COVID-19 News from Around the Web

New Covid-19 cases in the US may be on the decline, but some officials across the heartland reported worrisome news this week. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said Monday the state had reached an "unfortunate milestone" by reporting at least one case of the virus in every county. The state's infection rate, she said, "continues an alarming trend in the wrong direction." The state's seven-day average for new daily cases was 561 Monday, up from about 100 in mid-June, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

More than 70,000 new Covid-19 cases in children have been reported across the US since early August, new data shows. Child cases increased by 21% between August 6 and August 20, according to an updated joint report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association. More than 440,000 children have been infected in the US since the start of the pandemic, the report said. Despite the climbing numbers, severe illness in children from the virus is rare, the report said.

The latest report from President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force shows Georgia had the second-highest rate of new coronavirus infections in the nation over the past week, and it continues to urge state leaders to impose a mask mandate and other restrictions to stem the spread of COVID-19. Gov. Brian Kemp’s office countered Tuesday by pointing to recent statistics that show signs of improvement and said it was considering deploying Georgia National Guard “mobile strike teams” to nursing homes, religious institutions, schools and colleges to better contain the disease.

When in doubt, don't argue with anti-maskers. That's the recommendation from the CDC to retail and service employees. This week, the health agency issued new guidance to limit workplace violence that could be aimed at workers when enforcing their companies' Covid-19 safety procedures. The procedures that retail and service businesses have been advised to implement under CDC guidelines include enforcing mask wearing, social distancing and limiting the number of customers allowed in a business at one time. But the CDC warns that workers could be threatened or assaulted for employing these safety measures, describing violence ranging from yelling and swearing to slapping and choking the employees.

Threatening fines and funding cut-offs, the Trump administration on Tuesday issued new COVID-19 requirements for nursing homes and hospitals, prompting immediate pushback from beleaguered industries. To check the spread of the coronavirus in nursing homes, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced it will require facilities to test staff regularly or face fines. The move comes months after the White House first urged governors to test all nursing home residents and staff. With residents, nursing homes are being required to offer them coronavirus tests if there is an outbreak or if any show symptoms.

American Airlines has warned employees that the company will lay off or involuntary furlough 19,000 workers if it does not receive additional federal aid amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. … American Airlines had over 140,000 employees before the COVID-19 outbreak, but will see 40,000 fewer people — about a 30 percent reduction — working in its company come October, according to the airline.

It’s the paradox of a pandemic that has crushed the U.S. economy: 12.9 million lost jobs and a dangerous rash of businesses closing, yet the personal finances of many Americans have remained strong — and in some ways have even improved. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that 45% of Americans say they’re setting aside more money than usual. Twenty-six percent are paying down debt faster than they were before the coronavirus pandemic. In total, about half of Americans say they’ve either saved more or paid down debt since the outbreak began.

University of Hong Kong scientists claim to have the first evidence of someone being reinfected with the virus that causes COVID-19. Genetic tests revealed that a 33-year-old man returning to Hong Kong from a trip to Spain in mid-August had a different strain of the coronavirus than the one he’d previously been infected with in March, said Dr. Kelvin Kai-Wang To, the microbiologist who led the work. The man had mild symptoms the first time and none the second time; his more recent infection was detected through screening and testing at the Hong Kong airport. “It shows that some people do not have lifelong immunity” to the virus if they’ve already had it, To said. “We don’t know how many people can get reinfected. There are probably more out there.”

The Food and Drug Administration whipped up a fierce controversy Sunday when it decided to grant an Emergency Use Authorization, or EUA, for convalescent plasma to be used as a treatment for Covid-19. The decision came after many experts, including Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had warned the agency there wasn’t enough evidence to fast-track approval for the novel treatment. The idea is that the plasma from people who have successfully withstood the virus contains antibodies, which can interfere with how a pathogen works or mark it as a target for elimination. That can then keep the disease in check or help the immune system eradicate it. It’s an approach that’s been used with varying degrees of success for other coronaviruses like SARS and MERS. But Covid-19 is a markedly different disease, and so far, no randomized control trials, the gold standard of evidence, on convalescent plasma have been completed.

Just as millions of children are heading back to school, the World Health Organization says those aged 6 to 11 should wear masks in some cases to help fight the spread of coronavirus. The recommendations presented Monday follow the widespread belief that children under 12 are not considered as likely to propagate the virus as much as adults. Children in general face less severe virus symptoms than do adults, with the elderly the most vulnerable to severe infection and death. Now WHO says decisions about whether children aged 6 to 11 should wear masks should consider factors like whether COVID-19 transmission is widespread in the area where the child lives; the child’s ability to safely use a mask; and adult supervision when taking the masks on or off. Acknowledging gaps in both research and understanding of the virus, WHO said kids under age 6 should not wear masks, while those 12 to 18 should wear them just like adults should — notably in cases where physical distancing cannot be ensured and in areas of high transmission. WHO advises a “risk-based approach” for kids aged 6 to 11 that balances various factors.

According to the Hong Kong researchers, the first time the patient got sick, he felt ill: He had a cough, a sore throat, fever, and headache, and had to be hospitalized. The second time the patient tested positive for the virus — four and a half months later — after being screened at the airport, he felt no symptoms at all. As virologist and physician Muge Cevik explains on Twitter, this is “in a way reassuring.” It’s what you’d hope to see the second time someone is infected with a virus: a less severe reaction. Which is all to say: You can be reinfected with the virus but still have some protective immunity to it. Why? There are many, many components of our immune system that are working together to fight the virus. And immunity doesn’t mean one single thing.

Novel coronavirus infections are trending upward across the Midwest, raising concerns that those states are struggling to contain their outbreaks even as the nation’s total daily caseload continues to decline. Seven-day averages for new cases rose over the past week in the Dakotas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Wyoming, according to tracking by The Washington Post. South Dakota and Wyoming experienced the biggest jumps, with average daily caseloads up 58 percent and 50 percent, respectively. Other states reported progress against the virus, though it appeared to be marginal in some places. Daily case averages declined by about 3 percent over the previous week in Wisconsin and by 10 to 20 percent in several other Midwestern states.