a negative test it doesnt mean youre in the clear.

Receiving a negative diagnosis doesnt put the matter to rest, correct? Because the virus is still out there. So just because youre negative today doesnt mean that you may be negative tomorrow And remember theres an incubation period from 2-14 days, said Dr. Bindu Mayi, Professor of Microbiology at NSUs College of Medical Sciences.

Results could take between 7-10 days to come back, but doctors say they are hoping to speed up that return.

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New COVID-19 testing site opens at the Charlotte County Sports Park - Wink News

Nearly one in six Britons will refuse a coronavirus vaccine if and when one becomes available, and a similar number are unsure whether they will get one, according to a survey.

The findings come amid a significant rise in anti-vaccination sentiment on social media, and represent a threat to efforts to contain the disease.

Our hope for a return to normal life rests with scientists developing a successful vaccine for coronavirus, said Imran Ahmed, the chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a non-profit organisation that commissioned the research. But social media companies irresponsible decision to continue to publish anti-vaccine propaganda means a vaccine may not be effective in containing the virus. The price for their greed is a cost paid in lives.

According to the polling carried out by YouGov for CCDH, 16% of British adults probably or definitely will avoid a Covid-19 vaccine. The poll of 1,663 people found differences between those who get the majority of their news from social media and those who rely more on traditional media: the latter were nine percentage points more likely to say they would definitely or probably get the vaccine.

The 150 largest anti-vaccination social media pages and YouTube channels tracked by CCDH have collected about 8 million more followers since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, and the 400 outlets in the sample have a combined 55 million followers.

Some of those pages have published false conspiracy theories including that Bill Gates created the pandemic, that vaccines cause Covid-19, and that tests for a coronavirus vaccine have caused women to become infertile.

The majority of the followers are on Facebook, despite the company officially opposing anti-vaccination content. In July 2019 the company announced policies to reduce the spread of posts with exaggerated or sensational health claims.

A Facebook product manager said at the time: People come together on Facebook to talk about, advocate for, and connect around things like nutrition, fitness and health issues. But in order to help people get accurate health information and the support they need, its imperative that we minimise health content that is sensational or misleading.

As well as so-called organic sharing, both Facebook and Twitter have enabled advertising opposing vaccination, despite bans on such promotions on both sites. Those adverts come from influencers including David Wolfe, described by the CCDH as an anti-vaccine wellness guru, who promoted a popular panacea, colloidal silver, as my #1 recommendation under the current crisis.

The group said: Other adverts featured Judy Mikovits anti-vaxx conspiracy theories, who featured in the notorious Plandemic film, and adverts placed by Robert F Kennedy Jrs Childrens Health Defense campaign that promote health misinformation about both vaccines and 5G mobile phone signals.

Advertisers can target their promotions at users who Facebooks algorithm has decided may have interests such as vaccine-preventable diseases or who have liked the page Talk About Curing Autism. On Twitter, advertising categories such as antivaxx and natural immunity are available for all to use.

This sophisticated ecosystem has grown by exploiting weaknesses in each social media companys policies on anti-vaxx and health misinformation, Ahmed said. Each platform plays a role in feeding and growing the whole.

Full-time anti-vaxx campaigners doubled their reach by broadcasting their message on YouTube channels that peddle conspiracy theories and false cures. In turn, these campaigners lend their brand and audience of activists to a thriving industry of anti-vaxx entrepreneurs using Facebook as a shopfront.

Ahmed added: Both groups have benefited from the reach of professional conspiracists on YouTube and from a network of Facebook groups that turns vaccine sceptics into true believers using psychological hacks like the dopamine hit for likes and the fear of abuse for nonconformity.

In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson said: We are working to stop harmful misinformation from spreading on our platforms and have removed hundreds of thousands of pieces of COVID-19-related misinformation. We reduce vaccine misinformation in News Feed, we dont show it in search results or recommend it to you on Facebook or Instagram, we dont allow it in ads, and we connect people with authoritative information from recognised health experts.

