FILE PHOTO: A man wearing a face mask walks next to barriers set up to block buildings from a street in Wuhan, Hubei province, the epicentre of China's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, March 29, 2020. REUTERS/Aly Song

reuters.com - by Cate Cadell, Yawen Chen - April 8, 2020

As the world grapples with the escalating coronavirus pandemic, China reopened the city of Wuhan on Wednesday, allowing its 11 million residents to leave for the first time in over two months, a milestone in its effort to combat the outbreak.

But while the operation to contain Wuhan’s coronavirus outbreak has been hailed as a success by China and many international health experts, it didn’t come easy.

Using virus case data, official reports and over a dozen interviews with officials, residents and scientists in Wuhan, Reuters has compiled a comprehensive account of how the military-style quarantine of the city unfolded.

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Researchers in Shanghai found low levels of coronavirus antibodies in some people who had recently recovered from Covid-19. Photo: DPA

Scientists in Shanghai say some recovered patients show no signs of the neutralising proteins

Early-stage findings could have implications for vaccine development and herd immunity, they say

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - medRxiv - Neutralizing antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 in a COVID-19 recovered patient cohort and their implications - April 6, 2020

scmp.com - by Stephen Chen - April 7, 2020

Researchers in Shanghai hope to determine whether some recovered coronavirus patients have a higher risk of reinfection after finding surprisingly low levels of Covid-19 antibodies in a number of people discharged from hospital.

A team from Fudan University analysed blood samples from 175 patients discharged from the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre and found that nearly a third had unexpectedly low levels of antibodies.

An expanding list of instructions and information resources on contact tracing . . .

CDC/CFCF - General illustration of Contact Tracing based off of CDC-material.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_tracing#/media/File:Contact-tracing_adapted.svg

CDC - MMWR - Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Surveillance and Containment Measures for the First 100 Patients with COVID-19 in Singapore — January 2–February 29, 2020 - Published March 13, 2020
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6911e1.htm

WHO - Contact Tracing
https://www.who.int/features/qa/contact-tracing/en/

ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) - Contact tracing: Public health management of persons, including healthcare workers, having had contact with COVID-19 cases in the European Union – first update - March 31, 2020
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/contact-tracing-public-health-management-persons-including-healthcare-workers

In just ten minutes, Gauthier used extra tubing to multiply the number of patients that could be ventilated.

themindunleashed.com - by Elias Marat - March 23, 2020

As health care facilities across the globe continue to grapple with a general shortage of supplies to help them with the devastating coronavirus pandemic, one doctor in Canada has managed to use a bit of creativity, ingenuity, and an idea inspired by YouTube to help future patients.

Dr. Alain Gaithier, an anesthetist at the Perth and Smiths Falls District Hospital in Ontario, was worried about the possibility that his rural hospital’s one ventilator would hardly be able to carry the load that the CoViD-19 outbreak could entail.

So Gauthier, who has a Ph. D. in respiratory mechanics, borrowed an idea conceived by American doctors Greg Neyman and Charlene Babcock in 2006 to double the capacity of a single ventilator.

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Screenshot from a YouTube video on how to make a medical face mask. (Photo: Screen capture from YouTube)

courierpress.com - by Thomas B. Langhorne - March 18, 2020

Citing shortages, Deaconess Health System, including Henderson's Methodist Health, has asked the public to sew face masks for staff fighting coronavirus.

"This does follow CDC protocols that you can find on their website that if all other supplies are not available, that handmade masks that meet certain criteria are acceptable," Deaconess spokeswoman Becca Scott said.

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CLICK HERE - CDC - Strategies for Optimizing the Supply of Facemasks

President Donald Trump at a Monday news conference on the Covid-19 pandemic.  Doug Mills / The New York Times

nytimes.com - by Sheri Fink - March 17, 2020

Sweeping new federal recommendations announced on Monday for Americans to sharply limit their activities appeared to draw on a dire scientific report warning that, without action by the government and individuals to slow the spread of coronavirus and suppress new cases, 2.2 million people in the United States could die.

To curb the epidemic, there would need to be dramatic restrictions on work, school and social gatherings for periods of time until a vaccine was available, which could take 18 months, according to the report, compiled by British researchers. They cautioned that such steps carried enormous costs that could also affect people’s health, but concluded they were “the only viable strategy at the current time.”

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Image/Phil Jones, Senior Photographer, Augusta University

outbreaknews.com - March 20, 2020

The Georgia Esoteric and Molecular Laboratory at the Medical College of Georgia Department of Pathology has developed a novel, accurate coronavirus test that can tell patients if they are infected within about two hours instead of waiting typically days to hear from remote testing facilities.

