Category: Covid-19

Tambo and her daughters had first came to the Peruvian capital from a remote village in the Amazon rainforest, so that her oldest, Amelie, could become the first member of the family to attend university.

The 17-year-old had won a prestigious scholarship to study at Lima's Universidad Cientfica del Sur, and the family had big dreams. They would rent a small room, help Amelie get started and Maria would scrape together some money working in a restaurant.

After nearly two months of quarantine, they had no money left to pay for their rented room or for food. Tambo decided to return to their village in the Ucayali region, 350 miles away.

With public transportation shut down the only option was to make the journey by foot. "I know the danger I am putting my children in, but I don't have a choice," she said. "I either die trying to get out of here or starve to death in my room."

Escaping the city

I met Tambo, 40, through a WhatsApp group where thousands of Peruvians talked about how they would leave Lima to return to their homes. "I haven't left my house since the government declared the quarantine," she told me. "But I no longer have any money."

She agreed to let me follow her on the dangerous journey, to tell her story, unsure of what the outcome would be.

Tambo and her daughters left Lima in early May. She wore a facemask and carried infant Melec on her back along with a large multi-colored backpack sprinkled with little hearts. Amelie and seven-year-old Yacira trudged by her side, lugging their own packs. A pink bear hung from Yacira's backpack.

Their epic journey, along dusty highways, railway tracks and dark country roads, would take the Tambos through the high-altitude Andes region before they would reach the Amazon rainforest -- a perilous route for a woman traveling alone with three children.

Walking in the heat, hour after hour, we watched them press ahead. Water and food were scarce, Tambo's emotions were raw. She cried as she sang softly to her baby Melec. "There is no path, you make your own path walking," she hummed.

There were moments of kindness and relief as they broke up the journey by hitching a few rides along the way. One driver tossed them food as he drove by. But most of the time, Tambo and her daughters walked.

On the third day, as they struggled in the thin air near the Andes, 15,000 feet above sea-level, we saw one trucker take pity on the family, giving them a ride to the next town and sharing some of his food. "I have walked so much," she told the driver, trying to hold back the tears of gratitude.

It was a brief respite for their feet. "My daughter's hands were turning purple," she told him. "I thought she wasn't going to make it."

Checkpoints along the way

The way home involved more than endurance. Tambo also had to navigate police checkpoints set up to prevent residents from Lima, the country's coronavirus epicenter, from spreading the virus to rural areas.

In San Ramon, just before Tambo entered the jungle, we watched a police officer interrogate her. "You cannot pass here with children," the officer said. Tambo negotiated with him. "I am only going back to my farm, in Chaparnaranja, where I have been for a week already."

It was a lie. She could not tell the officer she was coming from Lima, or he wouldn't allow her to continue on her journey.

But the exhausted mother persevered. She was doing what she had to do to survive, she told us. The virus was not as scary as dying from hunger.

After seven days and nights, and 300 miles traveled, Tambo and her children made it to her home province, the Ucayali region, where the indigenous Ashaninka people also live.

A final hurdle lay on their path -- entry to the territory was prohibited because of the virus.

"What would happen if an infected person comes in? How do we escape?" one of the local Ashaninka leaders told us. "The only respirator we have is the air. Our health center does not have anything to combat the virus."

But Tambo was determined. She negotiated with the local leaders and was permitted to go home -- on the condition that she and the kids isolate themselves for 14 days.

They arrived at night, Tambo was overwhelmed as the family dogs ran to greet them. She dropped to her knees and sobbed, thanking God for delivering her home, as the animals wagged their tails and nuzzled against the infant in her arms.

As the tears flowed, her husband, Kafet, and her father-in-law emerged from the darkness.

There was joy but distance. Nobody could touch. Nobody could hug because of the virus.

"It was so difficult, we suffered so much," she told them through her tears.

"I don't ever want to go to Lima again. I thought I would die there with my girls."

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She walked hundreds of miles with her daughters to the Amazon to escape Covid-19 - CNN

For several weeks in May, it seemed as though the coronavirus was finally ebbing: National case counts, which rose astronomically earlier in the spring, had leveled off. States had started the process of reopening.

Now, cases are rising again, prompting fears that a second wave has hit the U.S.

NBC News reached out to several experts who study patterns of disease. All agreed: No, this isn't a second wave.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

A second wave of the coronavirus suggests that the first wave has come and gone. That hasn't happened.

"We never made it out of the first wave," said Dr. David Weber, medical director of hospital epidemiology at the University of North Carolina Medical Center in Chapel Hill.

Weber likened waves of infectious disease to ocean waves. "When you're 10 feet up on the shore and the wave hits you, it recedes all the way back," he said. "Now you're on dry land with no puddle beneath."

But with COVID-19, he said, "we still got a big puddle there."

The word "wave" comes from the curve used to visualize the number of people infected during an outbreak. If more people get sick every day, the curve goes up. If fewer people get sick every day, the curve goes down.

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"Flattening the curve" that is, stopping the rise of the number of new daily cases and causing it to level off but not necessarily go down is important because it gives health care systems a chance to spread out resources so they don't get overwhelmed. That's where the U.S. is overall sitting atop a plateau of new daily cases as businesses begin to reopen.

"A second wave implies that the first wave has disappeared and reappeared," said Loren Lipworth, an epidemiologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. "I don't think that is what we're seeing here in the U.S."

Instead, the U.S. appears to be going through a constant chain of smaller spikes. Lipworth referred to them as "waves of infection" rather than one big, cresting wave that has come and gone.

