Along with scientists, many others, including legislators, former health agency leaders, and members of past investigatory commissions, are now saying that well need something similar to make sense of the Covid-19 pandemic. At least five proposals to launch an inquiry have been circulated in the House of Representatives, according to an analysis by the Congressional Research Service.

Given the colossal catastrophe we've experienced, there needs to be something of that ilk as a way of pulling the country together and laying down in a very clear way what happens next, says J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, DC, think tank. It needs to be done with investigative authority, and it's going to require exceptional leadership and speed.

We shouldnt think that, once we get to a vaccinewhenever that isand once were able to arrest this virus, that well be able to rest easy, Morrison continues. We are in a new era of more frequent, higher-impact, higher-velocity zoonotic threats.

The first task of any coronavirus equivalent of the 9/11 Commission would be simply to establish one narrative of the pandemic, because Americans have experienced its effects so differently depending on where they live. (New York, the hardest-hit state, has had more than 388,000 cases; Montana, with slightly more than 600 cases, has suffered least.) But just as with the World Trade Center attacks, examining how the US failed this year will require acknowledging the multiple ignored warnings, some from the federal government and others from academic research, that an overwhelming pandemic was on the way. (Within Morrisons CSIS, the Commission on Strengthening Americas Health Security predicted last November: The United States remains woefully ill-prepared to respond to global health security threats.)

But another part of the examination of 9/11 involved creating new structures in the government to stand up defenses against future attacks, such as the Department of Homeland Security. The already evident needs for preventing another pandemic catastrophe include shoring up deep stockpiles of supplies such as medications and personal protective equipment. Covid-19 might lead also to new federal initiatives or federal funding of academic initiatives. Last week, for instance, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, which in September 2019 wrote one of the reports predicting a coming pandemic, proposed that Congress create a national center for epidemic forecasting, a disease-prediction agency modeled on the federal entities that warn Americans against catastrophic weather in time to protect themselves.

The way this epidemic has gone has been the US government reaching out in an ad hoc way to modelers, who are mostly in universities or in the private sector, and getting them to answer questions on the fly, says Tom Ingelsby, the centers director and an infectious disease physician. We would never accept that for predicting hurricanes.

At the same time that they made that proposal, the Hopkins researchers also presented Congress with a plan for a $1.5 billion program, shared across multiple federal agencies, that could rapidly produce antivirals, vaccines, and diagnostic tests when theyre needed. That price tag indicates what one of the struggles of learning from Covid-19 is going to be: deciding how much money the country is willing to commit in advance to protect against threats whose arrival is unpredictable.

Its attitudes toward spending, after all, that helped turn the US Covid-19 response into a catastrophe. That includes both federal cutstake the National Security Council disbanding its global health security team and the White House slashing the CDCs budgetand private sector decisions, such as corporations offshoring mask manufacturing in order to reduce their labor costs.

Read all of our coronavirus coverage here.

Perplexingly, theres another facet of homeland security for which the US has no difficulty organizing long-term spending. The Department of Defense forecasts its weapons needs and designsand procures its jets and transport vehiclesover decades. It commits federal money years in advance of deploying anything it buys.

More here:

Covid-19 Is Bad. But It May Not Be the Big One - WIRED

FRANKFORT, Ky (WSAZ) -- Gov. Beshear gave an update Tuesday regarding the deadly shooting that occurred during a weekend protest as well as the latest on Kentuckys COVID-19 response.

Gov. Beshear announced 155 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the states total to 10,185.

Three new deaths were reported overnight in Kentucky. 442 Kentuckians have now passed away from COVID-19 complications.

Gov. Beshear says 253,585 have now received a coronavirus test.

3,275 have recovered from the virus in the commonwealth.

Regarding the deadly protest shooing that involved police officers and the National Guard, Gov. Beshear says he told the team investigating the death of David McAtee to be fast and thorough.

According to Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown, the autopsy report seems to indicate that McAtee died of a single gunshot wound to the chest.

Thirteen people were interviewed at the house, following the shooting. Officials say seven weapons were recovered by police at the home.

Video from interior and exterior cameras have been obtained from that location, Brown says.

All the weapons involved by police and the national guard were inventoried and Brown says they believe a total of 18 shots were fired by officials that evening.

Brown says the goal is to get all the facts, get them quickly and be able to present, as much as possible, a clear determination of what happened shortly after midnight on June 1.

The Governor said: Our commitment is the truth, no matter what that truth is good, bad, ugly our commitment is the truth. Thats what the people of Kentucky deserve. Thats what the families involved in this deserve. And thats what were going to ensure happens.

For more information about the deadly shooting: click here

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Gov. Beshear addresses protest shooting investigation, gives COVID-19 update - WSAZ-TV

Currently there are five cases of Minnehaha County Jail inmates with COVID-19, but there have been as many as six with the virus.

Once you add COVID-19 into the mix, those folks are still coming and going from jail and we still have very little control over whether or not theyre coming, Minnehaha County Sheriff Chief Deputy, Jeff Gromer, said.

Police officers screen people for COVID-19 before bringing them to jail. Those newly admitted are kept isolated in groups.

Once they get moved to housing, we move them to a particular housing unit thats been designated for new arrivals. We try to keep them in there for 14 days until we can determine theyre not going to have symptoms, or they do develop symptoms and obviously we are going to have to move them somewhere else, Gromer said.

Even with those measures, there are new cases.

Its one of those things that makes it so confusing and difficult, is that youll have a housing unit that has been fairly well isolated and all of a sudden, somebody will crop up with symptoms and its like, seriously, where did that come from? Gromer said.

Despite wearing PPE, eight of the jail staff have also tested positive. Some have since recovered.

Staff has to come and go every day. Staff has the same exposure as everyone else, every day, Gromer said.

The jail is not on lockdown, but the time that inmates are out of their cells has been reduced.

Once one group goes out and they shower and make phone calls and that kind of thing, and go back into their cellthey have to clean and sanitize that before they let the next group out. Its just a lot of work and it eats up a lot of the time of the day; which then is less time we can allow inmates to be out in that day area, Gromer said.

And that can lead to more unrest behind bars.

The jail environment is stressful under normal circumstances. Its more stressful for everybody involved now.

Gromer says the new Minnehaha County jail, which is set to open in July, will help ease a little of that stress with additional space.

The Minnehaha County Jail had to hospitalize one inmate with COVID-19 symptoms. He was released on a PR bond before being admitted to the hospital.

See more here:

The challenges of containing the spread of COVID-19 in jail for both inmates and staff - KELOLAND.com

Fear of contracting the new coronavirus is causing people across Hawaii to delay medical procedures, skip doctor visits and avoid hospitals.

Mia Taylor, director of community and post-acute care services for the Queens Health Systems, said a concerning number of patients are canceling or postponing preventative care procedures, such as physical exams, mammograms and colonoscopies.

People are also taking serious risks by neglecting important features of chronic disease management like eye exams, echocardiography and diabetic foot exams.

Were super worried about this because we just feel like it could be the next pandemic or tsunami, if you will, of people who have put aside some of these very important evaluations, Taylor said. As a result we feel like we may see this big uptick in complications associated with chronic disease.

Emergency room visits are down by about half across the state, in part because people are putting off treatment for medical emergencies due to fears of contracting COVID-19.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

Many facilities halted non-emergency procedures when the virus invaded Hawaii in March. This month, with fewer new COVID-19 cases confirmed daily, many hospitals across the state are starting to bring them back.

But health care workers say some patients are continuing to defer medical care.

Hospital executives say the revenue usually generated by these non-emergency services has dipped significantly. And with some patients still too leery of the virus to visit a medical facility, its unclear when this revenue shortfall will recover.

Were doing a big radio, TV, and newspaper ad campaign announcing that we are open for business, Taylor said. This hospital is cleaner now than its ever been just with all the new CDC guidance, and we are doing everything we can to keep patients and staff safe.

Health care providers are concerned that patients may be taking serious, potentially life-threatening risks by delaying treatment and preventative care.

In one case, Taylor said a patient who refused to seek medical care outside his home called his physician because he wasnt feeling well and thought he might have a urinary tract infection. The physician prescribed antibiotics.

Later on, a worried family member called the physician to say that the patient still seemed very ill but could not be convinced to go to the emergency room.

A nurse was sent to the patients home and ended up having to call 911. The patient had a potentially life-threatening infection.

The primary care doctor felt very strongly that had we not intervened when we did the patient would have died, Taylor said.

Emergency room visits are also down statewide, with Maui Memorial Medical Center reporting a 50% drop in ER visits in April and so far in May when compared to the same period last year.

