Looking Beyond The Coronavirus Numbers As Plans Are Put In Place For Returning To School, Restaurants Face Restrictions – CBS Pittsburgh

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) Every day during this pandemic is marked by the release of the latest number of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

For Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, it is his first thought every morning.

Its such an important factor of how we can function as a community. So I know if those numbers continue to rise as they did in late June early July we have to shut things down. We have to impede peoples activities. . So the lower we keep those numbers like we got in May and June means we can open up more of our economy and kids can go about school activities that are coming up and sports.

Each area school district is needing to make decisions on how to bring students back to education.

Fitzgerald is concerned bringing everyone back together could result in an increase of numbers but he adds, If the kids and the teachers and staff are all wearing their masks and keeping physical distance , and follow the protocol that the district and buildings lay out for people Im sure we can do this safely, Fitzgerald said.

Im sure were going to see Dr. Bogen and her team monitoring this very closely, case investigations, contact tracing, and if there is an outbreak in a building or in a certain school district, Im sure shes going to want to go out and go in and take action with respect to that, rather than shut down the whole system is there is only a hot spot in one area.

KDKAs John Shumway reports:

Fitzgerald says the issue of people congregating has moved from the bars restaurants and social halls to peoples homes. We had people having graduation parties or had a birthday or anniversary whatever now youre going together with extended family and who knows where theyve been.

As for the cries from the restaurant industry, Weve got to do more take out and outdoor dining because the one activity that I know they would like to see is inherently risky.

Asked if he could foresee restaurants being allowed to expand the number of people they seat the County Executive says this:

Its going to be challenging and the reason is its an activity thats inherently risky and inherently potential for spread. Number one you are inside, number two you are close together, and number three not wearing a mask. While eating, youre not wearing your mask. And youre eating, your drinking, youre talking, youre spitting, its a tough environment.

While the restaurant owners are going to Harrisburg to try and get the state to lift restrictions, Fitzgerald says he will follow the lead of Health Department Director Dr. Debra Bogen.

Dr. Bogen put in restrictions on the restaurants before the state and he says theyll make a decision about whether to follow the states lead or remain more strict when the time comes.

The numbers of new cases have settled into a reporting pattern of being lower over the weekend and climbing in the early part of the week. Fitzgerald says, Wed like to see the numbers continue to come down but what I think weve seen is a higher level of cooperation. I think people are taking it more seriously. Again the challenge is going to be when the schools open and all these kids come into to school the students staff cooperating to keep those numbers low.

Fitzgerald worries about the mental health of the community, Absolutely. Because this is something that has impacted not just every individual but every activity that we do, school, work going to church. Family reuniions weddings you could go on.

And there is no end in sight, until we have a vaccine we are going to continue to live with this uncertainty.

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Looking Beyond The Coronavirus Numbers As Plans Are Put In Place For Returning To School, Restaurants Face Restrictions - CBS Pittsburgh

Black and Hispanic children are impacted more severely by coronavirus, research shows – CNN

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A report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Friday found that Black and Hispanic children are more likely to be hospitalized due to coronavirus than White children. The CDC examined hospitalization records from 14 states and found 576 Covid-19 cases among children who needed hospitalization from March through July 25.

The report found Hispanic children were hospitalized for coronavirus at the highest rate, 16.4 per 100,000 people, followed by Black children at 10.5 per 100,000. In contrast, White children were hospitalized at a rate of 2.1 per 100,000.

The CDC also reported higher rates of multisystem inflammatory syndrome, or MIS-C, in these populations. Of 570 cases of MIS-C reported to the CDC by July 29, more than 74% were in Black and Hispanic children.

A study released this week out of Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC, found that coronavirus rates are similarly higher among Black and Hispanic children and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

The study examined 1,000 patients tested at a Children's National Covid-19 testing site and found that just 7.3% of White children tested positive for coronavirus, in contrast to 30% of Black children and 46.4% of Hispanic children. Three times as many Black children as White children reported exposure to coronavirus.

Implications for reopening schools

Schools around the nation are currently making decisions about whether children will return to classrooms for in-person classes. A Georgia school district which reopened this week was forced to quarantine at least 260 students and eight teachers after multiple members of the school community tested positive for Covid-19.

While children do experience severe illness from Covid-19 less often than adults, children who are hospitalized need the intensive care unit as often as adults do, at a rate of about one in three, according to the CDC.

Dr. Khalilah Gates, a pulmonary and critical care specialist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital told CNN Saturday that the CDC research gives us new information about the virus' impact on children that can help us make informed decisions about opening schools. "We can't back off of testing, and we do have to have more rapid testing," Gates added.

The CDC report on MIS-C noted that 64% of the children with MIS-C required intensive care, and 10 children died.

Health experts have called for additional research into the impact of coronavirus on children, especially that which would help understand the factors driving stark racial inequities.

What's driving these disparities?

Experts say that social determinants of health have led to increased rates of underlying health conditions, like diabetes, heart disease and hypertension in minority communities, placing many at greater risk for coronavirus complications.

Structural conditions also play a role. Rashawn Ray, a David M. Rubenstein Fellow with the Brookings Institution, recently noted that social distancing is a privilege that people of color, who often live in densely populated areas, are not afforded. He said discrimination is "baked into" our society.

People of color are also less likely to have access to healthy food options, recreational spaces and health care.

Health experts have urged action toward addressing the disparities, while acknowledging that fixing them will require a decades-long commitment. A good place to start, says the nation's leading infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, is with increased testing and access to health care in minority communities.

In a Friday conversation with the Dr. Ashish Jha, the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute , Fauci said the disparities brought to light by the pandemic are "unacceptable," and may jolt our society into action.

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Black and Hispanic children are impacted more severely by coronavirus, research shows - CNN

Japan’s coronavirus fatigue is fueling defiance in Tokyo, even as the case count rises – CNN

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"Yes, we should listen to the government," Sato said. "But we all have our own situations, we cannot always swallow whatever the government says. We cannot survive without working, we cannot stop going out altogether."

This increasing sense of dissatisfaction with the government's response to the virus comes as Japan appears to be on the brink of another major Covid-19 outbreak. For the past 12 days, the Health Ministry has recorded more than 900 daily infections and Friday marked a new daily high of 1,601 new cases nationwide.

To date, the country has confirmed more than 46,000 cases since the pandemic began, more than half of which have been identified since July. At least 1,062 people have died.

Many of those cases are in Tokyo, the world's most populous city, where fears persist that an untraceable outbreak could quickly spiral out of control. For most of May and June, Tokyo managed to contain the number of new cases to fewer than 100 each day. But cases have steadily increased since then, hitting a single-day high of 472 new infections on August 1. To date, more than 15,000 cases of Covid-19 have been identified in the Japanese capital.

No new state of emergency

Authorities in Tokyo are convinced that many of the city's infections are happening when people go out at night, so they have requested restaurants and bars that serve alcohol to close at 10 p.m. to mitigate the risk of contracting the virus indoors.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday he would not call for a state of emergency despite the fact that more infections are being identified now than during the first state of emergency in April, which lasted for nearly seven weeks.

"The situation is very different from that time," he said. "We are not in a situation where a state of emergency needs to be issued immediately, but we will keep close eyes on it with a high sense of alert."

But critics like 21-year-old university student Soma IIzuka accuse Abe of shying away from leadership at a time when it's needed most.

"He should not think only about pushing the economy," Ilzuka said. "If he (Abe) wants to keep the infection low and kick start the economy, it is necessary to provide compensation (for people stuck at home)."

People like Sato and Ilzuka say leaders need to either do more to focus on people's livelihoods and personal happiness -- or abandon half-measures and go all-in on a lockdown.

Many also argue the government is incredibly out of touch, pointing to a plan to spend $16 billion on travel subsidies to revive the tourism industry -- at a time when cities across the country are struggling with a rising number of infections.

Business owners under pressure

Those in the hospitality industry now face a tough choice: buck the government's 10 p.m. closure request to stay alive -- a potential health risk to customers and staff -- or follow the official advice and eat the loss in sales, even if it proves fatal to the business.

Tokuharu Hirayama has kept his restaurant open throughout the pandemic. But the losses have been devastating. Sales slumped 95% in April compared to March, and though things bounced back slightly, business was down again in July. Hiryama was forced to furlough most of his employees, and some days he works the store alone, making deliveries on the side to help cover costs.

Hirayama is going to comply with the 10 p.m. request, he said, essentially due to peer pressure: neighboring restaurants and bars are doing so.

"Around here, people are very sensitive as to what others around them are thinking," he said. "I didn't think it would be worth it to put up a fight."

Kozo Hasegawa, however, isn't abiding.

Hasegawa is the founder and CEO of Global-Dining, which owns about 40 restaurants and stores in Japan. He's known in the industry as a risk-taking restauranteur and is widely admired for giving his employees a lot of freedom and autonomy -- and then encouraging then to go independent once they gain experience at his company.

Hasegawa said the pandemic has been a "catastrophe" for his business, which only survived because it was in good enough shape to receive a government loan to stay afloat.

Like many other business owners, Hasegawa said he has applied to several loan programs that state-affiliated and private financial institutions offered as part of the government's economic relief package.

He doesn't think the new government regulations to close at 10 p.m. are fair. The virus is not any more infectious from 10 p.m. to midnight, when the bar would have closed, Hasegawa said, so why not let customers decide?

"Luckily or unluckily, I was born a rebel," he said. "I don't like that in Japanese culture, they expect you to obey ... we have a brain to think (for ourselves)," said Hasegawa, who plans to keep his restaurant open until midnight.

Living with the virus

Hasegawa's comments on obedience refer to a Japanese cultural norm known as jishuku, which translates to self-restraint. The belief is that ostentatious behavior is in poor taste during a time of national crisis, and it's a mantra that was repeatedly used after the 2011 earthquake and Fukushima nuclear disaster.

While Japanese culture may have a reputation as rule-abiding to the point of inflexible, it's important not to paint the entire society with such a broad brush, according to Kyle Cleveland, the director of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University in Tokyo.

"We should be cautious about overgeneralizing from this, and kind of defining culture in an orientalist kind of way in which we're thinking that there's something really qualitatively different about Japan compared to other Asian countries," he said.

