Category: Covid-19

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

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Alaska officials say its taking longer than they had hoped to process COVID-19 tests obtained at airports meaning travelers may be having to quarantine longer than planned while they wait for results.

The new state policy that went into effect this month allows passengers traveling to Alaska to forgo a 14-day quarantine if they test negative for COVID-19. One way to comply with the policy is to get a test at the airport upon landing and quarantine until a negative test result comes back.

Just before the policy went into effect, Heidi Hedberg, director of Alaskas Division of Public Health, predicted in a press briefing that the typical wait time for getting results from tests conducted at an Alaska airport should be about two days.

She said, "It could take longer than 48 hours, and thats just managing expectations.

So far, the wait time for many travelers has been longer.

Courtney Bailly, 26, flew into Anchorage late last Tuesday for a summer job as a gymnastics instructor. She said that while the process of getting tested at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport went smoothly, she didnt receive notice of her negative test result until the following Monday six days later.

It was pretty frustrating, she said, explaining that her work start date ended up getting postponed.

Because weve been testing so many people, the state labs have a lot to process, and we are taking about three to five days to get those results back, said Micky Boyer, operations manager at Capstone Family Medicine. The state has contracted with Capstone to conduct the airport testing.

"I dont think its realistic to consider it taking less time than that any time soon, Boyer said.

The delay has to do with challenges related to electronic communication, according to Bernd Jilly, chief doctor at a state lab in Anchorage that is responsible for processing hundreds of tests per day.

Weve been processing tests faster than we could transit those results back to the airport, he explained.

While the actual processing of tests can, in fact, happen within two days, communicating with Capstone and the patients isnt as speedy, he said.

Having one computer talk to another computer is harder than you think, he said.

Jilly said he and his team, along with Capstone Clinic, are working diligently to refine our technique and work out better methods for reporting. He said he hopes that within a few weeks, the wait times will get shorter.

We do empathize with people who are waiting on their results," he added, and were plugging away, doing the best we can.

Bob McDonald, 78, from Las Vegas, has been taking an annual weeklong fishing trip to Alaska every August for the past 20 years. He said hes worried hell have to cancel his trip if wait times stay the same. Quarantining for five days out of a six-day trip just doesnt make sense.

His other option, as outlined by the state, is to get tested within 72 hours of departure, and then present that negative test result upon arrival in Alaska. But McDonald says this option isnt doable for him, either.

Ive checked with different labs here, McDonald said. No doctor he talked to could promise results within 72 hours, and very few were testing patients without COVID-19 symptoms, he said.

McDonald said hes carefully following the news in Alaska to see if any more travel policy changes happen between now and his trip.

Im hoping they eliminate the testing altogether, he said.

[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.]

Read more from the original source:

Getting a COVID-19 airport test in Alaska is quick. Getting the results isn't. - Anchorage Daily News

Recent developments:

Quebec's indoor sports venueswill be allowed to reopen Mondayfor participants who follow distancing and hygiene rules, forcing certain sports to change their rules. Beaches in the province can reopen that same day.

CBC News has learned the federal government will give a financial update July 8, after skipping the traditional spring budget.

Some parents and teachers have concerns about Quebec's plan to return more students to the classroom in September.

WATCH: Staff at threenational museums agree to unpaid leave

There have been 2,036 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa and 260 deaths caused by the respiratory illness.

Experts estimateone per cent of the city's population, or about 10,000 people, have contracted COVID-19, but the majority of cases were undiagnosed.

There are3,250 known cases across eastern Ontario and western Quebec.

Nearly 2,700 people in the region have recovered from COVID-19.

COVID-19 has killed 101 people outside Ottawa: 52 in Leeds, Grenville and Lanark counties, 17 in other parts of eastern Ontario and 32 in the Outaouais.

Eastern Ontario entered "Stage 2" of the province's recovery plan on June 12, allowing "circles" of up to 10 people who don't have to distance as long as they limit close contact to that group.

