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More than 1.3 million people in the U.S. have tested positive for COVID-19. Getty Images
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New model finds loosening stay-at-home restrictions could mean 2,400 deaths a day by June
New projections released from researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health find that daily infections and deaths related to COVID-19 are likely to rise as states ease stay-at-home restrictions.
The modeling looked at 25 states that have reopened or are planning to soon. The model found that in all but two of these states the rate of COVID-19 cases is expected to rise.
“The lag between infection acquisition and case confirmation, coupled with insufficient testing and contact tracing, will mask any rebound and exponential growth of COVID-19 until it is well underway,” lead researcher Jeffrey Shaman, PhD, professor of environmental health sciences said in a statement.
Shaman and the other researchers said it will take about 2 to 4 weeks to see those cases increase, in part due to lack of testing.
The model looked at different projections. One where more people observe physical distancing estimated that 1,800 deaths could occur daily by June 1 with over 43,000 infections reported daily.
Another projection, where stay-at-home guidelines were loosened further, found that 2,400 people would die per day with COVID-19 and over 63,000 infections would be reported daily.
A New Mexico woman is being treated for COVID-19 over a century after surviving the last major pandemic in the United States.
According to the Associated Press, Lubica “Luby” Grenko, 105, is being treated for COVID-19 after being diagnosed with the disease in April.
Grenko was a child when the 1918 influenza pandemic swept through the United States. That pandemic took the lives of her mother and infant sister.
Child dies from rare syndrome linked to COVID-19
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said May 8 that a 5-year-old child died from symptoms similar to a rare syndrome linked to COVID-19.
On May 4, officials in New York issued a health bulletin after 15 children were hospitalized for a “multi-system inflammatory syndrome,” linked to COVID-19.
The symptoms included abdominal pain, gastrointestinal issues, cardiac inflammation, and signs of toxic shock syndrome and Kawasaki disease, which is characterized by an inflammation of blood vessels. Those affected ranged in age from 2 to 15.
Two White House staffers have tested positive for COVID-19 this week. One staffer, who acted as a personal valet to the president tested positive on Thursday.
Both the President and Vice President tested negative for the virus after the staffer’s diagnosis.
On Friday, another staff member in the Vice President’s office tested positive for the virus, according to CNN. According to reports, that staffer wasn’t with the Vice President today, who’s currently traveling to Iowa.
Globally, experts are learning that the virus may have been spreading earlier than previously realized. Liu Guanguan/China News Service via Getty Images
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given approval for a biotech company to start phase 2 trials for a potential SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.
Moderna is expected to start a 600-person phase 2 study of its experimental vaccine shortly. A phase 2 trial will look for signs of the effectiveness of the vaccine.
Should the trial prove successful, the company said they plan on starting a phase 3 trial this summer.
If the experimental vaccine is found safe and effective, it may be available as soon as 2021. The CEO also said that they’ll start to manufacture the vaccine this year and stockpile doses so that there won’t be a shortage in 2021 if it is approved.
While the news means we’re one step closer to a vaccine for the virus that causes COVID-19, many drugs or experimental vaccines fail in phase 2 tests and are never made widely available.
Researchers think antibodies from llamas may help them fight COVID-19.
Early research finds that certain antibodies in llamas may help combat the virus that causes COVID-19.
A study published this week in the journal Cell found that antibodies taken from a llama were engineered to fight the new coronavirus. These special antibodies were effective in a lab setting at neutralizing the virus.
The research is still in the early phases, but if successful it could mean that llama antibodies could help protect people from developing a severe case of COVID-19.
New studies find children are just as likely as adults to spread the new coronavirus. These early findings could make potential school openings especially fraught.
A German study, which is not yet published in a peer-reviewed journal, looked at 60,000 people with COVID-19 in addition to 47 children with the disease. The team found that children had just as much viral load or even higher amounts of viral load than some adults.
This early research focusing on how children can spread the virus could be pivotal in helping officials combat a second wave as some states weigh loosening shelter-in-place orders.
