Daily Archives: July 5, 2020

Haley Campbell was eager for her two older children, ages 11 and 6, to start school in the fall.

She imagined how their first day would go: special outfits, an encouraging pep talk, and kisses goodbye before dropping them off for sixth grade and kindergarten, respectively.

But two weeks ago, after she received a letter from the school outlining its COVID-19 protocols which included isolated lunches, staggered schedules and the possibility that remote learning could return at any moment, Campbell felt it wasnt worth sending her children back to school.

She decided, instead, to home-school her children this upcoming school year and resigned from her full-time job as an insulin pump technician to fully commit to it. She also pulled her 2-year-old son out of day care.

Kids need a safe space to feel comfortable learning and what was being described to me by the school is not good enough for my kids, Campbell, 29, who lives just outside Boise, Idaho, said. They need to be able to focus on learning, and not worry about what they can and cant touch, staying apart, and not being able to play with their best friend.

After being in survival mode with remote learning, she no longer wants to be at the discretion of the school. I know they are doing their best but I cant rely on the school anymore, I need to be in control and have the ball in my court, she said.

While there isnt comprehensive data on how many parents are planning on home schooling come fall, several states, including Texas, Utah and Washington, have reported sharp upticks in interest.

Over the last month, calls and emails from parents inquiring about home schooling have exploded, said J. Allen Weston, executive director of the National Home School Association.

Public schools across the country have started to reveal what a return to classrooms may look like amid the pandemic, but many parents have preemptively opted not to return and are planning to home-school instead, a decision experts say is a huge undertaking that parents should be well prepared for.

A lot of parents were disillusioned with what they saw over the last 120 days, said Luis Huerta, a professor of education and public policy at Teachers College at Columbia University. They felt the level of instruction was not up to par and that schools dropped the ball during the transition. That led many parents to reconsider, at least temporarily, that they need to take control of their children's education.

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

Even though parents have every right to that decision, they have to consider the extent to which they are prepared and have the skills to carry it out, he said.

Some families may have the ability to do it well and even better than their local school, but others will struggle, he said.

It will be a mixed bag based on the myriad of diverse experiences that parents experienced over these last few months.

Huerta added that if parents are exploring the idea of shifting to home schooling, they will need to be very aware of the challenges and rigor of executing it well, and need to be able to quickly tap into the many resources that can support them in that transition.

Jessica Bates, a Nashville-based mother of two, has already started preparations with curriculum research based on input from two of her sisters who are public school teachers. Her son will be starting kindergarten in the fall.

I'm very pro-school and very pro-public school and I never thought I would be thinking about home schooling, Bates, a freelance writer, said. But with COVID-19 spreading and my state opening back up as cases are rising, were concerned with my son going to school.

Bates said social interaction was the main reason for sending her son to school, but with the possibility of remote learning still high, she felt it was better to teach him herself.

COVID-19 has helped people to see that there are other education options out there that they had never seriously considered before, said Michael Hansen, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the director of the Brown Center on Education Policy. It allowed people to see flexibility and think outside the box about what schooling means and how it works best for their children.

Even though most students who are home-schooled during the pandemic will return to a traditional school setting once the public health crisis passes, 1 or 2 percent of them may end up sticking with it because it worked well, Hansen said.

Lara Miller, who lives with her immunocompromised mother, won't be sending her third grader and fifth grader back to school in the fall and is also researching home schooling options.

Despite the school's precautions, she said she is still not comfortable exposing her children to other kids.

"It was a tough decision, but as a family we decided it was best for me to keep them home and home-school," she said. Miller, who is self-employed, said she will have to take a step back from working and rely solely on her husband's income over the next year.

Parents are trying to decide what is right for them during an unprecedented time of crisis, which is not easy, said Kevin Welner, director of the National Education Policy Center and a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder School of Education.

But what is important to recognize is that what parents did with remote learning wasnt home schooling but an emergency response that involved trying the school in the home," he said. Home schooling is very different. It is very demanding and requires a lot of hard work, preparation and time.

Parents not only need to have the subject area knowledge but also knowledge of how to teach, and since that often requires a large commitment by at least one parent in order to be successful, it doesnt work with every situation, Welner added.

It's not for everyone and even those who think it might be for them at this point may find out it's not, he said.

But Haley Campbell is optimistic and wants to keep an open mind over the next year.

