Category: Covid-19

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) When Benito Sosa celebrated turning 71 on April 4, there was no sign of the virus that would rob him of birthdays to come.

But within two weeks, he fell ill with COVID-19.

By May 10, the construction and factory worker who refused to retire at 71 laid near death at Spectrum HealthButterworthHospital in Grand Rapids.

Sosas daughter, MariaGarnica Altamirano, wonders if her dad could have survived if hed gone to the hospital sooner.

But he was very stubborn. He didnt want to say, Im feeling sick. I cannot breathe, saidGarnicaAltamiranoin a Zoom interview with News 8 from her home in Chicago.

When doctors said Sosa would need a ventilator and dialysis for the rest of his life, the family made the excruciating decision to let him go.

My other sister, who is a doctor, we talk together, and we said, no more because he wont like that, saidGarnica Altamirano, referring to the ventilator and dialysis.

A nurse herself, she had traveled from Chicago to be at her dads hospital bedside at the end.

I told him, dont worry, were okay, recalledGarnicaAltamiranothrough tears.

Im sorry if we made you suffer all these days, but we thought you will make it because we know you are strong, and you dont have nothing. There is no high blood pressure, no diabetes, nothing. But right now, you can go inpeace andwell be OK. Well take care of mom.

On the record filed with the Kent County clerks office, Sosas immediate cause of death was listed as Acute Respiratory Distress System and COVID-19 pneumonia.

While there were no other significant conditions listed as contributors to Sosas death, his daughter believes he may have had undiagnosed lung problems due to working construction in Mexico, where he lived part of the year.

Shortly before his birthday, Sosa had returned to Grand Rapids and the factory job his family said he enjoyed.

He worked hard for us, saidGarnica Altamirano.

He made changes in his life because he lives in Oaxaca, Mexico. Its more of a poor place. He traveled with my mom for us to have a better life.

He succeeded.

Sosa and his wife raised seven children, all of whom hold college degrees.

Benito Sosa was one of 11 Hispanic people who died in Kent County from COVID-19 in May, according to death certificates filed with the clerks office as of Thursday.

According to the Kent County Health Department, while Latinos make up around 10% of the countys population, they have so far comprised 18% of COVID-19 deaths overall.

The disparity was even more pronounced in the month of May.

Death certificates filed with the county as of Thursday, showed one-third of COVID-19 deaths11 out of 33 occurred in the Latino population.

But the gap in infection rates is even more alarming.

While thedisproportionalityof deaths is significant, the disparity in the disease itself is even greater, wrote a health department official in an email exchange with Target 8.

Despite comprising just 10% of the countys population,KCHDreports Latinos make up 40% of confirmed COVID-19 cases.

That means there are four times more cases among the Hispanic population than we would have expected if the distribution were equal, concluded the health department employee.

Latinos are also dying at a younger age than their counterparts.

Kent County health leaders say the average age of non-Hispanics whove died from COVID-19 is 77 years old, while the average age of Hispanics is 61.

MatiasDomingo was 51 when he died from COVID-19 at Mercy Health Saint Marys on May 16.

Domingo ran a Guatemalan grocery store with his wife,Candelaria, on Burton Street, west of Division Avenue in Grand Rapids.

He was also studying to become a deacon in the Catholic Church.

It was in the deacon program that Orlando Benedict met Domingo.

He was a person youd like to have as a friend. Extremely friendly and very helpful. A person who always gave more than he received, Benedict said.

Benedict recalled that Domingo used to spend Saturdays visiting sick patients at Grand Rapids hospitals.

It was on a Saturday in one of the hospitals where Domingo once spread hopethat the aspiring deacon succumbed to COVID-19.

The grocery store is closed for now as his wife and family grieve his passing.

The record filed with the Kent County Clerks office listed the cause of Domingos death as Acute Hypoxic Respiratory Failure,AdultRespiratory Distress Syndrome, and COVID-19pneumonia.

The death certificate listed Klebsiella pneumonia and Pneumothorax as significant conditions contributing to his passing.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describedKlebsiellapneumonia as a bacterial infection that commonly occurs among sick people who are receiving treatment for other conditions for instance, patients whose care requires devices like ventilators.

According to death records, of the 12 Latinos who died in April and May (one died in April), eight had at least one other significant condition that contributed to their death but did not directly cause it.

Its unclear whereMatiasDomingo and Benito Sosa contracted COVID-19, but both had jobs that could have exposed them to the virus.