Another study out of China found that school closures drastically helped lower transmission of the virus and lessen the severity of the outbreak.
“While proactive school closures cannot interrupt transmission on their own, they can reduce peak incidence by 40-60 percent and delay the epidemic,” the authors said.
Experts point out this is early research and more information is needed.
“Are any of these studies definitive? The answer is ‘No, of course not,’” said Jeffrey Shaman, an epidemiologist at Columbia University. But, he said, “to open schools because of some uninvestigated notion that children aren’t really involved in this, that would be a very foolish thing.”
A new study finds that the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 was spreading around the world shortly after jumping from animal to humans in the last few months of 2019.
The study looked at genetic data from 7,666 samples taken from people with COVID-19. By reviewing the genetic differences in the samples, the study authors concluded that the virus was able to spread quickly around the world at the end of 2019.
Potentially it may have occurred in humans as early as October 2019.
The “COVID pandemic started sometime around 6 October 2019 – 11 December 2019, which corresponds to the time of the host-jump into humans,” the authors wrote.
The authors also found evidence that the virus is mutating, which is expected. But it wasn’t clear if those mutations were making the virus more contagious or deadly.
French physicians say the new coronavirus may have been present in Europe far earlier than previously thought.
In a new study in the International Journal of Microbial Agents, the authors detected a COVID-19 case in a French man who was hospitalized in December.
The 42-year-old man presented at the hospital with severe respiratory symptoms but not the flu. The man didn’t have any recent travel history that would explain his infection.
The study authors tested the man’s sample along with 13 others after the rise of COVID-19 to see if the disease was in France earlier than realized.
However, since the study was done retrospectively, experts say the findings aren’t conclusive and that it’s possible the sample tested positive due to lab contamination.
Additionally, some experts told Time Magazine that if cases were spreading in the community in December, then clusters of the disease would have likely been apparent earlier.
The daily deaths from COVID-19 could rise to 3,000 by the end of this month, according to news reports.
The New York Times reports that the Federal Emergency Management Agency predicts that 200,000 new COVID-19 cases will be reported on a daily basis by June 1 and that there will be 3,000 deaths every day from the disease.
News of the report’s findings comes as more states are loosening stay-at-home orders. It’s possible that loosening restrictions will mean another spike in infections and hospitalizations.
Some states that are reopening are still having an increasing number of COVID-19 cases, according to former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb.
“When you look across the country it’s really a mixed bag,” Gottlieb said in an interview on CBS. “While mitigation didn’t fail, I think it’s fair to say that it didn’t work as well as we expected. We expected we would see more significant declines in new cases and deaths around the nation at this point. And we’re just not seeing that.”
On May 1, the FDA issued an Emergency Use AuthorizationTrusted Source for the emergency use of remdesivir to treat people hospitalized with COVID-19.
On April 23, STAT News reported that a Chinese study failed to find any benefit using the drug. The Chinese studyTrusted Source included 237 people. Researchers administered the drug to 158 and compared their progress with the 79 who received a placebo.
After a month, almost 14 percent of the people taking the drug had died compared with almost 13 percent of those receiving the placebo.
The trial was stopped early partly because of side effects, which included “gastrointestinal symptoms (anorexia, nausea, and vomiting)” and worsened cardiopulmonary condition.
“No statistically significant benefits were observed for remdesivir treatment beyond those of standard of care treatment,” study authors wrote.
Experts say “COVID toe” is a condition similar to skin damage from exposure to low temperatures.
Northwestern Medicine dermatologist Dr. Amy Paller said in a statement that she had seen images of about 30 cases of the condition. She emphasized that it’s still unknown whether this is related to COVID-19 and more testing is needed.
“We’re seeing this inflammatory response that we would normally see when someone was exposed to the cold temperature… like someone who has been playing outside with wet socks,” Dr. Esther Freeman, a dermatologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, told CBS News. “However, in this setting, we’re seeing it in warm climates and we’re seeing it in patients who have been indoors and sheltering in place.”
