Category Archives: Covid-19

North Dakota's 1,025 active cases reported July 26 represent the first time the state has reached quadruple-digits in that figure. Last Sunday at this time, the state had 784 active cases. Before mid-July, the state's previous high point for active cases was 671 on May 21.

As of Sunday, Bismarck's Burleigh County leads the state with 249 active cases, marking a 42% increase from last Sunday's total of 175. Cass County, the state's most populous area, has 138 active cases, down 18% from a week ago. Grand Forks County added a dozen active cases over the past week. Statewide, active cases rose 29% in the past week.

The department reported 141 new virus cases in the state Sunday. Of those, 34 were in the Bismarck area of Burleigh County, 29 were in the Fargo area of Cass County and 21 were in Grand Forks County.

Benson County west of Devils Lake added 10 new cases while Mandan's Morton and Minot's Ward counties both reported eight new cases. Dickinson's Stark County recorded seven new infections. Barnes, Emmons, McKenzie, McLean, Mountrail, Pembina, Ramsey, Richland, Sioux, Steele, Stutsman, Wells and Williams counties each added five or fewer new cases.

The state reported 4,718 new tests Sunday. The Department of Health processed an average of 4,511 tests each day over the past week. Five new virus patients have been hospitalized, and 42 are currently hospitalized in the state.

For the third consecutive day, North Dakota deaths attributed to COVID-19 held at 99. Eighty-seven deaths list COVID-19 as the primary cause of death, while 12 others list the virus as a secondary cause.

North Dakota ranks ninth in the nation in per-capita testing, ahead of current hot-spot states Arizona, Florida and Texas, according to Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center. The state reports a 4.01% positivity rate among the 146,479 unique individuals tested. John Hopkins reports the state's positivity rate at 6.5%.

The state has recorded the eighth-fewest cases of COVID-19 and sixth-fewest deaths caused by the virus, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nationwide, the CDC reports 4,099,310 cases of the virus and 145,013 deaths.

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North Dakota's active COVID-19 cases surpass 1000 for first time - Grand Forks Herald

Hurricane Hanna is the first hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. NASA/NRL hide caption

Hurricane Hanna is the first hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season.

Updated at 5:15 a.m. ET Sunday

South Texas is braced for flooding after Hurricane Hanna began battering the state. The first hurricane of the season made landfall twice Saturday as a Category 1 storm.

The first landfall happened at around 5 p.m. about 15 miles north of Port Mansfield, which is about 130 miles south of Corpus Christi, according to the National Weather service. The second landfall took place nearby in eastern Kenedy County. The storm arrived with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph.

Forecasters early Sunday downgraded Hanna to a tropical storm. But Chris Birchfield, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Brownsville, told The Associated Press that residents needed to remain alert. Hanna's winds weakened, but the storm's real threat remained heavy rainfall.

"We're not even close to over at this point," Birchfield added. "We're still expecting catastrophic flooding."

The storm is expected to bring heavy rainfall to Texas' southern coast with the potential for "life-threatening flash flooding," according to the National Weather Service.

The center warned of storm surges as high as 5 feet along Texas' southern coast and said the upper coasts of Texas and Louisiana could expect 3-5 inches of rain. Isolated tornadoes could also appear.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said earlier in the week that the Texas Division of Emergency Management was preparing teams to help communities affected by the storm. He urged residents in the region to avoid roads that flood and listen to local warnings.

On Saturday, prior to the storm making landfall, Abbott issued a disaster declaration and said he had requested an emergency declaration from President Trump and FEMA.

"As Hurricane Hanna approaches, the Lone Star State is taking swift action to support the communities in the path of the storm," Abbott said. "We are closely monitoring the situation and working with local officials to help ensure they have the resources they need to keep Texans safe. I urge Texans in the region to take all necessary precautions and follow the guidance of local officials. I ask our fellow Texans to keep these communities in their prayers as they brace for this storm."

The city of Corpus Christi in Nueces County, which is already dealing with a spike in confirmed coronavirus cases, was among the communities bracing on Saturday for Hanna's arrival. On Friday, Nueces County reported 175 new cases of the coronavirus and five deaths. Of the county's 129 COVID-19 deaths, 119 of them have come in July, according to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

Ahead of the storm's landfall, the city closed at least one drive-through testing site through Tuesday, according to The Texas Tribune.

As Hurricane Hanna approaches, Corpus Christi Mayor Joe McComb said he felt certain that the region is prepared to handle both the storm and the pandemic.

"Don't feel like since we've been fighting COVID for five months that we're out of energy or we're out of gas. We're not. We can do these two things together and we're going to win both of them. And so, we'll get through this," McComb told The Associated Press.

But McComb's comments also reflected the realities of the pandemic as he urged residents to take masks with them if they have to evacuate and stay with others.

"We don't want to expose anyone during this storm. ... Even when you're in the house, I recommend wearing a mask if you're in crowded conditions" McComb told The Texas Tribune.

To the south of Corpus Christi in Cameron County, Judge Eddie Trevio told the AP that if families are evacuated to shelters, there are plans in place to make sure they are socially distanced from one another.