Quebec is allowing individual activities rather than focusing on stages. It too has different restrictions for different regions and plans to allow indoor, distanced gatherings of up to 50 people next week.

The Ottawa Farmers' Market says it will no longer require shoppers to preregisterstarting this Sunday at Lansdowne Park. Market organizers encouragecustomers to pre-order, and say they will limit crowds.

Kingston starts closing parts of some downtown streets next week to offer more space for businesses and pedestrians.

Ontario Parks says it's ready to begin opening some campsites and services starting next week.

Post-secondary schools are moving toward more online classes this fall, with Ontario promising a fall plan for younger students by July.

The coronavirus primarily spreads through droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes. People don't need to have symptoms to be contagious.

That means physical distancing measures such as working from home and in Ontario, staying at least two metres away from anyone they don't live with or have in their circle.

Children in Quebec can now be one metre apart at school and day camps. Starting next week, all Quebecers can be within 1.5 metres of each other while seated at indoor venues such as theatres.

Ottawa Public Health now wants people to think about how to safely do certain things and recommends people wear a fabric or non-medical mask when they can't always stay two metres from strangers, such as at a grocery store.

Anyone who has symptoms or travelled recently outside Canada must self-isolate for at least 14 days.

Specifically in Ottawa, anyone waiting for a COVID-19 test result must self-isolate at least until they know the result.

The same goes for anyone in Ontario who's been in contact with someone who's tested positive or is presumed to have COVID-19.

People 70 and older or with compromised immune systems or underlying health conditions should also self-isolate.

COVID-19 can range from a cold-like illness to a severe lung infection, with common symptoms including fever, a dry cough, vomiting and the loss of taste or smell.

Less common symptoms include chills, headaches and pink eye. The Ontario government says in rare cases, children can develop a rash.

If you have severe symptoms, call 911.

In eastern Ontario:

In Ottawa any resident who feels they need a test, even if they are not showing symptoms, can now be tested at one of three sites.

Inuit in Ottawa can call the Akausivik Inuit Family Health Team at 613-740-0999 for service, including testing, in Inuktitut or English on weekdays.

Testing has also expanded for local residents and employees who work in the Eastern Ontario Health Unit area.

There is a drive-thru test centre in Casselman and assessment centres in Hawkesbury and Winchester that don't require people to call ahead.

Others in Rockland and Cornwall require an appointment.

In Kingston, the assessment centre at the Kingston Memorial Centre is open seven days a week for walk-ins. Napanee's test centre is open daily for people who call for an appointment.

WATCH: Summing up ride-hailing changes

The Leeds, Grenville and Lanark unit asks you to get tested if you have a symptom or concerns about exposure.

It has a walk-in site in Brockville open seven days a week at the Memorial Centre and testing sites in Smiths Falls and Almonte which require an appointment.

The public health unit in the Belleville area is asking people to call it, their family doctor or Telehealth if they have symptoms or questions.

You can arrange a test in Bancroft, Belleville or Trenton by calling the centre, or in Picton by texting or calling 613-813-6864.

There are weekly pop-up clinics in other communities and you may also qualify for a home test.

WATCH: A new survey on mental health and COVID-19

Renfrew County is also providing pop-up and home testing under some circumstances. Residents without access to a family doctor can call 1-844-727-6404 if they have health questions, COVID-19-related or not.

If you're concerned about the coronavirus, take the self-assessment.

In western Quebec:

Outaouais residents should call 1-877 644-4545 if they have symptoms for further assistance.

First Nations:

Local communities have declared states of emergency, put in a curfew or both.

Akwesasne has opened a mobile COVID-19 test site available by appointment only. Anyone returning to Akwesasne who's been farther than 80 kilometres away is asked to self-isolate for 14 days.

Anyone in Tyendinaga who's interested in a test can call 613-967-3603 to talk to a nurse.

Pikwakanagan's council let businesses reopen May 29 and is not running checkpoints at entrances during the day. It has a pop-up testing clinicWednesday, by appointment.