Sosa worked in a factory that produces dog food and Domingo worked in his grocery store, which remained open as an essential business during the lockdown.

Benedict said hes certain Domingo was happy to continue working to serve people in need.

Edith Reyes, a reporter with the Spanish language newspaper, ElVocero, thinks Latinos may be at higher risk because they often work jobs in essential industries like food production, foodservice and agriculture.

Reyes, also a student at Grand Valley State University, helped Target 8 connect with families for this report, visiting homes with us and translating conversations.

She said she fears for her own family too, especially her mom, who works in food production.

Her having to work, its like her having to put her life at risk, said Reyes.

Reyes noted that the Latino community has less access to health care and benefits like unemployment.

They dont have a choice to stay home and protect themselves, she said.

Some worry about their immigration status as well.

Benito Sosa came to West Michigan on a green card and was studying to take the citizenship exam.

At the end, Sosas daughter, Maria, tried to make sure her dad knew hed prepared his children well for life.

He can go inpeace andwere OK, she said tearfully.

Read this article:

Kent Co. Latinos with COVID-19 die younger and more often - WOODTV.com

New research has poured cold water on the theory that the Covid-19 outbreak in Washington state the countrys first was triggered by the very first confirmed case of the infection in the country. Instead, it suggests the person who ignited the first chain of sustained transmission in the United States probably returned to the country in mid-February, a month later.

The work adds to evidence that the United States missed opportunities to stop the SARS-CoV-2 virus from taking root in this country and that those opportunities persisted for longer than has been recognized up until now.

Our finding that the virus associated with the first known transmission network in the U.S. did not enter the country until mid-February is sobering, since it demonstrates that the window of opportunity to block sustained transmission of the virus stretched all the way until that point, the authors wrote in the paper. The paper has been posted to a preprint server, meaning it has not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a journal.

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The research was led by Michael Worobey, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona.

Using available genetic sequence data, Worobey and his co-authors modeled how SARS-CoV-2 viruses would have evolved if the original case, known in the medical literature as WA1 (short for Washington state patient 1), had been the source of the states outbreak. They ran the model 1,000 times, comparing the genetic sequences of 300 randomly selected simulated cases to those retrieved from 300 actual patients. The results didnt jibe.

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In all likelihood this didnt start with WA1, Worobey told STAT in an interview. It started with some unidentified person who arrived in Washington state at some later point. And we dont know from where.

Worobey said the sequence data suggest the infection may have been brought to the country by someone returning from China, or from a nearby Asian country, or even from Asia via British Columbia, Canada.

Trevor Bedford, a computational biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, drew the initial line between the first Washington state case a man who returned to the state from Wuhan on Jan. 15 and the states first reported case in someone who had not traveled outside the country. That person, a high school student who had been tested negative for influenza, was recognized as a Covid-19 case at the end of February.

Analysis of the genetic sequences of the viruses that infected these two people looked close enough that Bedford concluded SARS-CoV-2 had been spreading undetected in the Seattle area for about six weeks.

But in a series of tweets he posted on Sunday, Bedford said he now concludes that theory was not correct.

Based on data thats emerged in the intervening months, I no longer believe that a direct WA1 introduction is a likely hypothesis for the origin of the Washington State outbreak, he tweeted.

Others agree.

Im convinced by the Worobey study, Kristian Andersen of Scripps Research, an expert on viral genomes, told STAT.

Samuel Scarpino, an assistant professor at Northeastern Universitys Network Science Institute, said Worobeys paper confirms what a lot of what we were starting to suspect from the epidemiological data, that there were some early introductions in the West Coast that did not spark sustained transmission.

Worobey and his co-authors estimated that the infection that started the Seattle area outbreak arrived in the country around Feb. 13, shortly after President Trumps ban on travel from China went into effect on Feb. 2. Thousands of Americans in the country fled back to the United States in the days after the ban was announced.

Worobey said the work isnt merely an effort to set the historical record straight. If WA1 sparked the Seattle outbreak, there was really little more that could have been done to prevent it. The patient had recognized he was probably ill and alerted his physician to the risk. Public health authorities mapped his travel and contacted his contacts, isolating him and quarantining the people hed been in contact with.

When the first case of local transmission was linked back to WA1, it appeared that the efforts to contain his infection hadnt been adequate. But in fact, they probably were, Worobey said.