While cases have significantly decreased in the hardest-hit states, New York and New Jersey, they're increasing in states like Arkansas, Arizona and South Carolina.

Those states "didn't have much disease activity early in the pandemic but are now seeing an upswing," said Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. In other words, their first waves are just beginning.

Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

Another way to consider whether an area has gotten through the first wave of an infectious disease is to look at levels of community spread, or transmissions of the virus that can't be traced to a source.

It's only when areas can get through one to two weeks without community spread, Weber said, that they would qualify as having passed that first wave. Indeed, community spread is still occurring across much of the country.

It's possible that the current plateau will stay on the same course over the summer, without decreasing significantly, and then spike even more this fall as schools reopen and the annual flu season begins. That's not necessarily a "second wave" but an even bigger rise on top of the current series of smaller crests.

"There is a possibility that we will see a resurgence in the fall," Rivers said. "But there's a lot of open questions, because we've never seen this virus before."

Scientists can base predictions only on past pandemics, such as the 1918 influenza pandemic.

The first wave of that infection was in July, when influenza viruses generally don't transmit well because of higher temperatures and because people generally spend more time outdoors.

That wave largely subsided during August and September, but cases spiked significantly in October and November 1918 in a second wave. The return of the illness was largely blamed on authorities' downplaying the significance of the virus and allowing large public gatherings to continue, particularly in Philadelphia.

As a result, 12,000 people died in Philadelphia. In contrast, immediate social distancing in St. Louis resulted in just 1,700 deaths.

Indeed, the potential for a bigger surge of COVID-19 will also depend on the actions of people. Unlike the actual ocean, there are ways to slow the waves of the virus or at least minimize its risks.

"If people become less compliant with physical distance and masks," Weber said, "we're going to see more cases."

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Erika Edwards is a health and medical news writer and reporter for NBC News and "TODAY."

The rest is here:

Is this the second wave of COVID-19 in the U.S.? Or are we still in the first? - NBC News

RICHMOND, Va. (WHSV) As of Wednesday, June 17, Virginia has had 55,775 total cases of COVID-19, including confirmed lab tests and clinical diagnoses, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

That's a rise of 444 cases since Tuesday, out of 9,696 tests newly added to the system, which comes out to 4.6% of the newest tests coming back positive a significantly lower proportion than the current total state average.

Virginia is in the second week of Phase 2 of Governor Ralph Northam's Forward Virginia plan for reopening, which allowed indoor dining to begin again with limited capacity, gyms and fitness centers open to indoor classes with restrictions, zoos and museums to reopen, and more outlined in Executive Order 65.

On June 16, Gov. Northam announced that Virginia will not enter Phase 3 until next week at the earliest.

State officials are basing any decisions about moving into each phase, as well as any potential increase on restrictions if spikes happen, on 7-day and 14-day trends in the data.

For the past several weeks, those trends have been good news: with increasing test capacity, decreasing percentage positivity (the number of cases confirmed as a ratio of the amount of testing), and decreasing hospitalizations though other states are now seeing new spikes.

Over the past week, there were 470 newly reported cases(at 4.5% positivity) from Wednesday to Thursday, 564 (with unclear percent positivity due to a correction of backlogged tests) from Thursday to Friday, 658 (at 6.1% positivity) from Friday to Saturday, 637 (at 6.1% positivity) from Saturday to Sunday, 380 (at 3.6% positivity) from Sunday to Monday, and 445 (at 6.8% positivity) from Monday to Tuesday.

Most tests are PCR tests that take several days to process, and the majority of people still only get tested when symptomatic and symptoms can take up to two weeks to develop, so test results reported each day reflect what the situation in Virginia looked like several days before. Antibody tests process results faster, but test whether someone has had the virus in the past: not necessarily if they currently have it.

Virginia has been meeting the governor's benchmark of steady PPE supplies and open hospital capacity for more than a month now, with 4,519 hospital beds available and no Virginia hospitals reporting any supply problems although at least 7 licensed nursing facilities are reporting PPE supply problems. The governor has said in recent press conferences that those facilities need to reach out to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management to request more supplies from the state's stockpile.

The commonwealth increased from around 2,000 tests a day in late April to the 5,000 range in the start of May, and was steadily hitting around 10,000 a day by the end of May, which Dr. Karen Remley, head of Virginia's testing task force, said was the goal for Phase 1. Testing has remained around that level since then.

The executive order requiring Virginians to wear face coverings when entering indoor businesses that went into effect across Virginia on May 29 will remain in effect for Phase 2 and indefinitely into the future.

By June 17, the Virginia Department of Health had received reports of 53,318 confirmed and 2,457 probable cases of COVID-19 across the commonwealth.

"Probable" cases are cases that were diagnosed by a doctor based on symptoms and exposure without a test also known as clinical diagnoses.

Those positive test results are out of 546,685 total tests administered in Virginia, which included 491,884 PCR tests and 54,801 antibody tests (The Dept. of Health announced in May that they would break testing data down by diagnostic and antibody tests.)

Last week, from from Tuesday to Wednesday, 7,492 new PCR tests and 419 new antibody tests were reported; from Wednesday to Thursday, 9,053 new PCR tests and 1,370 new antibody tests; and from Thursday to Friday, 93,505 new PCR tests and 1,474 new antibody tests. This week, from Sunday to Monday, there were 9,976 new PCR tests and 674 new antibody tests; from Monday to Tuesday, 6,451 new PCR tests and 106 new antibody tests; and from Tuesday to Wednesday, 8,860 new PCR tests and 836 new antibody tests.

A lot of the testing has been conducted through health department-sponsored community testing events around the commonwealth, through which state health officials have said the goal is to get tests into areas in the most need, and those events do not turn anyone away, regardless of symptoms.