Beginning as a “pinkish-reddish rash,” it can turn purple over time and causes a burning sensation in some people, Freeman told The Washington Post.
However, the inflammation typically disappears without treatment in 2 to 3 weeks, she added.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said the city will offer free tests for COVID-19 to all residents who want one. People don’t need to have symptoms to get tested, but those with symptoms will get priority.
Study finds airborne coronavirus in hospitals
A new study in NatureTrusted Source found that the virus that causes COVID-19 was detected in the air in certain areas of two hospitals.
The two hospitals in Wuhan, China are at the center of the outbreak in that country. Researchers found evidence of aerosolized SARS-CoV-2 in the toilet area and in areas prone to crowding.
The study has given more information about whether the virus is easily transmitted through the air. Researchers said proper ventilation and disinfection may help stop the virus from spreading in other similar areas.
Quest releases first at-home test for COVID-19 antibodies
Quest Diagnostic has released the first at-home test to detect COVID-19 antibodies.
People who have COVID-19 antibodies have likely already had the disease and may have immunity against the virus in the future. Although it’s still too early to tell for certain.
“Antibodies are only a part of the immune response to a virus. There are other viruses where antibody responses are clearly not associated with protection,” Dr. Otto Yang, a virologist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA told Healthline in an earlier interview.
The test will cost $119 and people can order it without visiting a doctor. After ordering the test, you’ll have to go to a site in order to have your blood drawn.
The World Health Organization (WHO) stated, “There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection,” in an April 24 scientific brief.
However, health experts disagree.
They emphasize that the presence of antibodies indicates protection from future infection by the virus that causes COVID-19, but what’s unknown is how long that protection will last.
Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, told The Guardian that everyone, or almost everyone, who recovers from COVID-19 “will have developed immunity, otherwise they would not have recovered.”
He added, “What we do not know is how long that immunity will last. It almost certainly will not last for life.”
The WHO walked back the controversial statement in a social media post on April 25, admitting, “We expect that most people who are infected with #COVID19 will develop an antibody response that will provide some level of protection.”
So far, the virus has spread to nearly 3 million people worldwide. However, many people don’t show symptoms, and recent studies suggest up to 80 percent of people with SARS-CoV-2 are “silent carriers.”
Testing of pregnant women in New York City revealed that “at this point in the pandemic in New York City, most of the patients who were positive for SARS-CoV-2 at delivery were asymptomatic.”
Testing also revealed that “the true prevalence of infection may be underreported because of false-negative results of tests to detect SARS-CoV-2.”
In late March, doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital noticed something strange happening to patients’ blood, reported Reuters.
“Across New York City, we were seeing a large number of strokes and that these strokes were extremely concerning, and they were blocking big vessels to the brain,” Dr. J. Mocco, a Mount Sinai neurosurgeon, said in an interview.
Reuters also reported that under a new protocol, higher doses of a blood thinner normally used to dissolve clots will be given to COVID-19 patients at Mount Sinai before any clots are detected.
“We’re seeing clots everywhere, high rates of clots in veins of the legs. So, across the board, for sure, we all believe that — and there’s objective evidence that this disease increases clot formation,” Mocco said.
The American Society of Hematology has noted COVID-19-associated clotting.
Its guidance to physicians states the benefits of blood-thinning therapy for those patients not already showing signs of clotting are “currently unknown.”
The FDA is reiterating its warningTrusted Source that people shouldn’t take hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine unless they’re under careful supervision from a physician.
The warning comes as serious side effects were noted during medical studies of the drug on people with COVID-19.
Some of the patients had serious side effects including abnormal heart rhythms and some even died.
According to a briefing from Governor Andrew Cuomo, about 13.9 percent of New York residents had antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in a preliminary study.
The deaths of two people with COVID-19 in California has shed new light on when SARS-CoV-2 was first circulating.
The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner reported Tuesday, April 21, that two people who died at home in early February had the virus. The cases were identified after the medical examiner tested samples from the patients for COVID-19 due to their flu symptoms.