Conclusions that the Seattle area was already six weeks into an epidemic by the end of February, rather than two or three, and the notion that stringent efforts to prevent spread had failed in the WA1 case, may have influenced decision-making about how to respond to the outbreak, including whether such measures were worth the effort, he and his co-authors wrote.

Scarpino said the research supports the idea that contact tracing and isolation can work. Everything is sort of lining up in the direction that if were serious about it, we can control this thing, he said. Were just not being serious about it.

Worobeys group also disputed a claim, published earlier this month, that a more transmissible lineage of SARS-CoV-2 viruses has emerged, arguing the increased geographic spread of viruses with that mutation pattern has more to do with timing than with increased infectiousness.

Viruses with these mutations spread from Hubei province to Italy and from there to New York City and began to spread locally undetected for a time. This viral lineage appears to have been amplified because of luck, not high fitness, they wrote.

Correction: The headline on an earlier version of this story misstated a key finding of the new research that the coronavirus took off in the U.S. later than previously thought.

The rest is here:

New research rewrites history of when Covid-19 took off in the US - STAT

Thirty countries and multiple international partners and institutions have signed up to support the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) an initiative aimed at making vaccines, tests, treatments and other health technologies to fight COVID-19 accessible to all.

The Pool was first proposed in March by President Carlos Alvarado of Costa Rica, who joined WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus today at the official launch of the initiative.

The COVID-19 Technology Access Pool will ensure the latest and best science benefits all of humanity, said President Alvarado of Costa Rica. Vaccines, tests, diagnostics, treatments and other key tools in the coronavirus response must be made universally available as global public goods.

Global solidarity and collaboration are essential to overcoming COVID-19, said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Based on strong science and open collaboration, this information-sharing platform will help provide equitable access to life-saving technologies around the world.

The COVID-19 (Technology) Access Pool will be voluntary and based on social solidarity. It will provide a one-stop shop for scientific knowledge, data and intellectual property to be shared equitably by the global community.

The aim is to accelerate the discovery of vaccines, medicines and other technologies through open-science research, and to fast-track product development by mobilizing additional manufacturing capacity. This will help ensure faster and more equitable access to existing and new COVID-19 health products.

There are five key elements to the initiative:

With supportive countries across the globe, C-TAP will serve as a sister initiative to the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator and other initiatives to support efforts to fight COVID-19 worldwide.

WHO, Costa Rica and all the co-sponsor countries have also issued a Solidarity Call to Action asking relevant stakeholders to join and support the initiative, with recommended actions for key groups, such as governments, research and development funders, researchers, industry and civil society.

WHO and Costa Rica co-hosted todays launch event, which began with a high-level session addressed by the WHO Director-General and President Alvarado in addition to Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados and Aksel Jacobsen, State Secretary, Norway. There were video statements by President Lenn Moreno of Ecuador; President Thomas Esang Remengesau Jr., of Palau; President Lenn Moreno of Ecuador; , Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; Jagan Chapagain, Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies; and Retno Marsudi, Minister for Foreign Affairs for Indonesia. Leaders from across the UN, academia, industry and civil society joined for a moderated discussion.

To date, the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool is now supported by the following countries: Argentina, Bangladesh, Barbados,Belgium, Belize,Bhutan, Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Honduras, Indonesia, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Mozambique, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, South Africa,Sri Lanka,Sudan, The Netherlands, Timor-Leste, Uruguay, Zimbabwe

Other international organizations, partners and experts have also expressed support to the initiative and others can join them using the website.

Note to Editors:

The Solidarity Call to Action follows from numerous international commitments, including: Global Sustainable Development Goal 3, target 3b; The WHO Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (GSPA- PHI) and the WHO Roadmap for access to medicines, vaccines and health products 2019-2023; the UN General Assembly Resolution on International cooperation to ensure global access to medicines, vaccines and medical equipment to face COVID-19 (A/RES/74/274); and the 73rd World Health Assembly Resolution on the COVID-19 response (WHA73.1).

To access the event:https://who.zoom.us/j/99683467690-Password: WHO%OMS27

Read the rest here:

International community rallies to support open research and science to fight COVID-19 - World Health Organization

By Natalie Andersonnatalie.anderson@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY One nursing home outbreak was considered closed Friday and additional 10 individuals tested positive for COVID-19 in Rowan County after 122 additional tests were conducted.

There were no additional deaths.