Overall, considering testing numbers and positive results, about 10.2% of Virginians who have been tested have received positive results. At the start of May, that percentage was standing steadily around 17%, but with increased testing, it's come down over time. However, some localities have higher percentages, as outlined in our "local cases" section below.

At this point, 5,692 Virginians have been hospitalized due to the disease caused by the virus, and at least 1,583 have died of causes related to the disease.

The hospitalization and death numbers are totals confirmed by the Virginia Department of Health, which are always delayed by several days due to the logistics of medical facilities reporting information to local health districts, which then report it to the state health department.

The hospitalization numbers are cumulative they represent the total number of people hospitalized due to the disease throughout the pandemic and not the total number currently in the hospital. For current hospitalization stats, the VHHA offers more helpful data.

The state website shows a lot of detail by locality, including hospitalizations and deaths for each city or county, and are broken down by zip code here, if you want to track cases on a neighborhood level.

Overall, according to the Virginia Department of Health's June 17 breakdown, 546,685 tests have been run for the virus in Virginia, with 55,775 positive results.

The department's breakdown and location map, available to the public here, shows the number of cases confirmed each day, number of people tested, total hospitalizations, total deaths, demographic breakdowns, and testing numbers, as well as breakdowns by health district.

Here's a breakdown of cases for our region as of 9 a.m. on June 17. You can find the breakdown for the entire state in the chart at the bottom of this article.

Numbers sometimes decrease day to day when the health department determines that a test initially reported in one locality was actually for a resident of another city, county, or state.

Central Shenandoah: 1,820 total cases Augusta County - 157 (+5 from Tuesday) Buena Vista - 12 Harrisonburg - 864 (+5 from Tuesday) Highland County - 3 Lexington - 8 Rockbridge County - 18 (-1 from Tuesday) Rockingham County - 636 (+7 from Tuesday) Staunton - 61 (+1 from Tuesday) Waynesboro - 58 (+3 from Tuesday)Outbreaks: 18, with 7 in long-term care facilities, 1 in a healthcare setting, 8 in congregate settings, 1 in a correctional facility, and 1 in an educational setting | 566 cases associated with outbreaksTotal tests: 13,821Local percent positive: 13.2%

Lord Fairfax: 1,764 total cases Clarke County - 40 Frederick County - 440 (+5 from Tuesday) Page County - 256 Shenandoah County - 522 (+6 from Tuesday) Warren County - 233 Winchester - 273 (+4 from Tuesday)Outbreaks: 20, with 8 in long-term care facilities, 4 in healthcare settings, 7 in congregate settings, and 1 in a correctional facility | 573 cases associated with outbreaksTotal tests: 16,694Local percent positive: 10.6%

Thomas Jefferson: 713 total cases Albemarle County - 293 Charlottesville - 161 (+1 from Tuesday) Fluvanna County - 103 (+1 from Tuesday) Greene County - 46 (+1 from Tuesday) Louisa County - 101 (+2 from Tuesday) Nelson County - 18Outbreaks: 13, with 4 in long-term care facilities, 2 in correctional facilities, 6 in congregate settings, and 1 in an educational setting | 176 cases associated with outbreaksTotal tests: 15,861Local percent positive: 4.5%

Rappahannock Rapidan: 1,382 total cases Culpeper County - 790 (+3 from Tuesday) Fauquier County - 398 (+5 from Tuesday) Madison County - 42 Orange County - 135 (+2 from Tuesday) Rappahannock County - 17Outbreaks: 8, with 3 in long-term care facilities, 1 in a healthcare setting, and 4 in congregate settings | 118 cases associated with outbreaksTotal tests: 11,354Local percent positive: 12.2%

Local outbreaks

As numbers have climbed in parts of the Shenandoah Valley, much of the increase has been attributable to outbreaks within particular facilities. By June 17, the Central Shenandoah Health District had identified 18 outbreaks and the Lord Fairfax Health District had 20.

Health department officials have not specified the majority of the locations of our outbreaks, because the Virginia Department of Health has interpreted Virginia code as treating facilities the same as "persons," meaning their anonymity has to be protected. So information about outbreaks is only released to the public if a facility grants permission for that to be released, and that has not been often.

Of the outbreaks in our area, several have been confirmed at long-term care centers, including at Accordius Health Harrisonburg, where 22 patients died of COVID-19; here" target="_blank">Skyview Springs, where there have been 16 confirmed deaths; Ritenour Rest Home in Staunton, where Augusta Health has confirmed a "COVID situation" but no exact numbers have been provided; Sunnyside Communities, with at least 5 cases among residents and staff as of June 3; and three outbreaks in Shenandoah County, including one at an unnamed nursing home and two at unnamed assisted living facilities.

The largest of those outbreaks was the one at Accordius Health Harrisonburg, where 81 residents and 12 staff members tested positive for COVID-19 in April. By Tuesday, May 5, the facility confirmed 22 deaths due to coronavirus. By a little later in May, the large majority of patients had recovered from the virus.

In Page County, the outbreak at Skyview Springs Rehab resulted in 59 residents and 23 staff members testing positive for the virus. By May 13, here" target="_blank">16 people there had died of COVID-19-related causes. The facility has 115 residents total.

Dr. Colin Greene, with the Lord Fairfax Health District, told WHSV in May that the Skyview Springs outbreak was the only major outbreak in the Page County area.

However, he said they were monitoring five active outbreaks in Shenandoah County. Due to Virginia code preventing the identification of facilities with outbreaks, he could not identify the exact locations, but said two were at businesses, two at assisted living facilities, and one at a nursing home.

