Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #67

[MrX]

So you're from Phoenix huh?

;-)

Unfortunately... The Mayor has made no secret of her desire to close everything, so when the Governor tosses this over the fence to her, it's going to be pretty comical joining the endless stream of cars driving out to where things are still open!

 

[10ofRods]

Can someone explain the distinction between the two positivity rates reported below? TIA.

The percent positivity for the new cases reported Thursday was 18.39%, a record high. It was the tenth consecutive day the rate has been over 14%.

The positivity rate of all tests reported Thursday was 20.72%, also a record high. The median age of people who tested positive in Thursday's results was 38, and has been 40 or below for the past two weeks.

First is for all new cases (by patient ID number/name) entered into the system.

Second is for overall testing, including those who are getting retested in order to be proclaimed "no longer actively infected." Typically, doctors start ordering a new CoVid test about 2 weeks after major symptoms subside. Different places vary on how many times this has to be done before a patient is declared 'recovered' in the data.

So as time goes on, people get retested and apparently quite a few of those repeat tests are still positive (keep in mind that in the past those people all tested positive), hence the higher number for "all tests." The group that was being retested had a lot of still-positive people in it. This is not a new type of finding - doctors and scientists are mulling over what to do about the very long phase in which people can feel fine (both before and after CoVid) and still be shedding active virus in amounts large enough to detect.

 

[tresir2012]

Neo-Nazis encouraging followers to 'deliberately infect' Jews and Muslims with coronavirus

Neo-Nazis and far-right activists have been telling followers to "deliberately infect" Jews and Muslims with coronavirus, a UK government counterterrorism agency warned on Thursday, as extremists attempt to capitalize on the pandemic.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the UK's Commission for Countering Extremism said it has received increasing reports of far-right, far-left and Islamist extremists exploiting the crisis to promote divisive, xenophobic and racist narratives "to sow division" and create social discord.

This is a link to the actual report from the Commision for Countering Extremism (CCE).

COVID-19: How hateful extremists are exploiting the pandemic

 

[CharlestonGal]

I think things might be hopeless in FL.

https://www.miamiherald.com/article244086547.html

A shortage of contact tracers in Miami-Dade County has allowed COVID-19 to spread rapidly in Florida’s biggest hotspot, the mayor of Miami Beach said Thursday, expressing alarm at the state’s handling of the pandemic amid a statewide resurgence of the disease.

Contact tracers, who are responsible for interviewing COVID-19 patients in order to pinpoint where they were infected and to whom they may have passed the virus, have been overwhelmed by the recent spike in coronavirus cases, said Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, who spoke with state health officials Wednesday.

“The contact tracing program was fully unprepared for a surge,” he said. “Not even in the ballpark of prepared. Woefully unprepared.”

Miami-Dade County has the state’s highest number of COVID-19 cases, with 53,974 confirmed infections through Wednesday. The county has averaged 1,868 new cases a day over the past two weeks — a breakneck pace that has overwhelmed the contact tracers now working in Miami-Dade.

 

[Tippy Lynn]

I hate to wish time away, but can we turn the calendar to mid 2021?

 

[24Roses]

Iowa numbers today : As of 11:00 a.m. we have 733 (IMO) new confirmed cases and 8 (IMO) more have passsed away. We now have 33,121 total confirmed cases of which 26,250 have recovered and 740 have passed away. Info. comes from Iowa COVID-19 Information and will be updated in 24 hrs. IMO, their real time update does show that one death was taken away.Iowa COVID-19 Information Here is what a news station collected for numbers as of 10:00 a.m. today. July 9: 669 new COVID-19 cases from 7,000+ tests, 364 new recoveries, 7 new deaths

 

[10ofRods]

That's how it's supposed to work. When everyone is constantly being tested, it's possible to identify areas that are experiencing outbreaks and then isolate them. The problem here, is that if they close an area down the highway from your place, those people will just come to your restaurant.

This is what we will see in AZ if the Governor allows cities to impose their own restrictions - hundreds of us from Phoenix will drive up to Wickenburg for brunch every weekend.

And then once people in Wickenburg (lots of old people there) start getting sick and dying, then Wickenburg can ban outsiders, right?

Is that how you see it going? So only law and penalty will make people do the right thing, is what you're saying.

It is certainly the model that's emerging (each hamlet and town and city for itself). I do think AZ needs an overall statewide policy just to save people from themselves, if you're right.

If we had imposed mandatory masks (and penalties on LE agencies that refused to write citations/enforce) early on, California would not be in the mess we're in now.

If each town or city does its own thing, some will soak up medical resources from others, poorer towns won't be able to acquire traveling nurses, richer towns will have plenty of PPE, etc. For certain facets of this pandemic, I think the entire United States should have shared policy/law and actual experts should have weighed in on how to reopen.

 

[tresir2012]

And then once people in Wickenburg (lots of old people there) start getting sick and dying, then Wickenburg can ban outsiders, right?

Is that how you see it going? So only law and penalty will make people do the right thing, is what you're saying.

It is certainly the model that's emerging (each hamlet and town and city for itself). I do think AZ needs an overall statewide policy just to save people from themselves, if you're right.