The FDA has given emergency authorizationTrusted Source to allow an at-home COVID-19 test.
The testing is being done by Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp).
Individuals use a nasal swab and saline at home and then send in the sample to a LabCorp facility for testing.
“Specifically, for tests that include home sample collection, we worked with LabCorp to ensure the data demonstrated from at-home patient sample collection is as safe and accurate as sample collection at a doctor’s office, hospital, or other testing site,” said FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen M. Hahn.
“With this action, there is now a convenient and reliable option for patient sample collection from the comfort and safety of their home,” he said.
The number of people with COVID-19 could be up to 85 times higher than reported, according to a recent study.
Researchers in California tested the prevalence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in a sample of 3,330 people. They report an estimated 48,000 and 81,000 people contracted the virus in Santa Clara County by early April, which is 50 to 85 times higher than the number of confirmed cases.
These findings raise questions regarding effectiveness of quarantine measures to contain the virus.
“There are reasons to be skeptical of the efficacy of quarantine, for respiratory diseases [like coronavirus] in particular,” Wendy Parmet, director of the Center for Health Policy and Law at Northeastern University Law School, told FiveThirtyEight.
A 2004 study examining the effectiveness of quarantining people with no symptoms of SARS in Toronto, Ontario, found that isolating asymptomatic individuals had little effect on preventing infection — instead, it was isolating those with symptoms that most reduced the infection rate.
The SARS outbreak lasted about 6 monthsTrusted Source in 2003.
“Did quarantine work for SARS? Notwithstanding the conclusions of the Toronto public health group, I think the evidence is now overwhelming that quarantine played little or no role in controlling SARS,” study authors wrote. “Furthermore, mass quarantine, as practiced in Toronto, did considerable harm by sapping public health resources and fueling public anxiety.”
To protect themselves from COVID-19, healthcare workers have to wear protective gear that shields nearly their entire face. It may be the safest option, but it can result in patients feeling unable to connect to their care team.
To combat that separation between medical staff and patient, respiratory therapist Robertino Rodriguez taped a picture on top of his personal protective gear.
“A reassuring smile makes a big difference,” he wrote on Instagram. “Today I made a giant laminated badge for my PPE. So my patients can see a reassuring and comforting smile.”
Study finds 44 percent of secondary COVID-19 cases may come from people without symptomsA new study in the medical journal Nature MedicineTrusted Source found that 44 percent of secondary COVID-19 cases may come from people without symptoms.
The study of 94 patients with the virus in China found that many people spread the virus before they had symptoms. This doesn’t mean they never had COVID-19 symptoms, but that they were infectious days before their symptoms appeared.
When the researchers examined how these people spread the virus, they found that 44 percent of people who later developed the disease had gotten it from a person before that person showed symptoms.
The FDA is giving emergency use authorization to a company in order to allow for the sterilization of millions of N95 masks used by healthcare workers.
“Our nation’s healthcare workers are among the many heroes of this pandemic and we need to do everything we can to increase the availability of the critical medical devices they need, like N95 respirators,” said FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, in a statement.
Advanced Sterilization Products Inc., will now be allowed to use vaporized hydrogen peroxide gas plasma sterilization in order to decontaminate N95 face masks.
This is the second company to get emergency authorization to sterilize masks.
N95 masks are critical for healthcare workers treating people with COVID-19, but they’re in short supply. The new emergency use authorization could help protect healthcare workers that have been forced to ration or reuse masks.
Fast, accurate blood tests could play a critical role in getting people safely back to work or school.
However, public health officials caution that a broad range of “unregulated tests” are creating confusion that could significantly slow the path to recovery.
The Associated Press reports that governments worldwide are hoping the rapid tests — typically using a finger-prick of blood on a test strip — could soon “ease public restrictions by identifying people who have previously had the virus and have developed some immunity to it.”
These tests are different from the nasal swab tests used to detect whether someone actually has the virus in their body. Instead, they’re used to detect antibodies in the blood, which indicate whether someone has successfully beaten the infection.