"No one has parented during this, so I just have to be flexible and adaptable," she said. " Its hard because you are responsible for these little lives, but I feel like I'm doing the right things for my kids."

Go here to see the original:

Parents are opting to home-school their children due to COVID-19 pandemic, but experts say it might not be for everyone - NBC News

Freedom from Covid-19.

"It feels amazing," Avery told CNN. "After knowing what all I've been through, it's still kind of hard to wrap my mind around. But I'm very thankful and grateful that I'm still here."

Avery, who turns 24 on July 4, recently returned home after spending 76 days in a Kansas hospital -- many of them sedated and on a ventilator -- battling the novel coronavirus.

"I'm going to be at home, safe and sound with my family," said Avery, a barber from Kansas City, Missouri, when asked how he would celebrate his birthday and Independence Day. "There will be plenty of other birthdays, I'm sure, down the line where I can make up for this one."

"You're just as at risk as anybody else," Avery said. "You can be the healthiest person on Earth, and you still risk your life every time you carelessly go out here and act like it's not real."

"It's very real," he said. "I was almost taken away from my family."

'It felt like someone was choking me'

By the time Avery arrived at Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park, Kansas, on April 6, he says he had what felt like every Covid-19 symptom, including chills, high fever and body aches. But what worried him most was his shortness of breath.

"Even if I was to take a deep breath it felt like someone was choking me," he said.

"I was definitely thinking that something bad was about to happen," Avery said. "I immediately thought of my son. I immediately thought of my family."

Avery says he remembers very little of what came next. Once he arrived at the hospital, Avery remembers getting out of his car and into a wheelchair. He has a faint memory of being wheeled into the intensive care unit.

"I don't want to say I started to panic," he said, "but I was definitely scared. That's not a normal patient room. That's where you're critically ill."

Before getting sick, Avery had taken precautions to ensure his family's safety amid a lockdown, like making sure there was enough food.

"But I can't say that I took it as serious as I needed to," he said. "I didn't think it was as serious as it is."

'Older people were getting this virus'

"My take on it was that older people were getting this virus and they were more susceptible as far as getting really sick from it," Willetta Avery said.

"To hear my son was going through this was very, very terrifying," she said, adding that things "got real" when she learned her son needed a ventilator.

"And not knowing much about ventilators ... it scared me to know that he was going to have to be on one of those," she said. "That's when the seriousness of his illness just kind of slapped me in the face."

Willetta Avery remembers getting a call from the hospital at 4:30 a.m. on April 11.

"They were basically telling us Shakell was maxed out on ventilation support, that there was not much else they could do," she said.

The hospital finally allowed her to see her son.

"It was as if I would be seeing him for the last time," she said.

Avery's doctors at Menorah Medical Center collaborated with physicians at Research Medical Center in Kansas City -- both are part of the HCA Healthcare system -- to treat him with convalescent plasma.

'I beat Covid-19'

After Shakell came to, he still had trouble fighting the virus.

"Being independent, you're used to doing everything on your own," he said.

But he needed help getting up and going to the bathroom. He couldn't speak or walk. He also struggled with depression in the hospital, particularly when his family would come visit him at a tent the hospital set up outside his window.

"It was a great moment at the time being, but as soon as they left I went right back down," he said. "It was really tough being away from my girlfriend. It was tough being away from my son, my mom, my siblings."

Avery eventually started to improve and he came off the ventilator. He started physical therapy and was sent to a full rehabilitation center, where he was discharged late last month.

Shakell returned to Menorah Medical Center with his family on Tuesday to thank staff for helping him.

"I was more than grateful," Avery said. "I could have said 'thank you' an infinite amount of times, and it wouldn't have matched the intensity of how grateful I was."

Avery has a message for young people, and he says that he wants to be "as blunt as possible."

"Every time you carelessly step out your door -- no mask or no empathy for anyone else's life -- you're counting your days," he said.

"My advice would simply be to try not to be selfish, but as selfless as possible," he said. "Because you're not just hurting yourself."

Read more from the original source:

A 24-year-old Covid-19 survivor is celebrating a different kind of independence this July Fourth - CNN

TheWest Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR)reports as of 10:00 a.m., on June 30, 2020, there have been 170,497 totalconfirmatory laboratory results receivedfor COVID-19, with 2,888 total cases and 93 deaths.

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.