The Maui hospital was the site of the states largest COVID-19 cluster outbreak, which state health regulators say is now considered closed. All told, 38 health care workers and 14 patients were infected in the cluster.

The outbreak raised public safety concerns after staff interviewed by Civil Beat said the hospital was slow to require health care workers to wear personal protective equipment and also told some staff not to wear it.

An investigation by state health officials concluded that the outbreak appears to have been started by a hospital staff member who was allowed to work while feeling sick.

Maui Memorial, where a coronavirus cluster outbreak prompted public safety concerns, reported a 50% drop in ER visits in April and so far in May.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

Health officials say plummeting ER traffic across Hawaii is partly owed to the fact there have been fewer accidents and injuries while many people have been sequestered at home. But they acknowledge that other patients are ignoring even severe mental health and medical symptoms because they are frightened to enter a hospital or doctors office.

ER traffic is also down by about half at Kauai Veterans Memorial Hospital and Samuel Mahelona Memorial Hospital, where Dr. Travis Parker, the emergency room medical director, said some people are staying away from the ER out of a sense of duty.

I see a lot of people who come in with emergency-worthy symptoms and they apologize, Oh Im sorry Im here taking up your time, because they perceive that we are so busy dealing with COVID, Parker said. They think theyre doing their part by not coming in.

Dr. Laura DeVilbiss, medical director at Kokua Kalihi Valley, said one of her patients didnt want to come into the clinic so she met her virtually with telemedicine for a follow-up appointment. The patient was doing fine at the time, DeVilbiss said.

But later in the day the patient developed symptoms consistent with a heart attack.

When she knew she was having a heart attack, she went right to the ER, DeVilbiss said. I think people are going when they really, really need to, at least thats what were hoping.

People who rely on public transportation have also been resistant to coming into the clinic, she said, because they didnt want to get on a bus especially in March and April when the risk of exposure to the virus was higher than it is now.

Dr. Annie Nguyen, a psychiatrist in Kailua, said she has seen an uptick in patients who are adamantly refusing to seek urgent medical care.

When she cant convince them to go to the hospital, she tries to persuade them to visit their primary care provider. When all else fails, she urges them to at least see a doctor through telemedicine.

I try to stay in my scope because I cant tell if someone has a broken foot, Nguyen said. But its obvious if someone cant breathe or theyve got a bone sticking out or theyre bleeding profusely that they need to get to the ER right away and getting people to go during the pandemic is sometimes a struggle.

By contrast, doctors say hospital admissions for psychiatric problems are up at some Hawaii facilities as the economy unravels and many feel isolated by public health restrictions.

Yet at the same time, some people in the throes of a mental health crisis, including those who are suicidal or who have overdosed, are showing a reluctance to seek emergency care due to COVID-19 fears.

Dr. Tanya Gamby, a psychologist on Kauai, said three of her patients who are suicidal have refused to go to the emergency room since mid-March.

One of those patients, she said, was in urgent need of emergency medical attention. Gamby said she ended up having to call the police, who showed up and insisted that this person go to the ER.

It was definitely scary as a mental health professional knowing our procedures were not really working because nobody wanted to go to the hospital and I wasnt really wanting to send anyone there either, Gamby said. It felt like I had a double crisis on my hands.

The other two patients who refused to go to the ER were not in active crisis, Gamby said. Out of concern, she said she provided them with extra therapy and more frequent check-ins.

Dr. Adrianna Flavin, a psychologist on Maui, said some of her suicidal patients have similarly expressed an unwillingness to go to the ER until the risk of contracting COVID-19 subsides.

There was at least one person over the last two months where Ive said to them, If you are suicidal and you do develop a plan, I want to strongly encourage you to go to the hospital. It will be really important, and they said, Oh, absolutely not, Flavin said.

They wont do it and they were telling me that upfront. And it was only because of the virus that they wouldnt go.

In many cases, theres no suitable stand-in for in-person medical treatment.

But telemedicine can sometimes be a useful substitute for patients who need to see a doctor and are unwilling or unable to leave their homes.

However, not everyone has access to the technology that telemedicine requires: a computer, tablet or smartphone and a steady internet connection. Others might have this technology but dont know how to use it.

Mia Taylor, director of community and post-acute care services for the Queens Health Systems, worries that if patients are skipping preventive procedures, they may see a big uptick in complications associated with chronic disease.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

Some providers have been visiting patients in their homes during the pandemic to teach them how to use telemedicine. Others have resorted to talking with patients over the telephone.

In some households, tech-savvy children who are home from school are providing their parents and grandparents with readily available tech support.

At Queens Health Systems, a new team is working to figure out how to augment telemedicine with self-monitoring tools like blood pressure cuffs, scales, thermometers and pulse oximeters. For people with chronic conditions, consistent monitoring of these vital signs can be critical.

The medical group recently partnered with the American Heart Association to distribute 80 bluetooth-enabled blood pressure cuffs to chronic disease patients so they can monitor key vital signs and discuss them with a doctor without leaving their home.

Its not ideal obviously for people with chronic conditions, Taylor said. Many of them were used to seeing their doctor every one to two months. But its definitely, I think, a viable surrogate until we can really get patients comfortable coming back in to their providers.

Want more information on COVID-19 in Hawaii? You can read all of Civil Beats coronavirus coverage, find answers to frequently asked questions or sign up for email newsletter updates all for free. And check out pictures of how community groups and volunteers have been helping out in our Community Scrapbook.

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People Are Avoiding The Doctor Due To COVID-19 Fears - Honolulu Civil Beat

Editors note: This is a live account of COVID-19 updates from Tuesday,June 2, as the day unfolded. Tofind resources and the latest extended coverage of the pandemic,click here.

As George Floyd protests continue in Seattle and throughout the state, experts and public health officials worry thatthe first large gatherings since the pandemic was declaredcould set back the regions recovery from the novel coronavirus.

In King County, which plans toapply to enter a modified Phase 1 of coronavirus recovery soon, health officials recommend that anyone who attends a group gathering should monitor their health for 14 days afterward. While they encouraged the public to continue staying home whenever possible, several top health officials said they understood the outrage communities of color are feeling and did not ask the public to refrain from attending protests.

Throughout Tuesday, on this page, well post updates from Seattle Times journalists and others on the pandemic and its effects on the Seattle area, the Pacific Northwest and the world. Updates from Monday can be found here, and all our coronavirus coverage can be found here.

The following graphic includes the most recent numbers from the Washington State Department of Health, released Tuesday.

Before the pandemic, Trevor Bedford was best known in a small circle of bioinformatics specialists who use rapid genomic analysis to monitor pathogens like the Ebola virus as they evolve and spread.

Bedford and his colleagues at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the virus-tracking project called Nextstrain were perfectly positioned to serve as a kind of central, scientific command when the novel coronavirus emerged, documenting the tendrils of contagion that followed air and transit corridors, and noting every mutation and genetic quirk along the way.

What had been a little-known field where computer technology and genetics intersected was suddenly a matter of global urgency.

BedfordsTwitter feed, which now has nearly 250,000 followers, has become a must-read for infectious disease experts and armchair epidemiologists. Health officials turn to the computational biologist and his colleagues for insight and analysis. When genetic sequencing of the first two cases in Washington state suggested the virus had been spreading silently through the community for six weeks and was poised for exponential growth, Bedford sounded the alarm Feb. 29 via a long Twitter thread spelling out his reasoning and helped galvanize the public health response.

Read the full story here.

Sandi Doughton

A Seattle-based factory trawler cut short its fishing season off the Washington coast after 85 of 126 crew tested positive for COVID-19 in screening results obtained Saturday,according to a statement released by vessel operator American Seafoods.

The test results for the FV American Dynasty are a somber finding for the North Pacific fishing industry, which has been trying to keep the novel coronavirus off the ships and out of the shore-based plants that produce much of the nations seafood.

The outbreak also underscores the toll coronavirus continues to take on the food processing industry across the nation. In Washington state, outbreaks in meat plants, fruit and vegetable fields and packing facilities prompted Gov. Jay Inslee to order new protections for agricultural and food processing workers.

Only if there were no signs that they were actively infected or contagious were they cleared to board their vessel, American Seafoods chief executive Mikel Durham said in a written statement.

Somehow, the virus still found its way on board.

Read the full story here.

Hal Bernton

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted Americas adversarial system of justice like nothing before it, chipping away at the bedrock guarantee of American jurisprudence the right to a trial by jury.

