Category Archives: Clinical Testing

Cartoon – Pandemic Stages of Grief

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, Angry, Cartoon, Clinical Testing, Contact Tracing, Coronavirus, Denial, Depression, Economic Crisis, Economic Recovery, False Hope, False Narrative, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Misinformation, Misinterpret, Mislead, Misleading, Mistake, Mistrust, Mixed Message, Mortality, National Strategy, Pandemic, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Public Health, Public Opinion, Public Perception, Public Safety, Public Schools, Quarantine, School Reopening, Scientists, Social Distancing • Leave a comment

Cartoon by Sally-Covid 19 Pandemic Stages of Grief |

Contact tracing stopped at the country club gates

Posted on by • Posted in Asymptomatic Transmission, Clinical Testing, Contact Tracing, Coronavirus, Pandemic, Privacy, Public Health, Public Safety, Public Schools, Quarantine, Social Distancing, Superspreader, Superspreader Event, Superspreading Events • Leave a comment

https://mailchi.mp/0e13b5a09ec5/the-weekly-gist-august-21-2020?e=d1e747d2d8

Neo Classical Country Club Estate - $8,300,000 | Entrance gates ...

From downtown New Orleans to the tony suburbs of New York, post-graduation parties and summer gatherings drawing dozens of teens have become loci of COVID infections around the country.

Taking a look inside one prep-school-party COVID cluster, an article in the New Yorker recounts the reverberations from graduation parties turned superspreader events at an exclusive Atlanta private school.

Spurred by a false sense of security (“We don’t live in New York,” one dad said) and Georgia’s early reopening orders, several families at the Lovett School held graduation parties, some with as many as 50 attendees.

The school received its first report of a student testing positive four days after attending the graduation festivities. A growing cluster of infections became evident as more cases came to light, including among students who posted TikTok videos to announce their positive test results. Lovett’s school nurse began ad-hoc contact tracing, finding 23 positive cases on her first day of searching.

But Fulton County contact tracers were met with fierce resistance from parents, with the vast majority of those contacted declining to talk. The school provided students’ contact information, but said it couldn’t cooperate with tracers further due to privacy regulations.

There are many reasons that individuals might be reticent to participate in contact tracing, such as fear of losing a job, or worries about immigration status. But the resistance of wealthy, highly educated “prep school parents” to contact tracing is shocking. Public health efforts will continue to be stymied as long as the instinct to protect individual and school reputations from the perceived stigma of infection outweighs the greater good—the health of the community.

 

 

 

 

The kids are not all right

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, Asymptomatic Transmission, Childcare, Children's Health, Clinical Testing, Contact Tracing, Coronavirus, Crisis, Crisis Management, Deferred Healthcare, Economic Crisis, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Mortality, National Strategy, Pandemic, Primary Care, Public Health, Public Opinion, Public Perception, Public Safety, Public Schools, Public Trust, Quarantine, School Reopening, Scientists, Social Distancing, Vaccination • Leave a comment

https://mailchi.mp/0e13b5a09ec5/the-weekly-gist-august-21-2020?e=d1e747d2d8

Many children heading back to school—in whichever form that that may take this fall—have skipped their annual visit to the pediatrician. The graphic above highlights the sluggish rebound in pediatric ambulatory volume. While adult primary care visits have mostly bounced back, pediatric visits are still 26 percent below pre-COVID levels.

The drop in visits early in the pandemic also impacted immunizations, with 2.5M regular childhood vaccinations missed in the US during the first quarter of 2020—and early data suggests those seem to be rebounding at a similarly anemic rate.

This lack of pediatric routine care is particularly worrisome as COVID-19 cases in children are climbing, with a 90 percent increase from July to August. Though most of the nation’s largest public school districts have opted to begin the school year with online learning, some districts have already returned to in-person classes, and, unsurprisingly, new cases are already being reported.

While COVID-19 is normally neither severe nor fatal in children, infections among school-age kids put others at risk. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, nearly a quarter of teachers (1.5M) are considered high-risk and almost six percent of seniors (3.3M) live with school-aged children.