"If you look at countries like Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand they also have relatively low case rates, as does Japan. The common characteristic that these various societies have is that they follow the rules. The rules govern societies."

Cleveland doesn't believe that this apparent defiance and anger with the government proves that jishuku is suddenly losing its place in Japanese culture. Rather, he says it may just be that people are evolving to live with the virus and are more willing to accept the risks it poses.

"It's not like jishuku existed a month ago, now it doesn't," he said. "(People) are still practicing social distancing and they're wearing masks and things like this, but they're realizing that they have to have a balance between financial obligations and also just quality of life and so as a result they're starting to get out into the society."

CNN's Joshua Berlinger contributed to this report.

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Hours of Talks on U.S. Coronavirus Relief End With No Deal – The New York Times

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The report, published on Wednesday by the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant and 1Vandaag, a current-affairs show, focused on a retirement home where in June almost an entire ward of patients was infected.

Despite wearing face masks continuously except for lunch breaks, 18 staff members were also infected. When a newly installed air-ventilation system was inspected, the health authorities found large quantities of the virus on the mesh covering air intake and extraction units and in its filters.

There is simply no other explanation possible, this is how everybody there got infected, all at the same time, through aerosols, said Maurice de Hond, a data specialist who has long criticized the Dutch health authorities for ignoring spread through aerosols. We need to realize this before autumn comes and more people will gather indoors.

It is unclear why the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment has kept its findings secret, but it did tacitly adjust the guidelines for ventilation, according to De Volkskrant. Three days after the report was released internally, the organization started publicly advising to avoid recirculation of air in spaces where several people are present, and refresh the air as often as possible.

Reporting was contributed by Maria Abi-Habib, Geneva Abdul, Hannah Beech, Emily Bobrow, Keith Bradsher, Luke Broadwater, Emma Bubola, Julia Calderone, Benedict Carey, Niraj Chokshi, Emily Cochrane, Patricia Cohen, Melissa Eddy, Thomas Erdbrink, Jacey Fortin, Sheera Frenkel, Maggie Haberman, Mike Ives, Cecilia Kang, Annie Karni, David Leonhardt, Patrick J. Lyons, Tiffany May, Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio, Constant Mheut, Sarah Mervosh, Saw Nang, Richard C. Paddock, Eileen Sullivan, Jim Tankersley, Pranshu Verma, Neil Vigdor, Sui-Lee Wee, Katherine J. Wu, Ceylan Yeginsu, Elaine Yu and Karen Zraick.

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Hours of Talks on U.S. Coronavirus Relief End With No Deal - The New York Times

Why the Coronavirus Is More Likely to Superspread Than the Flu – The New York Times

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For a spiky sphere just 120 nanometers wide, the coronavirus can be a remarkably cosmopolitan traveler.

Spewed from the nose or mouth, it can rocket across a room and splatter onto surfaces; it can waft into poorly ventilated spaces and linger in the air for hours. At its most intrepid, the virus can spread from a single individual to dozens of others, perhaps even a hundred or more at once, proliferating through packed crowds in what is called a superspreading event.

Such scenarios, which have been traced to call centers, meat processing facilities, weddings and more, have helped propel a pandemic that, in the span of eight months, has reached nearly every corner of the globe. And yet, while some people seem particularly apt to spread the coronavirus, others barely pass it on.

Theres this small percentage of people who appear to infect a lot of people, said Dr. Joshua Schiffer, a physician and mathematical modeling expert who studies infectious diseases at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Estimates vary from population to population, but they consistently show a striking skew: Between 10 and 20 percent of coronavirus cases may seed 80 percent of new infections. Other respiratory diseases, like the flu, are far more egalitarian in their spread.

Figuring out what drives coronavirus superspreading events could be key to stopping them, and expediting an end to the pandemic. Thats the million dollar question, said Ayesha Mahmud, who studies infectious disease dynamics at the University of California, Berkeley.

In a paper posted Friday to the website medRxiv that has not yet been through peer review, Dr. Schiffer and his colleagues reported that coronavirus superspreading events were most likely to happen at the intersection where bad timing and poor placement collide: a person who has reached the point in their infection when they are shedding large amounts of virus, and are doing so in a setting where there are plenty of other people around to catch it.

According to a model built by Dr. Schiffers team, the riskiest window for such transmission may be extremely brief a one- to two-day period in the week or so after a person is infected, when coronavirus levels are at their highest.

The virus can still spread outside this window, and individuals outside it should not let up on measures like mask-wearing and physical distancing, Dr. Schiffer said. But the longer an infection drags on, the less likely a person is to be contagious an idea that might help experts advise when to end self-isolation, or how to allocate resources to those most in need, said Dr. Mahmud, who was not involved in the study.

Catching and containing a person at their most infectious is another matter, however. Some people stricken with the coronavirus start to feel unwell within a couple days, whereas others take weeks, and many never end up experiencing symptoms. The length of the so-called incubation period, which spans the time between infection and the onset of symptoms, can be so variable that some people who catch the virus fall ill before the person who gave it to them does. That rarely happens with the flu, which reliably rouses a spate of symptoms within a couple days of infection.

If the coronavirus reaches a peak in the body before symptoms appear if symptoms appear at all that increase might be very tough to identify without frequent and proactive testing. Symptom-free spikes in virus load appear to happen very often, which really distorts our ability to tell when somebody is contagious, Dr. Schiffer said. That, in turn, makes it all too easy for people to obliviously shed the pathogen.

It really is about opportunity, said Shweta Bansal, an infectious disease ecologist at Georgetown University who was not involved in the study. These processes really come together when you are not only infected, but you also dont know youre infected because you dont feel crummy. Some of these unwitting coronavirus chauffeurs, emboldened to go out in public, may end up causing a superspreading event that sends the pathogen blazing through a new population.

This confluence of factors a person in the wrong place at the wrong point in their infection sets the stage for explosive transmission, Dr. Bansal said.

The teams model also pointed to another important variable: the remarkable resilience of the coronavirus when it is aloft.

A growing body of evidence now suggests that the coronavirus can be airborne in crowded, poorly ventilated indoor environments, where it may encounter many people at once. The virus also travels in larger, heavier droplets, but these quickly fall to the ground after they are expelled from the airway and do not have the same reach or longevity as their smaller counterparts. Dr. Schiffer said he thought the coronavirus might be more amenable to superspreading than flu viruses because it is better at persisting in contagious clouds, which can ferry pathogens over relatively long distances.

Its a spatial phenomenon, he said. People further away from the transmitter may be more likely to be infected.

Updated August 6, 2020

Since the start of the pandemic, many comparisons have been drawn between Covid-19 and the flu, both of which are diseases caused by viruses that attack the respiratory tract. But plenty of differences exist, and in many ways the coronavirus is more formidable. This study adds yet another layer to how its different from influenza, said Olivia Prosper, a researcher at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville who uses mathematical models to study infectious diseases but was not involved in the study. Its not just about how sick it makes you, but also its ability to transmit.

Moreover, certain people may be predisposed to be more generous transmitters of the coronavirus, although the details are still a mystery, Dr. Schiffer said.

But when a superspreading event occurs, it likely has more to do with the circumstances than with a single persons biology, Dr. Schiffer said. Even someone carrying a lot of the coronavirus can stave off mass transmission by avoiding large groups, thus depriving the germ of conduits to travel.

A superspreading event is a function of what somebodys viral load is and if theyre in a crowded space, he said. If those are the two levers, you can control the crowding bit.

Both Dr. Mahmud and Dr. Prosper noted that not everyone has the means to practice physical distancing. Some people work essential jobs in packed environments, for instance, and are left more vulnerable to the consequences of superspreading events.

That makes it all the more important for those who can participate in control measures like mask-wearing and physical distancing to remain vigilant about their behavior, Dr. Mahmud said.

Thats what we should be doing, she said. Not just to protect ourselves, but to protect others.

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Why the Coronavirus Is More Likely to Superspread Than the Flu - The New York Times

What you need to know about coronavirus Monday, Aug. 10 – KING5.com

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Find developments on the COVID-19 pandemic and the plan for recovery in the U.S. and Washington state.

Where cases stand in Washington

The United States' failure to contain the spread of the coronavirus has been met with astonishment and alarm in Europe, as the world's most powerful country surpassed a global record of 5 million confirmed infections on Sunday, according to a count by Johns Hopkins University.

As Axios reports, former Commissioner of Food and Drugs Scott Gottlieb has sent out a warning, saying that the death toll will "definitely" reach between 200,000 and 300,000 by the end of this year.

New guidelines for fitness centers and gyms will go into effect Monday in Washington state. As part of the updated guidelines, gyms and fitness facilities will need to nearly triple the minimum distance required for patrons exercising indoors, except for those practicing certain team sports.

The new COVID-19 guidance issued by Gov. Jay Inslee for counties in Phase 2 or 3 of reopening increases the requirement of six feet of distance between patrons to 300-square-feet, which is just over 17 feet of space.

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What you need to know about coronavirus Monday, Aug. 10 - KING5.com

Nation hits 5 million coronavirus cases with few signs of slowing – NBC News

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As the U.S. surpassed 5 million coronavirus cases this weekend, the milestone was met with little fanfare as some school districts planned to reopen and thousands descended on Sturgis, South Dakota, for the world's largest annual gathering of motorcycle enthusiasts.

There were more than 160,000 deaths in the country as of Saturday, according to NBC News figures. No other nation has approached the United States' infection figures, with Brazil reporting more than half the American numbers: 2,962,442.

The new highs will not likely mark a plateau or peak if the nation continues to face the virus without a cohesive national strategy on mask-wearing and social distancing, said Dr. Gabe Kelen of Johns Hopkins Medicine.

"There just doesnt seem to be enough will in enough parts of the country to deal with this the way other countries have," said Kelen, director of Johns Hopkins' Department of Emergency Medicine. "We have politicized it tremendously. And a large number of people are in disbelieving mode or fatigued by the idea of staying put."

On Saturday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot criticized people who packed the city's waterfront without observing social distancing. "Don't make us take steps backwards," she tweeted.