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Nearly one in six Britons would refuse Covid-19 vaccine survey - The Guardian

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University of Texas staff member dies from COVID-19 complications, campus first fatality - KXAN.com

Italys health minister has proposed sectioning people who refuse hospital treatment for Covid-19 and has suspended flights from Bangladesh as the southern European country grapples with several new coronavirus outbreaks.

The potential move towards forced hospitalisations came after a cluster of infections arose in the northern Veneto region, triggered by a man who developed coronavirus symptoms on the day he returned from a business trip to Serbia and initially resisted treatment in hospital.

The 64-year-old, from Vicenza, is now in a serious but stable condition in hospital. Five others tested positive and 89 people were quarantined after he attended a funeral and birthday party at which there were more than 100 guests.

I am evaluating with my legal department the hypothesis of compulsory health treatment in cases where a person must be treated but [refuses] to be, Roberto Speranza, the health minister, said. At the same time, my thoughts on how Italians have behaved during this crisis are positive, as without this fundamental harmony we would not have bent the [rate of infection] curve.

Speranza also warned that those with Covid-19 who break isolation rules face jail and that the 14-day quarantine measure for people arriving in Italy from countries outside of the Schengen area must be adhered to.

Under Italian law, anyone who negligently spreads an epidemic risks a prison sentence up to 12 years, while anyone who does so wilfully may face up to life imprisonment.

Luca Zaia, the president of the Veneto region, also called for forced hospitalisations and has introduced 1,000 fines for people who flout quarantine rules. He said that until the end of July hospitals must tell the public prosecutors office of anyone refusing admission after testing positive.

Until the recent flare-ups Veneto was hailed for successfully containing the contagion despite being a hotspot at the beginning of Italys pandemic. Another outbreak occurred in the city of Padua when a person returning from Moldova infected 10 others.

Italys Trattamento Sanitario Obbligatorio (mandatory medical treatment) is usually applied only in mental health cases, but can be enforced on those with an infectious disease.

Corriere della Sera reported that the measure had already been taken against an elderly woman from Monza in Lombardy, the region worst affected by the virus, who in early March refused hospital care despite presenting serious symptoms.

The minister said he suspended flights from Bangladesh for a week after a significant number of the over 200 passengers who arrived at Romes Fiumicino airport on Monday from Dhaka tested positive. The tests were enforced after an outbreak among the Bengali community in the Lazio region, where 12 of the 19 cases registered on Monday originated from those had recently returned from Dhaka.

After all the sacrifices made we cannot afford to import infections from abroad, Speranza said. Better to continue to follow the line of utmost caution.

At a national level, the infection and death rate have slowed significantly since Italy began easing lockdown restrictions in early May, with 208 new cases and eight fatalities recorded on Monday. But 19 clusters have emerged across the country since the middle of June, according to a report in Corriere della Sera over the weekend.

The biggest outbreak so far has occurred in Bologna, in Emilia-Romagna, where by early July 117 workers at a courier firm were infected with the virus. In late June, the army was sent to Mondragone, a town near Naples, to seal an apartment complex where an outbreak had occurred among Bulgarian farm workers. Seven hundred residents were quarantined, with 73 testing positive for Covid-19 by 4 July. The next significant outbreak has been in Mantua, a city in Lombardy where 52 infections were detected among workers at two meat factories.

Nicola Zingaretti, the president of Lazio and leader of the Democratic party, one of the parties governing nationally, on Tuesday urged people to respect the rules in order to not waste the sacrifices that have been made.

See more here:

Italy could section people who refuse treatment for Covid-19 - The Guardian

Only 1 of the 8 people is showing symptoms, according to the Newberg School District.

NEWBERG, Ore. Eight people associated with a youth baseball team that includes students who attend Newberg High School or other nearby schools have tested positive for COVID-19, the Newberg School District confirmed.

During a weekend tournament in Roseburg, the Newberg team learned that a team from Roseburg had reported two cases of COVID-19 among their players, according to Newberg School District Superintendent Dr. Joe Morelock.

The Newberg team had no contact with the Roseburg team but they decided to leave the tournament early anyway, Morelock said.

