Coronavirus dashboard for July 8: deaths in the South and West finally suggest increasing trend
Coronavirus dashboard for July 8: deaths in the South and West finally suggest increasing trend
Coronavirus death statistics have been plagued recently by State data dumps, where months of deaths have been released on a single day. In the past 2 weeks, both NJ and NY’s such releases had skewed the numbers. As of today, both are out of the 7 day statistics, so I thought I would update again.
One bit of good news, statistics-wise, is that the COVID tracker now has the ability to include hospitalizations (although FL still isn’t fully releasing its numbers). So here are hospitalizations per capita in the 4 US regions:
In the past few weeks, hospitalizations have continued to decline in the Northeast, stayed flat in the Midwest, risen slightly in the West starting 14 days ago, and increased by more than 50% in the South starting 19 days ago.
Has the bad news started to translate into deaths in the South and West? Maybe.
Here are deaths per capita in the Northeast and Midwest:
With the NJ and NY data dumps out of the 7 day average, the Northeast average has now decreased to 2.0 per million. This, believe it or not, still makes the Northeast the worst region, due to NJ (4.0 per million), MA (3.3), and RI (2.6). NY has declined to 1.5 per million and is no longer even in the top 25 per capita. The jump in the Midwest in the past day is due to – sigh – a data dump by Illinois, which will slightly skew the national average for the next week.
Here are deaths per capita in the South and West:
The big question is, are the increases in the past 2 days the start of a trend? If so, then it would appear that deaths per capita in both the South and West bottomed a little over 2 weeks ago.
Even so, at 5.5 deaths per million, the worst State, Arizona, still has less than 10% the rate of deaths that NY had (close to 70) at the worst of the outbreak there. God willing, even with all of their reckless mistakes, Florida, Texas, and Arizona hopefully will never get that bad.
68% Have Antibodies in This NYC Clinic. Can Neighborhood Beat a Next Wave?
NY Times – July 9
At a clinic in Corona, a working-class neighborhood in Queens, more than 68 percent of people tested positive for antibodies to the new coronavirus. At another clinic in Jackson Heights, Queens, that number was 56 percent. But at a clinic in Cobble Hill, a mostly white and wealthy neighborhood in Brooklyn, only 13 percent of people tested positive for antibodies.
As it has swept through New York, the coronavirus has exposed stark inequalities in nearly every aspect of city life, from who has been most affected to how the health care system cared for those patients. Many lower-income neighborhoods, where Black and Latino residents make up a large part of the population, were hard hit, while many wealthy neighborhoods suffered much less.
But now, as the city braces for a possible second wave of the virus, some of those vulnerabilities may flip, with the affluent neighborhoods becoming most at risk of a surge. According to antibody test results from CityMD that were shared with The New York Times, some neighborhoods were so exposed to the virus during the peak of the epidemic in March and April that they might have some protection during a second wave.
“Some communities might have herd immunity,” said Dr. Daniel Frogel, a senior vice president for operations at CityMD, which plays a key role in the city’s testing program.
The CityMD statistics — which Dr. Frogel provided during an interview and which reflect tests done between late April and late June — appear to present the starkest picture yet of how infection rates have diverged across neighborhoods in the city.
As of June 26, CityMD had administered about 314,000 antibody tests in New York City. Citywide, 26 percent of the tests came back positive.
But Dr. Frogel said the testing results in Jackson Heights and Corona seemed to “jump off the map.”
While stopping short of predicting that those neighborhoods would be protected against a major new outbreak of the virus — a phenomenon known as herd immunity — several epidemiologists said that the different levels of antibody prevalence across the city are likely to play a role in what happens next, assuming that antibodies do in fact offer significant protection against future infection.
“In the future, the infection rate should really be lower in minority communities,” said Kitaw Demissie, an epidemiologist and the dean of the School of Public Health at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. …
A bit farther down:
‘“For sure, the persons who are seeking antibody testing probably have a higher likelihood of being positive than the general population,” said Professor Nash. ‘
NYT:
… Neighborhoods that had relatively low infection rates — and where few residents have antibodies — are especially vulnerable going forward. There could be some degree of “catch up” among neighborhoods, said Prof. Denis Nash, an epidemiology professor at the CUNY School of Public Health.