A total of 630 individuals have tested positive for COVID-19 in the county, with 229 currently positive an increase of three since Thursday. The total number of tests reported to the county is 3,575. An additional seven recoveries were reported on Friday, bringing the recovery total to 364. A total of 37 individuals have died, and nine are being hospitalized.

While no deaths were reported Friday, a total of 10 deaths have been reported since Tuesday. Of the 37 deaths, 20 are from the Citadel, 15 are from the N.C. State Veterans Home located on the campus of W.G. Bill Hefner VA Medical Center and two have not been associated with a congregate living facility. The average age of the deaths is 83.

County spokesperson TJ Brown said the county worked with the state on Friday to validate COVID-19 data, which resulted in an increase in the total number of congregate care facility cases to 210 after it was discovered that six additional positive employees at the Citadel were residents of Rowan County. Those cases were included in the overall positive count but not originally linked to the Citadel employee count on the data hub.

The validation also discovered 14 additional Citadel employees have tested positive for COVID-19, but those employees arent residents of the county. The total number of positive employees at the Citadel, who live in Rowan County, is now 40, along with 112 residents.

Brown also clarified how deaths are supposed to be reported to the county from the veterans home in particular. The veterans home delayed its reporting of the eight deaths made public this week, but Brown said it could be the result of miscommunication between the veterans home and physicians at Novant Health Rowan Medical Center who tended to veterans. Veterans can be treated on the Salisbury VA or at Novant. But physicians, whether on or off the campus, are required to report COVID-19 deaths to the county.

County officials have since asked the veterans home to also report within 24 hours any deaths of which theyre aware.

State data on nursing home outbreaks is updated every Tuesday and Friday. Brown said the state and county have closed out cases at the Laurels, which had just two active cases. Only one who lived in Rowan County.

Statewide, a total of 26,488 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed after 391,231 completed tests. A total of 680 are currently being hospitalized, and 859 have died across the state.

In addition to protective equipment distributed from the state this month, some local locations anticipate receiving additional items from FEMA by June 15, including Brightmoor Nursing Center, located on West Fisher Street; Abbotts Creek Center in Lexington; Big Elm Retirement and Nursing Centers in Kannapolis; and Compass Healthcare and Rehab Rowan, LLC, in Spencer.

FEMA stated in a news release that it will distribute a total of 608,000 pieces of eye protection, 6.9 million masks, 6.4 million gowns and 31.4 million pairs of gloves to 15,000 nursing homes across the U.S.

In other COVID-19 statistics:

Contact reporter Natalie Anderson at 704-797-4246.

Original post:

One nursing home outbreak considered over; COVID-19 case count increases by 10 - Salisbury Post - Salisbury Post

In the latest installment of our Hope Behind the Headlines series, we look at the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine trials that have been progressing successfully, and at one promising therapeutic approach for COVID-19: Convalescent plasma therapy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been taking its toll on the world for months now, but researchers have not been sparing any time or resources in looking for ways to defeat the new coronavirus that causes this disease.

Once every 2 weeks at Medical News Today, we review the most promising findings and scientific advances in the fight against SARS-CoV-2.

Previously, we looked at new drug candidates for the treatment of COVID-19, and at some helpful research approaches for scientists studying the virus.

In this feature, we update you on the progress of some of the most hopeful vaccine and therapy trials so far.

In a study paper appearing in Science on May 20, researchers from Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, and other collaborating institutions report that they obtained promising results with a DNA vaccine that they trialed in rhesus macaques.

DNA vaccines are relative newcomers in the field of vaccine research. They work by introducing DNA molecules into the body, meaning to stimulate an immune response to markers of a specific virus.

In the study in Science, the research team developed six different DNA vaccines with the role of eliciting an immune response against the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 in other words, the protein that allows this virus to infect healthy cells.

The researchers injected 35 rhesus macaques with the various DNA vaccine iterations and then infected them with the new coronavirus to see whether and which of the vaccines were effective.

They found that one of the six vaccines which encoded the full length spike protein had a greater protective effect than the other candidates.

While the vaccinated monkeys did develop mild symptoms consistent with SARS-CoV-2 infection, they also developed neutralizing antibodies or the molecules that are able to recognize and fight the virus.

Thus, these monkeys presented an immune response to SARS-CoV-2 that was similar to the one seen in nonhuman primates and humans who have recovered from an infection with the new coronavirus.