On Friday, July 3, one of the Newberg players tested positive for COVID-19. Everyone associated with the team was notified and told to be tested for COVID-19. As of Monday afternoon, eight people associated with the team have tested positive for the virus.

Only one of the eight people who have tested positive for COVID-19 is showing symptoms.

Morelock said all contact tracing and social distancing protocols have been followed and the team is working with Oregon Health Authority. The names of students and adults who have tested positive will not be released.

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8 people connected to Newberg youth baseball team test positive for COVID-19 - KGW.com

A stretch of DNA linked to Covid-19 was passed down from Neanderthals 60,000 years ago, according to a new study.

Scientists dont yet know why this particular segment increases the risk of severe illness from the coronavirus. But the new findings, which were posted online on Friday and have not yet been published in a scientific journal, show how some clues to modern health stem from ancient history.

This interbreeding effect that happened 60,000 years ago is still having an impact today, said Joshua Akey, a geneticist at Princeton University who was not involved in the new study.

This piece of the genome, which spans six genes on Chromosome 3, has had a puzzling journey through human history, the study found. The variant is now common in Bangladesh, where 63 percent of people carry at least one copy. Across all of South Asia, almost one-third of people have inherited the segment.

Elsewhere, however, the segment is far less common. Only 8 percent of Europeans carry it, and just 4 percent have it in East Asia. It is almost completely absent in Africa.

Its not clear what evolutionary pattern produced this distribution over the past 60,000 years. Thats the $10,000 question, said Hugo Zeberg, a geneticist at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden who was one of the authors of the new study.

One possibility is that the Neanderthal version is harmful and has been getting rarer over all. Its also possible that the segment improved peoples health in South Asia, perhaps providing a strong immune response to viruses in the region.

One should stress that at this point this is pure speculation, said Dr. Zebergs co-author, Svante Paabo, the director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

Researchers are only beginning to understand why Covid-19 is more dangerous for some people than others. Older people are more likely to become severely ill than younger ones. Men are at more risk than women.

Social inequality matters, too. In the United States, Black people are far more likely than white people to become severely ill from the coronavirus, for example, most likely due in part to the countrys history of systemic racism. It has left Black people with a high rate of chronic diseases such as diabetes, as well as living conditions and jobs that may increase exposure to the virus.

Genes play a role as well. Last month, researchers compared people in Italy and Spain who became very sick with Covid-19 to those who had only mild infections. They found two places in the genome associated with a greater risk. One is on Chromosome 9 and includes ABO, a gene that determines blood type. The other is the Neanderthal segment on Chromosome 3.

But these genetic findings are being rapidly updated as more people infected with the coronavirus are studied. Just last week, an international group of scientists called the Covid-19 Host Genetics Initiative released a new set of data downplaying the risk of blood type. The jury is still out on ABO, said Mark Daly, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School who is a member of the initiative.

The new data showed an even stronger link between the disease and the Chromosome 3 segment. People who carry two copies of the variant are three times more likely to suffer from severe illness than people who do not.

After the new batch of data came out on Monday, Dr. Zeberg decided to find out if the Chromosome 3 segment was passed down from Neanderthals.

About 60,000 years ago, some ancestors of modern humans expanded out of Africa and swept across Europe, Asia and Australia. These people encountered Neanderthals and interbred. Once Neanderthal DNA entered our gene pool, it spread down through the generations, long after Neanderthals became extinct.

Most Neanderthal genes turned out to be harmful to modern humans. They may have been a burden on peoples health or made it harder to have children. As a result, Neanderthal genes became rarer, and many disappeared from our gene pool.

But some genes appear to have provided an evolutionary edge and have become quite common. In May, Dr. Zeberg, Dr. Paabo and Dr. Janet Kelso, also of the Max Planck Institute, discovered that one-third of European women have a Neanderthal hormone receptor. It is associated with increased fertility and fewer miscarriages.

Dr. Zeberg knew that other Neanderthal genes that are common today even help us fight viruses. When modern humans expanded into Asia and Europe, they may have encountered new viruses against which Neanderthals had already evolved defenses. We have held onto those genes ever since.

