Coronavirus live updates: US hits 100,000 deaths from coronavirus as states continue to cautiously reopen
By JOHN BACON AND LORENZO REYES May 27, 2020
The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surpassed 100,000 Wednesday, according to NBC and the New York Times. Yet about half of Americans are unsure they would get vaccinated if a vaccine becomes available, a new poll shows.
As of the end of March, the U.S. had registered about 4,000 deaths. But the figure took a drastic upward turn in April, when the disease killed nearly 60,000 Americans, and has continued at a slower but still devastating pace.
Coronavirus and the air conditioned nightmare
By Lloyd Alter May 21, 2020
Recent research indicates that large droplets from sneezing can travel much further than 2 meters, even if there are no air movements. Small particles (<5 microns), generated by coughing and sneezing, may stay airborne for hours according to the REHVA guidance and can travel long distances. A Coronavirus particle is only 0.8 to 0.16 microns diameter so there could be many virus particles in a 5-micron droplet floating around in the air.
The U.S. May Face a Second Wave of Coronavirus Infections
The latest data shows the country’s efforts at social distancing are beginning to have an impact. In areas hardest hit by the coronavirus, new reported cases are dropping.
While the trends are promising, health officials and scientists warn, it’s still too soon to relax social distancing measures. Easing up on restrictions could lead to a surge of deadly infections known as a “second wave.”
Can Dogs Detect COVID-19? Florida Nonprofit Sniffing Out Answer
As the race to cure COVID-19 continues, one Florida nonprofit is working to detect the disease in public spaces with the help of some four-legged friends.
BioScent K9 in Myakka City is working to find out whether dogs can sniff out COVID-19.
“If we are able to do this with the dogs, they could really help society come back to some type of normalcy,” says Heather Juniqueira, who says beagles and basset hounds are best for the test.
New coronavirus symptoms added to CDC’s list of possible COVID-19 signs
By Douglas Hook April 27, 2020
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have added six new COVID-19 symptoms to watch out for.
The original list consisted of three familiar symptoms fever, cough and shortness of breath. Now the list includes chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and loss of taste or smell.
Workers face 'uphill battle' proving firms liable if they catch COVID-19 as economy reopens
By Paul Davidson and Nicholas Wu April 28, 2020
A handful of states are reopening for business following coronavirus-triggered lockdowns, raising two compelling questions: Must employers ensure the workplace is safe? And will they be held liable if employees contract the virus?
The short answer is that while health care providers must follow federal safety guidelines to guard against contagion, other businesses are not obligated to do so, leaving it to states and localities to set standards, experts say. And sick employees who seek damages, typically through worker’s compensation, must prove that they contracted the virus at work – an especially thorny challenge.
New CDC Study Suggests Air Conditioning At Restaurants Can Spread COVID-19
By Brad Japhe April 25, 2020
A new study published on the Centers for Disease Control website this month could serve as a somber warning to restaurants preparing to open in the weeks ahead. A thorough epidemiological trace of a COVID-19 cluster that emerged in Guangzhou, China earlier this year, suggests that the disease spread through an eatery’s air conditioning.
“We conclude that in this outbreak, droplet transmission was prompted by air-conditioned ventilation,” reads the troubling report.
Just breathing or talking may be enough to spread COVID-19 after all
By Tina Hesman Saey April 2, 2020
The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 may spread through the air in tiny particles that infected people exhale during normal breathing and speech.
Until now, experts have said that the virus, called SARS-CoV-2, doesn’t spread through the air in that way, but rather through relatively large droplets released when people cough or sneeze. Those droplets can contaminate surfaces or objects and infect people who touch the surface and then touch their faces.
The coronavirus crisis is way worse than feared
By Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen April 25, 2020
It's deflating, but it would be derelict to ignore: The hope of anything approximating normal in the coming months — and probably well beyond — is gone.
Why it matters: It's great and normal to cheer for a miracle cure or sudden coronavirus retreat. But the experts who study the virus closest seem unanimous in their verdict that our health, economic and social pain will persist for many months to come.
Flu and coronavirus will launch dual 'assault' on America next winter if we don't prepare now, CDC chief warns
By Brandon Specktor - Senior Writer April 22, 2020
A resurgence of COVID-19 next winter could hit the United States health care system even harder than the original outbreak has, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned.
How shoppers can avoid catching coronavirus at grocery stores
By SUSANNAH BRYAN, MARIO ARIZA and BROOKE BAITINGER March 31, 2020
Now that employees at popular grocery stores in South Florida have tested positive for the virus, nervous shoppers are questioning just how safe it is to head to the supermarket.