Read the rest here:

What you need to know about COVID-19 in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 17 - CBC.ca

U.S. Rep. Susan Wild based her vote May 15 against a second coronavirus stimulus bill, the HEROES Act, on several factors: The $3 trillion package was crammed too full, it was being rushed through with too little time to digest it all and it was deemed DOA in the Senate.

It also served as a preemptive strike against a political challenge that would come into focus less than three weeks later.

On June 3, the day after Pennsylvanias primary election, Lisa Scheller claimed victory as the Republican nominee to challenge Wilds re-election bid in Pennsylvanias 7th Congressional District. Though her primary opponent, Dean Browning, had yet to concede, Scheller had moved on -- calling on Lehigh Valley Republicans "to re-elect President Trump and defeat the Nancy Pelosi puppet Susan Wild this November.

The vote on the HEROES Act, which is still before the Senate, was probably best example of how Im not a Nancy Pelosi puppet, Wild said Tuesday, referring to the Democratic speaker of the House from California.

"The speaker would have much preferred that I voted for the HEROES Act and I didn't because of concerns that I had about it," Wild said. "I have taken positions adverse to the speaker on plenty of occasions. I have no concerns about speaking my mind or taking my vote in whatever way I feel guided to do so."

With the Nov. 3 congressional race set for the PA-07 district covering Lehigh, Northampton and southern Monroe counties, Wild spoke Tuesday with lehighvalleylive.com for a look at her top issues, including ways she sees to begin addressing social justice issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement and what's next in the fight against COVID-19.

In the coronavirus battle, Wild said that assuming positive cases continue to decline, the focus now must be on reopening the economy. She points to her intervention with Gov. Tom Wolf on behalf of Realtors frustrated because Pennsylvania was the only state not allowing in-person real estate work under mitigation strategies. Almost immediately after they talked, she said, he changed his position.

On Tuesday, she held a virtual roundtable discussion with Lehigh Valley restaurateurs looking to get back up and running, from pizzerias to high-end destinations: "I want to hear what their concerns are and the problems they need to have addressed."

On the social front, Wild sees an opportunity to shift some duties away from emergency departments and the criminal justice system in an area very close to her own life: mental health.

Wild is about 13 months removed from the suicide of her partner, 63-year-old Kerry Acker, in May 2019.

According to her office, she has legislation directing federal education and health officials to encourage colleges to develop suicide prevention plans, make the suicide of a loved one a qualifying event for family members to enroll in or change an insurance plan so they have mental health coverage, and also an amendment that was signed into law through the Older Americans Act reauthorization to make pre-screening for suicidal thoughts mandatory for seniors entering long-term care. Last week, she rolled out a new bill to create 24/7 mobile crisis units to respond to mental health threats at the county level, in addition to funding crisis call lines and long-term mental health care.

It's in that last area, through new mental health block grant funding, that she sees the potential for shifting some duties away from police. She cites the fatal shooting by police Friday in Atlanta of 27-year-old Black man Rayshard Brooks after he was found sleeping in a Wendy's drive-through. The killing drew widespread attention amid Black Lives Matter protests across the nation in the wake of the police homicide of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis and countless other police killings of Black people in recent years.

Police can't be blamed for everything, Wild said. But taking a more holistic approach to a community's mental health needs might have led to a different outcome, had better trained professionals intervened with Brooks instead of armed police, she said.

"The loss of my partner was my impetus for going into this area," Wild said. "But I have to tell you, that as soon as I did I realized how neglected this field has been for so long. Every time I turn around something reminds us of that."

COVID-19 has also exposed the fragility of the nation's collective mental health, she noted, from families who might be confined to home with someone who's abusive, to the unemployed growing desperate to others seeing their "anxieties are off the charts, people that haven't previously sought mental health care," Wild said.

For Wild, serving in Congress "has saved me in the sense that it's given me real purpose and not only the ability but the need to put one step in front of the other and keep moving."