Government researchers studying how the virus has spread through the U.S. population are using antibody tests to guide pandemic response efforts.
“This study will give us a clearer picture of the true magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States by telling us how many people in different communities have been infected without knowing it, because they had a very mild, undocumented illness, or did not access testing while they were sick,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci,Trusted Source director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in a statement.
“These crucial data will help us measure the impact of our public health efforts now and guide our COVID-19 response moving forward,” he said.
Research conducted at New York University showed that obesity may be a risk factor for hospitalization in people with COVID-19 under age 60.
The findings were published April 9 in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
With almost 40 percent of American adults younger than 60 at a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, obesity is a significant risk factor for COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to the study.
COVID-19 can overwhelm your immune system, making you dependent on a ventilator in a matter of hours, reports ABC News Philadelphia.
“Some of those patients that you’ve seen, within 3 to 4 hours, they decompensate completely where that chest X-ray is whited,” Hernan Alvarado, MBA, RRT, RPFT, the director of respiratory therapy at Temple University Health System in Pennsylvania, told the television station. “Now they’re on a breathing tube.”
“The classic signs — increase in fever, shortness of breath, cough, difficulty breathing — if you have any of those symptoms, get checked. It could save your life,” Alvarado warned.
A study published April 7 found that the arrival of spring and summer weather likely won’t stop the spread of the virus.
The study was published after a panel from the National Academies of Sciences reviewed data from around the world about the spread of SARS-CoV-2.
Past pandemics such as the 1918 influenza outbreak have often waned dramatically in the summer with warmer temperatures and higher humidity helping to stop the spread of the virus, at least temporarily.
However, officials say in this new report there’s no sign that changes in temperature nor humidity will have a big effect on COVID-19.
In part, the panel found that because the virus is new and people don’t have natural immunity, they’ll be more susceptible to contracting the virus throughout the year.
The panel did say more research would be needed and there’s a chance the viral spread may slow somewhat during the summer months even if it doesn’t stop.
“There is some evidence to suggest that SARS-CoV-2 may transmit less efficiently in environments with higher ambient temperature and humidity,” the panel wrote, according to the Washington Post. “However, given the lack of host immunity globally, this reduction in transmission efficiency may not lead to a significant reduction in disease spread.”
Hospitals are still having difficulty getting enough key medical supplies, reporting issues with a variety of items including face masks, thermometers, and even toilet paper.
According to a report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, hospitals across the country are reporting running out of supplies and having difficulty getting new materials as supply lines are shut down.
Hospitals reported a shortage of testing kits for COVID-19, a lack of protective equipment like face masks, and even a lack of basic items like linens, toilet paper, and IV poles.
As staff members get sick, there are also fewer and fewer medical providers available to care for the new COVID-19 patients.
The report also found that hospitals are trying to obtain ventilators in a variety of ways and reusing personal protective equipment so that they don’t run out.
To prevent the spread the virus, the CDC is recommending all Americans wear nonmedical face masks.
“We now know a significant portion of individuals with coronavirus lack symptoms… even those who eventually become presymptomatic… can transmit the virus before they show symptoms,” said U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams.
As a result, the CDC “task force recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings.”
The mayors of Los Angeles and New York have already recommended citizens wear face masks to decrease the likelihood of transmitting the virus.
Officials are recommending people wear cloth masks since medical-grade N95 masks should still be reserved for healthcare providers.
The FDA announced April 2 that they’re relaxing restrictions that prohibit many gay and bisexual men from donating blood or plasma.
The FDA will now allow gay and bisexual men to donate blood if they haven’t had sex with a man in the last 3 months. Previously, there was a ban on giving blood for men if they had sex with another man within the previous year.
Prior to 2015, any man who had ever had sex with another man was banned from donating blood or plasma.
U.S. intelligence believes that China may have downplayed the extent of the COVID-19 outbreak, according to Bloomberg News.
According to the report, China “intentionally” reported false numbers about the extent of the COVID-19 outbreak.