Let our news meet your inbox. The news and stories that matters, delivered weekday mornings.

In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti ordered the Department of Water and Power to turn off utilities at party houses that repeatedly flout the rules after a woman was fatally shot at a large gathering at a mansion.

"These large parties are unsafe and can cost Angelenos their lives," Garcetti said at a news conference Wednesday.

In Thousand Oaks, California, a pastor vowed to open his church to 1,500 congregants Sunday in violation of a court order to stay shut.

California has the most cases in the nation553,851but the state with the most deaths remains New York, with 33,583.

Florida had the second-highest number of cases: 526,577.

President Donald Trump promised economic relief Saturday when he signed executive orders to defer payroll taxes through the end of the year for those earning less than $100,000 a year and provide federally enhanced unemployment benefits of $400 through Jan. 31.

Kelen said it's possible the pandemic could slow as fall approaches, and there's evidence that older Americans are taking mask-wearing and social distancing more seriously than younger people.

"Theres a little bit of a glimmer that some of the most vulnerable are managing the threat," he said.

What's more, he said, the rapid development of vaccines is reason for optimism.

"That works psychologically," Kelen said. "It certainly gives us hope that somewhere around the corner were going to have a vaccine."

At this rate, however, it will take about 40 days to reach another milestone in the U.S.: 200,000 deaths.

"Before the year closes out, were almost sure to see 200,000," Kelen said. "Is the worst behind us? If its slightly better than the worst, thats still godawful."

Dennis Romero writes for NBC News and is based in Los Angeles.

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Nation hits 5 million coronavirus cases with few signs of slowing - NBC News

Coronavirus updates: Trump’s executive order on unemployment could take months to implement; hundreds quarantining in Ga. school district – USA TODAY

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The orders Trump signed would provide an extra $400 in unemployment benefits, suspend some student loan payments and protect renters from eviction. Wochit

After weeks of stalled congressional negotiations over a new coronavirus stimulus package,President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders Saturday evening as the U.S. was approaching 5 million cases of COVID-19.

Trump, repeatedly referring to the coronavirus as the "China virus," said the orders would provide an additional $400 per week in unemployment benefits, suspend payments on some student loans through the end of the year and protect renters from being evicted from their homes.

"We're coming back very strong. We're doing well with the virus," Trump said, even as the U.S. was leading nations worldwide in confirmed cases and deaths from COVID-19 and confirmed an additional 50,000 new cases Friday.

Top Democrats criticized the move and unemployment experts were left confused about how it might be implemented, speculating it could take months for states to figure it out.

Meanwhile, South Dakota was hosting one of the largest events since the beginning of the pandemicthe Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, an event that is set toattract 250,000 people over the next 10 days, even as experts warn a spike in cases could overwhelm the rural health care system.

Communities of color are dying at higher rates from the novel coronavirus than white Americans. Here's how structural inequities play a role. USA TODAY

Here are some significant developments:

Today's numbers:The U.S. has recorded more than 162,000 deaths and 4.9 million cases of COVID-19, according toJohns Hopkins University. Worldwide, there have been more than 723,000 deaths and 19.4 million cases.

What we're reading: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine tested positive, then negative for COVID-19. Thatunderscores how not all tests work the same way, nor do they alwaysprovide identical results. Even the same testtaken twicecan show contradictory outcomes. Here's answers to common questions on the subject.

Our live blog is being updated throughout the day. Refresh for the latest news, and get updates in your inbox withThe Daily Briefing.

Speaking from his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump said his orders would provide an additional $400 per week in unemployment benefits, which is $200 less than the supplemental benefit that expired at the end of July.

Trump said he also would suspend payments on some student loans through the end of the year, protect renters from being evicted from their homes, and instruct employers to defer certain payroll taxes through the end of the year for Americans who earn less than $100,000 annually.

Trump said he decided to act on his own and order the benefits after two weeks of negotiations with congressional Democrats collapsed without an agreement on a new coronavirus relief package.

David Jackson and Michael Collins

Although Trump signed an order to provideenhanced unemployment benefits to millions of out-of-work Americans, its unclear if he has the authority to do so by executive order while side-stepping Congress. And it could take months for states to implement.

He directed the use of funds from FEMAs Disaster Relief Fund, which would be capped at $44 billion, creating confusion among unemployment experts. The move could potentially bypass approval from Congress, some lawyers say, but it also leaves the door open to other challenges.

This is an administrative nightmare, saidMichele Evermore, a senior policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project, a think tank that advocates for labor and employment legislation.

States are going to have to set up a new program aside from regular unemployment insurance. It could take months for states to implement this. ... This is just a false promise to the American people.

Read more about the challenges

Jessica Menton

Brazil surpassed a grim milestone of 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 on Saturday night, and five months after the first reported case the country has not shown signs of crushing the disease.

The nation of 210 million people has been reporting an average of more than 1,000 daily deaths from the pandemic since late May and reported 905 for the latest 24-hour period.

The Health Ministry said there had been a total of 3,012,412 confirmed infections with the new coronavirus death and infection tolls second only to the United States. And as in many nations, experts believe that both numbers are severe undercounts due to insufficient testing.

After only one week of school, more than 250 students and teachers from one Georgia school district will be quarantined for two weeks after several teachers and students tested positive for COVID-19, according to the district's website.

Cherokee County School District,north of Atlanta, is sharing regularupdates on coronavirus cases in its schools on its website. The district has more than 42,000 students.

As of Friday, at least 11 students, ranging in age from first to 12th grade, and two staff members, from variouselementary, middle and high schools, have tested positive for coronavirus, prompting the quarantine order for almost 250 students and staff. The students will receive online instruction during the period.

In a letter to families on Friday, Superintendent Dr. BrianHightower said that the trend of students and staff testing positive every day "will continue as we operate schools during a pandemic." He called on students and staff to use face mask at school.

Doug Stanglin

The Mid-American Conference, facing significant financial losses without the ability to play more than a handful of non-conference games against Power Five opponents this season, became the first Football Bowl Subdivision conference to cancel its fall season on Saturday, a person with knowledge of the situation told USA TODAY Sports. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the league had not yet made an announcement.

MAC schools have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, as the majority of their revenues for athletics come from university subsidies and student fees. Central Michigan and Akron have dropped multiple sports already, and Bowling Green reversed its decision to shut down the baseball program only after a grassroots fundraising effort.

Besides a small slice ofTVrevenue, MAC schools depend on money fromfootball game guarantees, which amount to appearance fees to play big conference schools. MAC schools stood to make $10.5 million alone this season from non-conference games against the Big Ten.

But with the SEC and notably the Big Ten deciding to play only within their conference,MAC's only Power Five games were Buffalo at Kansas State, Ball State at Iowa State, Miami at Pitt, Ohio at Boston College and Western Michigan at Notre Dame.

Dan Wolken

Nearly five months after the coronavirus pandemic shut down the cruise industry, more than 12,000 crew members remainon ships in U.S. waters, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. That's down from more than 70,000 in May.

There are 57 cruise ships moored, at anchor or underway near or arriving at aU.S. port with about 12,084 crew members, said Lt. Cmdr.Brittany Panetta, a spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard.Thatincludes209 Americans who are spread out among 37 of the ships, the Coast Guard said.

But as of Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it knew of 53 U.S. crew members on 22 cruise ships in U.S. waters. Despite the discrepancy in numbers,it's unclear how many of those crew members are actually stuck vs. working.

Akash Dookhun, a Celebrity Cruises crew member from Mauritius, an island nation in southeastern Africa, told USA TODAY he has not set foot on dry land since he was on a port call in New Zealand in early March. And he doesn't know when he'll stand on solid ground again. Read more here.

Morgan Hines

Prevalence of depression among college students increased since the pandemic caused the closure of campuses this spring compared to fall 2019, according to a survey of 18,000 college students published by the Healthy Minds Network on July 9. And of the nearly 42% of students who sought mental health care during the pandemic, 60% said it was either much more or somewhat more difficult to access care.

Mental health among young people has been worsening for years. A 2019 analysis of teens reported 13% of U.S. teens ages 12 to 17 said in 2017 they had experienced at least one major depressive episode in the past year, up from 8%in 2007.

Elinor Aspegren

The federal government has allocated more than $9 billion to develop and manufacture candidate vaccines, and more than $2.5 billion more has been earmarked for vials to store the vaccines, syringes to deliver them, and on efforts to ramp up manufacturing and capacity.

The largest sums have gone to pharmaceutical giants Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and a collaboration between Sanofi and GSK, as well as biotech firms Moderna and Novavax all of which have candidate vaccines being tested in people.

To save time,the companies have been running trials simultaneously that they usually run in sequence.Moderna, for instance, hasn't yet published its Phase 2 trial results, but is already in larger-scale Phase 3 trials, beginning tests last week of its candidate vaccine in 15,000 volunteers. Phase 3 trials started this summer are expected to return results this fall, with the timing depending on how quickly they can find volunteers.

If any of these approaches prove safe and effective, it could transform vaccine development worldwide, allowing faster attack strategies against dangerous viruses that may emerge in the future, as well as those that mutate rapidly, like the flu.

Karen Weintraub and Elizabeth Weise

A 21-year-old from Florida is warning of potential long-term virus complications after his mild case turned nearly fatal.Two weeks afterSpencer Rollyson tested negativeand returned to work, he started suffering from an array of symptoms.His fever eventually reached 103.4 degrees and Rollyson fell unconscious in the middle of a June 15 telehealth appointment.

Doctors diagnosed Rollyson with multi-organ failure withheart failure, acute respiratory failure, and severe sepsis with septic shock. "I thought I was going to die. I was literally sitting in the hospital like, Im going to die,' " Rollyson recalled.

It's yet another puzzling example of how the virus can damage the body in unpredictable ways. For example, two German studiespublished last week found heart abnormalities in COVID-19 patients months after they had recovered from the disease

Rick Neale, Florida Today

One of the largest events since the beginning of the pandemic has begun in South Dakota:More than 250,000 people are expected at the iconic Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.That's scaled down from previous years, where about half a million people have descended on the city ofabout 7,000 for an eventthathas developed a reputation asan anything-goes festival.