As the storm continues to make its path in south Texas, two other storms are being watched closely. Hurricane Douglas is in the Pacific and is expected to either pass nearby or over the main Hawaiian islands sometime Sunday. The National Hurricane Center warned of a "triple threat of hazards," including heavy rainfall and flooding, damaging winds and dangerously high surf.

Farther to the east and south of the Gulf of Mexico, Tropical Storm Gonzalo was downgraded to a depression Saturday afternoon. The system brought gusty wind to the southern Windward Islands on Saturday morning. The National Hurricane Center also warned of heavy rainfall with the potential for "life-threatening flash flooding" in the area.

Earlier this year, forecasters from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted an above-average hurricane season with at least three to six major hurricanes in 2020.

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Hurricane's Fallout Batters Texas As The Region Confronts A COVID-19 Spike - NPR

by: News Release & Posted By Staff | newsweb@everythinglubbock.com

(Nexstar Media Group/EverythingLubbock.com Staff)

LUBBOCK, Texas (NEWS RELEASE) The following is a news release from the City of Lubbock:

As of 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, July 26, 2020, the City of Lubbock confirmed 86 new cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19), and 27 recoveries. The total number of cases in Lubbock County is 5,100: 2,024 active, 3,008 listed as recovered and 68 deaths.

The City wants to remind citizens to follow Governor Greg Abbotts latest executive order which prohibits gatherings of 10 or more people, within the city limits, unless approval from the Mayor is received. That order can be found atwww.mylubbock.us/COVID19

To request approval from the Mayor for outdoor events with anticipated gatherings of 10 or more people, visitwww.mylubbock.us/lubbocksafewhere you will find an approval checklist. Completed checklists should be submitted tolubbocksafe@mylubbock.usa minimum of ten days prior to the event for approval.

(News release from the City of Lubbock)

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COVID-19: City of Lubbock reports 86 new cases, 27 additional recoveries Sunday - KLBK | KAMC | EverythingLubbock.com

BATON ROUGE There are still 20,000 freeCOVID-19tests available for anyone to take advantage of.

That's out of a total of 60,000 provided by the federal government.

Originally, the goal of the program was to use all the tests in twelve days. But when that didn't happen, Mayor Broome announced the sites willremainopen until supplies last.

We've been very lucky that we've been allowed to keep them open until we exhaust all 60,000 tests, said community testingcoordinator, Kim Hood. Sixty thousand tests over twelve days would have been a pretty big lift for a metropolitan area the size of Baton Rouge.

There are a handful of testing locations. The latest site opened up downtown at the Capitol Park Welcome Center.

We really intended it as a way for folks who live and work downtown be ableto accesstesting as part of their workday. So either on their way into work or on their way home or on their lunch break. Weve seen steady numbers go through there and it's been good, said Hood.

So far, just over 40,000COVID-19testshave been completed. Hood expects the kits to run out during the first week of August.

We just want to make the service available for as long as we can whether it's because someone is symptomatic and they need to come get a test with afive-dayturnaround, or because they are just concerned about theirCOVIDstatus and want to know. Some are getting ready to go back to school, so we're just very happy that we're able to make it available, said Hood.

The testing site locations include:

-HealingPlace Church (closed Sundays)-LSU(Alex Box Stadium)-SouthernUniversity (FGClark)-CortanaMall-LamarDixon Expo

- Capitol Park Welcome Center

The Mayor's office says though residents can simply show up at any of the above sites for a test, itis encouragedthat all who are able pre-register atwww.DoINeedaCovid19Test.com

At the testing sites, residentsshould bepreparedto give medicalpersonneltheir phone number and email address.

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Twenty thousand COVID-19 tests still available in surge testing program - WBRZ

We are near the end of July, and COVID-19 still is spreading uncontrollably in the Houston area. The public is bombarded daily with a slew of metrics: new cases, positivity rates, hospitalizations, deaths.

What do they all mean? Local government reporters Zach Despart and Mike Morris review this public data every day. We asked them to help you understand how to make sense of it all, starting with the question on everyone's mind: How bad is the situation now?

Mike Morris: Well, its not great. Were still adding more cases than public health officials can keep up with, a fifth of all tests conducted for the virus across the region are coming back positive a rate seven times higher than most of May and many local hospitals are under tremendous strain, particularly in their intensive care units.

The good news is that overall COVID hospital admissions finally are falling, with the rate of ICU admissions roughly flat.

Zach Despart: The first thing to keep in mind is that in order to get the full picture, you have to look at several metrics together. And because there sometimes are lags in how the government reports data, resulting in single-day spikes, its best to look at seven-day trends.

Lets start with cases. To see the daily counts, try the city-county COVID dashboard or the related Texas Medical Center chart. Our colleagues also track local and statewide metrics here.

Right now, the seven-day daily average of new cases in Harris County is 1,500. Thats high. To put that in perspective, Houston and Harris County health department contact tracers can handle about 600 cases a day.

Another data point is the number of tests that come back positive, which in the TMC system is at about 18 percent. On June 1, that figure was 5 percent. The governors team set 10 percent as a warning benchmark, which we exceeded a month ago.

Positive tests are called a leading indicator, which researchers can use to project hospitalizations and deaths. But it is an imperfect one; a limited ability for testing means that health experts believe the number of infections may be as much as 10 times greater than the documented figure.

Other metrics are more reliable.