Without the traditional back-to-school push for well-child visits, sports physicals, and immunization updates, healthcare providers must think creatively about how to give children with the care they need, whether through personalized communication from pediatricians that assuages parental concerns about office safety, or through more innovative means such as drive-thru vaccination services.

 

 

 

It looks like what happens in Vegas isn’t staying in Vegas.

Posted on by • Posted in Asymptomatic Transmission, Clinical Testing, Contact Tracing, Coronavirus, Economic Crisis, Economic Recovery, Economy Reopening, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Mortality, National Strategy, Pandemic, Public Health, Public Safety, Quarantine, School Reopening, Scientists, Social Distancing • Leave a comment

https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2020/08/21/las-vegas-may-be-a-superspreader-hot-spot-new-study-suggests/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=coronavirus&cdlcid=5d2c97df953109375e4d8b68#506ae817484d

Travelers returning from the Covid-19 hot spot are potentially spreading the virus to virtually every state in the nation, according to a new mobility data study conducted on behalf of the non-profit investigative news organization ProPublica.

The findings highlight the connection between travelers and the spread of the virus during the pandemic.

The ProPublica study looked at a total of 12 days of cellphone data in three batches: four days in May, when Nevada was still shut down; four days in June, just after Las Vegas reopened to tourism; and four days in mid-July. In May, travel from Las Vegas was mainly regional. But since Las Vegas reopened in early June, the mobility of smartphones leaving Las Vegas has become progressively more widespread and nationalized.

Over the final four-day period, in July, the study identified 26,000 smartphones on the Las Vegas Strip, many of which later appeared in 47 states within the same four-day period — every state in the continental United States except Maine.

“About 3,700 of the devices were spotted in Southern California in the same four days; about 2,700 in Arizona, with 740 in Phoenix; around 1,000 in Texas; more than 800 in Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland; and more than 100 in the New York area,” reported ProPublica.

While the study did not determine how many of these travelers were infected with Covid-19 when they returned to their home states, it is reasonable to assume that many were. For the past several months, Las Vegas has been a hot spot for the disease.

Las Vegas is located in Clark County, Nevada, which is currently struggling with one of the highest rates of new COVID-19 infections in the country, with 26.9 new daily cases per 100,000 people tested over a rolling seven-day average, according to the Harvard Global Health Institute’s Covid-19 tracker. Any community with over 25 new daily cases is deemed to be at a tipping point where stay-at-home orders are necessary, according to Harvard researchers.

This isn’t the first data-driven study to show how travelers are spreading Covid-19 across the United States. In early July, the PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) released research indicating that the novel coronavirus was spreading along the nation’s interstate highways.

“Travel is certainly a huge driving factor,” the researchers wrote at the time. “We see spread along I-80 between central Illinois and Iowa, as well as along the I-90 corridor across upstate New York.” They pointed to a rise in cases along the I-95 corridor and concluded that interstate travel was creating renewed risk to regions like the Northeast that had successfully flattened the curve of the novel coronavirus.

Yesterday, Clark County’s Twitter account announced a grim milestone: The number of deaths attributed to Covid-19 in the community has now topped 1,000.

 

 

 

 

Why Most Voters Oppose Schools Reopening

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, Asymptomatic Transmission, Clinical Testing, Contact Tracing, Coronavirus, Crisis, Crisis Management, Economic Crisis, Economic Stimulus, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Leadership Decentralized, Mortality, National Strategy, Pandemic, Public Health, Public Opinion, Public Perception, Public Safety, Public Schools, Public Trust, Quarantine, School Reopening, Scientists, Social Distancing • Leave a comment

https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2020/08/21/why-most-voters-oppose-schools-reopening/#2df43b5b1822

Why Most Voters Oppose Schools Reopening

Even as test rates hover around six to seven percent and tens of thousands of new Covid-19 cases are being reported daily, school districts across the country will continue with plans to resume operations in the coming weeks. The latest survey data shows, however, that most Americans oppose reopening K-12 education in their states.

Parents have reason to be concerned that sending their children to school could bring the virus into their homes, as well as spike positivity rates in their communities. From July 30th to August 13th, over 75,000 new child Covid-19 cases were reported, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The outcome would be disastrous were even one asymptomatic carrier to attend classes in the coming weeks.