There has not been a jury trial in Western Washington perhaps in the entire state since early March. While the wheels of justice still turn some hearings are still held, arraignments and pleas are taken for the most part they are spinning in place.

The federal courthouses in Seattle and Tacoma have been shuttered by judicial order: Pretrial proceedings are done either by video, telephone or postponed. In the busier state courts, where locking the doors hasnt been an option, the daily docket call looks very different than it did just four months ago.

Some worrythat, as the weeks and cases pile up, the pandemic-caused delays threaten to turnone of our most revered legal maxims into something more like an accusation: Justice delayed is justice denied.In many cases despite efforts to ease jail populations there are citizens accused of crimes, innocent until proven guilty, who wait in custody, unsure when their case will ever be heard.

Read the full story here.

Mike Carter and Sara Jean Green

For months, researchers at the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, a prestigious biomedical research center in Senegal, have been working to produce a low-cost, rapid, at-home test for the coronavirus the kind that countries across Africa and elsewhere have been most eager to have.

Now the coronavirus has infected a cluster of staff members at the institute, one of whom has died, according to its director, Dr. Amadou Sall. He did not say how many workers had tested positive, but local media reports said it was five.

People they have been in contact with have been isolated and the work is continuing, according to Cheikh Tidiane Diagne, a researcher at the lab.

The centers work has been crucial in efforts to contain the spread of the virus in West Africa: In the early stages of the outbreak, it trained laboratory staff from more than a dozen countries in how to test for the virus.

The New York Times

Members of the state education departments new 123-member work group, which recently formed to study school reopening options, met virtually on Tuesday to begin mapping out everything from transportation to school lunch in a world transformed by the novel coronavirus.

The work group is studying scenarios intended to help districts improve how theyll function next school year. When Gov. Jay Inslee closed school buildings statewide in mid-March, school districts worked independently to devise remote learning plans. But distance learning ended up uneven across the state. Families of students in special education say children arent getting services theyre legally entitled to. Homeless students and those from low-income homes are going without basic needs, such as hot meals and mental health support. Young children need extra help from parents to stay on task.

On Tuesday, much of the conversation centered on how reopening plans could best serve these children.

For example, the work group is studying a strategy that would rotate students through school buildings a few days a week. Under this scenario, work group members suggested, children who need extra support could come to school more often than their peers.

Another idea: In-person learning could be phased in, with the youngest learners, and those with extra needs, welcomed back first.

Read the full story here.

Hannah Furfaro

Of all the beats covered by The Chicago Tribune, perhaps none has a higher profile than the Cook County courthouse, the scene of real-life dramas like the trial of mob boss Al Capone and TV shows like The Good Wife and Hill Street Blues.

With 36 felony courtrooms, it is one of the nations busiest courthouses, brags The Tribune in its web bio of criminal courts reporter Megan Crepeau. She cranks out a story every day during a big trial, sometimes three if there is breaking news on other cases.

But this spring and summer, Tribune readers get no Crepeau for one week every month.She is one of dozens of Tribune employees intermittently idled to help the newspapers owners cut costs to stay solvent during the advertising drop-off caused by the pandemic. Colleagues fill in, but they have multiple responsibilities, which raises the question of who is keeping an eye on the judicial branch of government.

But even before the pandemic which The New York Times calculates has cost 38,000 media workers all or part of their jobs journalisms watchdogs were being pulled off their beats by an internal force: disinvestment.

Read the full column here.

Dean Miller, Seattle Times Free Press editor

Los mircoles, durante una hora y media, en la Escuela Media Franklin del Distrito Escolar Yakima se forma una fila de espera por comida.

Seis filas de automviles se forman en el estacionamiento de la escuela, dijo la directora Sherry Anderson, y la polica local ayuda a dirigir el trfico. En cada vehculo, padres y nios esperan recibir una provisin semanal de alimentos, un sustento en medio de una pandemia que afect a la comunidad industrial y agrcola de Yakima Valley en Washington.

La Escuela Media Franklin es una de las siete que ofrece este servicio en el distrito de 16,400 estudiantes. Yakima distribuy ms comidas que los distritos mucho ms grandes, de acuerdo con una encuesta que el estado hizo asus aproximadamente 300 sistemas escolares durante el cierre.

Laencuesta semanal, que pregunta sobre comidas, cuidado infantil, el aprendizaje remoto y la graduacin, ofrece una pequea ventana hacia la manera cmo Yakima y otros distritos tienen xito y enfrentan los problemas desde que las escuelas cerraron hace seis semanas. Desde que la Oficina del Superintendente de Instruccin Pblica (Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, OSPI) cre la encuesta en marzo, entre 69 % y 83 % de los distritos respondieron en una semana.Es una de las nicas formas de rendicin de cuentas del gobierno estatal en los distritos escolares de Washington en este momento, pero no hay consecuencias por no responderla.

Dahlia Bazzaz

Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday extended a statewide eviction moratorium, intended to shield renters who have lost income due to the coronavirus pandemic from losing their homes.

The moratorium, which Inslee first issued in March and had extended once, had been scheduled to expire this week. It will now run through Aug. 1.

It prohibits, with limited exceptions, residential evictions and late fees on unpaid rent. It also requires landlords to offer residents a repayment plan, to catch up on unpaid rent.

"It is the intent of this order to prevent a potential new devastating impact of the COVID-19 outbreak," Inslee's proclamation says. "That is, a wave of statewide homelessness that will impact every community in our State."

The new measure also allows rent increases on commercial properties that were agreed upon before Washingtons state of emergency for the virus was first declared Feb. 29.

Read the full story here.

David Gutman and Joseph O'Sullivan

Concerns are mounting about studies in two influential medical journals on drugs used in people with coronavirus, including one that led multiple countries to stop testing a malaria pill.

The New England Journal of Medicine issued an expression of concern Tuesday on a study it published May 1 that suggested widely used blood pressure medicines were not raising the risk of death for people with COVID-19.

The study relied on a database with health records from hundreds of hospitals around the world. Substantive concerns have been raised about the quality of the information, and the journal has asked the authors to provide evidence its reliable, the editors wrote.

The same database by the Chicago company Surgisphere Corp., was used in an observational study of nearly 100,000 patients published in Lancet that tied the malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to a higher risk of death in hospitalized patients with the virus. Lancet issued a similar expression of concern about its study on Tuesday, saying it was aware important scientific questions had been raised.

Associated Press

New York City contact tracers hired to contain the spread of the coronavirus reached out to all of the roughly 600 people who tested positive for the virus citywide on Monday, the first day of the program, and succeeded in reaching more than half of them, officials said Tuesday.

On Day 1 of the program, seeking to reach several hundred people and have what could be an hour conversation with each of them was a tall order, Dr. Ted Long, the head of the citys contact tracing program, said at a briefing. Long said the fact that the contact tracers actually got through to more than half of the new cases shows that the system were setting up is working.

The city has hired 1,700 people for its contact tracing effort and needs to reach 2,500 in order to meet Gov. Andrew Cuomos target for entering the first phase of the states four-step reopening process. The contact tracers are placing people infected with the virus in hotel rooms if they need to isolate themselves away from their families as well as reaching out to the close contacts of those who test positive for COVID-19.

Associated Press

State health officials confirmed 180 new COVID-19 cases in Washington on Tuesday, as well as five additional deaths.

The update brings the states totals to 22,157 cases and 1,129 deaths, according the state Department of Healths (DOH)data dashboard. The dashboard reports 3,543 hospitalizations in Washington.

So far, 368,799 tests for the novel coronavirus have been conducted in the state, per DOH. Of those, 6% have come back positive.

King County, the state's most populous, has reported 8,177 positive test results and 570 deaths, one of which was confirmed Tuesday, accounting for 50.5% of the state's death toll.

Michelle Baruchman

Indonesias government has decided not to participate in this years hajj pilgrimage to Mecca because of the coronavirus outbreak, an official said Tuesday.

Indonesian Religious Affair Minister Fachrul Razi said Saudi Arabia has not announced it will open the July hajj pilgrimage to other countries, and it is too late to prepare if it does so now. The government will not send the 2020 hajj pilgrimage, Razi said.

Indonesia, the worlds most populous Muslim nation, normally sends the largest contingent to the pilgrimage to Islams holiest cities, Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. It was expected to send 221,000 pilgrims this year.

Razi said pilgrimages held during past disease outbreaks resulted in tragedies in which tens of thousands of people became victims. In 1814 for example, when the Thaun outbreak occurred, also in 1837 and 1858 there was an epidemic outbreak, cholera outbreak in 1892 and during the meningitis outbreak in 1987, he said.