But he added that even if infection rate were to climb in wealthier neighborhoods, “there are advantages to being in the neighborhoods that are hit later.” For one, doctors have become somewhat more adept at treating severe cases.
Some epidemiologists and virologists cautioned that not enough data exists to conclude that any areas have herd immunity. For starters, the fact that 68.4 percent of tests taken at an urgent care center in Corona came back positive does not mean that 68.4 percent of residents had been infected.
“For sure, the persons who are seeking antibody testing probably have a higher likelihood of being positive than the general population,” said Professor Nash. “If you went out in Corona and tested a representative sample, it wouldn’t be 68 percent.”
So far, the federal government has released relatively little data from antibody testing — making the CityMD data all the more striking. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for instance, has published limited data that suggested that 6.93 percent of residents in New York City and part of Long Island had antibodies. But that survey was based on samples collected mainly in March, before many infected New Yorkers might have developed antibodies.
New York State conducted a more comprehensive survey on antibody rates, which involved testing some 28,419 people across the state. That survey suggested that roughly 21.6 percent of New York City residents had antibodies. But it also revealed a much higher rate in some neighborhoods. While the state has released little data from Queens, its numbers showed that in Flatbush, Brooklyn, for example, about 45 percent of those tested had antibodies.
The CityMD data provides similar conclusions. At a location in Bushwick, a Brooklyn neighborhood which has a large Hispanic population and where the median household income is below the citywide average, some 35 percent of antibody tests were positive, according to Dr. Frogel.
Dr. Frogel said that across the Bronx, which has had the city’s highest death rate from Covid-19, about 37 percent of antibody tests were turning up positive.
The CityMD in Corona, on Junction Boulevard, serves a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood whose residents include many construction workers and restaurant employees. Many had to work throughout the pandemic, raising their risk of infection.
Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University, called the high positive rate in Corona “a stunning finding.” Epidemiologists said the rate showed the limits of New York’s strategy in curtailing the virus: While public health measures may have slowed the spread in some neighborhoods, they did far less for others.
There are reasons parts of Queens were hit so hard. Homes in Elmhurst and parts of Corona are especially crowded — the highest rate of household crowding in the city, according to census bureau data from 2014. Given that transmission among family members is a leading driver of the disease’s spread, it is unsurprising that crowded households have been associated with higher risk of infection.
For residents of Corona, the main sources of employment are jobs in hospitality, including restaurants, as well as construction and manufacturing, according to a 2019 report by the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York. Many construction workers and restaurant employees showed up to work throughout the pandemic, elevating their risk of infection.
“Our plan did not really accommodate essential workers as it did people privileged enough — for lack of a better word — to socially distance themselves,” Professor Nash said. He said that one lesson of the past few months was that the city needed to better protect essential workers — everyone from grocery store employees to pharmacy cashiers — and make sure they had sufficient protective equipment. …
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/nyregion/nursing-homes-deaths-coronavirus.html
July 8, 2020
Does Cuomo Share Blame for 6,200 Virus Deaths in N.Y. Nursing Homes?
A state directive sent thousands of Covid-19 patients into nursing homes, but the Cuomo administration has given other reasons for the virus’s spread.
By Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Amy Julia Harris
The death toll inside New York’s nursing homes is perhaps one of the most tragic facets of the coronavirus pandemic: More than 6,400 residents have died in the state’s nursing homes and long-term care facilities, representing more than one-tenth of the reported deaths in such facilities across the country.
What went wrong? The effort to answer that question has become politically charged, with Republican lawmakers using the deaths to try to undermine Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a third-term Democrat, who has largely been praised for helping New York State to rein in the outbreak.
At issue is a directive that Mr. Cuomo’s administration delivered in late March, effectively ordering nursing homes to accept coronavirus patients from hospitals….
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/nyregion/nursing-homes-coronavirus-new-york.html
May 13, 2020
Buried in N.Y. Budget: Legal Shield for Nursing Homes Rife With Virus
In New York, 5,300 nursing home residents have died of Covid-19. The nursing home lobby pressed for a provision that makes it hard for their families to sue.
By Amy Julia Harris, Kim Barker and Jesse McKinley
In the chaotic days of late March, as it became clear that New York was facing a catastrophic outbreak of the coronavirus, aides to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo quietly inserted a provision on Page 347 of New York’s final, voluminous budget bill.
