Category: Covid-19

Spokane County confirmed two new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday for a total of 398.

The death toll remained at 30, and three people were in the hospital, according to the Spokane Regional Health District.

About 73% of residents confirmed to have COVID-19, or nearly 290 cases, have recovered so far, according to the health district. The health district defines someone as recovered if they are not hospitalized and 28 days have passed since they noticed symptoms.

Just over 70 people have been hospitalized in Spokane County since the pandemic began, according to the health district.

A fifth Spokane Veterans Home resident who tested positive for COVID-19 returned to the nursing home on Thursday from the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center after testing negative twice 24 hours apart, according to the Washington Department of Veteran Affairs.

Dozens of residents who tested positive were sent to the COVID-19 unit at the VA Medical Center for isolation and in case they needed a higher level of care than the nursing home could provide. A number of those people were in end-of-life care, and more than 30 residents with COVID-19 remain housed there.

We are overjoyed to welcome this Veteran back Home, said Lourdes E. Alfie Alvarado-Ramos, director of the WDVA, in a statement. Our thanks go to the outstanding team at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center for the tremendous care and support they have provided during this unprecedented time. Our facilities will continue working together to ensure Veterans and their families receive the most appropriate care until we defeat this enemy.

A total of 46 Spokane Veterans Home residents have tested positive for COVID-19 out of 86 people who were living at the nursing home at the beginning of April. Nine residents diagnosed with COVID-19 have died and 24 employees have also tested positive, including the facilitys first confirmed case.

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Spokane County confirms 2 new COVID-19 cases; nearly 300 have recovered - The Spokesman-Review

A former Navy nurse who did two tours in Afghanistan, Cynthia Lam has always felt compelled to do her part for the country.

So in late March, Lam flew from San Diego to the greater New York City area to work for eight weeks at a hospital on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.

Analise Eastman left her San Diego nursing job shortly before the coronavirus flared up, planning to travel abroad before starting graduate school.

Instead, she drove 31 hours to Chicago for a 12-week crisis response position at a hospital short-staffed because of the outbreak.

Elena Johns had stepped away from intensive care nursing to pursue her doctorate at the University of San Diego and focus on her passion, hospice care.

When she learned quarantined COVID-19 patients were dying alone, however, Johns returned to the ICU for a four-week assignment at a hospital in Brooklyn.

Dying alone is unacceptable to me, she said. If nothing else, I can go and be there for that person if the family cant be there.

Despite the risk of exposure to the deadly virus, these three San Diego health care providers signed on as travel nurses, taking short-term positions at hospitals hit hard by the pandemic.

They got the assignments through San Diegos Aya Healthcare, which links hospitals with contract labor nationwide. Aya has filled more than 5,200 crisis jobs since the outbreak began.

Another San Diego-based company, AMN Healthcare, also provides travel nurses to medical facilities, as well as other medical specialists. Since mid-March, AMN has placed more than 10,000 health care workers.

Lam and Eastman are first-time travel nurses. Johns has done it before. While each of their stories is different, they have a few things in common.

They either are enrolled in graduate school or are headed there to become nurse practitioners. When classes moved online, they gained the flexibility to travel while continuing their studies.

They all sought to go where they were most needed. Hospitals in the San Diego region have not been overrun with COVID-19 patients at least so far.

All said the supply of personal protective equipment, including N-95 masks, has been good. They have been vigilant and meticulous with safety gear to avoid putting themselves at risk.

And theyve had both heartbreaking and touching experiences along the way. Here are their stories.

Former Navy nurse Cynthia Lam expects to work through June as an ICU nurse at a hospital in Connecticut, just outside of New York City, helping COVID-19 patients.

(Cynthia Lam)

Lam, 34, works in the ICU at a hospital in Stamford, Conn., about 40 miles outside New York City. She puts in four, 12-hour shifts per week. Early on, she would pick up extra shifts because the hospital was fairly overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.

In some ways, the work reminds Lam of her time as a Navy nurse in Afghanistan when the call came to drop a nine-line, or medivac casualties from the battlefield.

Every day you are like go, go, go because these patients are very sick and they decompensate very quickly, she said. Sometimes you feel helpless because youve exhausted all of the typical life-saving measures that just dont seem to be as effective in this population.

Now a reservist, Lam spent eight years as a military nurse, most recently working at the Balboa Naval Medical Center. After leaving active duty, she began full-time graduate school while working per diem as a fill-in nurse at local hospitals.

With the coronavirus, Lam thought she would pick up more hospital shifts locally. But she didnt.

The cases were pretty low in San Diego, she said. They canceled a lot of elective surgeries. I just felt like I wasnt being utilized as an ICU nurse. I was like, there are people who need me in the Northeast, and Im sitting here in San Diego in my backyard, hanging out.

So Lam tried travel nursing. Its been a whirlwind few weeks. When she was hired, the hospital wanted her to start in six days. That meant finding a place to live across the country on short notice. The Airbnbs she contacted were either too expensive or taken.

I would say, Oh really, because its still online, said Lam. It was almost like they were concerned, rightfully so, about having someone in health care in their house.

She tried an apartment complex, but it did not offer furnished units. They began inquiring about me, and I told them I was just coming for eight weeks to help with the crisis, said Lam. What they ended up doing was buying stuff from Amazon and furnishing the apartment for me. They were super helpful.

Lams hospital has one ICU unit. For the outbreak, it converted three other rooms into pop-up ICUs. During her first few weeks there, Lam worked mostly in the main ICU with very critical patients.

I am a positive person and dont let things get to me, but in the moment, the deaths seem to pile up and that is sad, she said. I thought my patient yesterday was going to die all day despite all the measures we were doing, and it just hits home because the patient is the same age as my dad, who is 66.

The young patients also are hard. She has cared for people in their 30s, 40s and 50s stricken the virus. She had two pregnant patients.

Its crazy because I think these people are just living their normal lives, she said. Yeah, maybe they have a history of high blood pressure or diabetes or whatever it may be, but theyre living great lives. Its not like they were bed-bound.

Over the past couple of weeks, coronavirus cases have eased. We are discharging a ton, she said. We were able to close one of our pop-up ICUs.

A single mom, Lams teenage daughter is staying with her parents. Lam agreed to extend her assignment for another four weeks, but she is looking forward to time off this summer with her daughter.

It will be nice to have a small break and just be with family, she said.

Analise Eastman, a Point Loma Nazarene graduate, is a first-time travel nurse, working at a hospital in greater Chicago.