CASES PER COUNTY (Case confirmed by lab test/Probable case):Barbour (15/0), Berkeley (438/18), Boone(21/0), Braxton (3/0), Brooke (8/1), Cabell (119/4), Calhoun (2/0), Clay(10/0), Fayette (66/0), Gilmer (12/0), Grant (15/1), Greenbrier (58/0),Hampshire (41/0), Hancock (19/3), Hardy (42/1), Harrison (61/0), Jackson(143/0), Jefferson (219/5), Kanawha (303/9), Lewis (18/0), Lincoln (8/0), Logan(23/0), Marion (54/3), Marshall (41/1), Mason (17/0), McDowell (6/0), Mercer(38/0), Mineral (54/2), Mingo (16/3), Monongalia (157/14), Monroe (12/1),Morgan (19/1), Nicholas (9/1), Ohio (90/0), Pendleton (12/1), Pleasants (4/1),Pocahontas (23/1), Preston (63/15), Putnam (54/1), Raleigh (52/1), Randolph(155/1), Ritchie (2/0), Roane (11/0), Summers (2/0), Taylor (15/1), Tucker(6/0), Tyler (4/0), Upshur (18/1), Wayne (110/1), Webster (1/0), Wetzel (10/0),Wirt (4/0), Wood (78/8), Wyoming (7/0).

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 Braxton County in this report.

Please visit thedashboard at http://www.coronavirus.wv.gov for more information.

Continue reading here:

COVID-19 Daily Update 6-30-2020 - 10 AM - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

The Austin mayor said his city is dealing with the same situation Dallas, Houston and San Antonio are facing -- rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

The positivity rate for COVID-19 cases in Austin is the highest in the country. That means of the number of coronavirus tests given in Austin, more people are testing positive there than anywhere else in the United States.

Austin Mayor Steve Adler says he is considering a 35-day stay-at-home order.

Adler said they have conferred with scientists and modelers to come up with the shortest period of time to slow down COVID-19 and reopen the economy with greater controls.

"Right now the trajectory in Austin would indicate to us that if we don't do something about the trajectory we're on, we could run out of hospital capacity in two weeks," he said. "ICUs potentially before that."

He said they're dealing with a situation similar to what is happening in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio.

Both Bexar, home to San Antonio, and Dallas counties reported more than 1,000 cases on Friday for the first time. Harris County, where Houston is, has reported more than 1,000 cases in a single day more than once.

The 2020 Austin City Limits Festival was canceled due to concerns about the spread of the disease. What will happen to University of Texas football?

"I can't imagine a world without a vaccine, where you put 95,000 people in a stadium," Adler said.

Adler said even a small number of infected people could spread quickly from that crowd and out into the community, when fans go home.

"Frankly I'm not sure how teams get through an entire fall in that kind of proximity and keep everybody safe," he said.

Adler, a Democrat, has served as the mayor of the state capital since January 2015.

Statewide Headlines

Ross Ramsey, with the Texas Tribune, joins Jason Whitely.

1. Lt. Governor Dan Patrick took issue with Dr. Anthony Fauci last week when the doctor said that states like Texas have skipped over reopening guidelines. The lieutenant governor said in an interview that Texas hasnt skipped over anything. Patrick added that Dr. Fauci has "been wrong every time on every issue." The lieutenant governor issued a statement later asking why Fauci had nothing to say about mistakes made in New York and even California. Dr. Fauci is the nation's top infectious-disease specialist. Is there any kind of political strategy in what the lieutenant governor said?

2. Bars are now suing the state after the governor ordered them to close. Gov. Greg Abbott caved with Shelley Luther and her hair salon in Dallas. How might this play out?

Mask wearing will 'increase freedom'

For weeks, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams has supported wearing face masks. But he understands the challenge of getting people to wear one.

Adams had this message for Texans:

"If you want to see the Dallas Cowboys play again in person, if you want to see the Houston Texans play again in person, if we want to get back to some sense of normalcy -- with church, with school, with businesses, then the fastest way to make that happen is by wearing a face covering."

Adams called wearing a mask "a small inconvenience that will actually increase your freedom."

The best way to ensure communities can reopen, said Adams, was to follow these public health precautions.

Adams has three kids, and said he and his family are actively discussing whether their children will go back to school in person.

He said things are changing quickly for COVID, but said, in order for school to take place safely, schools need to be preparing now by considering everything from transportation to distancing to online access.