As of Tuesday, the Indonesian government has confirmed 27,549 COVID-19 cases, including 1,663 deaths.

The Associated Press

Parisians returned to the City of Lights beloved sidewalk cafes as lockdown restrictions eased Tuesday, but health experts expressed deep concerns as several Latin American countries opted to reopen their economies despite a rapid rise in coronavirus cases.

The post-lockdown freedom along Paris cobbled streets will be tempered by social distancing rules for the citys once-densely packed cafe tables. Paris City Hall has authorized outside seating areas only, with indoor seating off-limits until June 22. But the tiny tables will have to be spaced at least 1 meter apart, sharply cutting their numbers.

Its amazing that were finally opening up, but the outside area is just a fraction of the inside space, said Xavier Denamur, the owner of five popular cafes and bistros. Its a start.

But as Parisians reclaimed the rhythm of city life, health experts warned that virus cases are still rising in Latin America, the worlds latest COVID-19 epicenter.

Click here to learn more.

Menelaos Hadjicostis and Thibault Camus, The Associated Press

The National Library of Medicines database at the start of June contains over 17,000 published papers about the new coronavirus. A website called bioRxiv, which hosts studies that have yet to go through peer review, contains over 4,000 papers.

In earlier times, few people aside from scientists would have laid eyes on these papers. Months or years after they were written, theyd wind up in printed journals tucked away on a library shelf. But now the world can surf the rising tide of research on the new coronavirus. The vast majority of papers about it can be read for free online.

But just because scientific papers are easier to get hold of doesnt mean that they are easy to make sense of. Reading them can be a challenge for the layperson, even one with some science education.

Here's howyou should read coronavirus studies, or any science paper.

Carl Zimmer, The New York Times

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Coronavirus daily news updates, June 2: What to know today about COVID-19 in the Seattle area, Washington state and the world - Seattle Times

Eight states and Washington DC are holding primaries on Tuesday in the most widespread trial yet over whether America can safely hold an election amid the pandemic and unrest as days of protest over the police killings of African Americans continues.

Election officials, who have been encouraging people to vote by mail, already faced an enormous challenge in providing access to voting while protecting public health against Covid-19. Now, they face an additional challenge of conducting an election that guarantees people can vote without risking their physical safety and without police intimidation as curfews clash with voting hours.

One of the most closely watched states on Tuesday is Pennsylvania, a battleground state, where lawmakers are already seeing an unprecedented flood of requests for mail-in ballots. More than 1.8 million people have requested an absentee ballot so far; during the 2016 primary, just 84,000 people voted by mail.But some voters are still expected to cast a ballot in person, as well.

Pennsylvania law requires voters to return their mail-in ballots to the polls by 8pm on election day. But on Monday evening Pennsylvanias governor, Tom Wolf, a Democrat, extended the deadline for voters in six counties in the state to return their ballots, saying they could be counted if they were received in the next week and postmarked by Tuesday.

That came after concern that some voters in the state might be disenfranchised because officials could not get them ballots in time. In Delaware county, just outside Philadelphia, elections officials said Monday they were mailing 6,000 ballots, the day before the election. The county conceded there were 400 ballots that wont be mailed due to timing and staffing constraints.

In Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, election officials have severely limited in-person voting locations because of the coronavirus pandemic. In Philadelphia, officials are monitoring whether they will have to change any of those few locations because of the recent protests, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. At at least one voting location in Philadelphia, there were long lines on Tuesday morning as poll workers set up voting machines.

Voting rights groups monitoring the elections throughout the country said they were fielding calls from voters reporting problems. In many states, voters reported not receiving mail-in ballot requests in time to vote.

By Tuesday afternoon, about 500 people in Pennsylvania had called in to an election protection hotline run by the groups, about half of the voters were seeking information about their polling location, Suzanne Almeida, the interim executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, a watchdog group, told reporters.

In Baltimore, which is holding a Democratic mayoral primary, some voters reported never receiving the ballots they requested, forcing them to go to the polls on election day.

It is unclear how the increased police presence from the protests will mesh with established polling place hours. In Washington DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced a 7pm curfew for Tuesday, but polls will be open until 8pm. As the curfew approached, there were still people in line who expected to wait for more than an hour. Bowser said Tuesday no one who was voting would be subject to the curfew.

But there was confusion in the city as the day went on.

Sherene Joseph was in line to vote at Hardy Middle School in the Georgetown neighborhood of DC just before curfew when a police car drove by twice used a loudspeaker to tell everyone they needed to go home. The announcement set off confusion, she said, and elections staff came out to talk to police and encouraged everyone to stay in line and a volunteer gave out I voted stickers for voters to show police.

It didnt happen again and the folks working there made it clear everyone in line that they would be able to vote, she wrote in an email.

Some voters in DC said they never received their ballots and there were still long lines across the city on Tuesday. Only 10 people at a time were allowed into voting locations to allow for social distancing, according to The Washington Post. One voter told the Washington Post he had been told he sent his application to the wrong email address, even though he sent it to the one he was instructed to. Another woman said she couldnt get help requesting a ballot online so she wouldnt vote.

In Philadelphia, there will be an 8.30pm curfew and polls will be open until 8pm. Larry Krasner, the Philadelphia district attorney, said on Monday no one will be arrested for going to vote in violation of the curfew.

But Almeida said there hasnt been clear guidance on protections for people who were still waiting to vote and poll workers who remained at voting sites beyond the curfew time.

She also noted Center City in Philadelphia had been shut down to traffic and was being heavily patrolled, which was obviously a detriment to voters trying to cast a ballot there. The Pennsylvania Convention Center, located in the area, is hosting voting for 18 districts on Tuesday.

Imposing a 6pm curfew on election day threatens to disenfranchise the very people marching to be heard, along with all Philadelphians, said Quentin Palfrey, chair of Voter Protection Corps, a voting advocacy group. We applaud district attorney Krasners clear statement that no voter will be arrested or prosecuted for going to vote, but no such assurances can overcome the suppressive impact of the curfew.

She also noted that one of the voting sites in Wilkinsburg, a borough that is majority African American just outside of Pittsburgh, was in a government building that shared space with the police. It meant that voters would have to wait in line with law enforcement nearby, which could be intimidating.

In addition to Washington DC and Pennsylvania, Tuesday is primary day in Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, Rhode Island and South Dakota.

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Americans vote in primaries amid Covid-19 and mass protests - The Guardian

DENVER (CBS4) Gov. Jared Polis says he strongly supports the message of protesters who are calling for change following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, but with COVID-19 still a major concern hes worried about the health risks Coloradans are taking whove been gathering in large groups over the past few days in order to get their message heard. He said hes been up at night worrying.

One of my greatest fears in watching the events over the last weekend is that so many people gathering in one place together will increase the spread of coronavirus across our nation, here in Colorado, Polis said in a Tuesday afternoon news conference. Only in the coming weeks will we see the impact of these large gatherings, but health experts tell me that it could result in hundreds of new cases and untold pain, death and suffering just as we were making progress.

Polis said hes glad he saw most protesters wearing masks at what he calls the justified demonstrations and thanked several state lawmakers who took it upon themselves to distribute masks at the large protests that took place in Denver. He also re-emphasized the message sent out earlier by Denvers mayor that anyone who was involved in the physical protests go get tested for coronavirus approximately a week afterwards.

You should get tested anytime you develop symptoms, of course, but if you havent developed symptoms, about 7 days after youve marched in a protest you should go in for a free, quick easy test, Polis said. Thats the way that we can act to capture earlier some of the folks that might be contagious without knowing it, or mildly symptomatic, to prevent this from being a major setback for our state with regard to coronavirus.

On Monday Colorado State Epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy echoed that time frame for protesters getting tested, saying a week really allows enough time for that individual to potentially test positive.

But also, ideally trying to catch them early enough in their infection that they become aware of their infection and can stay home and prevent transmission to others, she said.

Free testing is available from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Pepsi Center as well any of the dozens of other testing locations around the state.

Like Polis, Herlihy also spoke about the increased risk of transmission of COVID-19 with large gatherings.

One of the numbers that the governor has quoted recently is that at any given time in Colorado we estimate, given the current numbers were seeing in the state, that about one in 300 Coloradans is actively infectious with this virus. Certainly when large numbers gather there is the potential for the virus to be transmitted, and typically we estimate that its about two weeks from the time of exposure, until those cases are reported to public health, she said. So it will take about two weeks for us to know whether there is increased transmission that potentially is associated with large gatherings right now.