If we had imposed mandatory masks (and penalties on LE agencies that refused to write citations/enforce) early on, California would not be in the mess we're in now.

If each town or city does its own thing, some will soak up medical resources from others, poorer towns won't be able to acquire traveling nurses, richer towns will have plenty of PPE, etc. For certain facets of this pandemic, I think the entire United States should have shared policy/law and actual experts should have weighed in on how to reopen.

I don't think LE could police a mandatory mask policy and deal with crime IMO. They're not doing it in some of the jurisdictions already. They're not doing it on UK public transport as we have already heard on here.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Six Catholic schools will permanently shut down due to coronavirus hardships: Brooklyn Diocese

Six struggling Catholic elementary schools in Brooklyn and Queens will close for good following months of financial hardships and low enrollment due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Diocese of Brooklyn announced on Thursday.

Queen of the Rosary in Williamsburg, St. Gregory the Great in Crown Heights, Our Lady’s Catholic Academy in South Ozone Park, Our Lady of Grace in Howard Beach, and Holy Trinity Catholic Academy and St. Mel’s Catholic Academy in Whitestone will permanently shut down Aug. 31, officials said.

 

[tresir2012]

In UK, swimming pools reopening and cricket to recommence. Link to follow.

Pools, gyms, team sport and outdoor gigs to return

 

[10ofRods]

I think things might be hopeless in FL.

https://www.miamiherald.com/article244086547.html

A shortage of contact tracers in Miami-Dade County has allowed COVID-19 to spread rapidly in Florida’s biggest hotspot, the mayor of Miami Beach said Thursday, expressing alarm at the state’s handling of the pandemic amid a statewide resurgence of the disease.

Contact tracers, who are responsible for interviewing COVID-19 patients in order to pinpoint where they were infected and to whom they may have passed the virus, have been overwhelmed by the recent spike in coronavirus cases, said Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, who spoke with state health officials Wednesday.

“The contact tracing program was fully unprepared for a surge,” he said. “Not even in the ballpark of prepared. Woefully unprepared.”

Miami-Dade County has the state’s highest number of COVID-19 cases, with 53,974 confirmed infections through Wednesday. The county has averaged 1,868 new cases a day over the past two weeks — a breakneck pace that has overwhelmed the contact tracers now working in Miami-Dade.

It was apparently a tiny bit better yesterday. Increases were really rapid, now there's a new "normal" of a relatively high infection rate - but it didn't continue to go up quite as rapidly over the past couple of days. Of course, that could just be a blip, it could take off and go even higher, faster - but given the apparent ~20% positivity rate, that means CoVid is going to spread fairly rapidly throughout the region. But it does not look as close to going exponentially out of control as it did 5-7 days ago.

Small ray of sunshine in an otherwise heartbreaking situation (and FL still plans to allow Disney World and the Animal Park to open, along with the basketball...rather soon, IIRC).

Disney must be very worried at putting the expense into the opening and bringing back a lot of employees - if after a week or so, they have to shut down again. Perhaps Floridians themselves will go, despite the consequences - it's hard to tell. People here on this thread say that people will try to travel great distances to get to "open things" and do not care about the risk of virus.

 

[JerseyGirl]

While NY makes progress over COVID-19, Cuomo worries about surges elsewhere

In New York, 584 people were confirmed positive for the virus out of 65,564 tested on Wednesday. That translates into 0.89% level of confirmed positives, according to state data released Thursday.

The level on Long Island was 0.9% and in New York City 1.0%, according to state data. Those levels are among the lowest in the country.

"New York continues to make progress fighting COVID-19 through a smart, data-driven approach and the thoughtful actions of everyday citizens, who've been practicing social distancing, mask wearing and hand-washing," Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Coronavirus Updates: Cuomo says malls could reopen on Friday, but not in NYC

The Wildlife Conservation Society announced plans to reopen the Bronx Zoo, New York Aquarium, Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo and Queens Zoo on Friday, July 24, after being closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic since March 16.

Additionally, as part of the city's Cool It NYC program, more than 34,000 air conditioning units have been provided to seniors in need. Sprinklers, spray showers, and misting stations are reopened, and there are 950 existing cooling elements with the city adding 250 new sites as well.

During heat advisories, the FDNY and DEP will install up to 320 additional spray caps on hydrants citywide.

You can visit NYC.gov/Parks/CoolItNYC to find a cooling element near you, or you can call 311 to request a spray cap.

Cool Streets are going to be part of the Open Streets program in heat-burdened neighborhoods.

 

[10ofRods]

I don't think LE could police a mandatory mask policy and deal with crime IMO. They're not doing it in some of the jurisdictions already. They're not doing it on UK public transport as we have already heard on here.

Maybe not in UK, but they sure can here where I live. PLENTY of capacity and it won't take much to remind people - once people know tickets are being issued, they will and have in the past modified their behavior. Unpaid fines to the state result in some consequences to people (in fact, it would be easy in California to simply link it to driver's license/ID process, as we do with many minor offenses)

OTOH, if it is a criminal matter, it does go on people's permanent records, affects their credit, etc. I would think that those places that are already doing this very successfully with a mere $50 ticket can be emulated throughout most of California.