MM: Hospitalizations are the best indicator of the virus spread, in large part because those with mild or no symptoms may never get tested or seek care, and, thus, may never show up in the data.

To gauge how the hospitals are doing, we look at two data sets: One is from the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council, also known as SETRAC, which covers the 25-county region anchored by Houston. The other is from the Texas Medical Center, which pulls data from every facility in the region that is affiliated with seven large hospital systems headquartered in the huge medical complex south of downtown. The TMC figures come primarily from Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties.

On the SETRAC dashboard, you can see hospital beds in all 25 counties, or select one at a time. In Harris, only about half of the operational general beds are full, but thats not a useful way to measure the strain caused by the virus. The most valuable resource and the most limited one in a pandemic, when a lot of patients are severely ill at once is space in intensive care units. And the data shows ICUs have been near capacity across the county for much of July.

We typically look at the TMC data on this capacity point; while the SETRAC data is interactive and shows a longer-term trend, the TMC data, while not perfect, more clearly spells out ICU capacity. (Here is the explanation of what the phases of surge capacity mean.) The institutions have had a few hiccups in conveying exactly how urgent their capacity challenges are, though.

ZD: Long story short, in late June the TMC executives warned ICU usage was increasing at an alarming rate. Then the CEOs walked back their statements. And then the ICU slides disappeared from the TMCs online deck just after the system hit 100 percent of base capacity for the first time during the pandemic. Understandably, this alarmed some people, and we wrote a story about it. TMC replaced the data a few days later, removed the scary red and orange colors from the charts, and added context.

Does this switcheroo mean the data is untrustworthy, as some have suggested? Of course not. But some of the revised slides are wonky and require some explanation. Here are two we find particularly helpful.

MM: This chart on ICU occupancy is a graphic designers nightmare (spiky green boxes!), but its important. The column on the left shows the raw count of ICU patients (COVID patients and total patients, marked by yellow lines) and which phase of operations the combined count requires. TMC ICUs have been in Phase 2 for most of July, adding staff and equipment to convert normal beds into intensive care beds.

Now, lets look at the ovals listing percentages to the right. For much of July, COVID patients have made up roughly half of all medical center ICU patients (the oval at the bottom left). Thats a significant burden the state and county warning benchmarks consider anything higher than 15 percent a red flag.

What about the lighter blue percentage ovals? Those figures try to convey the wiggle room provided by surge capacity. As of Friday, for instance, if all Phase 2 beds were added, the medical center ICUs would be 85 percent full, with 42 percent of all ICU beds filled with COVID patients.

Dr. Marc Boom, CEO of Houston Methodist, and Dr. Jim McDeavitt, dean of clinical affairs at Baylor College of Medicine, said they know the capacity slides can be hard to interpret.

What were all seeing is people on either extreme trying to use data to prove their more extreme views, whether its somebody looking at that and saying, Theres no problem, look at all these beds, or frankly people looking at, Oh my gosh weve gotten through Phase 1, the sky is falling, Boom said. Both of those are wrong.

If the dark blue of Phase 1 is your favorite restaurant on a Wednesday night, McDeavitt said, the sky blue of Phase 2 is that restaurant on Mothers Day.

When we get up into the light blue zone (Phase 3), thats when we start to deliver care in a way nobody really wants to, like putting two beds in one room or putting beds into places in a hospital where we wouldnt normally put beds, McDeavitt said.

And that gray box at the top? Armageddon, McDeavitt said. We have medical ships showing up in the port of Houston. That scenario, Boom agreed, would be like New York City in March. The gray box, he said, certainly is not meant to reassure people that theres some endless supply of beds.

One last thing to note here is that this ICU capacity data is aggregated from multiple facilities, and that not every hospital has the same ability to add surge beds. For example, Harris Countys public safety net hospitals have regularly reported ICU usage above 100 percent during the pandemic and continue to transfer patients to other facilities due to a lack of space.

A lot of people have focused on this projection slide, but its not a crystal ball. Its a simple calculation: If ICUs continue to be this full, how quickly will the TMC enter its two phases of surge capacity at the current rate of COVID ICU admissions?

Hospitals have some control over one part of that equation: The numbers of non-COVID patients in intensive care, many of whom are there to recover from procedures that can be delayed. We saw this play out this month: TMC ICUs were initially projected to enter Phase 3 (formerly dubbed unsustainable surge capacity) within two weeks, but that date always stayed 12 to 13 days away.

There are two reasons for this: The count of non-COVID patients fell 16 percent between July 2 and July 5 as procedures were postponed, and has not returned to its early-July levels. And that was followed by two weeks during which the 7-day average growth in COVID ICU cases slowed every day.

ZD: And heres a brief primer on the SETRAC data. We primarily look at three data points: COVID cases occupying general beds, those in ICU beds and total ICU usage.

This graph (click here and then click the "Hospital/COVID census" button) shows how many COVID patients are hospitalized in the 25-county region, split between general beds (blue) and the portion of those that are in the ICU (red). There are thousands of general beds available across the region, though that figure still is useful because it helps predict future ICU usage. Why? Because some of those people, unfortunately, get sicker and need intensive care.

The number of ICU patients is of particular concern, because those resources are more limited.