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Blood group patterns of more than 2,000 patients with the coronavirus in Wuhan and Shenzhen were compared to local healthy populations. Photo: Shutterstock

scmp.com - by Stephen Chen - March 17, 2020

People with blood type A may be more vulnerable to infection by the new coronavirus, while those with type O seem more resistant, according to a preliminary study of patients in China who contracted the disease known as Covid-19.

Medical researchers in China took blood group patterns of more than 2,000 patients infected with the virus in Wuhan and Shenzhen and compared them to local healthy populations. They found that blood type A patients showed a higher rate of infection and they tended to develop more severe symptoms.

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When an infected person touches a surface, like a door handle, there's a risk they leave viruses stuck there that can live on for two to three days.  Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

npr.org - by Allison Aubrey - March 14, 2020

How long can the new coronavirus live on a surface, like say, a door handle, after someone infected touches it with dirty fingers? A study out this week finds that the virus can survive on hard surfaces such as plastic and stainless steel for up to 72 hours and on cardboard for up to 24 hours . . .

 . . . And given that wipes are hard to come by at many stores at the moment, you can instead buy an EPA-registered disinfecting spray, such as one on this list from the Center for Biocide Chemistries, recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and by Dr. David Warren, an infectious disease specialist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Or make a bleach-based spray yourself. You can make a DIY cleaning spray by mixing 4 teaspoons bleach per quart of water, according to the CDC.

cdc.gov

Older adults and people who have severe chronic medical conditions like heart, lung or kidney disease seem to be at higher risk for more serious COVID-19 illness. Early data suggest older people are twice as likely to have serious COVID-19 illness.  This may be because:

    As people age, their immune systems change, making it harder for their body to fight off diseases and infection.
    Many older adults are also more likely to have underlying health conditions that make it harder to cope with and recover from illness.

If a COVID-19 outbreak happens in your community, it could last for a long time. Depending on the severity of the outbreak, public health officials may recommend community actions to reduce exposures to COVID-19. These actions can slow the spread and reduce the impact of disease.

If you are at increased risk for COVID-19 complications due to age or because you have a severe underlying medical condition, it is especially important for you to take actions to reduce your risk of exposure.

Volunteers take a pregnant woman into the Wuhan Maternal and Child Health Hospital to be tested for the coronavirus. Photo: Xinhua

scmp.com  -  Gigi Choy and Teddy Ng  - March 5, 2020

A 36-year-old man has died of respiratory failure in Wuhan, five days after being discharged from one of the makeshift hospitals built to contain the outbreak, according to a report by Shanghai-based news portal The Paper . . .

A researcher works in a laboratory developing testing for the coronavirus. Photo: Kena Betancur/Getty Images

axios.com - by Jonathan Swan, Caitlin Owens - March 1, 2020

A top federal scientist sounded the alarm about what he feared was contamination in an Atlanta lab where the government made test kits for the coronavirus, according to sources familiar with the situation in Atlanta . . . 

 . . . The FDA official who visited the Atlanta lab, Timothy Stenzel, is the director of the Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health . . . 

 . . . Stenzel is a highly-regarded scientist and diagnostics expert. He was on the ground in Atlanta to deal with technical issues and happened to stumble upon the inappropriate procedures and possible contaminants.

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Life Care Center of Kirkland (KIRO)

thehill.com - by Peter Sullivan - February 29, 2020

Officials on Saturday announced a possible outbreak of coronavirus at a nursing facility in Washington State, a serious situation given the risks the virus poses to elderly people.

The possible outbreak is at a long-term care facility in Kirkland, Wash., called Life Care Center, officials from Washington state and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on a media call Saturday. 

There are two presumptive positives associated with the facility, one a health care worker and the other a woman in her 70s. 

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ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLE HERE - Health officials: Dozens at Kirkland nursing facility reporting symptoms that might suggest coronavirus

who.int - February 11, 2020

Quote from Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization:

"This is airborne, corona is airborne, it's more contagious and you have seen how it went into 24 countries although it's a small number of cases."

CLICK HERE - WHO - Transcript - Coronavirus press conference 11 February, 2020 (see page 10, of 15 page .PDF transcript here, and within attachment below)

CLICK HERE - WHO - Audio (click on February 11, and begin listening at the 40 minute mark)

CLICK HERE - WHO - Video (around the 47 minute mark - "airborne" statement of Dr. Tedros is blacked out)

The Ameren microgrid. S&C Electric

microgridknowledge.com - by Elisa Wood - August 2, 2019

Severe heat and storms across the US this summer have strained the electric grid and caused extensive power outages. But the microgrids are working.

Consider the following examples . . .

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