Many lawmakers were unaware of the language when they approved the budget a few days later. But it provided unusual legal protections for an influential industry that has been devastated by the crisis: nursing home operators.
The measure, lobbied for by industry representatives, shielded nursing homes from many lawsuits over their failure to protect residents from death or sickness caused by the coronavirus.
Now, weeks later, more than 5,300 residents of nursing homes in New York are believed to have died from the outbreak, and their relatives are finding that because of the provision, they may not be able to pursue legal action against the homes’ operators over allegations of neglect….
I am obviously not smart enough to understand what happened in New York and a number of other states as well as in Britain, I sort of got the idea that government officials ordered hospital patients with coronavirus infections to be placed in nursing home with the most vulnerable population and as coronavirus patients were placed in nursing homes the owners of the homes were given legal immunity. So the right to proper healthcare essentially came to anyone other than the older, and this especially in liberal environments.
I obviously fail to understand, though.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/nyregion/nursing-homes-coronavirus-new-york.html
May 13, 2020
New Jersey, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin have also passed new measures to shield health care facilities, including nursing homes, from liability.
Governors in at least nine other states — Arizona, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Rhode Island and Vermont — issued executive orders shielding health care facilities from most lawsuits related to their response to the pandemic.
Nursing homes are pressing for legal protections in other states, including Florida, Pennsylvania and California….
July 9, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 3,174,141)
Deaths ( 135,152)
India
Cases ( 790,649)
Deaths ( 21,586)
UK
Cases ( 287,621)
Deaths ( 44,602)
Mexico
Cases ( 275,003)
Deaths ( 32,796)
Germany
Cases ( 198,812)
Deaths ( 9,115)
Canada
Cases ( 106,741)
Deaths ( 8,746)
Sweden
Cases ( 74,333)
Deaths ( 5,500)
China
Cases ( 83,581)
Deaths ( 4,634)
Steven Greenhouse @greenhousenyt
Of the more than 16,200 meat plant workers in the U.S. who have tested positive for Covid-19, 90% are people of color. (Would Trump have ordered that meat plants stay open if 90% of the workers were white?)
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/coronavirus/virus-killed-86-u-s-meat-plant-workers-through-may-cdc-says
Almost 90% of U.S. Meat Plant Workers With Virus Are Minorities
The outbreaks at meat-processing plants across America that sickened thousands and led to beef shortages have gotten worse — and minority workers have been the hardest hit.
9:05 PM · Jul 8, 2020
NDd:
A R-Naught greater than 1 would mean cases are increasing and would mostly likely result in greater deaths. (which you already know . . . :))
The only number that counts for deaths is 250,000.
Then, the headlines will be “Quarter million dead”.
July 9, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 3,199,986)
Deaths ( 135,500)
One would expect that Florida & Arizona,
with large retired/elderly populations, would
see correspondingly large death figures, even
though rates among those under 60 are relatively
low. Less so with Texas
Florida: 14%+; AZ: 13%+; TX: <12%
Sixty-Five Plus in the US, according to 25 year old data.
Population over 65
Currently, AZ is in a 6-way tie for #9, at 18%.
Florida is tied with Maine & PR for #1, at 21%.
TX is #49, at 13%
US Population Distribution by Age
Why include these “data dumps” in the analysis? They are not deaths occurring in a 24 hour period, which is what the analysis I think is trying to get at. Reclassifying a May event in July says nothing about July events. “Peanut butter” what looks like the daily excess due to data dump backwards across the data set. Or get the actual dates of the reclassified deaths.
What I think should be made clear is that there is now community spread of the coronavirus in many areas of the country. We are running at 60,000 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus daily and this virus is dangerous for any exposed person. We are just not being collectively careful enough, and that means we need to be careful from New York City to Houston.
Beijing which had recorded no local coronavirus infection for about 6 weeks, discovered a case on June 11. The case almost immediately became 30 and more, however Beijing immediately began a massive testing program, along with contact tracing and isolation. There were 10 million tests conducted after June 11.