This chart (click here and then click the "ICU Bed Usage" button) shows the total ICU usage in the region (blue) and the share of those patients that are being treated for COVID (green). As you can see, weve been pretty close to using up all the base ICU capacity since early June. And remember, this is an average of dozens of hospitals; some are into their surge capacity while others are below it.

The second marker to watch here is the share of ICUs that are filled with COVID patients. Under the state benchmark, this figure should be no higher than 15 percent; for more than a month it has been above 40 percent. Why is this concerning? COVID patients need to be isolated from others and require more staff attention and supplies, such as PPE, than other ICU cases.

And some of these ICU patients die, bringing us to our last data point.

MM: Whats helpful to understand is that these metrics increase in succession. In June we saw an increase in cases after the state began to reopen. In late June and early July, hospitalizations surged. Mid-July, predictably, has brought an increase in deaths. Harris County has reported 596 fatalities to date, while the state has tallied 4,717. Most have come since June. (You can find these stats in the statewide data dashboard.)

The statewide death rate as a share of total cases, however, is quite low just 1.2 percent, well below the 7.7 percent rate in New York, which was battered by the virus in the spring.

Why is that? Three primary reasons: the Texans who made up the recent case surge often were younger and more capable of fighting off the disease, doctors have gotten better at treating it over the past six months, and many of the patients who are among the recent surge in cases are still fighting the disease it is inevitable that a portion of them will die. Some critics of Texass coronavirus restrictions including a brief stay-at-home order and current mask rules point to the low death rate as evidence those measures were unneeded.

Doctors stress its important to consider that the outcomes of a COVID infection arent binary; that is, life or death. McDeavitt said he is confident that once intensive studies are completed on the lasting damage the virus does to the body, researchers will find non-trivial percentages of patients with permanent lung damage, with cognitive impairments, and with heart attacks, strokes and other maladies caused by blood clots.

ZD: These data sets, while sometimes hard to read, are valuable for us and the public to understand the spread and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic here. Feel free to ask us questions via email or Twitter, and continue to follow the Chronicles coronavirus coverage.

zach.despart@chron.com

mike.morris@chron.com

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So, how bad is COVID-19 in Houston? A guide to reading the data - Houston Chronicle

So-called serology research looks for antibodies in the blood that fight the illness, and how many of us have them. Other research looks at how long these antibodies last. The latest results from these studies are said to show us two kinds of bad news -- that immunity after exposure to the illness is not such a sure thing, and that the number of us who have been exposed and fought off COVID-19 are fewer than hoped.

This pushes our goal of herd immunity farther into the distance, potentially even calling it into question altogether. But in measuring antibodies for COVID-19, might we have overlooked other blood markers that help fight off the sickness? Is it possible we are under-estimating both how long immunity lasts, and how close to herd immunity we really are?

Consider some recent observations.

COVID-19 cases may be surging across the state and the nation, but in former hotspots for the virus like Wuhan, China; New York; Spain; Sweden and the Lombardy region of Italy, case numbers and deaths have been declining steadily. Lombardy, once the source of a horrific COVID-19 outbreak, recently had two straight days with no deaths linked to the virus.

These declines have come about despite seroprevalence surveys that say just 5, 15 or 20% of the population has had the illness in those locales, and other data suggesting that antibodies fade quickly. For health officials, such big declines, with only small exposure to illness in the population, prove the power of lockdowns, social distancing, masking, handwashing and PPE.

Others have begun to argue something far more hopeful. That while masking, social distancing and handwashing and lockdowns are all powerful tools in reducing the spread of illness, they aren't enough to get the credit for so many hotspots having gone cold. Instead, they say, more of us may be immune than we realize.

"When we get exposed to an infection, two big types of immune responses occur," says Dr. Vincent Rajkumar, an oncologist at Mayo Clinic who conducts research on the type of blood cells that help us fight infection. "One is called antibody-mediated immunity. This is where you make specific proteins called antibodies to fight infections."

"The second type of response is called cell-mediated (or T-cell) immunity. Here you don't make antibodies, but you actually have specific cells that target the offending infection." Serologic studies measure antibodies, but do not measure cell-mediated immunity.

In addition, Rajkkumar says, serologic tests can miss antibodies that are present in lower concentration than the assay can detect, or we may have other antibodies directed at the virus than what a given serologic test is designed to identify.

"The virus has many proteins," he says, "and it is possible that a person is developing antibodies against other parts of the virus that we are not checking."

Some even wonder if recent immunizations in children are what's made them less susceptible to bad outcomes from COVID-19.

"Back in March when we were all thinking out loud," Rajkumar says, "one of the thoughts I had was, why were children relatively protected from being seriously ill with COVID-19? Was it because of the multiple childhood vaccines they receive leading to a more responsive immune system?"

Answering these questions in the lab is no small task.

"We would have to do T-cell assays in a well-defined population to find out how many people have only antibodies, how many have only T-cells responses, and how many have both," he explains. "Then we need adequate follow-up to determine what proportion get COVID-19 in the future. Those studies are hard to do."

Researchers do know some persons appear to have T-cells that are cross-reactive to SARS-Cov-2 from blood samples collected before the pandemic. A recent study from Sweden has shown there are close family contacts who have reactive T-cells after having been exposed to COVID-19 without developing antibodies.