In fact Texas is doing just this and I do believe they know what they're doing and that it will work nicely for them. We don't have statewide police (just the Highway Patrol) but each county has a Sheriff and all of the Sheriffs must follow certain state guidelines or face some difficulties with both licensing and funding.

It's actually really easy to do. Intermittent reinforcement (negative consequences) work really well. Just come watch one CHP car sit on the side of the road - you'll see the effect on speeding immediately and it will last for several miles (and then, there will be another CHP car within much of the commuter area of our SoCal freeways).

Heck, even a flashing light with a digital sign that says WE ARE WATCHING YOU SPEED works very well. People don't like tickets, they don't like getting caught. Sure, the actual antisocial/sociopathic types don't obey - and that's who end up getting tickets. We all cheer when it happens - as it does, daily.

"Mask police" don't even have to be fully uniformed police officers. They can be like parking enforcement - lowest paid cadets. And it gives those cadets a job and a future in government work (not necessarily as uniformed LE).

 

[Spider92]

First is for all new cases (by patient ID number/name) entered into the system.

Second is for overall testing, including those who are getting retested in order to be proclaimed "no longer actively infected." Typically, doctors start ordering a new CoVid test about 2 weeks after major symptoms subside. Different places vary on how many times this has to be done before a patient is declared 'recovered' in the data.

So as time goes on, people get retested and apparently quite a few of those repeat tests are still positive (keep in mind that in the past those people all tested positive), hence the higher number for "all tests." The group that was being retested had a lot of still-positive people in it. This is not a new type of finding - doctors and scientists are mulling over what to do about the very long phase in which people can feel fine (both before and after CoVid) and still be shedding active virus in amounts large enough to detect.

Thanks so much - I knew you'd have a good answer! It sounds like the new case rate is the most appropriate for assessing the current trend.

 

[Tadpole12]

Coronavirus: Florida's Disney World reopening safety measures released

Disney released new details about the safety precautions it will be taking at Central Florida theme parks when they reopen to the public on Saturday.

What about the bathroom procedures?
Restrooms

Covid disclaimer:
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/en_CA/experience-updates/

 

[anneg]

I hate to wish time away, but can we turn the calendar to mid 2021?

Well...if we did that, we might not like what we would see in mid 2021.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Fetal coronavirus infection is possible, study suggests

A small study strengthens evidence that a pregnant woman infected with the coronavirus might be able to spread it to her fetus.

Researchers from Italy said Thursday that they studied 31 women with COVID-19 who delivered babies in March and April. They found signs of the virus in several samples of umbilical cord blood, the placenta and, in one case, breast milk.

It merits more study, especially of women who are infected earlier in their pregnancies than these women.

Dr. Ashley Roman, a pregnancy specialist at NYU Langone Health, said she and colleagues also detected viral particles on the fetal side of the placenta in several of the 11 cases they examined. The new report adds evidence that in-womb transmission is possible, but it seems rare and to not cause serious problems in the infants, she said.

"The most important thing that pregnant women need to know is it's important to socially distance. It's important to wear a mask, wash their hands," Roman said. "Women don't need to be cut off from society entirely, but they should be concerned about the impact of getting COVID on their own health during pregnancy."

 

[tresir2012]

Dupe

 

[tresir2012]

Maybe not in UK, but they sure can here where I live. PLENTY of capacity and it won't take much to remind people - once people know tickets are being issued, they will and have in the past modified their behavior. Unpaid fines to the state result in some consequences to people (in fact, it would be easy in California to simply link it to driver's license/ID process, as we do with many minor offenses)

OTOH, if it is a criminal matter, it does go on people's permanent records, affects their credit, etc. I would think that those places that are already doing this very successfully with a mere $50 ticket can be emulated throughout most of California.

In fact Texas is doing just this and I do believe they know what they're doing and that it will work nicely for them. We don't have statewide police (just the Highway Patrol) but each county has a Sheriff and all of the Sheriffs must follow certain state guidelines or face some difficulties with both licensing and funding.

It's actually really easy to do. Intermittent reinforcement (negative consequences) work really well. Just come watch one CHP car sit on the side of the road - you'll see the effect on speeding immediately and it will last for several miles (and then, there will be another CHP car within much of the commuter area of our SoCal freeways).

Heck, even a flashing light with a digital sign that says WE ARE WATCHING YOU SPEED works very well. People don't like tickets, they don't like getting caught. Sure, the actual antisocial/sociopathic types don't obey - and that's who end up getting tickets. We all cheer when it happens - as it does, daily.

"Mask police" don't even have to be fully uniformed police officers. They can be like parking enforcement - lowest paid cadets. And it gives those cadets a job and a future in government work (not necessarily as uniformed LE).

There have been US examples too already posted today.

We all know how speed signs and cameras work. People slow down when there are cameras or police cars around otherwise they speed.

NYPD aren't doing it.

Police Back Off From Social Distancing Enforcement

NYPD Will No Longer Enforce Face Coverings