The result of the Beijing effort has been that no coronavirus case has been recorded for 4 days now. The outbreak appears to have been controlled, but what is necessary is to learn from the necessary effort.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-07-10/Chinese-mainland-reports-no-new-domestic-COVID-19-cases-S0hVSC4IcE/index.html
July 10, 2020
Chinese mainland reports 4 new COVID-19 cases, no new deaths
The Chinese mainland on Thursday recorded 4 additional COVID-19 cases
all from overseas, but no new cases of domestic transmission or
deaths.
The total number of confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland stands at
83,585, and the cumulative death toll at 4,634, with 113 asymptomatic
patients under medical observation.
Chinese mainland new locally transmitted cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-07-10/Chinese-mainland-reports-no-new-domestic-COVID-19-cases-S0hVSC4IcE/img/fb5a5ec006b74ae290be2c3d9023b03a/fb5a5ec006b74ae290be2c3d9023b03a.jpeg
Chinese mainland new imported cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-07-10/Chinese-mainland-reports-no-new-domestic-COVID-19-cases-S0hVSC4IcE/img/c860e453ddc04c7686e1fd3b8981c835/c860e453ddc04c7686e1fd3b8981c835.jpeg
Chinese mainland new asymptomatic cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-07-10/Chinese-mainland-reports-no-new-domestic-COVID-19-cases-S0hVSC4IcE/img/0ccdd314b5ed442cb62c014ce62c7655/0ccdd314b5ed442cb62c014ce62c7655.jpeg
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-07-10/Beijing-reports-no-new-COVID-19-cases-for-fourth-straight-day-S0k0LQRFzG/index.html
July 10, 2020
Beijing reports 0 new COVID-19 cases
Beijing recorded no new domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases on Thursday for the fourth day in a row. The total number of cases in the city stands at 335 since a cluster outbreak was discovered at Xinfadi market on June 11, according to the municipal health commission.
Twelve more patients recovered on Thursday, taking the total number of recovered patients to 72.
The epidemic has been effectively brought under control in Beijing, however, regular epidemic prevention and control work should not be minimized, said Xu Hejian, spokesperson for the Beijing municipal government at a routine press conference on Friday.
As of midnight Wednesday, Beijing has 1 COVID-19 high-risk area and 15 medium-risk areas, Xu added.
[ https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EcUAiKXVAAApdzB?format=jpg&name=4096×4096 ]
Is Your State Doing Enough Coronavirus Testing?
(The Northeastern states are, except for NH.)
NY Times – July 10
The number of daily coronavirus tests conducted in the United States is only 39 percent of the level considered necessary to mitigate the spread of the virus, as many states struggle to ramp up testing to outpace the record number of cases in recent weeks.
12 states meet the testing target
5 states are near the target
34 states are far below the target
(graphci at the link)
(Oops. RI is also not doing enough.)
A flawed Covid-19 study gets the White House’s attention — and the FDA may pay the price
via @statnews – July 8
Studies in thousands of people on multiple continents now show the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine does not help patients hospitalized with Covid-19 live longer. But on Tuesday the White House, based on a new study that outsiders greeted with deep skepticism, disagreed.
Now the Food and Drug Administration again risks being pulled into an ugly political fracas over whether to permit more patients to be treated with the drug. It is a debate that threatens to undermine the agency’s credibility when it needs it perhaps more than ever. …
July 10, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 3,250,704)
Deaths ( 136,156)
India
Cases ( 820,014)
Deaths ( 22,135)
UK
Cases ( 288,133)
Deaths ( 44,650)
Mexico
Cases ( 282,283)
Deaths ( 33,526)
Germany
Cases ( 199,332)
Deaths ( 9,126)
Canada
Cases ( 107,021)
Deaths ( 8,759)
China
Cases ( 83,585)
Deaths ( 4,634)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/world/europe/coroanvirus-scotland-england.html
July 10, 2020
In Tackling Coronavirus, Scotland Asserts Its Separateness From England
The measured response by Scotland’s leader, Nicola Sturgeon, is a marked contrast to the freewheeling approach of Prime Minister Boris Johnson — and appears to be working.
By Mark Landler
EDINBURGH, Scotland — There was nothing particularly festive about Nicola Sturgeon’s recent visit to the Cold Town House, a newly reopened Edinburgh pub, but maybe that was the point. Sipping coffee and surveying plexiglass dividers, Ms. Sturgeon, the leader of Scotland’s government, warned customers not to expect the jolly, sweaty intimacy of nightlife before the coronavirus pandemic.