Polis did take a moment on Tuesday to discourage anyone who is in the higher risk category for COVID-19 to avoid large gatherings like the protests completely.

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Just As We Were Making Progress: Gov. Jared Polis Says He Fears Hundreds Of New COVID-19 Cases Due To Protests - CBS Denver

In a video update released by Dare County late Tuesday afternoon, June 2, Sheila Davies, the director of Dare County Department of Health and Human Services, announced an additional COVID-19 case, bringing Dares total to 23.

Davies stated the individual is a non-resident who contracted COVID-19 through direct contact with a family member. She also stated the individual is asymptomatic and is isolating in their home county.

In this particular case the individual returned to their home county prior to us receiving the test results, said Davies. Upon receiving the positive result, we notified the individuals home county health department and worked closely with that health department and the individual who tested positive to ensure all direct contacts in Dare County were identified and notified.

Davies also noted that the countys online COVID-19 dashboard has been revamped and breaks down residents and non-residents as well as overall demographics including gender and age.

Of the 23 cases reported, 18 are residents and five are non-residents. Of the 18 residents, 15 have recovered or have been asymptomatically cleared, one has died and two cases are active and have been for over three weeks. One is hospitalized and the other is at home. According to Davies, those two cases are not connected. She also said one individual is over 65 and considered high risk, while the other is middle aged with no underlying medical conditions. She said both have been retested and both are still COVID-19 positive.

Davies also reviewed the four key metrics being tracked, which are the weekly number of tests, laboratory confirmed cases, positive tests as a percent of total tests and COVID-like illness surveillance. She stated that through May 31, 1,021 test results have been reported to Dare, including 301 this past week.

There were 179 tests performed at last weeks drive through testing event. Of the results reported to the county, 177 were negative and two were deemed invalid due to insufficient specimens.

Davies urged people to help us spread facts, not fear. Sites listed for additional information are: darenc.com/covid19, cdc.gov/coronavirus and ncdhhs.gov/coronavirus.

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Additional COVID-19 case reported in Dare; total now 23 - The Coastland Times - The Coastland Times

SALT LAKE CITY The Utah State Legislature's commission created to re-open the economy is recommending the state move to a "green" risk level for COVID-19 as early as this weekend, FOX 13 is told.

The Public Health and Economic Emergency Commission voted on Tuesday to move to the lowest risk level, which eliminates a lot of the health guidelines in place by the state's COVID-19 task force and the Utah Department of Health. But Senate President J. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, who sits on the commission, said there would be modifications -- including continuing strongly encouraging social distancing, the wearing of face masks and sanitization practices in businesses.

"Still the six-foot distancing in checkout lines, all the things were doing now but to have it be broader and opened for more businesses to allow our economy to go forward," Sen. Adams told FOX 13 in an interview.

Right now, Utah is in a "yellow" or low risk for novel coronavirus. Only Salt Lake City, Bluff and Mexican Hat are at an "orange" -- or moderate risk level -- because of a high number of cases. Sen. Adams conceded some parts of the state may not move to green or "new normal" right away.

"Theres probably parts of the state that arent ready. Summit, Wasatch County, maybe Salt Lake City, maybe West Valley, Magna. Maybe other areas of the state," Sen. Adams told FOX 13 in an interview. "These are data driven decisions and were seeing data that indicate that were showing the spread is not as prevalent as we see along the Wasatch Front. And we see hospital rates, hospital capacity we could absorb any type of spike that were looking at right now."

Utah has seen a strong uptick in COVID-19 cases in recent days. But the commission is focusing on impact to Utah's hospital system. Sen. Adams said it has not been overwhelmed, justifying the recommendation to move to the lowest risk level.

"The commissions actually looking at going to green because the numbers are good," Sen. Adams said.

The commission includes Major General Jefferson Burton, the acting director of Utah's Department of Health; Dr. Michael Good, the CEO of University of Utah Health; Brian Dunn of Steward Healthcare; as well as Derek Miller of the Salt Lake Chamber (who also chairs the governor's COVID-19 Economic Recovery Task Force); Brandy Grace of the Utah Association of Counties and Steve Starks of the Larry H. Miller Corporation. Legislative representatives include Sen. Adams; Senate Majority Whip Dan Hemmert, R-Orem; and House Majority Whip Mike Schultz.

"We are aware of the commissions recommendation to move areas to 'green' where the data support such a move. We review data on a weekly basis, and to this point have not recommended any areas move to 'green,'" the Utah Department of Health said in a statement to FOX 13.

The commission's recommendation will go to Governor Gary Herbert on Wednesday.

"We will review the recommendations from the Public Safety and Economic Emergency Commission and take them under careful consideration as we work to identify the best path forward to keep Utahns safe and informed," the governor's office told FOX 13.

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The Utah legislature's COVID-19 commission to re-open votes to go to 'green' this weekend - fox13now.com

Businesses hit by COVID-19 closures and damage from riots

Businesses across the area are dealing with a double blow

MANASSAS, Va. (FOX 5 DC) - Businesses across the area are dealing with a double blow.

First, being impacted by the coronavirus pandemic prompting closures, and now, riots leaving behind damage and potentially more protests ahead.

Download the FOX 5 DC News App for Local Breaking News and Weather

FOX 5 obtainedahome video showing the aftermath of Saturday nights riots.Were told what began peaceful quickly became violent, impacting businesses including Cafe Rio on Sudley Manor Drive and Sudley Road in Manassas.

Several employees were at work when large objects came crashing in, shattering awindow.

The restaurants catering van was also destroyed.

Were told the restaurant has been here for nine years and never experienced anything like this some of the tension captured on this video posted on Facebook.

Business was already slow amid the coronavirus pandemic and now the manager says customers are flat out frightened.

More protests are planned across the area.

Based on social media, one is reportedly scheduled to take place in Gainesville in the coming days.

FOX 5s Tisha Lewis reports some businesses are closing preemptively.

Read more:

Businesses hit by COVID-19 closures and damage from riots - FOX 5 DC

The Washington Center's program has 322 students beginning their virtual internships at 13 different federal agencies, a 22% increase.

The Washington Center, which arranges internships for college students every year, many of whom get to live and work in D.C., had to do things differently for this years summer internship program, but ended up placing more interns than last year.

Its 2020 Summer Virtual Internship Program has 322 students beginning their virtual internships at 13 different federal agencies, a 22% increase.

It also arranged internships for another 257 students that have been placed with 162 organizations across the country.

The internships began June 1.

Many students in the spring internship program also transitioned to virtual internships.

It was a big change from interning for three weeks in D.C., to then doing it in my parents house. However, theres still a lot to be gained, and I feel like Im learning every day what its like to be in the workplace, said Kelsey Ballard, a spring 2020 education and communication intern with Washington Performing Arts.

Between all of its internship programs, The Washington Center brings as many as 700 students to D.C. for work experience, professional development and one-on-one mentoring. The students get academic credit from their schools, and the federal internships all pay stipends.

The Washington Center usually provides interns with housing at its residential and academic facility in NoMa, though virtual internships mean students will miss out on the experience of living in D.C. this year.

The center said some private organizations did not transition to a virtual internship model, but all federal agencies that it works with have.

These students have been through a lot of anxiety and change because of COVID, and theyve had their summer and future plans upended, said The Washington Center President Chris Norton.

With the federal agencies and employers transitioning to host virtual interns, these students will still be able to get the enriching summer experience they have been planning on.

Students in the Virtual Internship Program work 20 to 25 hours per week, and have access to virtual career readiness sessions and workshops on writing resumes and job interviews.

The Washington Center is the largest student internship program in D.C.

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Despite COVID-19, The Washington Center internships are up, virtually - WTOP

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Things are starting to return to normal after many businesses had to close, to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Here in Lexington, people are eating at restaurants again, gyms and stores are opening back up, but as the number of new virus cases continues to increase, experts say we're not out of the woods yet.

Tuesday, the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department reported 21 new COVID-19 cases. To put that number into context, spokesperson Kevin Hall says at the start of April the Lexington area was reporting only 3 to 5 cases each day.

So far, Fayette County has 781 confirmed cases, with 113 of those cases requiring hospitalization and 13 people have died.

Hall says many of our new cases are from social gatherings that are following CDC guidelines.

"When the outbreak first happened in March, where there were people having parties that were almost thumbing their nose up at restrictions, this is not like that," Hall said. "These are people who have the best of intentions, they're trying to follow the guidelines, but that just goes to show you how quickly and easily this can spread."