Outbreaks have also been confirmed at New Market Poultry, the Harrisonburg Men's Diversion Center, with at least 25 positive cases, and LSC Communications, which had at least six cases by the end of April but then stopped providing updates on their employee hotline so that media outlets would not have access to the information, which was not publicly provided.

On May 26, RSW Regional Jail confirmed at least 15 people at the facility had tested positive for COVID-19, as the outbreak identified inside a correctional facility in the Lord Fairfax Health District. A day later, that number was up to 18 positive tests.

New Market Poultry Products, which has more than 100 employees working on a daily basis, confirmed near the end of April that they had multiple employees test positive though an exact number was not provided and no update has come since then.

None of the other Shenandoah Valley poultry plants have released any information about COVID-19 cases to the public, but 18 workers tested positive at the Pilgrim's Pride in Moorefield, W.Va. and Cargill in Dayton has confirmed the death of one employee due to COVID-19 though never any information on the number of cases at the facility.

Poultry plants and other meat processing facilities have been hotspots for the virus across the country and a focus of Gov. Northam's in Virginia. State health commissioner Dr. Norm Oliver has also referenced the situation at poultry plants in Harrisonburg leading to a disproportionate number of cases among the Latino community in the Shenandoah Valley, though, again the facilities themselves have released no information publicly.

The only exact number for poultry workers that has been provided is that as of May 20, at least 317 poultry plant workers living in the Central Shenandoah Health District had tested positive.

Many of the local outbreaks that do not have confirmed locations have been identified in congregate settings, which could include workplaces, apartment complexes, churches, gyms, or any setting with a group of people in one place. While WHSV has received reports from viewers about specific stores, for instance, if the business does not provide consent for their information to be shared, the health department cannot confirm any information about cases there.

Hospitalizations

Of the state's 5,692 total hospitalizations, at least 145 have been in the Central Shenandoah Health District. Of those, 6 have been in Augusta County, 1 in Buena Vista, 68 in Harrisonburg, 63 in Rockingham County, 6 in Staunton, and 3 in Waynesboro.

In the Lord Fairfax Health District, there have been at least 149 hospitalizations. Fifty-two of those have been in Shenandoah County and 28 in Page County.

Deaths

As far as deaths, there have been 27 reported in Shenandoah County, 24 in Page County, two in Augusta County, 22 in Harrisonburg, and seven in Rockingham County.

Deaths, like all health department data, are reported by a person's listed residence.

Dr. Norm Oliver, the state's health commissioner, has said that it often takes several days before local health districts are able to enter death information into the state database. Dr. Laura Kornegay, director of the Central Shenandoah Health District, told WHSV that deaths first have to be reported to them by medical facilities, which is a major cause for delays that have often been seen on the numbers reported for our area.

Dr. Kornegay also explained that if someone has tested positive for COVID-19, that's what goes on their death certificate. Those death certificates have a space to list secondary causes of death, and that's where ongoing health issues like heart disease and cancer are listed. Some people have accused medical facilities of artificially inflating death tolls by doing that, but it's the same process by which flu deaths are reported every year.

Recovery

Wondering about the number of people who have recovered from COVID-19 in Virginia? Recovery information is not required to be sent to the Department of Health, so there is no accurate way to track that data for every single confirmed case. Individual health districts may track cases as "active" and "non-active," but that data is not published anywhere in aggregate.

But there is a way to track the number of patients who were hospitalized due to COVID-19 and have since been discharged effectively tracking how many people have recovered from the most severe cases.

The Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association updates their own dashboard of data each day on hospital-specific statistics, including bed availability, ventilator usage, and more. Their online dashboard indicates that, as of June 17, at least 7,429 COVID-19 patients have been discharged from the hospital.

Unlike the VDH data that reports cumulative hospitalizations, their data on hospitalizations reflects people currently hospitalized for COVID-19 (whether with confirmed or pending cases), and that number is at 938.

The data used by the VDH to report cumulative hospitalizations is based on information reported in hospital claims. On the other hand, the numbers reported by the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association are based on a current census from hospitals, which provides a separate data set.

West Virginia updates

In the part of West Virginia we cover, there have been 16 cases in Grant County, 41 cases in Hardy County, and 13 cases, along with one death, in Pendleton County.

Timing of VDH data

The Virginia Department of Health COVID-19 website is updating with the latest statewide numbers somewhere between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. each day. In recent days, that has steadily creeped closer to 10 a.m.

The numbers that appear on that list are based on the cases that had been submitted to the department by 5 p.m. the previous day, so there is always some lag between when local health districts announce positive test results and when the department's numbers reflect those new results.

Reporting by local health districts

Our Virginia counties are primarily served by the Central Shenandoah Health District, which covers Augusta, Bath, Highland, Rockbridge and Rockingham counties, as well as the cities of Buena Vista, Harrisonburg, Lexington, Staunton and Waynesboro; and the Lord Fairfax Health District, which covers Shenandoah, Page, Frederick, Warren, and Clarke counties, as well as the city of Winchester.

Most of Virginia officially entered Phase 2 of Gov. Northam's plan to gradually reopen the state on June 5. Richmond and Northern Virginia remain in Phase 1 until the data trends in those areas better match the rest of the commonwealth, which has seen declining percent positivity and increasing test capacity.

Executive Order 63 will remain in effect throughout Phase 2, making it mandatory for almost all Virginians to wear face coverings when entering businesses. You can learn how that will be enforced here.

