August 11 coronavirus news

Nursing home patients who receive dialysis treatment could be at greater risk for contracting Covid-19, as well as hospitalization and death from the disease, according to research published Tuesday in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Researchers from the Department of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine looked at an outbreak of Covid-19 among the 164 residents of a Maryland nursing home.

As of April 30, 15 of 32 – or almost 50% – of residents who received dialysis had positive Covid-19 test results, compared with 22 of 138 patients – or 16% – of residents who did not receive dialysis.

Hospitalization and death rates were also higher among patients who were going through dialysis.

Among the residents who tested positive, 8 of 15 were hospitalized, compared to 4 of 22 patients who did not receive dialysis treatment.

Those undergoing dialysis were also more like to die within 30 days –– about 6 out of 15 people, compared to 6 out of 22 people who were not receiving dialysis.

Some context: Residents receiving dialysis are particularly vulnerable because they often have more underlying medical conditions that have been associated with more severe Covid-19 infection, and they could be more frequently exposed to people outside of the nursing home.

Old Dominion University announced Monday it is canceling all of its fall athletic season because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In making the announcement, university president John R. Broderick said, “We concluded that the season – including travel and competition – posed too great a risk for our student-athletes. I know many on and off campus will be disappointed, but we must prioritize the health and safety of our student-athletes, as well as our coaches, staff and fans.”

Broderick added that the decision was made in collaboration with athletic director Wood Selig, coaches, medical and public health experts, and state and local officials.

Old Dominion plays in college football’s Football Bowl Subdivision and is a member of Conference USA. The Monarchs finished with a record of 1-11 in 2019.

University of Massachusetts athletics has announced the cancellation of the school’s 2020 football season.

In a statement released Tuesday, athletic director Ryan Bamford said, “We have been in constant communication with university leadership and our football staff since March, with the health and safety of our student-athletes, coaches and staff remaining our top priority."

UMass football coach Walt Bell added: "I am absolutely heartbroken for our players, our former players, our alumni and our UMass Football community. Our job as coaches and mentors is to provide opportunities for our players and do everything in our power to not take them away. Today's news was devastating, but we will be resilient and prepared to be our best when our best is required."

"I would like to give an unbelievable amount of gratitude to our medical professionals, our administration, our campus, our athletic training staff and our operations staff for creating one of the safest environments in college football. The testing, the protocols, the risk mitigation, and the execution have been incredible," Bell said.

Football student-athletes will remain enrolled in coursework full-time, either virtually or in-person, in line with the university’s update to its fall reopening plan, announced on Aug. 6.

UMass competes as an independent in college football’s highest division, the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The Minutemen’s record in 2019 was 1-11.

A California fitness trainer who had coronavirus and needed to be hospitalized and put into a medically induced coma for five days says he at first dismissed the virus and was skeptical of its severity. 

Mata said people at his gym had the same mindset of feeling invincible. 

“It's easier not to have to change and stick with my belief system of ‘it'll never happen to me,’” he said. 

Mata said he had major body aches, a high fever and loss of taste before he was put on a ventilator. 

“I realized it's something bigger than me,” he said. 

Watch:

Amid the coronavirus pandemic in America, getting students back to school continues to be at the forefront of many people’s minds.

There are options when it comes to reopening, and organizations such as the American Association of Pediatrics have put out guidance to help schools reopen in the safest way possible.

“However, as many school districts face budgetary constraints, schools must evaluate their options and identify measures that are particularly important and feasible for their communities,” said authors from the Division of General Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine in a commentary published Tuesday in JAMA Pediatrics.

The authors offer a number of suggestions on how the AAP guidelines can be used in schools to make reopening as safe as possible. 

They suggest that school districts create Covid-19 task forces that are made up of key stakeholders, including superintendents and parents, to develop procedures and policies for safety.

The authors address physical distancing, personal protective equipment and fixed cohorts of students and teachers – all things that are covered in the AAP guidelines.

“The AAP guidance states the importance of identifying symptoms and signs concerning for Covid-19 but does not discuss operational approaches in depth,” the authors said.

They recommend that schools implement multilevel screening for students and staff, which includes, among other things, reporting of symptoms by parents every morning and recording of temperature by staff when students arrive.

The AAP guidelines also don’t include an approach for testing, they said.