"I think the big decline in new cases we see in many hotspots are partly explained by masks, partly explained by social distancing, and may partly be explained by a larger portion of the population already being exposed."

"All of these observations put together makes us wonder if a greater proportion of the population is not susceptible to COVID-19 than what current sero-prevalence studies suggest," Rajkumar says.

Rajkumar has been sharing these questions on Twitter, and they are the subject of lively interactions between some of the nation's top scientists.

So, if serology studies only show us part of the picture, how many of us are potentially immune to COVID-19?

"I think it's much higher," Rajkumar says. "I think it's at least double what sero-prevalence studies are reporting."

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What if more of us have fought off COVID-19 than we think? - Grand Forks Herald

KNOXVILLE (WATE) A former University of Tennessee football player was recently diagnosed with COVID-19.

VFL Chavis Smith is back home following a stay in the hospital, and hes opening up about the diagnosis.

The chills, the shakes, the body aches. My temperature flew up to like almost 104, something like that. So, it was rough, said Smith.

Smith says hes feeling much better. Hes back home and in quarantine after spending a few days in the hospital.

It was there, he says, that he got his positive test.

I literally thought I was dying. I was like oh my God, I cannot breathe, I felt like someone was suffocating me, it was so bad. My wife was like Hey you know what, lets go to the emergency room.' Smith said. They put me on some IV, started giving me steroid shots put me on oxygen. I started feeling better, moving around a lot better.

Smith says the experience taught him a valuble lesson.

It made me realize life is way too important to not wear a mask or do the simple things to try to prevent others from getting sick, said Smith.

He now has a message to pass along.

Do whatever you can to keep people safe. I look at my situation, and Im like, I have a family and kids, I want to live a long life with them. I want them to live a long life. If I can do that to help that happen, or better their chances, by all means, Ill do it. If wearing a mask can prevent someone from being sick, then yes, do that. Take it serious, he said.

Smith says he still has about 10 days of quarantine left.

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Former Vol reveals battle with COVID-19 - WATE 6 On Your Side

A half year of pandemic purgatory has left Washington workers and businesses struggling, and schools in limbo. Total case numbers in the state have risen to 51,849, with deaths at 1,494, as of Friday night, with significant racial and geographic disparities. Testing remains insufficient and the future is hard to predict.

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

The State Department of Health reported 786 new COVID-19 cases in Washington as of Saturday night, and seven additional deaths.

The latest numbers, released Sunday, bring the total count to 52,635 cases with 1,501 deaths. That means 2.9% of people who have been diagnosed with the virus in Washington have died.

This week, Washington state is at a turning point where the outbreak could explode, as in Florida, or might flatten so that hospitals avoid becoming overwhelmed. Read our special Sunday report that explains why "there's no certain end in sight," and some deadly inequities. Hispanic residents account for 43% of cases while only 13% of the state population.

There have been 15,673 more tests reported for the coronavirus in Washington, according to DOH, of which 5% came back positive.

The state's most populous county, King County has seen the highest numbers, reaching 14,417 diagnoses and 644 deaths, as of Saturday. Yakima County, which has been a hot spot, has had 9,629 cases and 194 deaths. In Okanogan County, another farming area where cases are spiking, there have been 605 confirmed cases and 2 deaths.

The data is as of 11:59 p.m. Saturday.

Heidi Groover, Mike Lindblom

Vancouver, B.C. - After crowds at a drum circle filled a Stanley Park beach this week, an artist installed a sign of their health officer, as a reminder to socially distance.

Dr. Bonnie Henry, who projects logic and calm in her daily COVID-19 briefings, is known affectionately as "Aunt Bonnie." Yet she scowls on a stencil by a Vancouver mural artist, who told CBC News it was "a gentle reminder that although we might be over COVID, it's not over us."

British Columbia has waged a relatively strong struggle against coronavirus, though it now faces an uptick. Health authorities reported 27 new cases Friday, with three people currently under intensive hospital care. They count 3,419 cumulative cases and 119 deaths, compared to 51,849 cases and 1,494 deaths in Washington state.

Read the report by CBC here.

Mike Lindblom

Public health experts say masking is essential for the U.S. to climb out of the COVID-19 pandemic. The outbreak has spread to more than 4.1 million and killed more than 145,000 in the country, crippled the economy and thrown the upcoming school year into chaos.

But broad skepticism of masks remains, largely along party lines, with polls showing that Republicans are less likely to wear masks than Democrats or independent voters.

One skeptic, Texan Don Caple, thinks masks are a "communistic move" by the government, but will still sell you one for $10. Read more.

Los Angeles Times

Two weeks after Disney World started opening theme parks for the first time since closing in March because of COVID-19, Disney World's future and that of central Florida's tourism-reliant economy are uncertain. It's unclear when and if tourists will return.

More than 75 million visitors came to Orlando in 2018, mostly due to its reputation as a theme park mecca, which also includes Universal Orlando and SeaWorld Orlando. But the coronavirus has upended Orlandos status as the most visited place in the U.S.

In the week that Disney Worlds Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom started welcoming back visitors, occupancy of hotel rooms in the Orlando area was down more than 60% from the previous year, a much deeper drop than the state as a whole, according to STR, which tracks hotel data.

Less than half of Disney Worlds 43,000 unionized workers have been recalled to their old jobs, contributing to two Orlando-area counties having the states highest unemployment rates last month.

Will visitors ever come back?

Associated Press

A tiny Italian island braced for the rapid spread of the coronavirus after several visitors had fallen ill with COVID-19.

But days passed and none of Giglios islanders developed any COVID-19 symptoms even though the conditions seemed favorable for the disease to spread like wildfire.

The Gigliesi, as the residents are known, socialize in the steep alleys near the port or on the granite steps that serve as narrow streets in the hilltop Castle neighborhood, with densely packed homes built against the remnants of a fortress erected centuries ago to protect against pirates.

A cancer researcher stuck on the island decided to try to find out why the virus wasn't spreading on the island. Read more about what she found.

Associated Press

Turmoil is universal in the wake of the pandemic, but the despair is particularly pronounced in the Middle East, where wave after wave of war, displacement and disease have left a generation feeling bitter and hopeless.

While in the West, many who have become unemployed believe they will eventually get their jobs back or somehow recover from the recession, the pandemic in some Arab countries was the final blow to economies now on the cusp of complete collapse.

The strains are also made harder because, in the Arab world, lives for young adults tend to be more scripted than for their counterparts in the West. Cultural expectations put more pressure on males to earn enough so they can move out, marry and provide for families.

For many young people, seeing economies crumble the way that they are and seeing their prospects vanish before their eyes its undoubtedly going to be taking a huge toll on mental health and well-being, said Tariq Haq, a Beirut-based senior employment specialist with the U.N. labor agency.

Read the full story here.

Associated Press

WASHINGTON House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday assailed Republican disarray over a new pandemic relief package as the White House suggested a narrower effort might be necessary, at least for now.

The California Democrat panned the Trump administrations desire to trim an expiring temporary federal unemployment benefit from $600 weekly to about 70% of pre-pandemic wages. The reason we had $600 was its simplicity, she said from the Capitol.

The administrations chief negotiators White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin were returning to the Capitol later Sunday to put what Meadows described as final touches on a $1 trillion relief bill Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is likely to bring forward Monday.

Both Mnuchin and Meadows said narrower legislation might need to be passed first to ensure that enhanced unemployment benefits dont run out for millions of Americans. Pelosi has said she opposes approving a relief package in piecemeal fashion.

Read more about the negotiations here.

Associated Press

The global coronavirus pandemic has magnified the stakes in races for the Washington state House and Senate.

When they return as scheduled in January, state lawmakers will likely face excruciating decisions on taxes and spending to balance an $8.8 billion projected state budget shortfall through 2023. The new class of legislators will also consider policing reforms in light of the protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd.

They must also grapple with Washingtons persistent preexisting problems, such as homelessness and housing affordability, and continuing to rebuild the states struggling mental-health care system.

All 98 House seats are up for election, along with 26 Senate seats. Ballots started going out two weeks ago.

See how key races are playing out.

Joseph O'Sullivan

Six months since the first person in Washington the first person in the nation tested positive for the novel coronavirus, health officials are saying werein an explosive situation.

Our health care system isnt being overwhelmed. But we have not suppressed the virus. Experts say we may be where Florida currently one of the hardest-hit states with infections was several weeks ago. Poised to see all the charts and curves go the wrong way, but not too late to stop them.

In Washington, more people are diagnosed each day than ever, partly because more people can get a test but also because the virus continues spreading.

The pandemic has cast a spotlight on the deadly inequities in our state, as COVID-19 has disproportionately sickened Hispanic people, who account for 43% of cases but just 13% of the population.

Schools, businesses, hospitalizations: Heres whats going well in Washington state, whats not, and what might come next.

Seattle Times staff

People whove been laid off or furloughed from their jobs now have significantly more time to decide whether to hang on to their employer-sponsored health insurance, according to a recent federal rule.

Under the federal law known as COBRA, people who lose job-based coverage because of a layoff or a reduction in hours generally have 60 days to decide whether to continue health insurance. But under the new rule, that clock doesnt start ticking until the end of the COVID-19 outbreak period, which started March 1 and continues for 60 days after the COVID-19 national emergency ends. That end date hasnt been determined yet.

By extending the time frame to sign up for COBRA coverage, people have at least 120 days to decide whether they want to elect COBRA, and possibly longer depending on when they lost their jobs.

Some health policy experts question the usefulness of the change, given how expensive COBRA coverage can be for consumers, and how limited its reach: It isnt an option for people who are uninsured or self-employed or who work for small companies.

In Washington state, residents may find more affordable plans through the Washington Health Benefit Exchange.

For ideological reasons, this administration cant do anything to expand on the Affordable Care Acts safety net, said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at Georgetown Universitys Center on Health Insurance Reforms. So theyre using these other vehicles. But its really a fig leaf. It doesnt do much to actually help people.

Read the full story here.

Kaiser Health News

It's been a week of retreat for President Donald Trump as he backs down from long-held positions related to the pandemic after polls showed they didn't align with public attitudes or, in at least one case, his Republican allies.

Federal public health officials have released a new strategy that vows to improve data collection and take steps to address stark inequalities in how the disease is affecting Americans.

Baseball is back, with masked players and stands full of empty seats or cardboard cutouts. See photos from around the league, and catch up with the Mariners.

Washington's restaurants have largely been left to self-police if employees get COVID-19. Restaurateurs say direction from state and county health officials has been spotty. And now, with new rules limiting indoor dining to "members of the same household," they've again been left to figure out how to enforce ever-evolving safety policies.

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Seattle Times staff & news services

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Coronavirus daily news updates, July 26: What to know today about COVID-19 in the Seattle area, Washington state and the world - Seattle Times

A health worker puts a nasal swab sample into a tube in a tent at a COVID-19 testing site at St. John's Well Child and Family Center in Los Angeles. Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

A health worker puts a nasal swab sample into a tube in a tent at a COVID-19 testing site at St. John's Well Child and Family Center in Los Angeles.

For the fifth consecutive day, there were more than 1,000 deaths from the coronavirus in the United States and infections haven't shown signs of significantly slowing, according to the COVID Tracking Project. More than 145,000 people in the country have died from the virus and more than 4,000,000 people have been infected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

New daily cases are increasing in 46 states. Among them are California, which reported its highest number of single-day deaths on Thursday. In Indiana there were 934 new cases and 11 deaths on Saturday and Montana reported its highest daily number of cases on Saturday with 224 new cases.

Louisiana reported more than 2,000 new cases, 29 deaths and 15 hospitalizations on Friday alone, NOLA reported. In total, there are more than 103,000 cases and 3,600 deaths in the state, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. In response to the increase, Gov. John Bel Edwards extended phase two of the state's reopening for another 28 days.

"It is clear that COVID is alive and well in Louisiana, and as we see more people testing positive and admitted to hospitals, we simply are not ready to move to the next phase, and ease restrictions further as businesses open widely," Edwards said in a statement.

Mississippi, another state experiencing an uptick of cases, imposed a mask mandate on multiple additional counties, on top of the original 13 counties that already had mask mandates, this week. On Saturday, the state saw 1,434 new cases and 17 new deaths. In total, the state has more than 49,000 cases and 1,400 deaths.

"We are still in the middle of our most painful period of COVID-19 spread to date," Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Friday, according to the Sun Herald. "We have to slow the spread to prevent our health care system from becoming overwhelmed."

Over the past 24 hours, there have been nearly 2,000 additional cases in Alabama. Currently, there are more than 76,000 cases in the state and 1,400 deaths, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health.

According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, Nevada just had its deadliest week from the virus. In total, there have been 41,816 cases and 732 deaths in the state, according to the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services.

Arizona reported more than 3,700 new COVID-19 cases and 144 more deaths on Saturday. On average, the state has seen some decline in the number of cases since spikes in June and early July.

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COVID-19 Cases Continue To Surge In States Across The U.S. - NPR

OGDEN Next month, when students, faculty and staff return to Ben Lomond High School following an extended absence caused by the global pandemic, one of their own will be missing.

According to her obituary, on June 23, COVID-19 claimed the life of Darla Checketts, 58, a family and consumer science teacher at the school.

Tammy Brown-Johansen, who also teaches FACS classes at Ben Lomond, has been a friend and neighbor of Checketts for more than two decades. She doubts that the word got out to all the students, so it will be a difficult time when they return to school and Ms. Checketts is nowhere to be found.

Its going to be rough when the students come back and go, Well, where is she?, Brown-Johansen said. Theyll have questions. Some of them, these inner-city kids, bond with these teachers, and this will be hard.

Its a tragedy; its horrible. For the family, its devastating, but for us ... Brown-Johansen said, trailing off.

After Checketts died, Brown-Johansen remembers being at the school one day when she ran into a couple of the student custodians who clean the building over the summer.

One of the custodians was one of Darlas students, Brown-Johansen recalls. I told her Darla passed, and this cute little student contacted all her friends, and they collected money to have a tree planted in the forest in her name.

Some of those students showed up at Checketts viewing.

And then they gave me the $60 left over from their collection for me to give it to the family, Brown-Johansen said.

For these students many from lower-income families that donation represented a lot of money, Brown-Johansen said.

STERLING SCHOLAR

According to her obituary, Darla Jean Payne Checketts was born Jan. 20, 1962, in Ontario, Oregon, the oldest of four children. She grew up in Kaysville, graduating from Davis High School in 1980, and was chosen as the Sterling Scholar in home economics.

Beginning at age 14, Checketts spent nine summers working in West Yellowstone, Montana, with the goal of paying for all her college expenses, according to the obituary. Her plan worked, and she graduated from Utah State University with a bachelors degree in home economics education.

A fan of the Peace Corps, Checketts spent two years teaching home economics at a high school in Sierra Leone, West Africa. She later taught at the high school in Malad City, Idaho, for five years.

In 1989, Checketts married Cameron Checketts in the Logan Temple, and they raised five children at their home in West Point. She was a stay-at-home mother, working at a local preschool when her children were at school.

Brown-Johansen says she and Checketts had a lot in common they lived in the same neighborhood, their daughters were the same age, and the two women had studied the same major in college.

It was Brown-Johansen who approached Checketts about a teaching job at Ben Lomond High.

As her kids got older and her youngest, twin boys were in high school, we were in need of another family and consumer science teacher, Brown-Johansen said. It was a part-time position, and Darla only wanted to work part time. I asked her to please come and work with the students at Ben Lomond.

For five years, Checketts worked with Brown-Johansen and two other teachers in the FACS department at the school. She knew how to help students who were struggling in an academic setting, her colleagues say.

SILENT LEADER

Ben Lomond High Principal Steve Poll remembers Checketts as a quiet but powerful force at the school.

She was not one of those teachers who has a loud, big presence on campus, he said. She was more of a silent leader.

Poll said Checketts chose to teach half-time at the school every other day so she could spend time with family.

She still liked to teach, but she also wanted to be there for her grandkids, Poll said.

Poll praised Checketts strong connection with her students. He said she was one of those dedicated teachers who would sacrifice her own personal time to help her charges.

Makenzie Thompson, who also teaches in the FACS department at Ben Lomond, frequently saw that personal sacrifice in action. In a social media post after Checketts death, Thompson wrote: There were many lunches where she wouldnt take a break because she was busy tutoring or letting students retake tests. ... She worked diligently to empower and teach her students enough so they could make better futures for themselves.

Thompson also praised Checketts organizational skills, calling her the most organized teacher I have ever met.

The poor dear had to share a classroom with me this past year and let me just say that I have kind of embraced the chaos of glitter everywhere and students leaving their stuff in each crevice like its their bedroom, Thompson said. Despite this, Darla just went with the flow and made the best of the situation.

ALL ABOUT FAMILY

Brown-Johansen echoes the organized-yet-laid-back vibe of her friend. She said that although Checketts was incredibly clean and organized, shed let her whole house get messed up playing with the grandkids.

Theyd be making something in the kitchen, and thered be flour all over the place, Brown-Johansen said. But it was OK, because her grandkids were with her.

On the day Thompson posted her social media tribute to the person she called her sweet friend/work mom, she and Brown-Johansen had just gone through Checketts classroom, collecting her personal belongings to return them to her family.

Darla did not have many personal items at the school, Thompson wrote. They all fit in 1 box, but in that single box there were 3 framed pictures of her family.

Thompson says that showed Checketts priorities. She loves her children and husband so much and I know that she will continue to love and watch out for them, she wrote.

However, both Thompson and Brown-Johansen say their friend saw her students as her kids as well.

My only thing Id want people to know is that she really, really, really cared about the kids at school, Brown-Johansen said. Thats the thing about working at Ben Lomond. Its not a job; its a stewardship. If its not about the kids, youre not doing it right. And she knew that, and she did it right.

WHAT HAPPENED?

According to Brown-Johansen, Checketts son had recently returned home from an LDS mission.

He was the first one sick, then she got it, and then her husband got it, she said. I didnt even know she was ill. She was only ill one week.

Brown-Johansen said Checketts had gone to the doctor the night before she died because she wasnt feeling well and said she couldnt breathe.

They knew she had it ... but they sent her home; they didnt think she needed to be hospitalized, Brown-Johansen said.

The next day, her condition worsened. Her son, whod been frequently checking on her, decided to take her back to the hospital.

He went in to get her to take her to the emergency room and she was gone, Brown-Johansen said.

Brown-Johansen remembers the last time she was with her friend. It was June 2, just three weeks before her death, and the teachers in the FACS department were meeting at the school to deep-clean the kitchen in the foods lab at the school. She doesnt specifically remember their final conversation, but shes fairly certain it had to do with either kids or school.

It was always either talking about her children, or my children, or the kids at school, she said. Thats what we mostly talked about.

COVID WAKE-UP CALL

Thompson says shes taken the opportunity of her friends death to refresh her commitment to following the recommended safety guidelines during the pandemic including wearing face masks and maintaining social distance in public.

Even though the percentage of COVID-19 cases compared to the general population may not seem scary to some, please know that the family and friends of that percentage of peoples lives have been altered forever, she writes.

Adds Brown-Johansen: This has been a wake-up call to those who think COVID-19 isnt real.

Poll, the principal at Ben Lomond, said the personal nature of the loss makes it a bit more real for everyone involved.

The thing that makes it seem a little more concerning is that it was somebody that we actually know, Poll said. Its not a news story, its not somebody in New York, its not a number or a statistic its somebody you know.

Poll said he realizes that some educators may be uncomfortable about going back into the classroom this fall, but he said district and school administrators have been attacking the problem for months now.

I can see teachers being more concerned because they havent been in on the day-to-day planning, Poll said. But the administration, weve worked on it all summer long, and we have a good plan.

Still, Poll said Checketts death has been a shock to the entire community.

It definitely hits home, he said.

A viewing for Checketts was held July 10 in Layton; a graveside service followed the next day at the West Point City Cemetery.

Brown-Johansen said she feels empty and cried forever over the loss of her friend.

It was like losing my sister, she said. Honestly, it makes me sad to talk about her, but it also makes me sad not to talk about her.

As for Thompson, she said the family and consumer science department at Ben Lomond High will be forever altered.

Even though Ive only known Darla for 4 years, I feel like its been much longer, she wrote in her online tribute. I dread returning to school without my friend. Our team will not be the same without her.

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Ben Lomond High teacher, victim of COVID-19, remembered as caring educator - Standard-Examiner