At the Chicago-area hospital where Analise Eastman works, the staff plays the Rocky movie theme song over the intercom every time a COVID-19 patient is discharged.

We line up and clap and cheer for them as they leave, she said.

Eastman, 29, graduated from Point Loma Nazarene. She worked in nursing locally for five years before taking a break before grad school. As coronavirus cases grew nationwide, she felt a responsibility to contribute.

If I didnt step in and help the health care system at this time, I honestly would have felt really guilty just sitting around while my fellow nurses are working their butts off.

Eastman is in a telemetry unit, which handles less seriously ill patients than an ICU. Still, she is seeing plenty of COVID patients. Recently, she has been floating to the hospitals designated COVID telemetry floor a lot.

Several patients are receiving oxygen. Sometimes, they are placed in the telemetry unit rather than ICU because of do not resuscitate directives.

So they come to our unit, and they will die there, she said. Its still an intense setting, even without the ventilators and really sick patients, because there are still people dying.

When she first arrived, several nurses in her group were in quarantine after exposure to the virus. I have heard of nurses just living in hotels on the days they are working so they dont bring it home to their families, she said. My boyfriend is here with me. I am so grateful for the support. But I also have this fear that he is going to get it, and of course Im afraid that Im going to get it, but I am trying to be as careful as I can.

Cases are easing slightly at Eastmans hospital, though new COVID-19 admissions still come in every day. Several of the staff previously out sick with COVID are back working now, which has helped relieve the strain on her unit.

The hospital is not allowing visitors. However, it recently began Zoom meetings between a few patients and their families.

The meetings are typically reserved for those nearing end of life, but Eastman has been advocating for wider use.

Each time I have done it so far it has brought tears to some family members eyes and meant a lot to them, she said. One patients family hadnt seen her for two months because she was in a skilled nursing facility before this. They couldnt have been more thankful to see her face and tell her they love her. It brought me to tears, too.

Elena Johns recently returned to San Diego after spending four weeks as a travel nurse caring for coronavirus patients at a hospital in Brooklyn.

(Elena Johns)

Elena Johns, 29, has been an ICU and cardiology nurse for more than four years. A Louisiana native, shes now attending graduate school to become a nurse practitioner specializing in end of life/palliative care. Shes also working fill-in shifts at San Diego hospitals and part-time in hospice.

Johns has been a travel nurse before, and she kept in touch with industry recruiters.

I was getting a lot of emails and texts saying there was a crisis, she said. My classes are all remote. I work per diem and part time, so my schedule is very flexible. They dont really need me in an ICU in San Diego, knock on wood. I can go help.

She started April 8 at a hospital in Brooklyn. The team is very good, she said. The nurses and especially the doctors are very good and very helpful.

But it wasnt what she expected.

I thought it would be more acute in terms of seeing patients when they are admitted, she said. What we me and the nurses who started with me seem to be doing is much more aftermath. These patients have been here for two-plus weeks. We are continuing the care and hoping they that they will get better when the trends are not showing that.

Its almost as if nurses and doctors are having to shift their mindset from saving everyone to thinking more like hospice caregivers. She recalled one patient from the regular COVID floor who came to the ICU struggling to breathe. The doctor told the patient they needed to insert a breathing tube or the patient would die. The patient refused.

The doctor honored the request but I could see the struggle in his eyes and the entire team because we are trained to save, to insert that tube no matter what, said Johns.

The patient died shortly afterward. It is hard for me in that respect, trying to balance my hospice side and my ICU side, said Johns. Some of these patients are just so sick, and theyre not getting better.

Johns has returned to San Diego. She had a scare and got tested for COVID-19 in New York. It came back negative.

When she left, the crisis did appear to be easing. One of the hospitals pop-up ICUs had closed, and emergency room counts were down.

Now shes focusing on school finals and is looking forward to returning to her hospice job. But shes not ruling out another travel nurse assignment later on.

If the need is great in ICUs, then sure, she said. After recovering for a few weeks, I would think about doing it again.

See the article here:

These San Diego nurses took jobs in COVID-19 hot zones. Here are their stories - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Spearheading the alert ahead of the upcoming World Health Assembly in Geneva, UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres urged the international community to do much more to protect all those facing mounting mental pressures.

Launching the UN policy brief - COVID-19 And The Need for Action On Mental Health Mr. Guterres highlighted how those most at risk today, were frontline healthcare workers, older people, adolescents and young people, those with pre-existing mental health conditions and those caught up in conflict and crisis. We must help them and stand by them.

That message was echoed by Dvora Kestel, Director, Department of Mental Health and Substance Use at the World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO

Facts and figures on suicide.

She pointed to past economic crises that had increased the number of people with mental health issues, leading to higher rates of suicide for example, due to their mental health condition or substance abuse.

In a video message, the UN chief highlighted how psychological problems such as depression and anxiety are some of the greatest causes of misery in our world.

He noted how throughout his life and in my own family, I have been close to doctors and psychiatrists treating these conditions, and how he had become acutely aware of the suffering they cause. This suffering is often exacerbated by stigma and discrimination.

According to the UN guidelines, depression and anxiety before the COVID-19 pandemic cost the global economy more than $ 1 trillion per year.

Depression affects 264 million people in the world, while around half of all mental health conditions start by age 14, with suicide the second leading cause of death in young people aged 15 to 29.

The UN paper also highlights a warning from The Lancet Commission On Global Mental Health And Sustainable Development, that many people who previously coped well, are now less able to cope because of the multiple stressors generated by the pandemic.

All this is understandable, given the many uncertainties facing people, the UN policy brief notes, before identifying the growing use of addictive coping strategies, including alcohol, drugs, tobacco and online gaming.

In Canada, one report indicated that 20 per cent of the population aged 15-49 have increased their alcohol consumption during the pandemic.

During the COVID-19 emergency, people are afraid of infection, dying, and losing family members, the UN recommendations explain. At the same time, vast numbers of people have lost or are at risk of losing their livelihoods, have been socially isolated and separated from loved ones, and, in some countries, have experienced stay-at-home orders implemented in drastic ways.

Specifically, women and children are at greater physical and mental risk as they have experienced increased domestic violence and abuse, the UN paper affirms.

At the same time, misinformation about the virus and prevention measures, coupled with deep uncertainty about the future, are additional major sources of distress, while the knowledge that people may not have the opportunity to say goodbye to dying loved ones and may not be able to hold funerals for them, further contributes to distress.

National data from populations around the world would appear to confirm this increased mental vulnerability, WHOs Dvora Kestel said, citing surveys showing an increase of prevalence of distress of 35 per cent of the population surveyed in China, 60 per cent in Iran, and 45 per cent in the US.