When she spoke about Ackers death on the House floor last June, she began to hear from others across the country who have attempted suicide or had loved ones who died by suicide.

"That provided me the opportunity to quickly pivot to what I like to do best, which is problem-solving," Wild said Tuesday. "I try to make a point of looking for where the problems are. That's kind of counterintuitive in your personal life -- you don't go looking for problems -- but in your congressional life you do."

Wild prides herself on her accessibility and availability to constituents, who might have (pre-coronavirus) visited her offices in hopes of seeing not just Wild but her miniature poodle, too. Zoey was voted Cutest Pet on Capitol Hill over Sen. Elizabeth Warrens Bailey in a 2019 Animal Health Institute contest.

"She's our chief morale officer," Wild said.

Wild has been in Congress since immediately after the 2018 election, when she was sworn-in to finish the term of retired U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, the moderate Republican who represented Lehigh Valley communities in Pennsylvania's old 15th Congressional District.

Working with the Republican administration, Wild said she has seen successes and frustration. On the positive side, she worked to get protections against pharmaceutical monopolies included in the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement hailed by Trump as one of his top achievements. She also had two bills signed into law through the first coronavirus stimulus bill, the CARES Act, both to support seniors -- one regarding meal delivery and one regarding in-home care.

Her main frustration with the administration comes when they lock down witnesses, such as refusing to schedule or postponing at the last minute appearances by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to discuss his department's budget. She also believes the government's response to the pandemic would have gone more smoothly if some of the myriad vacant positions were filled.

"The slash-and-burn approach to government agencies and staffing has not served us well in COVID at all," Wild said.

Looking ahead, Wild said she is running for a second term because serving in Congress isn't about quick victories, but about "setting building blocks for future legislation and I feel like in the last two years I've done a lot of that groundwork and I want to keep working on these same issues and actually seeing them come to some sort of conclusion ... ."

And she said she has more listening to constituents to do on priorities like public school funding, universal pre-K and increasing higher education opportunities like apprenticeship training.

To me the job is as much about being there and listening and taking action as it is anything else, Wild said. You could negotiate the greatest peace deal in the Middle East and if youre not doing the work back home for the people who vote for you or dont vote for you, all the people in your district, youre failing them. Thats where I really feel my strength has been.

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Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com.

Original post:

U.S. Rep. Susan Wild on the upcoming election, the COVID-19 response and the movement for police reform - lehighvalleylive.com

By CNN Newsource

Jacksonville Beach, Fla. A Florida woman and 15 of her friends tested positive for the coronavirus after having dinner at a restaurant in Jacksonville.

Erika Crisp, a healthcare worker, said after being stuck inside for months during the pandemic, she and her friends decided to have dinner at Lynch's IrishPub on June 6. She said she has been sick since.

"We were careless and we went out into a public place before we should have, and we weren't wearing masks," she said, adding that she believes reopening happened too soon.

Seven employees from Lynch's also have COVID-19, and the general manager shut down voluntarily last weekend for a deep cleaning.

On May 18, phase one of Florida's reopening planwent into full effect, and restaurants, malls, libraries and gyms were able to open at 50% capacity.

See the original post here:

Florida woman and 15 friends test positive for COVID-19 after eating out - WRAL.com

Hannah cant stop vomiting. The 22-year-old has Ehlers-Danlos syndromes, a complex disability that means she has intestinal failure and uses a feeding tube and now has a blockage in her bowel. Surgery is her only option, but shes been told shell have to wait eight months to have it because the NHS is focused on the coronavirus pandemic. Hannah has already been on the surgery waiting list for nine months and her condition is worsening: shes in severe pain and is vomiting most days as she increasingly cant keep food down.

Hannah doesnt blame her doctors. If you had two fires and one consumed a detached house, and the other was rampaging through a packed terrace, and you had limited resources, what would you choose? she says. But she is extremely disillusioned with the government for leaving patients like her stranded during the pandemic.