Going forward, Hall says continue following restrictions and taking precautions. It could be as simple as choosing to eat out once a week instead of every day.

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Experts warn COVID-19 battle isn't over as life starts to return to normal in Lexington - WKYT

SIOUX CITY -- For North baseball coach Nick Tillo, it felt like a normal day in June.

He was on the field with his players, hitting fly balls, hitting grounders, observing his players taking cuts in the batting cages during a sunny day.

"They picked up where we left off and jumped right into it. They were focused mentally and I think they were ready," Tillo said. "Physically, I think the biggest thing is getting reps in the cage and fielding ground balls and fly balls. It was great to be back. We had a long practice because it's two weeks until we play so we need to get everything together before we go to (Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson) in two weeks."

While it felt normal for Tillo and other coaches, it was an abnormal sight compared to the state of athletics around the nation. MLB is still working out details to get on the field again, meaning high school baseball and softball players were some of the few athletes on a field when programs could officially hold their first day of practices around the state.

The fact that Iowa had its first official days of practice in order to prep for the first games on June 15 even made national headlines when it was among ESPN.com's headlines. Spirit Lake's baseball team held a practice at 12:01 a.m. on Monday.

Coaches and players are relishing their time on the field after more than two months apart.

"It was awesome. It was really, really exciting to see the guys again. The excitement was good. Guys were flying around, there was a lot of energy and it was good to get back out there," said Gabe Hoogers, who begins his first season as West's baseball coach. "I couldn't be more excited to do it with the group of guys that we have. I think we have a great group and we are excited to go out there with the four seniors and give them a proper sendoff."

Hoogers is one of a few new coaches to the metro area. Another is East softball coach Bubba Malenosky, who isn't just new to the Black Raiders program. It is of his first trips on the softball field since he is a former baseball assistant coach.

He was glad to finally get the chance to step on East's softball field on Monday.

"It's kind of strange for me because I am a brand new coach. Got to do one pitcher-catcher session and then practice starts," Malenosky said. "It went well. I think the girls are ready to be out there doing something. They are enthusiastic. They haven't been able to do much lately, nobody has been able to. I am from the baseball world so making the transition. It's my first taste of softball and from what I can tell, it's a lot faster pace game. It seems to be a lot of fun. It's going to be a pretty good transition.

"You know what, I think the girls enjoyed it. It felt just like it used to. Hitting ground balls, pop flies, the kids got into it and it was fun. Everyone was excited to be outside and to be on the field."

The practices felt normal for the coaches but there were slight changes due to the guidelines the IHSAA and IGHSAU set. Players need to socially distance so that means no group huddles during practices. So players were spread out in the infield as Hoogers gave instructions when West's practice started on Monday morning.

"The weirdest part is bringing them in at the beginning of practice but make sure they are socially distanced. I had them have their arms out and make sure they weren't touching anyone because they would be too close then," Hoogers said. "Normally you have a huddle. Other than that, (the guidelines) haven't changed much. Ninety percent of the time you are six feet apart. As far as changes, we will work through it pretty easily."

Postgame handshakes as a show of sportsmanship were commonplace at the end of games but due to the guidelines, those will not happen this season. Malenosky hopes for a new sign of sportsmanship to emerge after games.

"I think with the guidelines, the girls will get used to them. I think the people will get used to them. After practice, you can't even put hands in a huddle," Malenosky said. "The team building and sportsmanship things like that, I am going to miss. They are important but it will be learn on the fly and see what teams want to do. I really feel we need to do something, like a tip of the cap or something. One of the reasons we are coaching is to teach them life lessons. I think it's a big part of athletics."

Sunflower seeds and spitting are both banned, too. Seeds were common at baseball and softball fields with players and coaches and were available at concession stands, which also aren't allowed this summer.

For Hoogers, it will be a major habit to break but he is more than willing to change in order to have a season.

"That's going to be a tough one for me in general," Hoogers said with a laugh. "They help with the nerves for me. I will bring a couple of bags with me, so that will be different. When I was working on the field before practices, I've been mindful of it. Every time I have caught myself. The guys seem understanding with all of the guidelines and restrictions. Some of them will take more time. Every time we catch them, we call them on it."

Teams also have to sanitize equipment regularly from balls to bats to helmets, which is something players and coaches didn't have to worry about in the pre-coronavirus world.

However, Tillo, who chews gum instead of sunflower seeds, doesn't feel that will hold anything up in practices or games.

"It's different that way. The sanitizing and everyone having their own helmets, that part is different but we will get used to that," Tillo said. "It's just a little bump in the road. Even though there are small changes, it's not that drastic to be honest. We are so glad to be back.

"It's a shortened season and that's fine as long as we are playing. All of the kids are ready and we have more kids out. More kids want to do something. The coaches are happy. The games will have good crowds because there is nothing else to do. Why not go out and watch high school baseball?"

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Coronavirus brief: What happened in COVID-19 news yesterday in Sioux City, beyond - Sioux City Journal

Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic 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.

Since its launch on 11 March, the Forums COVID Action Platform has brought together 1,667 stakeholders from 1,106 businesses and organizations to mitigate the risk and impact of the unprecedented global health emergency that is COVID-19.

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. How COVID-19 is affecting the globe

Number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reported in the last seven days by country, territory or area, 25 May to 31 May

Image: World Health Organization

2. Pope: People more important than the economyFor the first time in several months, Pope Francis addressed the public, stressing how countries should prioritize as they reopen.

Healing people, not saving (money) to help the economy (is important), healing people, who are more important than the economy, Francis said.

Pope Francis leads the Regina Coeli prayer from his window in the newly reopened St. Peter's Square after months of closure.

Image: Vatican Media via REUTERS

3. Britain eases lockdown, but is it too soon?

English schools reopened on Monday for the first time since they were shut 10 weeks ago, but many parents planned to keep children at home amid fears ministers were moving too fast.

Britain has one of the highest death rates from COVID-19, and many people are worried that it is happening too soon, including a number of scientists who advise the government who have warned it could lead to a second spike in infections.

4. Mythbusting can strengthen false beliefsCOVID-19 mythbusting may have had limited impact because familiarity can strengthen false beliefs, according to an article published by the Conversation. Studies have shown that people who have read 'myth vs fact' articles remember which items are true and which are false right after reading such pieces. But several days later, people can accept false ideas as true.

Facts: Earth is not flat; Moon is not cheese.

Image: The Conversation

A study by health economists finds that paid sick leave could help slow the spread of diseases such as coronavirus. The study examined mandates enacted by state and local governments in the US between 2005 and 2018. Their research found that workers were more likely to stay home when sick with such measures in place, helping to contain illness. Women and minorities, who often work in industries that don't traditionally offer paid sick leave particularly benefit.

COVID-19 brought many policies around the globe to prevent the virus' spread including policies such as the Families First Coronavirus Response Act in the US. That policy, which went into effect April 1 for small- and medium-sized small businesses, was the first congressionally-passed bill providing Paid Sick Leave for employees. Bills like that, wrote the researchers, will be key to containing the virus, especially as businesses reopen.

License and Republishing

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

Written by

Linda Lacina, Digital Editor, 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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What you need to know about the COVID-19 pandemic on 1 June - World Economic Forum

The first phase of the trial will test whether the therapy is safe and well-tolerated; those results are expected in late June. The first Covid-19 patients being treated with the therapy are hospitalized at New York University's Grossman School of Medicine in New York, Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles and Emory University in Atlanta, the company told CNN.

If the trial ultimately shows the treatment is effective against Covid-19, it could be available by autumn, according to the Indianapolis-based company.

Scientists at AbCellera and the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases selected those they thought would be most potent and Lilly scientists engineered the treatment, known as a monoclonal antibody therapy. This approach has worked to treat other illnesses; there are monoclonal antibody therapies that treat HIV, asthma, lupus, Ebola and some forms of cancer.

It's not clear if such a therapy will work against Covid-19, but when this treatment was used on on cells in the lab, it blocked the ability of the virus to infect the cells, Skovronsky said. The data is not yet published, but based on those results, scientists got the green light to take the next step and prepare it to be tried in patients.

They also gave it a temporary name.

"We call it LY-CoV555, lucky triple 5," Skovronsky said.

Manufacturing has already begun

This will be a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind Phase I trial. Some patients will be receive the medicine and some will receive a placebo, and patients or their doctors won't be informed who received it and who didn't.

If the treatment appears to be safe, the company would move to the next phase of testing in a matter of weeks. The second phase of the trial will involve a larger number of patients, including patients who are not hospitalized, and will test whether the therapy is effective.