“No beer garden or cafe should feel the same as it did before,” she said as a drenching rain fell, obscuring the stony ramparts of Edinburgh Castle that tower above this once-teeming establishment.
As Scotland emerges from a three-month lockdown, it is moving more carefully than neighboring England, a divergence that owes a lot to Ms. Sturgeon’s cautious style and her conviction that England, under its more freewheeling leader, Boris Johnson, is taking too many risks in a headlong rush to resume public life.
For now, Scotland’s approach has made it a bright spot in coronavirus-ravaged Britain. New cases have dwindled to a handful a day, and deaths to a trickle. If Scotland maintains this progress — a big if, given its open border — it could stamp out the epidemic by the fall, public health experts say. Such a goal seems fanciful in England, which is still reporting thousands of new cases and dozens of deaths every day.
But what happens in England inevitably spills over into Scotland. In the case of the virus, the stark contrast in daily numbers has reanimated old grievances for the Scots, who voted against leaving the United Kingdom in 2014 but overwhelmingly rejected Britain’s vote to leave the European Union two years later.
Nationalist sentiment has surged during the pandemic: Fifty-five percent of Scots now favor independence, according to a recent poll — a solid majority that analysts said reflected a perception that Scotland’s nationalist-led government has handled the crisis better than Mr. Johnson and his pro-Brexit ministers have.
Scotland imposed its lockdown on March 23, the same day as England did, but has lifted the restrictions more selectively. It kept pubs closed a few days longer. It requires people to wear face masks in shops, which England does not. And unlike England, it left Spain, a popular holiday destination, off a list of countries to which Scots can travel without isolating themselves when they return….
July 10, 2020
Coronavirus
UK
Cases ( 288,133)
Deaths ( 44,650)
[ Notice that the United Kingdom has a frightening ratio of deaths to confirmed cases of 15.5%. ]
Ouch. One in ~7. One heck of a ratio.
Death Tolls Rise in Some States, Possibly Ending National Decline
The rising pace of deaths in the Sunbelt followed weeks of mounting cases in the region and suggested an end to nearly three months of decline.
The U.S. hit its sixth daily record for new cases in 10 days, worrying health officials of a greater surge than the one that hit in the spring.
The death toll is edging up in several states, possibly ending months of declining national death totals.
The U.S.’s daily number of deaths from the coronavirus has risen recently in some of the nation’s most populous states, signaling a possible end to months of declining death totals nationally.
In Texas, officials announced 119 deaths on Wednesday, surpassing a daily record for deaths in the pandemic that the state had set only a day earlier. In Arizona, more than 200 deaths have been announced already this week, and the daily virus death toll in the state reached higher than ever. Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Dakota and Tennessee also set single-day death records this week.
The seven-day death average in the United States reached 608 on Thursday, up from 471 earlier in July, but still a fraction of the more than 2,200 deaths the country averaged each day in mid-April, when the situation in the Northeast was at its worst.
Health experts cautioned that it was too early to predict a continuing trend from only a few days of data. But the rising pace of deaths in the Sunbelt followed weeks of mounting cases in the region and suggested an end to the country’s nearly three-month period of declines in daily counts of virus deaths.
Other early hot spots curbed their outbreaks. But the United States is seeing record numbers of new cases.
Italy set its single-day record for new cases on March 21 with 6,557, but it now reports fewer than 200 a day. Spain, which was averaging 8,000 new cases a day during its peak in April, now averages a little over 400 a day. And Britain, which was averaging 5,500 new cases a day in mid-April, now averages 537.
In the United States, on the other hand, the spread of the virus is accelerating alarmingly: The nation reported more than 59,880 cases on Thursday, setting a single-day record for the sixth time in 10 days, according to a New York Times database.
Officials had hoped that the virus had reached its peak in the U.S. in the spring, when it set a single-day record of 36,738 new cases on April 24. New cases did initially begin to decline after that, but continued to average more than 20,000 a day. And as states have eased restrictions and allowed more businesses to reopen, new cases have exploded in recent weeks. …
July 10, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 3,269,626)
Deaths ( 136,351)
What appears to be evident is that the coronavirus outbreak has a seasonal aspect to it in that it is spreading in the winter of the southern hemisphere.
Don’t forget Brazil.