If Hannah doesnt have the surgery soon, she tells me, her bowel could rupture. I fear that many people in my position will die due to a shortfall in care.

This is Britains second public health emergency: the crisis that is quietly threatening lives alongside coronavirus. The government has spent recent weeks boasting that they have managed to protect the NHS during the pandemic, but what theyve really done is shut it down. Almost two-thirds of Britons with common life-threatening conditions have been denied care by the NHS because hospitals have focused on fighting Covid-19. Thats people with breathing problems, high blood pressure and cancer.

Tens of thousands of non-urgent surgeries have been cancelled in recent months to free up space for coronavirus patients, while many diagnostic tests and outpatient appointments are on hold. Screening services for cancer have been formally paused in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and are de facto suspended in England. NHS leaders say the waiting list for hospital treatment in England could soar to almost 10 million people by Christmas due to the huge backlog caused by coronavirus disrupting services. Thats double the current figure.

This comes on top of patients who have voluntarily stayed away; there was such concern about empty A&E wards during the height of lockdown that the government set up a campaign in April to encourage people with suspected strokes and heart attacks to still seek help.

The long-term consequences of reduced healthcare during the pandemic are reminiscent of an unexploded bomb, slowly waiting to go off. Greater health problems are being stored for the future, as individuals watch their chronic conditions worsen. In the worst cases, their lives are at risk. Doctors have warned of the likelihood of a dramatic rise in bowel cancer cases in Britain in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The effective halt to screening in March is predicted to lead to thousands of people dying early from the disease. One man with cancer told the Guardian last week that he is now fighting for his life because the pandemic meant he had to wait months for a scan. Sherwin Hall now has a tumour measuring 14cm in his pelvis and 30 small tumours in his lungs. He is 27.

The NHS was always in a deeply difficult situation. Many of the cancellations in recent months were intended to stop patients catching coronavirus by coming into hospitals. Staff had to be freed to help tackle the pandemic. The need for social distancing as well as shortages in PPE have also added further problems to the pile. But after years of being starved of funding, the NHS was in a precarious position to begin with. NHS England was short of about 40,000 nurses even before staff were spread thinner to cope with coronavirus; many patients were already waiting up to a year for treatment. Tackling a pandemic after a decade of cuts was the equivalent of being asked to fight with one hand behind its back.

This is a crisis for people who have become sick during the pandemic but also for those who had health problems before. Overall barely one in five of those who regularly receive NHS help for a long-term health condition were able to have a planned treatment in April. Meanwhile, new ONS research into shielding this week shows two in five report being unable to access certain types of care such as tests and scans - while 10% are unable to access any care at all. It is the worst of ironies: the rightful rush to protect people from coronavirus has simply put their health at risk in another way.

A few days ago, Hannah got a call from the treatment decision team: her case has been escalated for consideration. If it is reclassified, she will get her surgery sooner. If not, she stays on the eight-month waiting list. The pain is unbearable, she says. And the only thing that will stop it is the operation.

Frances Ryan is a Guardian columnist

Read this article:

There's a hidden crisis threatening lives alongside Covid-19: the lack of routine treatment - The Guardian

After another day with no new deaths from COVID-19, B.C. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry is reminding the public that it is still necessary to avoid crowds and take other measures against the spread of the disease.

On Tuesday, Henry announced that B.C. has confirmed 11 new cases of COVID-19, including 10 new test-positive cases and one that has been epidemiologically linked to previous cases. The province has had2,756 cases to date.

Right now, there are 172 active cases of the virus, of which 11 are in hospital, including five in intensive care. A total of 2,416 people have recovered from their illness.

No new deaths have been reported, leaving the total to date at 168.

Henry said that while businesses are gradually beginning to reopen, it's important to take this stage of the pandemic response one step at a time.

"We are being thoughtful and measured in our response and we are adapting as we go," she said.

Crowds continue to be out of the question for the foreseeable future, Henry added.