While the 80-year tradition isn't as raucous as it once was, festivalgoers will be largely free of social distancing restrictions common elsewhere in the country during this year's 10-day festival. Masks are encouraged, but not required.

About 54% of Americans fear they may lose their job due to the coronavirus outbreak, Harris Poll data shows. Overall, nearly half expect their personal finances to be generally worse off in the coming months.

There are two economies in the pandemic, Gerzema said. In general, older, wealthy Americans who are white are typically more confident that theyll prosper. But the ones really feeling the pain are younger, lower income Americans and minorities.

The labor-market recovery has reached a critical juncture, economists say, with millions of workers at risk of prolonged unemployment just as emergency unemployment benefits expire.

Jessica Menton

The Crow Tribe in Montana has ordered its members to lock down for two weeks as tribal leaders moved to slow a sharp spike in coronavirus cases and deaths on yet another reservation in the country.

Native Americans have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 across the country, with major outbreaks from Arizona to South Dakota triggering similar lockdowns. The Navajo Nation that covers parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah has tallied 468 confirmed deaths from the virus and has ordered another lockdown this weekend.In Montana, Native Americans make up 7% of residents but have seen 15% of confirmed virus cases and 36% of deaths as of July 26, the state says.

Crow Tribe Chairman Alvin Not Afraid said the lockdown, which began Friday, is necessary because a stay-at-home order in effect since mid-March has been ineffective.

Big Horn County, where the 3,500-square-mile reservation is located, is on pace to record more confirmed virus cases in August than the previous two months combined. The county reported 85 new cases during the first week of August, compared to 249 in July and 44 in June. Seven of its 12 confirmed virus deaths have been recorded in the past 10 days. The figures include cases on the reservation but the tribe doesnt publicly release case counts.

Associated Press

Two sobering government reports released Friday showed that racial disparities inthe U.S. coronavirus epidemic extend to children.

One of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports looked at children with COVID-19 who needed hospitalization. Hispanic children were hospitalized at a rate eight times higher than white kids, and Black children were hospitalized at a rate five times higher, it found.

The second report examined cases of a rare virus-associated syndrome in kids. It found that nearly three-quarters of the children with the syndrome were either Hispanic or Black, well above their representation in the general population.

The hospitalization rate for Hispanic children was about 16.4 per 100,000. The rate for Black children was 10.5 per 100,000, and for white kids it was 2.1 per 100,000.

As with adults, many of the hospitalized children had existing health problems, including obesity, chronic lung conditions and in the case of infants preterm birth.

Associated Press

A Georgia high school dropped its five-daysuspension forat least onestudent who posteda photo of crowded hallways showing students without face masks.

Hannah Watters, 15,tweeted Fridaythat she was no longer suspended fromNorth Paulding High School in Dallas, Georgia. She told the Associated Press that her principal called her mother, apologized, and completely removed her punishment, leaving her surprised and very grateful.

The 30,000-student suburban Atlantaschool district resumed classes Monday with 70% of students returning for in-person instruction five days a week. It receivednational attention this week when the images of the crowded hallways showed students in clusters without face coverings. She said that shewas then suspended for five days for violating rules on students posting school images on social media.BuzzFeed News reportedthat asecond, unnamed, studentwas also suspended.

Wyatte Grantham-Phillips

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced FridaythatNew York schools will be able to open for in-person instruction this fall, leaving the ultimate decision on reopening up to local authorities.

Cuomo said the infection ratesdue to COVID-19 are low enough so the districts can begin to reopen next month.Friday's decision is meant to be a preliminary one, as the first day of school is still a month away.Each district had to submit their own plans to reopen that are being reviewed by the state Health Department.

The nation's largest school district, New York City, is expected to start classes Sept. 10. The district plans to allowstudents to choose either online learning or a hybrid plan with as many as three days of in-person instruction.

Sophie Grosserode and Joseph Spector, New York State Team

On Facebook:There's still a lot unknown about the coronavirus. But what we do know, we're sharing with you.Join our Facebook group,Coronavirus Watch,to receive daily updates in your feed and chat with others in the community about COVID-19.

In your inbox:Stay up-to-date with the latest news on the coronavirus pandemic from the USA TODAY Network.Sign up for thedailyCoronavirus Watchnewsletter here.

Tips for coping:Every Saturday and Tuesday we'll be in your inbox, offering you a virtual hug and a little bit of solace in these difficult times.Sign up forStaying Apart, Togetherhere.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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Farm Workers Harvest Crops With Few Protections From The Coronavirus : Shots – Health News – NPR

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With the coronavirus spreading, farms try to keep workers like these in Greenfield, Calif. safe through physical distancing and other measures but advocates for laborers say protections are often not adequate. Brent Stirton/Getty Images hide caption

With the coronavirus spreading, farms try to keep workers like these in Greenfield, Calif. safe through physical distancing and other measures but advocates for laborers say protections are often not adequate.

It's a busy time for the tomato-producing farms in eastern Tennessee. Farms have staffed up with hundreds of workers, most of whom are Latino. Some live locally. Others are migrant workers who travel from farm to farm, chasing the summer growing seasons. Still others come from Mexico or Central America on temporary agricultural visas to work at certain farms.

But, this year, the season is taking place under a cloud of coronavirus worries that, for these agricultural workers, hit close to home.

"Almost every part of the process for picking tomatoes needs to be considered in light of COVID-19," says Ken Silver, an associate professor of environmental health at East Tennessee State University, who studies migrant worker health on Tennessee tomato farms.

After all, the workers live in close quarters, sleeping in bunk beds, and sharing bathrooms and kitchens. They ride crowded buses to fields and often work in groups. And even though farm employees are deemed essential workers, they often don't have health insurance or paid sick leave.

Farms have already reported outbreaks among hundreds of workers in states that include California, Washington, Florida and Michigan. And yet, the federal government has not established any enforceable rules either to protect farmworkers from the coronavirus or to instruct employers what to do when their workers get sick. While migrant worker advocacy groups say this allows farms to take advantage of their workers and increase their risk of exposure to the coronavirus, farms say they're doing what they can to protect workers with the limited resources they have, while also getting their crops harvested.

The situation certainly isn't clear-cut, says Alexis Guild, director of health policy and programs at the advocacy group, Farmworker Justice.

"I do think some employers are putting in necessary protections," Guild says. But she has heard of workers who, after testing positive for COVID-19, were still required to work or were sent back to their countries an economic threat that creates a strong incentive for workers not to report mild symptoms. "I think it's hard to generalize. It really varies employer by employer."

Leaving it up to the farms

In June, 10 temporary workers out of about 80 at the Jones & Church Farms in Unicoi County, Tenn., tested positive for the coronavirus. Another farm in that county had 38 workers test positive around the same time.

"This was the scariest thing that could happen," says Renea Jones Rogers, the farm's food safety director.

Nationally, there have been at least 3,600 cases of farmworkers testing positive for COVID-19, according to media reports gathered by the National Center for Farmworker Health.

Add to this that farm employers and workers alike acknowledge that even the most basic interventions to stop transmission social distancing and mask-wearing often aren't feasible, especially in the hot temperatures.

Farm laborers arrive for their shift in Greenfield, California, April 28, 2020. Traveling to the fields in crowded buses is one risk among others that workers often face daily. Brent Stirton/Getty Images hide caption

Saul, 52, is a temporary farmworker who has traveled from Mexico to Virginia every year since 1996 to harvest tobacco. In a WhatsApp message interview, he said masks are uncomfortable on the job because he is working outdoors, writing in Spanish, "En el trabajo es incmodo porque trabajamos al intemperie." (Kaiser Health News is not publishing Saul's last name so that he won't be identified by his employer.)

Saul said he does worry about the coronavirus, but because he lives at his job on the farm, he feels safe.

When he arrived in the U.S. in April, the farm provided him with information about the pandemic, masks and hand sanitizer, he said. Nobody takes his temperature, but he works in a crew of eight, lives with only three other workers and nobody on the farm has yet been diagnosed with COVID-19.

In Tennessee, the Jones & Church Farms put its own worker safety protocols in place at the beginning of the season. These included increasing sanitation, taking daily temperature readings and keeping workers in groups so they live and work with the same people.

After the 10 workers tested positive for COVID-19, the farm kept them all in the same housing unit and away from the other workers but those who were asymptomatic also kept working in the fields, though they were able to stay away from others on the job, says Jones Rogers.

In June, 10 of about 80 temporary workers at Jones & Church Farms in Unicoi County, Tenn., tested positive for COVID-19. Nationally, at least 3,600 positive cases have been reported among farmworkers. Victoria Knight/ KHN hide caption

While the Department of Labor has not offered enforceable federal safety standards for COVID-19, it did collaborate with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to publish a set of voluntary, agriculture-specific guidelines. Those were released in June, just days after Jones & Church became aware of the farm's outbreak.

Much of what had already been done at Jones & Church, though, tracked closely with those recommendations, which also suggested that workers be screened every day for COVID-19 symptoms and that those who become sick be given their own space to recover apart from others.

Other suggestions in the CDC and Labor Department directive, geared more toward indoor food-processing factories such as tomato-packing plants, included installing plastic shields if 6 feet of distance isn't possible between workers, putting in hand-washing stations and providing personal protective equipment or cloth face coverings.

Advocates say these guidelines are sound, in theory. Their glaring flaw is that they are voluntary.

"We don't believe that the health and safety of workers should be left to the good will of employers," says Mara Perales Sanchez, communications coordinator for Centro de Los Derechos del Migrante, an advocacy group with offices in both Mexico and the U.S.

A Department of Labor spokesperson offered a different take. "Employers are and will continue to be responsible for providing a workplace free of known health and safety hazards," the spokesperson says, adding that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's preexisting general-safety standards and CDC guidelines are used to determine workplace safety violations. OSHA is an agency within the Labor Department.

Farm industry groups are apprehensive of any increased federal regulation.

"I don't think OSHA would be able to have some sort of mandatory regulation that wouldn't disadvantage some farmers," says Allison Crittenden, director of congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Farms have already put many COVID-19 protections in place, she says, "and if these actions are taking place in a voluntary way, we don't see that we need to have a mandatory requirement."