A recent survey conducted by the Financial Times-Peterson Foundation US Economic Monitor revealed that six in ten voters oppose reopening K-12 schools in their states, while as many as 81 percent urge the prioritization of health among students and faculty over the economy. Were children to get sick at school, not only would their health be endangered, but so would the health of their families. There would be no economy without healthy parents, which is why the vast majority of Americans urge the safety of American students over the state of the economy.

One of the more prudent concerns about the resumption of K-12 education is the social nature of a student’s daily life. School districts are assuring parents that they have put preventative measures in place, such as social distancing and classroom hybridization. But to assume students will have no interaction at all seems ludicrous. Children and teens have been out of the traditional school setting for over five months and they will be ready to interact with others. 

Despite the urge shared by parents and children alike to return to normal, the average voter realizes that the pandemic in the United States is far from over. Parents want their children to stay healthy for many reasons—to ensure the physical health and wellbeing of the family, to ensure the economic livelihood of the family, and to avoid the unknown long term health risks associated with Covid-19. Around 65 percent of voters believe social distancing requirements and non essential business restrictions should be in place for at least another three months—a sacrifice many are willing to make for the sake of their families and children.

Such statistics also show that people recognize there will be several more months of abnormality and want decision makers to take action accordingly, even if it means deprioritizing the economy. Families and individuals have been economically crippled by the pandemic and the US government’s lack of public assistance. The official unemployment rate still hovers around ten percent according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Low income families are struggling and eviction rates are sure to spike as rent moratoriums expire. These families have enough to worry about without the added pressure of sending their children back to school at this time.

The reopening of K-12 school districts in the coming weeks presents medical and economic challenges for families in the pandemic era, especially those already disadvantaged or experiencing hardship. Societal immunity is a long way off; as thirty five percent of voters said they would not be likely to get a COVID-19 vaccine were one approved and available by the end of the year, meaning children of those thirty five percent would also be unlikely to get vaccinated. With the inability to ensure the health and safety of students and the unknown economic future to come, schools are better off staying online for the time being.

 

 

 

 

The Science Behind Campus Coronavirus Outbreaks

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, Asymptomatic Transmission, Clinical Testing, Contact Tracing, Coronavirus, Crisis, Crisis Management, Economic Crisis, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Leadership Decentralized, Mortality, National Strategy, Pandemic, Public Health, Public Opinion, Public Perception, Public Safety, Public Schools, Public Trust, Quarantine, Respect, Responsibility, School Reopening, Scientists, Social Distancing, Virtual Work, Virtual Workforce • Leave a comment

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johndrake/2020/08/21/the-science-of-campus-outbreaks/#4c5704ae6893

LSU frat parties become coronavirus 'superspreader events ...

Colleges And Universities Reverting To Online Instruction

On August 17, seven days after the start of in-person classes, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced that, due to a dramatic increase in Covid-19 on campus, all undergraduate classes would be held online for the remainder of the fall. Ithaca College and Michigan State pulled the plug on August 18. Two days later, N.C. State joined the club. More may follow. (The Chronicle of Higher Education maintains a live update feed.) In fact, only a minority of colleges and universities are still attempting fall instruction fully or primarily in person (about 25% at this writing).

Only time will tell if these rapid course changes were warranted and, of course, the answer may not be the same everywhere. Each institution is unique with respect to size, culture, infrastructure to provide online learning, and ability to cope with transmission.

What We Know About Infectious Diseases On College Campuses

In thinking about Covid-19 transmission on campus, it may be useful to know something about the science of epidemics among college students in general. There is a small scientific literature on disease outbreaks on campus. Campuses are special for several reasons. News photos of students lounging on green quads, engaged in late night study groups, or partying into the wee hours reminds us that if college is known for anything other than studying and college sports, it might be the unique gregariousness that attaches to what many people call the “college experience.”

Although outbreaks of infectious diseases on college campuses are routinely reported, there is little evidence that they are more explosive than in the general population. Outbreaks of directly transmitted diseases like measles, mumps, and whooping cough occur with some regularity and are typically contained through isolation and other public health measures. But, no study has been done to systematically examine how the campus environment differs from community-based transmission. 

