Category: Covid-19

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

Several states are now seeing a surge in new Covid-19 coronavirus infections and hospitalizations. And the states with more alarming outbreaks Arizona, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Arkansas, Florida, and Tennessee generally saw few cases early in the pandemic.

Many of these states have started to relax the restrictions on movement, businesses, and public gatherings that were meant to control the spread of Covid-19. But with infections rising, there will be more illnesses, deaths, and financial hardships for people who have already suffered immensely from this pandemic.

If cases continue to rise and threaten to overwhelm the health system, officials may be faced with a daunting prospect: another round of shutdowns, requiring businesses that have reopened to close, public gatherings to be banned again, and stay-at-home orders to go back in effect.

Some local officials are already talking about this possibility. The city of Houston, Texas, for instance, is weighing another stay-in-place order. (It may ultimately be prohibited from having stricter rules than the state government.)

Thanks to several studies, including two recent scientific papers in the journal Nature, theres now more certainty these measures dramatically lower the case count and save lives. However, the shutdowns also drove a massive spike in unemployment and caused huge social strains as people were forced to stay apart.

Asked about the prospect of further lockdowns, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Science Friday last week it depends on how well other public health strategies are deployed.

Whether those infections turn into a real resurgence of infections and a rebound will depend on how effectively were able to identify, isolate, and contact trace, Fauci said.

Other public health experts are debating the viability of additional lockdowns, noting it may be harder for leaders to muster the political will for them now, and that citizens may be less likely to comply with them.

Whats clear is that it will be difficult to get quick, satisfying results from shutdowns at this stage of the pandemic. And while there are other ways to protect public health that dont require such sacrifices from the public, they require investment, coherent public messaging, and political will. Unfortunately, it doesnt appear every state has these elements in place.

The United States is now the epicenter of Covid-19, with 2.16 million confirmed cases and 118,000 deaths as of June 16.

This growth is evident in states like Arizona, now a hot spot for the virus with daily cases climbing rapidly in the last two weeks. Will Humble, former director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, said the shutdowns worked when they were implemented on March 31. Arizonans largely complied with stay-at-home orders. Businesses closed. People maintained social distance.

But there was little transmission at that point. The first stay-at-home order was done when we just had a couple hundred cases a day, Humble said. Then on May 15, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey allowed the order to expire, replacing it with an executive order that suggested guidelines for how people should behave, but no enforcement. Its likely that this relaxation contributed to the rise in cases.

Were blowing the doors off now with 1,500. ... Wed be going into a stay-at-home order under very different circumstance than back in April, Humble said.

A reimposition of shutdown measures at this point, if they were obeyed, would still reduce the number of new infections. But that reduction would be in proportion to a higher baseline. New cases would drop, but it would take much longer to reach the levels seen after the first round of shutdowns.

When starting from a higher number of cases, there is more transmission baked in. For instance, there will likely be more cases of household spread among family members under a stay-at-home order. And when there are a higher number of overall infections, there are likely to be even more undetected infections that may continue to worsen the pandemic.

And as states saw during their first brush with shutdowns, it can take a while for pandemic control policies to show up in the data. We can expect those lags and timings would operate in a similar way, said Joshua Salomon, a professor of medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine who studies disease models and public health interventions. It takes a few weeks after you change peoples interactions and contacts for that to translate into a reduction in the number of cases.

Perhaps the biggest unknown for a second shutdown is how well people will adhere to the orders. Already, people in some parts of the country are gathering en masse, flocking to reopened businesses, and flouting guidance to wear masks in public places.

We are starting to notice a lot of people across South Carolina are not doing the social distancing or not avoiding group gatherings and wearing masks in public the way, especially, that they were earlier on, Brannon Traxler, the physician consultant for the South Carolina state health department, told ABC News. Public officials are also facing intense political pressure to ease restrictions.

Hannah Druckenmiller, a doctoral student at the University of California Berkeley, co-authored a recent paper looking at the effectiveness of shutdown measures. She and her team found that across the US, such tactics averted 4.8 million more confirmed cases of Covid-19 and up to 60 million infections in total.

But the results also showed that these policies had different effects in different parts of the world because some governments took the policies more seriously than others.

This is likely a result of the fact that populations have different cultures and governments enforced the policies to varying degrees, said Druckenmiller, in an email. One interpretation of this result is that if a second round of lockdowns was less strictly enforced and had lower levels of compliance, these containment measures may not be as effective as they were in March and April.

With states taking so many different approaches to the pandemic, however, the US is likely to experience a patchwork of different outcomes from further school closures, public gathering bans, and shelter-in-place orders.

Economic and social shutdowns are effective, but theyre expensive. They werent meant to stay in place indefinitely, but were aimed at slowing the spread of the virus to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed with patients.

The more targeted strategy for containing Covid-19 is testing, tracing, and isolation. With a robust system of testing, health officials can identify people who are infected and spreading the disease, even before they feel sick. Then they can trace the contacts of the infected to test other people who may have been exposed. And the people who test positive can be directed to isolate themselves. All the while, the general public should maintain social distance and minimize exposure as they take calculated risks in going about their lives.

Such an approach would break the chain of transmission of the virus. It would also only require a handful of people to stay home rather than large swaths of the population. But it demands a lot of infrastructure to deploy tests and trace contacts, and it takes time to set up.

Shutdowns really had two goals. One was to stop the uncontrolled spread, which they did, said Salomon. The other was to try to buy us time to set up the public health infrastructure to do testing and tracing and isolation at scale. And we really failed to make use of that time.

Another round of closures and stay-at-home orders could still be availed to build up the testing and tracing capacity. The more testing and tracing is available, the less strict shutdowns need to be. And building a system for testing millions of people would still be cheaper than an indefinite pause of the economy.

At this point in the pandemic, public health officials also have a better understanding of the spectrum of risk for the virus. Rather than issuing blanket orders to stay home, more nuanced guidance about what kinds of public spaces are safe and what precautions are necessary could ease the acceptance of pandemic control measures. But that requires careful and nuanced public messaging, and given the mixed messages the public has received on tactics like wearing masks, health officials would have to rebuild trust.

What we really want to do is get as much benefit as we can from lockdowns in a way thats more targeted and doesnt demand as much sacrifice, Salomon said. He added that policies like paid sick leave and building up work-from-home capabilities would also be important steps to helping people avoid unnecessary exposure to Covid-19.

As for when states can relax, that remains a fraught question. Some of the guidelines from the federal government for reopening have been confusing, and some states have gone ahead and established their own.

More recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put out a list of best practices to reduce Covid-19 risk as shutdowns relax. Measures include wearing masks and maintaining distance from other people.

However, with cases spiking in several states, it may still be too soon to think about relaxing, and efforts may still be needed for containment. But with the most blunt yet effective public health tool losing strength, its more urgent than ever to fight the pandemic without such drastic measures.

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Covid-19 cases: Would a second round of shutdowns be effective? - Vox.com

Six More Test Positive for Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Erie County, Increasing Case Total to 478  erienewsnow.com

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Six More Test Positive for Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Erie County, Increasing Case Total to 478 - erienewsnow.com

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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.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com.

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

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

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

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