Dr. Zeberg looked at Chromosome 3 in an online database of Neanderthal genomes. He found that the version that raises peoples risk of severe Covid-19 is the same version found in a Neanderthal who lived in Croatia 50,000 years ago. I texted Svante immediately, Dr. Zeberg said in an interview, referring to Dr. Paabo.

Dr. Paabo was on vacation in a cottage in the remote Swedish countryside. Dr. Zeberg showed up the next day, and they worked day and night until they posted the study online on Friday.

Its the most crazy vacation Ive ever had in this cottage, Dr. Paabo said.

Tony Capra, a geneticist at Vanderbilt University who was not involved in the study, thought it was plausible that the Neanderthal chunk of DNA originally provided a benefit perhaps even against other viruses. But that was 40,000 years ago, and here we are now, he said.

Its possible that an immune response that worked against ancient viruses has ended up overreacting against the new coronavirus. People who develop severe cases of Covid-19 typically do so because their immune systems launch uncontrolled attacks that end up scarring their lungs and causing inflammation.

Dr. Paabo said the DNA segment may account in part for why people of Bangladeshi descent are dying at a high rate of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom.

Its an open question whether this Neanderthal segment continues to keep a strong link to Covid-19 as Dr. Zeberg and other researchers study more patients. And it may take discoveries of the segment in ancient fossils of modern humans to understand why it became so common in some places but not others.

But Dr. Zeberg said that the 60,000-year journey of this chunk of DNA in our species might help explain why its so dangerous today.

Its evolutionary history may give us some clues, Dr. Zeberg said.

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Continued here:

DNA Linked to Covid-19 Was Inherited From Neanderthals, Study Finds - The New York Times

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As Alaskans commemorated Independence Day, the state reported another death associated with COVID-19 and 55 more cases among residents and nonresidents.

The 16th reported death of an Alaskan with COVID-19 involved an Anchorage man in his 70s with underlying health conditions, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services spokesman Clinton Bennett said Saturday. The man died in Alaska, though Bennett was not immediately able to clarify when his death occurred.

The state on Friday reported a 15th resident death involving an Anchorage man in his 80s who died in early June. In that case, the virus was listed as a contributing cause of death, the state health department said in a statement.

We are thinking of the loved ones of the person who died, the states chief medical officer, Dr. Anne Zink, said in statement Friday. We are concerned about Alaskas sharp rise in cases and hope everyone takes this as a warning call to limit contacts this weekend, stay six feet apart from non-household members, wear a face mask and wash your hands often.

If you are sick, even with mild COVID-19 symptoms, please isolate yourself and seek testing. We need all Alaskans working together to break infection chains.

Forty-eight residents and seven non-Alaskans newly tested positive for the illness caused by the coronavirus as of Saturday, according to the state health departments COVID-19 dashboard. Since the start of the pandemic, 1,111 Alaskans and 230 nonresidents have tested positive. Of those, 551 resident cases and 174 nonresident cases are active, meaning they are not considered to be recovered from COVID-19.

The new cases reported Saturday continue a surge in daily case counts and active cases since the state lifted most pandemic-related restrictions on businesses and social gatherings in late May. State officials have said they expect coronavirus case numbers to rise as people mix together, but they believed the state had the health care capacity and supply of personal protective equipment to manage an increase in cases.

The influx of new cases has strained the states ability to swiftly conduct contact tracing, however, with new cases now involving dozens or hundreds of contacts as opposed to just a few contacts per case, which was more often the situation earlier in the pandemic. In the states largest city, health officials this week said Anchorage had reached its maximum capacity to conduct contact tracing.

Investigating recent cases and tracking their contacts is a key component in helping limit the spread of the virus.

Three more Alaskans confirmed to be infected with the virus required hospitalization, bringing that total to 72 since the coronavirus was first detected in the state. There were 23 people with suspected or confirmed cases of the illness currently in the hospital, according to state data Saturday, which is down two from the previous day.