Influenza is a particularly interesting case because, like Covid-19, it is a respiratory disease transmitted directly through close contact and also has a short incubation period. The basic reproduction number (R0) is a measure of the explosiveness of an epidemic, with anything over R0 = 1 indicating the possibility of sustained transmission.

In 2014, CDC and academic scientists compiled a list of all estimates of R0 for influenza. While most estimates for the 2009 pandemic were between 1 and 2, estimates from some schools (not necessarily colleges or universities) were noticeably higher (2.3 for a school in Japan and 3.3 for a school in the United States), although other cases (Iran and the United Kingdom) were similar to the rest of the population.

Perhaps more importantly, a study in Pullman, Washington (home to Washington State University) estimated R0 of the 2009 pandemic flu to be around 6, which is two to four times larger than most other estimates. So there is some evidence that campus contagions may be more prone to outbreak than other places.

Since Covid-19 is typically much less severe in young adults than in older adults, another question that seems particularly important now is whether transmission among students remains primarily within the student population or readily spreads to the rest of the community. 

In a measles outbreak at a university in China, the fraction of staff who were infected was not statistically different from the fraction of students. The total number of staff infected — three — was small, however, and it seems unlikely that this is the usual pattern.

A study of the 2009 influenza pandemic at the University of Delaware found that the risk of infection for people older than 30 was roughly half the risk of those that were 18 to 29.

An even more interesting aspect of the University of Delaware study is the association with student activities. Reports of influenza-like illness among students at a nearby emergency health center remained stable for almost a month after spring break. But cases increased almost five-fold following “Greek week”. In the final analysis, belonging to a fraternity or sorority doubled a student’s chances of being infected.

What’s Happening Now

This is concerning now as cases of Covid-19 are rising among college students nationwide. College leaders such as Penn State president Eric Barron, University of Kansas chancellor Douglas Girod, and University of Tennessee chancellor Donde Plowman have reproached students, especially fraternities and sororities, for ignoring guidance to avoid large gatherings.

Yesterday, J. Michael Haynie, Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives and Innovation publicly excoriated students at Syracuse University for “selfishly jeopardizing” the possibility of in-person instruction this fall. “Make no mistake,” he wrote, “there was not a single student who gathered on the Quad last night who did not know and understand that it was wrong to do so.”

The science of Covid-19 tells us that students are vulnerable, just like everyone else. Although the evidence is somewhat thin, what there is points only in one direction: because of their specific social structure, college campuses are especially prone to outbreaks of infectious diseases. As in the rest of society, the only way to slow down the Covid-19 pandemic on college campuses is to reduce the rate of infectious contacts. There is too much value in the college experience to reduce it to partying, and it should not be squandered altogether for the sake of the party experience.

 

 

 

 

Florida Hits 10,000 Coronavirus Deaths—The Fifth State To Reach That Mark

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, Clinical Testing, Contact Tracing, Coronavirus, Crisis, Crisis Management, Economic Crisis, Economy Reopening, Evidence-based Leadership, Evidence-Based Plan, Evidence-Based Policy, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Leadership Decentralized, Mortality, National Strategy, Pandemic, Positivity Rate, Public Health, Public Opinion, Public Perception, Public Safety, Public Schools, Public Trust, Quarantine, School Reopening, Scientists, Social Distancing • Leave a comment

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2020/08/20/florida-hits-10000-coronavirus-deaths-the-fifth-state-to-reach-that-mark/#29e05eb438f3

Florida Hits 10,000 Coronavirus Deaths—The Fifth State To Reach ...

TOPLINE

Over 10,000 Floridians have now died of coronavirus, marking a grim milestone that comes weeks after the state led the record U.S. coronavirus case surge earlier this summer.

 

KEY FACTS

10,049 Florida residents have died of coronavirus, according to the state, reaching that mark after adding 117 deaths Thursday.

Florida is the fifth state in the U.S. to record over 10,000 deaths, joining New York and New Jersey, where most deaths happened during the spring coronavirus surge, along with California and Texas, where most deaths occurred during the summer.

Florida has been the nation’s recent coronavirus epicenter, but the pandemic’s spread seems to have slowed there over the past few weeks, even as deaths, which lag behind other statistics, have been at record highs in the state.