Under Phase 2, Executive Order 53 has been modified extensively, with more and more non-essential businesses allowed to reopen and Virginia's 10-person gathering limit increased to a 50-person gathering limit.

That limit, like the original 10-person limit, is enforceable for indoor gatherings.

Executive Order 55, the 'Stay at Home' order first signed by Northam on March 30, is now a 'Safer at Home' order, encouraging Virginians to continue staying home whenever possible as the safest way to prevent COVID-19's spread and specifically telling Virginians vulnerable to the virus to stay home except for essential needs.

Virginia's state of emergency, which was originally set until June 10, was extended by Governor Northam on May 26 to run indefinitely.

The Virginia Supreme Court's judicial emergency, which suspended all non-essential, non-emergency court hearings, expired on May 17 and court hearings across most of Virginia resumed on Monday, May 18. But a few weeks later, on June 8, the Supreme Court of Virginia acted on Gov. Northam's request to halt all eviction proceedings through at least June 28.

DMV offices in Virginia began gradually reopening on Monday, May 18, and continue to open up more customer service centers around the state for appointments to handle business that can only be carried out in-person.

Extensions have been granted to people with expiring credentials for themselves or their vehicles, like licenses and registrations, and Virginia State Police have not been enforcing inspections.

Virginia's primaries in June have been postponed by two weeks. Virginia officials are encouraging all voters to request absentee ballots.

Most people don't suffer much from COVID-19, but it can cause severe illness in the elderly and people with existing health problems.

It spreads primarily through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Those droplets may land on objects and surfaces. Other people may contract the virus by touching those objects or surfaces and then touching their eyes, nose, or mouth.

The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 can cause mild to more severe respiratory illness. In a small proportion of patients, COVID-19 can cause death, particularly among those who are older or who have chronic medical conditions. Symptoms include fever, cough, and difficulty breathing. Symptoms appear within 14 days of being exposed to an infectious person.

To lower the risk of respiratory germ spread, including COVID-19, the Virginia Department of Health encourages the following effective behaviors:

Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer only if soap and water are not available. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth. Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) when coughing or sneezing. Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces. Stay home when you are sick. Avoid contact with sick people. Avoid non-essential travel.

There is currently no vaccine to prevent or antiviral medication to treat COVID-19. The best way to avoid illness is preventing exposure, which is why governments around the world have implemented Stay at Home orders.

Continued here:

COVID-19 cases rise by 444 in Virginia, with trends continuing to improve - WHSV

Lisa Burhannan could be seen everywhere in Harrisburg.

She worked in the school district, taught classes at the prison and served meals to the homeless. She supervised a re-entry home for women and volunteered as a hospital chaplain.

If tragedy struck, she would rush to the scene, ready to assist grieving relatives.

If someone she loved had a special event, she was seated in the front row.

Even after Burhannan, 50, came down with pneumonia and tested positive for COVID-19 in late May, she kept up her efforts.

From her hospital bed in the intensive care unit last week, she sent her goddaughter money to get her nails done for a high school red carpet event and hosted a video conference on Zoom as coordinator of the Harrisburg chapter of Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice.

Days later, on June 11, she died, leaving behind her father, son, daughter, four grandchildren and a gaping hole in the nonprofit and volunteer circles of Harrisburg. Her death came nearly two months after the city lost School Board Member Gerald Welch to COVID-19.

Youll never be able to replace Lisa Burhannan, said Kevin Dolphin, who worked with her at his nonprofit, Breaking the Chainz. Never. She helped so many people. Its hard to believe shes gone. She was a role model and one who changed peoples lives.

Funeral services are set for 11 a.m. Saturday at the bandshell at Reservoir Park, with visitation from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Face masks are required as well as social-distancing.

In the months before she died, Burhannan helped open chapters of Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice in York and Philadelphia, Dolphin said.

She had been active in the organization since 2017 and passionate about reducing violence and supporting crime victims and their families after losing her son to gun violence in the city in 2009.

Lisa posed with Kevin Dolphin and a citation they received from the Pa. House of Representatives for their work.

Burhannan also worked to help formerly incarcerated people by overseeing a community restoration center on 6th Street for Breaking the Chainz, Dolphin said.

As part of her work, she taught classes at the prison. Burhannan had a presence and booming voice that commanded respect, friends said. She had credibility as someone who previously ran the streets when she was younger, but turned her life around and became a devoted follower of God.

Burhannan fiercely loved her family and doted on her grandchildren. She and her grandsons other grandmother, Paulette Smith, often would joke about who spoiled the boy more.

He has you wrapped about his pinky, Burhannan would say, and Smith would retort: Youre on the other pinky.

Burhannan also had a playful sense of humor. She loved snapping pictures of friends when they were least expecting it and then posting the photos on social media.

She also carried a large cup of ice with her, nearly everywhere she went, so she could chew on the ice. It could be freezing out and shed still have her cup of ice, friends said.

At church, she was known to show up late, make her way to the front of the church and ask whomever was sitting in the front pew to scoot over so she could have her usual seat.

Lisa didnt have an inside voice at all, Smith said. She would be whispering on the front row and you could hear it all the way in the back of the church.

Burhannan was funny, but when she had a project at hand, she meant business, said Ralph Rodriguez, who worked with her at Breaking the Chainz.

She really wanted to help people, he said. Sometimes that meant snapping at people and she would do it to get them in line.

Rodriguez said he was on a Zoom call with Burhannan in the days before she died, and they were talking about how the pandemic was impacting their efforts to help the community.

She led the meeting, and we could hear her coughing and gasping, Rodriguez said. But she held it together. She was strong as an ox. We closed the meeting out with a prayer.