Difficulties in accessing health care

Migrant farmworkers, despite occupying an essential link in the country's food supply chain, often aren't provided with workplace benefits like health insurance or paid sick leave.

Saul, the Virginia tobacco farmworker, says he didn't believe he has any health insurance. If he gets sick, he would need to tell his farm employer, who would then have to drive him to the doctor. The closest city to the farm is 15 miles away. Who is responsible for these costs the worker or the farm depends on individual circumstances.

Many farms employ mostly Latino workers, and CDC data illustrates that it's much more likely for Hispanic or Latino people to be infected, hospitalized or die from COVID complications than white people. Experts also warn that because the COVID pandemic is disproportionately affecting people of color, it could widen preexisting health disparities.

Fresh Harvest farm laborers harvest romaine lettuce on a machine with heavy plastic dividers that separate workers from each other in Greenfield, California, April 27, 2020. Brent Stirton/Getty Images hide caption

Also, seeking a doctor's care can feel risky for migrant farmworkers. Workers who are undocumented may worry about being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while workers who have green cards may be concerned about the Trump administration's "public charge rule." This controversial rule weighs immigrants' use of public programs, including health care, against their applications for citizenship. However, the federal government has said seeking treatment for COVID-19 wouldn't fall under the rule.

And while contact tracing is important to stop the spread of COVID-19 among farmworkers, many health departments don't have translators on staff who can speak Spanish or Indigenous Central American languages, nor has there been a systematic nationwide tracking of farmworker outbreaks thus far, as has been done with long-term care facilities outbreaks.

So "it's really hard to get a grasp on how many farmworkers specifically are testing positive," says Guild with Farmworker Justice.

That could be an issue for tracing outbreaks, especially as the harvesting season ramps up for certain crops and farms bolster their workforces.

At the end of July, almost 90 additional temporary workers arrived at Jones & Church Farms to help harvest tomatoes through October, says Jones Rogers. Though the 10 workers who had COVID-19 have recovered, she says she's scared that if more get the disease, there won't be enough housing to keep sick workers separate from others or enough healthy workers to harvest the crops.

"Tomatoes don't wait until everyone is feeling good to be harvested," says Jones Rogers.

Reporter Carmen Heredia Rodriguez and Katie Saviano provided Spanish translation assistance for this story.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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Farm Workers Harvest Crops With Few Protections From The Coronavirus : Shots - Health News - NPR

COVID-19 Daily Update 8-9-2020 – West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

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The West Virginia Department of Health andHuman Resources (DHHR) reports as of 10:00 a.m., on August 9,2020, there have been 322,914 total confirmatorylaboratory results received for COVID-19, with 7,694 totalcases and 139 deaths.

DHHRhas confirmed the deaths of eight individuals from Mercer County from thePrinceton Health Care Center. Thosewho died include an 80-year old female, an 87-year old female, an 86-year oldfemale, a 79-year old female, a 91-year old male, a 78-year old female, an 89-yearold female, and a 76-year old male. Weare deeply saddened by the passing of these eight West Virginians, said Bill J.Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary. Our condolences are extended to these familiesduring their time of grief.

Thedeaths occurred over the course of the last few weeks but were not reported inan official capacity due to personnel changes at the Mercer County HealthDepartment. A total of 11 individuals have died from the Princeton Health CareCenter; three of these deaths were previously reported by DHHR.

In alignment with updated definitions fromthe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the dashboard includes probablecases which are individuals that have symptoms and either serologic (antibody)or epidemiologic (e.g., a link to a confirmed case) evidence of disease, but noconfirmatory test.

CASESPER COUNTY (Case confirmed by lab test/Probable case):Barbour (29/0), Berkeley (669/27), Boone(101/0), Braxton (8/0), Brooke (63/1), Cabell (391/9), Calhoun (6/0), Clay(18/0), Doddridge (6/0), Fayette (148/0), Gilmer (16/0), Grant (120/1),Greenbrier (93/0), Hampshire (76/0), Hancock (108/4), Hardy (57/1), Harrison(218/3), Jackson (162/0), Jefferson (287/7), Kanawha (922/13), Lewis (28/1),Lincoln (87/0), Logan (228/0), Marion (187/4), Marshall (127/4), Mason (56/0),McDowell (61/1), Mercer (196/0), Mineral (119/2), Mingo (171/2), Monongalia(922/17), Monroe (20/1), Morgan (27/1), Nicholas (36/1), Ohio (265/3),Pendleton (39/1), Pleasants (12/1), Pocahontas (40/1), Preston (104/21), Putnam(194/1), Raleigh (246/7), Randolph (205/5), Ritchie (3/0), Roane (15/0),Summers (11/0), Taylor (55/1), Tucker (10/0), Tyler (13/0), Upshur (37/3),Wayne (206/2), Webster (4/0), Wetzel (42/0), Wirt (6/0), Wood (235/12), Wyoming(31/0).

As case surveillance continues at thelocal health department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certaincounty may not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individualin question may have crossed the state border to be tested.Such is the case of Lincoln County in this report.

Pleasenote that delays may be experienced with the reporting of information from thelocal health department to DHHR. Visitthe dashboard at http://www.coronavirus.wv.gov for more detailed information.

On July 24,2020, Gov. Jim Justice announced that DHHR, the agency in charge of reportingthe number of COVID-19 cases will transition from providing twice-daily updatesto one report every 24 hours. This becameeffective August 1, 2020.

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COVID-19 Daily Update 8-9-2020 - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

Global deaths surpass 700,000; Vietnam reports further rise of infections – CNBC

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Wed, Aug 5 20207:48 AM EDT

A woman leaves a cosmetics store in Hanoi, Vietnam on July 6, 2020.

Nhac Nguyen | AFP | Getty Images

Vietnam's health ministry reported a further 41 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, according to Reuters, taking the country's total number of infections up to 713.

Almost all of the new cases were linked to the central tourism hot spot of Danang, where on July 25 the Southeast Asian country detected its first locally transmitted infections in more than three months.

To date, eight people in Vietnam have died as a result of the coronavirus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Sam Meredith

Wed, Aug 5 20207:28 AM EDT

More than 700,000 people have now died as a result of the coronavirus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

To date, over 18.5 million Covid-19 infections have been reported worldwide, with 701,085 related fatalities.

The U.S., which has recorded the world's worst virus outbreak, has reported more than 156,000 deaths, with Brazil accounting for over 95,000 and Mexico third-highest with 48,000. Sam Meredith

Wed, Aug 5 20203:44 AM EDT

Students wearing face masks wait in line to have body temperatures checked at entrance of a school on June 15, 2020 in Hong Kong, China.

Hong Fan | China News Service | Getty Images

Some countries may choose to reopen schools because closures are "disruptive" and don't help "that much" in terms of slowing the spread of the coronavirus, said Benjamin Cowling, a professor from The University of Hong Kong's School of Public Health.

Cowling acknowledged there are arguments for and against reopening educational institutions. "The pros are that children get their education, the parents don't need to stay home and look after them. It helps society, helps the economy," he told CNBC on Wednesday. But that poses a risk to the teachers, especially the older adults with underlying conditions.

"We have to come up with a list of measures that are sustainable for the next six months, including some social distancing measures," he said. "I'm not sure that school closures has that much effect on Covid transmission. At the same time, it's a very disruptive measure."

"Maybe some places in the world will choose to reopen schools for those reasons because it doesn't help that much and is very a costly intervention for society," Cowling said. Abigail Ng

Wed, Aug 5 202012:46 AM EDT

A graphic is seen showing the areas of Melbourne that will be required to go into lock down as Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews speak to the media on July 07, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia.

Darrian Traynor | Getty Images

The state of Victoria in Australia recorded a record high of 725 new cases on Wednesday as it prepared to shut much of its economy to contain a second wave of infection.

Victoria state, the second-most populous in Australia, also reported a record daily death toll of 15, local media reported.

The state government in Victoria has imposed a night curfew and tightened movement restrictions in greater Melbourne on Sunday. It also ordered most businesses to close from Wednesday night.

Victoria accounts for nearly two-thirds of Australia's 19,500 cases, according to Reuters. Huileng Tan

Tue, Aug 4 20206:38 PM EDT

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards announced he would extend the state's phase two reopening, including a statewide mask mandate, for at least another 21 days, according to a press release from his office.

Bars in the state can only operate for curbside takeout or delivery servicesand crowds can't grow to more than 50 people, according to the order.The state first moved into phase two reopening in the beginning of June.

According to a White House report Monday, Louisiana is in the red zone for cases, indicating more than 100 new cases per 100,000 people in the last week, Edwards said in a statement.

"We may be seeing fewer new cases but there still is a lot of Covid statewide. We now have ticked above 50,000 active confirmed cases, which means there is more Covid in our state than ever before. We need deeper, sustained gains," Edwards said in a statement. Noah Higgins-Dunn

Tue, Aug 4 20206:27 PM EDT

Novavax announced its potential vaccine to prevent Covid-19 generated a promising immune response in an early-stage clinical trial.

The phase one trial included 131 healthy participants between ages 18 and 59 at two sites in Australia.The vaccine produced neutralizing antibodies, which researchers believe is necessary to build immunity to the virus, and killer T-cells, the company said.

Novavax said the vaccine was well tolerated with no serious adverse events reported. Most patients reported tenderness and pain at the injection site after the first dose, with some patients also reporting headaches, fatigue or muscle aches. Only one participant in the trial experienced a mild fever after a second dose, the company said.Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

Tue, Aug 4 20205:06 PM EDT

American Airlinesis offering its pilots leaves of absence of up to three years as well as alternating schedules and other options, the latest attempt to reduce the chances of involuntary cuts to its pilot ranks.

American last month warned 25,000 employeesthat their jobs are at risk when federal aid terms expire on Oct. 1. That number included about 2,500 pilots at the carrier, around 17% of its total. American and its competitors including United, Delta and Southwesthave offered voluntary options to try to limit or eliminate the need for forced job cuts.

In addition to leaves of absence, American also offered pilots schedules that would alternate between paid and unpaid months, when they wouldn't fly. It is also offering early retirements to pilots with 10 or more years of seniority.Leslie Josephs

Tue, Aug 4 20204:26 PM EDT

Residents of Imperial County, California, line up in front of a bookkeeping shop in Calexico to fill out unemployment claim forms.