Fourth of July celebrations were canceled across the state, prompting Alaskans to celebrate on a smaller scale this weekend and organize their own festivities. Ahead of the holiday, state officials including Gov. Mike Dunleavy urged Alaskans to wear face coverings and maintain a physical distance of 6 feet from other people to avoid spreading the coronavirus.

Southcentral Alaska saw the bulk of new cases reported by the state Saturday. The new cases involve 32 residents of Anchorage, where the city health department confirmed COVID-19 exposure at more than a dozen establishments on specific dates in June. Health officials urged anyone who visited those businesses mostly bars at the specified times to monitor themselves for COVID-19 symptoms and get tested.

Elsewhere in Southcentral, four residents of Wasilla, one in Palmer, two in Willow and one in Soldotna also were confirmed to have COVID-19, according to state data.

The state reported no new cases out of Seward among test results returned Friday, but the city said four new cases emerged there Saturday. (The state reports new virus cases daily based on test results returned the previous day, and the new Seward cases will likely be included in the states count Sunday.) Officials in Seward this week limited gathering sizes, required masks in indoor public spaces and restricted capacity at businesses in an effort to contain an outbreak involving a couple dozen people.

The state on Saturday also reported four cases among residents of Fairbanks, one in Petersburg and one each in smaller communities in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Bethel Census Area and Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula boroughs. The state doesnt report the name of communities smaller than 1,000 people as a means of privacy protection.

The Bristol Bay Area Health Corp. said in a statement that a Bristol Bay-area resident who developed symptoms of COVID-19 after traveling to Anchorage tested positive Friday. That person is self-isolating and several close contacts of theirs were instructed to remain in strict quarantine, the health corporation said, adding that the City of Dillingham and the affected village have also been notified of this new index case.

New nonresident cases include a seafood industry worker and another person in Anchorage, two seafood industry workers in Valdez, two people in Fairbanks and one individual in Juneau. The vast majority of nonresident cases confirmed in the state involve workers in Alaskas seafood industry, whose employees from out of state are generally required to undergo COVID-19 testing or quarantine before being allowed to work here.

On Friday 2,524 tests were run, out of 122,732 tests processed since the start of the pandemic, according to state data. Testing data reflects individual tests that were run, and not necessarily the number of individuals who have been tested.

Alaska health officials continue to urge Alaskans to maintain a distance of 6 feet from non-household members; frequently wash their hands; wear a mask in places where physical distancing is difficult to maintain; wipe down and sanitize frequently touched surfaces; stay home if they feel sick; and get a COVID-19 test if theyre experiencing symptoms of the illness.

Anchorage Daily News reporter Morgan Krakow contributed.

[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.]

Excerpt from:

Alaska reports 16th death tied to COVID-19 and 55 more resident and nonresident cases - Anchorage Daily News

Recent protests in Philadelphia and across the country have drawn young people. But for most of the pandemic, youth have been quarantined and away from their social circles, which could make depression and other mental illness worse. Cory Clark/NurPhoto via Getty Images hide caption

Recent protests in Philadelphia and across the country have drawn young people. But for most of the pandemic, youth have been quarantined and away from their social circles, which could make depression and other mental illness worse.

Audrey just turned 18 and relishes crossing into adulthood: She voted for the first time this year, graduated high school and is college-bound next month. The honors student typically wakes up "a bundle of nerves," she says, which had fueled her work volunteering, playing varsity sports and leading student government.

But for years, she also struggled with anxiety, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder all of which drove her to work harder.

"I was spending so much time on my homework, I felt like I was losing my friends so my thoughts would race over and over again about my friends," says Audrey. "And then I would have the difficult thoughts about suicide and some scarier stuff." (NPR agreed to use only her first name to protect her medical privacy.)

Audrey's psychological struggles landed her in mental health treatment last fall. There, she says, the coping skills she learned gave her perspective on quarantine: "I know all about how seeing friends and seeing people outside and social interaction is vital for survival."

There is a simmering tension between young people's desire to gather socially, and the growing threat from the coronavirus in the United States. The virus is now infecting more people in their teens and 20s than it had earlier in the pandemic, and that's contributing to outbreaks, especially in states in the South and West. As a result, public health officials are imploring young adults to limit social contact and take precautions to help protect their more vulnerable elders. But many young people see continued social isolation as a much greater risk than COVID-19 to their own mental health.