Antoinette Black said shell never forget Burhannans loyalty after her mother died in a house fire two years ago while saving several grandchildren.

When my mom passed, Lisa was at my house every day, Black said of her cousin.

Burhannan helped make calls, receive guests, coordinate the service and talk to news reporters on behalf of the family, Black said.

Even when everyone stopped coming around and calling, Lisa was still right there, Black said. Lisa has been there for so many who lost loved ones.

Previous jobs for Burhannan include working at the YMCA at Camp Curtin and at the Neighborhood Center in uptown.

Tisha Barber said she got to know Burhannan after she became close with her daughter, who participated in programs at the Neighborhood Center.

Lisa had a strong personality and I have a strong personality, Barber said. So we clashed at times, but I saw her passion for children and we formed a tight bond.

At the center, Burhannan started a gospel dancing group for the kids. When she worked at Marshall Math and Science Academy last year as a paraprofessional, she stepped up to sponsor a dance team for an in-school competition when they needed volunteers. Her team won first place.

One of her former dance teams is expected to perform at her funeral, per Burhannans wishes.

Many of Burhannans friends expected her to come home from the hospital eventually, especially after she was able to sit up in a chair for several hours on Wednesday, June 10.

But Burhannan knew at some point that she might not make it, Barber said. So like the project manager she was, she created detailed lists of what she wanted to see at her own funeral down to songs, speakers and seating charts.

Before becoming sick last month, Burhannan had been taking the novel coronavirus pandemic seriously, friends say. She did not have any pre-existing conditions that put her at higher risk, but she always wore a mask when she went out, she made masks for friends and carried a bottle of Lysol with her when she went into crowded stores.

One time, when a store clerk told Burhannan she didnt feel well, Barber said Burhannan fogged up the entire aisle with her Lysol spray to kill germs, just in case. If someone coughed near Burhannan, she wasnt shy about breaking out her Lysol can.

Friends dont know how she caught the virus. They were unaware of any contact-tracing effort by state officials to determine where she picked it up or who Burhannan may have been around prior to being hospitalized.

But if Burhannan made it out of the hospital, she planned to spread the word that people need to continue to take precautions against COVID-19, Dolphin said.

Her oxygen levels had been holding steady during her first 10 days in the hospital, said Smith. On Thursday June 11, however, Burhannans oxygen levels dropped and the hospital put her on a ventilator.

But it was too late, Smith said. She did so much, I dont know if people realize yet what was lost. But we lost a pillar of our community.

Information on Lisa Burhannan's funeral service.

READ: Harrisburg may hire social workers, violence interrupters with money from police budget: mayor

Excerpt from:

Harrisburg grieves loss of another community leader to COVID-19 - PennLive

Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota, said late Monday that her father had died from complications of Covid-19.

It is with tremendous sadness and pain to say goodbye to my father, Nur Omar Mohamed, she said on Twitter. No words can describe what he meant to me and all who knew and loved him.

She included a translated Arabic phrase from the Quran: Surely we belong to God and to him shall we return.

Her father, who was 67, died in Minneapolis, her office said. She attributed his death to complications from Covid-19, according to an emailed statement.

Ms. Omars mother died when she was 2, and when she was 8, her extended family fled Somalias civil war, and spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya. In 1995, they sought asylum in the United States, settling first in Arlington, Va., and later in Minneapolis, which has a large Somali population.

Her father, who was a teacher in Somalia, picked up work driving taxis and later got a job at the post office. Ms. Omar became a citizen in 2000, when she was 17.

Ms. Omar, one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress in 2018, has spoken of how her fathers words of advice helped her navigate life. When she was bullied at school, he sat me down, and he said, Listen, these people who are doing all of these things to you, theyre not doing something to you because they dislike you, she said in an interview the year she was elected.

They are doing something to you because they feel threatened in some way by your existence, she said.

At least 30,693 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Minnesota, and about 1,304 people have died from Covid-19, according to the state health department. At least 116,000 people have died from the disease in the United States, and more than two million people have been infected.

Other members of Congress have announced that they or members of their family tested positive for the virus. On Monday, Representative Tom Rice, Republican of South Carolina, said in a statement that he, his wife and one of his sons were recovering from Covid-19.

Updated June 16, 2020

The steroid, dexamethasone, is the first treatment shown to reduce mortality in severely ill patients, according to scientists in Britain. The drug appears to reduce inflammation caused by the immune system, protecting the tissues. In the study, dexamethasone reduced deaths of patients on ventilators by one-third, and deaths of patients on oxygen by one-fifth.

The coronavirus emergency relief package gives many American workers paid leave if they need to take time off because of the virus. It gives qualified workers two weeks of paid sick leave if they are ill, quarantined or seeking diagnosis or preventive care for coronavirus, or if they are caring for sick family members. It gives 12 weeks of paid leave to people caring for children whose schools are closed or whose child care provider is unavailable because of the coronavirus. It is the first time the United States has had widespread federally mandated paid leave, and includes people who dont typically get such benefits, like part-time and gig economy workers. But the measure excludes at least half of private-sector workers, including those at the countrys largest employers, and gives small employers significant leeway to deny leave.

So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was very rare, but she later walked back that statement.

Touching contaminated objects and then infecting ourselves with the germs is not typically how the virus spreads. But it can happen. A number of studies of flu, rhinovirus, coronavirus and other microbes have shown that respiratory illnesses, including the new coronavirus, can spread by touching contaminated surfaces, particularly in places like day care centers, offices and hospitals. But a long chain of events has to happen for the disease to spread that way. The best way to protect yourself from coronavirus whether its surface transmission or close human contact is still social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face and wearing masks.