The researchers also saw that monkeys that they had vaccinated had a lower viral load than unvaccinated monkeys, following infection with SARS-CoV-2, which suggests a more robust immune response in the former.

From their observations, the investigators conclude that their vaccine candidate works primarily by inducing a rapid immune response upon the individuals exposure to SARS-CoV-2.

Further research will need to address the important questions of the durability of protective immunity and the optimal vaccine platforms for a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine for humans, the team writes in the study paper.

A study that Nature recently accepted for publication is the work of researchers affiliated with Vir Biotechnology, a biotech company with headquarters in San Francisco, CA. This research has found a new lead for vaccines.

The authors argue that an antibody present in the blood of someone who had recovered from SARS the disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV could also be effective against SARS-CoV-2.

In laboratory tests, the researchers pitted the antibody they call S309 against both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. They found that it was able to neutralize both.

The investigators explain that they initially identified S309 in blood samples from a person who contracted SARS-CoV during the epidemic of 20022003.

While these are early days, the team suggests that this newfound knowledge may eventually help control the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

Accelerated development of [monoclonal antibodies] in a pandemic setting could be reduced to 56 months compared to the traditional timeline of 1012 months, the authors hypothesize in their paper.

In a previous Hope Behind the Headlines feature, we reported on the start of phase 1 of the first human SARS-CoV-2 vaccine trial to take place in the United Kingdom.

Already at that stage, the researchers behind this endeavor were expressing a high degree of confidence in the vaccine they called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19.

The vaccine uses a weakened adenovirus a common cold virus carrying the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. In injection form, its role is to teach the immune system to recognize the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and fight the virus.

On May 22, researchers at Oxford University, where the trial is based, announced that phase 1 has ended, and they are now recruiting for phases 2 and 3.

While the investigators are still following up on the progress of participants who volunteered for phase 1, they are also now casting a wider net with their current recruitment process.

More specifically, the researchers are looking to relist older adults, 56 years of age and over, as well as children aged 512 years.

That is because, in phase 2 of the trial, the team wants to find out if the vaccine will have a different effect on the immune system of people belonging to various age demographics.

So far, evidence has shown that older individuals are at an increased risk of developing severe COVID-19, and some studies suggest that children may also be more at risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 than officials previously thought.

That being the case, it is vital to understand how well a vaccine may be able to protect people of different ages from the virus.

For phase 3 of the U.K. trial, the researchers will recruit a considerably larger, representative cohort, to evaluate more thoroughly for the vaccines efficacy across age groups.

Also, on May 22, scientists from China reported in The Lancet that phase 1 of the first ever human trial of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine had concluded in Wuhan.

This vaccine goes by the name of a recombinant adenovirus type-5 (Ad5) vectored COVID-19 vaccine. It is similar to the one scientists are testing in the U.K., and like the other experimental vaccine, it uses an adenovirus that carries the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

In phase 1 of this trial, the researchers tested whether the vaccine is safe and, if the participants tolerated it well.

The team now reports that, although many participants did report some adverse effects to various doses of the vaccine, these were typically mild-to-moderate and short lived, indicating that the vaccine was well-tolerated.

The investigators also analyzed blood samples they collected from the participants at regular intervals following inoculation.

These analyses revealed that many of the participants developed various antibodies able to identify or react to SARS-CoV-2. They also saw markers of a quick immune response, particularly in volunteers who had received high doses of the vaccine.

The study team hypothesizes that the vaccine may be not only safe but also effective, although they are yet to confirm the latter.

Currently, the researchers are recruiting for phase 2 of the trial and aiming to work with more volunteers 60 years of age or over to test the efficacy of the experimental vaccine in older adults.

MNT recently spoke to Dr. Arturo Casadevall, chair of the Molecular Microbiology & Immunology Department at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, MD, about convalescent plasma therapy.

This therapeutic approach dates back a century. Its premise is to use antibody-bearing blood components from people who have recovered from an infectious disease to treat others who have just developed it.

Dr. Casadevall brought this approach to the attention of other experts in the United States in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

People who have recovered from COVID-19, Dr. Casadevall told MNT, do have neutralizing antibodies that could specifically fight SARS-CoV-2. Thus, transfusions with plasma (a component of blood) from COVID-19 survivors could help others fight the disease.

Dr. Casadevall said that in the U.S., almost 12,000 people have already received convalescent plasma therapy.