New cases have recently reached their lowest daily increases in two months, and hospitalizations have trended downward since late July.

The testing positivity rate, seen as one of the first indicators of increased coronavirus spread, dropped below 10% Thursday—the first time the state has been below that threshold since June 21, and less than half the 20.71% positivity rate the state had at its highest point on July 8.

 

BIG NUMBER

23.8%. Gov. Ron DeSantis said that’s what the positivity rate was Thursday for antibody testing at state-run drive-through sites. That number suggests a massive amount of Floridians, much higher than the record-setting confirmed case counts, were infected with coronavirus this summer.

 

SURPRISING FACT

There are five U.S. states that have over 10,000 deaths. That’s a number that only 14 countries around the world have hit, according to Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. continues to have by far the most coronavirus deaths of any country and could reach 175,000 deaths before the weekend.

 

KEY BACKGROUND

The U.S. as a whole is on a downward trend when it comes to coronavirus metrics, which seems to be influenced by large states, like Florida, having a reduction in coronavirus spread.

States like California, Texas and Florida, the nation’s three most populated, were all setting records when the U.S. had its highest confirmed coronavirus spike earlier this summer. They now seem to be pushing the country in the other direction.

 

 

 

 

South Korea Warns Covid-19 Back In ‘Full Swing’ After Week-Long Case Spike

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, Clinical Testing, Contact Tracing, Coronavirus, Crisis, Crisis Management, Economic Crisis, Economic Recovery, Economy Reopening, False Hope, False Narrative, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Leadership Decentralized, Mortality, National Strategy, Pandemic, Public Health, Public Opinion, Public Perception, Public Schools, Public Trust, Quarantine, School Reopening, Scientists, Social Distancing • Leave a comment

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/08/20/south-korea-warns-covid-19-back-in-full-swing-after-week-long-case-spike

South Korea Warns Covid-19 Back In 'Full Swing' After Week-Long ...

TOPLINE

South Korea officials warned Thursday that the country is in a “grave situation” after Covid-19 cases rose by triple digits for a week straight, as one of the countries most hailed for its success in containing the coronavirus sees a new resurgence of the virus linked to a far-right church and anti-government protest.

 

KEY FACTS

South Korea added 288 Covid-19 cases Thursday—slightly down from 297 cases Wednesday, the highest number observed in the country since March 8.

“Consider the COVID-19 pandemic now to be in full-swing,” Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deputy director Kwon Jun-wook said, warning that the country could experience similar sustained outbreaks to the U.S. and Europe without aggressive contact tracing.

The new case spikes are largely tied to Sarang Jeil Church, which has been linked to 676 recent cases, and a large anti-government rally held in Seoul Saturday in which many church members participated.

The outbreak is the second time a church has been linked to a large outbreak in the country—5,200 cases in February and March were linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus—but officials warn this one has the potential to be worse, and the New York Times notes anti-government sentiment among the church’s members may make efforts to contain the virus more difficult.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has shut down churches in the country in response to the new outbreak, sparking a broader controversy as conservatives accuse the government of infringing on religious freedoms.

South Korea has been hailed for its effective response to the coronavirus, and was previously able to curb the Shincheonji church outbreak through widespread testing, self-isolation orders and contact tracing.

 

CRUCIAL QUOTE

“We are standing on the cusp of the nationwide outbreak,” Kwon said at a briefing Thursday. “The wider capital region should brace for a massive wave of the outbreak.”

 

BIG NUMBER

16,346: The total number of Covid-19 cases in South Korea since the start of the pandemic, as reported by Johns Hopkins University.

 

KEY BACKGROUND

South Korea is one of many countries to see a worrying resurgence of Covid-19 in recent weeks, as Europe and countries that had successfully contained the virus see new spikes.

Spain and Italy posted new Covid-19 case number highs Wednesday, while France reported Wednesday that it had recorded new Covid-19 cases at the highest rate since May.

Germany reported its highest case count since April on Thursday, with 1,707 new cases.