A study by European scientists is the first to document a strong statistical link between genetic variations and Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Having Type A blood was linked to a 50 percent increase in the likelihood that a patient would need to get oxygen or to go on a ventilator, according to the new study.

The unemployment rate fell to 13.3 percent in May, the Labor Department said on June 5, an unexpected improvement in the nations job market as hiring rebounded faster than economists expected. Economists had forecast the unemployment rate to increase to as much as 20 percent, after it hit 14.7 percent in April, which was the highest since the government began keeping official statistics after World War II. But the unemployment rate dipped instead, with employers adding 2.5 million jobs, after more than 20 million jobs were lost in April.

Mass protests against police brutality that have brought thousands of people onto the streets in cities across America are raising the specter of new coronavirus outbreaks, prompting political leaders, physicians and public health experts to warn that the crowds could cause a surge in cases. While many political leaders affirmed the right of protesters to express themselves, they urged the demonstrators to wear face masks and maintain social distancing, both to protect themselves and to prevent further community spread of the virus. Some infectious disease experts were reassured by the fact that the protests were held outdoors, saying the open air settings could mitigate the risk of transmission.

States are reopening bit by bit. This means that more public spaces are available for use and more and more businesses are being allowed to open again. The federal government is largely leaving the decision up to states, and some state leaders are leaving the decision up to local authorities. Even if you arent being told to stay at home, its still a good idea to limit trips outside and your interaction with other people.

Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.

If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. (Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.)

The C.D.C. has recommended that all Americans wear cloth masks if they go out in public. This is a shift in federal guidance reflecting new concerns that the coronavirus is being spread by infected people who have no symptoms. Until now, the C.D.C., like the W.H.O., has advised that ordinary people dont need to wear masks unless they are sick and coughing. Part of the reason was to preserve medical-grade masks for health care workers who desperately need them at a time when they are in continuously short supply. Masks dont replace hand washing and social distancing.

If youve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others.

Donald Reed Herring, the oldest brother of Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, died of Covid-19 in April.

At least six other members of Congress have tested positive for the disease, and 40 have quarantined themselves at some point during the coronavirus pandemic. In March, Senator Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican, became the first senator to test positive for the novel coronavirus.

Read more:

Rep. Ilhan Omars Father Dies From Complications of Covid-19 - The New York Times

ATLANTA New COVID-19 cases remain steady in Georgia, with 664 new cases on Tuesday, after several days in a row of upward trends.

11Alive has been tracking the case numbers. It's likely that there are few reasons for this.

Given what we know about how the data lags behind, this is about the time we expect to see some of the impact of mass protests on COVID-19 cases.

The graph below shows the progression of COVID-19 cases since mid-March. The section in orange shows the cases from the past week, and the dotted line indicates the 14-day moving average.

We also got a question from a viewer, asking how much testing we're doing and how that might play a role.

Here's how that breaks down.

One month ago Georgia had completed 260,000 COVID-19 tests. As of Monday, that number had risen to 625,000. That is a 139 percent increase in the number of tests administered across Georgia.

Another measurement public health officials look at is the rate of positive tests. That means the number of people who have the virus. This is a lot harder to calculate because people who have the virus often take multiple tests, so it's not a perfect science.

However, we do know that one month ago, about 14 percent of people who got the coronavirus test were positive. A month later, that's now down to about 9 percent.

The graph above shows the comparison of the rate of positive cases for May and June.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants to see that number below 15. Anything above that is likely to start to strain hospital resources.

Here's a look at where we are on those currently in the hospital.

Right now, our line is pretty steady after trending up a bit last week. In the graph above, you can see the uptick from last week, which is circled.

As cases rise, we'll be keeping a close eye on this to see how severe they are.

11Alive is focusing our news coverage on the facts and not the fear around the virus. We want to keep you informed about the latest developments while ensuring that we deliver confirmed, factual information.

We will track the most important coronavirus elements relating to Georgia on this page. Refresh often for new information.

The rest is here:

COVID-19 cases steady after days of upward trend in Georgia - 11Alive.com WXIA

PRESTON COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A recent cluster of COVID-19 cases in a West Virginia county has been linked to travel to Myrtle Beach, health officials announced Wednesday.

According to the Preston County Health Department, three people have tested positive for coronavirus and results for several other tests are currently pending.

The department says all patients have one thing in common, recent trips to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

The department is now asking all Preston County residents that have traveled back to the county from Myrtle beach or any other crowded vacation destination in the last two weeks to self-quarantine for 14 days.

If you are unable to self-quarantine, officials are urging people to wear face coverings in public and limit exposure to others.

The health department says it is available to answers any questions to help someone determine if they need to get tested for COVID-19.

Last week the Mayor of Myrtle Beach extended the COVID-19 emergency declaration for the city.

The extension is based on the rising number of positive COVID-19 cases locally and statewide.

The new order is valid for 30 days unless ended sooner. It can be extended again if needed.

Keep checking the WSAZ app for the latest information.

Read the rest here:

COVID-19 cluster in W.Va. county linked to travel to Myrtle Beach - WSAZ-TV

Posted: Jun 16, 2020 / 10:12 PM EDT / Updated: Jun 17, 2020 / 12:43 AM EDT

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that an employee had tested positive for coronavirus. We apologize for the error.

BRUCETON MILLS, W.Va. Screech Owl Brewing announced in a Facebook post that it has closed its doors temporarily due to an employee coming into contact with COVID-19.

According to the post, the employee who was exposed to the virus returned to work from vacation Monday. Screech Owl explained that as soon as they were made aware of the exposure, they had all employees tested as an extra precautions.