"We will have the opportunity to do these things again, but just not now," she said. "It only takes one person in a crowded setting to spread it to many others."

Tuesday's update included one new outbreak in a long-term care home, bringing the number of active outbreaks in these facilities to five.

Meanwhile, Henry weighed in on a local political controversy in Vancouver whether to fully reopen Stanley Park to vehicle traffic.

She called the current restriction on cars to allow room for walking and cycling "a really good thing" that has given people a way to get outside and be active during the pandemic.

"I personally would be in favour of keeping it that way and reducing the number of cars on our roads and making our cities more amenable to active transport," Henry said.

Also Tuesday,Health Minister Adrian Dix gave an update on the province's supply of personal protective equipment (PPE).

Since the start of the pandemic, B.C. has acquired5.5 million N95 respirators, twomillion eye protection pieces, 40 million pairs of gloves and twomillion gowns.

He said that while B.C. had a stockpile of this equipment before COVID-19 hit the province,it's clear now it wasn't enough. For example, at the height of the pandemic here,12,000 N95 respirators were being used every day, compared to 1,800 a day before COVID-19.

"We've definitely learned from our experience," he said. "We need to stock up."

Dix added that a PPE testing laboratory is being established in Vancouver to help with that process.

Watch | Health Minister Adrian Dix outlines the state of B.C.'s PPE stockpile:

Henry also addressed a new outbreak of the disease in Beijing, as well as the introduction of new cases to New Zealand days after it was declared free of COVID-19.

"It just goes to show what we have been saying all along: once this virus is anywhere, it's a risk everywhere," Henry said.

She explained that those examples show why B.C. needs to track every case of COVID-19 carefully.

"We've managed to flatten our curve but we cannot get rid of this virus when we still have people moving back and forth," she said.

Henry and Dix have said they are closely monitoring infections as the province rolls out its COVID-19 restart plan, which has allowed restaurants and personal service establishments to reopenunder new guidelines.

EarlierTuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced an eight-week extension to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).

The $2,000-per-monthstipend, which started in mid-March,was originally set to last 16 weeks.

The prime ministeralso extended theCanada-U.S. border closure by another 30 days, keeping itin place until late July.

If you have a COVID-19-related story we should pursue that affects British Columbians, please email us at impact@cbc.ca.

Original post:

Dr. Bonnie Henry says COVID-19 is still 'a risk everywhere' - CBC.ca

Local attorneys general have sent letters to Apple and Google, trying to protect privacy and personal information in contact tracing apps, which claim to aid in the fight against the spread of COVID-19.

An important aspect of trying to reduce the spread of COVID-19 is contact tracing working backward to determine who people infected with the coronavirus have been around, and where theyve been.

However, local attorneys general are concerned a tool that helps facilitate contract tracing can put your personal information at risk.

Contact tracing apps can be extremely protective of your health, and other peoples health, but make sure theyre from a trusted source, said Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh.

He, and his counterparts from Virginia and the District of Columbia, are among the AGs who sent letters to the CEOs of Apple and Google, asking they ensure contact tracing and exposure notification tools be affiliated with a local, state, or federal public health authority.

Folks who are running the apps that youre downloading are getting all kinds of information about you that you assume is going to remain private, said Frosh. Where you are, who youre talking to, what youre doing.

While the information is valuable to legitimate public health authorities, including hospitals and universities providing data to the public health effort, unverified apps many of them free are only interested in learning and profiting from your private information.

You are the product, warned Frosh. Thats what theyre selling.

In the letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, the attorneys general said while digital tracing is valuable, such technology also poses a risk to consumers personally identifiable information, including sensitive health information, that could continue long after the present public health emergency ends.

In addition to verifying that the tracing apps are linked with a legitimate public health authority, the letter requests COVID-19 tracing apps be removed from the App Store and Google Play once the COVID-19 national emergency ends.

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Attorneys general in DC, Md. and Va. try to stem COVID-19 tracing app ripoff - WTOP