He and his colleagues, including immunology experts from various institutions, have conducted a study they based on the data of the first 5,000.

This study, which is available online in preprint form, suggests that convalescent plasma therapy is safe.

Going forward, the specialists investigating the merits of this form of therapy for treating COVID-19 aim to confirm whether it is as effective in fighting this disease as it is safe.

[First,] you want to show safety. And then the question of efficacy will be coming in the next few weeks. Right now, the data [is] being analyzed. We are hopeful.

Dr. Arturo Casadevall

The fact that this therapy will rely on convalescent plasma from donors, something that is already available makes it a promising early defense against COVID-19.

The approach could eventually become one of many therapeutic options for people that contract the new coronavirus.

For live updates on the latest developments regarding the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, click here.

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5 new reasons for hope in the fight against COVID-19 - Medical News Today

In Iowa,269 new cases were reported between 11 a.m. Thursday and 11 a.m. Friday for a total of 18,791.

Twenty additional deaths were reported in that time, and the statewide toll now is 520.

In Wisconsin,there were 733 new cases reported Friday, pushing the total to 17,707.

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Eighteen additional deaths were reported, so that total stands at 568.

In Illinois,the state reported an additional 1,622 cases, along with 86 more related deaths.

The state totals now stand at 117,455 cases and 5,270 deaths.

Where are those cases? Check out the maps below.

(The maps are based on the latest data released by state health departments. In some cases, local health departments might announce cases or deaths prior to them being included in the statewide figures.)

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Iowa as of 11 a.m. Friday, May 29

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Illinois as of Friday, May 29

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Wisconsin as of Friday, May 29

See the original post:

Where is COVID-19? Maps of confirmed cases in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin (as of Friday) - telegraphherald.com

Four generations of Enrique Ruvalcabas family have worked at the Mezquitn cemetery in the Mexican city of Guadalajara. None of them ever saw anything like this.

Before the coronavirus, the burial ground was open to the public, and the deceased were honoured by flower-carrying mourners and mariachis. Now the dead arrive in silence and alone.

Only the box came, not a single relative, just the coffin, Ruvalcaba, 32, said of the first Covid-19 burial he witnessed last month. Absolutely everything has changed.

The Guadalajara graveyard, which has added 700 tombs for an anticipated wave of Covid deaths, has yet to see a major increase of victims but Ruvalcaba said gravediggers had been advised to prepare. Theyve told us a more intense phase is coming, he said.

Yet as Mexicos daily death toll rises to become one of the highest in the world a record 501 fatalities were reported on Tuesday alone the country is simultaneously preparing to reopen and weathering a politically charged battle over the true scale of the crisis.

Were doing well, the pandemic has been tamed, Mexicos populist president, Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador, claimed on Thursday as he announced he would resume touring the country when a period of nationwide quarantine was wound down next week.

Alejandro Macas, a leading infectious diseases specialist, said he understood and supported the need to plot out a return to some kind of normality for Mexicos 129 million citizens.

Its good to have a plan and it is good for this plan to constantly put peoples lives first, he said.

But Macas, who was Mexicos influenza chief during the 2009 swine flu pandemic, said he was worried things were moving too fast, when the extent of the crisis remained unclear and different parts of the country were at different stages of transmission.

The risk is that there will be another substantial rise in the number of cases and that this could cause some hospitals to collapse and if the hospitals collapse this could put the security and governance of some regions at risk, Macas warned.

In many parts of the republic the curve has barely started to rise.

Macas said he suspected political pressure from Lpez Obradors year-old government and the United States which is highly reliant on Mexican supply chains explained the authorities desire to promote the idea the crisis was under control.

It is exactly like what is happening in the United States. The government there is also putting pressure on to show a certain normality and tranquillity when clearly they cant yet say they have the situation under control and were still suffering terrifying Covid figures, Macas said.

I feel there is a great deal of political pressure much more in Mexico than in other parts of Latin America because Mexicos industrial production is so tightly connected to industry in the United States. And they want to reopen but cant do so if Mexican industry doesnt reopen, because we are so integrated.

Latin Americas number two economy registered its first Covid case in late February and has since recorded more than 9,000 deaths and 81,400 cases, although the government admits the true number is probably considerably higher.

One report this week found Mexico City had issued 8,000 more death certificates than usual between January and late May, suggesting a significantly higher death toll.

