August 5 coronavirus news

Several cases of people getting sick after swallowing hand sanitizer have been reported to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in recent months.

Some people suffered impaired vision. Others had seizures. Four people died. 

A new paper, published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Wednesday, described the cases of 15 adults in Arizona and New Mexico who were hospitalized for methanol poisoning after consuming alcohol-based hand sanitizers in May and June.

While an alcohol-based hand sanitizer containing ethanol or isopropanol can be used to disinfect hands, the CDC warns against using hand sanitizer containing methanol and swallowing any hand sanitizer. In their new report, CDC researchers emphasize: “alcohol-based hand sanitizer products should never be ingested.”

A CDC spokesperson told CNN in an email Wednesday that previously, in June, the US Food and Drug Administration announced that methanol was found in some hand sanitizers distributed in the United States – and the new CDC report follows that announcement.

Some context: In late June, CDC received notification from public health officials and partners in Arizona and New Mexico about methanol poisoning linked with the ingestion of hand sanitizers, according to the new report. Methanol, a substance that can be toxic when absorbed through skin or ingested, can be found in certain hand sanitizers.

CDC researchers and their partners in Arizona and New Mexico reviewed 62 call records to poison centers from May through June to characterize cases that could be methanol poisoning from alcohol-based hand sanitizer. The researchers also obtained medical records for additional details. But the report does not provide information as to why exactly people were ingesting hand sanitizer.

The researchers found that, between May and June, 15 adults met their case definition of hand sanitizer-associated methanol poisoning. All of those adults, ages 21 to 65, were admitted to a hospital after ingesting alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Six of the adults developed seizures while in the hospital and three were discharged with new visual impairments, the researchers found.

One patient, a 44-year-old man, said that he drank an unknown amount of hand sanitizer in the few days before seeking medical care, according to the CDC paper. The man was hospitalized for six days for acute methanol poisoning, and when he was discharged, he went home with almost complete vision loss.

Overall, four of the adults in the CDC report died.

NCAA Division II’s seven fall 2020 championships have been canceled due to the operational, logistical and financial challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Presidents Council said today.

The council made the move after the NCAA Board of Governors directed each division to make a decision on its fall sport championships.

Some context: As of Wednesday, 11 of the 23 Division II conferences had announced they will not compete during the traditional fall season.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said the Wisconsin National Guard will assist as poll workers for the primary elections held on Aug. 11.

The announcement comes a week after Evers issued an executive order authorizing the activation of the National Guard to support the primary election and operate community Covid-19 testing sites across the state.

The release said the troops will report to duty on Sunday and will be released on Aug. 12, the day after the primary. The mobilized members will complete training provided by the Wisconsin Elections Commission, the release said.

The Georgia Department of Public Health reported 3,817 new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, bringing the total to 201,713.

Georgia is the fifth state to surpass 200,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases.

The department reported 65 additional death on Wednesday, bringing the total number of deaths to 3,984.

There were 362 new Covid-19 hospitalizations, which brings the number of total to 19,788, the department said.

Note: These numbers were released by the Georgia Department of Public Health and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

Boston Public Schools is ruling out a full in-person return to school for the start of the 2020-21 school year, but a final plan on how schools will restart has not yet been decided upon, according to a draft of the district's plan.

Boston is one of just a few of the largest districts in the US that has yet to announce its back to school plan.

The district is still working to decide if it will start the school year with a hybrid plan or fully online.

According to the draft, the district is following instruction from the Boston Public Health Commission to determine when schools may safely reopen, and as with many other plans, once a decision is made, it could change.

Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius outlined the plans for the hybrid and online options during a press conference Wednesday, saying parents will be invited to participate in a survey online and over the phone over the next few weeks to discuss whether their preference is for their children to attend any school in-person, or keep them home for remote instruction.

"We're going to be designing this remote learning and it will look very different than it did in the spring," Cassellius said. 

More details: Cassellius said the hybrid model would include two days of in-person learning and three days remotely. Students attending school in-person would be in small classes of 10-15 students, maintain social distancing, wear a face covering, and engage in regular hand washing.

The draft of the plan said the hybrid model "is not perfect."

The rate of case growth in Kansas is higher in the counties with no mask mandate, according to Dr. Lee Norman, the secretary of the state's Department of Health and Environment.

“All of the improvement comes from those counties wearing masks,” Norman said in a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

There have been 841 new cases and three new deaths since Monday’s report. At least 62 cases have been tied to schools and daycares, Norman said. 

Note: These numbers were released by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

Several people in the Corinth School District in Mississippi have been infected with Covid-19, Dr. Thomas Dobbs with the Mississippi State Department of Health said during a news conference.

Dobbs said that more than 100 students in the district have been quarantined after the positive tests.

In a letter to parents posted on their Facebook page today, Corinth School District said a person from Corinth Middle School tested positive as well as an employee at Corinth Elementary School. 

Dobbs said this is one of several schools that has had positive cases since returning to in-person classroom instruction in the state.

The letter said the school has done contact tracing and is asking anyone who had contact with the individuals to quarantine for 14 days. While in quarantine, children cannot attend school or any activities, the letter said. 

On Monday, the school district said two individuals from the high school had tested positive, making five positive cases reported at the high school.

In-person classes resumed in the district on July 27, according to the school calendar. Parents were able to choose for their child to return to the traditional attendance schedule or do virtual learning. Students can only enter and exit the virtual learning model at the end of a nine-week period, according to the district. 

According to the district’s reopening plan, students and staff are screened daily upon entering the building with temperature checks. Staff has to answer questions daily about if they have had symptoms in the past few days.

Guidance from the district says that all staff, parents and volunteers must wear a face covering in the school buildings. Teachers must wear a face covering in all common areas and during all student interactions.

New York City has 18,937 confirmed coronavirus deaths and 4,626 probable coronavirus deaths as of Aug. 5, according to the most recent data on the city website.

The New York City Health Department defines probable deaths as people who did not have a positive Covid-19 laboratory test, but their death certificate lists as the cause of death “Covid-19” or an equivalent.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus deaths and probable coronavirus deaths in New York City is 23,563.

There have been 223,186 coronavirus cases in the city and 56,414 people have been hospitalized, according to the city.

The data is from the New York City Health Department and was updated on August 5 at 1 p.m., according to the website.

Note: The numbers may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

Infectious disease experts in the United States are calling on the White House to issue a federal mask requirement across all states.

Dr. Thomas File, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and Dr. Judith Feinberg, chair of the HIV Medicine Association, sent a letter on behalf of their organizations to US Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday.

The letter urges the White House Coronavirus Task Force to adopt a uniform policy on wearing masks. 

The two health experts said that "while state and local requirements are particularly effective at increasing the use of masks, this is the time for national solidarity as Covid-19 has made significant inroads into rural areas that were initially considered 'safe.'"

"Policies to greatly increase the use of masks are integral to a broader national strategy to control the Covid-19 pandemic, which must also include increasing testing capacity and its timeliness to bolster the impact of contact tracing," the pair wrote.