Much higher levels of depression and anxiety than normal were also recorded in Ethiopias Amhara Regional State last month, the WHO official continued, pointing to the estimated 33 per cent prevalence rate of symptoms - a three-fold increase compared to pre-pandemic levels.

General symptoms caused by COVID-19 include headaches, impaired sense of smell and taste, agitation, delirium and stroke, according to the UN paper.

Underlying neurological conditions also increase the risk of hospitalization for COVID-19, it notes, while stress, social isolation and violence in the family are likely to affect brain health and development in young children and adolescents.

Social isolation, reduced physical activity and reduced intellectual stimulation increase the risk of cognitive decline and dementia in older adults, it adds.

We need to make sure that measures are there to protect and promote and care for (the) existing situation right now, Ms. Kestel said. This is something that needs to be done in the middle of the crisis, so that we can prevent things becoming worse in the near future.

Data also confirms that medical professionals and other key workers have experienced significant mental health problems linked to the COVID-19 emergency.

There were some surveys that were done in Canada where 47 per cent of healthcare workers reported (the) need for psychological support 47 per cent - so almost half of them, said Ms. Kestel. In China, we have different figures for

depression: 50 per cent, anxiety 45 per cent, insomnia 34 per cent. Pakistan also, 42 per cent to26 per cent.

The UN is also calling for action on mental health among populations fleeing violence, given that even before the COVID-19 outbreak emerged in China last December, the need for mental health and psychosocial support was huge, said Dr Fahmy Hanna, Technical Officer, Department of Mental Health and Substance Use at WHO.

One in five people in these situations would need mental health and psychosocial support because they would have a mental health condition, he added. Yemen is not only the worlds largest humanitarian crisis, its also one of the worlds largest mental health crises, with more than seven million people who need mental health support.

Many countries have shown that it is possible to close mental hospitals once care is available in the community, the UN paper states.

In all emergencies, not only in COVID, there is a risk of human rights violations in long-term facilities, said Dr Hanna. There is a risk also of neglect in emergency situations in these facilities and there is a risk also in situations of disease outbreaks and of pandemic, of exposure of staff and residents to infections.

A key part of the UN appeal is for mental health care to be incorporated into all Governments COVID-19 strategies, given that national average expenditure on it is just two per cent.

Such a move could help countries like South Sudan, where there is only one mental health professional for every four million people, said Dr Hanna. Which basically means that someone living in the north of South Sudan, in a city like Malakal, need to take a trip to Juba, to the capital, of 2,000 miles that take him 30 hours to reach the only available service.

More:

UN leads call to protect most vulnerable from mental health crisis during and after COVID-19 - UN News

With sporadic reports in recent weeks of cats infected with the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, a group of researchers set out to determine whether cats can transmit the pathogen to one another.

The answer, the scientists said: They can. The question now is whether felines can transmit SARS-CoV-2 back to people.

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Tokyo noted that none of the cats in their study was visibly ailing, but they shed the virus from their nasal passages for about six days.

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Considering the amount of virus we found coming out of the noses of the cats there is the possibility that these cats are shedding, fomites are being released in a persons household or at cat shelters or human societies and that somehow people could possibly pick up the virus. I think its something people should be aware of, said Peter Halfmann, a research professor at the University of Wisconsin and first author of the study, published as a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine.

It depends on the household and the cat, but there could be a lot of close contact with your pet cat on occasion, Halfmann said.

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The researchers, led by virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka, experimentally infected three cats, and then placed an uninfected cat into each of the cages housing the infected animals a day later. The three uninfected cats were all infected within five days.

Halfmann said uninfected cats were also put into cages a foot away from the cages containing the infected cats. None of those felines became infected with the virus.

In early April, Chinese researchers reported that cats and ferrets were susceptible to infection. A few weeks later the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that two pet cats in New York state had tested positive for the virus. At least eight big cats at the Bronx Zoo tigers and lions were also infected with the virus.

Many research groups have reported on virus shedding with Covid-19 by simply conducting testing by polymerase chain reaction, or PCR. A positive PCR hit tells you that the human or animal is shedding something, but it doesnt reveal if they are emitting viral debris which poses no risk of infection or actual infectious viruses.

The researchers responsible for this work did attempt to grow viruses from swabs taken from the noses and rectums of the cats; they found that all the animals were emitting infectious viruses from their noses. None of the rectal swabs produced infectious virus.

Halfmann said there was quite a lot of virus between 30,000 and 50,000 virus particles per swab. But what that means isnt clear, he said. Its not known how big a dose of virus is needed to infect a person. And theres no ethically acceptable way to construct a trial to see if cats can infect people.

Still the researchers suggested people should be aware of the possibility of transmission from cats to people, and keep cats away from anyone in a household who is suspected of being sick with Covid-19. I think its good practice to have this in peoples minds, Halfmann said. He and his co-authors also urged people not to abandon cats or give them up for adoption because of such concerns.

They also advised cat owners to keep their cats indoors.

Cats are still much more likely to get Covid-19 from you, rather than you get it from a cat, Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, said in a statement.

See the article here:

Cats can catch Covid-19 from other cats. The question is: Can we? - STAT

A new strain of Coronavirus, COVID 19, is spreading around the world, causing deaths and major disruption to the global economy.

Responding to this crisis requires global cooperation among governments, international organizations and the business community, which is at the centre of the World Economic Forums mission as the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.

The Forum has created the COVID Action Platform, a global platform to convene the business community for collective action, protect peoples livelihoods and facilitate business continuity, and mobilize support for the COVID-19 response. The platform is created with the support of the World Health Organization and is open to all businesses and industry groups, as well as other stakeholders, aiming to integrate and inform joint action.

As an organization, the Forum has a track record of supporting efforts to contain epidemics. In 2017, at our Annual Meeting, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was launched bringing together experts from government, business, health, academia and civil society to accelerate the development of vaccines. CEPI is currently supporting the race to develop a vaccine against this strand of the coronavirus.

1. Brazil passes Spain and Italy in confirmed coronavirus cases. Brazil's official tally of 233,142 cases took it past the European countries that were once the epicentre of the pandemic. International comparisons are difficult, however, because of discrepancies in testing regimes.

Globally, the virus continued its spread, with over 4.6 million confirmed cases and more that 312,000 deaths. The true number of infections is likely to be much higher.

According to data compiled by John Hopkins University, the United States has the highest number of confirmed cases in the world, followed by Russia, the UK, Brazil and Spain.