The company also plans to study the drug as prevention. The treatment could be used for vulnerable patient populations for whom vaccines might not be a great option, such as the elderly or people who have chronic disease or compromised immune systems.

Eli Lilly has already begun manufacturing the antibody therapy in large quantities so it could be tested and potentially for use in patients beyond the trial. Under non-pandemic circumstances, the companies would usually wait to find out if it worked first before it started making it.

"If it does work, we don't want to waste a single day, we want to have as much medicine as possible available to help as many people quickly," Skovronsky said.

In trials over the next several months, Lilly says it will test different mixtures of a few of the other antibodies scientists think might provide protection. The optimal scenario, though, Skovronsky said, is if they only need one antibody at a relatively low dose.

"The more antibodies are mixed together, higher doses, the more difficult it is to manufacture," Skovronsky said. "But if it has to be two antibodies, higher doses, or even three antibodies mixed together at higher doses, we'll do whatever it takes to make effective medicine for patients."

Other antibody therapies in development

Eli Lilly isn't the only company working on antibody treatments. Several US teams have cloned antibodies to Covid-19 and many are close to testing in patients. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has said it hopes to start human trials this month and to have a treatment by the end of the summer.

"That's always the problem with treating Covid-19 with monoclonal antibodies -- if you wait until things are pretty far along, like including patients that are already on the ventilator, it may not have any clinical impact," Hotez said.

If it works though, it could also be useful if, for example, a patient in a nursing home tested positive for Covid-19, and such a treatment could be given to others at the facility; for a first responder that had just been exposed to a patient with Covid-19; or for health care workers, Hotez said.

One challenge Hotez noted: Monoclonal antibody therapies tend to be "pretty expensive," he said.

Typically, such treatments would take many years to develop, but Covid-19 treatments are on an accelerated schedule. Pharmaceutical companies have said that government approvals that normally take weeks have sometimes come within a day.

"It's really been a privilege to be able to operate in this kind of environment," Lilly's Skovronksy said. He said he and others in the pharmaceutical industry have wondered if the same collaboration and urgency could be applied to treatments for other diseases like cancer or Alzheimer's.

"For many of us, this feels a little like a moonshot or a Manhattan Project, where so many scientists are working together at breakneck speeds," Skovronksy said. "Surely there will be other advances that come of this."

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First human trial of potential antibody treatment for Covid-19 begins - CNN

LINCOLN Eleven state employees and one patient at the Lincoln Regional Center have tested positive for the coronavirus, a state official confirmed Tuesday.

Khalilah LeGrand, a spokeswoman for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, said more cases are expected to be found as testing continues with patients and staff at the state psychiatric hospital.

The hospital is the latest state institution to be hit by the potentially deadly virus. In April, six workers and three teenagers tested positive for the coronavirus at the Youth Treatment and Rehabilitation Center-Kearney, an HHS facility for juvenile offenders.

More recently, seven inmates from the Community Corrections Center in Omaha have tested positive, as have 14 corrections employees from multiple state prisons.

LeGrand said the regional center outbreak began May 21, when officials were notified that a staff member had tested positive. She said the employee in question had no symptoms upon arriving to work that day, based on a routine temperature check and symptom screening, and had no contact with patients.

However, based on the work of contact tracers and advice from medical officials, HHS officials decided to test staff and patients out of an abundance of caution, she said. So far, 320 employees and patients have been tested with help from the National Guard. Additional testing is planned for Wednesday.

LeGrand said the 11 employee cases were traced primarily to four specific exposure incidents. She said one patient is known to be positive so far. She said staff with potential exposure have been asked to self-quarantine. Accommodations have been provided for those employees who need to quarantine away from a high-risk household member.

On Friday, HHS CEO Dannette Smith denied that the patient with the coronavirus had been transported with another patient. She said the two were transported separately and had no interaction.

Smith said HHS officials are taking steps to reduce the potential for spread of the coronavirus in the regional center, including trying to minimize the number of employees who work in multiple buildings and providing masks and other protective equipment as appropriate. Staff are checking patients temperatures three times a day.

The regional center has struggled in recent years with a shortage of staff and high turnover levels.

Masks made by Ann Kane and her family.

Ann Kane and her family are producing masks. Everyone has a job.

Ann Kane and her family have made around 200 masks.

UNMC med student Nate Mattison works on his laptop at his apartment near downtown Omaha.

A bottle of Purell sits on a kitchen countertop as UNMC med student Nate Mattison works on his laptop. Mattison is one of a handful of UNMC students who have stepped up fill various nonprofit needs. Mattison has signed up to be a Big Brother and is currently waiting to be paired up.

Mattison is one of a handful of UNMC students who have stepped up to fill the needs of various nonprofits.

Matt Van Zante prints parts for face shields in his basement.

A 3D printer prints parts for face shields.

Matt Van Zante is among a group making face shields for personal protective equipment for medical personnel.

Matt Van Zante shows off one of the finished face shields he helped make.

Matt Van Zante shows off a finished face shield.

A 3D printer prints parts for face shields in Matt Van Zante's basement.

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11 employees and 1 patient test positive for COVID-19 at Lincoln Regional Center - Omaha World-Herald

Law enforcements brutal response to this weekends protests may fuel mistrust in the health care system as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to smolder through the country.

Experts say the danger is especially acute in black communities, which have already been hit hard by the virus, and have historically borne the brunt of discriminatory policing. In the aftermath of the police response to protests, vulnerable communities may be even less likely to trust and cooperate with health officials. That could make it harder to control another wave of illness.

This blatant display reminds folks how bad the devaluing of black lives is, at the height of a global pandemic, and its certainly going to lead to less willingness to engage in the system, says Rachel Hardeman, an assistant professor and health equity researcher at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

People already feel less willing to engage with contact tracers in the Twin Cities, according to someone with knowledge of the Minnesota COVID-19 response, who asked not to be named because they didnt have permission to speak with the media. Its hard to say yet if data would back up that assessment, they told The Verge, but anecdotally, people making calls feel like theyre meeting more resistance. Contact tracers identify people with a disease like COVID-19 and figure out who they recently interacted with to stop the virus from spreading. The Minneapolis health department did not respond to a request for comment.

Large gatherings like protests already make contact tracing difficult. When people at those gatherings encounter police violence, that task gets harder. People who test positive for the coronavirus may be reluctant to tell health officials if they were at protests because they may worry about retaliation. They might not want to identify people they interacted with at the protests for the same reasons. Thats just one way mistrust makes it difficult for public health officials to track down clusters of COVID-19.

Some statements from officials are only making the problem worse. Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington used public health terminology to describe police work and said that officers are contact tracing people who were arrested to find out the groups that they were a part of. The conflation between an important public health activity like contact tracing and investigation of people who have been arrested could make people less likely to trust public health workers trying to trace the disease.

Black communities, as well as communities of other people of color, already distrust the health system. Police violence is, in itself, a constant public health issue: one in every 1,000 black men may be killed by police, and seeing images of police violence is associated with poor mental health for black Americans. Discrimination by law enforcement can lead to symptoms of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder; stress from encounters with police is also linked to risk factors for chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension.

People who have negative encounters with law enforcement are also less likely to trust medical institutions, one study found. All public health efforts in the United States are forced to grapple with that challenge its harder to engage with communities that, after decades of mistreatment, are reluctant to trust officials of any kind, including health officials.

Its one of the many ways that this sort of violence impacts health and well being, Hardeman says.

Finding solutions to those issues is even more significant during a pandemic. Instead, law enforcement created environments that are bad for public health. Police officers in Detroit, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and other cities used disease-exacerbating tactics like tear gas and pepper spray and carted hundreds off to crowded jails, which are known transmission vectors for COVID-19. Tear gas and pepper spray make people cough, a risk factor for spreading a respiratory disease. Many officers didnt wear masks and herded protesters into close quarters. The strategies are health threats at any moment, but are even more dangerous against the backdrop of the novel coronavirus and at a time when health officials need community engagement.

Itll be difficult to tell how much of the suspicion of public health officials that people may see in the next few weeks was already there and how much is new, Hardeman says. Itll be hard to tease apart ... which pieces bubbled up further because of whats going on, she says. But the violence from police officers during ongoing protests highlight and strengthen the reasons for the existing suspicion.

Adding community health workers to the COVID-19 response could help bridge gaps between black communities and public health, Hardeman says. They can bring folks along and keeping them safe, while also not devaluing their lived experiences of feeling this mistrust, because this mistrust is warranted.