Lpez Obrador, who was criticized for his initially dismissive attitude to the pandemic, has been bullish about Mexicos response. On 26 April, with 1,351 deaths and 14,677 infections, he claimed it had managed to tame the coronavirus. But many are not so sure. A month after those claims, Mexico had suffered 9,044 deaths and 81,400 cases.

Macas said it was likely many more had died. Right now we have less than 10,000 recognized deaths. But its very probable the true figure is substantially bigger probably double that.

Behind those statistics lie thousands of grieving families some of which have lost multiple members to Covid-19.

Karlo Coln, who works at a funeral home in Mexico City, said he and his colleagues had handled 60 coronavirus cases in the last three weeks. One family had lost five members, another four. Every week a family member dies, Coln said.

Despite the rising death toll, many Mexicans seem in denial. Even Coln, on the frontlines of the pandemic, admitted having doubts.

A lot of people dont believe in the virus, the undertaker said. There are times where I say, how is it possible that the guy giving me the body, at the centre of the infection, doesnt have protective equipment? Is this real or isnt it?

Adrin Carranza, a nursing student, has been conducting Covid-19 evaluations at Mexico Citys main market, the Central de Abasto and referring suspected patients for testing. He said that many vendors remained skeptical despite the deaths of several vendors.

Theyll say, sure, that guy over there died, but we dont know why, Carranza said.

Carranza and his colleagues have faced harassment at the market, where about 40% of the stalls have shut down.

Because of misinformation, more than anything else, they think were hurting them, that were going to inject them with the virus, he said. They yell that were murderers.

As Mexico prepares to reopen, Guadalajaras gravediggers are readying themselves for the dead.

Ruvalcaba, whose father, grandfather and great-grandfather all worked in the same cemetery, called his colleagues the hidden heroes of the Covid-19 crisis.

Its a really noble line of work. People talk about the doctors and the nurses but nobody thinks about the people who are laying Covids victims to rest, said Ruvalcaba, who has been digging tombs since he was 12.

Its like doctors work only from the moment when the patient has gone to a better life, Ruvalcaba added. And someone has to do it.

The rest is here:

Cemeteries braced for surge in Covid-19 dead as Mexico readies to reopen - The Guardian

Temperatures in some California cities this week broke decades-old records. The heatwave that cooked Las Vegas over the past few days brought temperatures over 100F. And in Phoenix, highs this weekend are expected to approach or exceed 110F.

This year is on track to be one of the hottest on record, and public health officials worry that in cities across the US, summer heatwaves will collide with the coronavirus pandemic, with deadly consequences for poor, minority, and older populations.

Even before the pandemic hit, heat was killing more Americans than all other natural disasters combined. People who live in cities are especially vulnerable to heatwaves because of a phenomenon called the urban heat island effect cities with populations of 1m or more can be up to 5F hotter than surrounding areas due to high population density, a lack of greenery and shade, and because materials like steel, concrete and asphalt tend to absorb more heat.

Analyses have also found that cities poorest neighborhoods tend to be hotter, and that many low-income families have been struggling to cope for years. In some neighborhoods of Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, up to a third or more households lack air conditioning. Due to the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, many more are unable to pay to run their ACs. And even as cities begin reopening after lockdown, many of the malls, public libraries and recreation centers where overheated Americans traditionally went to cool down remain risky, especially for older people and others with a heightened risk of dying from Covid-19.

Throughout the country, public health officials told the Guardian they were scrambling to find ways to protect the most vulnerable from the dual threats of heat and coronavirus. This summer is definitely not going to be like any other summer, said Deanne Criswell, the commissioner of New York City Emergency Management. Were not going to have the same level of facilities open that New Yorkers typically go to all the time to stay cool. Its a big concern.

New York is in the process of installing 74,000 air conditioners in the homes of low-income seniors, according to Criswell. The city is also seeking to help more people pay for electricity this summer, as the unemployment crisis leaves thousands of New Yorkers without the means to make rent and utilities. Other cities across the US have asked utility companies not to shut off service this summer, even if customers cant pay bills, so that they have access to water, cooling and refrigeration through the hottest days.

Every summer we worry about the heat when it ramps up especially in April and May before people have a chance to acclimatize, said Carolyn Levering, the emergency management administrator for Las Vegas.I think it just gives us extra concern this year because of the pandemic.