China reported just five new confirmed daily cases of the disease on Sunday.

The shape of the COVID-19 outbreak in selected countries

Image: John Hopkins University

2. The four phases of the COVID economy. They are containment, stabilization, normalization and growth, according to Ajay Banga, CEO of Mastercard. Speaking on a World Economic Forum COVID Action Platform call, he said most economies in the world were now in the stabilization phase, with spending beginning to pick up.

Read more about how businesses are responding to the crisis here.

3. Greek attend church for the first time in months. Distant from one another - but not from their faith. It was an emotional moment for many in Greece on Sunday, May 17, as the first church services were held following a lockdown which had begun in mid-March.

Orthodox faithful respect social distancing as they attend the first service for months in Athens

Image: REUTERS/Costas Baltas

4. The practical headaches of a coronavirus business boom. The pandemic has dealt an unprecedented blow to the global economy, but even companies who have seen a surge in demand for products from packaging to sanitizer are struggling with the new reality.

In one company, wiping down machinery with disinfectant blurred a "danger" sign; many others are calculating new costs of everything from cleaning rags to staff temperature checks, according to this Reuters report.

5. A beautiful game - and a different game. Elite European football kicked off on May 16, but to empty stadiums. "We have found that the considerable home advantage in football is on average almost entirely wiped out in closed doors matches," wrote academics who have been studying the impact of home crowds on performance.

Image: Carl Singleton

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with our Terms of Use.

Written by

Ceri Parker, Commissioning Editor, Agenda, World Economic Forum

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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COVID-19: Top stories on the coronavirus pandemic on May 17 - World Economic Forum

How long will public health and the US economy be widely threatened by Covid-19? We dont know. Without a vaccine, experts say, its likely to be years.

The future is murky for a lot of reasons. Namely: so much depends on human actions, both individual and collective, that are simply hard to predict and model long-term.

But scientists hope to soon answer one basic question about the virus and how it interacts with the human body, to predict when the pandemic will end: How long does immunity to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, last after an infection?

If immunity lasts a couple of years or more, Covid-19 could fade in a few years time. If immunity wanes within a year, Covid-19 could make fierce annual comebacks until an effective vaccine is widely available. While theres hope that a vaccine will become available, its not a given. The vaccine could also be less than perfectly effective. Manufacturers could struggle to produce enough of it.

Immunity is one key to understanding the duration of this pandemic. Heres what we know about it so far, and how scientists can crack the mystery for good.

Heres some simple math that explains how many people need to get immunity to a virus for an outbreak to end on its own.

Outbreaks end when each new case of the virus, on average, leads to less than one new infection. Immunity can help us get there.

If every case of the virus, on average, leads to two more cases, then around half of a population needs to be immune to the virus for the outbreak to die down naturally.

If one infection causes, on average, three others, then two-thirds of the population needs to be immune for the outbreak to smother itself out.

Thats the big simplified picture.

In practice, its messier. R0 pronounced r-nought, the viruss basic reproductive number that describes how many new cases are generated, on average, from a single infection is not a set figure. It can change in different environments, in different populations, and when people adopt behaviors like mask-wearing and hand-washing.

Also making things messy: Not everyone is at equal risk of catching the virus. The threshold for ending the outbreak can be reached a bit sooner, in theory, if all the most vulnerable people and the people most likely to be infected and spread it to others (because, say, they work in a grocery store) become immune first.

Anyway: Researchers estimate that the current R0 of SARS-CoV-2 is between 2 and 3.

So it follows that this virus is going to keep spreading until between half and three-quarters of the population is immune. Thats the threshold epidemiologists are talking about when they talk about herd immunity. When herd immunity is achieved in a careful way, the number of new infections can decrease.

But theres another potential wrinkle here. Herd immunity can only be reliably built up if immunity is lasting. If immunity wanes, then it brings down the percentage of the population thats immune and lets the virus spread further.

So in the best-case scenario where immunity is lasting how long would it take to achieve herd immunity and end the pandemic?

Ideally, immunity will build up in a population slowly, over time, to avoid hospital systems from becoming overwhelmed with cases, creating chaos and more collateral damage.

Recently, Harvard epidemiology researchers Christine Tedijanto, Marc Lipsitch, Stephen Kissler, Edward Goldstein, and Yonatan Grad published a study in Science estimating how long it would take to achieve herd immunity in a cautious manner (which would still mean a lot of infection and death).

They modeled an approach where nations go on and off social distancing to avoid overwhelming hospital systems in any one wave. And we find under an approach like this, it might take until 2022 to build population immunity up in order for the virus to stop running on its own, Tedijanto says, adding that this is just one hypothetical (and probably overly simplified) mitigation scenario. Who knows if people would abide by a stop-and-go social distancing policy?

But the result gives us a sense of how long it would take to end the pandemic if we adopted the goal of maintaining health care capacity while also easing restrictions every now and then. Their overall conclusion: Its going to be hard to go back to normal until we have a vaccine, she says.

Some have advocated for an approach that builds up herd immunity faster. Perhaps we can achieve it before 2022? This would mean more infections and deaths overall (between 0.5 and 0.8 percent of all people infected with the virus die). Thats because theres this idea of overshoot, where if you kind of just let an epidemic go, unmitigated, it tends to have momentum, Tedijanto says. It doesnt just stop when it reaches herd immunity, but actually, you tend to overshoot that number and a greater proportion of the population gets infected.

Recently, biologists Natalie Dean and Carl Bergstrom calculated in the New York Times what damage an overshoot could do. If 100,000 people are infectious at the peak and they each infect 0.9 people, thats still 90,000 new infections, and more after that, they write. If the pandemic went uncontrolled in the United States, it could continue for months after herd immunity was reached, infecting many more millions in the process.

In this scenario, they write, by the time the pandemic ends, the number of people infected could outnumber the threshold for herd immunity by a large margin perhaps by two-thirds.

Letting it spread, even in a smart way, through the population enough to get herd immunity will result in just really a shocking number of deaths, Dean tells Vox. Then the other solution is being locked down forever. With those being the viable options, we certainly have to explore other ones.

The Science papers 2022 finding assumes immunity lasts for years. If an individuals immunity wanes in a year, as is possible with other viruses in the coronavirus family, it could take longer than two years. If immunity is particularly weak if it lasts less than a year Covid-19 may be with us for a long time.