It's not that Audrey isn't worried about the pandemic; in fact, confirmed cases of the coronavirus are spiking in her hometown of Charlotte, N.C. So Audrey wears masks, washes her hands and stays 6 feet from friends. But for her generation, she says, infection isn't the primary threat.

"A lot of people are calling attention to coronavirus because it's right in front of us," she says. "But at the same time, teens' depression rate it's a silent threat."

The health risks of infection differ by generation. For many young adults, life lived at a social distance, with a lack of peer support, comes at a high cost to mental health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says nearly half of people between 18 and 29 report feeling symptoms of anxiety or depression. That's significantly higher that the rate for both their parents and their grandparents. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people under 35.

Yet somehow, says Audrey, that's not talked about as much.

"We haven't seen the government or adults as passionate about the things we really care about, like mental health and climate issues," she says.

It might be tempting to think that FaceTime and Zoom provide substitutes for in-person social outlets, especially for a generation of digital natives who grew up with smartphones. But, therapists say, talking by small screen offers no replacement for a calming hug and can miss the subtleties of a compassionate expression.

Audrey's complaint is a common refrain among the adolescent and young adult patients whom psychologist Lisa Jacobs counsels. It is not that they aren't concerned about the risks of COVID-19, she says; it's just that their risk calculations differ.

"They are appropriately realizing that isolation is a risk for them as well it's a risk factor for depression, and depression is a risk factor for suicide," Jacobs says. "And 8% of American teens attempt suicide each year."

Jacobs says many of her young patients complain older generations failed to address the young people's fears of school shootings and climate change, for example.

"After not being protected, after not being taken seriously, they were asked to take extreme measures to protect other groups and to put themselves at risk by doing so," Jacobs says.

There is a biological basis for young people's need for socialization. Scientists say bonding isn't a luxury; it's critical for development.

Young brains need social connection to feel secure about their identity and place in the world, says Gregory Lewis, who studies the neurobiology of social interaction at Indiana University.

"We expect as a human being to have other people there to share the stressful times and to be our backup, and when they're not there physically, that in of itself tells our nervous system 'you're in a dangerous environment because you don't have these people here,' " he says.

That is less of an issue among older adults, Lewis says, who have had more time to develop their social networks both at work and around their community and more time to find partners who can help ground them emotionally. By contrast, he says, "younger people are missing a larger percentage of what previously was there to buffer them."

So the societal challenge, he says, is to find ways to help community members of all ages balance the risks of infection against the need to foster those essential social bonds.

Originally posted here:

Why Some Young People Fear Social Isolation More Than COVID-19 - NPR

Noting the mild winter on the East Coast, Sapi says, "We do have a bad year for the ticks."

Hikers, campers and anyone else eager for an escape could "just explode into the outdoors. And there may not be the same thoughtful approach" to preventing exposure, explains Dr. Sorana Segal-Maurer, director of the Dr. James J. Rahal, Jr. Division of Infectious Diseases at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens health care system.

"I'm a little nervous that their guard may be down just a slight bit," she adds.

Outdoor crowds were so big around Memorial Day weekend, that parks from southern California to North Carolina had to close early after hitting capacity.

Last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a rise in Lyme and other tick-borne diseases, with seven additional germs identified in the US in the last two decades, while the "lone star tick" expanded its footprint beyond the southeast to northern states and the Midwest.

But ignoring basic steps that reduce the risk of tick and vector-borne illnesses to focus solely on Covid-19 prevention is just one danger. Another is the possibility of confusing the symptoms if you start feeling sick.

Lyme disease and Covid-19: a tale of similar symptoms

Warning signs for tick-borne illnesses are "very similar to the severity that we've seen with Covid-19, which is that fever, the muscle aches, the headaches, the severe fatigue," says Dr. Segal-Maurer.

She believes a unique difference is that breathing problems are common in coronavirus patients, but not with those infected by tick diseases. Yet even that distinction is up for debate.