For this, the authors recommend a three-pronged testing approach, carried out in collaboration with local hospitals. It includes:

The authors also discuss the need for schools to continually be flexible, with plans in place for virtual learning and the potential need for extra nurses, psychologists and social workers in schools. 

“In summary, to maximize health and educational outcomes, school districts should adopt some or all of the measures on the AAP guidance and prioritize them after considering local Covid-19 incidence, key stakeholder input, and budgetary constraints,” the authors said. 

Another option for reopening schools is virtual learning – something which comes with its own considerations, according to authors from the University of Florida College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics and the Research Center for Educational Technology at Kent State University, who published a separate commentary in JAMA Pediatrics on Tuesday. 

While Covid-19 led to many American students and educators being unexpectedly introduced to virtual learning, it has been around since the mid-1990s, according to the authors.

“While more than a billion children worldwide newly experienced this pandemic related abrupt transition to online education, at least 2% of US students and many more globally had already been participating in online instruction from K-12 online or virtual schools,” the authors said.

Like in person learning, virtual learning also comes with many options, including for-profit, charter and public options – something that parents need to consider and research as they look into virtual learning. 

The authors also point out that it doesn’t work for all students or all families. Factors such as access to internet can cause “significant variation” in student success. However, one group that research suggests that virtual learning can be beneficial for is students with special health care needs.

The authors suggest that parents should assess the characteristics of their children and understand the virtual school options that are available to them.

“The pandemic has encouraged many parents to explore educational alternatives, particularly for students who may have health concerns such as those with respiratory disease or who are immunocompromised,” the authors said. “With social distancing creating obstacles for traditional education, K-12 online learning may become more mainstream.”

The superintendent of Georgia’s Cobb County School District, the state’s second-largest school district, says parents are divided over his decision to reopen schools virtually. Parents who oppose the decision have protested to demand in-person learning.

“This one has pretty much been about split as far as the emails I'm getting. I get as many thank-you emails for the decision to go all-virtual as I do those emails truly wanting a face-to-face option,” superintendent Chris Ragsdale said in an interview with CNN’s Kate Bolduan.

Ragsdale said that the high level of coronavirus spread, the questions around the ability to effectively test and trace and delays in testing results led to the decision to go all-remote. 

Ragsdale repeatedly said that education officials need to look to data in order to reopen schools in person, and he said they would address mask policies when that happens. 

“I think there [are] a lot of, you know, words that can be used such as 'mandate,' 'require,' and those kind of things that do carry a lot of weight in and of themselves,” he said. 

“If we can limit that high spread by wearing face coverings, then absolutely we should be doing that, all of us should be doing that,” he added. 

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Florida again is reporting a record number of coronavirus-related deaths.

The state reported 276 additional deaths, breaking the previous record of 257 deaths on July 31, according to the Florida Department of Health. 

The state reported at least 5,831 new coronavirus cases, bringing the state total to 542,792. The statewide resident death toll is now at least 8,553. 

Note: These numbers were released by the (state’s/city’s/county’s) public health agency, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post incorrectly reported the number of new coronavirus cases in Florida. The number of new coronavirus cases is at least 5,831.

Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), said on Tuesday, “There have been more than 10.5 million cases and over 390,000 Covid-19 deaths reported in our region.”

The United States accounts for more than half of the new cases reported daily, she said during a news briefing.

“Our region remains under the grip of Covid-19,” she said.

Etienne said efforts to fight communicable diseases like HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis have been impacted by Covid-19. This is also true for mosquito borne diseases such as Dengue Fever and malaria.

If Covid-19 continues at such a high level in the region, she warned that years of progress could be erased around in just a few months. “For diseases that are completely curable, this is not acceptable,” she said.

“Without testing or treatment, severe cases of mosquito-borne diseases could go from easily treatable conditions to death,” she said.

“We're beginning to see just that across our region, and indeed the world, that people are dying at higher rates than normal,” Etienne said. “Not just from Covid-19 itself, but because of the impact of this pandemic on essential health services.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell squarely blamed the Democrats for the stalled negotiations over another stimulus bill, saying that “struggling people” have “gotten nothing” due to their “absurd” demands and “hostage” tactics.

“It would serve the nation better if the Democratic leaders would act like it’s a crisis,” he added.

In particular, McConnell lambasted the Democrats’ wishes to repeal the cap for the state and local tax deduction, extend the $600 weekly boost to federal unemployment aid and provide $1 trillion for state and local governments.