If immunity lasts a year or less, we can expect annual wintertime outbreaks of Covid-19 until theres a vaccine, Kissler says. If immunity lasts longer [around one to five years], then there may be sporadic wintertime outbreaks; maybe not every year, but possibly every couple of years. The longer immunity lasts, though, the more likely it is that it will eventually dissipate altogether and the disease will be eliminated.

For reasons scientists dont quite understand, for some infections, a persons immunity never wanes. People who are immune to smallpox, for example, are immune for life: Antibodies that protect against smallpox have been found as long as 88 years after vaccination.

Less reassuring here is that scientists have observed that antibody levels for other coronaviruses (there are four strains that infect people as the common cold) can wane over a period of years. However, even if you lose the antibodies, it doesnt mean you are again completely susceptible to the virus. Yes, none of this is simple. More on that here.

But the good news, for now, at least, is that studies suggest nearly everyone develops antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 as well as T-cells, another immune system cell that helps clear out an infection. More work needs to be done to show which cells, and in which concentrations, confer the most lasting immunity.

We need further studies called correlate of protection studies. These are longitudinal studies that track patients over time, following them to see if they develop reinfection, and comparing the antibody levels and other immune markers between those who are reinfected and those who are not, says Saad Omer, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health.

These studies take time. We cant know if immunity lasts for a year if a year has not yet passed. It could also be that immunity lasts different lengths of time for different people, depending on the severity of their infections.

The worst-case scenario that I can imagine would be that mild or asymptomatic infections dont confer much immunity, and the virus ends up transmitting a lot better come winter, Kissler says. This would be bad because the virus would have lots of time over the summer to percolate to most corners of the world, only to explode in a big outbreak that hits basically everyone at once.

Dont take all of this to mean that were going to have to stay in lockdown until at least 2022. There is a middle ground between lockdown and going back completely to the way things were. A massive campaign of universal masking, testing, contact tracing, and isolating suspected cases and their contacts could help reduce transmission while getting our lives a little bit back to normal.

I want to be optimistic and say that we can come to a place that is less extreme than what were in now, Tedijanto says. Theres no one silver bullet, she says, to defeat Covid-19. But some combination of universal face mask-wearing, better data on transmission hot spots (and how to avoid them), and enhanced testing and contact tracing is likely to pave a middle-ground path.

Its going to be a gradual process that will require a lot of patience, she says. And we should be prepared to live with this virus for a long time.

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How long will the Covid-19 pandemic last? We need immunity data to find out. - Vox.com

Covid-19 presents new challenges for education but it has also exacerbated pre-existing ones. (Port City Daily photo / File)

WILMINGTON Every week NaZariusJacobs teachers fill his inbox with assignments, all due on Friday.

Jacobs, a 13-year-old 8thgrader at Williston Middle School, gets about three assignments from each teacher averaging about a dozen assignments for the week. Jacobs starts with the hardest assignments first and tries to focus on them late at night when his house is the quietest.

A dozen assignments doesnt sound like a lot, but Jacob is on his own there isnt a teacher in his house to keep him on task. To keep him motivated. To encourage him to work harder. While a good student, its up to Jacobs to learn the material and complete the assignment.

He is both student and teacher.

Its very hard to be a student right now, Jacobs said. Youre so used to looking at your teacher, raising your hand and asking for help.

Jacobs gets good grades, for students already behind, the Covid-19 pandemic has widened the achievement gap between students of color and white students (part of a nationwide problem, as reported in the Washington Post). COVID-19 is forcing educators to rethink the way theyre going to teach in the future because the classroom is no longer a physical place, but a virtual world where teachers and students alike must support one another.

When Jacobs needs help, teachers are online, he said. So are his classmates, whove created a group chat for both academic and moral support. This virtual classroom, both online and in text chains, has become a substitute for school and the community it creates.

Its very different now, Jacobs said about ending his middle school years and heading for high school at New Hanover. I feel like high school is going to be harder now.

North Carolina schools temporarily closed March 14 and then closed for the academic year April 24. While there had been some talk of how Covid-19 might impact schools, the initial closure announcement in March landed on a Saturday, and caught many local educators off guard. New Hanover County Schools (NHCS) had no plan for remote learning prior to the pandemic, according to spokesperson Ann Gibson.

This is unprecedented, Adams said. Everything weve done is a trial and error. Its figuring it out as we go.

The pandemic is only exacerbating one of the starkest achievement gaps in the region. ProPublica using data from the U.S. Department of Education civil rights data from over 96,000 public and charter schools found black students in New Hanover County were academically three grades behind White students compared to only 1.9 grades in Brunswick and Pender Counties. Columbus Countys achievement gap was only 1.7 grades and Onslow Countys gap was the smallest at 1.4 grades.

Those gaps in this time are widening, NHCS Board of Education member Stefanie Adams said. They already dont have access to resources. That group is growing with the unemployment rate. I think our community is going to look different. The needs are going to go up. We need to address as many as we can.

When schools closed, NHCS distributed 4,676 devices to students with more than half going to elementary school students, Gibson said. On April 1, the school system launched its remote learning program, established drive up wifi at some of its schools and broadcast elementary instructional programming on NHCS-TV.

The current situation has propelled distance learning and one to one instruction to the forefront of our conversation, Gibson said. Were gathering significant information about how to successfully deliver instruction in the digital environment, what all of our students need to learn remotely,and where gaps need to be addressed.

But distance learning for some is difficult. More than 90% of households in New Hanover County have a computer and 84% have access to the internet, according to the latest census data. But dig a little deeper, and that number doesnt reflect what is happening in Wilmingtons most marginalized communities where the achievement gap is at its worst.

Take census Tract 110, which is a predominantly black neighborhood on Wilmingtons Southside. Only 71% of households have a computer and 52 percent have internet. Almost 50% of the residents and 88% of children in this tract are living in poverty. So, the parents in this area are having difficulty keeping their kids fed, let alone making sure theyre logged into school website.

Adams is worried about this generation of students who not only endured the pandemic, but also had school interrupted by Hurricane Florence. She said that trauma would impact their scholastic careers because its difficult to learn when youre hungry and stressed.

The world is continuing to move on, she said. We cant lower the bar for those who went through this. We have to make sure were acknowledging the gaps. Addressing the gaps and engaging in partnerships to help close these gaps.

But not everyone is falling behind.

The Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmingtons (GLOW) Principal Laura Hunter works from home most days, but that doesnt mean she isnt still leading her school on a daily basis as she transitions GLOW from the classroom to the virtual world.