Mario Tama | Getty Images News | Getty Images

California is underreporting its single-day increases in positive coronavirus cases due to issueswith its electronic laboratory reporting system, the California Department of Public Health said in an issued warning. California reported a drop in additional cases on Sunday to 5,739 and an even steeper drop to 4,526 on Monday, the lowest level the state has reported since the end of May, according to the department's data dashboard.

While the warning doesn't disclose how many days have been affected by the under reporting or by how many cases, it draws into question the accuracy of Gov. Gavin Newsom's announcement Monday indicating the state was seeing "early good signs" due to a drop in its positivity rate, or the percentage of tests that come back positive.

Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services, said during a press briefing that the agency is "working hard and immediately to reach out to the labs that we work with to get accurate information." He said the reporting delay would "absolutely" impact the state's seven-day positivity rate and the state will continue to update the rate on a daily basis.Noah Higgins-Dunn

Tue, Aug 4 20203:13 PM EDT

World number two Raphael Nadal is pulling out of the U.S. Open after citing concerns over coronavirus.

The U.S. Open defending champion told fans on Twitter: "After many thoughts I have decided not to play this year's US Open. The situation is very complicated worldwide, the COVID-19 cases are increasing, it looks like we still don't have control of it."

He added: "All my respects to the USTA, the US Open organisers and the ATP for trying to put the event together for the players and the fans around the world through TV."

Nadal said, "This is a decision I never wanted to take but I have decided to follow my heart this time and for the time being I rather not travel." The U.S. Open is scheduled to take place later this month.Riya Bhattacharjee

Tue, Aug 4 20202:48 PM EDT

Flu-shot manufacturers said they plan to ship a record number of almost 200 million vaccine doses to the U.S. as the country continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, CNBC's Meg Tirrell and Harriet Taylor report. This would be up almost 15% from last season.

"Though we don't yet have a vaccine for Covid, we do have a tool to prevent influenza," said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

Fewer than half of American adults and around 60% of children receive the flu shot each year, according to CDC data. Public health experts hope to increase the amount this year to lessen how many people will rely on hospital beds and ventilators.

While public health experts said it's possible we will have a less severe flu season because of coronavirus precautions like masks and social distancing, experts also said it could potentially be detrimental if patients have both the flu and coronavirus at the same time. Suzanne Blake

Tue, Aug 4 20202:41 PM EDT

Dr. Oxiris Barbot, New York City's top health official who led the city's response to its coronavirus outbreak, has resigned from her post as commissioner of the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Her resignation comesafter months of discord with the mayor's office and the city's police department.She will be replaced by Dr. Dave Chokshi as commissioner, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced at a press briefing.

Tensions between Barbot and de Blasio were reported in May when the mayor gave the city's contact tracing program, a key tool used to track down and isolate positive cases and contain the virus' spread, to the city's public hospital system rather than the health department.

"As I shared with the Mayor, your world-class skills are what make this agency so respected around the globe. Your experience and guidance have been the beacon leading this city through this historic pandemic and that to successfully brace against the inevitable second wave, your talents must be better leveraged alongside that of our sister agencies," Barbot wrote in a statement to the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene employees. Noah Higgins-Dunn

Tue, Aug 4 20202:25 PM EDT

Comcast-owned NBCUniversal began a round of long-expected layoffs. The cuts come as the company has grappled with the impact of coronavirus closures and is in the midst of shifting its media strategy to be more focused on streaming.

The subsidiary has 35,000 full-time employees, and reductions are expected to affect less than 10% of that staff.

Cuts at the parks are tied to the coronavirus pandemic, while layoffs at the other entertainment divisions, which include broadcast networks and cable channels, are related to the reorganization of its business.Sarah Whitten

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.

Tue, Aug 4 20202:09 PM EDT

Uber will let office employees work remotely through June, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told employees.The move isn't mandated, so workers are allowed to return to offices if they open before then.

Uber joinsGooglein extending its remote-work timeline through next June.

Most tech companies have either announced the bulk of employees can work from home until the end of 2020, or haven't finalized a date. But Uber's and Google's delays could be the start of more companies shifting their return date even later as Covid-19 cases continue to spread across the U.S. Jessica Bursztynsky

Tue, Aug 4 202012:43 PM EDT

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks to reporters during a news conference on Democrats' demand for an extension of eviction protections in the next coronavirus disease (Covid-19) aid bill on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 22, 2020.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

Days after extra unemployment benefits and a federal eviction moratorium expired, Congress is struggling to find common ground on a fifth coronavirus relief bill.

Democratic leaders and Trump administration officials are set to meet Tuesday to hash out differences in goals for an aid package. The negotiators have talked during much of the last eight days, but have made little tangible progress.

The sides have moved toward agreement on issues including direct payments to Americans and loans to small businesses. They remain far apart on how to structure extension of the lapsed $600-per-week unemployment insurance boost, along with aid to state and local governments, and assistance for food, rent and mortgages.

It looks unlikely Congress will strike a deal this week. Still, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said, "We're finally moving in the right direction."Jacob Pramuk

Tue, Aug 4 20202:25 PM EDT

Comcast-owned NBCUniversal began a round of long-expected layoffs. The cuts come as the company has grappled with the impact of coronavirus closures and is in the midst of shifting its media strategy to be more focused on streaming.

The subsidiary has 35,000 full-time employees, and reductions are expected to affect less than 10% of that staff.

Cuts at the parks are tied to the coronavirus pandemic, while layoffs at the other entertainment divisions, which include broadcast networks and cable channels, are related to the reorganization of its business.Sarah Whitten

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.

Tue, Aug 4 202011:42 AM EDT

The National Institutes of Health is starting two trials for an experimental antibody drug to see if it can work as a safe and effective treatment in Covid-19 patients.

The trials, called ACTIV-2 and ACTIV-3, will look atEli Lilly's experimental treatment known as LY-CoV555, which is being developed in partnership with Canadian biotech AbCellera. The first trial will test the treatment on people with mild to moderate Covid-19 symptoms who have not been hospitalized, while the second trial will look at patients who have been hospitalized.

The announcement comes a day after Eli Lilly said it began phase three trial testing to see whether the treatment can prevent the spread of coronavirus in residents and staff at nursing homes. Eli Lilly's drug is part of a class of treatments known as monoclonal antibodies, which are made to act as immune cells.Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

Tue, Aug 4 202011:38 AM EDT

Google debutednew features for the Google Assistant that should help families who are learning from home due to the continued spread of the coronavirus.

One new option is called Family Bell, and it can be used to remind you when your at-home school day starts, when a virtual class begins or when it's time for homework. All you have to do is say, "Hey Google, create a family bell," from your iPhone, Android phone, Google Nest Hub or a Google Nest smart speaker.

Google is also expanding its broadcast option, now letting you call specific rooms sort of like an in-home intercom instead of all Google smart devices at once. And, if you own a Google Home Hub, you can say "Hey Google, start the school day" and it will start playing school background noises, like the sounds of students shuffling through lockers.Todd Haselton

Tue, Aug 4 20209:50 AM EDT

Booking.com will layoff up to 25% of its global workforceas the pandemic continues to hinder travel demand.Booking Holdings, Booking.com's parent company, will finalize its plans and tell affected employees starting in September, according to a filing.

Booking Holdings is also the parent company of other online travel companies like Kayak and Priceline, but the layoffs will only affect Booking.com. Booking.com itself employs over 17,000 employees, a company spokeswoman told CNBC.

"The Covid-19 crisis has devastated the travel industry, and we continue to feel the impact as travel volumes remain significantly reduced," the spokeswoman said. "While we have done much to save as many jobs as possible, we believe we must restructure our organization to match our expectation of the future of travel."

Shares of Booking Holdings were down less than a percent in early trading. The company's shares are down 19.65% percent year to date.Jessica Bursztynsky

Tue, Aug 4 20209:33 AM EDT

U.S. stocks openedslightly loweras lawmakers struggle to make inroads on a new coronavirus stimulus package, reports CNBC's Fred Imbert.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22 points, or 0.1%. The S&P 500 dipped 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite was down less than 0.1%.Melodie Warner

Tue, Aug 4 20209:24 AM EDT

The Radio City Rockettes perform onstage during the Christmas Spectacular Starring The Radio City Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Steven Ferdman | Getty Images

Madison Square Garden Entertainment announced the annual Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes has been canceled for 2020 because of the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.

"We are disappointed for everyone involved with the show, as well as for the many fans who make the Christmas Spectacular a cherished part of their holiday tradition," the entertainment company said in a statement.

The 90-minute holiday show was scheduled to run November 6 through January 3. First performed in 1933, the Christmas Spectacular includes more than 140 performers.

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Global deaths surpass 700,000; Vietnam reports further rise of infections - CNBC

Trump administration steps in as advocacy groups warn of Covid ‘death panels’ – POLITICO

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But many states even in virus hot spots are dragging their feet. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has yet to respond to an April appeal to set ground rules for triaging patients, in case hospitalization rates outpace the supply of beds. In early July, as caseloads surged and some overwhelmed hospitals started turning away patients, the groups tried again, writing that what might have seemed unnecessary in April is, we believe, clearly urgent today. Abbott's spokesperson didn't respond to a request for comment.

It's been left to some local medical bodies to fill the gaps. A health advisory panel for the Dallas-Fort Worth area home to nearly a third of the states population and comprising its second-highest case count released care rationing guidelines that disability rights groups quickly condemned. Under the policy, doctors could reject outright patients with certain medical conditions, or penalize anyone they think has a grim long-term prognosis regardless of the person's short-term outlook for surviving Covid-19. Discrimination based on disability, age or race and ethnicity was not expressly prohibited.

The guidelines were pulled without explanation almost immediately after Disability Rights Texas complained to Severino's office late last month. The website of the panel that wrote the policy now says its under revision.