Owners also explained that no customers had been exposed to the employee.

The post added that Screech Owl contacted the Preston County Health Department and is taking the proper and necessary steps on how to proceed and that the business will remain closed until owners are sure that there is no risk of unintentional exposure.

Owners also said that everyone who was in contact with the individual has been tested and the results will return in three to five days.

Continued here:

Screech Owl Brewing closes temporarily after employee is exposed to COVID-19; employee had no contact with customers - WBOY.com

The economy might seem bad out there but San Diego may not have gotten the worst of Californias massive job losses.

Roughly 67 percent of workers in San Diego County are considered essential and less likely to have suffered furloughs, shows a deep dive of unemployment data by Beacon Economics. Thats a higher percentage of the workforce than Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Beacon Economics reasons areas hit hardest will have a more difficult time recovering because consumer fears are likely to make face-to-face jobs a liability even with a fully open marketplace. So, if a job could be done from home during the quarantine, it is still more valuable than a position that cant when everything is open.

Some of the industries and workers hit hardest during the closures are also at greatest risk during the recovery stage, said Beacon Economics research manager Taner Osman.

What areas might bounce back quickest may be valuable for a variety of reasons: What home market will be best, where a California business might want to concentrate first and where statewide resources might be needed most.

San Diego might be better off overall than some regions, but the same cant be said for all industries. Our leisure and hospitality industry was the hardest hit in California losing 105,300 jobs annually as of April. Conventional wisdom has largely pointed to this as a reason why San Diego could suffer more than other regions.

However, Beacon Economics pointed out many San Diego industries fared better during the first two months of the crisis and that balances out extreme tourism job losses, a roughly 52 percent drop in employment. In other words, leisure and hospitality took the brunt of losses. On an annual basis, financial activities were down just 1.4 percent, and include jobs in insurance, investments, real estate and securities.

Other industries with a lot of essential workers also had comparably few jobs lost. Some examples: Information (publishing, broadcasting) was down 3.7 percent, or 900 jobs; and manufacturing (computer and electronic manufacturing, boat building) was down 2.2 percent, or 2,500 jobs.

Compared to San Diego Countys roughly 67 percent of workforce that was qualified as essential, only East San Francisco Bay was close with 65 percent. Silicon Valley had about 62 percent essential workers, San Francisco had 57 percent and Los Angeles County had 60 percent.

It might be hard to imagine a strong San Diego economy at the moment. Unemployment hit its highest ever recorded for San Diego in April, 15 percent, with records going back to 1990, said state labor officials. The San Diego Association of Governments predicts the number to be closer to 30 percent. New statewide data is expected Friday.

Beacon Economics added another wrinkle to its analysis called a vulnerability index that tracks the percentage of jobs that require face-to-face contact and will likely be more of a factor when essential and nonessential labels wont matter. The idea is that jobs that require a lot of human interaction even if they were considered essential during the quarantine will be more vulnerable in the new economy.

An example of this would be air travel, which is considered essential, but will likely not be the safest job in the nation when everything is reopened and COVID-19 is still out there.

Beacon said about 54 percent of San Diego Countys 1.3 million essential workers were high risk on its vulnerability index. That compares to 56 percent in Los Angeles County. However, Beacon said only 34 percent of San Diego Countys 700,000 nonessential workers are on the vulnerability index the same as Los Angeles County.

Osman said that San Diego is less unique when it comes to the vulnerability index because, across the board, Californias essential workers are more likely to have face-to-face interactions than those considered nonessential. One of San Diegos biggest examples of this is construction, which was allowed during the quarantine but also requires a lot of human interaction.

A lot of the indexs analysis is based on consumer behavior in the coming months. A bright spot for businesses was the news Tuesday that retail sales were up a seasonally adjusted 17 percent in May from a month earlier. The U.S. Commerce Department data showed retail sales are still below pre-COVID levels, but Mays data was seen by many economists that shoppers are eager to get back to spending.

Read the original post:

Hit hard by COVID-19, San Diego's economy might not be as bad off as other spots - The San Diego Union-Tribune

DALLAS, Texas (WJW) A woman in Texas is sharing her story of battling COVID-19 for a second time.

In an emotional post on Facebook, Meredith McKee shared a tearful picture of herself in the hospital.

For the SECOND time in 12 weeks I have contracted Covid19, McKee wrote. Yes, you can get it again and it hit me like a ton of bricks again.

Im here to tell you this is NOT over, it is very real & nothing to be flippant about, she wrote.

There are so many unknowns & the CDC cannot tell whether the virus was dormant all this time or if it was a new contraction. It is very different this time but no less horrendous. Plenty of tears & hurting. People, PLEASE take this seriously, she said.

I had a dry cough like you would not believe. It would not stop,McKee told KXAS.

McKee said that when she was diagnosed in February, she fought the virus from home and beat it. After testing positive for antibodies, she donated her plasma twice to help others battling coronavirus.

I felt great doing finally something good coming out of the hell that Ive been through because Im going to help up to eight people with this plasma, McKee told KXAS.

McKee returned to the hospital on Friday after her blood pressure spiked, she wrote on Facebook.

An epidemiologist from UT Southwestern who is not connected to McKees case told KXAS that contracting COVID-19 twice appears to be uncommon, but is possible.

We dont really know how serious the illness is the second time compared to the first time, Dr. Robert Haley said.

McKee hopes she didnt expose family and friends.

Im mortified and Im seriously devastated, she said.

More:

Texas woman tests positive for COVID-19 a second time - WANE