Its difficult to act as a representative of a local government when that government is under such an unfavorable lens, the person with knowledge of the COVID-19 response in Minnesota told The Verge. Its hard to expect that people would be open to working with you when theyve witnessed violence from other government workers. Were supposed to be on the same side protecting the public, they told The Verge. Its just a horrifying incident.

Excerpt from:

Police violence will make it harder to fight COVID-19 - The Verge

Overview Coronavirus Open pop-up dialog box

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Coronavirus is a family of viruses that can cause respiratory illnesses such as the common cold, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that can cause illnesses such as the common cold, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). In 2019, a new coronavirus was identified as the cause of a disease outbreak that originated in China.

The virus is now known as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The disease it causes is called coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic.

Public health groups, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and WHO, are monitoring the pandemic and posting updates on their websites. These groups have also issued recommendations for preventing and treating the illness.

Signs and symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may appear two to 14 days after exposure. This time after exposure and before having symptoms is called the incubation period. Common signs and symptoms can include:

Other symptoms can include:

This list is not all inclusive. Other less common symptoms have been reported, such as rash, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Children have similar symptoms to adults and generally have mild illness.

The severity of COVID-19 symptoms can range from very mild to severe. Some people may have only a few symptoms, and some people may have no symptoms at all. People who are older or who have existing chronic medical conditions, such as heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, severe obesity, chronic kidney or liver disease, or who have compromised immune systems may be at higher risk of serious illness. This is similar to what is seen with other respiratory illnesses, such as influenza.

Some people may experience worsened symptoms, such as worsened shortness of breath and pneumonia, about a week after symptoms start.

If you have COVID-19 symptoms or you've been in contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19, contact your doctor or clinic right away for medical advice. Tell your health care team about your symptoms and possible exposure before you go to your appointment.

If you have emergency COVID-19 signs and symptoms, seek care immediately. Emergency signs and symptoms can include:

If you have signs or symptoms of COVID-19, contact your doctor or clinic for guidance. Let your doctor know if you have other chronic medical conditions, such as heart disease or lung disease. During the pandemic, it's important to make sure health care is available for those in greatest need.

Infection with the new coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2) causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The virus appears to spread easily among people, and more continues to be discovered over time about how it spreads. Data has shown that it spreads from person to person among those in close contact (within about 6 feet, or 2 meters). The virus spreads by respiratory droplets released when someone with the virus coughs, sneezes or talks. These droplets can be inhaled or land in the mouth or nose of a person nearby.

It can also spread if a person touches a surface with the virus on it and then touches his or her mouth, nose or eyes, although this isn't considered to be a main way it spreads.

Risk factors for COVID-19 appear to include:

Although most people with COVID-19 have mild to moderate symptoms, the disease can cause severe medical complications and lead to death in some people. Older adults or people with existing chronic medical conditions are at greater risk of becoming seriously ill with COVID-19.

Complications can include:

Although there is no vaccine available to prevent COVID-19, you can take steps to reduce your risk of infection. WHO and CDC recommend following these precautions for avoiding COVID-19:

If you have a chronic medical condition and may have a higher risk of serious illness, check with your doctor about other ways to protect yourself.

If you're planning to travel, first check the CDC and WHO websites for updates and advice. Also look for any health advisories that may be in place where you plan to travel. You may also want to talk with your doctor if you have health conditions that make you more susceptible to respiratory infections and complications.

More here:

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) - Mayo Clinic

How dangerous is the virus?

There are three parameters to understand in order to assess the magnitude of the risk posed by this novel coronavirus:

The attack rate or transmissibility (how rapidly the disease spreads) of a virus is indicated by its reproductive number (Ro, pronounced R-nought or r-zero), which represents the average number of people to which a single infected person will transmit the virus.

WHO's estimated (on Jan. 23) Ro to be between 1.4 and 2.5. [13]

Other studies have estimated a Ro between 3.6 and 4.0, and between 2.24 to 3.58. [23].

Preliminary studies had estimated Ro to be between 1.5 and 3.5. [5][6][7]

An outbreak with a reproductive number of below 1 will gradually disappear.

For comparison, the Ro for the common flu is 1.3 and for SARS it was 2.0.

See full details: Coronavirus Fatality Rate

The novel coronavirus' case fatality rate has been estimated at around 2%, in the WHO press conference held on January 29, 2020 [16] . However, it noted that, without knowing how many were infected, it was too early to be able to put a percentage on the mortality rate figure.

A prior estimate [9] had put that number at 3%.

Fatality rate can change as a virus can mutate, according to epidemiologists.

For comparison, the case fatality rate for SARS was 10%, and for MERS 34%.

See full details: COVID-19 Coronavirus Incubation Period

Symptoms of COVID-19 may appear in as few as 2 days or as long as 14 (estimated ranges vary from 2-10 days, 2-14 days, and 10-14 days, see details), during which the virus is contagious but the patient does not display any symptom (asymptomatic transmission).

See latest findings: Age, Sex, Demographics of COVID-19 Cases and Deaths

According to early estimates by China's National Health Commission (NHC), about 80% of those who died were over the age of 60 and 75% of them hadpre-existing health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases anddiabetes.[24]

According to the WHO Situation Report no. 7 issued on Jan. 27:

A study of 138 hospitalized patients with NCIP found that the median age was 56 years (interquartile range, 42-68; range, 22-92 years) and 75 (54.3%) were men.[25]

The WHO, in its Myth busters FAQs, addresses the question: "Does the new coronavirus affect older people, or are younger people also susceptible?" by answering that:

As of Jan. 29, according to French authorities, the conditions of the two earliest Paris cases had worsened and the patients were being treated in intensive care, according to French authorities. The patients have been described as a young couple aged 30 and 31 years old, both Chinese citizens from Wuhan who were asymptomatic when they arrived in Paris on January 18 [19].

The NHC reported the details of the first 17 deaths up to 24 pm on January 22, 2020. The deaths included 13 males and 4 females. The median age of the deaths was 75 (range 48-89) years.[21]

See full details: WHO coronavirus updates

On January 30, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a Global Public Health Emergency.

For more information from the WHO regarding novel coronavirus: WHO page on Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)

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Coronavirus Update (Live): 5,792,314 Cases and 357,471 ...

CLINTON, Ark. After a brief shutdown to hinder the coronaviruss spread, Arkansas began opening up, slowly and cautiously, on May 11. Businesses are placing limits on the number of customers they will serve at any one time, and social distancing and mask wearing is still required in establishments like restaurants. The states Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson, has been critical of businesses and customers that dont follow these rules. Even so, Arkansas has seen a second peak of coronavirus infection, as cases surge especially among younger people and the Latino population in northwestern counties. On Thursday, Governor Hutchinson announced the largest single-day increase in community transmission 261 cases.

Despite this, and despite predictions that the virus will take a crushing toll in rural areas like ours, this part of Arkansas has so far been spared the worst health effects of Covid-19. Van Buren County, where I live, has fewer than 17,000 people and has had only 28 confirmed cases of the coronavirus to date. Two people died, but the rest have recovered. Early cases were concentrated in bigger cities, like Little Rock and a suburb of Memphis, and were disproportionately among black Arkansans. There have been more than 6,500 cases in the state about a fifth of them have been in prisons, and those cases werent even added to official totals at first, all of which is a human rights disaster but most families havent been affected. Any death is a tragedy, but death from Covid-19 hasnt personally touched very many people here. At least not yet.

I moved back here to my hometown two and a half years ago to write a book about it. Since returning, Ive become more active on Facebook, which is both a source of local gossip and official news; county officials and offices often post important updates, especially about the coronavirus outbreak, to their Facebook pages. Im also a member of three local news groups that are a source of insight into how my neighbors think about current events. Ive found that a vast majority of people here approach political issues, whether local or national, with suspicion of taxation and government spending, even when such spending is for their own benefit. This has remained true even during these unprecedented times.

We have been hit with the economic devastation caused by the pandemic. The median household income in the state is $45,726; for the county its $34,428, so there are many people who live paycheck to paycheck. While a large majority of Americans 74 percent support continued efforts to slow the viruss spread, and there are plenty of well-off Americans and business owners eager to get back to work, the divide over whether lockdowns should continue is a strongly partisan one. Many Republicans, including low- and middle-income whites think businesses should reopen now. For the most part, the people Ive spoken to and seen commenting online here accept as a given that the only way to be able to pay their rent or to feed their kids is to return to work: They dont think its possible to protect our health and our economic well-being at the same time.

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Covid-19 and the Rural Fear of Taking Advantage - The New York Times