Meanwhile, Rio Grande City, a border town with a surge in cases had already decided to adopt those Dallas-area triage measures. Jose Vasquez, the health authority of Starr County, Texas, defended the decision to local media, saying rising infections had made the situation desperate. The local hospital is tiny, with an eight-bed Covid-19 unit, but had admitted nearly 30 patients with the virus, including three on ventilators and life support, and Vasquez said it wouldnt be able to keep functioning at that rate.

Vasquez did not respond to a request for comment, but Kevin Reed, an attorney for the hospital district, said the guidelines aren't being followed and haven't been necessary even though the hospital is still at capacity with Covid-19 patients because they've been able to add makeshift bed capacity and the state has sent in contract staff.

Reed noted that the hospital district weighed adoption of the triage guidelines before they'd heard of Disability Rights Texas' concerns but that they're currently discussing the issue with the advocacy groups and medical experts.

"This is a complex issue and, if the district adopts guidelines in the future, it wishes to do this right," Reed said.

The Arizona triage policy is shaping up to be the next big fight, because of the way it could allow doctors to reject critically ill patients and prioritize people based on their opportunity to experience life stages. It also allows health workers to pull ventilators or beds from patients who develop conditions while hospitalized that change their prognosis.

Arizona's chapter of The Arc appealed to to the HHS civil rights office late last month. The state insists its guidelines wont categorically deny care to anyone based on stereotypes, assumptions about any persons quality of life, or judgment about a persons worth based on the presence or absence of disabilities.

But against this backdrop, Arizonas hospitals also asked officials to waive the states discrimination laws so they cant be sued if they have to start rationing care.

Giving physicians and triage committees these kinds of predisposed discriminatory factors to break ties is going to bleed over into all kinds of situations that are not necessarily in the writing, said Matt Vallire, executive director of the Patients Rights Action Fund. They would be immune from any poor decision-making thats even more discriminatory than what is in this [guidance], because thats what happens in crisis scenarios.

Front-line doctors have become embroiled in the debate. Beyond having to make life-or-death decisions they face the possibility of lawsuits over triage decisions.

Rationing is already here, a group of 10 physicians wrote in late May in the New England Journal of Medicine. They argued that priority should be given to the critically ill Covid-19 patients who are young or as they put it, who are sick but who could recover with treatment.

But leaders of the American Medical Association and the American College of Physicians have taken a different tack, pointing to the way the pandemic has laid bare long-time inequities in the system. The groups rejected any triage measures that could discriminate against whole swathes of people like the elderly as not ethically defensible.

The pandemic has revealed a need for a much more thoughtful and ethically, medically justifiable approach to the clinical aspects of preparedness planning, ACP President Jacqueline Fincher and AMA President Patrice Harris wrote in a June op-ed in Modern Healthcare.

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Trump administration steps in as advocacy groups warn of Covid 'death panels' - POLITICO

How to talk to kids about the different school year – KARE11.com

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Whether your child is going back to school or distance learning, a clinical psychologist has tips for helping parents and kids cope with their new normal.

MINNEAPOLIS Are you wondering how to explain the upcoming school to your kids during this pandemic? Whatever your districts scenario, your child might have questions and strong feelings.

Dr. Sarah Paper, a clinical psychologist at Allina Health, says before you even talk to your kids about the new school year, check your own emotional reaction.

"Kids are going to look to them to know how they feel about it, so if a parent is not calm, theres no way their kid is going to believe that they should be calm or that it's going to be OK," Paper says.

Paper said when you're in those conversations, its important to validate however your child is feeling so they can pedal back to realize its OK.

For example, if they're upset they cant see their friends because of remote learning?

"Listening to that and saying, 'That is so true, that is so true. Its so hard not to see your friends. Oh my gosh, this is so hard on you. What can we do and still stay safe?'" Paper suggests.

She says thats also a way to get them to participate in problem-solving.

"The more control and decisions they can have in it the better theyre going to feel during this," says Paper.

But what if theyre worried about in-person learning?

"I think parents can say again, validate that fear that its a really scary time, but that schools important and that really smart experts are working on this and making sure that its safe. And that everybody wants children to be safe," Paper says.

Here are two donts from Paper:

Paper says a sign something might not be OK with your child is oppositional behavior. She says that's often based in anxiety, or a kid is trying to protect themselves or avoid things that feel scary. She says if they're acting more irritable or oppositional, ask them what they're worried about.

"Even maybe saying to them, 'I know this is scary,' if theyre not able to admit to their fears," Paper says. "Name it for them and they can tell you youre wrong, they will, and if youre right theyll feel really heard and understood," Paper says.

She says if you can, find a bit of fun in the whole situation.

"Help them pick out their own mask to wear to school. Come up with masks that match their outfits," Paper recommends. "Try to find the opportunities in that to have some fun."

Paper says dont forget to pay attention to adolescents and teens. You might think theyre older and just get it, but she says they may have a sense of immortality, and youre asking them to believe bad things will happen if they hang out with their friends. She says to also take their feelings into account.

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How to talk to kids about the different school year - KARE11.com

Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials Market Trends & Size is expected to grow Upcoming Years 2020-2026 – Bulletin Line

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The Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials Marketalong with the global markets has been evolving, the potential for market has seen a great deal of uproar both in demand and in revenue, technologies, mergers and acquisitions grow to be more and more important and vital to the growth of the Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials marketplace, and here in this report, we provide you with the most up to date data along with forecast, precise statistics which can place you right amongst the top players in the Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials market.

Top Companies covering This Report are: * Altair Nanotechnologies* AMCOL International* BioDelivery Sciences* Clariant International* Competitive Technologies* Dendritic NanoTechnologies

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The following report discusses in detail the factors essential and crucial to the growth of the Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials market. These factors include risks of the market calculated with the history of the Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials market over the past years, acquisitions, mergers, new trends, assessment of the new technologies and their implementation, and a much more in-depth look at the very crucial factors that drive the growth of the market internationally.

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Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers

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Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia)

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Table of Content:

1 Market Overview2 Companys Profiles3 Sales, Revenue and Market Share by companies4 Global Market Analysis by Regions5 North America by Country6 Europe by Country7 Asia-Pacific by Regions8 South America by Country9 Middle East & Africa by Countries10 Market Segment by Type11 Global Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials Market Segment by Application12 Market Forecast13 Sales Channel, Distributors, Traders and Dealers14 Research Findings and Conclusion15 Appendix

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Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials Market Trends & Size is expected to grow Upcoming Years 2020-2026 - Bulletin Line

GLOBAL NANOTECHNOLOGY IN AGRICULTURE MARKET 2020 TO PERCEIVE BIGGEST TREND AND OPPORTUNITY BY 2027 WITH TOP KEY PLAYERS LIKE Nanosys Inc, ASML…

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This Nanotechnology in Agriculture report comprises of a deep knowledge and information on what the markets definition, classifications, applications, and engagements and also explains the drivers and restraints of the market which is derived from SWOT analysis. An analytical assessment of the competitors confers clear idea of the most important challenges faced by them in the present market and in upcoming years. Besides, the identity of respondents is also kept undisclosed and no promotional approach is made to them while analyzing the data. Global Nanotechnology in Agriculture market research document covers major manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, traders, customers, investors and major types, major applications.

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Geographically, the globalNanotechnology in Agriculturemarket has been fragmented across several regions such asNorth America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Europe. The study enlists various market key players in order to present a clear idea about different strategies undertaken by top-notch companies. Inclusive of in-depth analysis of market dynamics such as drivers, restraints and global opportunities, the study provides a cogent study about the fluctuating highs and lows of the businesses. Several market parameters are also stated while curating the research report, these include investors, share market and budget of the companies.

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Nanosys Inc, ASML Holding, Zyvex Labs

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GLOBAL NANOTECHNOLOGY IN AGRICULTURE MARKET 2020 TO PERCEIVE BIGGEST TREND AND OPPORTUNITY BY 2027 WITH TOP KEY PLAYERS LIKE Nanosys Inc, ASML...

PhD admission programs at NIAB: Apply by August 16 – Mathrubhumi English

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National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NIAB), Survey No. 37, Extended Q City Road, Opp. Journalist Colony, Near, Gowlidoddi, Gachibowli, Hyderabad, Telangana-500032, an Autonomous Institute of Dept. of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt. of India; has invited applications for admission to its PhD program from highly motivated students for the upcoming 2020 session.

NIAB is engaged in basic and translational research on animal health and productivity and human-animal interface with a motto to improve animal health for human welfare. The institute provides opportunities for pursuing research using advanced technologies in frontier areas of science such as development of next-generation vaccines, immunology, genetics, genomics, gene and protein engineering, host-pathogen interactions, patho-genomics, disease diagnostics, nanotechnology; bioinformatics, drug delivery platforms; nutrition, reproductive biotechnology; stem cells, gene editing & transgenic technology for humanized mouse models and farm animals, zoonosis and One Health.

Eligibility: Applicant must have a Masters degree such as M. Sc., M. Tech., M. V. Sc. or M. Pharm or MBBS or B. Tech. degree in any branch of Life Science. Applicant must mandatorily have secured CSIR/UGC/DBT/ICMR/INSPIRE NET JRF/UGC-RGNF or any other national research fellowship for 5 years. Those with only GATE, MPAT or other certification exams are not eligible. The terms and conditions, fellowship amount, etc. will be governed by the awarding agency and further subject to the rules and conventions of the Institute.

Application: Applications can be submitted online in the prescribed form, at http://www.niab.org.in/ by 16 August 2020. Soft copies of certificates in support of date of birth, educational qualifications, reservation category (if applicable), and fellowship examination qualified must also be uploaded.

Selection: Admission will be based on an interview of shortlisted eligible candidates via video conference, scheduled to be held on 21st and 22nd of August 2020. The candidates will be interviewed once for primary screening followed by second interview of screened candidates on day two. Before the interview, the applicants are encouraged to view the profile and the research interests of the faculties who currently have vacancies in their labs and are also advised to make a priority listing of all faculties they are desirous to work with in order of preference. Please list all faculties in sequence. Selected candidates are expected to join NIAB no later than 1st September, 2020.

Students will be given choice to give a preference list for joining the lab and area in which they are interested to work at NIAB after interview.

One may contact academic@niab.org.in for any queries.