That includes Doug Fulcher, a Fort Lauderdale senior who shopped at Whole Foods last week after an employee there tested positive and found a crowd of people who weren’t even trying to keep their distance.
Coronavirus might spread much farther than 6 feet in the air. CDC says wear a mask in public.
By George Petras and Jim Sergent April 3, 2020
Air contaminated with the COVID-19 virus might travel four times farther than the 6 feet the CDC asks we distance ourselves, according to a recent study.
The study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that under the right conditions, liquid droplets from sneezes, coughs and just exhaling can travel more than 26 feet and linger in the air for minutes.
5 Things Everyone Should Know About the Coronavirus Outbreak
By KATHY KATELLA April 22, 2020
COVID-19 continues to change daily life in the United States as SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for spreading the disease, sweeps across the country.
The U.S. declared a national emergency in mid-March, and Americans have been adjusting to strict guidelines and mandates instructing them to stay home, avoid unnecessary travel, and stay 6 feet away from other people.
So You Tested Positive for COVID-19. How Long Should You Isolate Yourself?
By Laura Klivans March 31, 2020
Even before Candace Palmerlee tested positive for the coronavirus, she began isolating herself at home, not wanting to pass the infection on to others.
When her positive test result was confirmed on March 16, she says she and her family were given three different timelines for how long they would need to stay within the confines of their Walnut Creek home. One nurse instructed Palmerlee to wait two weeks from the date of her first symptom, another advised her to wait two weeks from the date her test was taken, and county literature said a minimum of seven days was required, plus an additional three after all symptoms subsided.
How Long Are You Contagious for Once You Get COVID-19?
By RACHEL MUENZ April 13, 2020
Research has indicated that, of those who show symptoms of COVID-19, most will likely do so within five days of being infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease. However, how long people remain contagious once they are infected is proving to be a difficult question for researchers to answer.
COVID-19 Pandemic: How We Got Here
Most of us just say "coronavirus" or maybe "COVID-19," which is short for "Coronavirus Disease of 2019," when the first infections appeared.
Whatever you call it, this deadly illness spread quickly, and sparked a global response like nothing we've ever seen.
We know this virus originated in Wuhan, China in late 2019 -- but how did we get to the point of millions of infections across the globe and economic shut downs?
Asymptomatic Carriers Are Fueling the COVID-19 Pandemic. Here’s Why You Don’t Have to Feel Sick to Spread the Disease
By Jillian Mock March 26, 2020
This week, the White House issued a warning for anyone who recently fled New York City: Quarantine yourself for a full 14 days or risk spreading COVID-19 to a new community — regardless of whether you’re showing symptoms.
“To everyone who has left New York over the last few days, because of the … number of cases [there], you may have been exposed,” said Deborah Birx, the response coordinator for the White House coronavirus task force, in a news conference on Tuesday.
The bodies of COVID-19 victims may be contagious, coroner's case reveals
By Laura Geggel April 16, 2020
Even after death, COVID-19 could be contagious, a new report finds.
A forensic practitioner working in Bangkok, Thailand, most likely caught the virus from a deceased patient, according to the report, which was posted online April 11 as a preprint for the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine.
The forensic practitioner later died of the virus, marking the first case on record of a "COVID-19 infection and death among medical personnel in a forensic medicine unit," the researchers wrote in the report.
WHEN IS COVID-19 MOST CONTAGIOUS AND WHY IS SELF-ISOLATION SO IMPORTANT?
By Gavi April 6, 2020
When COVID-19 was first identified it appeared to have milder symptoms and fewer severe cases than previously seen for other coronaviruses such as SARS and MERS. Yet as it spread the number of severe cases rose quicker than with earlier coronavirus epidemics. So how was the virus doing this?
The virus that causes COVID-19 could be even more contagious than previously thought, a new study finds
By Stuart Thomson April 13, 2020
The virus that causes COVID-19 could be even more contagious than previously believed, a new study released last week found.
In the early days of the outbreak in China, the number of infected people doubled every 2.3 to 3.3 days as opposed to the six to seven days that was previously believed, the study found.
How are people being infected with COVID-19?
By Tia Ghose April 7, 2020
The new coronavirus has upended all of our usual calculus about seemingly ordinary activities. Is running past someone on the street safe? How about shopping in a grocery store with a 6-foot (2 meters) distance? And what about packages and takeout? And which of these activities poses the biggest risk?