While the intelligence report itself hasn’t been revealed, certain government officials and experts say a lack of transparency about the actual data may have impacted how countries prepared for the COVID-19 outbreak.
“The medical community made — interpreted the Chinese data as: This was serious, but smaller than anyone expected,” said Dr. Deborah Birx, who’s coordinating the White House response to the outbreak, according to Bloomberg News.
“Because I think probably we were missing a significant amount of the data, now that what we see happened to Italy and see what happened to Spain,” she said.
This comes one day after China reported that an additional 1,500 asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 hadn’t been counted in national totals.
On March 20, the WHO announced a global “megatrial” called SOLIDARITY. The trial aims to discover if any of four existing drugs can treat the new coronavirus.
According to Science, the four drugs include:
“It will be important to get answers quickly, to try to find out what works and what doesn’t work. We think that randomized evidence is the best way to do that,” said Dr. Ana Maria Henao-Restrepo, medical officer at the WHO’s Department of Immunization Vaccines and Biologicals, in a statement.
The American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) recently proposed that a loss of smell should be added to the list of screening tools for COVID-19 due to “evidence accumulating from cases worldwide.”
Absent of other respiratory diseases such as allergic rhinitis (hay fever) or acute or chronic sinus inflammation, this symptom “should alert physicians to the possibility of COVID-19 and warrant serious consideration for self-isolation and testing of these individuals,” the AAO-HNS said in a statement.
No, the new coronavirus is not the flu. In fact, it can present very differently from that seasonal virus.
We spoke to experts about how you can identify the different symptoms for COVID-19, the flu, and spring allergies.
A study examined 9 people with SARS-CoV-2. The researchers wanted to understand virus shedding (when the virus leaves its host) during illness to determine how infectious the disease may be.
Conducted by German researchers, though not yet peer-reviewed, the findings suggest that viral shedding occurred in high levels from the throat during early phases of illness for the patients studied.
However, the rate of shedding dropped after the fifth day in all patients except for two experiencing signs of pneumonia. They continued to shed COVID-19 at high levels until the 10th or 11th day, according to researchers.
“The present study shows that COVID-19 can often present as a common cold-like illness. SARS-CoV-2 can actively replicate in the upper respiratory tract, and is shed for a prolonged time after symptoms end, including in stool,” the study authors wrote.
Scientists also found that people with COVID-19 may shed over 1,000 times more virus than emitted during peak shedding of the 2003 SARS infection. They say this could explain why COVID-19 has spread so rapidly.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health analyzed publicly available data to find COVID-19 has roughly a 5-day incubation period from exposure to onset of symptoms.
The analysisTrusted Source also suggests that about 98 percent of people who develop symptoms will do so within 11.5 days of exposure.
Researchers said this average time from exposure to onset of symptoms suggests that the CDC’s 14-day quarantine period for people who were likely exposed to the virus is reasonable.
“Based on our analysis of publicly available data, the current recommendation of 14 days for active monitoring or quarantine is reasonable, although with that period some cases would be missed over the long-term,” said senior study author Justin Lessler, PhD, associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in a statement.
Another recent study from Sun Yat-sen University in China has discovered that SARS-CoV-2 may have an ideal temperature at which it spreads most easily.
Researchers analyzed the cumulative number of all confirmed cases in all affected cities and regions from Jan. 20 to Feb. 4, 2020. Their findings suggest it spreads most easily at about 48°F (8.89°C).
“The study found that, to certain extent, temperature could significant[ly] change COVID-19 transmission, and there might be a best temperature for the viral transmission, which may partly explain why it first broke out in Wuhan,” wrote the study authors. “It is suggested that countries and regions with a lower temperature in the world adopt the strictest control measures to prevent future reversal.”
Public health experts have advised people to stop touching their faces to cut down on the risk of contracting the new coronavirus. But that’s easier said than done.
We talked to experts who told us how we can train ourselves to avoid touching our face constantly. More information can be found here.