For more details, visit http://www.niab.org.in/ or https://www.niab.res.in/

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PhD admission programs at NIAB: Apply by August 16 - Mathrubhumi English

Alleging harassment and fake news, Disha’s father writes to cops – NewsBytes

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Late celebrity manager Disha Salian's father, Satish Salian, has written a letter to the Mumbai Police, accusing journalists and a section of the media of causing mental harassment to his family.

In his letter, Satish also bashed the rampant rumors and speculations around Disha's death and urged cops to take appropriate action.

Disha died by alleged suicide on June 8.

Here's more on this.

Backstory

On June 8, Disha (28), who formerly managed Sushant Singh Rajput's work, died by alleged suicide after reportedly jumping off the 14th floor of an apartment in Mumbai's Malad area.

Barely a week after that, Sushant (34) was found dead at his apartment in Bandra. The police said he died by suicide.

Several media reports have since linked their untimely deaths.

Letter

It is imperative to note that several media reports and conspiracy theories have recently suggested that Disha was raped and murdered. In fact, a fake post-mortem report has also been doing the rounds.

Bashing these reports, Disha's father Satish told police that these stories are untrue and that they are tarnishing the reputation of his deceased daughter and his family.

Details

Satish wrote in the letter, "News about her involvement with any politician or attending parties with big names of film fraternity, rape, murder are all the stories cooked by these media people just to sell it to channels (sic)."

"These stories hold no truth. These are misleading the people and tarnishing my daughter's reputation and my family's reputation," he added.

Appeal

Adding that they don't suspect foul play and are satisfied with the investigation being carried out by Mumbai Police, Satish urged cops to take action against such journalists and politicians who are spreading rumors and fake news.

"Through this letter, I would request you to take reasonable action against the concerned journalists, influencers, politicians and media for their insensitive act towards us," he urged.

Statement

In a similar statement released last month, Disha's family had urged everyone to refrain from spreading rumors and conspiracy theories about her death.

"The loss is too deep and grave to be processed. It's a difficult situation for us...Empathy is the basic quality that makes us human. So let's be human first. Please let her rest in peace and let's spread kindness," they said.

Information

On a related note, Smita, a friend of Sushant, recently claimed that Sushant was doing fine until Disha's death. He, however, grew anxious after the news of her death surfaced.

The Mumbai Police has also said that Sushant had searched Disha's name, and that media reports linking him with her death might have upset the actor.

Sooraj

Various media reports have also suggested a connection between actor Sooraj Pancholi and Disha's sudden death. Notably, Sooraj was earlier involved in the infamous suicide case of actor Jiah Khan.

However, he has vehemently denied the allegations.

Bashing one such report, Sooraj said, "Please stop harassing me and dragging me into this... Start being responsible of your actions as it can ruin someone's life."

Suicide helpline

In case you need help or know someone who does, you can reach out to AASRA for suicide prevention counseling. Their number is 022 2754 6669 (24 hours).

You can also contact the Hyderabad-based Roshni NGO at +914066202000 or COOJ at +918322252525.

Sneha India Foundation, which works 24X7, can be contacted at +914424640050.

Vandrevala Foundation has trained counselors, and their number is 18602662345.

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Alleging harassment and fake news, Disha's father writes to cops - NewsBytes

New warship HMS Trent embarks for the Mediterranean to join Nato operation – shropshirestar.com

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The coronavirus pandemic has not stopped one of the Royal Navys newest warships being made ready for deployment in record time.

HMS Trent has set sail for the Mediterranean, where she will bolster UK and Nato forces in the region.

The commanding officers young son waved as he watched his fathers ship leave Portsmouth Harbour on Monday afternoon.

Earlier the vessels proud crew stood to attention beside her as she was officially commissioned at a quiet ceremony.

Among them was 18-year-old Robson Gelder, the youngest member of the ships company, whose parents were among the many friends and family watching the proceedings live online, a necessity to ensure social distancing.

The 295ft (90m) River class patrol ship sporting a blue stag on her side is designed for counter-piracy, anti-smuggling, fishery protection, border patrol, counter-terrorism and maritime defence duties.

The ceremony, at Portsmouth Naval Base, took place in bright sunshine in front of a handful of distinguished members of the armed forces.

A band from the Royal Marines School of Music was on hand to perform songs including the national anthem.

Following prayers led by Reverend Martin Evans, the crew joined him in calling out Bless our ship! as he wished them good luck.

Addressing the crew, HMS Trents commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander James Wallington-Smith said: It is my distinct privilege and pleasure to stand here this morning as the commanding officer on such a distinguished and memorable day.

He added that it was a great sadness that friends and family could not attend the commissioning ceremony as they normally would have before the pandemic.

It is the understated support of all those around us who form the backbone on which we are able to to our job, he said.

Without their own hard work and sacrifice, we would not be able to make it to the start date on time.

Lt Cdr Wallington-Smith also praised the incredible work that went into turning HMS Trent from sheets of steel to a fully operational warship.

HMS Trent was built on the Clyde in Scotland by BAE Systems and delivered to the Royal Navy in December.

Since then she has been going through sea training and workouts to prepare her for her first deployment.

The new warship will train and patrol with Nato forces as part of Operation Sea Guardian, which seeks to deter international crime and terrorism.

Lt Cdr Wallington-Smith said: The entire ships company have worked tirelessly in difficult circumstances during the Covid-19 pandemic to prepare HMS Trent for this day.

I could not be prouder of them and everyone within Portsmouth Naval Base and beyond who has helped us reach this point.

About two-thirds of the 65 ratings and officers who make up HMS Trents ships company will crew the vessel at any one time.

Engineering Technician (Weapon Engineering) Gelder joined the Navy when he was just 16 and has already served on flagship aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.

He told the PA news agency that going from such a huge vessel to a small ship like HMS Trent will be a change, but he feels like one of the family.

HMS Trent is believed to be the fastest generated warship, the time taken between completion of construction to deployment, in recent memory.

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New warship HMS Trent embarks for the Mediterranean to join Nato operation - shropshirestar.com

Swara Bhasker says Rhea Chakraborty subjected to dangerous media trial led by impulses of mob just… – Hindustan Times

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Actor Rhea Chakraborty approached the Supreme Court on Monday with plea alleging unfair media trial in boyfriend Sushant Singh Rajputs death. Actor Swara Bhasker welcomed the move and said that she hopes the apex court will take an action on the fake news spinners and conspiracy theorists.

Swara tweeted, Rhea is being subjected to a bizarre & dangerous media trial fuel led by hugely problematic impulses of mob justice. I hope the Honble #SupremeCourt will pay heed & take fake news spinners & conspiracy theorists like Repooplic, Poopindia & others to task. Let the law decide.

Sushants father K K Singh, had on July 25 filed a complaint with the Patna police against Rhea, her parents, brother Showik, Sushants manager Samuel Miranda, Shruti Modi and unknown persons accusing them of cheating and abetting his sons suicide. The CBI had re-registered this FIR as a fresh case on Thursday and named as accused the same people. Singh also alleged financial irregularities in bank accounts of his son.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) began a fresh round of questioning of Rhea and her family members in connection with its probe in a money laundering case linked to Sushants death. Shruti Modi, the business manager of Rhea and Sushant, was also questioned. They were earlier questioned on August 7.

Also read: Swastika Mukherjee shares video of Sushant Singh Rajput asking his fans to let him go: I will come in a day or two. Watch

In the complaint, Sushants father alleged that an amount of Rs 15 crore was siphoned off from Sushants bank account in one year to accounts of persons not known or connected to the late actor. Under the EDs scanner are at least two companies linked to Sushant and some financial deals involving Rhea, her father and Showik, who are stated to be directors in these companies.

(With PTI inputs)

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Swara Bhasker says Rhea Chakraborty subjected to dangerous media trial led by impulses of mob just... - Hindustan Times

New Book Offers Much Needed Spiritual Nourishment to Caregivers – PRNewswire

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DOWNERS GROVE, Ill., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --According to the Caregiver Action Network, there are at least 65 million family caregivers in America today, who provide 85 percentof patient care in the home. Under normal circumstances, this silent workforce often goes unnoticed and underappreciated. But, these times are certainly not normal, and more than ever before, families caring for loved ones are struggling, isolated and spiritually depleted.

The Caregiver's Companion (Ave Maria Press, August, 2020), by Debra Kelsey-Davis and Kelly Johnson, supports caregivers by exploding the myth that caregiving is an unwelcome burden placed on individuals and families. Instead, The Caregiver's Companion moves its readers from 'how-to endure' the struggle of caregiving to receiving its blessings and draw closer to God, so as to have the resilience and compassion to tend to the needs of others.

"In our book, we discuss how caregiving may well be one of the most challenging times in anyone's life. Yet caregiving is also a time filled with some of life's most precious blessings. We know; we've been there," said Kelsey-Davis and Johnson, who are both caregivers and founders of Nourish for Caregivers, a nonprofit that seeks to improve the health and wellbeing of caregivers.

The Caregiver's Companion offers an advice in a journal format to give practical guidance pertaining to caregiving, including:

"In The Caregiver's Companion, the authors provide a supportive, insightful, and practical guide for anyone engaged with caregiving. This valuable spiritual resource resonates with wisdom and compassion gained by those who have experienced the hills and valleys of caregivers," said Joyce Rupp, author of Praying Our Goodbyes.

The Caregiver's Companion makes a beautiful gift for a friend or family member caring for a loved one, or a useful resource for parishes, parish nurses, chaplains, and faith-based elder-care agencies and health systems. Additional caregiver resources are available at http://www.nourishforcaregivers.com.

The Caregiver's Companion is now available from Amazon, Ave Maria Press and other online retailers. All of the royalties from the sales of The Caregiver's Companion go back into the ministry to further support caregivers.

About Ave Maria Press: Ave Maria Press was founded by Fr. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., in 1865 and is recognized as a leader in publishing Catholic high school religion textbooks, parish resources, and books on prayer and spirituality. Ave Maria Press is a ministry of the Congregation of Holy Cross, United States Province of Priests and Brothers.

SOURCE Nourish for Caregivers

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New Book Offers Much Needed Spiritual Nourishment to Caregivers - PRNewswire