Second shutdown could be catastrophic for restaurants

The Texas Restaurant Association is concerned that some cities might restrict restaurant operations again as the coronavirus continues its spread.

All of those factors could have dire consequences for restaurants.

Emily Williams, president and CEO of The Texas Restaurant Association, said another shutdown would paralyze the industry.

"With the first shutdown, we're projecting about 30% of our 50,000 restaurants won't make it through," she said.

The TRA estimates 50-75% of restaurants would close if a second shutdown occurred.

The TRA has put together its "Survival Plan," which outlines what the $66 billion industry needs to move forward. It includes tax relief, liability protection, and an assistance fund to help restaurants deal with the demands of COVID-19.

Reporter Roundtable

Featuring Jason, Ross, Bud Kennedy of the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram, and Berna Dean Steptoe, WFAA political producer.

1. Joe Biden had a good week last week. Now the talk is about who he will select for a running mate. The Democratic National convention is about six weeks away. Is there a running mate who would help or hurt him in Texas? Selecting a woman -- any names he might be considering that we havent heard?

2. It's the middle of an exhausting, frustrating year. Some public officials are just beaten down. Should more retirements at all levels be expected after the November elections?

More Inside Texas Politics:

Read more here:

Inside Texas Politics: Austin mayor says based on current COVID-19 trajectory, city could run out of hospital beds in 2 weeks - WFAA.com

Local health officials are being kept in the dark about Covid-19 infections in their area by Whitehalls refusal to share all of its data, Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has warned.

Public health officials and council leaders also told the Observer that they were receiving only partial postcode data, which prevents them from precisely monitoring local areas, and could allow the virus to spread.

Burnham has urged ministers to change their approach after a week that saw Boris Johnson impose a local lockdown on Leicester when health secretary Matt Hancock, revealed that the city had seen a surge of 944 Covid-19 cases over two weeks.

Amid a public row between ministers and Leicesters mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby, health officials finally began sharing more data with the city authorities last Wednesday. Previously, all councils had to wait for official Public Health England data to be published, which meant a two-week lag.

Yet significant problems remain, Burnham told the Observer. We need a new principle going forward: everything the government knows, we should know and at the same time that they know it. Because we cannot contain this virus if people at a local level are being kept in the dark.

Public Health England (PHE) wrote to councils directors of public health last Monday with details of how to access pillar two data that taken from home testing kits and mobile testing sites set up by Deloitte. Until that point, local authorities had only pillar one data how many people in hospitals had tested positive. In Manchester, there had been 78 pillar one cases, but that jumped to 465 when pillar two figures were revealed.

We get pillar two data once a week, on a Monday morning, Burnham said. But a lot can happen in seven days. So if were going to manage and chase this virus down on the ground, we need the same daily data that the government gets.

Its as if the government doesnt trust the professionals working at local level

They also wont provide patient-identifiable data. Our teams tell me that is crucial, but the government cites patient confidentiality. Our teams are experienced public health staff they know how to deal with data confidentially. Its as if the government doesnt trust the professionals working at local level.

Government health sources insist that data protection issues limit who can access postcode-level data, since if the information were to leak beyond councils and the NHS, it could be used to identify individuals.

This week, the government is expected to publish an outbreak framework as guidance on what might trigger further local lockdowns. Ministers are understood not to be following the approach used in Germany, where local lockdowns are considered whenever the number of cases reaches a threshold of 50 per 100,000 people.

A further problem for local health teams is that there is a huge quantity of testing data to decipher, including hospital admissions, contact-tracing data from the NHS system and their own local intelligence.

Louise Jackson, portfolio holder for public health and wellbeing at Bedford Council, said her teams were still not getting good-quality information.

They tell me there are duplicates for example, if there are four results in one postcode area, does that mean youve got four cases, or one person who has been tested four times? They just dont know. The local data dashboards only give the number of tests, not how many were positive or where they are. Its very, very messy.

A senior director of public health, speaking anonymously, said: The government says data is now flowing, but thats just spin. Its not granular enough, its not quick enough and its not frequent enough. What weve been told is that the commercial company operating pillar two didnt set the data up so it can shared easily, and that the quality was poor as well.

MPs have raised questions about the role of Deloitte, which was appointed to run testing centres in March. In a written answer last week, health minister Nadine Dorries admitted that the government contract does not require the company to report positive cases to PHE.Stella Creasy, the MP for Walthamstow who tabled the question, said: This is a mess. Local authorities need clear data about positive tests: where theyve happened, whos involved and who is isolating. And that should be what the government has commissioned. Its becoming very clear thats not the case.