"Pulmonary involvement, even to a fatal degree, has been documented in a range of tick-borne infections," Dr. Steven Phillips of the Bay Area Lyme Foundation tells CNN. "Although serious pulmonary involvement with vector-borne infections is relatively uncommon, non-specific pulmonary complaints, such as shortness of breath, are extremely common."

Even if you follow the Covid-19 tips, heeding the advice to avoid bites is just as important. Dr. Segal-Maurer describes a "realistic" scenario if you're on a crammed hiking trail: "You're all going to be pushing into the vegetation ... you're going to be just a little bit off the path."

Ticks "hang off the very tip of the blade of grass or the leaf or the vegetation, and they have these little feelers that they ... sort of shake out there. So, the second you brush by, they latch on."

Last month, Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine announced an increase in emergency room visits over the past several months "related" to tick bites. "Some symptoms of Lyme disease, such as fever, chills and headache, are similar to symptoms of COVID-19," Dr. Levine said in a statement, reiterating what other experts say.

Head outside -- but responsibly

Dr. Segal-Maurer says health care professionals always need to ask patients about their travel and other activities. "You have to cover all your bases... we don't want to be Covid-blinded."

Patients, in turn, should also be asking about both possibilities.

And when it comes to guarding yourself from ticks, she says, "You need to use DEET. It's gotta be 30%. You need to watch where you hike. And then you need to do a body check when you get back inside."

Dr. Phillips prefers Permethrin, which he says is stronger, but "can only be sprayed on clothes, not skin, and should be allowed to dry overnight before wearing."

Other tips include putting on hats, light-colored clothing to make ticks easier to spot, placing socks over your pants and choosing long-sleeved shirts to block ticks from getting near your skin.

That, of course, is in addition to wearing a mask to fight coronavirus spread.

Yet even with the extra hassle for a safer summer getaway, Dr. Segal-Mauer encourages people to head outside this summer because she believes "it's been such a traumatic several months. I think the great outdoors is a very healing place."

View original post here:

Why tick season could be worse in the summer of Covid-19 - CNN

TheWest Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR)reports as of 10:00 a.m., on July 3, 2020, there have been 179,995 totalconfirmatory laboratory results receivedfor COVID-19, with 3,077 total cases and 93 deaths.

In alignment with updated definitions fromthe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the dashboard includes probablecases which are individuals that have symptoms and either serologic (antibody)or epidemiologic (e.g., a link to a confirmed case) evidence of disease, but noconfirmatory test.

CASES PER COUNTY (Case confirmed by lab test/Probable case):Barbour(15/0), Berkeley (444/18), Boone (20/0), Braxton (3/0), Brooke (8/1), Cabell(139/6), Calhoun (2/0), Clay (10/0), Fayette (67/0), Gilmer (13/0), Grant(15/1), Greenbrier (60/0), Hampshire (42/0), Hancock (21/3), Hardy (44/1),Harrison (66/0), Jackson (143/0), Jefferson (230/5), Kanawha (323/9), Lewis(19/1), Lincoln (8/0), Logan (26/0), Marion (61/3), Marshall (40/1), Mason (19/0),McDowell (6/0), Mercer (46/0), Mineral (55/2), Mingo (19/3), Monongalia(181/14), Monroe (13/1), Morgan (19/1), Nicholas (12/1), Ohio (100/1),Pendleton (12/1), Pleasants (4/1), Pocahontas (28/1), Preston (68/15), Putnam(59/1), Raleigh (54/1), Randolph (161/1), Ritchie (2/0), Roane (11/0), Summers(2/0), Taylor (16/1), Tucker (6/0), Tyler (4/0), Upshur (20/1), Wayne (114/1),Wetzel (10/0), Wirt (4/0), Wood (102/8), Wyoming (7/0).

As case surveillance continues at thelocal health department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certaincounty may not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individualin question may have crossed the state border to be tested.Such is the case of Kanawha County in this report.

Please visit thedashboard at http://www.coronavirus.wv.gov for more information.

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COVID-19 Daily Update 7-3-2020 - 10 AM - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources