Dr. Stuart Weiss: COVID-19 Update Monday 20-July-2020
By Dr. Stuart Weiss, Intelligent Crowd Solutions
July 20, 2020
Today’s topics: School openings, new case numbers hit record high, daily WH coronavirus briefings resume, pooled testing allowed.
| School openings I was on a call today with a client talking about school reopenings and I thought I would comment on what is happening in some of the biggest districts. There is certainly increasing angst among parents and educators about the idea of reopening schools while the case numbers in large parts of the US are steadily rising. The debate comes down to the risk to students and teachers vs. the benefits of in person learning in school. It’s a very thorny question with no clear answers so we end up with different districts doing different things. Even though the Federal government is vigorously advocating for complete school reopening regardless of community coronavirus numbers many major school districts are refusing to do so. Some districts are defying state guidelines until CoViD-19 numbers begin to drop. In Florida, teachers unions and parents actually sued Governor Desantis over his emergency order demanding that schools reopen fully in August despite case numbers and deaths surging in Florida. They are asking that the court give jurisdiction over reopening to school superintendents and health departments claiming that the Governor is breaking the state law requiring “safe and secure” schools. There seems to be two major camps forming. Those that are starting their school years with virtual learning only and those that are offering a hybrid of some virtual learning and some in class learning. Those in the total virtual learning camp include Los Angeles, Atlanta, Dallas (virtual only for the first month) and Houston (virtual until October), The second group will offer a hybrid of virtual and in-person and are asking parents to decide. This is a very difficult decision for some parents. They have seen the difficulties of having children learn from home and understand what they are missing without in-school classes. These districts know that they cannot institute social distancing without having some students learn virtually for part of the week. This includes the largest district in the country, New York City which will have a “blended learning model”, Chicago, Miami-Dade and New Orleans. In some of these hybrid model districts, parents will be able to opt out entirely of in school learning by a certain cutoff date. Parents will need to make the difficult decision on how to keep their families safe and protect vulnerable members of their family versus sending their children to school where learning is more effective. This decision gets more difficult as case numbers continue to rise. New case number records in 4 States Today, for the 41st day in a row, total case numbers grew to a new record across the Unites States. Four states hit a new all-time record high of new cases: Kentucky, Louisiana, Oregon and South CArolina. 140,811 Americans have lost their lives to CoViD-19. President Trump to resume daily CoViD-19 briefings According to the New York Times, President Trump has decided to resume the daily coronavirus briefings form the White House. the first one is set for tomorrow. Testing capability changes by the FDA Last week, the FDA approved the first lab to test pooled samples. By testing a pool of samples mixed together, if the single pool test is negative then all the specimens that were mixed together are negative. This can speed up testing. However, if the pooled sample is positive, then each sample in the mix must be tested individually to determine which sample or samples were positive. Some health experts doubt if pooling will improve testing since the virus is so widespread in the US that many pooled tests will come out positive anyway. Be well and take care of yourself. There are storm clouds on the horizon. –Dr. Stu |
COVID-19 HEADLINES FOR TODAY
| Coronavirus update for July 20, 2020 World Wide Updates World Health Organization “very concerned” that Covid-19 cases may accelerate in Africa Dominican Republic declares state of emergency due to “concerning increase” in Covid-19 cases Spain has tallied 4,581 new coronavirus cases since last Friday Brazil reports over 20,000 new coronavirus cases UK health secretary reiterates call for global access to coronavirus vaccine Masks are not a substitute for other public health measures, WHO official says Venezuela returns to lockdown, with 20% of country’s total Covid-19 cases reported in past week Brazilian minister tests positive for Covid-19 University of Oxford vaccine is safe and induces early immune reaction, early results suggest Iraq nears 100,000 Covid-19 cases There’s “hope” for an agreement on EU coronavirus recovery fund, German chancellor says Peru records slight increase in Covid-19 cases since lockdown eased, health minister says China’s $9-billion movie box office is reopening after six months of shutdown Hundreds of demonstrators, some wearing masks, protest against mask-wearing in London Hong Kong reports another 73 new Covid-19 cases Xinjiang capital in “wartime” lockdown over spike in cases UK government admits test and trace program does not meet privacy rules Why North Korea says it’s joining the coronavirus vaccine race, even though it has no cases Face masks become mandatory in public indoor spaces in France 10 additional Covid-19 cases linked to US military personnel in South Korea India records more than 40,000 new Covid-19 cases in largest 24-hour increase yet UK government secures early access to millions of vaccine doses Second Brazilian minister tests positive for Covid-19 EU leaders still haven’t agreed on coronavirus recovery deal WHO “deeply concerned” by Covid-19’s impact on indigenous people in the Americas Mexico reports almost 300 dead from coronavirus in a single day Australian state of Victoria reports 275 new coronavirus cases, only 28 linked to known outbreaks Japan records 510 new Covid-19 cases, including Osaka’s highest number since April 9 Fewer than a quarter of Japanese in favor of holding Tokyo Olympics next year, survey finds Brazil’s President greets crowd of supporters despite being positive for Covid-19 Older children can transmit Covid-19 just as much as adults, research finds France reports up to 500 virus clusters Belgium sees 66% jump in new infections Total Cases Worldwide: 14,768,693Total Deaths Worldwide: 611,762Total Recovered: 8,808,066 US Updates Florida educators file lawsuit after state forces schools to reopen this fall South Carolina’s health department says state exceeded July testing goal California reports more than 6,800 new cases and 9 deaths Georgia reports more than 3,200 new Covid-19 cases Miami-Dade police issue more than 100 citations to people and businesses not complying with Covid-19 rules Louisiana reports more than 3,100 new Covid-19 cases National Zoo and Smithsonian Museum in Virginia to reopen Friday ICU bed capacity in Florida’s Miami-Dade County is at 130% US Treasury Secretary says phase four stimulus package will start at $1 trillion dollars Florida reports more than 10,000 new Covid-19 cases The New York governor is traveling to Georgia to help with coronavirus response Morehouse and Spelman College will shift to digital learning this fall, students will not return to campus Bankers association urges America’s banks to adopt mask policy Walmart will require all customers to wear face masks starting today Nearly 9,400 coronavirus patients hospitalized in Florida Delta Airlines to begin asking passengers unable to wear face mask to consider staying home 87 doctors sign letter to Arizona governor urging him not to reopen schools until at least October Golf legend Jack Nicklaus reveals he and his wife tested positive for Covid-19 in March Los Angeles reports highest number of hospitalizations in a day 85 infants under age 1 tested positive for coronavirus in one Texas county Baltimore police suspend in-service training after positive Covid-19 tests Disney World bans eating and drinking while walking to ensure guests don’t move around without masks Chicago to reinstate several coronavirus lockdown restrictions FDA approves restating pooled samples to speed up coronavirus detection West Virginia governor reports Covid-19 outbreaks in seven churches Total US cases: 3,935,379 Total US deaths: 143,553 Total Recovered: 1,816,337 Total Tested in US: 45,734,327 Total cases in NY: 434,633 Total deaths in NY: 32,582 New York City cases: 221,700+ New York City deaths: 23,400+ Total cases in CA: 391,538 Total deaths in CA: 7,716 Total cases in FL: 360,394 Total deaths in FL: 5,075 Contact us |