In Las Vegas, Phoenix and Los Angeles, officials are keeping some cooling centers designated public buildings where residents come for cold water and a respite from the heat open, at a reduced capacity so people can maintain social distancing while seeking relief from the heat. At five cooling centers in LA, anyone who enters has their temperature checked and is required to wear a mask and remain 6ft away from other people. In Nevadas Clark county, which includes Las Vegas, four cooling centers stayed open during the most recent heatwave.

But none of these solutions are broad enough to catch everyone at risk of dying from heat stroke, advocates say. Hell no, it isnt enough, said Jonathan Parfrey, the executive director of the LA-based nonprofit Climate Resolve. This is just a staggering problem.

In South LA, where 64% of residents fall below the poverty line, more than 40% of households lack air conditioning, according to a study published this month by researchers at the University of Southern California who analyzed data from the electrical meters of nearly 180,500 households. Poverty was a better predictor of whether or not people had AC than even how hot or cool it was in a neighborhood, said Kelly Sanders, one of studys authors.

The vast majority of these heat-related deaths in cities occur inside homes that arent air conditioned, said New Yorks Criswell.

That aint going to be me this year, said Collette McCoy-Douglas, 67, a retired nurse who lives in a public housing facility for seniors in Chicago. McCoy-Douglas said her building turned on the central air conditioning a day early, after residents complained during the heatwave over Memorial Day weekend. But the system, which only cools each apartments living room, felt warm when I touched it, she said. Her thermostat read 100F.So Ive poured ice on my head twice today it messed up my hair, but it helped, she laughed.

A spokesperson for Chicago Housing Authority said it was not aware of any air conditioning issues at senior housing facilities.

Although McCoy-Douglas considered looking for someplace cool she could go, she decided against it. Ive got an autoimmune disease, I have asthma, I have stents, she said. Im more skeptical against the coronavirus. Unable to cool down,she eventually picked up a neighbor, an older woman with cerebral palsy, and they drove around for a bit in McCoy-Douglass air-conditioned car. Chicagos infamous 1995 heatwave, which killed more than 700 people, was on the minds of both women.

You know, in my apartment, we have people with mental illness and disabilities. They cant even leave the building, said McCoy-Douglas, who also knew of two neighbors who had died of Covid-19. It just breaks my heart. Its just inhuman.

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'A summer unlike any other': heatwaves and Covid-19 are a deadly combination - The Guardian

The blood business is booming.

This normally obscure trade has been set alight by the race to develop Covid-19 antibody tests, which use blood to tell whether someone has already been infected with the coronavirus. The tests are seen as key to easing lockdowns that have shut down economies around the world.

However, while surging demand has...

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Blood of Recovered Covid-19 Patients Is Becoming a Hot Commodity - The Wall Street Journal

HURON, S.D. (KELO) One of the most recent deaths from COVID-19, not yet counted in the states numbers, is a 23-year-old Huron woman who worked at Alpena beef jerky maker, Jack Links. The majority of COVID-19 cases in South Dakota are not among the elderly, but rather people under the age of 40.

23-year-old old Blanca Ramirez Gonzalez leaves behind a husband and three young children. The Jack Links employees family didnt want to speak on camera, but gave KELOLAND News permission to show her photos.

According to Ramirez Gonzalez aunt, she tested positive last Thursday for COVID-19, with only mild symptoms. On Monday, Ramirez Gonzales was taken to the Huron Regional Medical Center with a fever of 107. Her family said goodbye to her over a video call and she died on Tuesday.

The biggest increases in COVID-19 cases are among 20 to 29 year olds in the state, with 24 new positive tests in that age group reported today. 937 people aged 20 to 29 have tested positive. The age group with the most COVID-19 cases is 30 to 39 with 1,091. Three people in that age group have died.

Kennecke: Why are we seeing more young people with COVID-19 in the state.SD Epidemiologist, Dr. Joshua Clayton: I dont have a full explanation for the age grouping were seeing most impacted. It is similar to what were seeing in other states Minnesota and North Dakota are examples of that.

The State epidemiologist theorizes that it may be a reflection of getting back to normal.

As individuals are frequenting businesses, interacting more that, the younger population has the potential to engage in close contact, Dr. Clayton said.

74 Jacks Links employees have tested positive for the virus. Blanca Ramirez Gonzalez family has started a GoFundMe page and has raised more than $10,000 so far.

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Young Huron mother died of COVID-19; most cases of virus in state among those under 40 - KELOLAND.com