July 10, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 3,284,301)
Deaths ( 136,547)
July 10, 2020
Coronavirus
Brazil
Cases ( 1,804,338)
Deaths ( 70,524)
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-07/10/c_139203660.htm
July 10, 2020
Beijing’s nursing homes maintain zero COVID-19 infections
— Beijing has so far reported no COVID-19 infections in its nearly 700 care homes for the elderly, thanks to the close attention the city has paid to the safety of the susceptible group.
— The Chinese capital has deployed a string of precise measures, including a closed-off management, to protect its nearly 50,000 elderly people living in communal residential settings.
By Qiang Lijing, Lu Yifan, Tai Sicong and Xie Hao
BEIJING — Beijing has so far reported no COVID-19 infections in its nearly 700 care homes for the elderly, thanks to the close attention the city has paid to the safety of the susceptible group.
The Chinese capital has deployed a string of precise measures to protect its nearly 50,000 elderly people living in communal residential settings.
CLOSED-OFF MANAGEMENT
The nursing facilities in Beijing began to adopt a closed-off management on Jan. 27, according to Li Hongbing, deputy director of Beijing Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau.
Since early February, 28-year-old Ren Jing, a nurse at Beijing’s No.1 Social Welfare Institution in Chaoyang District, has been rushed off her feet. Each day, she takes care of the elderly, providing them with healthy meals and chatting with them.
Ren has worked at the home for nine years. After learning that the institution would set up an observation area for residents returning after the Spring Festival holiday, Ren volunteered to head the nursing team in the observation area.
The home stipulated that each staff member should work in the isolated observation area for 14 consecutive days, before leaving for a rest, in order to prevent cross infection.
“I can’t remember exactly how many 14-day periods I spent there. Even when having a rest, I still kept an eye on the health conditions of the elderly in the observation area,” she recalled.
After the nursing home banned people from visiting, the staff helped the elderly contact their family members through phone calls or video-chats.
The timely application of closed-off management in all nursing homes in Beijing has proved its worth with zero infections, according to Li Hongbing.
TIGHTER CONTROL AFTER EPIDEMIC REBOUNDS
On June 15, following a resurgence of domestically-transmitted cases in Beijing, the city resumed the second-level epidemic prevention and control standards in nursing homes.
“Under the new regulations, family members of the elderly can only enter nursing homes at specified times, in restricted numbers, via specific routes, and from specified areas,” said Li.
“An appointment system and two nucleic acid tests are required to enter nursing homes, while elderly people discharged from hospital and new employees will be quarantined for 14 days after their nucleic acid tests show no abnormality.”
According to the municipal health commission, from June 11 to July 9, the city reported 335 confirmed domestically transmitted cases, mostly related to the Xinfadi wholesale market in Fengtai District. Under tightened rules, nursing home staff members who had been to Xinfadi or had close contact with anyone who had visited the market in the previous 14 days, were required to undergo comprehensive screening and nucleic acid testing to prevent further infections.
“If staff members go out to make purchases, they should register when both leaving and coming back, wear personal protection equipment, and undergo disinfection after returning,” said Ni Zhaohui, head of Jiaxiang Nursing Home in Fengtai District. “Moreover, they are not allowed to walk around in the nursing homes, especially the living areas of the elderly.”
Fengtai, which is home to 39 nursing homes and 11 community nursing stations, has reinstated the closed-off management of nursing homes. It has also increased the frequency of telephone enquiries to the elderly to ensure that the over 5,800 residents and staff members in the nursing homes in the district are protected from infection, according to the civil affairs bureau of the district.
Daxing District, which neighbors Xinfadi, has 40 nursing homes and 90 community nursing stations, accommodating nearly 4,800 elderly people and staff. In order to ensure their safety, medics worked all night and completed nucleic acid sampling of both residents and staff within 24 hours, according to the district’s civil affairs bureau.
In addition to the precise and strict management over these nursing homes, the staff members there have provided meticulous care to the elders during the special period.
Zhang Xiaoyu, a staff member at Chunxuanmao Qingta nursing home in Fengtai District, said the facility has arranged a diverse array of activities, such as online calligraphy classes and livestreaming tours, to enrich their lives.
Gao Fuying, a resident in the nursing home, appreciated the summer views of the Palace Museum during some livestreaming sessions arranged by staff members.