Unfortunately, there's a lot we still don't know about the way the virus that causes COVID-19 spreads.
When is COVID-19 most contagious? What does it take to be considered 'recovered'?
By Glenn Howatt April 9, 2020
People sickened by COVID-19 are most infectious when they are showing symptoms, including fever, coughing and shortness of breath, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But new research confirms that those without symptoms are playing a significant role in spreading the virus. A study of cruise ship passengers found that nearly 18 percent of them tested positive and had no symptoms. State of Minnesota and University of Minnesota researchers modeling the pandemic’s effects now estimate that one infected person is spreading it to as many as four others.
Here’s How COVID-19 Compares to Past Outbreaks
Healthline
With new cases of the new coronavirus disease, COVID-19, growing day by day, it’s natural to compare the new disease to other outbreaks in recent history. There was the 1918 influenza, for example, that infected nearly a thirdTrusted Source of the world’s population before it fizzled out.
Then came other threatening viruses that appeared out of nowhere: severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the H1N1 influenza in 2009, and Ebola.
Chilling video reveals how coronavirus spreads from a single cough in a supermarket
James Rogers April 9, 2020
“Preliminary results indicate that aerosol particles carrying the virus can remain in the air longer than was originally thought, so it is important to avoid busy public indoor spaces,” the researchers explain in a statement. “This also reduces the risk of droplet infection, which remains the main path of transmission for coronavirus.”
The COVID-19 Coronavirus Disease May Be Twice As Contagious As We Thought
Tara Haelle April 7, 2020
A single person with COVID-19 may be more likely to infect up to 5 or 6 other people, rather than 2 or 3, suggests a new study of Chinese data from the CDC. It’s not clear if this higher number applies only to the cases in China or if it will be similar in other countries.
If the higher number does remain true elsewhere, it means that more people in a population need to be immune from the disease—either from having already had it or from a vaccine—to stop it from circulating.
How to stop disease spreading on airplanes and ships
Jacopo Prisco April 3, 2020
(CNN) — Aviation is fighting for survival. Cruise ships are grounded. As the pandemic grows, the travel industry faces an uncertain future and is scrambling to adapt.
Those aircraft still flying are now subject to stricter than ever hygiene protocols, but when the threat of the virus eventually lifts, the transportation industry will face heightened concerns about infection.
In the immediate wake of the global outbreak, airlines adopted stringent measures ranging from the mundane, like suspending hot towel service, to the extreme, like fogging an entire aircraft with disinfectant.
Coronavirus could be airborne, study suggests
Madeline Farber March 30, 2020
It may be possible for the novel coronavirus to transmit through the air, a new study released over the weekend suggests.
In a joint study by the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), the National Strategic Research Institute at the University of Nebraska, and others, researchers found genetic material from the virus that causes COVID-19 in air samples from both in and outside of confirmed coronavirus patients’ rooms. The findings offer “limited evidence that some potential for airborne transmission exists," researchers said, though they warned that the findings do not confirm airborne spread.
Modes of transmission of virus causing COVID-19: implications for IPC precaution recommendations
WHO March 29, 2020
Respiratory infections can be transmitted through droplets of different sizes: when the droplet particles are >5-10 μm in diameter they are referred to as respiratory droplets, and when then are <5μm in diameter, they are referred to as droplet nuclei. According to current evidence, COVID-19 virus is primarily transmitted between people through respiratory droplets and contact routes. In an analysis of 75,465 COVID-19 cases in China, airborne transmission was not reported.
Viruses 101: Why the new coronavirus is so contagious and how we can fight it
Katie Kerwin McCrimmon, UCHealth March 17, 2020
Experts in infectious diseases don’t want people to panic over the new coronavirus, but they do encourage everyone to take this pandemic very seriously and to do all we can to prevent the spread of the virus.
As the number of cases spikes in Colorado and throughout the U.S., we consulted medical experts on how viruses behave, why the new coronavirus is so contagious and whether the virus could dissipate as we move from spring into summer.
Coronavirus is most contagious before and during the first week of symptoms
Tina Hesman Saey
March 13, 2020
As sweeping efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic go into effect around the globe, researchers are starting to get hints of just when patients are most contagious.
People infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the disease, may test positive for the virus both before and after they have symptoms. But a new study of nine people who contracted the virus in Germany suggests that people are mainly contagious before they have symptoms and in the first week of the disease.