Outside of Europe, India experienced its highest daily total yet of new Covid-19 cases Thursday—69,672 cases, also the fourth highest daily total reported globally—while Japan reported that more than a third of its 59,213 cases have been recorded since the start of August alone.

New Zealand, one of the countries that had most successfully contained the virus, went back into lockdown last week after seeing Covid-19 spread through community transmission for the first time in 102 days; the outbreak has so far resulted in 80 new cases.

 

 

 

 

School reopenings with COVID-19 offer preview of chaotic fall

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, Asymptomatic Transmission, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), Clinical Testing, Contact Tracing, Coronavirus, Crisis, Crisis Management, Expert, Expert Opinion, False Hope, False Narrative, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Leadership Decentralized, Misinformation, Misinterpret, Mislead, Misleading, Mistake, Mistrust, Mixed Message, Mortality, National Strategy, Pandemic, Positivity Rate, Public Health, Public Opinion, Public Perception, Public Safety, Public Schools, Public Trust, Quarantine, School Reopening, Scientists, Social Distancing • Leave a comment

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/public-global-health/512824-school-reopenings-with-covid-19-offer-preview-of

When Texas schools reopen, officials planning few required safety ...

Thousands of students and teachers across the country are quarantining just days into the new school year, highlighting the challenges of resuming in-person instruction during a pandemic.

While many schools aren’t scheduled to reopen until later this month or September, those that have are offering a preview of the chaos that awaits districts this fall, particularly in hot spots in the South and Midwest where the virus is spreading uncontrollably.

In Georgia’s Cherokee County School District, where students are not required to wear masks, nearly 2,200 students — mostly high schoolers — are quarantining after coming into contact with one of 116 students or 25 teachers and staff members with COVID-19. Another 53 teachers and staff members are also quarantining.

Those numbers are expected to increase with more test results. In the meantime, three of the district’s six high schools have moved classes online, at least until September.

Experts have warned for weeks that it will be extremely difficult to safely reopen schools in hot spots, but some districts are still charging ahead — some willingly, others after some prodding from state and national leaders.

The results, health officials say, are not surprising, though they are preventable.

“You go in, people get infected — boom, you close them down. So it’s better to ease in, perhaps with virtual, until you see what’s going on when you’re in a really hot zone,” Anthony Fauci said during a livestreamed event Tuesday, referring to schools that have already closed after reopening this year.

“When you’re in a red zone … you really better think twice before you do that because what might happen, is what you’ve seen,” Fauci added.

Schools in states like Indiana, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Tennessee have shut down, at least temporarily, after finding COVID-19 in their hallways and classrooms.

The question of when and how to open schools has moved from a public health debate to a political one, with President Trump and his administration strongly advocating for full-time, in-person instruction, hoping in part that parents can then return to work and revamp an economy that’s been ravaged by the coronavirus recession.

Health experts and administration officials note that the consequences of missing in-person learning can be severe, especially for younger students. Finding a solution that minimizes harm to students while protecting public health has proven difficult.

Annette Anderson, a professor in the school of education at Johns Hopkins University, said there is no proven or agreed-upon approach to holding classes during a pandemic, no set protocols around when to return to in-person instruction or how to conduct testing and contact tracing.

“There’s a wild, wild west approach with all the different types of plans in reopening and because of that, a gold standard would just mean clarity around what schools should do. But we don’t have a tacit agreement about what that actually means,” she said.

Most states are deferring school opening decisions to local school districts. For example, while the Cherokee County School District is offering in-person learning five days a week, Atlanta Public Schools, just one county over, is beginning the year online.

Many school districts are opting for online instruction or pursuing hybrid models in which students alternate which days they are in class to limit the number of people in school buildings at one time.

Others, like some districts in Georgia, Arkansas, Florida and Texas, are moving full speed ahead with in-person learning, despite the challenges posed by cramped buildings and classrooms. Some of those districts also offer online options.

While in-person instruction might work for some states where transmission is relatively low, like New York, which gave districts the green light to fully reopen this year, it will be much harder in hot spots.

Fauci classified hot spots as areas with test positivity rates that exceed 10 percent.

While he didn’t specify any states, several across the country have positivity rates over 10 percent, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University, and have districts pursuing in-person instruction. The list includes Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi and Texas.