As the outbreak continues to spread, there are ways you can prepare. Among them is simply stocking up your medicine cabinet with over-the-counter cold and flu medications.
While they can’t cure the virus, they can help relieve symptoms of mild cases.
Researchers are studying how people with the virus shed it and what impact it’s having on affected populations.
Testing and confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 is currently carried out by oral swabs. But research published Feb. 17 in Emerging Microbes & Infections finds evidence that there’s an oral-fecal transmission route.
The scientists reported that viruses’ genetic material can be detected in both anal swabs and blood samples. Crucially, evidence of the new coronavirus was found in anal swabs and blood — even when it wasn’t detected using oral swabs.
According to the study, this was particularly true for those patients receiving supportive care for several days.
Although medical staff, people with illnesses, and older adults are most at risk, more than 80 percent of COVID-19 cases have been mild, according to a report from the Chinese CDC.
Hubei province in China, where the infection is believed to have originated, is the hardest hit, according to the report.
One of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of illnesses like COVID-19 or the flu is simple: Encourage employees to stay home when they’re sick.
But since the United States doesn’t have a national paid sick leave policy, taking a sick day remains a financial sacrifice for 32 million workers who lack paid sick leave benefits.
Without paid sick leave, workers are more likely to come into work sick, exposing their co-workers to an illness.
Multiple organizations are already working on a vaccine for the new coronavirus, but it’s unlikely to be widely released within the year.
That’s because rigorous testing is needed to ensure that the vaccine is both safe and effective.
Experts are still investigating, but early research suggests the virus originated in bats and then was transmitted to humans via an intermediary animal.
What’s the intermediary animal? Potentially a snake or type of anteater called a pangolin.
A global outbreak is frightening enough for adults. For kids, it can be overwhelming.
We talked to experts about the best way for parents to talk to their kids about what’s going on and how to reassure them.
Parents should also check in with themselves and consider how their fears may be influencing their children.
Both of these people likely developed the disease via community spread and not from travel.
The first death occurred on Feb. 6 and the second on Feb. 17. Previously, the first known U.S. death from COVID-19 was said to occur in Washington state in late February.
“What these deaths tell us is that we had community transmission probably to a significant degree far earlier than we had known and that indicates that the virus was introduced and circulating in our community far earlier than we had known,” Santa Clara Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody told reporters.
New research finds that blood clots may be a major problem for hospitalized people with COVID-19.
A study published earlier this month in Thrombosis Research looked at results for 184 patients with COVID-19 being treated in an ICU. Researchers found that 31 percent developed blood clots, a percentage they called “remarkably high.”
The researchers theorized that patients are at high risk for these blood clots due to being immobilized in the ICU, a lack of oxygen, and high amounts of inflammation stemming from the infection.
In an article in the Washington Post, Dr. Harlan Krumholz, a cardiac specialist at the Yale-New Haven Hospital Center, said it’s unclear if the virus causes the blood clots by attacking the blood vessels, or if the immune system’s inflammatory response leads to the condition.
“One of the theories is that once the body is so engaged in a fight against an invader, the body starts consuming the clotting factors, which can result in either blood clots or bleeding,” Krumholz told the Washington Post.
“In Ebola, the balance was more toward bleeding. In COVID-19, it’s more blood clots,” he said.
This would mean about 2.7 million people in New York have developed the disease.
The detection of antibodies means that a person likely had the virus at some point and then their immune system fought it off.
The research is preliminary right now, and about 3,000 New Yorkers in 19 counties across the state were studied. In New York City, which has been the U.S. epicenter for the COVID-19 outbreak, about 21 percent of people had antibodies to the virus.
The research is still in its early phases and samples were taken from people at grocery stores and other box stores, so it may have missed key groups of people who are less likely to be shopping like seniors, immunocompromised people, and people who are showing COVID-19 symptoms.
Another study shared from Northwestern found that the virus was likely circulating widely before cases were detected. The study found that on March 1, over 10,000 people had COVID-19 in New York City. At that time, just one person was known to have the disease in the city.