GLOW, an all-girl charter school dedicated to underserved families, understands the achievement gap and after the pandemic hit worked hard to ease the schools transition. Hunter and her staff designed the virtual academy in one week with an emphasis on structure. Teachers focus on three things: preparation, discussion, and assignments. Schoolwork doesnt take more than a half hour per course per day. That was on purpose because many of GLOWs students are taking care of younger siblings and doing other chores at home.

The results have been impressive.

GLOW launched the Virtual Academy on April 14 and, one week in, all of GLOWs students are fully enrolled, which means theyve logged on and registered for classes and overall 90% have completed work. Five weeks into the program, those numbers had improved even more.

Hunter stressed the virtual academy is not just an online learning platform its a school.

We wanted to create a learning environment online that is social and collaborative, Hunter said. Kids that are emerging from families at or about the poverty line thrive best in environments that arent chaotic, highly predicative and driven by relationships.

But the biggest shift was in philosophy because GLOW wasnt built around solitary work on a computer.

We wanted them to collaborate around a computer, Hunter said. Girls, very specifically middle school and high school girls, learn best socially. Collaboration. Socialization. Thinking out loud. Learning in community really speaks to girls brains and how best they process material.

Keeping students and engaged with their work and community is key. Keonte DeVone, a 15-year-old freshman honor student at New Hanover High School, said not having his circle of friends around was harder than working from home.

One of my favorite parts was seeing them, he said. Now I cant see those people. School is just one thing now. Getting work done.

Both DeVone and Jacobs are part of the Camp Schreiber Foundation, an education non-profit that recruits middle school boys and makes a ten-year promise to support them from middle school through college graduation. When the pandemic hit, Executive Director of Camp SchreiberFoundation Susie Sewell made sure all Schreiber students had computers and internet, but found despite having the tools many students were disengaged from the learning process.

Even if they are engaged, I do not believe that virtual learning can be effective without a parent sitting next to them working their butt off to push the ball forward, she said. A lot of the parents are still working. They are the bus drivers. Nurses aids. Answering phones at the hospital. The only thing that has changed for them is their kid is at home in theory doing school. In reality, theyre home right now dealing with a ton of change and new responsibilities, including caring for younger brothers and sisters. Home isnt always conducive to learning.

Camp Schreiber is an education non-profit that recruits middle school boys and makes a ten-year promise to support them from middle school through college graduation.

Instead of trying to replicate school, Schreiber students log in three times a week to attend Schreiber MasterClass taught by the groups college alumni. Topics range from networking and financial planning to living with a growth mindset and email etiquette. The goal is to keep them engaged and connected.

I am trying to spark intellectual curiosity, she said. I dont have a solution. I do think they are falling behind. They were always falling behind. (But) If they can come out of the other side of this with a real interest in learning something, thats a win.

And maybe that interest will help close the gap.

Despite the obstacles, some educators and students, like DeVone, think distance learning will help students handle the independence of college.

It gives our girls a stronger chance of success at the university setting because now theyre getting what life is like at current higher education institutes, Hunter said. Our kids are going to walk into the university setting with the skill set they need to be successful.

Kevin Maurer is a journalist and author. He is currently the Director of Community Engagement at Cape Fear Collective.

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Covid-19 has created new education challenges, and amplified existing ones [Free read] - Port City Daily

As Mary Wesson lay dying, heavily sedated on morphine, her family couldn't hold her hand at her bedside or whisper their last goodbyes. They could only shout through a window from outside Newfane Rehabilitation and Health Care Center.

She never responded the last time her children saw her alive.

The 79-year-old mother of four died May 9, becoming one of at least 23 residents who have died from Covid-19 at Newfane Rehab, where more people have died from the new coronavirus than all but two other nursing homes in Western New York.

We saw body bags getting wheeled out while we were standing there by the building," said Jeanne Blenker, one of Wesson's children.

The number of deaths at the 165-bed nursing home has drawn the scrutiny of the state Health Department, which sent an associate commissioner, among others, to inspect the facility a week ago. The acting administrator of the nursing home also talked by phone with state Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker on Wednesday.

The number of dead also exposed the peril of the state making nursing homes accept Covid-19 patients from hospitals.

"There's no doubt that the state dropped the ball on nursing homes," Niagara County Public Health Director Daniel J. Stapleton said at a County Legislature meeting last week.

[Related: Covid-19 outbreak at Tonawanda nursing home has led to 26 deaths]

Gov. Andrew Cuomo reversed that policy last Sunday a day after Wesson's death so hospitalized nursing home patients can no longer be sent back to a nursing home unless they test negative for Covid-19 twice, 24 hours apart.

State legislators have called for hearings or an independent investigation into the impact of the state's original policy. Some families blame the now-discarded policy for many of the nearly 5,500 Covid-19 deaths in New York nursing homes as of Friday.

Wesson's four children said in an interview with The Buffalo News that Newfane Rehab staff members told them the facility's Covid-19 outbreak can be traced to a single patient who was admitted upon being released from a hospital April 10. A nursing home official declined to explain how the new coronavirus entered the facility.

"We weren't able to go see her," Blenker said of her mother. "The place was locked down. She wasn't going anywhere. She was bedridden. Somehow it got into her room."

Mary Wesson (Courtesy Jeanne Blenker)The day before Wesson died, a nursing home administrator, in an automated call, assured families "that our expert medical and clinic team are working to proactively maintain the health and safety of our residents and one another. Each day brings a new level of challenges for which they are willingly and intelligently identifying and adapting to."

The acting administrator of the nursing home, Mike Toole, told The News the nursing home has followed all practices and guidelines set by the federal government. He also noted that a state inspection last week found no deficiencies.

Some family members told The News they appreciated the efforts made by the nursing home's employees on behalf of their loved ones, and they sympathize with how overwhelming the workers' days must be.

"The staff at Newfane seemed kind, helpful, responsive and apologetic for the most part," said Bonnie Crogan-Mazur, whose 85-year-old uncle died there May 4 beside his wife, another Newfane Rehab resident who also has Covid-19. "They set up FaceTime, which allowed my granddaughters to give (the couple) a mini-concert on harp and violin the night before (he) died."

But Bruce Blenker, another of Wesson's children, offered a harsh assessment of the nursing home and the governor.

"Why did Cuomo mandate Covid patients to go to a nursing home that is not qualified?" he asked. "I do not blame anybody except for Gov. Cuomo. It's directly on his shoulders, and I blame the executive staff at Newfane nursing home.

"This nursing home was not qualified to handle this.

The state Health Department inspection team, led by regional Associate Commissioner Dr. Gregory Young, visited Newfane Rehab on May 8 and 9.