“There’s one opportunity to do this well, because once you open you want the schools to stay open as much as possible, given how disruptive isolating schools and teachers can be,” said Thomas Tsai, assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

He recommended schools consider shutting down if the virus appears to be widespread. If cases appear to be isolated to one cluster in a classroom, the rest of the school can probably remain open, while exposed students isolate at home.

That’s why it’s especially important for students to wear masks and keep their desks at least 6 feet apart, and avoid gatherings outside of classrooms, he said, otherwise the number of contacts per case can quickly grow, resulting in more students and teachers needing to be quarantined.

If there are clusters in multiple classrooms and hundreds of students and teachers need to quarantine, schools might need to consider shutting down, Tsai added.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says in “most instances” a single case of COVID-19 should not warrant a school closure.

But if the spread of COVID-19 at a school is higher than within the community, or if the school is becoming the source of an outbreak, administrators should work with local health officials to determine whether temporary closures are needed.

Mississippi State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs said Monday that 245 teachers and 199 students have tested positive for the coronavirus in 71 of the state’s 82 counties. Almost 600 teachers and more than 2,000 students are now in quarantine, but none of the schools have closed.

Dobbs said many of the teachers and students likely contracted the virus outside of school but unknowingly “brought it with them” to class.

Classes are canceled indefinitely at a school district in Pinal County, Ariz., after more than 100 teachers and staff members refused to come to work, citing a concern with the spread of COVID-19 in the community.

The school district planned to resume in-person learning Monday, despite the county not meeting metrics recommended by the state’s health department for safely reopening, including a drop in the number of new cases, new COVID-19 hospitalizations and the percentage of people testing positive.

In Florida, 13 counties have reopened schools in the past week for in-person instruction; at least three districts have reported COVID-19 cases. In Martin County, more than 300 students and teachers are quarantining after coming into contact with infected classmates.

County officials said some parents are not keeping their kids at home while awaiting the results of COVID-19 tests. Instead, they’re waiting until the test is positive before notifying the school.

And in Florida’s Dade County, about 70 students and staff are quarantining after 11 people in the district tested positive. County officials have said that cases are to be expected and superintendents should call them before making any decisions about closures.

The confusion at all levels of government has frustrated both parents and school officials. In the lead-up to the new school year, Trump has offered mixed messages.

Last month, he said schools in hot spots might need to delay their reopening plans, but in August he renewed his push for a return to in-person instruction by tweeting: “OPEN THE SCHOOLS!!!”

 

 

 

 

Notre Dame cancels in-person classes after surge of COVID-19 cases

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, Clinical Testing, Contact Tracing, Coronavirus, Evidence-based Leadership, Evidence-Based Plan, Evidence-Based Policy, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Mortality, National Strategy, Pandemic, Public Health, Public Opinion, Public Perception, Public Safety, Public Trust, School Reopening, Scientists • Leave a comment

https://www.axios.com/notre-dame-cancels-classes-coronavirus-a7bd3249-f757-44a9-baf8-fb4de0bbefa3.html?stream=health-care&utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alerts_healthcare

The University of Notre Dame announced Tuesday that it is canceling in-person classes for at least two weeks following a spike in coronavirus cases.

Why it matters: Notre Dame is the second prominent university to announce this week that it would revert back to remote learning, following the the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Tuesday. The reversals underscore the challenges facing colleges and universities as more students are set return to campus.

Between the lines: As was the case with UNC, most of the COVID-19 infections at Notre Dame have been linked to off-campus parties.

  • The nearly 12,000 students that returned to Notre Dame were all tested before arriving on campus on Aug. 10, and just 33 tested positive, according to the Journal.
  • Through Monday, 147 of the 927 students who had shown symptoms tested positive for the virus — a sharp uptick in the positivity rate.

What they’re saying: “Our contact-tracing analysis indicates that most infections are coming from off-campus gatherings,” said University of Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins. “Students infected at those gathering passed it on to others, who in turn have passed the virus on to others, resulting in the positive cases we have seen.”

  • “For your sake and the sake of our community and for continuing our semester on campus, please observe health protocols and avoid behavior that puts yourself or others at risk,” Jenkins added.