Deenan Pillay, a professor of virology at University College London and a member of the Independent Sage group of scientists, said he was consulted by Deloitte about setting up the testing sites in March.

I told them one of the key things would be data flow, since that is critical to optimal use of the data for individual clinical care and pandemic control, he said.

Health data is a very complex area, and the problems we are seeing are some of the consequences of this being set up as a structure separate from the NHS, rather than being linked to the NHSs laboratory and data systems.He said that testing did not just happen in a lab but was a whole process that began with collecting the right patient information. NHS tests use patients NHS numbers, allowing results to go to their GP, Pillay said.

We are now seeing the consequences of this lack of data integration with primary and secondary care, PHE and local directors of public health, which needs a lot of behind-the-scenes retrofitting.

Whitehall did not respond to questions from the Observer about the sharing of data.

Deloitte said that the consultancy had designed the online form used to book and register tests and had commissioned testing sites, but did not run either them or the testing labs. Test results are sent from labs to the National Pathology Exchange, which connects NHS labs with other parts of the NHS, including NHS Digital.

Continued here:

Local officials kept in the dark by Whitehall on Covid-19 testing data - The Guardian

The confluence of warmer weather and the sudden age of quarantine has led to a national surge in bicycle sales.

These days people are buying whatever they can get their hands on, Bob Addams said of his Elizabethown shop, Bicycle Outfitters. Theyre not worried about color and size.

Retail cycling sales in the U.S. increased by 75% in April to more than $1 billion, according to NDP Group. It is the first time the market research company recorded more than $1 billion in industry sales for a single month April sales are usually between $550 million and $575 million.

Its one of the few things left that people can do, Addams said.

But there is a problem: Addams said his shop is virtually empty and it may stay that way for a while.

I dont expect to get more inventory for the sales floor until next year, said Addams, adding bikes from his vendors are backordered to at least December.

Im trying not to complain, he said, noting weve been lucky to remain open during the COVID-19 pandemic, unlike many other businesses that were ordered closed, some which never reopened.

But we wouldve been able to sell all sorts of other bikes and get more, Addams said. My sales were up to this point, but going forward, its going to be horrible.

He said the repair side of his business is through the roof but noted its almost impossible it will entirely make up for lost bike sales.

Addams isnt alone as bike shops across Lancaster County and the nation face a supply problem compounded by the pandemic.

Success! An email has been sent with a link to confirm list signup.

Error! There was an error processing your request.

Like Addams shop, business has been brisk at Lancaster Bike Shop in Manheim Township, where service manager Rusty Gramm said sales in May were nearly double than normal.

But most bicycles are made overseas, including Europe and Asia, and Gramm said he was told several vendors ceased production when the pandemic reached their areas, which has led to a shortage.

The months-long pause in production was compounded by a spike in demand domestically.

Gramm said Lancaster Bike Shop is starting to run scarce on bikes. Fully stocked, he said the shop has anywhere between 150 to 200 bikes. In late June, the shop had 40 bicycles, and dropping.

Its great that there are people wanting to get on bikes, but (the industry doesnt) have the infrastructure to keep this up, said Adriana Atencio, director of development at the Common Wheel.

The Common Wheel, with its bike shop at 324 N. Queen St. and its co-op at 701 E. King St., has no new bikes left priced under $1,000, Atencio said. Bike parts and accessories such as vehicle bike racks have also flown off of shelves.

Its a shortage nationwide, she said, adding that the Lancaster city-based nonprofit has received calls on bike availability from as far as Texas.

Gramm remains optimistic, saying his vendors were eventually able to ramp up production again, and Lancaster Bike Shop is expected to receive additional bikes by late July or early August.

I think were going to catch up (with demand) he said. And were really excited that people are riding bikes.

Subscribe today for only $2

' + submsgtxthtml + '

Get unlimited access to breaking news, ancestry archives, our daily E-newspaper, games and more.

Subscribe today for only $2

' + submsgtxthtml + '

Get unlimited access to breaking news, ancestry archives, our daily E-newspaper, games and more.

Subscribe today for only $2

' + submsgtxthtml + '

Get unlimited access to breaking news, ancestry archives, our daily E-newspaper, games and more.

