Reuters -
November 2, 2020
Coronavirus cases continued their grim climb in the US on Sunday with Midwestern states experiencing record hospitalizations, as increasingly bitter rhetoric kept the virus front and center of campaigning two days before the presidential election. Nearly 87,000 cases were reported on Saturday, with 909 deaths and record hospitalizations for the sixth straight day in the Midwest, according to a Reuters tally. In October, 31 states set records for increases in new cases, 21 for hospitalized COVID-19 patients and 14 for record increases in deaths.
AJC -
November 2, 2020
Voters have the right to vote even if they are sick or under quarantine for COVID-19, says the CDC. The agency indicated that all persons who are sick or under quarantine should inform poll workers of their condition on arrival at the polling location. … “CDC’s recommendations for isolating someone who has COVID-19 or quarantining someone who was in close contact with a person with COVID-19 would not preclude them from exercising their right to vote," said CDC spokesman Jason McDonald in a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
TIME -
November 2, 2020
In his closing message to Americans as a presidential candidate, President Donald Trump has mocked the deadly virus as a media conspiracy and insisted it is on its way out, despite having contracted it himself. “Until November 4th., Fake News Media is going full on Covid, Covid, Covid,” he tweeted on Oct. 27. “We are rounding the turn. 99.9%.”
CBS News -
November 2, 2020
Britain is going on a roughly monthlong lockdown as coronavirus cases to surge, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Saturday, just three months after telling The Telegraph that he didn't want to mandate a national lockdown and likened the measure to a "nuclear deterrent." From November 5 to December 2, people will only be permitted to leave their homes for a short list of reasons, such as childcare, work, exercise, medical issues, or shopping for basic needs. Bars and restaurants will only be allowed to provide take-out options and non-essential stores will have to close. Johnson said the country is extending its furlough system through December to help businesses.
Vox -
November 2, 2020
Recently on the campaign trail — like when Trump took the stage at a rally in Waterford Township, Michigan, near Detroit on Friday — the president has pushed a baseless conspiracy theory that “our doctors get more money if someone dies from Covid,” and that they are inflating the Covid-19 death toll because of this. There is, of course, no evidence for either part of that theory — either that Covid-19 deaths are being overcounted in the US, or that medical workers are doing so to profit from a pandemic that has, as of November 1, killed more than 230,000 people in the US.
ABC News -
November 2, 2020
Even as a new surge of coronavirus infections sweeps the U.S., officials in many hard-hit states are resisting taking stronger action to slow the spread, with pleas from health experts running up against political calculation and public fatigue. … many officials have resisted calls to enact measures like statewide mask mandates or stricter curbs on the size of gatherings, casting the response to the virus as a matter of individual decision-making.
HealthDay -
November 2, 2020
COVID-19 can spread through a family like wildfire, frequently infecting other people in a household within days of someone carrying the coronavirus home with them, new research shows. More than half of people in households with COVID-19 patients wound up contracting the virus themselves, usually within five days of the first patient developing symptoms, according to findings from the U.S. CDC. The study tracked 101 people initially diagnosed with COVID-19 in the cities of Nashville, Tenn., and Marshfield, Wis., between April and September, according to a report published Oct. 30 in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
USA Today -
November 2, 2020
The U.S. has entered a second round of back-to-school, just as the coronavirus surges around the nation. In smaller school districts, careful in-person reopenings in August and September didn’t lead to an explosion of COVID-19 cases. And now, the country's largest school systems, which had largely eschewed in-person instruction, are venturing partially back into the classroom. The majority of the 15 largest districts in the nation now have at least some students in school buildings. Only two of those districts had any form of in-person learning as of early September.
HealthDay -
November 2, 2020
COVID-19 may cause heart damage, which can be especially concerning to athletes eager to return to play as soon as they can. Myocarditis -- inflammation in the heart usually caused by a viral infection -- can lead to sudden death during exercise. With that in mind, the American College of Cardiology came up with some safety recommendations in May, which have now been revised.
Kaiser Health News -
November 2, 2020
Nursing homes, small physician offices and rural clinics are being left behind in the rush for N95 masks and other protective gear, exposing some of the country’s most vulnerable populations and their caregivers to COVID-19 while larger, wealthier health care facilities build equipment stockpiles. … While supply chains have adjusted, and the availability of PPE has improved dramatically since the mayhem of the spring, limited factories and quantities of raw materials still constrain supply amid the ongoing high demand.
PEOPLE -
November 2, 2020
The CDC has given cruises the go-ahead to set sail in the U.S. after months of uncertainty — but it could still be months before passengers are allowed on board ... The order — which applies to ships with the capacity to carry at least 250 passengers and travel in U.S. waters — details how cruise lines should take a "phased approach for the safe and responsible resumption of passenger cruises," making it clear that no passengers will be allowed to sail at this time.
Reuters -
October 28, 2020
Nearly half a million people in the US have contracted the novel coronavirus in the last seven days, according to a Reuters tally, as cases and hospitalizations set fresh records in hot spots in the Midwest. More than 5,600 people died from the virus nationwide in the last week, with hospitalizations shooting up 13%, a Reuters analysis showed. Illinois, which has emerged as a hot spot in recent weeks, reported over 31,000 new cases in the last seven days, more new infections than any other state except Texas.
NPR -
October 28, 2020
More Americans may be wearing masks than early last spring, but other recommended behaviors to stop the pandemic's spread haven't kept pace, according to a new federal survey. And young people are the least likely to take needed steps to stop the virus, the data suggest. The proportion of U.S. adults reporting wearing face masks increased from 78% in April to 89% in June, according to the nationally representative survey released by CDC Prevention Tuesday.
Reuters -
October 28, 2020
People recovering from COVID-19 may suffer significant brain function impacts, with the worst cases of the infection linked to mental decline equivalent to the brain ageing by 10 years, researchers warned on Tuesday. A non-peer-reviewed study of more than 84,000 people, led by Adam Hampshire, a doctor at Imperial College London, found that in some severe cases, coronavirus infection is linked to substantial cognitive deficits for months. … The findings, which have yet to be reviewed by other experts, were published online on the MedRxiv website.
BBC -
October 28, 2020
Levels of protective antibodies in people wane "quite rapidly" after coronavirus infection, say researchers. Antibodies are a key part of our immune defences and stop the virus from getting inside the body's cells. The Imperial College London team found the number of people testing positive for antibodies has fallen by 26% between June and September. They say immunity appears to be fading and there is a risk of catching the virus multiple times.
BBC -
October 28, 2020
WHO spokeswoman Dr Margaret Harris said France, Spain, the UK, the Netherlands and Russia accounted for the majority of cases which increased by a third. "The concern... is that intensive care units in hospitals are now beginning to fill with very ill people," she warned. Russia reported a daily record of 320 deaths, pushing the tally to 26,589. There has been a sharp increase in Italy too, with 221 fatalities announced in the past 24 hours.