“When the epidemic is over, I want to visit the Palace Museum in person,” said Gao, who is in her 80s.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/nyregion/nursing-homes-deaths-coronavirus.html
July 8, 2020
Does Cuomo Share Blame for 6,200 Virus Deaths in N.Y. Nursing Homes?
A state directive sent thousands of Covid-19 patients into nursing homes, but the Cuomo administration has given other reasons for the virus’s spread.
By Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Amy Julia Harris
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/nyregion/nursing-homes-coronavirus-new-york.html
May 13, 2020
Buried in N.Y. Budget: Legal Shield for Nursing Homes Rife With Virus
In New York, 5,300 nursing home residents have died of Covid-19. The nursing home lobby pressed for a provision that makes it hard for their families to sue.
By Amy Julia Harris, Kim Barker and Jesse McKinley
Paul Krugman @paulkrugman
It’s now clear that the US took a decisive wrong turn in late March, rushing to reopen even though Covid-19 wasn’t remotely under control. And here’s one way to think about it: America drank away its children’s future 1/
7:23 AM · Jul 11, 2020
What, after all, was the situation under lockdown? It was annoying but sustainable. Many workers and some businesses were receiving enough in emergency aid to avoid hardship, and we could have plugged the holes in that safety net, making lockdown tolerable much longer 2/
Could we afford to do that? Yes. Borrowing costs were very low. There were no financial constraints on taking as long as necessary to control the virus. But there was one crucial thing where lockdown inflicted long-term damage: education 3/
Students really need in-person teaching; we now know, if we didn’t before, that remote learning is a very poor substitute. So our policy should have been to do whatever it took to make reopening schools in the fall relatively safe 4/
What actually happened, however, was that many states, especially in the South, rushed to resume business as usual, allowing big parties, opening restaurants and — incredibly — bars. And the consequence of letting people drink in crowds was a viral surge 5/
Now nobody knows either how we can open schools without disastrously reinforcing the pandemic, or how we can educate America’s children without normal schooling. So as I said, we drank away the future of our children — and that of the nation 6/
July 11, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 3,309,667)
Deaths ( 136,911)
Since 1970, the Dominican Republic has had the fastest growth in per capita GDP in the Western Hemisphere. However look to the difference with Cuba during the spread of the coronavirus. The point being that Cuba has had a far better healthcare system, though that is difficult to make clear in the United States:
July 10, 2020
Coronavirus
Dominican Republic
Cases ( 41,915)
Deaths ( 864)
Deaths per million ( 80)
Cuba
Cases ( 2,413)
Deaths ( 86)
Deaths per million ( 8)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=rXte
January 15, 2018
Life Expectancy at Birth for Cuba and Dominican Republic, 1980-2018
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=qYXB
January 30, 2018
Infant Mortality Rate for Cuba and Dominican Republic, 1980-2018
July 11, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 3,318,707)
Deaths ( 136,995)
India
Cases ( 849,054)
Deaths ( 22,678)
UK
Cases ( 288,133)
Deaths ( 44,650)
Mexico
Cases ( 289,174)
Deaths ( 34,191)
Germany
Cases ( 199,683)
Deaths ( 9,132)
Canada
Cases ( 107,346)
Deaths ( 8,773)
Sweden
Cases ( 74,898)
Deaths ( 5,526)
China
Cases ( 83,587)
Deaths ( 4,634)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-cases-jump-in-sun-belt-nursing-homes-11594468980
July 11, 2020
Covid-19 Cases Jump in Sun Belt Nursing Homes
Current surge that has mostly infected the young now shows signs of reaching more-vulnerable elderly
By Christopher Weaver, Anna Wilde Mathews and Jon Kamp – Wall Street Journal
Covid-19 infections are accelerating in Sun Belt nursing homes, federal data show, a sign the coronavirus is reaching the most vulnerable people there.
We really do need an explanation as to how after all these months of knowing how dangerous the coronavirus is to older men and women, we are still not properly protecting nursing homes.
July 11, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 3,344,383)
Deaths ( 137,315)
Whatever the reason, the incidence of confirmed coronavirus cases has significantly increased in the southern hemisphere. That winter has come in the southern hemisphere may be an important factor, suggesting a seasonality to the incidence of the virus.