Subscribe today for only $2

' + submsgtxthtml + '

Read this article:

Lancaster County bicycle shops face inventory shortage brought by COVID-19 and warmer weather - LancasterOnline

When the 60-game regular season begins later this month, the Atlanta Braves may be without star first baseman Freddie Freeman. On Saturday manager Brian Snitker told reporters, including The Athletic's Dave O'Brien, that Freeman has contracted COVID-19 and has a fever, and it is "going to be a while" until he can join the team.

"He's running a fever, he has symptoms. He's not feeling great, as you do when you get this," Snitker said during a conference call with reporters. "But he's young and strong. The biggest thing we want him to do is get right and get better"

Freeman tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday and Tuesday as part of the summer camp intake testing, according to Snitker. He developed symptoms soon thereafter and was tested again, which resulted in the positive test. Summer camp opened Wednesday with each team holding their first official workout either Friday or Saturday.

Snitker confirmed three other Braves also tested positive for COVID-19: Pete Kozma, Touki Toussaintand Will Smith. Toussaint and Smith are asymptomatic, according to Snitker. Kozma has symptoms and is not with the MLB team. He is with the club's satellite player pool at their alternate training site. Snitker did not provide a timetable for their returns.

MLB created a new COVID-19 injured list with no minimum or maximum stay. It can be used not only when a player tests positive, but also when a player shows symptoms or has contact with someone who is confirmed to have COVID-19. A player must meet certain criteria to be activated off the COVID-19 list, including two negative tests at least 24 hours apart.

Because COVID-19 is classified as a "non-work-related" injury, it is subject to the privacy guidelines in the collective bargaining agreement. That means the team can not announce a player has COVID-19 without his permission. Freeman, Kozma, Toussaint, and Smith obviously gave the Braves permission. If not, Snitker would not have been allowed to discuss their absences.

Should Freeman miss the start of the regular season, the Braves could put Austin Riley at first base (he started three games there last season) or carry veteran non-roster invitee Yonder Alonso on the Opening Day roster. Shane Greene or more likely Mark Melancon would be the likely candidates to step in at closer should Smith miss the start of the season.

MLB announced Friday that 3,185 samples were collected during intake testing this past week and 38 came back positive (31 players and seven non-player personnel). The testing results are not complete -- the Athletics and Brewers are still awaiting their final results -- but the 1.2 percent positive rate is promising. The NBA had a positive rate over seven percent, for example.

Braves first base coach Eric Young Sr. has opted out of the 2020 season, Snitker confirmed. Young is a high-risk individual. "It weighed on him quite a bit. We'll miss him dearly," Snitker said.

More here:

Braves' Freddie Freeman has COVID-19 and it is 'going to be a while' until he can join the team - CBS Sports

A hallway leads to a makeshift isolation ward for COVID-19 patients. Kirk Siegler/NPR hide caption

A hallway leads to a makeshift isolation ward for COVID-19 patients.

In the Idaho mountain town of Grangeville, population 3,200, signs in windows on Main Street advertise that Border Days "is on."

The annual Fourth of July celebration boasts street dances, Idaho's longest-running rodeo and even the world's largest egg toss. Like in a lot of small towns, Grangeville's economy has been struggling throughout this pandemic.

Border Days planners decided to go ahead with an altered, if slightly scaled back version of the festival this year amid worries about a possible spike in coronavirus cases.

Grangeville's population tends to skew older and underinsured.

"It's going to be a little risky," said Joel Gomez, owner of The Trails Restaurant & Lounge. "I feel like we're going to get hit with the corona after this."

With so many other July Fourth events canceled in the rural Northwest, local business owners such as Gomez are preparing for an onslaught of potentially thousands of tourists descending on the town.

Trails is one of the festival's street dance and live music venues. Gomez is moving everything he can outside, taking reservations and spacing out tables.

Border Days organizers say they're taking similar COVID-19 precautions. There have been only three confirmed cases in Idaho County since March. People around here have been taking the virus seriously, Gomez says, but after two months of shutdowns, his business is barely hanging on.

"It's one of those things that you have to survive," he said. "You've got people out there [trying] to feed their family. We are in the same boat."

Up the street, at the 16-bed Syringa Hospital and Clinic, CEO Abner King says his staff is prepared for a possible surge in coronavirus infections in a couple of weeks.

"It's pretty hard to do an egg toss in a socially distancing manner," he chuckles.