"The purpose of that meeting was to go there to talk about infectious control practices, evaluate what they were doing and also give them, tell them what they should be doing and what changes they should make," Stapleton, the Niagara County public health director, told the County Legislature.

"For example, they shouldn't have a Covid-negative person and a Covid-positive person in the same room, using the same bathroom. That's a problem," Stapleton told the legislators. "Moving residents around so that you have the positives in the same room, not sharing with somebody who isn't positive, that was one of the changes they were going in to do on Friday (May 8)."

Toole, who recently became acting administrator of the nursing home, said no Covid-19-positive and Covid-19-negative patients were in the same rooms.

Its actually incomprehensible to give the idea that we would jeopardize residents by cohorting them, positive and negative people," Toole told The News.

Stapleton said he is "confident that the information we initially received and shared with the Legislature is accurate, but I'm not going to get into a back-and-forth debate."

"The key is moving forward to protect residents and staff," he added.

State Department of Health surveyors came back for another visit at Newfane Rehab on Wednesday and stayed until almost midnight.

"They examined the facilities and the practices we are doing, and they found no deficiencies again," Toole said.

State Health Department spokesman Jeffrey Hammond confirmed Friday that no deficiencies were found in Wednesday's unannounced inspection. He also said that the facility's management rejected the state's offers of further aid.

"The department also proactively reached out to the facilitys administrator, offered to transfer residents if needed, assessed staffing levels, offered additional staffing resources and ensured an appropriate supply of personal protective equipment. The administrator assured the department he was able to adequately care for his residents and will immediately contact us if the situation changes," Hammond said.

Toole declined to say what he and the state's health commissioner discussed on their phone call.

"So the idea that the Legislature, the politicians, want to capitalize on this as a media sensation, that is their right to do so," Toole said. "But I can assure you that all the practices and the guidelines and the (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) guidance have been followed to the letter here at our building.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidelines say that when possible, nursing homes should give each Covid-19 patient their own room with a dedicated bathroom, and keep the room door closed.

So how did Newfane Rehab become a tragic hot spot for Covid-19 deaths?

Were not immune to the same phenomenon that has gone on nationwide and worldwide, and that is the best answer I can give you," Toole said.

An April 27 letter to families from Nancy Babis, regional director of operations for the owner of the facility, Maximus Healthcare Group, said at that time that there were "several cases in our facility."

Toole declined to explain how the new coronavirus entered the facility, citing patient privacy laws.

Newfane has provided the utmost care for all of our residents," Toole said.

The state Department of Health's unannounced inspection on Wednesday focused on Covid-19 and included DOH employees testing staff and residents "to help protect this vulnerable population," said Hammond, the state Health Department spokesman.

"There's no doubt that the state dropped the ball on nursing homes," said Niagara County Public Health Director Daniel J. Stapleton at a County Legislature meeting last week. (Thomas J. Prohaska/Buffalo News file photo)

County Legislator John Syracuse, a Newfane chiropractor, recommended moving patients out of Newfane Rehab and sending National Guard doctors and nurses, if needed, to staff a new facility, perhaps the mothballed former Inter-Community Memorial Hospital in Newfane.

The County Legislature on Wednesday sent Cuomo a letter calling for him to take those steps.

"Perhaps there will be some type of intervention," Syracuse said.

Sean Dugan said his mother, Sherry Dugan, survived Covid-19 at Newfane Rehab. But the chief of police at a community college in Colorado said her sickness scared him.

A police officer for 38 years, Sean Dugan was on the SWAT team that responded to the 1999 school shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.

Ive seen the worst of the worst," he said.

But when it comes to his mother's situation, he said he feels "very helpless."

"Thats not something a cop likes to feel," Dugan said.

He said his mother had no roommate until she was assigned one on April 10. Within days, she became sick.

"Mom got a fever sometime between April 12 and April 15 and they tested her, and she tested positive per the doctor on April 15 for Covid-19," he said. "And then they did separate her."

He said the family found out on Easter, April 12, that a person in the facility tested positive for Covid-19.

"When we found out, we said, Did her roommate have Covid-19, that you just gave her? Well, we didnt test her, she was exhibiting no symptoms. Well, coronavirus is asymptomatic. I know that and I'm not in the medical profession," Dugan said.

You dont put people together unless you test them, and if you cant test them, then you dont put people together," he added.

Crogan-Mazur, the niece of Edward and Lorna Crogan, said her first look at Newfane Rehab in February, before the virus outbreak, did not inspire confidence.

Edward Crogan (Courtesy Rhoney Funeral Home)

My uncles bed had a vent over the top, like an air vent, and it was black. We pointed that out to the nurse and we said, Is that mold? And she said, No, its not mold, its just dirt. They said, We cant put them together in a different room. The painter will come in and take care of that. You could tell they were trying to do remodeling while people were still in the room, because it looked like they had pulled out a sink and the wall was just nasty," Crogan-Mazur said.

She took a photo of the ceiling's condition to document what she saw.

The ceiling of Edward and Lorna Crogan's room in Newfane Rehabilitation and Health Care Center in February. (Bonnie Crogan-Mazur)

She wasn't able to go back and check if they fixed it because visitors were banned a few days later in the state-mandated lockdown.

Edward Crogan, of Amherst, a member of the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame for his scoring exploits, died on May 4.

At last report, Lorna Crogan was still alive and receiving "comfort care," her niece said.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services gave Newfane Rehab an overall 2-star rating, a below-average rating in its 5-star rating scale. The facility earned 2-star ratings for health inspections and staffing and an above-average 4-star rating for quality of resident care.

Toole declined to discuss the condition of the facility.

"Im done with the conversation," he said. "Making accusations about the condition of the building is not something I want to address."

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Families angered, frightened as Covid-19 swept through Newfane Rehab - Buffalo News

Fitbit, which makes fitness-tracking wearables, will be shifting supply chain resources to make emergency ventilators, Fitbit CEO James Park said to CNBC. The ventilators will be used to help treat COVID-19 patients and could help bolster the national supply of the medical devices, which have been in need during the pandemic.

There was a lot of concern about the shortage of ventilators and we realized we had expertise already around the supply chain, Park said to CNBC.

Fitbit plans to submit the designs for its ventilator to the Food and Drug Administration under an emergency use authorization in the coming days, according to CNBC. An emergency use authorization is exactly what it sounds like: it allows a medical device or product that hasnt been officially approved by the FDA to be used to treat a life-threatening disease.

Park aims for the ventilators to be the most advanced emergency user ventilator available for a lower cost, but that a price hasnt been determined, according to CNBC. Most ventilators cost thousands of dollars, and high-end ones can cost as much at $50,000. A Fitbit spokesperson declined to give more details to The Verge.

A number of organizations have contributed manufacturing resources to make ventilators. GM and Ford have offered manufacturing space to some ventilator companies to help them produce more units. NASA developed a ventilator designed specifically for COVID-19 patients; the ventilator received emergency use authorization on April 30th, meaning it can enter production. Phone accessory maker Belkin has developed a single-use emergency ventilator in partnership with the University of Illinois which is under review for an emergency use authorization. And Tesla is developing a new ventilator that repurposes parts used in Teslas cars.

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Fitbit is reportedly planning to build ventilators to help treat COVID-19 patients - The Verge

New Mexico appears to have bucked another national trend.

Just one of the nearly 4,000 inmates and staff tested in the states 11 prisons is positive for COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus, according to results released by the state Corrections Department on Friday.

The lone positive result, according to a news release from department spokesman Eric Harrison, was for a correctional officer at the Otero County Prison Facility in Chaparral, near the U.S. border with Mexico.

The officer is now in self-quarantine at home, Harrisons release said.

Across the nation, prisons and jailshave emerged as hotspots for COVID-19, with incarcerated populations and those who work to supervise them testing positive at alarmingly high rates in some places.

Many inmates suffer from pre-existing health conditions that make them particularly susceptible to the often fatal consequences of COVID-19, leaving prisons with some of the most vulnerable populations in the U.S. as the pandemic continues its march.

And with thousands of staff testing positive, the threat has pushed beyond the walls and into the American communities where detention centers sit.

In nearly every prison system around the country, when officials conduct wide-scale testing, they find high volumes of virus, according to data compiled by The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization focused on criminal justice issues.

But in New Mexico, the results released Friday amount to a near-miracle.

At a virtual news conference on Friday, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Human Services Department Secretary Dr. David Scrase attributed the nearly 0 percent test rate in the prisons to what they called early action by state officials particularly the decision to cut off visits from attorneys, families and others in the prisons in March.

Because we closed down swiftly, it meant that we had lower transmission rates and risks in a number of communities, the governor said in response to a question from NMID.

Still, the results just one positive case do raise questions.

Previously, the Corrections Department said four of its staffers tested positive two at the Northwest New Mexico Correctional Center, one at the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility and one at the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility.

Harrisons release did not say whether those staffers had since tested negative.

And in a Thursday news release from Lujan Grishams administration, officials said 24 inmates had tested positive at the Corrections Departments privately operated Otero County Prison Facility.

Harrison said those inmates are in federal custody and are housed in a different part of the prison than state inmates.

The state tested 3,954 people including prison staff and inmates concluding on May 8, Harrisons release said. The effort was part ofNew Mexicos participation in a federally-backed sentinel and surveillance testing program.

On Wednesday, Harrison told New Mexico In Depth that 1,678 inmates and 2,486 staff had been tested, and that all tests were complete. That would make a total of 4,164 tests 200 more than his Friday news released indicated.

On Friday, he said 2,248 staff and 1,706 inmates had been tested.

Harrison did not explain the discrepancy.

Staff were tested in each of the states 11 prisons, Harrison wrote in an email to NMID. He did not provide a breakdown showing where the inmates tested are incarcerated.

The process for selecting (inmates) to test was done through coordinating with facilities to identify vulnerable individuals, new intakes, and possible symptomatic individuals, Harrison wrote.

Staff were tested May 7 and 8, he said in an email, and inmates were tested May 9, 10 and 11. Wexford Health Sources, Inc., the private health care provider New Mexico contracts with for the prisons, administered the tests using nasal swabs, and TriCore Laboratories processed the results.

Lujan Grisham described the prisons as a high-risk environment and that she wasnt sure whether the uncannily low positive test rate would hold.

In collaboration with the New Mexico Department of Health, (the Corrections Department) will continue to conduct contact tracing and surveillance testing within prison facilities, Harrison wrote in his release.

Lujan Grisham praised her administrations efforts to reduce the prison population, citing what she called joint efforts with our partners like the ACLU and others to make sure we can do a safe, early release for folks who are scheduled.

As of this week, just 35 people have been released under an executive order the governor signed last month. A report from the nonpartisan New Mexico Sentencing Commission from last fallidentified nearly 300 people who could be released early under state law.

The ACLU of New Mexico has been critical of the paltry release numbers and, alongside the Law Office of the Public Defender and the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, unsuccessfully petitioned the state Supreme Court to force Lujan Grisham to release more people.

Meanwhile, leadership of the union that represents many Corrections Department officers and staff responded to Fridays announcement with cautious optimism.

Connie Derr is executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 18. The union represents more than 900 corrections officers and Corrections Department staff more than a third of those tested for COVID-19.

Corrections officials did not share any test results with the union before releasing them to the press on Friday, Derr said.

Wow. That doesnt even smell right, Derr said when NMID read her the results in Harrisons news release.

She was writing an email to Corrections Secretary Alisha Tafoya-Lucero when NMID reached her by phone Friday, she said.

There has been no communication from the department, Derr said. I was writing her to ask what the follow-up plan is. Whats the plan to re-test? Whats the plan to test the rest of the inmates. If its good news, why wouldnt they want to tell the union to reduce anxiety among our members? Its been a big abyss.

Council 18filed a complaint on May 1with the state Labor Relations Board, accusing the Corrections Department of violating its collective bargaining agreement by, among other things, failing to detail contingency plans for sick workers or blunt the spread of the virus inside the states prisons.

Derr questioned how four staffers could have beenpositive for COVID-19 early last weekbut negative by weeks end.

Still, she said, Fridays announcement represents a possible massive relief.

If theyre correct, it is, indeed, great news, Derr said. I am very happy if officers and staff are not testing positive. It is surprising, though, given what we are seeing elsewhere. And they did not introduce testing until the last couple weeks, so I still have questions. Its kind of shocking.

New Mexico is one of just 11 states thats releasing information on how many prison officers and staff are being tested, according to data collected by The Marshall Project.

As of May 8, according to the Marshall Projects data, more than 6,100 prison staff have tested positive for the virus nationwide; 22 of them have reportedly died from COVID-19.

Those figures do not include the numbers released by New Mexico officials for the prisons here.

Editors note: This story has been updated to include state Corrections Department responses to NMID questions about testing dates, administration and processing.

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One in nearly four-thousand: NM prison COVID-19 testing shows strikingly low positive rate - New Mexico Political Report