Syringa Hospital's CEO, Abner King, says his staff is ready for a possible surge in COVID-19 patients, as long as larger regional hospitals aren't overwhelmed. Kirk Siegler/NPR hide caption

Syringa Hospital's CEO, Abner King, says his staff is ready for a possible surge in COVID-19 patients, as long as larger regional hospitals aren't overwhelmed.

Syringa doesn't have an intensive care unit or even a ventilator. Most patients in need of critical care are transferred to larger regional hospitals, which so far during the pandemic have not been overwhelmed themselves as first feared.

Syringa staff members have been preparing and instituting precautions for months, yet to date they've not treated a single COVID-19 patient.

"That's the tough part about all this, because you get all ready for this big emergency and then nothing happens and then you have to fight complacency a little bit," King says. "We prepared for a flood, and then we were hit with a drought."

That "drought" has severely affected Syringa's bottom line. The irony is that small-town hospitals like this one are now on the brink of going broke during the pandemic. King says people just stopped coming into the hospital, its clinic and even its emergency room. All elective procedures were canceled. Since the pandemic took hold in March, revenue here has dropped by half.

Across the U.S., rural "critical access" hospitals were already closing at an alarming rate before the pandemic. Twelve have shuttered since the start of this year alone.

"Even without the pandemic, there's not a lot of room for surprises and errors," King said.

One of the main reasons that the hospital has stayed afloat since March is because of federal relief money. Among other things, it has helped pay for personal protective gear and other supplies as well as the construction of a temporary isolation ward for COVID-19 patients.

Past the hospital's small nursing station and down toward the end of a short corridor, there is a makeshift wall of heavy-duty plastic beneath the fluorescent lights. More air-handling units are on back order too, should the hospital need to convert more rooms to negative pressure.

Hospital leaders say a separate chunk of federal relief money, roughly $1.8 million in payroll protection loans, has also been a lifeline for avoiding layoffs.

That money is running out in the next few days, but King says business has recently picked back up to near pre-pandemic levels, as non-COVID-19 patients are starting to return to the clinic and hospital.

This is big, because in small towns like Grangeville, the hospital is often one of the largest employers.

"It's been stressful because it's just the unknown," said Melissa Holman, a nurse at the clinic. "You come to work and you never know if you're going to be exposed, and I have family members that are high risk."

Holman is back at work now after taking a voluntary furlough for 2 1/2 weeks this spring. It has been a struggle. Her husband is a rancher. They have two young kids, one in elementary school and another in day care; both the school and day care closed. A furlough did mean that she and her family could stay on the hospital's insurance.

Holman is watching as coronavirus cases are rising steeply elsewhere in Idaho. Worried about a similar fate for Grangeville, she's not convinced that school will reopen here as planned come fall.

"That could bring another hardship against our family trying to cover child care and homeschooling, along with maintaining a full-time job," Holman said.

Read more here:

On The Brink, Rural Hospitals Brace For New Surge In COVID-19 Cases - NPR

Watch Now: NFL Supports Redskins Name Change (8:26)

Training camp is just weeks away, and NFL teams finally have COVID-19 protocols in place as players are preparing to arrive to their team's complex -- where they will be stationed for six weeks until the regular season begins. The good news for the players is that they won't be in a bubble even though there are aggressive guidelines to follow.

Per NFL Network's Tom Pelissero, players have an extensive breakdown for handling situations where they are exposed to someone who tested positive for coronavirus.

Here's a quick breakdown based on what the NFL provided to the teams:

A. Close Contact Exposure to Symptomatic or COVID-19 Positive Individual

1. PCR virus test as soon as possible (and isolation until results available)

a. If virus test is negative and close contact remains asymptomatic

1a. Close contact may return to the facility and subject to the following

b. If virus test is positive and individual has no symptoms

1a. No return unless and until

c. If virus test is positive and individual is symptomatic

1a. No return unless and until

B. Low or Medium Risk Exposure to Symptomatic or COVID-19 Positive Individual

These guidelines are strict and likely confusing for players and team members, but it's a procedure they will have to grow accustomed to in 2020. The teams already have a memo on how workouts and meetings are to be conducted, another adjustment the franchises will have to make later this month.

All of this is shaping up for an interesting summer in the NFL.

Link:

NFL sends teams COVID-19 protocols for training camp, including interaction with players who test positive - CBS Sports